Kerala has Big Advantage in Industry 4.0, says KPMG CEO

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Noting that Industry4.0 is replete with good opportunities for Kerala, Chairman and CEO of KPMG, Arun Kumar, today said that the state’s knowledge economy has tremendous potential to emerge as an economic powerhouse of the country by taking advantage of the transformations by creating the right ecosystem.

“If Kerala creates the right ecosystem for new-age technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to flourish, the state can secure a pioneering status,” said Arun Kumar, addressing the valedictory session of TRIMA 2020, the flagship annual management convention of Trivandrum Management Association (TMA), here on Friday.

“Studies by World Economic Forum show that about 50 percent of current tasks in skills will be replaced by AI. Kerala has tremendous opportunity in these emerging technologies and it would enable the state to become the next economic powerhouse of India,” Arun Kumar, who was the chief guest at the session, said.

He, however, noted that it was important to completely revamp skilling ecosystem to make rapid strides in securing a better future by generating jobs. The theme of the two-day event was “A Vision for Kerala- Work in a Changing World.” H Vinod, Senior Vice President TMA, while summing up the proceedings of the meet said the deliberations were highly insightful.

C Padmakumar, Co-Chairman, TRIMA 2020, also spoke. M R Subramonian, Vice President, TMA, proposed a vote of thanks. In a panel discussion on the concluding day on “The Industry Connect”, V K Mathews, Founder and Executive Chairman, IBS Group, said the real challenge before the state was get ready to face the challenges thrown up when everything is changing dramatically in this digitally disruptive world.

“The size of the digital economy is US$12.5 trillion, which is 14.5 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The digital economy, which did not exist until 2008, has now become a US$12.5 trillion economy in 10 years,” Mathews, who moderated the session said, adding that the situation has also created massive amount of wealth in a very rapid pace.

Mathews said the vision for Kerala is to make it the finest place to live and work. “Clean Kerala is one of the key priorities for achieving the vision. We have to make Kerala clean and green. Safe Kerala is another factor, which means the state has to become safe to travel on road, drink water and it should have safety from natural disasters etc. Moreover, enabled urbanisation and ease of doing business are also important factors,” he added.

Dr A Velumani, CMD, Thyrocare Technologies Ltd.,said creating jobs is the only way to strengthen the economy. He also urged entrepreneurs to practice frugality, and be focused in their respective domain.

Thomas John Muthoot, CMD, Muthoot Fincorp; Sunil Gupta, Founder-CEO and Director, Innoval Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd.; Tony Thomas, CIO, Nissan Motor Corporation Ltd.; and Dhanya Rajendran, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The News Minute, were the other panellists.

In another panel session on “Learning for Life,”Dr TP Sreenivasan, Former Ambassador of India; Bian Li, Founder, The Hungry Lab, California, US; Dr PSJames, Director, Asian School of Business; Anupama Raju, Global Head-Corporate Communications, UST Global; Heera Nair, Director-Operations, CoconicsPvt. Ltd took part.

More than 200 delegates, including doyens of industry, professionals, policy makers, and members of business fraternity attended the conclave.