Corporate Honchos to attend Conference at XLRI

From http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Corporate-honchos-to-attend-meet-at-XLRI/articleshow/5382569.cms">The Times of India


JAMSHEDPUR (The Times of India, Dec 27): Perhaps for the first time, the XLRI, a premier business school of the country, has got the opportunity to host the conference of the

Indian Academy of Management (IAoM), the apex body of the management institutes pursuing the agenda of narrowing the gap between academia and practitioners in India, in the Steel city from Monday.

The three-day conference will witness the congregation of big and famous corporate honchos with several alumni of the IIMs, ISB, MDI and host XLRI chairing the boards of different divisions.

The IAoM is committed to promoting India-centric collaborative research efforts among scholars across the globe, and to try and bridge the gap between the academia and practitioners in India.

"This conference will bring together academics and practitioners from around the globe. We are happy to announce that Professor Angelo DeNisi (Immediate past president, Academy of Management, USA) and Professor Pradip Khandwalla (former director and professor, IIM Ahmedabad) have agreed to be the main speakers at the inaugural conference," informed Prof. Madhukar Shukla, a member of the organizing committee.

O P Bhatt, chairman, SBI, Venugopal Dhoot, chairman, Videocon and B Muthuraman, vice-chairman, Tata Steel, are among others who have confirmed their participation in the inaugural conference the theme of which is "Indian Management: Past, Present and Future". "Mr Bhatt, Mr Dhoot and Mr Muthuraman will be on the CEO panel that will deliberate on wide-ranging issues fundamentally related to the theme Wisdom perspectives, principles and practices in Indian businesses," informed Prof. Shukla.

The session will be moderated by Dr Prasad Kaipa, executive director, Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC), Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

Dr Pradip Khandwalla, former director and professor, IIMA, and Dr S Ramnarayan, former professor IIMA and currently professor at ISB Hyderabad, are making presentations on December 29. And, on the same day, Dr Angelo DeNisi, the immediate past president of AoM and dean, School of Business, Tulane University, will deliver the keynote address "Management of Corporate Greatness".

"India is now again emerging as an economic power, and business schools are focusing on the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations instead of the Triadian market of the US, Europe, and Japan. Thus, it is important to further focus our research energy on Indian management and reveal about what is unique about Indian management good or bad, effective or inefficient, beautiful or ugly. This conference will be useful for researchers and practitioners who are interested in India in general and management practices related to India in particular," Prof. Shukla said.

In the light of the overwhelming response to the Academy of Management meeting held in Chicago in August last, it is expected that delegates (faculty, doctoral students and practitioners) representing several institutes from India and abroad are expected to participate in good numbers in the proposed conference.

Fidelity appoints Ramanathan (BMD 2000) as fixed income fund manager

From Myiris.com

Fidelity Mutual Fund today announced that it has appointed Shriram Ramanathan as the new fund manager for its fixed income funds.

He will be the fund manager for five fixed income / hybrid funds - Fidelity Cash Fund, Fidelity Ultra Short Term Debt Fund, Fidelity Flexi Bond Fund, Fidelity Flexi Gilt Fund and Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund.

Commenting on the appointment, Andrew Wells, Global chief investment officer (CIO) - fixed income, Fidelity International, said, ``I am pleased to welcome Shriram to the India fixed income team. With his decade long experience in fixed income investing locally and domestically, he brings expertise that will strengthen the team as we look to grow our fixed income business in India.``

Prior to joining Fidelity, Shriram was senior investment manager - global emerging market debt (Asia) at ING Investment Management Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. He started with ING Investment Management as a fixed income fund manager in India. His earlier assignments were with Zurich Asset Management Company in fixed income research and with the treasury department of ICICI Bank. Shriram started his career with Larsen and Toubro.

He is a chartered financial analyst and holds a post graduate diploma in business management from XLRI Jamshedpur and an engineering degree from the university of Mumbai.

Christmas Party - Bangalore

Hi Xlers,

We are planning a christmas party on the 11th of Dec at the KGA party hall. Unlike the regular Happy Hours, this will be a 'with family' event where the kids can come and have fun too!

Any suggestions / idea on what we can do are most welcome. Any volunteers to be Santa? :)


Regards
Pratik Bhartia
Secretary, XL Bang Alumni

Felicitating Fr. McGrath

Fr McGrath - one of the founding fathers of XLRI (and the only one who still walks the planet) was honoured for his contribution to the instititute and to the field of education during XLRI's Diamond Jubilee Annual Alumni Homecoming (Nov 21st, '09)... and he still continues with his work in his Human Life Center @ Bhubneswar... Salute to the man!

Radhika Sood Nayak (94PMIR)

Veteran vocalist Sushila Rani Patel believes Radhika Sood Nayak is the only singer who can carry on her legacy. “She’s hardworking, and picks up difficult things easily,” said the 90-year-old Jaipur-Atrauli gharana exponent about her student. “Recently, I taught her a tarana in raga Sohini that she grasped within no time. She has that inner drive.” Like Patel, 38-year-old Sood Nayak has been blessed with a powerful voice and she’s not afraid to use it. “My teacher insists that the voice should be projected without any inhibition,” said Sood Nayak. At her recital this fortnight, which has been organised by the Bhavan’s Cultural Centre, she will sing khayals in Bageshri and Bhoop and a thumri in Des.

From Time Out Mumbai

Aggressive Growth Plan on XLRI Radar

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, Nov. 21: XLRI is planning to go big in the next few years.

Along with developing academic strength and infrastructure, alumni members of the 1983 batch have decided to set up an endowment fund for the growth of the institute.

These and other plans were shared at one of the sessions of XLRI Homecoming 2009, the annual alumni meet on campus that began today, organised by XLRI Alumni Association.

On the spare eight acres behind the existing campus, the B-school has decided to set up a learning centre, a hostel for 300 students, a 100-seater International Centre, about 15 guest houses and 100 faculty offices — all within five years at a budget of Rs 50 crore.

“We are giving it some time, at least five years. We are first giving preference to classrooms as we feel that is the priority. Things will be bigger and better. We aim to become an institute of global standards as we already have tie-ups with a score of international B-schools from all over the world and many more are in the pipeline. So, development is necessary,” said XLRI director Father E. Abraham, while addressing alumni members at the annual homecoming.

The alumni members have set up an endowment fund of Rs 6 crore. A sum of Rs 10 lakh has already been deposited with the fund to enhance the brand value of XLRI. Alumni members are looking at more research work, management development programmes, support for student activities, faculty strengthening and improved infrastructure with the funds.

The XLRI Endowment Fund (XEF) will be used with the consent of the XLRI board of governors but it will have a secretariat, a fund utilisation committee and a sub-fund utilisation committee to decide on the ventures. A presentation was also given on the workings of XEF, though things are yet to be finalised.

Plans are already afoot to set up new campuses in Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar as these places are more feasible than Jamshedpur.

Accessibility, along with visibility, is one of the guiding reasons now.

“Land acquisition is the major problem, so things need to be chalked out. Nothing is finalised because of accessibility problems. Also there is a lot of work we do here but that is not noticed outside,” said Father Abraham.

Low visibility is a problem for many. While most B-school rankings put XLRI in the top five positions, the board of governors is still not happy with the current rankings and is working out a strategy to compete with other B-schools, especially Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta.

“The competition is mainly with the three IIMs. Otherwise, we are the best private B-school. Also we are managing well as compared to the funding that IIMs receive from the central government. We would try to chalk out ways and strategise to see how we can develop,” added Father Abraham.

XLRI alumni to raise endowment fund for B-school's infrastructure

From The Financial Express

Jamshedpur: Alumni of the XLRI School of Business & Human Resources will be here soon to attend the Homecoming 2009, a re-union the B-School has been hosting for the last five years. They are raising an endowment fund to improve the B-School’s infrastructure.

The fund was initiated in 2008 by the 1983 batch. They will be contributing Rs 1 crore, which would subsequently go up to Rs 5 crore.

“The whole idea is to make the fund bigger, as XLRI really didn’t have much of an endowment as we always have lived from hand to mouth,” said XLRI director Father E Abraham, adding that it was only now that the institute has some money to build the infrastructure.

Members of all the alumni batches who have been visiting the B-School over the last few years to attend the Homecoming reunion have been expressing their own ideas in improving things at the institute.

The B-School has chalked out a two-day (November 21-22) programme that would make the alumni members aware of the different initiatives undertaken by XLRI including its expansion and diversification plans in the academic field.

“This forum is going to channelise all the different ideas as we have now set up an endowment fund; and through the fund we are going to channelise whatever ideas come from the alumni towards the growth of the institution”, said Rana Sinha, managing director of Telcon and president of the local XLRI Alumni Association.

XLRI’s alumni members have been behind the setting up of a unique “entrepreneurship trust” which has helped some of the B-School’s two-year management students in starting social entrepreneurship ventures like “Parichay”, “Swavalamban”, “Dream4Others”, “Brandtadka.com”, etc by way of giving seed money.

“The entrepreneurship trust is set to grow because every batch would be reinforcing it with fund and we would have more and more examples of success stories”, said Sinha.

Homecoming 2009 also proposes to confer lifetime achievement awards as well as “distinguished alumnus awards” to those of its alumni who have not only excelled in industry but also in academia. The B-School will also be honouring Father E H McGrath.

“Considering this is the 60th year of XLRI, Homecoming this year is of special importance”, said Bushen Raina, the national president of the XLRI Alumni Association, adding the response from over 150 alumni members so far has been “very positive”.

XLRI student appeals to conscience of the nation

Current Student from XLRI appeals for help to find his brother, who most possibly has been kidnapped because he was planning to reveal a corruption scandal in his PWD department at Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.



For providing any assistance, please contact
Vidyasagar - 09718908837
email - avpm123@gmail.com

XLRI to host the Management Festival -"Ensemble 2009" (Nov 13-15)

http://www.xlri-ensemble.com/


New Delhi, 2009: XLRI School of Business and Human Resources is hosting its management festival Ensemble 2009, from November 13th to November 15th 2009. This 3 day long festival entails exciting events and activities.

Ensemble 2009, now ISO 9001 certified, is poised to become even bigger. "In keeping with the sweeping change in the world of management, where the need for accountable & ethical managers is being felt more than the need for over-ambitious & aggressive managers, the theme for Ensemble 2009 is 'Integrity & Initiative'. The theme also resonates with the principles and ideals of XLRI as it celebrate its 60th anniversary this year", said Meesam, the General Secretary of the Students Council.

In keeping with XLRI's image as a b-school run by students, the events of Ensemble 2009 have all been organized by the numerous committees on campus. The games vary across all business verticals, and enthusiasts of Finance, Marketing, Operations, Information Systems and Human Resources will find something of interest at Ensemble 2009. Apart from the management events, there will be events for adventure-lovers, budding entrepreneurs quizzing enthusiasts & even aspiring actors. The latest updates about Ensemble 2009 can be obtained at http://www.xlri-ensemble.com

A major event of Ensemble 2009 is the Idea Summit - which is expected to draw experts from different walks of life to share their experiences with the students. Prominent personalities from the world of academia, business, media, sports and politics will be coming for the series of sessions based on the theme "Integrity & Initiative". Idea Summit will include speaker session by eminent personalities spread across three days of Ensemble. The speakers are Mr. N Sivaraman, Executive Vice President (Financial Services), L&T, Mr. Tapan Mitra,Chief HR - Apollo Tyres, Mr. Micheal Ferreira, four time winner of world billiards Championship, Mr. U.P.Agarwal, President, ICAI.

The previous edition of Ensemble had the theme of "Magis: Delivering Excellence". The Aditya Birla Group was the principal partner. Other notable Corporates associated with Ensemble'08 were Cognizant, Nokia, L&T, Nestle, and Human Capital. Ensemble '08 had prize money aggregating over INR 1 million. The principle sponsor event, ABG Board-Room gave the single largest prize money ever in any B school festival of INR 250,000 and created a buzz in the B-School circle. In all, close to 200 students from 21 top Indian B-Schools institutes including the IIMs and ISB Hyderabad participated in the annual event. The online events saw as many as 1000students participating from almost all B Schools in India.

Beginning in 2000, Ensemble has grown to become one of the most awaited showpiece events in the B-School circuit. Over the years, students from across the elite B-Schools of India have participated in a wide spectrum of business plan contests, case studies, online simulation games, across all business functions like Consulting, Marketing, Finance, HR, Systems and Operations. In terms of corporate partnerships and finances, the event has grown over 14 times since its inception.

Posted By The Theme to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and Latest Updates at 11/10/2009 02:35:00 PM

XLRI conducts Simulated Bond Auction

JAMSHEDPUR (Nov 6,'09, Times of India): XLRI School of Business and Human Resources simulated a simultaneous auction along with the Rs 90-billion government securities auction by the RBI on Friday.

The bond auction game was conceptualised and designed by professor of finance H K Pradhan as a part of the fixed income securities course conducted by him. The idea was to give the students a practical feel of the bond market to help them better imbibe the concepts in the course.

"In trying to do this, we created an exact market situation that they would have to handle in their professional careers tomorrow. It is important to have some sort of experience along with theory classes," said H K Pradhan, the instructor of fixed income securities course.

The game comprised two teams with 20 teams acting as primary dealers in the market that bid for the Rs 90-billion government debt auction held the same day by the RBI, though in a simulated environment.

Pradhan was assisted by students Amit Kumar and Kartik Bakshi and senior executive members of the Finance Association at XLRI (FINAX), who were mock representatives of the Reserve Bank of India and conducted the whole process.

In real situations, the RBI carries out this process to check liquidity adjustment, known as inflation in layman's term.

The whole game was conducted within a three-hour span and the winning bids were to be determined at the closing time of market, i.e. 5 pm. The auction consisted of 2 types of bids uniform pricing and discriminatory pricing in the 3 government securities that were up for auction on Friday 7.32 percent bonds maturing in 2014 for 30 billion rupees, 6.35 percent 2020 bonds for 40 billion rupees and 7.5 percent 2034 bonds for 20 billion rupees. There were simultaneous trades at the "when-issued" market and the auction market of these bonds.

"Such events are important to us so that we get the real picture' of the present market trends. It helps understand the market functioning and we learn to effectively and expeditiously handle the problems," Vivek Seshadri, one of the participating students at the auction, said.

The results of the market are yet to be decided as there were 60 bids with 240 transactions involving some serious calculations. Though it was a hypothetical market, quotes were real ones made by the RBI in the real market auction.

--
Posted By The Theme to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and Latest Updates at 11/07/2009 03:01:00 PM

XLRI gets SAQS Accreditation

XLRI became the 5th Instt in India, and 6th in South Asia, to receive the SAQS Accreditation.... the whole process took around 4 years!! SAQS is among the 4 global accreditations (EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA). Last year, XLRI was given membership to AACSB, which is but a first step in its goal of AACSB Accreditation....

Sad News: Madhur Tiwary (71BMD) R.I.P.

Just received word that Madhur Tiwary of Tiwary Bechar, Jamshedpur XL '71 Passed away in his sleep in his hotel room in Calcutta yesterday morning.In all probability the corpse will be brought to Jamshedpur tomorrow for the cremation.

May his soul rest in peace
Ronald D'Costa
BM '70
22 Oct 2009

Timken appoints Ajay Das (92BMD) as the new India MD

From The Financial Express

The Timken Company announced the appointment of Mr. Ajay Das as its new managing director for its business in India, headquartered in Bangalore.

In this new role, Mr. Das will oversee the continued growth of the company’s business in India, including the Timken Engineering Research Institute, the global R&D and engineering facility at Bangalore, operations at Jamshedpur and Chennai, as well as sales, marketing and all supporting functions.

“I am optimistic about returning to India and the significant growth opportunities we have in this region. Timken has created the ‘best in the industry’ engineering, manufacturing, sales and services capabilities to serve a growing customer base in India. We will continue to focus on leveraging those capabilities to improve the performance of our customers’ operations, and to deliver additional value to them,” said Mr. Das.

In 17 years with Timken, Ajay Das has provided leadership across business segments. He was national sales manager of the automotive business in India, and later was the director of manufacturing of the Jamshedpur plant between 2001 and 2005. In 2005, he relocated to Shanghai as director of new business development, and in 2007 he became the general manager of Timken’s wind energy business unit based in Canton, Ohio, United States of America.

Mr. Das received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

XLRI UAE Get together 2nd October

Hi,

We will be having a get-together on 2nd Oct at 7:00pm.

We are glad to have Fr.Jesusurajan, from XLRI-Jamshedpur, who is in town, and he will be joining us.

We aren’t sure of the schedule of Fr.Abraham; understand he is in Jamshedpur at present.

Fr.C.L George, Dean of Finance at XLRI –Jamshedpur, I understand is also in Dubai.

So he may also join us at the get-together.

Those of us who are attending, could you please e-mail your confirmation by noon on Thursday 1^st October 2009.

Land phone – 04 4075326

The confirmations will enable us to know the number of attendees.

Please bring along your spouse/partner if you wish so.

The per head expense could be around Dhs.100/- if not more with food and drinks.

Please try and come at 7pm; especially being Friday, the venue can get to be busy later on and restaurants (of our choice) / tables / seats can also get to be difficult.

See you on 2^nd October 2009…

Regards.Johnson.

Joy of Giving Week at XL

XLRI Campus is buzzing with the "Joy of Giving Week" celebrations... this video-clip summarises the activities of the first couple of days (Sept 27-28):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qntvTbEtZM

Madhukar's photo album: Joy of Giving Week Unveiling Ceremony

Ramaa Ramesh's moving account on facebook

California Alumni Meet 30 Sep

A few of us local Cisco & KLA-Tencor XLers are doing lunch next Wednesday, 9/30, at noon at the Anjappar Chettinad restaurant at the Milpitas end of Tasman drive, at the Ranch Market complex.

http://www.anjapparca.com/index.htm

If you are in the neighbourhood, do join us. Send me an email so we can make the appropriate reservation.

The occasion is to celebrate end of Q1, start of Fall, the 'very likely over'-ness of the recession or whatever else will make you have lunch with fellow XLers :-)

Regards,
Tipu
IR96

We have a nice crowd for tomorrow, with 7 'locals'.

Confirmed:
Charu Madan (IR00)
Aparna Singh (IR00)
Reema Vijay (IR07)
Samba Yarlagadda (BM96)
Tipu Purkayastha (IR96)
Sandra Mahadwar (IR86)
Sandeep Harpalani (BM92)

Will try to make it:
Shailley (IR08)
Ranu Gupta (IR96)
Dinesh Bahal (BM83)
Anurag Chhabra (BM00)

We meet at 12 noon at Anjappara. The address is 458 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035; Tel: 408 435 5500. This is on Barber Ln just as you enter the Ranch Market complex, & a little away from Ranch 99, Mayflower etc. Please be there on time.

They don't take lunch reservations, so last minute additions can always be accomodated.

See you all soon.

Regards,

Tipu

K Muralidhara (88BMD) joins the Board of Altamount

From Samay Live

Mumbai: Altamount Capital Management today announced the joining of Murlalidhara Kadaba on the board of Altamount Capital Management.

Kadaba, have twenty years of corporate experience in senior management positions with organizations such as Reliance Retail Ltd, American Express and Citibank. He will oversee Strategy and Business Development at Altamount Capital Management and will support Altamount's Delhi operations.

Till recent Kadaba served as the President and Chief Executive of the Financial Services vertical at Reliance Retail Ltd. Earlier, he worked for American Express as Country Manager for India and Area Countries, where he launched Amex's consumer banking franchise in India and introduced several successful card products including The Platinum Card. Prior to Amex, he was Vice President and Head of Investment Products at Citibank-India.

Kadaba is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur and a Graduate in Mechanical Engineering from SJCE, Mysore.

About Altamount Capital Management: Altamount Capital Management is the first of its kind Multi Family Office in India. Altamount offers Multi-Family Office services, comparable to international standards, combined with Private Investment Opportunities, offered to a network of ultra wealthy families. While the focus of these families is to build and grow their businesses, a dedicated effort and approach is needed to preserve and grow their wealth locally. Altamount Capital Management was conceived to fill this gap.

The range of services include legacy planning, philanthropy consulting, family corporate governance, private Investment opportunities for direct private investments, direct real estate, cross border opportunities and financing.

Homecoming 2009 (21-22 November, 2009)

frommgjomon1

Dear Friends,

Here is a suggested schedule for the Homecoming -2009. We appreciate your comments and suggestions to make the event in 2009 a grant success. You may kindly place your suggestions in the remarks column and send to Roshan Dastur for firming up the final schedule.

HOMECOMING 2009 (21-22 NOVEMBER, 2009)
SUGGESTED SCHEDULE
November 21, 2009

TIME ACTIVITY REMARKS
10:00-10:30 a.m. Registration (Venue: Learning Centre Foyer)
10:30-11:30 a.m. Presentation by students on Student Initiatives - Parichay, Swalamban, Dream4Others, Goonj Clothes Collection and Other endeavours
11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Campus walk
01:00 - 2:30 p.m. Community Lunch with Board members, Faculty and Students
03:00-4:00 p.m. Presentation on XLRI by the Director
04:00- 4:30 p.m. Tea at MDP Residence
06:00 -7:45 p.m. Cultural program by Alumni and students
08:00 p.m. Diamond Jubilee Inauguration followed by Dinner
10:00 p.m. Alumni meets students over music and dances at JLT


November 22, 2009

Time Activity Remarks
6:00-8:00 p.m. Golf Tournament part I at Beldih Club
8.00 – 9.00am Breakfast hosted by Mr. Rana Sinha
9.00 – 12.00 am Golf Tournament part II at Beldih Club
12.00 - 12.30 pm Price distribution
01:00 p.m. Lunch hosted by Mr. Bushen Raina
Free time for individual catching up.....

XL celeb watch - Diptesh Ghosh, BM '99

Diptesh Ghosh, BM '99, Category head at HP India for Notebook PCs gets interviewed on CNBC's Storyboard program

You can catch him talking about Notebook sales here http://storyboard.in.com/

:-)

Warm regards
Gautam
Blog: http://gauteg.blogspot.com

Campus Update - August 09

Dear Friends,
Here is a quick re-cap of the month of August, 2009.

`JOY OF GIVING' LAUNCH AT XLRI
XLRI launched the `Joy of Giving Week', a nation-wide initiative to create a festival of philanthropy, on August 21, 09. XLRI is spearheading this movement in Jamshedpur from September 27 to October 3, 2009. The idea behind such a launch is to create public awareness and seek partnerships in humanitarian endeavours. To support the nationwide initiative, XLRI has planned various activities across the city to promote the acts of giving for a cause that include mobilizing donations and distribution of 400,000 pieces of clothes. The moving spirit behind this venture is Prof. Madhukar Shukla and SIGMA the student Association.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
XLRI will be launching an Entrepreneurship Development Programme beginning October 12, 2009. This is an initiative of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre set up at XLRI.

SIX-MONTH CERTIFICATE PROGRAMME IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Responding to a specific and emerging need XLRI Jamshedpur in collaboration with Ikisan Hyderabad (a comprehensive Agri Portal promoted by Nagarjuna Group, Hyderabad) initiated a Six-month Certificate Programme in Agri Business Management. This course aims at preparing agricultural graduates for undertaking marketing and sales jobs in the agri-business industry. This unique programme was launched in Hyderabad on July 29, 09 by the Director, Fr. Abraham.

STUDENT NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
Kshitij: CII YI invited 300 under-privileged school students from over 30 schools across Jamshedpur. The idea was to give these students a platform to showcase their talent. The response to the programme was overwhelming with wonderful performances in singing, dancing, painting and Quiz competitions.

New York University's Social Entrepreneurship Conference: An abstract (for a case on NEEV Herbal Soaps) submitted by two of our PMIR 10 batch students, Rashmi Kamath and Mahima, has been selected in the NYU Stern's "6th Annual Satter Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, Nov 4-6, '09.

SPORTSCOM & MAXI organized the first ever Colloseum, a unique concept in which team owners bid for players. The teams and the players would keep on accumulating points throughout the year in various sports events. The four teams Olympians, Spartans, Titans and Vulcans have already declared the war against each other with the first battle being tug-of-war.

FIR@X organized Bullseye, an Industrial Relations quiz on 6th August, which attracted huge participation from both PM&IR junior and senior batches. There were attractive cash prizes to be won. FIR@X also organized a Live Project and speaker session for the students by Mr. Shekhar Arora, ED (HR) of Ashok Leyland.

DRACULA came up with various events during the month which included a Parliamentary Debate club which kicked off its first Debate Contest `Babel'. Apart from that, the Lits League organized Popourri, a combination of games like 20 questions, Dumb Charades etc. and the Quiz League was active with its own event.

CRESCENT presented XPLORE, a treasure hunt which invited enthusiastic performance from students across courses and batches.

SAPPHIRE presented Chaos, an innovative event which was a quiz as well as involved bidding of top quizzers of each team at the end of every round. As the event progressed, it turned out to be more and more chaotic with team sizes and even the composition of teams varying after each round. The event was very well received and appreciated by the students.

ALUMNI NEWS
Asitava Sen (93 BMD): In Mumbai, Nielsen has launched a specialist Business Consulting Services group, which will combine qualitative consulting with fact-based analytic-driven recommendations. The group will be led by Asitava Sen, who joined Nielsen as Director, Retail Consulting last year.

Monisha Tambay (96 pm & IR) has joined Subex Ltd, a leading global provider of Operations and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) as Vice President - Human Resources.
Jayanthi Rajagopalan (95PMIR) featured in Femina, August 12, 2009 for her entrepreneurship initiatives in the area of Tourism.

SAD NEWS

PK Roy: One of our former faculty at XL - Prof PK Roy passed away on July 15th in Kolkata succumbing to a heart-attack.

Preeti Vinayak (01PMIR) passed away on July 31 succumbing to Crohn's disease. Both Prof. Roy and Preeti will be warmly remembered by the XLfamily. May their souls rest in peace!

HOMECOMING REMINDER
We hope you are in the process of finalizing your plans for the annual Homecoming at XLRI scheduled for November 21 and 22, 2009. We eagerly look forward to your participation at this annual event.
Once your travel plans are finalized, please do send a mail to Roshan Dastur

Conversations with Female Contract Workers

These conversations with women contract labours in Jamshedpur were recorded by two XL students (Madhu Bala and Mahima) of the "Intro to Social Entrepreneurship" course @ XLRI during their field visit. These women get 10-15 days of work in a month, mostly at Rs 90-110/day for manual work on construction sites, which may last between 10-15hrs - with no creches, toilets, or drinking water facilities..

The family income varies between Rs 2000-4000 depending upon how many members work. Some had bank accounts, but hardly any savings. The daily struggle to survive would leave them ever-suspended in a present, with hardly any thoughts about their future. But what could be a "hope" is that they shared their assets/ resources with each other in the "basti", were less bothered/bound by "caste", and sent their children to school, as much as they could...

XLRI Students Intern with Social Ventures

From The Telegraph

XLRI pupils to learn on the job

ANTARA BOSE

On course Jamshedpur, Sept. 7: A social entrepreneurship course at XLRI will now come with an internship at a national-level NGO. The B-school has planned to introduce internship in the curriculum of social entrepreneurship, an elective course, from this year after the success of Parichay, a social entrepreneurship programme, last time. “From this year onwards, the curriculum of the course will include an internship programme. The idea is to enable students to know how an organisation functions. Every student will have to complete a project to learn the hiccups in the area,” said Madhukar Shukla, a faculty of social entrepreneurship. About 14 students have already begun their internship in NGOs such as Pravah, Prayas, iDiscoveri in New Delhi; Aarambh in Bhopal; Helen Keller Institute of Deaf, Blind and Dumb, Mumbai; SEWA video in Ahmedabad and a few based in Jamshedpur such as Ujjivan and Kalamandir. The course has also undergone a change from this year. Instead of the one-term course, social entrepreneurship will now become a two-term (six month) one. “The purpose of the internship is to help students gain a first-hand experience of working in a social venture, in a sector of their choice. This learning will also help them to develop their business plans and acumen for latter part of the course,” said Shukla. From this year, students were also made to do a field work that comprised meeting 10-15 hawkers, rickshaw pullers and door-to-door visit to see their lives close quarter. “The visit has been made compulsory because most of our students come from urban middle class and if they want to bring a change, they will have to understand the lives of the downtrodden, their situation and economic condition,” he said. “We may not earn like other management students but will be able to bring about a social change. In order to start a social venture, we need to have a vision and the internship will also make us learn about the hiccups,” said Nidhi Rawal, one of the students of XLRI who is interning at Ujjivan in the city.

Joy of Giving, Jamshedpur - Website launched

Take a look :
http://jamshedpurjoyfest.blogspot.com/

Get inspired.

Donate.

Motivate others to get involved too.

Subex appoints Monisha Tambay (96PMIR) as VP (HR)

From Equity Bulls

Subex appoints Monisha Tambay as Vice President - Human Resources

Bangalore, India - Subex Ltd, a leading global provider of Operations and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) announced the appointment of Monisha Tambay as Vice President - Human Resources. She will be responsible for the global Human Resource function of the company.

Monisha Tambay brings more than 13 years of Human Resource (HR) experience in consulting and operations. She has previously worked with Arthur Andersen Hewitt Associates, StorageTek and Genpact (erstwhile GE company).

Commenting on Monisha's appointment, Sudeesh Yezhuvath, COO, Subex Ltd said, "We are pleased to have Monisha on board. Her experience will prove valuable as we continue to enhance our human resource function to support business growth."

Monisha holds a post graduate degree in management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society for Quality.

The stock was trading at Rs.66.80, down by Rs.0.30 or 0.45%. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.70.40 and low of Rs.66.75.

The total traded quantity was 40050 compared to 2 week average of 56866.

US conclave beckons students - XLRI study on rural women

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, Aug. 27: Students of XLRI are all set to take issues related to rural women and environment to a global platform.

Two students of personnel management and industrial relations — Rashmi Kamath and Mahima — have got a chance to present a case study on the topic “Challenges of scaling and measuring social impact” at the 6th Annual Satter Conference of Social Entrepreneurs organised by Stern School of Business of New York University.

This year’s conference is dedicated to ongoing research on social entrepreneurship.

The abstract of the case study is based on scalability issues of social entrepreneurship. In mid-August, XLRI sent the abstract to the organisers and within a week they received a response. The subject of the study is New Education and Environment Visions (NEEV), a city-based unit that specialises in herbal soap making. NEEV, which started its operation in 2007 as a herbal soap making unit under Khadi and Village Industries Commission, trains rural women of Hurlung village and helps them to be self-sufficient.

“The presentation of the study in the US will bring in more business for us as well as directly help 200 women associated with us,” said Shikha Jain, the director of NEEV.

“We have social entrepreneurship as a paper in our course, so when we came to know about the conclave, we decided to participate. We will focus on the problems faced of a new social venture,” said Mahima.

The conference is scheduled to be held in the first week of November in New York and over 80 entries have poured in from across the globe. The students are looking for sponsors to fund their trip to the US.

Launch of the "Joy of Giving Week"

The Unveiling Ceremony of the "Joy of Giving Week" (Sept 27-Oct 3, '09) was a unique event at XLRI last week. It which brought together the entire Jamshedpur community - the corporates, schools and colleges, NGOs and voluntary organisations, local press, XLRI's students, faculty and staff... - all for a common cause, which everyone felt excited about.

This commitment and excitement is pulpable from the following video-clips..

Fr E Abraham, S.J., Director XLRI - Welcome Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFZJx5CNINI

Mr AD Baijal, Group Director (Global Minerals), Tata Steel - Inaugural Address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJBwHLdWtpw

Mr Imtiaz Ali, Film Director and Brand Ambassador of "Joy of Giving Week" - Remarks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNqhjEgCsGQ

Mr Anshu Gupta, Founder Director, GOONJ on "Vastra Samman" initiative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bOZyE9nvJ8

Mr Rana Sinha, Managing Director, Telcon
& President, XLRI Alumni Association, Jamshedpur Chapter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y4eumcEhCg

Sr Flavian AC, Principal, Carmel Junior College, Jamshedpur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av4UQ0A3Pgg

Mr Amitava Ghosh, Secretary, Kala Mandir, Jamshedpur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwP5y3ySNM4

Prehaps, the most overwhelming part of the event was when one-by-one, people from the audience stood up and owned "their space" in the Joy of Giving Week...

Expressions of support from the Jamshedpur Community

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9C-xW64LKg

--
Posted By The Theme to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and Latest Updates at 8/28/2009 01:45:00 PM

XLRI - Joy of Giving Week - in the news

XLRI's Initiative for Joy of Giving Week is in the news.

Check out the coverage on India Infoline and The Financial Express

Sandhya Krishna (IR07) Theatrical Play premiering in the Us

Dear Fellow XLers,

About 4 months ago I started my own theatre group in Pittsburgh called Blue Mango. When recession hit my 5 month old job, I decided to take my hobby and realise one of my crazy dreams. Blue Mango is Pittsburgh's first theatre group that is committed to non-traditional and color-blind casting. Our first production, to be staged next week, is an Indian play that has actors from 3 different ethnicities. I am directing this play which is set in 1940s Kerala and is quite a delightful comedy ( if I may say so!).

Obviously, you are all cordially invited for the play. If you have any friends or family who live around the area please do forward this email to them. All details about the group and the play can be found below and at our website www.bluemango.us.

Thanks for supporting us!

Sandhya

PMIR 05-07

Please click on 'Display Images below' if you are unable to view the poster below.

Blue Mango welcomes you to their first production 'Moonshine and SkyToffee' at the New Hazlett Theater this August. The play is a delightful comedy from India and features a multi-ethnic cast.

Showtimes: Aug 28th -Friday-7pm | Aug 29th-Saturday-7pm | Aug 30th-Sunday-2pm

Tickets can be purchased online at www.bluemango.us or call 1-888-71-TICKETS

Invitation: XLRI's Intiative for "Joy of Giving Week"...21st Aug - Unveiling Ceremony

From Prof. Shukla:

Hello folks!

I am writing this mail to invite you for the Unveiling/Launch Ceremony of the Joy of Giving Week ( http://www.joyforgivingweek.org) @ Jamshedpur, which XLRI is planning to celebrate, participate in and anchor across Jamshedpur during Sept 27th- Oct 3rd, 2009.

As some of you may be aware, the Joy of Giving Week is a unique event - or movement, one can say - which will be celebrated across the country - and has received wide support from

- celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar, Nandita Bose, Farah Khan, AR Rahman, etc.

- corporates like Google, Apollo Hospitals, Taj Group, etc.,

- business leaders like Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, Adi Godrej etc.,

- organisations ranging from Mumbai Dabbawalla to Chennai Auto Union etc.

- govt bodies such as Delhi Govt, AP Tourism, etc...

The purpose of this nation-wide initiative is to create a "Festival of Philanthropy", and to encourage the spirit of volunteerism, that can, over the years, become a part of the Indian ethos, with the event being celebrated every year covering Gandhi Jayanti.

According to one news item in Indian Express (http://tinyurl.com/JGW-2croreIndians) 2 crore Indians are going to be part of this event... and naturally, XL has to take a lead to facilitate this for Jampot.

To share our plans and to seek your support - and your endorsement/inputs - we are organising the Unveiling Ceremony for the event on August 21st (Friday), 6:00pm at XLRI (Fr Prabhu Hall, Learning Center).

Besides the CEOs of local companies, Principals of schools and colleges, NGO bodies, our own students and faculty, etc., two people who will be participating in this ceremony are:

1. Film director, Mr Imtiaz Ali (of Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal fame), and who is also one of the Brand Ambassadors for the Joy of Giving Week)

2. Ashoka Fellow Mr Anshu Gupta (Founder Director of Goonj - http://www.goonj.info/). Anshu was also one of the winners of CNN--IBN Real Heros Award earlier this year - and as you may perhaps know, XLRI has a partnership with Goonj to run a Cothes Bank at XLRI.

It would be great to have you with us, when we launch/unveil this initiative - as our minor contribution to this event/movement from XLRI. Needless to say, we will need all the help from XL alumni to "make it happen"!!

ciao

madhukar

XLRI to launch agri biz mgmt course with Ikisan

From The Financial Express

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources and Hyderabad-based Ikisan Ltd is launching a six-month certificate programme in agri business management in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

It's in the form of an ‘agri portal’, promoted by the Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, thus extending management education online to the agricultural sector.

The online certificate programme in agri business management, whose first session commences from the last week of August 2009, aims at equipping agricultural graduates and agri-business field assistants in undertaking marketing and sales jobs in the agri-business sector.

Speaking to FE from Hyderabad on Tuesday, XLRI dean Prof P Venugopal said the B-School was looking forward to enrolling around 100 students from all over the country for the first batch, through an academic merit-cum-interview process. The course fee has been kept at Rs 45,000.

Some of the B-School’s existing faculty along with some agri industry experts have been involved in designing the course, which would have a compulsory industry visit, the XLRI dean said.

Although IIM, Ahmedabad runs a two-year full time management course for the agriculture sector, none of the leading B-Schools today have a short duration management course for the sector.

XLRI grads getting pre-placement offers despite economic downturn

From The Economic Times

XLRI Jamshedpur’s 2008-10 batch is already witnessing good pre-placement offers (PPOs) and pre-placement interviews (PPIs) despite the overall downturn in the economy. About 10% of the Class of 2010 has already received such offers, primarily from the FMCG and general management sectors.

The leading organisations that have made these offers include Hindustan Unilever, TAS, Aditya Birla group, L&T and The Times Group.

XLRI School of Business and Human Resources director Fr E Abraham, S J, said: "We are expecting more offers to come in from the financial and consulting sectors apart from the other ones during August and September 2009 as hiring decisions are finalised by most of the companies during the second quarter. With improved signs of recovery in the economy, after good Q1 results, students are hopeful of better placements and internships in the year ahead."

This year, XLRI’s Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (PMIR) has seen the size of the batch doubling as against 60 last year. The batch size of XLRI has gone up to 240 this year including 120 students from the Business Management (BM) programme.

Deep Condolences : Preeti Vinayak (2001)

It seems that Preeti Vinayak of the 2001 batch just passed away a couple of days ago from a prolonged illness.

We pray for her soul and for strength to her family to help them through this time.

God bless you, Preeti.

Xl News - July 2009

From Prof. M G Jomon - Alumni Co-ordinator.

Dear Friends,
It is a privilege to reach out to you once again through the Newsletter of July 2009.
INDUCTING THE YOUNG XLers:
With the objective of welcoming new members to the XL family, a number of induction activities like sports festival, informal get together, formal sessions etc. were organized. Two events that deserve special mentioning are: The village exposure programme of life in rural India and the Adventure Programme. The objective of the village exposure programme was to sensitise students to conditions prevailing in villages and highlight their future role as managers of corporate India towards corporate social responsibility. The freshers were also part of the Adventure Programme which is aimed at enhancing team building and leadership skills.

GRADUATION CEREMONY OF DEFENCE OFFICERS :
Warriors donned the XLRI graduating gown instead of the service uniform for the fifth graduation ceremony of the executive management programme for defence officers on July 18, 2009. This year, 49 officers from armed forces graduated, 43 from the army, four from Air Force and two from the Navy. Saroj Vinayak, the Director-general of ordnance factories and chairman of Ordnance Factory Board, Calcutta, was the chief guest at the function. XLRI launched the Certificate Programme in Business Management for Defence Personnel on January 14, 2007. The programme for defence officers was launched at the request of the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, who perceived the need for "resettlement" of the officers.

XLRI LEADERSHIP MEET FOR MEDICAL OFFICERS:
XLRI conducted a ten-day Leadership Development Programme on Reproductive Health starting from June 22. Participants in this programme were Doctors and officers from Jharkhand and Bihar working in the health sector. The objective of the programme was to build the capacity to lead and meet the millennium goal of development in the reproductive and health sector. This programme was conducted by XLRI in collaboration with The David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

XLRI VENTURES IN NEWS:
Parichay - a social venture supported by The XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust, put up its first Product Exhibition just 9 months after the inauguration of the Parichay Learning & Design Center in October 2008. Parichay was started by students from the 2007-09 batch and is an initiative aimed at bringing a sustainable change in the lives of the rural and tribal artisans by contemporizing their design, training them and connecting them to the market.

XLRI IKISAN PROGRAM: XLRI along with Ikisan Hyderabad (a comprehensive Agri Portal promoted by Nagarjuna Group, Hyderabad) is strengthening its commitment to its vision by extending management education to the agricultural sector through a unique "Six-month Certificate Programme in Agri Business Management" to prepare agricultural graduates and agri-business field assistants for undertaking marketing and sales jobs in the agri-business industry.

STUDENT'S ACTIVITIES
Ratanjee 2009-10: Ratanjee 2009-10 brought out the sporting best in the current student batches. A keenly contested contest thus ensued on campus for a period of three days and the whole campus was immersed in the sporting spirit.

Consulting Club-C3: Crescent Consulting Club or C3 was launched with an aim to develop and increase the understanding of consulting works. The inauguration of the club was held on July 9th with a session by Mr. Joe Simon, CIO Viacom International (New York) on "Life as a Consultant". Mr. Simon provided the students with valuable insights by sharing his experiences as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. Mr. Joe Simon, a 1983 batch alumnus of XLRI, is the Chief Information Officer for Viacom International.

SAPPHIRE Blog: Sapphire launched its blog at xlrisapphire.wordpress.com and has started off on a great note with posts by Gautam Ghosh , Abhijit Bhaduri , Dr. Mathai Fenn and Prof Madhukar Shukla along with students on campus. There are lots more planned for the blog with new pages and online contests!

ALUMNI IN NEWS:
Cyclone Aila: Alumni of XLRI and ISB joined hands to support those ravaged by Cyclone Aila recently in the world's largest mangrove forests of the Sundarbans. Tushar Dutta (BMD 07) took the initiative along with several other alumni of both B-schools to help out to villages devastated in one of the worst affected areas of Gosaba block of the Rangabelia panchayat in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. Tushar, XLRI is proud of you!
Social entrepreneurship: XLRI Alumni along with Samekti Jan Vikas Kendra (SJVK) to provide sustainable source of income to the tribal women artisans of Kolhan region. The alumni, through their social entrepreneurship venture, Parichay, would be using services of designers to train the rural women in terra-cotta, bamboo and handloom items using natural products. They will also assist the artisans in marketing the products.
They make us proud: Preeti Reddy (82BMD) was appointed the head of the Kantar-owned Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB). Surojit Shome (86 BMD) joins Rabo India Finance Limited as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer. Suman Bose was appointed as Vice-President and Managing Director by Siemens PLM Software for its Indian operations. Asitava Sen (93 BMD) will join Nielsen Consulting's specialist Business Consulting Services group.

REUNION REMINDERS
Homecoming: We eagerly await your participation in the Homecoming 2009 scheduled for November 21st and 22nd. Institute has started the preparations in earnest.
Silver Jubilee Celebrations (December 21-23): The 1984 batch meets regularly on line and are charting out the plans to makes the event a memorable one.

XLRI logs in for farm crash course - Six-month online certificate programme being launched in association with Hyderabad-based Ikisan

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, July 28: After business management courses, XLRI is ready to enter the field of online agriculture.

The premier B-school is collaborating with Hyderabad-based Ikisan, a web agriculture portal promoted by Nagarjuna Group, to run a six-month online certificate programme in agri-business management.

The objective of the course, which will be launched in Hyderabad tomorrow, is to prepare graduates and postgraduates for marketing and sales roles in the agriculture sector.

“Not core agriculture studies but agriculture management is what we are offering to students. XLRI has successfully formulated the programme, which will be yet another way of online learning for those interested in the marketing, management and agriculture. This venture was in the XLRI’s agenda for quite sometime,” said P. Venugopal, dean (academics) of XLRI, who is in Hyderabad to launch the course.

The agri-business management will be on an online self-learning course. Registered students can download study material from the Ikisan website. However, students will be free to interact with the XLRI faculty through e-mails or other means. Students will have to avail online tests on the Ikisan website.

XLRI will also organise industrial visits for more exposure.

Students who are pursuing their final-year bachelors or masters degree in agriculture or are in allied sectors will be eligible for the programme. Freshers would need to have at least two years experience in agri-business for being eligible to apply.

Registrations will be open twice during an academic year — in August and January. The course fee will be Rs 45,000 per student.

“We are trying to run the programme for about 100 students. The special feature of the programme is stress on self-learning but students can also call up the faculty for clarifications,” said Venugopal.

Among other institutes that offer such programmes are the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Institute of Rural Management, Anand. IIMA conducts a postgraduate agro-business management programme that prepares students for a career in enterprises related to agriculture and allied sectors. IRMA also offers a two-year postgraduate programme in rural management, divided into classroom studies, fieldwork, organisational and management traineeship.

At XLRI - We Also Teach Management

Mad Shuks posted this today on his facebook page and I'm reposting it here to a broader audience (just in case you haven't signed up to facebook yet)

[NOTE: I had written this about 3-4 years back, and discovered it today while doing some housekeeping on my laptop... have made some changes {in Italics}to "contemporise" it - but the gist remain the same... Considering that of the 767 in my FB contacts/friends, there would be at least about 700 XLers from different batches, I thought this may be worth sharing:)
... besides, of course, the FB interface allows one to link people one is talking about:0) ]

We Also Teach Management

1998-99 was the year, when I got – I realized in retrospect – “alumnized”… a term I coined to describe an experiential state of being which is perhaps as impossible to define, as giving a “definition” of “what is sweet” (or, perhaps more appropriately, a definition of “what is heady” :0)

It started as an innocuous co-administrative assignment to be the Alumni Coordinator. And unknowingly, I walked into the unchartered territories of a unique denizen, that will get me involved with a kaleidoscope of people and personalities… Over the years, both through official and unofficial interactions (realizing in the meanwhile, that there is nothing “official” about this species), I came to know many of this breed, and gathered a number of “anthropological” insights about XLRI as an institution, and about the community of alumni it nurtures.

The first learning was that, like most MBAs, this is a nomadic crowd. In the first few months, I hit upon an unsettling insight: with 5000+ alumn (at that time)i, if on an average, one XLer relocates once every three years, it worked out to about 4-5 xlers shifting every day!!!

This revelation sort of threw the spanner in the works, as far as the pursuit of the holy grail of a centralized alumni database was concerned. Over time, it led to creation of an online network of XLers worldwide… but, OK, that is a different story… some other time….

The second thing I observed was that, in living reality, there was nothing like year-wise batches of alumni. Rather, one was dealing with a pretty close-knit community, in which relationships cut across batches, hierarchies, geographies – and decades. It seemed mysterious, but perhaps the XLers can smell each other out. It must be due to some very strong “genetic code” – whether attitude, jargon, affiliations, body odor, mannerisms, some code-word or whatever – but they connected well – would reach out to each other - even if they had never met earlier. More so, if there was a “cause” to connect around. The cause could be anything: finding a PG accommodation for the daughter of an XLer one had never met, arranging for Fr McGrath’s residence permit, or pitching in to organize relief work for Tsunami victims.

But perhaps most important insight for me was about the diversity of fauna which XL produces. Like any B-school of stature and standing, XL has its own share of CEOs and senior level professionals in the corporate India and abroad who excel as managers & CEOs. There are also a reasonable number of XLers who are successful entrepreneurs, are in the civil services as secretaries, toppers, and political advisors, or hold senior level assignments in UN, World Bank, NYSE, etc.

But where else, except from XL, would one find this mixed assortment of B-School graduates, such as:

a mega TV/film star of tamil screen, who from the beginning, “positioned” himself in the “niche” role of the “father”, since that has a “longest product life”.

a management consultant, who mobilized the local communities to conserve the medicinal plants in Himalayas, and was awarded the prestigious Whitley Conservation Award by the Royal Geographical Society for her work.

An auto-journalist, who makes his living by test-riding two-wheelers, rode through Sahara on a scooter, and finally authored “The Penguin Guide to Two-Wheelers”...

the founder of the Glass and Ceramic Society of India, who is invited to conduct workshops on glass artwork in Europe and USA, restored the stain glass windows of St Michael’s Cathedral in Simla, and was invited by French government to restore the stained glass windows on the 12th century church in Troyes.

the activist who organized the 24,000 strong New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance (and the ’98 taxi strike in NYC), who besides teaching in a US university, fights for the rights of the immigrant community representing 80 ethnicities.

the finance graduate, who, after 12 years of corporate life, decided to move into composing jingles for ads, and then to composing and directing film music – and won the National Award for best music for his first film, Nammavar… sad that he had to leave so early…

the founder-CEO of an HR consulting company, who also got the Eisenhower Award for his continuing work with children of Sivakasi

the group of four, who chucked their jobs in blue-chip companies after a year, to do what they loved doing – out-door trekking… and created a profession around it… they diversified and followed their own paths... but did culminated in one XLer among 50 Leaders Re-Shaping Indian Education

the custom officer in the film “Saransh” who also wrote Filmfare Award winning screenplays, besides heading a Rs300cr television content company

an Ashoka Fellow, who left her lucrative job in financial services to create the “Pravah” of 200 like-minded volunteers, who sensitize youngsters to the societal issues through citizenship education

… the list and tradition goes on… a current senior batch student explores her options to join an NGO, and a junior batch guy opts to do his summer internship with a not-for-profit organization…
(more recently - since I wrote this, I find that even in the recent batches, there are XLers leaving their blue-chip jobs to venture into their dreams - education, healthcare and music!!.)

Surely, I have (happily) realised - XL does not merely produce corporate clones… I am not sure, but my hunch is that in the founding document of the institute, there must have been a statement:

We Also Teach Management.

***

Asitava Sen (93 batch) to lead Neilsen's Biz Consulting practice

From Economic Times

MUMBAI: Global information and media company, Nielsen, on Wednesday announced the launch of a specialist Business Consulting Services group in India.

The Nielsen Business Consulting Services will combine qualitative, high-value business consulting with fact-based analytic-driven recommendations to help clients identify and optimise existing and new growth opportunities that drive revenue and profit, a press release issued here said.

This dedicated group will integrate Nielsen's current services and develop new solutions to address strategic business issues in sales, marketing and innovation.

"Business Consulting Service experts will leverage Nielsen's existing capabilities to deliver thought leadership to our clients, and partner with them on critical strategic issues," the Nielsen Company South Asia's Managing Director, Partha Rakshit, said.

In India, the group will be led by Asitava Sen, who has over 18 years of experience in management consulting in consumer and retail industries, the release said.

31 Jul - Bangalore - The Economic Meltdown - Is the Worst Over for India?

Hi,

For those of you who missed the excellent Happy Hours with Prof P C Narayan of IIMB (BM-75) on Oct '08, we have another one with him this Friday.

PC Narayan gives us a talk on "The Economic Meltdown - Is the Worst Over for India?"
Details:
- 7:00 PM, Friday, July 31, 2009
- KGA, Old Airport Road
- Car parking: Adequate parking available at the club
- Cover charges: Rs 150 per head
- This includes dinner & soft drinks. Drinks are Rs 50 each.
- Adult guests are allowed


About P C Narayan:
P C Narayan is a faculty member in the Finance & Control Area, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).

Narayan holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirapalli and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at IFAP Rome, Italy.

Prior to joining IIMB, he was with (a) a private sector bank in India with management responsibility for retail banking, operations and information technology, (b) a multinational bank for several years based overseas and (c) a global banking technology company also based overseas.

Apart from teaching courses in corporate finance, international banking and financial markets at IIMB, Narayan has been conducting seminars/workshops and undertaken consulting engagements with several organisations in India and abroad. His list of present and past clients include Union Bank of India, UCO Bank, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), BBK (Bahrain), DBS Bank (Singapore), as well as leading information technology companies in the banking and finance domain.

Having travelled to over 40 countries, and worked or implemented projects in 20 different countries, he brings a unique cross-cultural perspective and a breadth of global experience.

Preeti Reddy new Head at LMRB

From MRWeb.com

Change at the Top for Sri Lanka’s LMRB

July 20 2009

Preeti Reddy will replace Tissa de Alwis at the head of the Kantar-owned Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) at the end of July. Reddy, a native of Bangalore, worked in India as a VP at management consultants Technopak for the last three years, and prior to this was a Senior Vice President at TNS from April 1995 to April 2005. She holds an MBA from XLRI in Jamshedpur and a BA Honours in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College. De Alwis steps down from his Managing Director role after 25 years at the company and 20 in a leadership role, according to www.sundaytimes.lk . He joined as a Project Director after a short spell at JWT Sri Lanka, and in October 1989 became the first Sri Lankan to be appointed as the head of LMRB, which was then part of UK-based MRB Group, later acquired by WPP. A graduate of the UK’s CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing), de Alwis holds an MBA from PIM, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, and was elected as the President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) for 95/96. Established in 1981, LMRB is online at www.lmrbint.com .

Soldiers turn grads at XLRI

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, July 18: Warriors donned the gown and cap instead of their military uniform for the fifth graduation ceremony of the executive management programme for defence officers at XLRI’s Father Prabhu Hall today.

This year, 49 officers from armed forces graduated from here — 43 from the army, four from the Indian Air Force and two from the Indian Navy. XLRI launched the certificate programme in business management for defence personnel in 2007 at the request of the Union ministry of human resource development who perceived the need to resettle servicemen. The programme was designed in association with the directorate-general of resettlement, ministry of defence, for officers seeking a career in the corporate world. The event was designed keeping in mind the needs of the business world with the aspirations of the service officers.

Saroj Vinayak, the director-general of ordnance factories and chairman of Ordnance Factory Board, Calcutta, was the chief guest at the function. She presented certificates to those who successfully completed the course.

Vinayak encouraged the students to take on the challenges of the corporate world. “The present corporate atmosphere offers a number of complex challenges for students. Dedication, hard work, sincere efforts and courage are essential sills for overcoming the challenges,” she added.

Vinayak urged students to pay heed to their inner voice while taking important decisions in life. “The inner voice of a person helps him take crucial decisions,” said Vinayak.

Institute officials pointed out that they got officers from distinctive educational backgrounds — engineering, medicine, management, commerce, architecture, basic sciences and arts — with experience ranging from six to 34 years.

The six-month programme equips participants with basic concepts and skills of all functional areas of management along with an area of specialisation, thus enabling them to find a career in the corporate world. During the course, for which enrolment began on February 2, students took part in quiz contests and undertook various assignments.

“The corporate sector has expressed keen interest in batches comprising a good blend of officers who are set to face challenges. Our course allows a smooth transition and re-orientation for officers towards a life and career as business managers and entrepreneurs,” said E. Abraham, the director of XLRI.

Invite from Vikas Sharma (09BMD) - Parichay's 1st product exhibition

Dear friends,

I am very happy to communicate this invitation from our very own social entreprenur, Vikas Sharma (XL Alumnus of 09BMD), Co-Founder & Partner, Parichay, for their 1st product exhibition on July 19th (Sunday) @ United Club, Jamshedpur.

Parichay, as you may be aware, is a social venture, which got its angel funding from the XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust.

This is the first public display of their work, and your presence/visit will not only be an encouragement to Vikas, but to his entire team of artisans and designers. It would be really great if you can find time to find time and visit the exhibition on Sunday.

ciao

madhukar

Respected Guest

I cordially invite you to the1^st product exhibition of Parichay, “Roopantar – The Change”.

Event Details:

· Exhibition: “Roopantar – The Change”

· Venue: United Club, Diwan–e–Khaas hall

· Date: 19^th July 2009, Sunday

· Inauguration at 11.00 am

· Chief guest: Mrs. Nerurkar

· Exhibition timing: 11.30 am to 2.00 pm & 3.30 pm to 10 pm

· Launch of Parichay’s New Logo: 5:30pm

We will be displaying three categories of our product range:

· Home décor

· Corporate

· Table top accessories

These are products completed made by our local rural/tribal artisans. This is our first attempt to showcase the change we can and we will bring in the eco-system of artisans and craftsmanship in India.

Our designers Richa Nigam and Micheal Lakra from NIFT, Delhi have designed some innovative products in just one month of their project with us. They have worked with natural raw material like bamboo, stone, sawai grass, colors and leather.

We have achieved this significant milestone in about 9 months since we started in Oct 2008. We have grand plans for the future and we wish to seek your critical inputs to make sure we proceed in the right direction with the right objectives.

We look forward to your kind presence to grace the occasion and support our artisans in the change we wish to create.

Your support and presence will encourage us to take our initiative further.

Warm Regards

Vikas Sharma

Co-founder & Partner

Parichay