India HR Conclave 2026: The Human Edge | 1 Finance | N18M

[00:00:03]India [music] HR Conclave 2026, an initiative by One Finance.

[00:00:18]>> [music] >> The India HR Conclave 2026, [music] hosted by the India HR community, brought together over 650 CHROs, CXOs, founders, [music] and industry leaders in Mumbai.

[00:00:33]Centered around the theme, The Human Edge, the conclave explored how [music] organizations can preserve trust, empathy, and human connection as AI reshapes the future of work.

[00:00:45]Through keynote addresses, panel discussions, a fireside chat, [music] and an awards ceremony, the event created a platform for meaningful conversations [music] on leadership, people, and the evolving workplace. A day dedicated to shaping the future of HR while keeping humanity [music] at the heart of progress.

[00:01:05]>> A very warm welcome to the India HR Conclave 2026. This room is set to have over 500 CHROs, founders, CXOs, and HR leaders today. The theme for this year is The Human Edge. Every conversation here today, whether it's about AI, whether it's about financial well-being, or about the changing contract between employers and employees, comes back to one single central question.

[00:01:33]What is the role that only humans can play? Preeti Jalan, Head of Strategic Alliances at One Finance, please come up and set the context for the day.

[00:01:43]>> India HR community conducts multiple events. This is our flagship event, which is the largest one. One Finance is a financial advisory firm. We help people understand and we guide them on various things like loans, taxes, insurance, investments, cash flows, and will and estate. People's focus is not always on growing their wealth, right?

[00:02:06]It is majorly about the kind of stress that this lack of clarity about managing their money causes.

[00:02:14]And that's where we understood that financial well-being as a concept is lacking somewhere. We want to bring together those people who are actually the leaders who can take these decisions and actually make a change in employee well-being segment. We started 3 years back and the kind of response that we saw over the years is something that we can see here today in the room.

[00:02:37]>> [applause] >> Our keynote speaker this morning really needs very little introduction, but of course he deserves a very proper one.

[00:02:45]Prabir Jha has been the CHRO at Cipla, Tata Motors, and Dr. Reddy's. And today his topic is the people decisions that will shape the next decade. Let's put our hands together for Prabir Jha.

[00:03:00]>> [applause] >> Five things, at least the way I visualize the next 10 years, will be very key people decisions. First decision, what will humans do that AI cannot? The real question is what human capability becomes even more valuable when machines exist. Machines will continue to do more and more of what we are doing. But what will human beings do? And what will be value adding? The second decision organizations must make will we build talent or merely buy it? Reskilling is the strategy. Adaptability is the strategy.

[00:03:37]Internal mobility is the strategy. And therefore, to that extent that you are the handmaiden of the strategy, how does the HR team think about reskilling? What are you doing about reskilling? The third decision, in my view is perhaps the most emotional one. What will be the social contract between employer and employees as we look ahead? The old contract is weakening. It is weakening even societally, not even only in organizations. The old promise was give us loyalty and we will give you stability. The old zamindari system.

[00:04:08]Sethji about 30 years old, Sethji will take care of of you. That contract is over. No one wants to necessarily just be a Sethji's employee because you have your sense of learning, your curiosity, your sense of freedom. The fourth people decision I believe that will impact uh this decade is what is the kind of leadership that will survive? For leadership in the next decade will be less about commanding people and more about creating belief in uncertain times. And talk about the fifth decision, will organizations become more human or more mechanical? Human beings do not thrive through optimization.

[00:04:50]They thrive through dignity, meaning, belonging, trust, recognition, possibility. And therefore I believe the defining organization of the next decade will not necessarily be the most automated.

[00:05:03]They may be the most deeply human.

[00:05:06]>> [applause] >> We're about to have a fireside chat about pensions, policy, and the role that employers play in securing their employees financial futures. Our guest for this conversation is S. Raman, chairman of PFRDA, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

[00:05:28]And leading this conversation is Keval Bhanushali, co-founder and CEO of One Finance.

[00:05:35]>> NPS Swasth, that was a very interesting initiative which NPS or PFRDA tried to kind of combine the health insurance. I remember during our days when we used to join corporates, uh the primary question would be are you all right? Your company actually here but or health insurance. Insurance with all these things you know these are benefits, right? And I think this is also one of the features that NPS has tried to club.

[00:06:02]>> We've managed to create a complementarity between the pension account and the top up insurance. The moment you leave the warm comfortable confines of corporate employment, you land with a thud on the ground and you realize very soon that you don't have an insurance to back you. And at age 60 for some reason or the other insurance companies don't even entertain you.

[00:06:28]And if they do give you a base policy, it's 60,000 80,000 per year.

[00:06:34]So a lot of people do the maths and realize that why should I pay 80,000 a year?

[00:06:41]I'll save that money and that's exactly what we have incorporated into the Swasthya account. It actually forces or encourages you to save in the Swasthya account for your medical needs.

[00:06:56]You can use that money only for your medical needs. Therefore, payments from the Swasthya account go directly to a hospital or directly to Apollo Clinic which is one of the POCs that we ran where the Apollo 24/7 has medicines. So there are two components. One is for buying medicines or diagnostics where the money will go directly to that entity.

[00:07:20]Second is for inpatient hospitalization.

[00:07:23]Because you have 1 lakh rupees saved in your Swasthya account, that becomes your co-pay or deductible. On top of which the Swasthya account which is run by a pension fund will tie up with an insurance company to give you a top up insurance of 5 lakhs or 7 lakhs depending on the co-pay and that is your emergency or catastrophic fund which you have created. So, the moment you hit hospital for whatever wrong and unfortunate reason but you are safe because you've got your co-pay.

[00:08:02]The co-pay will go directly to the hospital. The insurance company will be informed through the entire health administrator service that so and so person has made their co-pay and then the top-up insurance will kick in. It is as they say you are, you know, one emergency away from bankruptcy. That is really the situation which a lot of hard-working people find themselves in at the end of their career and that's really the gap which we have plugged. So, it is a POC right now. We hope to introduce that that account very very soon, but it's basically basically taking care of your critical illness in a hospital.

[00:08:44]>> Our first panel this morning really tackles what is probably the most urgent conversation in every boardroom right now.

[00:08:52]AI is not coming. AI is already here.

[00:08:56]And the question right now is no longer whether AI is going to change work, but actually how leaders are going to be redesigning jobs, teams, and most importantly culture around AI.

[00:09:09]>> Mr. >> The lips in a redesigning work in a steel plant. How does AI transformation really look at that level? You know, what are the real challenges that you've had from a human perspective, from a work integration perspective in establishing or incorporating AI transformation?

[00:09:25]>> Smart manufacturing which means it combines AI IoT data science automation with the production system which self-optimizes, adapts, and sets the production process.

[00:09:43]We imagine our plant to sense, decide, act, and learn like a human being.

[00:09:51]So, imagine with this background what kind of human interface from CHROs are expected. The operational impact will be typically when you combine this a smart manufacturing process, there is a uplift of 10 to 20% of productivity, decline or reduction of maintenance time by 20 to 40%, uptime of your processes, systems existing in the system. What are the financial aspects?

[00:10:21]Obviously, it reduces the COP, reduces your working capital, and demand and planning and supply vis-a-vis the market. It loosens the process. Overall processes, whatever we are doing, if this all development of AI will not replace human being, it will rewire them.

[00:10:37]>> Do organizations have a game plan? So, those anxiety levels of what do I do now? Where is my career going now? Changes. Has anyone of you had these little gaps and then you've tried and used something to plug that space in to make sure that people still feel like they're absolutely useful.

[00:10:53]>> So, when we say that the productivity improvement will be there with AI, there is definitely productivity improvement, but depending on whom you ask, right?

[00:11:01]The number varies anywhere from 5% to 2x, right? So, how do you really define what this is? And the economic model which I simulated, it says me 18% 18. If it is 18% or more, only then it is valuable. Below that, it is actually more cost to the company. So, which means you have to take a decision whether you really really want to go with the AI or not to really get full value out of it. The second part on the anxiety part, let's assume we have productivity gain in 30%. There will always be an anxiety people will think about again, what will my job will be eliminated? Of course, it will be eliminated unless if they don't upgrade themselves. Instead of talking about the 30% people job will be eliminated, why are you not talking about 30% more business I can do? Which means with the same capacity which I have available, I can probably do more business. But having said that, I think there's still opportunity if you think the positive side. Instead of worrying about the cost and reducing it, you just focus on the you know not with this extra capacity, I can do more business. So that's the strategy I would suggest to people to take.

[00:11:51]>> Do you, Padma, from your perspective and your experience, has the resistance always been towards technology, towards the actual culture change that may arise from using this technology, or is it again something completely different?

[00:12:04]>> With this whole AI journey, I think the big thing that I'm I was going to talk about is the insecurity that the middle managers have right now. From the hierarchy, the top management, senior officials always want some macro efficiencies. The frontline people are very happy because they have all these AI tools that they can they can play around with. Most often than not, most organizations have given the tools and say use this and you will at least get some 10% efficiency in your work. And the middle managers are still stuck up in following matrices.

[00:12:36]And they actually look at track the KPIs, you know, what is the productivity, how many work hours they've spent, and so on. So nothing much has changed. And in all of these, you bring a AI tool and say that the reports and every work that they've been doing, which was 40 hours, now becomes 4 hours. Of course, they're going to feel insecure about the whole thing.

[00:12:55]>> Our second panel this morning is about something that most organizations know matters, but very few are actually doing it very well.

[00:13:06]Financial well-being. And financial well-being not as a perk, but as a benefit that's not just buried somewhere in a portal, but it's a genuine pillar of how employers care for their employees.

[00:13:21]>> Kranthi, what can the corporate HR team learn when designing financial wellness programs for their own employees.

[00:13:27]>> In our organization, we start at 18. So, there we come up with extremely high levels of engagement, continuous repetitive communications, and trying to tell them the basics. Teaming up with financial services companies, bringing in products which could be maybe 100-200 rupees of savings for the employees per month, and bringing them into that rhythm has helped us big time.

[00:13:56]They see value. Wellness programs or awareness camps really don't do well for us because the audience is mixed. People who relate to it pick it up and just start savings or making most on their funds, but people who are on the ground, they have no no idea what to do. So, we first help them in securing their family in case of emergencies, and then help them at least making them understand that power of compounding works, and 100-200 rupees make a great deal eventually. So, that has helped. If you want to maintain business centricity, or you also want to focus on human centricity, now that blend is something corporate teams have to absorb and build functions and benefits around.

[00:14:45]>> Mr. Jeet Marwadi, what are the biggest psychological blocks that stop from employees from engaging with the retirement planning even when the employer really, you know, offer it?

[00:14:53]>> As a corporate, my priorities become short-term focus versus employees' well-being, which eventually impact the companies. Primary research that we have conducted from the One Finance Magazine team, around 1,500 respondents, but highly representative of the working professionals in urban India metro cities specifically. 70% are not planning for retirement, yet 60% of them believe that they are good with retirement and they're okay with it. So, that confidence to execution paradox is a big challenge because there is so much awareness. I am a little bit frozen because I don't know what's the right way to move forward.

[00:15:34]So, who do I seek that guidance from is something that's a challenge.

[00:15:39]Second, the understanding that uh you know, the expenses when I retire are going to reduce. Even if I reduce my personal lifestyle expenses, uh health care expenses as we all know are at 12 to 14%, you know, on a long-term averages basis. So, if they're growing at 12 to 14% annually, how are we going to reduce our expenses, right? And with growing expenses and increasing longevity, your retirement corpus has to increase.

[00:16:10]It cannot reduce. That's the other aspect.

[00:16:13]>> I'm moving on to Kuldeep. What is the fundamental difference that you see when the Indian employees think about pensions and what are uh their their thoughts?

[00:16:21]>> We work with 200 plus companies. So, majority of the times HR says, "We are already doing PF." Second reason, obviously, uh 401k has been there for 50 60 years in a way. And NPS is the youngest. If you look at the collective effort of what we are doing in the private space is going to be like last 5 6 years where a lot of change happened in the private sector. There are about 25,000 26,000 companies who are doing this for their employees now. Lot of HRs are also getting to learn NPS, what more they can do, how to execute it, what are the key differences between PF and NPS, and what more they can do in a way.

[00:16:55]Being a startup in pension space uh for about 5 years, we have seen once you get to know it how these things work, you will love it for sure because it's not another PF. There's a lot of innovation happening in PFRDA perspective. There's a NPS Watsalya, there's NPS Swasth in a way. So, as you get to know more about it, you can deliver more to your employees. And what exactly US did in 50 years, we might do it in five or six years if we keep doing such amazing conferences, getting the word out. We do more from as a collective effort. I think we are just not there yet, but we will get there in next five to six years or so.

[00:17:32]>> And now it's my immense pleasure to welcome Manju Dhake and Animesh Hardiya to the stage. Congratulations on the launch of this very special book. Let's have the unveiling of the book cover first.

[00:17:50]Animesh.

[00:17:57]>> Unveiling the book on this particular platform. Thank you so much One Finance, One Finance Publication, India HR Conclave for having me here. My only attempt through this book is to remove all the fears from insurance because today if you see insurance is still not the dinner table conversation. Why?

[00:18:13]Because we are made to feel that it's very complicated, the language is a barrier, there are exclusions which we cannot understand, there are complications, you know, and when the moment of truth arises we really, you know, have these questions. Mujhe pata nahi kya liya hai maine. Any of your employee, if they are able to understand the difference between a sum insured and a sum assured, if they are able to understand what health insurance policy, term policy or personal accident you have for them.

[00:18:41]If they understand what they actually own, how much of the term insurance they require individually, I think I think this book has already served its purpose.

[00:18:51]>> So, coming to my book, I think emotional money, it's more around behavioral science and how emotions impact our decisions. We are living in an age of over information.

[00:19:04]But the problem is the gap between knowing and actually doing it. That is where the main problem lies. And that is the gap that this book Emotional Money tries to address through stories, through actual conversations. Your emotional money story has to be determined by what you want to achieve and not through someone else's template.

[00:19:26]>> Our final panel of the day is perhaps going to be the most provocative one. It asks a question that doesn't really have a clear answer. What do employees and employers actually owe each other now in this age of AI?

[00:19:42]>> Suvarna Pluxee's research shows a trend called measured engagement where employees are adopting a more calculative approach to how much they bring themselves to work. Is this a healthy correction or a warning sign?

[00:19:54]And how should employers respond to this?

[00:19:57]>> It's a bit of both warning as well as a healthy correction that is happening as employees recalibrate how much do they want to give in to the organization with respect to what the organization is giving to them. Employees today want to contribute meaningfully at work. They also want to value their own well-being, their identity and personal priorities.

[00:20:17]And the earlier mode of always-on that used to exist at workplaces can no longer be taken for granted. Employees don't want work-life balance anymore. They insist for work-life dignity.

[00:20:32]>> My next question is to Sunita ma'am.

[00:20:33]From decades in public service, what do you think the private sector still doesn't understand about what people actually need from the institutions they work for?

[00:20:43]>> I think the one thing that strongly drives public sector and the employees in spite of low compensations. Now, they are not so low, but in spite of low compensations compared to private sector, is a sense of mission.

[00:20:58]You know, is a sense of achievement.

[00:21:02]Even the smallest employee, maybe a peon or a clerk, feels involved. Most of them are driven by a sense of mission. I was posted as UNFPA rep in Bangladesh. Can you imagine floods where the baggage and the cots, sometimes with people on it, were floating on the roads.

[00:21:22]The roads were full of water and the beds and baggage was floating. We didn't know what to do. One of my employees, a junior employee, rings up that people have climbed trees. One of the woman is pregnant on the last stages and she's crying in pain. What should we do?

[00:21:38]You know, we managed to get a nurse midwife there and she delivered on the tree.

[00:21:44]So, there was loud clapping and celebration afterwards. How do you think that employee felt who had given the information and the midwife who delivered?

[00:21:57]This sense of purpose and achievement is often missing in the private sector because we are looking at KPA, we are looking at quarterly reports, we are looking at achievements. There is no action or even if there is, you know, individual doesn't feel so much the ownership of that praise and that action. But, that sense of mission and sense of achievement is what private sector needs.

[00:22:22]>> 86% of Indian employees report struggling with mental health. Yet, only one in 10 has access to professional support at work. Is the current EAP model fundamentally broken and what should replace it?

[00:22:35]>> Imagine that you have built a new highway and and you're very happy, you inaugurate it and people applaud you.

[00:22:42]And then accidents happen on the highway. The first response is that we need to take care of these accident victims. Let's put some ambulances. So, that is the way today EAP is structured.

[00:22:54]We are not fixing what is wrong on the highway, we are putting more and more ambulances. And every 2 years the CEO or the management will call the HR person and say accident come to me or I get ambulance changed color. My ambulance liquor. New technology. So, that's where we are. Our belief working with over 100 companies is if EAP is the cornerstone of your mental health program, it's already too late. The real value comes when you build a culture where people look out for each other.

[00:23:24]And you know, we we believe in three things. One is mental health is confused as a medical issue. It should be seen as a social issue.

[00:23:33]Second, if it is seen as a social issue, we should build the community ownership rather than rely on experts like us.

[00:23:42]Right? And for the community to participate, you have to recognize the champions in the community. So, this is sort of the view we have on the EAP side.

[00:23:50]>> This next session is about something that's completely different. It's about listening. Now, we are not listening to ideas. We're going to listen to sound.

[00:23:59]Roma Singh Poria is a sound healing practitioner who uses ancient instruments to create an immersive experience that calms the mind and resets your energy.

[00:24:12]>> Taking [music] a moment to make yourself a little more comfortable than you already are. It is proven that the quality of your breath will determine the quality of your life just [music] moment to moment awareness of your breath seamlessly going [music] in and out. Slightly [music] open your mouth, loosen your jaw, and let out a long, deep [music] sigh.

[00:24:46]>> [sighs] >> Being aware and being relaxed at the same time.

[00:24:57]Simply focus on the sounds. [music] Your entire body >> [music] >> is now totally still.

[00:25:17]Allow [music] these parts to totally relax, rejuvenate, >> [music] >> refresh, and reset. Thank you very much for receiving this session so beautifully.

[00:25:33]>> [applause] >> The India HR Conclave would really not be complete without recognizing the leaders, the organizations who are doing exceptional work in the space of people and the entire people function. Our jury for this year's awards are two people whose own careers have set the standard.

[00:25:55]Let's welcome Sunita Mukherjee and Manish Behl on stage, please.

[00:26:01]>> [applause] >> Please share some thoughts with us.

[00:26:05]>> Doing this kind of an event is a very, very important for understanding what is the mental makeup of people. And people don't work for for leaders. People work for organization where they belong, where they seen, and where they feel trusted.

[00:26:19]Yeah, our organization looking at the humans as humans or as employees. Those organization make their employees feel seen, heard, psychological safe, and most importantly, connected. And these were my thoughts when I was doing the selection as a jury member.

[00:26:37]>> Employee-employer relationship is the most important because the employee not only works for money, he works for the connection he gets there, for the recognition he gets there, and more than that, the job satisfaction he has. So, employee contributes as much to the employer as the employer contributes to the employee. So, valuing your employee will help generate better much better results.

[00:27:08]>> So, let's move on to the awards now.

[00:27:10]Let's start with the individual categories first, and the first category is visionary HR leader award, and this one goes to Amit Chholiker, group president, human resources at the Hinduja Group.

[00:27:25]>> [applause] [music] [applause] >> Moving on, learning and development leader of the year, and this one goes to Mukesh Kataria, director of learning and development at KPMG India.

[00:27:46]>> [applause] [music] >> This next category is an important one considering the digital age that we are in.

[00:27:59]It's for HR insights and analytics pioneer, and the award for this category goes to Prashant Nair, CHRO at Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals.

[00:28:11]>> [applause] [music] [applause] >> The thought leader of the year goes to our keynote speaker of the day, Prabir Jha. Please join us here.

[00:28:29]>> [music] [music] >> Now, we are going to award some of the organizations that are doing incredible work in the people function. The best integrated workplace culture award goes to SBI Pension Fund.

[00:28:55]>> [music] [applause] >> And we have one more organization winning in this category, the best integrated workplace culture category, and that is Edelweiss Asset Management Limited.

[00:29:13]>> [music] [music] [applause] >> Our next award category tonight is People First Culture Award. Winner in this category is Parle Products Private Limited.

[00:29:44]Another interesting category coming up, the best learning culture award. Well, the award goes to NSE India.

[00:29:54]>> [applause] [applause] >> Let's have a group photo opportunity for all the winners tonight.

[00:30:31]>> India HR [music] Conclave 2026, an initiative by One Finance.