As a prelude to the conference, there were two webinars conducted on the future of work, a live twitter chat and a white paper competition held by AMCHAM. Many teams from member companies participated in this competition with two teams emerging as winners, both teams showcased a millennial’s perspective on the future of work. This conference was planned to be the first ever signature event of the HR Committee.

The Future of Work Conference 2017 was a full day event held at the Leela Palace, New Delhi on 10th April 2017. The opening remarks to this conference were given by Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM. She spoke about technology’s impact on our work and workforce. She thereafter introduced Mr. DP Singh, Chairman – HR Committee, AMCHAM and VP – HR (India/South Asia), IBM and Mr. George N. Sibley, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor for Economic, Environment, Science & Technology Affairs, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi.

The first session was conducted on ‘Future of Work’ with two speakers, Mr. Sarit Bose, Practice Head for Digital Transformation, Protiviti India and Mr. Debabrat Mishra, Partner Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. This was followed by the second session on ‘Future of Worker’ with presentations given by Mr. Varun Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Aspiring Minds and Mr. Sarthak Raychaudhari, Vice President HR, Asia South, Whirlpool. A presentation was also given on ‘New Collar Skills’ by Ms. Joyeeta Das, IBM, explaining how skill training that begins in high school can help young adults get better jobs.

The next session was conducted on ‘Future of Workplace’ with a presentation by Mr. Arjun Ravi Kolady, Workplace, Facebook and Mr. Kamal Singhani, Vice President and Sales Leader, Global Business Services, IBM India. The fifth session was a panel discussion on ‘Future of Leadership’ moderated by Ms. Ester Martinez, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of People Matters Media. Panelists included Mr. Mohnish Sinha, Partner, Human Capital, Deloitte and Dr. Kiranmai Pendyala, Member of AMCHAM’s National Executive Board and Corporate Vice President – HR, EMEA & Greater Asia Region, AMD R&D Center.

The last session of the day was a panel discussion on ‘The Future of HR’ moderator by Mr. DP Singh. Panelists included Ms. Vishpala Reddy, Vice President & Head HR, American Express, Mr. Pritpal Kular, Vice President – HR, General Motors, Mr. Shaswat Kumar, HR Effectiveness, Aon Hewitt and Ms. Ira Gupta, HR Head, Microsoft.

The event concluded with a presentation and award ceremony, felicitating the winners and runners up team of the Future of Work White Paper Competition 2017. The prizes were awarded by one of jury members of the Future of Work White Paper Competition, Dr. Kiranmai Pendyala and the prizes were sponsored by Textron.

The event was very well attended and greatly appreciated by the audience. This event was sponsored by Aspiring Minds and IBM, with Deloitte as the knowledge partner.

Ms. Shelly Dittmer, Consular Section Chief, U.S. Consulate Kolkata, and Ms. Shoshauna Clark, Visa Chief/Non-Immigrant Visas, had an interactive session with members of AMCHAM’s Eastern Region on the recent trends in the U.S. visa processing system. They explained the different types of visas that were issued on a daily basis and the importance of the applicants matching the fit. This interactive session helped member companies understand the processing system and also gave them the opportunity to interact at the networking session on issues pertaining to their organizations. Mr. K.P. Sengupta, Chairman – Eastern Region, AMCHAM, gave the opening remarks and introduced the members to the Consulate team. Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director – Eastern Region, AMCHAM, gave the vote of thanks.

AMCHAM India, in partnership with the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, organized an ‘Open House: An Interactive Evening with Mr. Subhash Desai, Minister Industries & Mining, Government of Maharashtra and Mr. Apurva Chandra, Principal Secretary – Industries, Government of Maharashtra’ on Friday, 7th April 2017 in Mumbai.

The event, which was well attended by senior leaders of U.S. companies, began with welcome remarks by Consul General Tom Vajda, Consulate General of the United States, Mumbai. This was followed by an overview by Mr. Gregory Taevs, Principal Commercial Officer (U.S. Consulate) on services of the Foreign Commercial Services and Mr. Adam Branson, Chief, U.S. Agricultural Affairs on the agriculture services.

Ms. Kaku Nakhate, National Executive Board Member, AMCHAM India and President and Country Head, Bank of America, through her address showcased the services, activities and initiatives of AMCHAM India. While welcoming the Hon’ble Minister she highlighted significant initiatives of AMCHAM’s Western Region, which included roundtables with Honb’le Chief Ministers (Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat) and senior representatives of the state government (MIDC, DIPP, JNPT). She also invited and encouraged U.S. companies that are not members of AMCHAM to leverage the important association and become members of AMCHAM! Last but not least, Ms. Kaku Nakhate invited participants to the forthcoming annual event on innovation and technology on 19th April, the Western Region’s signature event ‘India: 2017 & Beyond’ on 26th April and the 25th AGM of AMCHAM in New Delhi on 4th May 2017.

Mr. Apurva Chandra, Principal Secretary – Industries, Government of Maharashtra, began his address by commending AMCHAM’s notable efforts and support of connecting the American businesses to the state government. His address mainly highlighted various policies such as IT, retail, defense, logistics and warehousing and the planned revisions in the near future and the development projects in the state focused on AURIC – Aurangabad Industrial City Project.

Mr. Subhash Desai, Minister Industries & Mining, Government of Maharashtra, in his keynote address stated that he foresees a great future for co-operation between U.S. and India. He urged U.S. companies to utilize the services provided by Maitri-Maharashtra Industry Trade & Investment Facilitation Cell, which is an initiative by the Maharashtra Government to facilitate domestic as well as international investors to submit regulatory documents at a single location and a single entity. Hon’ble Minister Desai also touched upon the development projects in the state – the Navi Mumbai International Airport, Trans Harbour Link and the Mumbai Coastal Road. An engaging Q&A session answered several queries that were posed by the participants.

Ms. Surabhi Wahal, Regional Director – Western Region, AMCHAM, presented copies of AMCHAM’s CSR Compendium – Happily Going Miles for Their Smiles and Smart Cities: A Capability Deck of U.S. Companies in India to the Hon’ble Minister Shri Subhash Desai and Mr. Apurva Chandra and brought to light the contributions and expertise of AMCHAM members.

The event concluded with closing remarks by Consul General Mr. Thomas Vajda, who then invited the Hon’ble Ministers and the participants to an evening of networking.

Ms. Beth Urbanas, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas at the Office of International Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), participated in a roundtable discussion with AMCHAM members to discuss energy access, renewable, energy efficiency, bio-fuels, energy security and energy technologies. Ms. Udaya Arun, Program Manager, AMCHAM, gave the welcome remarks and the discussion was led by Mr. Arun Kumar Jain, Chairman – Infrastructure and Smart Cities Committee, AMCHAM and President & Managing Director, Fluor Daniel India. Ms. Urbanas is responsible for managing DoE’s bilateral and multilateral engagements with Asian and American countries, hence the members also requested her support in advocating for potential areas of convergence between the two countries. Over 10 members engaged in the roundtable discussion with the USG officials.