At a time the world is going indoors and online during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, webinars or seminars on the web have become the saviour of organisations and institutions keen on interactive sessions.

Geography is history for seminars with e-platforms such as Google Meet, Facebook Live and Zoom that provide opportunities for webinars involving over 100 participants.

Two organisations of the capital held half a dozen webinars in the past three weeks, the last one held on May 17, featuring speakers not only from across the country but also from abroad.

Rajeev Gupta, coordinator of TEDxKanke, that organised an independent TED event in Ranchi earlier this year and followed it up by four webinars during the lockdown, said: “Getting eminent personalities as speakers here during normal times would have been difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Webinars are a great help.”

Beginning with R.S. Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), TEDxKanke also lined up T.V. Narendran Tata Steel MD and CEO, former Union coal secretary and author Anil Swarup and former IIM-Ranchi director M.J. Xavier as key speakers of the webinars.

While Sharma spoke on the towering presence of information technology and the mega trends in post-Covid India, Narendran spoke on “We also make tomorrow”, the Tata Steel’s perspective on looking ahead in a world grappling with Covid-19.

Former Union coal secretary Swarup spoke on “Making things happen in government” with the challenges involved and their solutions.

Xavier spoke on the future of education system amid the new challenges in the wake of social distancing.

The Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ) held two webinars addressed by speakers from across the country and even abroad.

The first webinar was organised by the university’s department of commerce on May 14 on the “Impact of Covid-19 on global economy”.

Delivering the keynote address, Shelly Daly, professor of international business at Lindenwood University of the US, said that the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the global supply chain and the industry as a whole may try to minimise its dependence of China as the main supplier of machines and materials. Countries like India have a chance to emerge as suppliers, she said.

The CUJ’s department of computer science and technology also held a two-day webinar on “Emerging technologies in education” during May 16-17 with a host of speakers from across the country and Singapore.