XLRI ushers in job creators, batch 2

From The Telegraph

Father E Abraham and MJ Xavier in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, June 1: XLRI today inducted another group of aspiring entrepreneurs into its fold.

The premier B-school’s entrepreneurship development centre (EDC) on XLRI campus inaugurated its second batch of postgraduate programme for certificate in entrepreneurship management (PGP-CEM), with 53 students, three up from the first batch. 

The inductees also got a chance to interact with M.J. Xavier, director, IIM-Ranchi, who was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony.

Also present were XLRI director Father E. Abraham, dean (academics) Pranabesh Ray, dean (administration and finance) Father C.L. George, and EDC chairperson Prabal K. Sen.

This year, the entrepreneurship course has two new subjects — advertising and market research — based on feedback from the first batch. Many students had said these were a crucial part of any 21st century enterprise.

“Advertising is vital for an entrepreneur. A good advertising strategy means that a company has an edge over the others in the same segment. Market research, on the other hand, helps one to find the opportunities that need to be tapped and how,” said Sen.

Unlike last year, projects will be formulated only under the guidance of a faculty member instead of an organisation.

The new students, chosen out of 300 applicants, have come from across the country. They have diverse backgrounds such as management, law and others, but a single aim of being job creators instead of seekers.

It’s for them that the B-school started the entrepreneurship course.

“The programme will help nurture young and dynamic job creators,” said Father Abraham.

And going by the performance of the first batch, a fair start has been made. Around 60 per cent of the students already have their own start-ups.

Sen added that the state government had given a Rs 2-crore grant to develop EDC infrastructure. Hopefully by next year, the PGP-CEM will be a residential programme, if a dedicated building comes up on XITE (Xavier Institute of Technical Education) campus, Gamharia.

Classes will start from tomorrow.

Interestingly, 16 of the new entrants are already self-employed. 

But as Xavier said: “Students enrolled in the PGP-CEM course must feel lucky because as soon as you enter the XLRI campus, your market value increases.”