The Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME), Pune, recently organised Knowledge globalisation conference (KGC) 2012, on its campus at Lavale.

President of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York), Jamshed Bharucha, was the chief guest along with TV Mohandas Pai (chairman, Manipal Global Education Services).

The three-day conference was organised in association with Suffolk University, Sawyer Business School (Boston, US) and Knowledge Globalization Institute (US). The key objective was to discuss contemporary issues in knowledge globalisation that influence business, education, government, society, and the economy. The symposium brought together researchers and practitioners from across the globe.
An annual global convention, KGC explored ways to improve the efficiencies and effectiveness of organisations and institutions set in different cultural environments. This year, the theme being ‘Managing challenges of emerging economies’, the discussion amalgamated with theoretical framework for knowledge-based economies and practical challenges faced in growing emerging economies such as India and China.

It started with a plenary session based on the present outlook and future scope of education. Jack Yan (CEO, Jack Yan & Associates, Wellington, New Zealand) gave an interesting talk on calligraphy, typography, fonts and its cultural influences. His talk about the new Rupee symbol and its typeface was an eye opener for many.

Concerning India’s initiative after gaining freedom in 1947, Pai in his keynote speech said the country has a proud heritage of pioneering work and knowledge creation in the fields of metallurgy, irrigation, engineering, astronomy, chemistry, trigonometry and philosophy.
“Structure of education in India is different. Private investment is coming up whereas state investment is going down. The explosion of knowledge in India and China in the coming years is going to reshape the world,” he said.

Throwing light on India’s great mathematical tradition, Pai said, “The decimal number system was developed in India. Indian mathematician gave the world a zero, which transformed the learning of mathematics. Indians while building classical architecture and temples used a lot of trigonometry, algebra and arithmetic.”

Other panel discussions revolved around topics like global financial issues, infrastructure challenges of developing nations, human development in developing countries with a focus on child development, international financial reporting standards, the importance and growth of organisational behaviour and human resources initiatives in emerging markets, issues in global health care delivery and corporate social responsibility.

(Source: DNA Pune, 23rd January 2012)