Overview

XLRI’s Product Management Club, ProdZion, organized the fourth edition of its Product Management Symposium, AURORA 4.0, on August 20, 2026 in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. The symposium was themed “Product Management in the Polycrisis Era” and aimed to help organisations build resilience, scale effectively, strengthen monetisation strategies, and enhance employability amid overlapping global disruptions.

Participants

A total of 19 senior product‑management professionals from leading organisations attended, representing firms such as ServiceNow, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Mastercard, ADP, BNY, Edelweiss Life Insurance, Indian Register of Shipping, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Newgen Software, Prudent Global Tech, RWS Group, Yuma Energy, Zato, and CDK Global.

Panel Sessions

Panel 1 – “Navigating Shocks: Building Resilient Products in a Polycrisis Era”

  • 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
  • Nikhil Choudhari, Director, Inbound Product Management, ServiceNow

The discussion focused on constructing redundancy and adaptive roadmaps to withstand economic, geopolitical, and operational shocks.

Panel 2 – “The Sachet Economy 2.0: Product Management, Monetisation Strategies in High‑Inflation Markets”

  • 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
  • Lakshay Idiwal, Director, EloElo

The panel examined redesigning offerings and pricing for price‑sensitive, high‑inflation environments.

Panel 3 – “Building on India Stack 3.0: High‑Availability Products for Mass Shocks”

  • Shankar Kutty, Executive Product Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  • Aditya Dasika, Senior Product Manager, Prudent Global Tech
  • Shivdas Madham, Director of Business Development, RWS Group
  • Chirashree Ghosh, Senior Product Manager, CDK Global

The session highlighted leveraging India’s evolving digital public infrastructure to create always‑on products capable of handling mass shocks.

Final Session – “Employability under a Polycrisis – The Anti‑Fragile PM: Continuous Upskilling & Human‑Centric Judgement in an AI‑Disrupted Job Market”

  • 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
  • Mathew Joy, Vice President of Products, Mastercard

The discussion explored how product professionals can stay employable through continuous upskilling and human‑centric judgement amid AI‑driven disruption.

Institutional Support

Dr. Kanagaraj Ayyalusamy, Professor of Finance & Convenor Corporate Relations and Placements, delivered the vote of thanks and felicitated the guests. The symposium was conceptualised and executed by Shownu Winstington, Senior Corporate Relations Officer, XLRI’s Corporate Relations & Placement division.

Significance

AURORA 4.0 provided XLRI students direct exposure to contemporary product‑leadership thinking, emphasizing adaptive resilience, market‑driven monetisation, digital infrastructure utilisation, and the necessity of lifelong learning in a rapidly changing economic landscape.

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