“An Alumni talk was organized by KSRM for the students of MBA(RM) and MBA (ABM) on 20th February 2021. The speaker was Mr. Prabeen Kumar Singh, Senior Manager, CottonConnect South Asia Pvt Ltd. An agriculture graduate from Banaras Hindu University, Mr. Singh completed MBA in Rural Management from KIIT School of Rural Management in 2010. He also did a specialization course on leading people and teams from University of Michigan, certificate programme on Sustainable Fashion from Copenhagen Business School and Driving business through Sustainable Development Goal from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Mr. Singh joined Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) through campus placement and had also worked with organisations like Ambuja Cement Foundation and Global Communities.
In the talk Mr. Prabeen Kumar Singh gave an overview of cotton farming in the world where the sector is a leading one in the developing countries and textile value chain being one of the longest value chains in agricultural commodities. He highlighted the challenges in the sector across the value chain, specially in the context of sustainability, like high use of pesticide in India, water footprint for production of garmets, exploitation, gender inequality, difficulty in traceability because of number of intermediaries and cotton price fluctuation. Mr. Singh also stressed upon the social and environmental issues which are all interlinked. He also shared about some of the ways forward to address the sustainability issues like brining sustainability and business together, creating circular product, ensuring zero wastages at all stages and keeping things local.
Mr. Singh advised the present batches to become a master in whichever sector they intend to work. He also suggested them to invest in learning new things, using technology, keeping oneself updated, building up knowledge and improving writing skill. Learning attitude, patience and good writing skill will help them grow in their profession. “
