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Breaking News in the Project Management World
Thursday, December 17, 2009
17th Global Symposium 2009 in India Opens with keynote by Montek Ahluwalia & other Government & Industry Leaders
The 17th Global Symposium 2009 - Managing Projects, Programs & Portfolios - opened on Monday, 14 December 2009 at the Hotel Hyatt Regency in New Delhi, India with an important appearance and presentation by the Honorable Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of India. The symposium was organized by the Center for Excellence in Project and Project Management Associates (PMA), the Indian national member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA).
The 17th Global Symposium was an opportunity for Indian project managers and company executives to come together for presentations and discussions about complex projects & programs, and especially those affecting India. The Symposium featured presentations and panel discussions by a number of Indian government and industry leaders, along with several international speakers.
The symposium began with welcomes and introductions by Mrs. Ruchira Jain and lighting of a ceremonial lamp by honored guests. This was followed by a traditional invocation by Indian singers and music, then brief introductions to the morning's keynote speakers by Mr. Adesh Jain, symposium chairman. Mr. Jain invited each of the morning's keynote speakers to the dais to make a short opening statement before introducing the main keynote speaker for the day.
The featured keynote speaker to launch the symposium was the Honorable Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India (pictured below). Commissioner was introduced by Adesh Jain, who pointed out how busy the commissioner is and what an honor it was to have him take time out to speak to the symposium. Mr. Ahluwalia's important role regarding programs and projects in the Indian government became apparent during his presentation, which began auspiciously.
According to Mr. Ahluwalia's opening remarks, "As an economist, I am very aware of the importance of project management, but I don't know that much about it. What I do know is that project management in government in India is doing a very bad job. When we look at big projects, whether power stations or the Commonwealth Games, there are many problems."
"One of the biggest problems in the public sector, we are too often happy just to point out problems and to leave the solving of the problems to someone else," he added. "There are some assumptions that if we are spending huge amounts of money on projects, that we should be using these methods. The Chinese are hugely expanding project management training, so we should also look that this. Clearly we do need to have expansion of project management skill sets in India."
'We don't have to worry too much about the private sector; they use internal interests to incorporate best practices. If they don't, they just get gobbled up. In the public sector, it's different. And waiting to study what went wrong is of no use; what's more important are reports that help us do things better."
Mr. Ahluwalia's presentation was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of Challenges in Speedy Execution - the panel was chaired by Mr. B K Chaturvedi, member of Planning Commission of India; Panelists were Mr. Rakesh Nath, Chairman of the Central Electric Authority; Mr. S K Roongta, Chairman & Managing Director of SAIL; and Dr. Sarita Nagpal, Dy. Director General of CII.
According to Mr. Roongta (pictured above left), "In our country we have examples of excellence in project management, and also project disasters. We have a pool of international resources, but also domestic experience to draw upon. In our country, when something goes wrong, however, we have a tendency to change the whole process. This has the affect of setting us back; we need to change this approach."
Other keynote presentations on day one of the 17th Global Symposium in New Delhi included the following:
Founded in 1993, Project Management Associates (PMA) is a non-profit registered professional body of projects and business managers, aimed at strengthening project management in India. PMA's vision is to be an apex agency for promotion of project thinking in India and worldwide for continuously enhancing delivery potential of programs and projects, thereby providing competitive edge to organizations, and growth to individuals. Based in New Delhi and with branches in Hyderabad, Pune and Ranchi, PMA serves members and stakeholders throughout India. PMA is the Indian national association member of IPMA. The Managing Director of PMA is Mr. Arvind Agarwal; the honorary president is Mr. Adesh Jain. For more information, visit www.pma-india.org.
The Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) is a project and programme management education, training and consulting organization based in Noida, New Delhi, India. The company offers basic and advanced project management courses, on the web, in public seminars and in-house workshops. CEPM's Certificate in Project Management (CIPM) is a high quality, low-cost project management qualification; CEPM also offers certification training in support of both PMI's PMP® certification as well as IPMA's 4-level competence-based certification program. CEPM'S PM Quotient is one of the world's most effective, yet lowest cost, automated capability assessment. For more information, visit http://www.cepm.com.
The 17th Global Symposium was an opportunity for Indian project managers and company executives to come together for presentations and discussions about complex projects & programs, and especially those affecting India. The Symposium featured presentations and panel discussions by a number of Indian government and industry leaders, along with several international speakers.
The symposium began with welcomes and introductions by Mrs. Ruchira Jain and lighting of a ceremonial lamp by honored guests. This was followed by a traditional invocation by Indian singers and music, then brief introductions to the morning's keynote speakers by Mr. Adesh Jain, symposium chairman. Mr. Jain invited each of the morning's keynote speakers to the dais to make a short opening statement before introducing the main keynote speaker for the day.
The featured keynote speaker to launch the symposium was the Honorable Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India (pictured below). Commissioner was introduced by Adesh Jain, who pointed out how busy the commissioner is and what an honor it was to have him take time out to speak to the symposium. Mr. Ahluwalia's important role regarding programs and projects in the Indian government became apparent during his presentation, which began auspiciously.
According to Mr. Ahluwalia's opening remarks, "As an economist, I am very aware of the importance of project management, but I don't know that much about it. What I do know is that project management in government in India is doing a very bad job. When we look at big projects, whether power stations or the Commonwealth Games, there are many problems."
"One of the biggest problems in the public sector, we are too often happy just to point out problems and to leave the solving of the problems to someone else," he added. "There are some assumptions that if we are spending huge amounts of money on projects, that we should be using these methods. The Chinese are hugely expanding project management training, so we should also look that this. Clearly we do need to have expansion of project management skill sets in India."
'We don't have to worry too much about the private sector; they use internal interests to incorporate best practices. If they don't, they just get gobbled up. In the public sector, it's different. And waiting to study what went wrong is of no use; what's more important are reports that help us do things better."
Mr. Ahluwalia's presentation was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of Challenges in Speedy Execution - the panel was chaired by Mr. B K Chaturvedi, member of Planning Commission of India; Panelists were Mr. Rakesh Nath, Chairman of the Central Electric Authority; Mr. S K Roongta, Chairman & Managing Director of SAIL; and Dr. Sarita Nagpal, Dy. Director General of CII.
According to Mr. Roongta (pictured above left), "In our country we have examples of excellence in project management, and also project disasters. We have a pool of international resources, but also domestic experience to draw upon. In our country, when something goes wrong, however, we have a tendency to change the whole process. This has the affect of setting us back; we need to change this approach."
Other keynote presentations on day one of the 17th Global Symposium in New Delhi included the following:
- Earned Value Management: the ultimate answer in arresting time and cost overruns - Wayne Abba of Abba Consulting, USA
- Why certification of project professionals is growing exponentially - Adesh Jain, Honorary President, PMA, India
- Institutionalising project excellence in management of large portfolios - K Venkataramanan, President, L&T, India
- The 5th Generation of Modern Project Management - David L. Pells, President & Managing Editor, PMForum, Inc. USA
Founded in 1993, Project Management Associates (PMA) is a non-profit registered professional body of projects and business managers, aimed at strengthening project management in India. PMA's vision is to be an apex agency for promotion of project thinking in India and worldwide for continuously enhancing delivery potential of programs and projects, thereby providing competitive edge to organizations, and growth to individuals. Based in New Delhi and with branches in Hyderabad, Pune and Ranchi, PMA serves members and stakeholders throughout India. PMA is the Indian national association member of IPMA. The Managing Director of PMA is Mr. Arvind Agarwal; the honorary president is Mr. Adesh Jain. For more information, visit www.pma-india.org.
The Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) is a project and programme management education, training and consulting organization based in Noida, New Delhi, India. The company offers basic and advanced project management courses, on the web, in public seminars and in-house workshops. CEPM's Certificate in Project Management (CIPM) is a high quality, low-cost project management qualification; CEPM also offers certification training in support of both PMI's PMP® certification as well as IPMA's 4-level competence-based certification program. CEPM'S PM Quotient is one of the world's most effective, yet lowest cost, automated capability assessment. For more information, visit http://www.cepm.com.