Biju Vithayathil

Bio Biju Vithayathil Education PGDM: IIM-B (Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore) , 1994. B.Tech. in Instrumentation and Control Engineering: University of Calicut ,1988. Since 2009 July Currently Director – Amity Global Business School , Kochi . Part of Amity University Delhi , Adj Faculty : IIM – Kozhikode Heading the University’ s Business School in Kerala Winner of Rashtra Deepika business excellence award 2014 received from Chief Minister Sh Oommen Chandy , for excellence in Professional Education . Industry experience : Business head at Reliance Retail , set up the reliance fresh stores in Kerala . Also set uo and headed the training division for Reliance Retail in Kerala , before moving into operations role . Worked with Crompton Greaves Ltd., Modi Xerox Ltd ; BHEL-Industrial Systems Group ; FACT – Pertrochemicals Division and Ion Exchange Finance Ltd Invited speaker at 1. CII conclave on Ayurveda Marketing 2015 , spoke on Global Branding & Marketing strategies for Ayurveda , May 2015 . 2. CII conference on "Emerging Opportunities – Social Marketing and Direct Selling” , organized by CII, Trivandrum , August 2015 . 3. UGC sponsored National Seminar on “Strategic management Practices in the Globalised Scenario “ Organized by P G Department of Commerce , Deva Matha College , Kuravilangad , February 2015 . 4. UGC sponsored National Conference on “FDI in India , Opportunities and Challenges “ at P G and Research , Department of Commerce , St Peters College , Kolenchery , January , 2014 . 5. National Conference on Emerging trends in Marketing ,at BharatMatha Institute of Management , Feb 2013 .

In India and specifically in Kerala, wildlife became a topic of interest in the 90’s. Accordingly wildlife reserves were created and many of the animals were protected from hunting and were also allowed to grow. But today the situation is, many of the animal population have increased beyond what the forest can hold. For example an adult male tiger has a territory of 100 sq. kms in India and few of the tiger reserves have a higher tiger ratio. The animals that are generally weak come in contact with the population living nearby and then man-animal conflict happens. To quote the statistics, 1266 people have died in the last 10 years due to animal attacks in the State of Kerala. This talk is to enlighten them to the concept of wildlife management wherein which we try to tell the people that it’s not only conserving but also management is a must.

Think about common conversations from a different perspective and arouse the audience to a little heard of perspective for social and economic development Kerala was subject to a massive flooding in the year 2018 and lot of reasons were attributed to that especially the fact that dams were constructed and that is what led to the flooding is the popular opinion of the press. These kind of massive floods have occurred in Kerala once every century and the dams we see now have been constructed only recently as 30 or 40 years back. Hence these once-in-a-century events which are actually cataclysmic events happen not necessarily due to the dams but because of some other factors related to the Earth’s geography. The idea is to inform and enlighten the audience that dams don’t contribute to flooding on the contrary dams actually control flooding. Similarly the case of landslides that happen in many parts of Kerala, the often heard story is that it’s because man cuts down trees and cultivates and this leads to landslides. Now geologists will say this is completely wrong because most of the time landslides happen when the pressure created due to seepage of water exceeds the soil holding capacity. This needs to be scientifically studied and discussions need to be encouraged to create more awareness amongst the public.

Economics, Finance, Marketing, Public Utilities, Teaching, Training

I got to know about Ted in detail when we organised a TedX event in our institution .That was conducted by a faculty who is no longer with us , but the talks were general in nature . I saw in this an opportunity to tell the world about different perspectives and with TeD platform the reach is going to be tremendous . It helps a lot if you a have a platform ,when ideas are presented by speakers who are not so well known. Since TeD talks have world wide reach and respectability it is of great help in propagating ideas which will be helpful to the community Contemplating about this there are many things are not done the proper way in my state which to an outsider will appear strange starting from weather forecasting to Storm water management, to wild life management and so on . When you study about how these things are done in other countries you will wonder why on earth are these things not implemented here in my state , Kerala , India Over the course of my education and also in my teaching career I have told students numerous examples of how inefficient and incompetent are our public utilities and systems . These "sermons "have no reach beyond the class rooms and often is forgotten by all Also the audience whom I am talking to is perhaps the wrong one . Hence TeD is one platform where you can get the public policy makers intellectuals and press together and if the ideas get traction it will be debated and discussed in a wider forum . If there are pitfalls then I would come to know of it too !.... So in an nutshell I thought I will evangelise some of these ideas and if the community at large benefits from it , so be it .

Public Policy