Jamshedpur, August 2026: ProdZion, the Product Management Club of XLRI PGDM (GM), successfully hosted the fourth edition of its Product Management Symposium, AURORA 4.0, themed “Product Management in the Polycrisis Era.” The symposium brought together leaders and innovators from across the product management ecosystem to examine how organisations can build resilience, scale effectively, strengthen monetisation strategies and enhance employability amid overlapping global disruptions. The symposium featured 19 senior product management professionals from leading organisations including ServiceNow, Amazon, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Oracle and Mastercard, ADP, BNY, Edelweiss Life Insurance, Indian Register of Shipping, JPMorgan Chase & Co.,  Newgen Software, Prudent Global Tech, RWS Group, Yuma Energy, Zato, CDK Globalproviding students with insights into emerging trends and the evolving landscape of product leadership. 

The Panel 1 session “Navigating Shocks: Building Resilient Products in a Polycrisis Era” featured Sapan Behera, Director of Product Management, ServiceNow; Rabindra Sah, Chief Technology Officer, Indian Register of Shipping; Ram Sevak, Principal Product Manager – Technical, Amazon; Nupur Jaiswal, Vice President, J.P. Morgan; and Nikhil Choudhari, Director, Inbound Product Management, ServiceNow. The discussion explored how product teams can build redundancy and adaptive roadmaps to withstand economic, geopolitical and operational shocks. 

The symposium also examined changing consumer behaviour and market dynamics through “The Sachet Economy 2.0: Product Management, Monetisation Strategies in High-Inflation Markets.” The panel 2, featured Sakshi Goswami, Senior Vice President – Product Management, BNY; Varun Goswami, Vice President – Product Management, Newgen Software; Akhil Sai Valluri, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft; Abhilash Rao Salvaji, Director of Product Management, ADP; and Lakshay Idiwal, Director, EloElo. The discussion focused on redesigning offerings and pricing strategies for price-sensitive, high-inflation markets. 

The panel 3 session “Building on India Stack 3.0: High-Availability Products for Mass Shocks” brought together Shankar Kutty, Executive Product Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Aditya Dasika, Senior Product Manager, Prudent Global Tech; Shivdas Madham, Director of Business Development, RWS Group; and Chirashree Ghosh, Senior Product Manager, CDK Global. The session focused on building always-on products leveraging India’s evolving digital public infrastructure. 

The final session, “Employability under a Polycrisis – The Anti-Fragile PM: Continuous Upskilling & Human-Centric Judgement in an AI-Disrupted Job Market,” featured Karthik Dinne, Head of Product, Yuma Energy; Teja Kancherla, Head of Product, Zato; Setu Shah, Senior Director, Global Product Strategy, Oracle; Zelda Kolah, Head – Products, Edelweiss Life Insurance; and Mathew Joy, Vice President of Products, Mastercard. The discussion explored how product professionals can remain employable through continuous upskilling and human-centric judgement in an AI-disrupted job market. 

Through AURORA 4.0, XLRI provided students with an opportunity to engage directly with experienced practitioners and gain contemporary perspectives on resilience, technology, markets and leadership in product management. The symposium reinforced the importance of adaptive thinking, continuous learning and informed product leadership in navigating an increasingly complex business environment. Special thanks to Dr. Kanagaraj Ayyalusamy, Professor of Finance & Convenor Corporate Relations and Placements for his presence in the entire event and felicitating our guests and delivering the vote of thanks. AURORA 4.0 was conceptualized and executed by Shownu Winstington, Senior Corporate Relations Officer from XLRI's Corporate Relations & Placement.