Research seminar by Prof. V K Narayanan

Posted on January 22, 2026 by administrator

IM K hosted its eighth research seminar on January 16, 2026, for the year 2025-26. It was conducted by Prof. V K Narayana, Deloitte & Touché Jones Stubbs Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship in Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.

The topic was March toward a Workless Society

Abstract of the talk given below

In this paper, I will challenge a key assumption in most contemporary management writing that work is ubiquitous. First, I will suggest that the evolution of technology in recent decades has brought human beings to the threshold of being liberated from work as we now conceive of it. Second, reaching back to ideas originally put forth by Thruston Veblen, I will argue that we are thus entering an era of visible expansion of “leisure class.” Third, our current conceptions, which are built on a presumption of scarcity, do not allow us to grasp the enormity of the change upon us. This will be explored in the context of three policy prescriptions: universal income tax, social safety net, and investments in future. The paper will conclude with an invitation to engage citizenry in finding pathways to the future.