It takes eleven to get even

We beat the daylights out of IIM-C this time around....they were only 9 this time around and we had to loan them 2 players to make their eleven. We let them bat 1st to set a total... they set a tgt of 158 to get in 25 overs. We reached the same in about 20 overs for the loss of only 3 wkts... hero of the match being Rohan (tommy's son) who belted them for 50+ plus runs and had to be recalled so that others wud get a turn to bat. Nimit turned in an excellent all round effort with 2-3 wkts in a deadly controlled spell and got 43 runs in an opening century stand with Rohan when we batted. IIM-C now stands for IIM- Confused.On the whole a very good team effort by all our guys. The match got off to sensational low down 1st slip catch by Tommy off Nimit's bowling and thereafter wkts fell regularly. For the record JK of IIM-C played a sterling unbeaten innings to hold up the IIM-C efforts, but it was in vain as Hurricane-Rohan blew in from the Bay of Bengal.

Shall let you know when the so called awards evening and gala get together is held as a sequel to this cricket.

Ciao
Murali

Picnic for Sydneysiders on 25th March

Hi,

I apologise for being a lazy this time around. This time its Fagan Park on Sunday, 25th march at 1200 hrs. For those who have not been there before, its in Galston (near Dural).

Details can be found at

http://www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/recreation/index.cfm?NavigationID=915

Lets enter from the Arcadia Road entrance (the Main entrance) which is closest to the 3 available electric BBQs and the playground area.
Also near this are gardens of many nations.

Looking forward to catching up after a longish break.

Cheers,

Pankaj

XL Alumni Achievement '06-'07: A Round-Up

Here is a compilation of the achievements by XL alumni during last one year (06-07).

Though the list is neither complete nor comprehensive, at least it is indicative of the diverse fields in which XLRI Alumni have been achieving excellence:

Aquil Busrai (72PMIR), Executive Director (HR), IBM India, was conferred the Life-Time Achievement Award for his work in the field of HR by the National HRD Network.

Sujit Baksi (72PMIR) took over as the President, Tech Mahindra.

Vikram Rao (75BMD), head of ABG’s Garment Business, joined the Board of Aditya Birla Group.

Prof Gerald Tellis (BMD 1977), the Director of the Center for Global Innovation, Neely Chair of American Enterprise and Professor of Marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (LA), was awarded 2006 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research by 2006 American Marketing Association Educators' conference in Chicago.

Harsh Kumar (78BMD) was appointed the Managing Director of Mahindra Intertade.

Prakash Puram (78BMD), CEO, ixMatch, was inducted as a Member into US President’s Export Council (PEC), making him the first India-born MBA to take up an advisory role to the White House

Bijou Kurian (81BMD) joined Reliance Retail Venture’ Lifestyle Business as the CEO.

R Ramakrishnan (82BMD), President and COO of Bajaj Electricals was invited to address the 1000+ gathering of professionals at the Campus Symposium of Iselorn, Germany. The other speakers included Bill Clinton, Lord Chris Patton (frm Governer of Hong Kong), the German Finance Minister, and CEOs of Credit Suisse, Audi, Mushreq Bank, etc.

George Zacharias (82BMD) was appointed the Managing Director, Yahoo! India.

Suri Venkat (83PMIR) took over as the Chief Operating Officer of Sify.

Vinod Sawhney (83BMD) was appointed as the CEO of Bharti Retail (P) Ltd.

Rajan Krishnan (85BMD) took over as the Business Head of the Principal Mutual Fund, the Asset Management Group of PNB.

Vineet Nayar (85BMD), President, HCL Techologies Ltd., was featured in the Fortune magazine for creating, as the title of the article says, “The Most Modern Management – in India”.

Surajit Shome (86BMD) was appointed the Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking of Lehman Brothers India.

Gargi Banerji (86PMIR), Founder of Pragya, was given Sadguru Gnanananda National Award (2007) for her work on environmental conservation. She was felicitated by the Governer of Tamil Nadu, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.

Vijay Nair (87PMIR) published his second book, and first novel, “Master of Life Skills”. The book was launched by Harper Collins India, and received very favourable reviews.

Vikas Gupta (88BMD) joined the Anand Bazar Patrika Ltd as the President, BusinessWorld magazine, and the Chief Marketing Officer.

Milind Chalisgaonkar (89BMD) took over as the CEO of the Bharti AXA General Insurance India.

Ashish Rajpal (92BMD), the co-founder & Managing Director of iDiscoveri, was featured among the “50 Leaders shaping the Indian Education in India” in Education World.

Rajiv Kaul (92BMD), the former Managing Director of Microsoft India, joined as Partner, Actis in London.

Anu Kumar (94PMIR), with Economic and Political Weekly, published her 2nd book “Letters for Paul” (Mapin Books). The book was released by Shyam Benegal at Crossword, Mumbai.

Mohit Nayyar (95PMIR), Director – HR, P&G India was awarded the “Young Achiever” award by the National HRD Network.

Brajesh Bajpai (96BMD) moved from Pepsi to take over as the Country Manager, Marico - Egypt.

Dinu Poonacha (96BMD) was appointed the President – Corporate Stategy and Planning for the Rs. 2,300cr Yash Birla Group.

Anuradha Vijayakrishnan (98BMD), with Citibank, was selected by the renowned literary agent, David Godwin for her forthcoming novel, making her the 60th such author worldwide, and the 6th Indian (including Arundhati Roy).

S Ministhy (98PMIR), an IAS officer and rank-holder of her batch, published her first book of short stories “Unequal Equations.”

Ajay MK (99PMIR), Head - HR, Colgate Palmolive (Malaysia & Singapore), and the G-Sec of the batch, published his first book of short stories: “Drizzle of Yesteryears & Other Stories” (Frog Books, India).

Nandita de Cunha (01BMD), a consultant with KPMG, published her first book, “The Magic of Maya” (Rupa Publications). The book was released by Anil Dharkar at Crossword bookstore, Mumbai.

Kumar Anand (05BMD) and Lara Lobo (06PMIR), both in Standard Chartered Bank (India), won the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006 – an event involving cross country running & cycling, rowing, puzzle cracking, deciphering, map navigation, stock market simulation, etc, - and competing against 35 participating corporates included the likes of Barclays Bank, ICICI Securities, ICICI Bank, J P Morgan Stanley and a host of others like Unilever, Infosys and our formidable Indian Navy.

MAXI organizes Ad-Workshop with Prahlad Kakar

Challenge the status quo, trust your instincts and dream big … Prahlad Kakar, the renowned Ad-filmmaker and CEO, Genesis Films told the students of XLRI, Jamshedpur during the Ad workshop conducted by him on campus on Saturday, 17th February, 2007. Mr. Kakar is the chief mentor for the Knowledge Centre launched by the Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI), a one of its kind marketing database in India.

The ad-server part of the Knowledge Centre was inaugurated by Mr.Prahlad Kakar. He also shared his personal collection of 5000 advertisements during the same. The Knowledge Centre, which is one of first of its kind in India, aims to become a one stop destination for top quality articles, news and current happenings and discussions. The discussion forum, which at the moment is only for students of XLRI, would be open to the outside world in the next stage of implementation. The forum then is expected to be a center-stage for discussions amongst the best brains in the academia, corporate and the students. Other mentors of the knowledge center include Ms. Ingrid Srinath (CEO CRY) and Mr. Kavi Kumar (CEO Indiabulls securities).

During his interaction with the students and faculty, Kakar talked about the exciting and challenging world of advertising, giving them useful insights from his experiences in this field. Advertising is all about selling your dreams; it is not a game of the mind but of the heart. Most campaigns that have worked are by accident, the theories come only in hindsight. The best ads may not be the most successful ads, most successful ones are only those that sell the products. These were just a few of the thoughts shared by him.

He talked about the simple rules that go behind creating a successful ad. An ad mirrors society, it is a reflection of consumers’ dreams. Create a personality for your brand, portray it as your child having feelings and emotions, for it to be successful. It is important to be ethical, you can only tell a lie once, you cannot fool a consumer twice. He further discussed about the lack of research on impact of ads on children and how no regulations are in place to check this.

A doyen of the advertising industry and the maverick that he is, Kakar was a source of inspiration to young and aspiring managers at XLRI. He challenged them to question conventions, make their own rules, for this is what it takes to rise above the normal, and to be “special”.

Mr. Kakar shared the stories of the various advertisements created by him, the portfolio ranging from Pepsi to Kitkat, Maggi Hot and Chilli sauce and to his very famous and successful 7up ad featuring Mallika Sherawat.

Talking to the newspersons, Mr Kakar said that he is extremely happy that XLRI and MAXI took this initiative, which is of utmost relevance to a b-school education. He wished this initiative utmost success.

XLRI Leadership Expedition 2007

http://xlexpedition.info/

Bike Expedition from Mumbai to Kanyakumari

Flag-Off: Gateway of India, Mumbai on 14th March

Expedition Closes: Kanniyakumari, on March 26th

Contingent Size: 16 students of graduating batch of the two year PG program

The Expedition will be accompanied by Mr. Dilip Bam, an XL alumnus of 1973 batch. Mr. Bam, an avid biker himself, has undertaken various road trips, including Kashmir-Kanyakumari and across the Sahara desert.

Theme: Incredible, yet unseen, India!

The ‘Mumbai to Kanniyakumari’ region is home to some of the best beaches, hills, and historical sites in India. It thus offers a total package to satiate the appetite of tourists with various inclinations. However, this immense potential has not been tapped so far with only some sections of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala being on the radar of the traveler. There is thus an immense opportunity for tourism lying dormant in the region.

Deliverables:

Study, explore and document the economic potential of the Western Coastal region with specific focus on Tourism.

Prepare a report and submit the same to Union Tourism Ministry

Expedition Website: http://xlexpedition.info/

Principal Sponsor: Trident Group, Ludhiana, Punjab

--
Posted by Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and latest Updates at 2/21/2007 06:02:00 AM

March 24,2007 - XL Canada Meet at Sarvanna Bhavan (Woodside Square)

Hi,
Hope the new year finds all of you in good spirits. We hope to try to start fresh this year from where we unfortunately broke off last year.
Given the suggestions and advice on postponing the meet, we decided to target March as the next possible meeting date, as it is not too close to our annual Summer Picinic and gave all of us time to enjoy the holiday season, the New year blues and to finally come back to our normal self!!!!

This time is is simple:
Venue : Sarvanna Bhavan, Woodside Square, Scarborough
Date : March 24,2007
Time : After 10:00 am
Status : Confirmed

We wanted it earlier in March but then given the March Break Holidays coudn't manage it earlier and hopefully the weather will also be more pleasant than what it is now!!!

Request you all to confirm your availability. In case there are issues about transport to and from Sarvanna Bhavan , please indicate and we will try to manage around that.
Awaiting your response,
Regards,
Siddharth & Bala

Who says XL - IIMC is not happening?

It did on Sunday!

Veterans of the EHCC (wonder what it is called these days?) + a couple of players on loan beat the Jokas just enough (by one run, 149 to our 150 in 25 overs) for them to thirst for a return match next Sunday.

So, get your whites (or white-ishes) and head for MCC (no, not that one, just the one in Tambaram) on Sunday, Feb 25. Confirm your participation (as a player / cheerleader / whatever) to Murali (aka LG Ramaswamy) on

Cheers,
Shantaram

Ramki Sundaram (S Ramki) - BM 95 - Air Deccan's new CFO

Air Deccan, India's second largest airline today announced the appointment of Ramki Sundaram as the company's Chief Financial Officer and resignation of Finance Director M.G Mohan Kumar.

Ramki Sundaram
Ramki Sundaram has been an investment banker in the aviation field with experience of over 10 years. He has been instrumental in spearheading the aviation business for Investec Bank (UK) Ltd where he had a successful stint of 2 years before joining Air Deccan.

Ramki Sundaram graduated from the coveted IIT Chennai and went on to do his Masters from XLRI Jamshedpur. He has been exposed to a wide variety of financial products and has sound knowledge and expertise in asset classes, structuring options and credit markets. During his international stint he developed strong relationships both with several Indian and international banks that regularly participate in Indian issues. Over the years he has structured and executed various financial transactions to capitalize on the growing Indian aviation sector with the objective of achieving substantial growth in revenues.

M.G Mohan Kumar
M.G Mohan Kumar, Finance Director Air Deccan had been associated with the charter division as a consultant since its inception. With the increasing demands of a budding airline in terms of time and huge investments, aircraft acquisitions and major financial deals he found it prudent to work full time and join the airline in 2004 as the Finance Director.

With a wealth of experience and expertise in setting up new businesses, Mohan Kumar was able to provide a solid foundation to the upcoming airline during its formative years. To join Air Deccan he had taken a sabbatical from his flourishing and reputed business of a firm of Chartered Accountants where he is the founding partner. He along with his firm will continue to consult for Air Deccan.

Capt G.R Gopinath, Managing Director Air Deccan spoke, "We are delighted to attract someone with the breadth and depth of skills that Ramki possesses. He is an outstanding finance professional and brings with him various skill sets and years of experience which will serve the company during this growth phase."

He further added," Ramki has been working closely with Air Deccan in various aircraft financing deals and is arguably, one of the most experienced bankers in Indian aviation. He joins us at an exciting period of growth as we look forward to expand our operations and consolidate our leading position in the country. With his international experience I am confident Ramki will make a major contribution to our future growth in the global perspective."

He also said," During the last three and a half years Mohan Kumar has worked tirelessly and with his innovative ideas placed Air Deccan on a sound and robust footing. Ramki will be building on the solid foundation left by Mohan, whom we would like to thank for his significant contribution over the last three years."

Ramki Sundaram commented, "Air Deccan has a unique position in the marketplace. I believe that Air Deccan's focused low cost business model is one that will go from strength to strength and I look forward to being part of the team that delivers that success."

World Cup time for the Mgmt Schools’ Alumni Cricket Tournament

Dear folks,

Looks like it’s World Cup time for the Mgmt Schools’ Alumni Cricket Tournament. As by now all you folks are aware the matches start on this SUN 18th Feb at the Madras Christian College (MCC) grounds at Tambaram.

The participating teams ready and raring as usual to do battle are XLRI and IIM-C as the IIM-A team is in big disarray. Therefore the 1st match shall be played on 18th between IIM-C and us. It is going to be a 25 over a side game and bowlers shall be restricted to 5 overs each with a max of 5 bowlers to be used for the full game. Whites or near whites preferred.

As the college grounds at Tambaram are at some distance from the city, we can have car pools and pickups and drops post game from and to convenient places enroute. Those of you that want to be part of a carpool please do let me know so that we can plan the same out well in advance by FRIDAY 16th Feb.

You can mail Shantaram or me about this. Breakfast is being provided to all those who land up before the match starts, so you can make an early start from your residences, play the game and finish before it gets hot.

The match shall therefore start by 7.45am and 50 overs should be thru by about 12.30 pm or thereabouts. Hopefully the following Sunday should see the IIM-A and probably IIM- Assorted ready to play.

Please once again confirm your participation for this 18th SUN match by sending a confirmatory email to me or Shantaram.

Here’s hoping to see all players, cheerleaders with pom-poms,etc bright and cheery on SUN, Feb 18th morning.

Best regards,
Murali
P.S: Any cricket equipment such as bats, gloves, pads, abdomen guards etc that you can bring along are most welcome.

3-day Trauma Training by Raja Selvam (80batch XLer) @ Karaikal

Three-Day Trauma Training by Trauma Vidya in Karaikal,
February 19-21, 2007.

Sponsored by the department of psychiatric social work of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS), Bangalore, the department of social work at the Arinyar Anna Arts College, Karaikal, and the Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association (TNVHA), Dr. Raja Selvam, Ph.D. and an international team of trauma therapist colleagues from Trauma Vidya http://www.traumavidya.org/, an organization formed in the USA after the tsunami to bring trauma relief to post-disaster settings through training, treatment, and research, will offer a three-day intensive trauma training in Karaikal on February 19-21, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The three-day experiential training will train the participants in a neuro-biologically based trauma resolution approach that can used to treat trauma survivors or be easily taught to trauma survivors in the form of self-help strategies with which they can themselves heal their
trauma symptoms. The Trauma Vidya approach, based on Somatic Experiencing (SE), a trauma modality http://www.traumahealing.com/ that is taught to trauma professionals in over fifteen countries, has been validated through field research as extremely effective in treating trauma
symptoms of tsunami survivors in Tamil Nadu over the past two years.

Even though the focus of the training will be on the treatment of tsunami survivors, the approach can be used to treat survivors of a wide variety of traumas including other natural disasters, physical and sexual abuse, automobile accidents, fires, and terrorist attacks.

The free training, offered in English and Tamil, is open to personnel from government and non-government organizations and academic institutions in Tamil Nadu involved in providing psycho-social care and trauma care for tsunami as well as other trauma survivors. Lunch,
coffee, and snacks will be provided. Because much of the training will be conducted in small groups focused on experiential learning with one trainer per group, enrollment will be limited to seventy two participants. Preference will be given to those who have the capacity to train others in the approach. Participants are required to attend all three days of the training. Certificates will be offered to those who successfully complete all three days of the training.

If you are interested in attending the training to be held at the Arinyar Anna Arts College in Karaikal, please contact Mr. Lakshmanan from Trauma Vidya to register and for further information on the logistics and contents of the training.

SAPPHIRE@XLRI announces Strategic Alliance with "Human Capital Magazine"

SAPPHIRE

(Students Association for Promotion of Personnel Management , Human Resources and Industrial Relations)

is proud to announce a Strategic Alliance with Human Capital Magazine, India,

the largest selling HR Magazine in South Asia.

Benefits of the Alliance to XLRI Students will be in the form of coverage for

All SAPPHIRE events like

Guest Lectures/Workshops

Inter collegiate games,

Consulting projects,

National conferences

& cover HR publications and articles written by XLRI students.

Click on the link below for more on the details and the press release

SAPPHIRE-Human Capital Partnership

What's in it for you?

• A chance to write and reach out to the HR Community in India with thoughts about HR, IR , OB
• To air views & concerns about HR Education in India and portray excellence in HR Education provided at XLRI.
• A platform to network with the Top HR Professionals in India

Regards,

Team SAPPHIRE

http://www.humancapitalonline.com/press_release_hc-xlri.html

SAPPHIRE@XLRI and Human Capital join to form a strategic partnership

A first of its kind partnership in the HR fraternity in India, the Student HR Committee at XLRI i.e. SAPPHIRE established a strategic partnership with India's only business HR magazine , Human Capital. The partnership is designed to leverage the synergies that both the brands could bring to develop the HR profession. XLRI with its strong academic and research capabilities will give Human Capital access to world of HR knowledge. Human Capital on the other hand brings to the table its wide distribution network that will help enhance the reach of XLRI's intellectual capital among the HR fraternity.

"SAPPHIRE and Human Capital have often collaborated professionally for HR initiatives earlier.The formalization of this long-standing relationship is a fallout of the findings of the 5th National HR Conference in January 2006 at XLRI Jamshedpur, where industry stalwarts, academicians and students discussed the future of HR and one of the key findings was that, there needs to be a stronger and more robust platform for student/industry interface" says Dr Madhukar Shukla, Faculty Coordinator SAPPHIRE & Prof OB & Strategy-XLRI Jamshedpur.

SAPPHIRE has strong visibility and professional standing among the top HR professionals in India. The Committee has worked with various corporates such as Accenture, Mercer HR Consulting, Dell , HLL, CNBC , Tata Steel, Nokia, Ernst & Young Human Capital, Murugappa Group to name a few. Its weekly newsletter goes to top HR professionals in industry and the committee organizes various events on XLRI campus to build the HR profession.

The strategic partnership will cover all SAPPHIRE events like guest lectures, inter collegiate games, consulting projects, national conferences and cover HR publications and articles written by XLRI students. Watch this space for more details on the partnership!

An email from DRACULA!!!

Greetings from Transylvania,

I would like to write the details of my escapade spurred on by my thirst for fresh blood and to claim souls. However this is not quite the right place for it. I, Count Dracula will vacate the stage for the REAL DRACULA, a special interest group in THEATRE. This year they are raising money for Cheshire homes. But they are struggling to move beyond the model of local community involvement to reach out to the larger XLRI diaspora. Please go through the accompanying emails andsee if there is someway you can help them?

Mathai Baker Fenn

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Sir,
I am enclosing the final proposal we have made put with the changes you suggested and made more sponsor friendly. We need to raise about 80,000 for the production itself and around 20,000 for the logistical parts. so in all, we need a corpus of 1,00,000. we have got 20,000 from tinplate. and possibly another 20,000 from telcon. however, we need to raise another 60,000. we are trying our best to raise this amount using our older DRAC members. It would be wonderful if you could forward this proposal to people you know in various companies who will be able to help us out.

will forward the same to Prof Shukla.

Thanks
Shweta