Friday, August 26, 2005

Dr. Ram Kumar Kakani - Best Young Teacher

Our faculty in the area of Corporate Finance and Strategy will be conferred the “Best Young Teacher Award” by the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) on the 30th of August at its 17th AIMS annual convention to be held in Hyderabad. The award consists of a gold medal (sponsored by Blue Shift) and a felicitation.

He dedicated the award to his teachers without whose support, he said, he could not have come such a long way. Dr Kakani also thanked the XLRI community by saying, “XLRI as an institute and its faculty are known for their commitment to carry out research and impart quality education. The environment and resources available at the institute facilitate an individual’s penchant for research. I am grateful to my colleagues and students who have time and again facilitated my research and appreciated my teaching methodology. At times they have added to the experience by giving me valuable feedback”.

At a young age of 34 years, Dr. Kakani has various laurels to his credit. His research interests which are in the areas of Corporate Strategy, Business & Financial Analysis, Corporate Governance, and Business Families.

This is a proud moment for all in the XLRI family. The students, faculty members, administration congratulate him for this achievement and wish him greater success in the future.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

XLRI News (2) - August 22, 2005

New Ventures:
- XLRI tied up with Reliance WebWorld to offer a 14-months Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Logistics Supply Chain Managment on a 2-way virtual classroom platform to practicing managers. The course start in October '05, and will be available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ch.nnai, Hyderabad and Pune. Prof TAS Vijayaraghavan is the coordinator of the course.

- XLRI entered into an agreement with Accenture to design and deliver a 12-month Certification Course in Human Capital Management. The course, first of its kind in India, will be customised to the specific requirements of BPO industry, and will be offfered to selected HR professionals of Accenture. The course will be coordinated by Prof Madhukar Shukla.

Rural Programme Initiative:
- The First Rural Programme Initiative was launched with the 05-07 of students. The purpose of this initiative is to sensitize the students to the 'reality on the other side'. During this term, all students from the new batch visited and stayed for 2-3 days in the villages. They interacted with villagers, with NGOs, local officials - and came back refreshed, shocked, reflective, and educated.

Kudos:
- Dr Ram Kumar Kakani was judged for the AIMS Best Young Teacher Award 2005.

- Dr TAS Vijayaraghavan was nominated the Education Chairperson of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals in India.

Publications:
- Dr Ashis Pani published a book "Real Estate Market: New Economy New Business" (co-authored with Prof Biswajit Das - Excel Books, 2005)

- Dr Ram Kumar Kakani published the book "Financial Accounting for Management" (co-authored with Prof N Ramachandran - Tata McGraw Hill, 2005)

- Fr Paul Fernandes, S.J., published the book "Economic Ethics and the Moral Perspectives of the Golden Rule".

Additions to Faculty:
- Dr ML Agarwal rejoined the Institute in Marketing Area after being on lien for last few years.

- Dr Himanshu Rai joined XLRI as a full-time faculty in PM&IR Area.

- Dr Trishit Bandyopadhyay joined XLRI as full-time faculty in Production & Operations Management Area.

- Dr Amita Mital joined XLRI as a a full-time faculty in Strategic Management Area.

Departure:
- Fr. Theo Mathias, S.J., passed away on July 6th, 2005. Fr Mathias was the Director of XLRI during 1978-81, and since then had been a Professor at XL, and also the editor of Management & Labout Studies.

=====================
Dr Madhukar Shukla
Professor (OB & Strategic Management)
XLRI

Friday, August 19, 2005

Abhijit Bhaduri's visit to Hyderabad

14th August was a great day for the Hyderabad XL alumni. We hosted Abhijit Bhaduri, in town for 12 hours, to regale the alumni with the reading of portions from his book "Mediocre But Arrogant". 20 alumni turned up for the meet at the unearthly hour of 4 pm on a long weekend!

The venue was the picturesue covered lawns of Country Club Begumpet and we had XLers from the batch of 1974 (Hari, the sponsor for the visit and the venue!) to 1984, (Abhijit himself) to 1994 (Ravi and Vish) to 2004 !

After the initial 1.5 hrs we spent in chatting with people, Abhijit discovering old friends not just from XL but even his Railway Colony days !

Then we got down to the reading.

Abhijit was introduced to us by his senior, SV Nathan, Head of HR of Deloitte, who informed us a lot about "Abhijit's using him as a courier boy during XL days" (more grax only on verbal basis ;-)

Then Abhijit told us about the amazing journey he's had due to the fact he's promoting the book and the opportunity he got to meet XLers in Kolkata, Jampot, Mumbai, Delhi , Bangalore and now Hyderabad. He told us how Gurcharan Das said that the way English is spoken by the characters in the book showed the way English is going to develop in the future. He also shared that Shyam Benegal during the Mumbai launch said that the book was ripe for a screenplay !
He also shared that he wrote the book in a B School because that offered two things:
1. An opportunity to blend in diverse charecters
2. Focus on relationships that the characters develop with each other, their profs., the staff and shopkeepers around.

After that he had us laughing with the portions of how the protagonist, Abbey, succeeds in doing his summer project, how he gets terrorised by his QT prof and the letter he gets from the Scottish priest when he graduates.

Abhijit then fielded questions from the XLers present, where he reiterated that the book is not an autobiographical story, and therefore apart from characters like Dadu, Basanto and the roomie, Pappu, other characters are fictional. He also shared his process of writing and how the story evolved over the last 8 years ! He also shared some plans for the future and the sequels he has planned.

It was a great meet and we missed the folks who were travelling out of town.

There's no such thing as a free book, so call Hari when you need to hire HR pros or when you're looking for an HR job. Fortuna Consultants, The exclusive HR placement agency. Phone: 93911 65157 Email: hari@fortunajobs.com

regards
GG
http://gauteg.blogspot.com

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Reliance WebWorld, XLRI in e-learning pact

XLRI and Reliance WebWorld on 11th August 2005 launched a post-graduate certificate course in Logistics Supply Chain Managment programme on a virtual classroom platform.

The course would be conducted in the WebWorlds in seven cities through two-way video conferencing on the broadband platform."Our tie-up with RWW to offer the course on real broadband platform will take the management training expertise of our XLRI's faculty to several virtual classrooms across India," XLRI director N Casimir said in Kolkata.

More about this story could be read at:http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/aug/11ril.htm

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

14th August ! Abhijit Bhaduriexpected in town ! - Hyderabad

Just to make it clear, Hari is also paying for the copy of "Mediocre But Arrogant" (1 per XLer) to be given FREE to the alumni !

So let us know, how many of you want the book, so that we can block it with the publisher !

Apparently the book is doing very well, Oxford Bookstores told Abhijit yesterday that this book is trailing Harry Potter in their bestsellers list (for the last week)
"Mediocre But Arrogant - That's what MBA stands for according to Abbey! This is a funny story of how an unambitious undergrad from Delhi Univ lands up in the highly competitive Management Institute of Jamshedpur. How the 2 years there change him and his relationships."

See reviews and hear audio excerpts at: http://mediocrebutarrogant.blogspot.com

There's no such thing as a free book, so when you're looking for HR resources call Hari:

S. Harinarayana
(XL batch of 1974)Fortuna Consultants The only recruitment consultancy EXCLUSIVELY for HR professionalsMobile: 93911 65157
hari@fortunajobs.com

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Mediocre-But-Arrogant: Release Schedule/News

All India Release of Mediocre-But-Arrogant


A novel about love and life in "Management Institute of Jamshedpur" by Abhijit Bhaduri (84PMIR)

Abhijit is traveling through India for the launch:Schedule is as follows:Mumbai 9th Aug 2005 at 5:30pm (by Shyam Benegal)Oxford Bookstore Apeejay House, Dinshaw Vacha Marg, Churchgate, Mumbai. Delhi 11th August at 6.30pm (by Gurucharan Das)India International Center40, Max Muller RoadNew Delhi - 110003.Bangalore (1) 13 August at 1:00pm (by Dr Prakash Apte, Director, IIM/B)Apeejay Oxford Bookstores Pvt LtdLeela Galleria, The Leela PalaceShop # B4 - B8# 23 Airport Road, Bangalore 560008(2) 13th August at 7:30pm (exclusively for XLers + spouses)Karnataka Golf AssociationAirport RoadBangaloreHyderabad14th August at 1:30pm (exclusively for XLers + spouses)Country ClubHyderabad
The Novel was earlier released at:Kolkata3rd August 2005 at 6:30pm (by Russy Mody)at Oxford Bookstore17, Park Street, Kolkata 700 016, India. read coverage:The Telegraph (August 4th, 2005)Indian Express (August 4th, 2005)Jamshedpur 4th August at XLRI (1:00 pm) (by Bushen Raina)Read Coverage:The Telegraph (August 5th, 2005)

Sunday, August 7, 2005

Abhijit Bhaduri relives "The best days of his Life" on Campus

Abhijit Bhaduri (PMIR '82-'84) was on campus today, 4th August 2005 to launch his much awaited book Mediocre But Arrogant (MBA).

Mediocre But Arrogant (MBA) is about Love and Life in a fictitious B-School called Management Institue of Jamshedpur (MIJ). It is a description of how Abbey a graduate from Delhi spends the two best years of his life. The story, he said, was quite generic which most people could relate to. It was about life in MIJ, an institution built by the sustained and selfless efforts of Father Hathaway and his team, about living in a campus hostel, about characters whom one come's across during his college or school days. More about this book can be tracked at http://mediocrebutarrogant.blogspot.com

The book was launched by Mr. Bushen Raina, the President of the XLRI Alumni Association. Abhijit addressed the XL family in his characteristic humorous style. The packed auditorium had some wonderful moments when he read certain chapters from his book. He distributed autographed copies to XLRI students. Later he had lunch served by our very own Basanto at the XLRI mess, who would serve him when he was on campus. Being a guitarist himself he had a jam session with our own band on campus "The Bodhi Tree" and interacted with the current students.

More about the story could be tracked at:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050805/asp/jamshedpur/story_5076578.asp

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Making Learning Fun...

Deccan Herald carried this story today under the column "Pioneers"

A high profile job fetching an obscene salary could not confine him to the corporate circle; when he decided to quit his corporate job years ago and took an entirely different path. A graduate from XLRI, Tarun Chandna wanted to give tomorrow a different perspective so he chose to be known as “a social entrepreneur” instead of an entrepreneur.

Tarun Chandna (92PMIR)Tarun is one of the pioneers in the field of ‘adventure education’ and one of the co-founders of iDiscoveri. He has also worked with programmes like Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, California and Singapore.

iDiscoveri is a learning, teaching and research organisation that works at making learning more experimental, meaningful, understanding and interesting. The organisation works in coordination with schools by guiding their teaching and overall techniques, to impart lessons in children more conveniently and interestingly. “We believe that children can realize their true potential by getting in touch with nature. We guide them instead of imposing lessons on them,” says Tarun.

His passion for adventure, strong belief in outdoor education and learning by hands on experiences drove him to start small projects that could help children learn immensely while having fun. “They grasped their lessons faster because they learnt them through experiences and could understand them well,” mentions Tarun. ....At present, iDiscoveri has three sub-branches. Besides this, it also conducts workshops on positive parenting and maintaining relationships. iDiscoveri also helps people make a school and training its faculty from scratch. By now, three such schools including two Heritage schools in Delhi have asked him to join them.

Note: The article fails to mention the other co-founders of iDiscoveri - so I must mention them: Gaurav Sakhlani (92PMIR), Ronny Gulati (92BMD), Ashish Rajpal (92BMD) and Lokesh Jindal (92BMD).

posted by Madhukar on http://xlalumni.blogspot.com/