Farewell Address to Final Year Students, DOC, DSE.

Dear Young Minds and Future of India

Farewell Greetings to All of You

We all have entered the third decade of the 21st century, which has given us the wisdom to illustrate the classic example of uncertainties. The battle between lives and livelihoods has got initiated. Suddenly, the old spice of life seems to be missing and new spice of life seems to enter into human lives. Places of interest have no visitors, places of worship are silent, school and other public places all are empty. Except for human beings, others are enjoying it. Animals are freely walking on roads, birds are chirping, no pollution, and overall natural beauty is spreading its mesmerizes elegance with leaps and bounds. Remember, repeatedly nature is sending a message to us- “We are not necessary, the air, water, earth, sky all are fine without us. When you will come back, remember you are my gust, not my masters”.

My friends, hope you understand the hidden message loud and clear. Your responsibilities towards these symbolic lines and hidden messages have enhanced multiple times more than any other citizen on this earth. 

 You have completed your beautiful and memorable journey of postgraduation from an institution that is known for its academic excellence. Metaphorically we call it intellectual capital. Unmeasurable learning beyond the lecture theatres is the mesmerizing beauty of this campus. Yes, I am refereeing to the Delhi School of Economics (DSE).

After completing your master’s degree, you are entering into a world that is being metaphorized as VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) World. And a sense of responsibility at your level is going to be more than ever before. So the best weapon to combat and sustain in this VUCA World is set of three artilleries named as- Skilling, Upskilling and Reskilling. You cannot make an effort to ignore it at all. The cost of its ignorance may lead you to become the part of global useless society which is going to prove highly disastrous for your personal life and India at large. 

Dear Friends the most significant driver of this VUCA world is Al and technological advancements. One such glimpse can be sensed from recently released Dell Technologies Report which says- 85% of the jobs in 2030 that Generation Z and Alpha will enter into have not been invented yet. Another similar interesting finding of recently released WEF report reveals that 65% of the primary school children today will be working in jobs types that do not exist yet. This is the kind of disruption we are sensing today when it comes to the skilling of students.

In the line of this argument, Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) in his book Hit Refresh (2017) wrote that whatever we are seeing today in the form of technological revolution it’s just a beginning. The enormous impact yet to be seen. Having such an environment it is a very pertinent question to be asked- “what should be taught to our children?”

 Alibaba founder Jack Maa too raised the same question in the world economic forum last year " when Al and robots are going to be used enormously at the workplace, then what should be taught to our children that can not be replaced by these AI and Robots’’?

 So the answer to these questions nicely addressed by Sundar Pichai (CEO Alphabet) at the World Economic Forum (2020). He said, “the biggest risk will be failing to grasp the AI’s potential for good”. Meaning hereby, Skilling, Upskilling, and Reskilling is the only weapon to sustain in this VUCA World. So friends in times to come equip yourself with the known and unknown artilleries to save yourself to be part of creation of global useless society.

Dear friends now allow me to speak about the world of prosumer (social media) and informative ambiances, where we spend lots of our time. 

My observation is, the informative environment where we all are living has deeply divided into Pro and Anti which is highly dangerous for the holistic betterment of all of us and the nation at large. We youth are being served highly ideologically biased information. Although, its correctness and validity are unquestionable up to some extent.

 In social science nothing is right and nothing is wrong, it’s the context that decides what is wrong and what is right. But the way it is being served is highly dangerous for all of us because we all are in our growing stage; we should not sway ourselves to only one school of thought. We should have the obligation to know the other aspects, it is equally important for us. After having the holistic view of the subject matters, forming our own opinion seems to be much better than knowing only one aspect of the subject matters.

 But unfortunately, we youth have become highly ideologically skewed and there is a huge gap in the strong sense of coherence. We have reached a level where some are labelled as Bhakt or pro-government and others as anti-government by each other. It’s very painful to say that it has become our identity in our social groups. Even in our universities, the blindness for one aspect has deeply penetrated among all of us.

 The level and intensity of this penetration can effortlessly be sensed from discussion by youth like you people. The moment we start putting our view on any issues we are either categorized as anti or Bhakt (pro-government). The institutions and society are losing the basic essence of the constructive and intellectually imbibed discussion.

In all these scenarios the role of social networking sites and print and electronic media cannot be ignored. Social media has deeply penetrated every nook and corner of India with a negligible regulatory mechanism. Not only this, but it is also playing the dominating role in our good or bad state of being. If my friends have not posted my photographs on his/her WhatsApp status on any of my auspicious occasions, most of us start feeling bad. 

Look at the power of these social networking sites, even the depthless and intensity of our personal and private relations are being measured through the activities on these sites. It is the classic example of prosumer where we are the content creator and content consumer without any limits and negligible restrictions. 

So, the people having their agendas keep on feeding us on such a platform and we become victims of it. More than 70 percent of our young friends (18-24 years old) in India have no privilege to enroll for higher education and less than one percent have the privilege to enroll for the highest academic degree (Ph.D). Sensing the gravity of the deepness of higher education among the youth, such people have upper edge and highly influential.  

Dear friends, we have to be highly conscious of the kinds of development taking place at a platform where we are spending lots of precious time. In such a highly skewed world, we need to understand the difference between their jobs and our jobs, their duties, and our duties. Whatever they are, whatever they do, how they think; it’s all their identity. They are known for it and doing so is the source of their bread and butter. It may not necessarily become our identity till the time we are at the growing and learning stage.

Thank you!!! Wishing You All A Very Successful Journey Ahead!!!!!!!!

Yours

Shashank Vikram Pratap Singh

Department of Commerce

Delhi School of Economics

University of Delhi, New Delhi. India.

Cont. Me- ssvikrampratap@gmail.com