Centred around the theme of ‘Change, Emerge and Sustain’, the Amaethon-2008 — an Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) initiative — concluded on January 13. Amaethon is a platform for developing ideas, visions and strategies in the field of agri-business. This year, the event focussed on using agri-business ventures as a tool for more inclusive and sustainable development that can help in making quality of life better for the people occupying the bottom half of India’s development story.

A host of speakers shared their views on the theme and charted out their visions for inclusive growth that can be achieved by leveraging the potential of agri-business. This year’s speakers included V Shanmugam, chief economist of MCX, Sanjeev Asthana, president of Reliance Agribusiness, Devinder Chawla, partner, Ernst & Young.

A common strand that ran through was that despite tremendous growth in the services sector, 65 per cent of the country’s workforce still derive their livelihood out of agriculture — a sector that has been in distress for the past few years. The growth in agri-business is declining not because the investments are going down, but because new talent is not getting infused in the sector. The speakers brought forth new ideas in terms of helping farmers by utilising the potential of microfinance, information technology, new business models and infrastructure.

Manish Khetan, coordinator of Amaethon said, “We believe agri-business is critical to India’s growth story and Amaethon will provide the much needed platform to strategise for that growth.”

Over 2,500 students participated from more than 80 B-schools and agricultural universities across India. The Amaethon also had a variety of games focussed on agri-business that tested the management acumen of students. The home team won the business quiz that was conducted by famous quiz master Avinash Mudaliar. IIFT, Delhi, was second in the quiz competition. Online events like Strategia, a game on corporate strategy, and Comm-Trade, a game on commodity trading, collectively saw participation from 350 teams across India.