Hard skills are undoubtedly useful in an individual's life, but does that mean we could ignore the soft life skills? Definitely not, the panel on 'How do we give cultural soft skills a hard push?' at the ThinkEdu'18 unanimously agreed. The panel included Dinesh Singh, former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University, and Sunaina Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Nalanda University and was chaired by Ritu Anand, Senior VP and Deputy Head - Global HR, TCS. The speakers also stressed on holding on to honesty in whatever work that one does.
Dinesh Singh, who was the first to speak, began his discourse explaining how Kasturba Gandhi influenced Mahatma Gandhi in inculcating cultural soft skills in himself. He spoke about how Gandhi transformed from a shy hesitant lawyer to a great orator who could even defeat Banarasi pandits in a debate about untouchability . "Adopt honesty as a policy. Let your heart dictate actions. Also, listen to your heart's drumbeat," he said.
He stressed on three core values of life — integrity, purpose and determination and constantly reminded the younger generation to discover their purpose and to stay close to their heart.
Sunaina Singh, who was the next speaker, began her session quoting TS Elliot, "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" She spoke about how Indians were well equipped with cultural soft skills and how over the years we've lost all of it, in a mission to master hard skills.
She questioned if while we talk about giving soft skills a hard push whether we really are ready to learn and relearn. She also said how the younger generation is greatly addicted to using 'smileys' and 'emojis', which are in a way destroying their sense of imagination and expression. "You have an emoji for everything. You don't put words to expression. Are we losing our emotional intelligence as well?" she asked.
Happy Yet: Are we are teaching people to be happy while training them in hard skills, asked Ritu Anand, Senior VP and Deputy Head - Global HR, TCS
She also asked the audience to train themselves in intrapreneurial skills and come up with a novel and adaptive thinking onhow soft skills have been shoved to the back while hard skills take over
