Guest Lecture by Mr Arun Firodia
Date: 25 th October 2018
Today at SIIB, the students of the batch of 2018-2020 witnessed an intriguing guest lecture by Mr Amit Firodia, Chairman of the Kinetic Group. Mr Firodia, also known as Mr R & D, has given India revolutionary products like the ‘Luna’ and the Kinetic Honda, giving much needed mobility to the Indian common man. Mr Firodia was also instrumental in the designing of a 90 seater aircraft, the development of the Earthquake Warning System and an instrument that allows the visually impaired to ‘listen’ to the newspapers. Currently, he is working on electric vehicles in India, amidst the striking rise of pollution in our cities. For his efforts, Mr Firodia was awarded the Padma Sri in 2012, one of the highest civilian honours in India. Mr Firodia was at SIIB to deliver a talk on China and the EU: One Belt One Road, a Partnership or a Paradox, as a part of the Leadership Series. He spoke about the geopolitical importance India held in the world, both on land and sea, and how we should leverage this to gain a share of the decision making process in the world, so as to not be left behind in the rapid developments. He spoke to the students about their roles as managers in the emerging multipolar world and how as Indians, we need to further our country’s interests to be on top of our game in terms of trade, bilateral relations and world polity. He pointed to India’s magnanimous nature in the past, and said that being at the heart of Asian politics; we must create friendly relations with the rest of the world for the inclusive growth of Indian trade. The talk ended with an interesting question and answer session, the students had many queries related to the current trends in politics and how it affects India and Mr Firodia gave his expert views upon them. He left the students on a note to ponder about their roles in an emerging India.
