The AIBA CXO Education Roundtable 2013 at the Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi, focused on narrowing the gaps between the education system and ever growing industry expectations and the need for nation building. The provoking theme of the event was “Holistic education in a multi-cultural environment: meeting the needs of industry and nation building”. The main panel included Vice Chancellors Professor SK Kak of Mahamaya Technical University and Professor Kripa Shankar, former VC Gautam Buddh Technical University and Professor at IIT Kanpur, along with Max Group HR Head P Dwarkanath supported by organizations from three core streams of the industry represented by Accenture MD Pankaj Vaish, Jindal Steel and Power Vice Chairman R.P.Singh and Tata Motors VP and Plant Head Vikram Sinha.

Prof Kak emphasized on holistic education as all inclusive for personal growth, social development and nation building, without compromising on quality. Prof. Shankar said that in recent times businesses have grown exponentially while education systems are not that flexible to adopt with rapid changes. Corporate intellectuals underlined industry expectations and suggested possible solutions. Dwarkanath proffered industry-institute collaboration for skills development. Vikram Sinha encouraged developing the challenging spirits amongst students for translating path breaking ideas into reality, whereas Pankaj Vaish opined that skills should be preferred over degrees for innovation and sustained growth. Ester Martinez, Editor in Chief People Matters, stressed on employment generation and the need to prepare large numbers of quality personnel for the SME sector.