HR elite meets in Hyderabad
As the energy sector transitions to new ways of working, HR managers at state-owned oil companies must adapt and bear more responsibility for running their companies.
Such matters were discussed in detail on November 25-27 (2023) at a three-day summit titled Navigating HR's new frontier - creating value in business at the Ramoji Film City convention hall near Hyderabad. Over 130 HR professionals from 11 state-owned companies, including at least six HR directors of companies under the oil ministry, met to brainstorm new approaches to managing workers.
On the final day, there was a panel discussion on The role of HR in the energy transition, which discussed investments in net-zero emission goals. Oil India organised the event, and its chairman Ranjit Rath gave the keynote speech; IndianOil's business development director Sujoy Choudhury, who has the additional charge of director HR, made the inaugural speech.
Among the HR directors present were Ayush Gupta from GAIL, Ashok Das from Oil India, KS Shetty from HPCL, Raj Kumar Dubey from BPCL and Manish Patil from ONGC. Balmer & Lawrie HR director Abhijit Ghosh could not attend.
"During a closed discussion in a round table, 21 major HR issues were discussed, covering the entire gamut of common policies and practices," says a source. Three panel discussions and four presentations by different speakers took place.
"The who's who of the HR fraternity in oil and gas PSUs was there," we hear. One of the speakers was TV Rao, a former professor at the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad for over 20 years and currently chairman of HR consultancy TV Rao Learning Systems (TVRLS).
Ambassador Deepak Vohra and Capacity Building Commission chairman Adil Zainulbhai spoke on November 26 (2023). On the same day, a panel discussion was held on "HR imperatives for business growth."
A source says that previously, HR was seen as a "business enabler," but nowadays, "HR is business" - in other words, no company can run without a strong HR team.