Dear Practitioners,

Most of us have spent more than half the year indoors. Depending on the time of the day, our home resembles an office, a classroom, or a space to connect and socialize with friends. Of course, all these activities are taking place virtually. This experience is teaching us to be flexible, agile, technology-savvy, and to be aware of what is happening around us. These are indeed some of the power skills that we will need to succeed in the Project Economy.

In this edition of Manage India, we focus on what the future of work holds for project professionals, and the power skills and domain knowledge they must acquire to advance their careers. The call to upskill and stay relevant has come from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last month, Google announced that it is offering need-based scholarships for individuals to get certified in project management. These gestures show the importance that both the public and private sectors are placing on upskilling.

This year, millennials and Gen Z will together constitute 59 percent of the global workforce. PMI wants to engage with this new generation of project leaders and understand their aspirations and expectations from the workplace. We have picked young talent from across the world, and across sectors for our first annual Future 50 list featuring the 50 next generation leaders that are creating, building and transforming the world through notable projects. We are featuring two of the Future 50 honorees from India in this edition of Manage India.

I’m pleased to announce that you can now transact in Indian rupees at the India Storefront in PMI.org. Prices are not directly converted from USD. Instead, we are offering fixed prices to achieve pricing parity for customers in India and parity discount in some products for our members.

I hope you have checked out our Virtual Experience Series, hosted by journalist and television host, Tamron Hall. We have some exciting speakers lined up on 25 August – Sunil Prashara, president and CEO, PMI; Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show; Rana el Kaliouby, author of Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology; and Bob Safian, editorin- chief and podcast host, Masters of Scale: Rapid Response. Register here to join and get inspired.

I’d like to thank the project management community for your overwhelming support for the first season of Common Ground that ended last month. We’ve now launched Season 2, which will be a fortnightly event. So do register for the new season.

PMI India and PMI West Bengal Chapter hosted the first virtual regional conference on 20 and 21 June. Around 1,500 participants from across South Asia attended it over the two days. Look out for the coverage of the conference in this magazine.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

Kind regards,

Srini Srinivasan
Managing Director, PMI India