Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said management education must move beyond conventional techniques to prepare students for a world shaped by artificial intelligence, geopolitical rivalry, and supply-chain disruptions. Addressing the 16th Indian Management Conclave in Noida on Friday, he called for business schools to place judgement, resilience, deep thinking, and character at the centre of their curricula rather than simply adding AI-focused courses. He said the traditional focus on efficiency — lean operations, just-in-time systems, and single-source supply chains — was increasingly vulnerable to global shocks. The growing use of AI, he said, threatens the apprenticeship through which young professionals developed managerial judgement, since AI now performs junior-level routine and analytical work. He said great-power rivalry and the weaponisation of supply chains mean managers must understand redundancy, maintain options, and build resilience, even at higher costs, adding that the world of frictionless efficiency driven by single-source global supply chains is over and will not return for a generation at least. Recent geopolitical disruptions have affected Indian businesses through shipping and supply chains, with tensions around the Strait of Hormuz leading to vessel diversions, longer routes, congestion, and higher freight and insurance costs, forcing firms to rethink sourcing, inventory, and supply-chain strategies. Nageswaran said Indian business schools need to build models addressing their own economy instead of borrowing models from the West.