Village goes digital, courtesy XLRI

From The Telegraph

XLRI student Himanshu Singh with village pradhan Manu Singh Sardar on Sunday. (Bhola Prasad)

Seventy-year-old Manu Singh Sardar had a dream for his village Janumdih in Potka block of East Singhbhum. It came true on Sunday for village boys like Rohit Sardar, an eighth grader, with a digital twist.

Manu Singh, who dropped out of school in Class VIII but went on to become a Mundari poet and village pradhan, always wanted a library for Janumdih.

XLRI students and NGO Kalamandir fulfilled the elderly man’s vision with some 21st century extras thrown in.

While Kalamandir constructed the library near its grass-mat training and weaving centre, XLRI students collected the lion’s share of the 500 books in Hindi, English and Bengali. XLRI students also donated a computer with Internet connection and a webcam to the library that Manu Singh inaugurated on Sunday.

So if Rohit and his friends were excited about Aesop’s fables, Champak, Tintin and Tinkle comics as well as textbooks, they were completely in awe of the Internet. “I know about www dot com and Google,” smiled Rohit, pronouncing each word carefully.

His school, Mutkeshwardham High School, Harina, doesn’t even have a library.

The general management programme students of XLRI who did most of the project’s legwork sounded moved with the digital gateway.

“This was a social project for our group of 10 students, a part of the course where we take up a sustainable social project and implement it. Though it is a part of our curriculum, it gives us pleasure to see villagers happy. If they use the Net and read books, they can achieve so much,” said Himanshu Singh, part of Team XLRI.

He and other students — Deepak Suri, Devesh Thakur, Gaurav Sharma, Mayank Gupta, Ravjit Kokardekar, Mandar Buddhikot, Tanveer Anwar and Paul Jacob — went around telling villagers about books and Internet. 

A computer-trained local youth, Satyajit Barui, will maintain the system. Villagers can learn to browse the Net and chat on the web with anybody, even the district administration if needed. “We will convert this hub into a full-fledged computer system and shift the library to a bigger area. We will also appoint a librarian,” said Monica Bhatia, Kalamandir co-ordinator.

The Telegraph asked Rohit what he would search on the Net.

 “America!” he grinned.

Child artists jazz up XLRI show

From The Telegraph

A student lets her imagination flow on the canvas during the painting competition that was organised by budding managers of XLRIon Sunday. Pictures by Bhola Prasad

XLRI is truly thinking “beyond conventions”. 

The premier management cradle has come up with a unique idea of tapping the artistic skills of school students for its popular annual event, Ensemble 2012 — an inter-B-school competition involving games and quiz. 

On Sunday, it organised a drawing competition for about 150 students of Loyola School and St Mary’s English High School. The best paintings will be made into a collage and used on the publicity posters for Ensemble scheduled in the second week of November. As such, the participants — from classes IV to VIII — were required to paint anything out of the box in keeping with Ensemble’s theme, Beyond Conventions. 

“Last year’s theme was Bridging the Gap while this year, it’s Beyond Conventions, which is why we decided to do something offbeat and involve schoolchildren in our first-of-its-kind initiative,” said Pratyush Raj, senior executive member, Exlink, XLRI. 

He added that the painting contest gave students a platform to think beyond routine and paint their unique imaginations. “For us, it was the perfect way to involve the community,” Pratyush said. 

A winner was chosen from each class and presented with a certificate and trophy. 

“As of now, the plan is to use these paintings in a collage and send it to various B-schools of the country as promotion posters. This way, the paintings will also find an audience. We asked the participating students to be as unique as possible,” said Anusheel Shrivastava, secretary of Exlink, XLRI. 

Pratyush further said that the practice of involving school students was also part of an initiative to honour the new tagline of XLRI — “for the greater good”. The B-school launched its new logo in Calcutta last week.

Institutes from across the country participate in Ensemble. This year, it promises to go a step further and seeks to inspire and invigorate the minds of leaders of tomorrow to think out of the box. 

The events on cards are from diverse like marketing strategy, business strategy, game theory, competition based on banking sector cases and general quiz. A panel discussion will also be held .

Feeling low? Talk to your XLRI buddy

- Empathy, not ‘gyan’, sets apart B-school project for troubled teens with activities to beat the blues

From The Telegraph



XLRI students during a session under Samarthya at Motilal Nehru Public School in Jamshedpur earlier this week

Students of XLRI have been there, done that. They know how vulnerable teenagers are when bouts of depression and low self-esteem hit them.

Though they are seen as corporate honchos in the making, they are making sure they have time for troubled teens between 15 and 18 with a project called Samarthya — The Human Potential Centre.

Launched on July 23, the project, if it catches on, can be a boon for Jamshedpur that is grappling with student suicide. After all, those between 15 and 18 years go through two board exams, pressure to excel in academics and crack entrance exams, campus love, heartbreak and increasingly, body image issues where pimples and obesity are major triggers for depression.

Samarthya aims to help older students at school discover their potential, control emotions and share thoughts with someone who understands.

A group of around 10 students from Business Management (BM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) are already taking sessions with the teens. The first took place at Motilal Nehru Public School (MNPS).

Teenagers fearing the dreaded G-word — gyan — or preaching will be pleasantly surprised.

“It is not counselling. We don’t sit with students and solve their problems. It is beyond that. We take sessions on emotions and try to help them deal with them. Each session is dedicated to one emotion and we conduct activities on it,” said Smriti Khanna, a second-year HRM student and part of Samarthya.

A session on anger, for instance, will start by letting students vent out on paper, asking them to write down their impulses when they feel furious. Then comes a lively discussion on how to get out of this negative emotion.

“The teens don’t want gyan. We help them to know themselves through experiential learning and discover what lies within. At times they also ask questions on how to behave in a given situation. We share a lot,” said Smriti.

“It is a great initiative on the part of XLRI students to reach out to the school-going youths of the city to help them understand the purpose and meaning of a happy life,” said I.S.F. Irudayaraj, a senior faculty member of the B-school who conceptualised the programme.

Samarthya has an ambitious year-end goal of reaching out to 700 students, rolling out the programme in many schools. It also wants dedicated members for each class to ensure continuity and create a sort of buddy system.

Principal of Motilal Nehru Public School Ashu Tiwary sounded happy with the programme. “Students gel well with these bright B-school students as the age difference isn’t much, so they open up. It will help them keep negative thoughts at bay,” she said.

Samarthya ' The Human Potential Centre, under the guidance of Prof. I.S.F. Irudayaraj.

From Yahoo News

Students of XLRI have been there, done that. They know how vulnerable teenagers are when bouts of depression and low self-esteem hit them.

Though they are seen as corporate honchos in the making, they are making sure they have time for troubled teens between 15 and 18 with a project called Samarthya ' The Human Potential Centre.

Launched on July 23, the project, if it catches on, can be a boon for Jamshedpur that is grappling with student suicide. After all, those between 15 and 18 years go through two board exams, pressure to excel in academics and crack entrance exams, campus love, heartbreak and increasingly, body image issues where pimples and obesity are major triggers for depression.

Samarthya aims to help older students at school discover their potential, control emotions and share thoughts with someone who understands.

A group of around 10 students from Business Management (BM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) are already taking sessions with the teens. The first took place at Motilal Nehru Public School (MNPS).

Teenagers fearing the dreaded G-word ' gyan ' or preaching will be pleasantly surprised.

"It is not counselling. We don't sit with students and solve their problems. It is beyond that. We take sessions on emotions and try to help them deal with them. Each session is dedicated to one emotion and we conduct activities on it," said Smriti Khanna, a second-year HRM student and part of Samarthya.

A session on anger, for instance, will start by letting students vent out on paper, asking them to write down their impulses when they feel furious. Then comes a lively discussion on how to get out of this negative emotion.

"The teens don't want gyan. We help them to know themselves through experiential learning and discover what lies within. At times they also ask questions on how to behave in a given situation. We share a lot," said Smriti.

"It is a great initiative on the part of XLRI students to reach out to the school-going youths of the city to help them understand the purpose and meaning of a happy life," said I.S.F. Irudayaraj, a senior faculty member of the B-school who conceptualised the programme.

Samarthya has an ambitious year-end goal of reaching out to 700 students, rolling out the programme in many schools. It also wants dedicated members for each class to ensure continuity and create a sort of buddy system.

Principal of Motilal Nehru Public School Ashu Tiwary sounded happy with the programme. "Students gel well with these bright B-school students as the age difference isn't much, so they open up. It will help them keep negative thoughts at bay," she said.

500 turn up for Jamshedpur Run organised by XLRI

From The Times of India:


JAMSHEDPUR: Jamshedpur Run, organized by XLRI, was a success with more than 500 people turning up on a cloudy Sunday morning to participate in the annual event, which has grown in popularity since it was introduced four years back.

The enthusiasm in the air was palpable in the institute's football ground since early morning as students, schoolkids, athletes as well as professors and executives converged on the field, ready to have a shot at the winner's trophy.

The marathon was held in two legs - a 10km version for athletes and running enthusiasts and a 5km version for others who might not be as skilled. Arjun Toda came first in the 5km men's category while Jai Prakash won the 10 km event.

In the women's section, Madhubala, a doctoral student at XLRI, won the 5km race.

All the winners were awarded cash prizes and mementos. The prize distribution ceremony was attended by faculty coordinator MG Jomon who congratulated all the participants for their spirit and tenacity.

Sanjeev Varshney, faculty of marketing at XLRI, received a special award for being the first among faculty members to finish the race.

The mood was aptly captured by official marathon theme which invited the residents of this city to "run for your dreams".

The run concluded with XLRI planning to organize a bigger and better version of the event next year. It also plans to work with all members of the community to uphold the ideals of social harmony and youth empowerment in the society.

Vlahalla 2012

Valhalla 2012 ended yesterday. The winner of the sports events...
Basketball (M)-XLRI
Basketball (W)-XLRI
Swimming- XLRI
Throwball- XLRI/IIMC
Volleyball (W)- XLRI/IIMC
Volleyball (M)- IIM Raipur
Athletics- XIMB
Table Tennis- XIMB
Badminton- SIBM
Football-SIBM

The finals of Throwball and Volleyball (W) was washed out and hence XLRI and IIMC were joint winners

XLRI-XITE coaching initiative for SC/ST students to enable admission without reservation

From PagalGuy.com

First batch of XITE’s MBA coaching program

Neha Badrai (22), currently pursuing a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) from Xavier Institute of Tribal Education (XITE), had never considered doing an MBA. Originally from West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, this Scheduled Caste (SC) student decided to give it a try since her institute in collaboration with XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur started a new SC/ST MBA coaching class last September. For Neha’s batchmate, Anupama Soreng, on the other hand, the new course was like a dream come true since she always wanted to do an MBA. Born into a family of farmers, Anupama is keen to break the mould and take on a corporate life. Both the girls are eagerly awaiting a chance to do well in the ensuing MBA entrance exams.

Neha Badrai, Final Year BBA student at XITE

The primary idea of these classes was to secure SC/ST students entry into MBA institutes sans the ‘reservation’ route. According to Father E Abraham SJ, Director, XLRI, and one of the pioneers behind the idea, the idea is to help SC/ST students achieve dreams on their own. “Jharkand has a huge number of SC/ST students who do not have the best of opportunities in life. Though the government has provided them  reservation in government b-schools, as an educational centre, it is our duty to help these students to do well in life on their own terms.”

Towards this end, XLRI has given XITE a grant of Rs 1 crore to be used over a time-frame of 5 years. These funds have been allocated to set up the infrastructure for running the coaching classes, building a computer centre, and towards creating publicity through advertisements. The actual coaching is carried out by a set of enthusiastic PGDM students of XLRI, in a bid to give back something to society.

Having finalised the plans for these classes during the second half of 2011, the authorities had  little time to advertise or promote the course amongst students of the state. Thus, the first batch of 24 students, were those pursuing their third year in BBA from XITE itself and are now in the final year of their course. In addition, the coaching classes began in September 2011, which gave the candidates little time to prepare for the entrance exams. Yet, the students took the exams but none of them fared too well.

According to Father EA Augustine SJ, Director for Xavier Institute of Tribal Education, the idea this time is to expand the advertising range of the course not only to heavily-tribal infested places like Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa and Dumka in Jharkhand but also other states like Bihar and Odhisha.

Praising the efforts made by XLRI students in lending a hand towards training of the SC/ST students, Father Augustine said, “The XLRI students put in a lot of work towards this project.  While a couple of teachers from XITE had been asked to look in on the classes, everything from the course structure, to the teaching sessions as well as individual mentorship had been provided by the XLRI students.”

The concerned XLRI group of students are as enthusiastic about the coaching classes as the SC/ST students are.  One such, Chandrani Bhattacherjee,  said that the proposal to start such a project was received well among the students. “We sent in a group mail about the project to the batch and were overwhelmed with the number of students willing to work on it,” Chandrani told PaGaLGuY.

Initially, a few XLRI students interacted with SC/ST students to understand their requirements. “While most of them seemed comfortable with Quantitative Aptitude, English seemed to be the weak point for many,” Chandrani said. She added that once a rough idea had been formulated about the requirements of the students, a core group of about 20 students was formed to handle the coaching classes in its entirety, including deciding a formal course structure.

Sneha Joshi, another XLRI student connected with the project said that the core group drew upon their own coaching lessons while preparing for MBA to form the course schedule. “We asked for regular feedback from the students and altered our teaching methods accordingly,” Sneha said. She added that each one of the SC/ST students in the coaching classes had been provided with a personal mentor from amongst the XLRI student community.

XLRI has also approached a number of coaching institutes to help with the mock test papers for this year’s classes. “We have finalised a deal with one of the coaching institutes. It will provide us the mock test papers at a fee. However, staff members at XITE will be in-charge of conducting the mock tests,” Father Augustine said.

In the first stint, classes were held five times a week and students travelled from XITE to XLRI and back by a bus specially arranged for them. A similar schedule will be put in place this year too. As yet, the coaching provided was free of coast but the idea is now to levy a minimal fee of  Rs 1000-1200 per month. “If we do not charge a fee,  students will not take the classes seriously,” said Father Augustine. He also specified that while the  coaching provided to students will be XAT-specific, they are free to appear for the other MBA entrance exams too.

The enrollment process for the classes will begin around the second week of May. The new session of the coaching classes is scheduled to begin from 2 July, 2012.

XLRI's Alumni Homecoming 2011

Dear Friends,

Greetings from XLRI’s Alumni Committee ‘ALCOM’! 

November third week-end is fast approaching and we know it’s time for Homecoming. The Alumni Homecoming for the year is scheduled during 19-20(Saturday and Sunday) November, 2011.This little note is to politely remind you of our XL family get-together that strengthen our XL bonds and foster camaraderie among us. The institute is happy to invite you for all the events that are being organized in connection with the Homecoming 2011.Please grace the occasion with your presence. 

I am sure you too will cherish the good old memories of your Alma Mater. The faculty and the students are looking forward towards the event and are keen to interact with all of you. We hope to have a wonderful evening celebrating the family spirit with a few cultural programs besides many other events that are being planned. A copy of the detailed schedule will be send to you soon.

Please have a look at the new services made available at the Alumni Portal (http://alumni.xlri.ac.in). If you have not already registered on the portal, please do so at the earliest. 

Please bring home all our XL friends (teachers, class mates, seniors and juniors) who are yet not in the portal. Ms. Padmini Singh from Alumni office will assist you in registering your name. Her contact details are: Email: alumni@xlri.ac.in This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Mobile: 9955132937

All of us at XL Look forward to having you amongst us during 19-20 November, 2011.

For any other queries, please mail it to alumnicommittee@astra.xlri.ac.in or contact Ms. Amandeep (7209429704)

Regards

ALCOM

Divine season with joy of giving at XLRI

From The Telegraph

Durga Puja in the steel city will be celebrated with a touch of B-school philanthropy this year.

Organised by XLRI, Joyfest or the Joy of Giving Week will start on October 2. This year, the campaign will have new initiatives, which aims to promote acts of kindness like giving one’s time, money and skills freely to the needy.

The festive holidays will not be a barrier for volunteers from B-school, NGOs and corporate firms who will be taking part in the campaign.

Apart from Vastra Samman, a clothes collection drive, which will be held in collaboration with New Delhi-based NGO Goonj and giving dry ration to the needy, the campaign will also host an eye donation camp through XLRI and Roshni, a city-based NGO.

Another NGO, Cause for Change, has come up with the idea of collecting usable medicines and donating them to those who need them.

“There are many who have unused medicines at home. Most of the time we throw them away even if they have not crossed their expiry date. We will first collect medicines, segregate them and then donate it to primary health centres where they actually need it,” said Joydip Paul, one of the partners with the NGO.

A group of XLRI’s entrepreneurship students have decided to recycle used A-4 sheets into notebooks, which will be distributed to city and rural schools for the underprivileged.

Management students will also train village women in business development skills.

Kalamandir, another Jamshedpur-based NGO, will distribute mosquito nets in the villages of Dumaria and Potka blocks.

XLRI Inaugurates Interdisciplinary "Behavioural Lab"

From XLRI, Jamshedpur

Sept 17th, 2011: XLRI inaugurated the "Behavioural Lab" to become India's 1st management school to have an interdisciplinary lab to study human behaviour.

A brain child of Dr Sanjeev Varshney, Chief Coordinator and Area Chairperson (Marketing) and MAXI (Marketing Association of XLRI), "the Lab is equipped with software and equipments to run experiments based on the principles of cognitive psychology, like direct response time machine, and will help in understanding whether the stimulus shown to people is having emotional or cognitive impact. The Lab also has got facilities like one-way mirror observation rooms for group experiments etc. It has subscribed to other software to enable students and researchers in testing image-based stimulus rather than textual stimulus and thereby facilitate product and campaign effectiveness testing," informed Prof Varshney.

The Lab will be available for use across all functional disciplines of XLRI comprising XLRI faculty, Fellow researchers, and postgraduate students. The Lab will also collaborate with researchers and institutes of repute in the field and looks forward to establishing itself as a one-stop solution for all behavioural and neurological research in management sciences. It aims to bring in new and innovative insights in the field of management.

As the first project of the “Behavioural Lab”, the city-based XLRI School of Business has started conducting research to study the behaviour of youth that leads to road accidents. Prof Sanjeev Varshney said that rash driving is matter of great concern for the city. They have started the research considering the rising number of deaths among young motorcyclists.

Prof Pranabesh Ray (Dean - Academics) said that the Lab’s future plans include acquiring more equipment and software for carrying out neurological research by collaborating with local and national level neuro-research centres and leading hospital chains in India. The collaboration process has already been initiated.

“We have plans to study and conduct research on Consumer Behaviour Studies, Organisational Behaviour Studies, Behavioural Economics and Behavioural Finance, to name a few of its primary areas of interest,” said Prof. Ray.

"Interschool Musical JoyFest" for "Leh Relief Fund" (Oct 2, Tata Auditorium 5pm-9pm)

Dear all

 

to generate funds for the Leh-Relief operations by http://www.prgya.org/ we are organising Inter-School Musical JoyFest as the finale of Joy of Giving Week: Jamshedpur Joyest on October 2nd, Tata Auditorium (5pm - 9pm)

 

Our aim is to raise another Rs1-1.5lac through the sale of the passes (each for Rs 100/-..... or more if someone wants to contibute :).

 

I am writing to you for your help in promoting the event and sale of the passes  through your contacts. The passes are available with me (madhukar@xlri.ac.in )

 

thanks and regards

 

madhukar

 

Joy of Giving Week (Sept 26 - Oct 2, 2010) - Invitation & Appeal

Dear friends

 

As you may be knowing, like last year, we at XLRI are partnering in the Jamshedpur JoyFest: Joy of Giving Week (Sept 26-Oct 2, 2010).

 

Working together along with the Jamshedpur Schools, executives of local companies, Rotary Club, local NGOs, we have designed a number of initiatives to celebrate this Festival of Philanthropy. Some of those are given below (also available at http://www.tatanagar.com & http://jamshedpurjoyfest.blogspot.com )

 

I am writing to appeal to you to participate in this initiative. I am specifically writing for your support for 3 key initiatives:

 

1. Vastra-Samman:

Like last year, we are collecting wearable clean clothes, which will be sorted and distributed to the needy through the help of NGOs and other organisations which work in deep interior villages of Jharkhand.

 

2. Ann Daan:

Given the drought in the Jharkhand villages, we are also collecting dry ration which can be distributed to the needy. We would invite your contribution in 1Kg/ 2Kg/ 5Kg packs of:

- "Usna" (Parmal) or "Arwa" Rice

- Daal

- Grams

- Chooda

- Sattoo

 

I am happy to share that Tata Steel Corporate Sustainability Services have kindly offered all their community centers to be the collection points. I am enclosing the list, where you can reach your contribution.

 

3. Leh Relief Fund:

We are also doing a fund-raising campaign for http://www.pragya.org  who is working for Leh Disaster Relief. Pragya is an award-winning organisation which was founded by two XLRI Alumni - Garrgi Banerji (88PMIR) and Sunil Pillai (87PMIR) - and has been working in the Himalayan regions in the area of livelihood promotion, green energy and medicinal plants.

 

To support their work, we are organising an Inter-School Musical Festival in Tata Auditorium on October 2nd, 2010 (5pm-9pm).

We aim to raise funds through sale of passes (anything in the multiples of Rs 100/), and through corporate sponsorships.

 

We will be grateful for any help or lead

 

thanks and regards

 

madhukar

 

 

 

 

Joy of Giving Week (Sept 26^th – Oct 2^nd, 2010)

Planned Initiatives/ Campaigns

·         Nukkad-Natak: These will be organized by XLRI students in public places from Sept 25^th to raise awareness about the Jamshedpur JoyFest and various campaign.

·         Make Jamshedpur Plastic Free City campaign: Plan to raise awareness, and campaign with the help of local companies, schools and civil society organizations. Awareness to be created by video-clip contests, and encouraging the school children to take this as an issue for the Design for Change Contest (see later)

·         Design for Change Contest: Promote the contest among the schools –  which encourages the school children to identify an social issue of their concern, think about a solution, and then implement it. The contest  has already started and schools can participate in it from today till Oct 2^nd.

·         School to School: S2S is GOONJ’s nationwide ongoing initiative which aims to channelise the underutilized material (pencil boxes, books, school bags, uniform, shoes, toys, etc.) from the cities to thousands of resource-starved schools in villages and slums, which lack basic infrastructure and facilities.

·         SHG Training: XLRI students in partnership with Kala Mandir will conduct a module on “basic accounting” which will be launched during this week, and will be an ongoing program for volunteerings.

·         Ann-Daan: Collection of rice, dal and moodi from schools, households, community organization, corporates, Rotary members, etc., and  will be distributed in the villages of Jharkhand through NGOs and other organization s which work in interior villages.

·         Health Camp: XLRI students with medical degrees, along with volunteer medical practitioners, will hold health camps to provide free medical check-ups, and distribute basic medicines in the rural and slum areas.

·         Vastra-Samman: Like last year, this will focus on collection and distribution of wearable clothing from the city and distribute them in the villages through the help of NGOs.

·         Career Counseling in basti/ under-privileged schools: XLRI students will visit the schools and provide a group career counseling session to the students.

·         Inter-School Musical JoyFest: This is being organized on 2^nd October in Tata Auditorium as the concluding function. This event will raise funds through proceeds and sponsorships for Leh Relief.

In addition, SIGMA has also planned a daily calendar of activities (e.g., A Day with the  Elderly, XLRI Labour Day (“Serving those who serve us”), Tree-Plantation Driev, A Day with the Specially Enabled , etc.), which will involve the entire community of students, faculty and staff in acts of volunteerism and giving.

Young India Inc (XLRI) backs needy kids

From The Telegraph

Preparations for Kshitij are on in full swing at XLRI in Jamshedpur on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Aug. 20: More than 400 underprivileged students across 40 schools from the steel city have a date with Kshitij, the annual flagship extravaganza with a conscience, to be hosted by the CII’sYoung Indians Team at XLRI tomorrow. 

Jusco chairman and Tinplate Company of India Ltd director Bushen Raina will inaugurate the daylong event, now in its third year, at the Tata Auditorium, while prizes worth more than Rs 35,000 will be distributed by East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Himani Pandey. 

Tinplate is this year’s official sponsor of the event, which, as its name suggests, seeks to help less-privileged schoolchildren reach new horizons of achievement through a host of competitions such as quizzing, painting, singing and dancing. 

Aishwarya Kalyan, a member of the external linkages cell of the premier B-school said that the CII Young Indians network in XLRI was led by student Harsh Jhawar under the guidance of professor M.G. Jomon, and comprised 26 team members across management streams of XLRI. The CII Young Indians’ XLRI chapter worked to provide a leadership platform to young minds at the B-school, with a focus on nation building initiatives, including socially relevant development projects in the areas of education, employability, youth affairs and health. 

Kshitij is an important vehicle and platform to fulfill those ends, say organisers, as it actively involves children of vernacular medium schools and project schools of the steel city. 

“Kshitij helps boost confidence among students who hail from the economically weaker sections of society. They have talent, but they need opportunities and encouragement to display and hone it. This platform can really help them strive for betterment in their lives,” said a senior professor of the B-school. 

Last year’s event had been a resounding success, said the organisers, which prompted them to reach out to more less-privileged students this year. 

Members of the external linkages cell said, it was only because of sustained efforts of the Young Indians network at XLRI that Kshitij is being able to help more children every year. Active involvement from the faculty and students at XLRI and generous support from the industry have made this event a success, they said.

Convocation for Satellite Programs

From Times of India

The graduation ceremony for the Satellite programme students of XLRI, the premier Business school of the state, concluded on a encouraging note here on Tuesday with chief speaker for the occasion Sarup Chowdhary, Director and CEO, Reliance Webstore Ltd, giving seven vital tips to the outgoing students.

Chowdhary, while delivering the graduation speech to the 500-odd students at XLRI auditorium, said, "To become a highly successful professional one needs to become a highly ethical person, first." He also said the practice of values incorporated with need-based professional decisions will deliver a durable result to the organization at large and individual in particular.

In his 30-minute-long speech, the CEO of NIS Sparta urged the students to have a high degree of quest for excellence.

"In the highly competitive world of business, CEOs of the day are primarily interested in the ends and not the means but I suggest you all give as much thinking to the means as you give to the ends. This will help you in earning the trust and confidence of subordinates and developing a sound team that will deliver for long," Chowdhary said.

As many as 510 students received certificates in PGCBM (Batches 13 and 14), PGCHRM (Batches 5 and 6) and PGCLSCM (Batch 3).

Earlier, delivering the inaugural address Fr. E Abraham, director of the esteemed institution threw light on the concept of Satellite programme and its increasing demand over a period of time.

"The concept of Satellite programme came into being with the intention of assisting working executives refresh and fine tune their skills and competencies by upgrading and adding values to their procession," he said.

Live Webcast of XLRI's Convocation (March 27th, 2pm-5pm IST)

Hello Folks!

 

I am happy to share that the 54th Annual Convocation of XLRI Jamshedpur will be live webcasted on

 

March 27th, 2010, Saturday

2pm - 5pm IST

 

The URL on which you can watch the live ceremony is:

http://www.xlri.ac.in/convo

...and in case, this being the new URL, it does not work, please try the altternative:

http://220.225.87.70/convo/

 

This Convocation will also mark the end of XLRI's Diamond jubilee Year - and so, XL has invited all the previous Directors (Fr McGrath, Fr Ruomold D'Souza, Fr PD Thomas) Deans and the Chairmen of the Board for the convocation... some of them are already on the campus.

 

The highlight of this years convocation (which are in the pre-event press release) are:

 

- Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group will be the Chief Guest

 

- Mr E Sreedharan, CEO of Delhi Metro, will be the recepient of the Sir Jahangir Gandhi Medal for Industrial and Social Justice this year

 

- the previous Chairmen, Directors and Deans of XLRI will be present during the convocation.

 

please spread the word :0)

 

cheers

 

madhukar

===========================

Dr Madhukar Shukla

Professor (OB & Strategic Management)

& Chairperson - External Linkages

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources

CH Area (East)

Jamshedpur 831001

India

National Social Entrepreneurship Conference - Bihar model to study growth

From The Telegraph

Bihar principal secretary of rural development department Vijoy Prakash inaugurates the conference. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, Jan. 29: The event was the second national conference on social entrepreneurship. And the model for study was Bihar.

The three-day conference organised by XLRI was inaugurated today and chief guest was principal secretary of rural development department, Bihar, Vijoy Prakash.

The theme for this year is “solutions for inclusive development” which will see experts from social sector coming up with solutions for an improved social growth model in the country.

Prakash said the reason for 11 per cent growth rate achieved by Bihar was implementation of inclusive growth with innovative ideas.

He, however, stressed on a path-breaking idea of “broadstreaming” rather than “mainstreaming” for rural development.

“Inclusive growth means equalisation of opportunity. We often try to get underprivileged people into mainstream society but instead, if we broaden our arena and give opportunity to them according to their skills and interest, it would be better. If we aim at growth, we have to take into account their skill and utilise them,” said Prakash.

The principal secretary also explained how his department identified the differences among communities and tried to make them literate by adopting a different pedagogy.

Teaching clay modelling also helped in bringing about rural development.

He also pointed out initiatives like Mahadalit Dev Mission, state society for rehabilitation of poor (rehabilitation of beggars by using their talent) and identification of BPL families had positive results.

“Since we are talking of inclusive growth and development, we have to accommodate each and every person be it tribal, elite or Dalit,” said Prakash.

XLRI gears up for National Working Conference on Social Entrepreneurship

From The Daily Pioneer

City-based premier B-school XLRI is gearing up to play host to the second National “Working Conference on Social Entrepreneurship” from January 29. Vijoy Prakash, Prinicipal Secretary, Rural Development, Government of Bihar would deliver the inaugural address of the three-day event.

The theme of the conference is “Solutions for Inclusive Development” and it aims to provide a common space to the practitioners like social entrepreneurs, CBOs/NGOs, Government agencies, academics, funding agencies, support organisations and corporate for interaction and learning from each other.

“We are happy to share that more than 160 development sector professionals from across India, have registered to participate in the conference. This year’s event is designed as a “working conference” which would allow the participants to not just listen and learn, but also to share, discuss and co-create solutions, alternatives as a take-away, by actively and collectively engaging in solving real, live problems, which are of their interest and concern,” said Prof Madhukar Shukla, coordinator of the conference.

He further added that about 25 social entrepreneurs and development sector professionals have been invited to participate in the conference as resource persons for the “Working Groups”.

The professor went on to inform that several resource persons have confirmed their participation,which includes Abhijit Ray, director, Unitus Capital, Anshu Gupta, founder-director, Goonj Ashoka Fellow, Arbind Singh, executive director, Nidan Ashoka Fellow, Arun Diaz, trustee and member of investment board, Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Ashish Rajpal, co-founder and managing director, Discovery Ashok Kamath, CEO, Akshara Foundation, Ashwin Naik, co-founder and CEO Vaatsalya Healthcare Systems Pvt Ltd.

“Based on our interactions with practitioners in the field, we have also tentatively identified a few broad themes/groups for the working groups in the conference. In each group, we also plan to have Resource Persons, who have made significant contribution to the space, and would help bring greater value to the group, and lead the discussions,” he noted.

XLRI, Jamshedpur to Host 31st Annual Marketing Fair

From Cool Avenues

XLRI, Jamshedpur to Host 31st Annual Marketing Fair
The Marketing Association of XLRI, popularly known as MAXI, is set to organize its Annual MAXI Fair on the 17th of January, 2010. Started in 1979, the MAXI Fair is a unique and innovative approach to conduct Market Research in a fun format.

The idea was conceptualized 31 years ago, much ahead of its time, by Sharad Sarin, Professor of Marketing at XLRI and a visionary. Year after year since then, major Indian corporate houses bring their market research problems to the students of XLRI, who design elaborate games around them. These games are hosted in the XLRI grounds, and are open to public who visit the fair and have a good time apart from winning prizes. The students, on the other hand, get useful data about public preferences, which they then analyze to solve the problems faced by the companies. This makes the task of conducting the otherwise boring and mundane research easier and interesting.

This year, Hindustan Unilever(HUL) and Tata Main Hospital (TMH) are taking part in the MAXI Fair. While HUL wants to understand consumer behavior and preferences in its Face Care category, TMH wants to determine the factors which drive or inhibit the people from visiting their hospital.

HUL and other companies from the Tata Group, among many others, have been taking part in the Fair in previous years also, which provides a testimony to the quality of the research conducted at the Fair. In fact, the idea has been so popular and effective that it has been replicated and implemented by business schools all over India.

The magnitude of the Fair can be estimated by the fact that the number of people gathering in the XLRI grounds runs into thousands, in a span of just one day. The footfalls last year were over 2000, which are expected to increase by 50 percent this year, to over 3000 people.

The popular game stalls last year were ‘Bhutiya Haveli’, helping Tata Steelium determine consumer preferences in furniture, and the ‘Wonderland’ which took the visitors on a joy ride to the land of Alice and Genies, facilitating Spencer’s to judge its brand image relative to other retail stores. This year as well, the preparations for the Fair are up in full swing in the XLRI campus, with everything being done and managed by the students. Let us see what experiences Maxi Fair has in store for the public this year.

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!

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