Diro's visit to Hyd

On the 28th of Sept, 9 XLers (that included one GMP and one Exec FPM) met the Diro who had come to Hyd for a session at ASCI (he was telling the state VCs about how education was changing in the West!)

Since it was a weekday the low turnout was believable.

People who still made it to the Ohri's Jiva restaurant at rajbhavan road included Harinaryana (bmd 74), Manoj Verghese (pmir 97), Somnath B(pmir 98), Haritha (pmir 03), Siddhesh (bmd 03), Kumara Guru (GMP), Vinay Kumar (ExecFPM - ongoing)

Poor Guru had to fend off accusations and confessed that he had nothing to do with Janaki leaving the Dean's office at XL and joining ISB (for those who don't know, Guru works in ISB at the Dean's office there!)

Vinay shared his impressions about the fresh new Exec FPM course. He's doing his fellowship in the marketing area and in the time that 's left he manages a medical transcription company also.

Diro shared the plans for the new XL campus at Hyderabad (location would probably be Madhapur) and that it would start by 2008. We promised him that he could rest assured about visiting faculty since XL alumni could do that very well :) Som stated that Jampot would be more scared about people like EM Rao, ES Srinivas and Venugopal Pingali leaving Jampot and relocating back to AP.

Conversations veered and meandered to lots of people and places. Hari shared his batch's first average salary in 1974 and how for 20 years it had merely tripled. But in the last 12 years it had a more than 600% increase.

Conversation veered to XLers writing books these days, and how Mediocre But Arrogant might get made into a movie!

The HR guys pleaded with Diro to increase the intake of PMIR folks at XL also. The merits of XLers vs TISS hr folks were also debated. Hari incidentally is sponsoring the whole of the TISS alumni meet at Mumbai ! After we all glared at him, I guess that's why he volunteered to sponsor the dinner at Jiva also ;-))

More grax would only be possible on phone !

Gautam

Co-Founder - The Imagence Partners

Website: http://imagence.googlepages.com

BRIDGES from XL

An appeal from BRIDGES@XL
Madhukar
=============

We, at BRIDGES - the student committee for research & consulting - invite you to partner with us in our vision and build coalitions with XLRI.
We seek consulatancy projects and business problems based on contemporary issues faced by industry.

Warm Regards,
Neeraj Agarwal
Secretary, BRIDGES
PGDM Final Year, XLRI
bridges.xlri[at]gmail.com

BRIDGES – exploring new frontiers for industry interaction at XLRI

Greetings!

BRIDGES, the student committee for research & consulting at XLRI, is focused towards promoting research and fostering an environment for creative solution building.

We, at BRIDGES, are scouting for consultancy projects and business problems from the industry. We invite you to associate with us in this pursuit

Why XLRI..

§ Ranked consistently among the top 5 B-schools in India

§ Pool of exceptional students (1 out of 312 applicants obtain admission)

§ 55% of the batch has prior work experience

BRIDGES’ endeavor..

§ Expose XLers to real life business problems

§ Arrange for publication of papers and articles in renowned journals

§ Publish “Prabandhan”, the research journal of XLRI

XLers – breaking new ground..

§ Accenture: Live consulting projects in strategy

§ HLL & Coke: Market research on business problems

§ Pepsi: Recommendations on packaging were implemented

§ Cognizant & Lenovo: Partnership for IT

§ HCL: Designing business strategy for growth

§ Tata Group: Identifying opportunities and devising action plan

§ International Conference, Prague: XLer represented India

§ World Congress, Canada: Most thought provoking paper

§ NUS, Singapore: 2 teams in top 8 at Global Challenge

§ IIMA Confluence: Runners-up at Master Plan contest

§ CRISIL: Winners of Young Thought Leader competition

§ FMS: Entrepreneur of the year

What we seek..

§ Consultancy projects in the areas of finance/ marketing/ strategy/ technology

§ Business problems involving research and analysis of current industry trends

What we offer..

§ A platform to promote corporate brands

§ A forum to obtain innovative ideas from the brightest students

§ An opportunity to build a lasting relationship with XLRI

Project structure..

§ Problem statement

§ Deliverables

§ Timelines

§ Resource constraints

§ Evaluation criteria

Contact
Neeraj Agarwal
Secretary, BRIDGES
PGDM Final Year, XLRI
bridges.xlri[at]gmail.com

BRIDGES – Building Coalitions

Invite to Dandiya from Mr Rana Sinha

XLRI, in association with SPICMACAY, has organised a

Dandiya Night

at the Faculty Residential Area,

XLRI Campus,

on Saturday 30th September, 2006

from 8.30 PM onwards.

Mr Rana Sinha,

President,

XLRI Alumni Association, Jamshedpur Chapter,

extends a warm invitation to the alumni of Jamshedpur to join the Dandiya Night.

(and so do all of us from XLRI - madhukar)

XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet 2006 - Oct 14th - Bangalore

Folks,

Under the guise of a "Friendship Meet" we are having a full blown sports battle with IIM-C on Oct 14, 2006.

The main events will be Cricket, Football, & Volleyball. In addition to that there will be a whole bunch of fun stuff like kite flying. There are plenty of games for everyone, as part of the friendly events, to allow spouses, the not-so-fit, and children to participate and have a good time - and most importantly - to get people to get to know each other.

Get in touch with David if you want to participate.

The action starts at 3PM on Saturday and runs late into the night with music and dinner. The venue is the SPT Sports Academy on Sarjapur Road (more details on that later.) If you play music, get in touch with Arun.

With over 400 alumni from XLRI & IIM-C participating, this is a great event for your organisation to sponsor. We are having extensive media coverage too so let me know if your organisation would like to make use of this great opportunity.

Yours,
Kuru

Info : TCS & IITM Open Quiz, v 4.0, October 2nd, 2006. -

The IITM Open Quiz is back, as always (at least since last year) on the 2nd of october, which this time around is a Monday.Over the last three years, the quiz has quickly gained a reputation for being the ultimate "quizzers quiz" in India, steeped as it is in the hallowed traditions of IITM quizzing.Version 4.0 promises to be as exciting and as intellectually simulating as the last three iterations.It also promises significant monetary rewards,by way of Rs. 80,000 as prize money. And these are not just for the winners, there will be a lot of audience prizes, and also special prizes like the best corporates, the best team name, the best school team, and most uniquely a best all ladies team prize. All in all, it promises a fun evening to all who care to attend. The quiz as usual is going to be researched and conducted by 5 of our best , Siddhartha (BoFi), Rahul (RG), Varun (Pops), Sayan (Prof) and Subramanya (Pota,me).

We expect teams of at most 4 people to be in their seats by 2:30 P.M. at the Students Activities Centre, IIT Madras. There is no registration and hence, no waiting list. The only precondition for participation is membership of the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens. If you are coming from outside Chennai, tell us in advance, we may try and help you with accomodation etc.If you call the fair city of Chennai home, come along, lots of buses from everywhere to IITM and then there are buses from the gate to the venue. Further information can be had at http://www.openquiz.iitm.ac.in or http://openquiz.coz.in

A set of obligatory questions (from past OQs) follows.

See you at the venue.

Subramanya G S

Bummer-IR bonding yields a booty worth lacs

Thanks Udit Saraff for conveying this Brilliant news.

Kumar Anand (BMD-05) and Lara Lobo (PMIR-06), both in Standard Chartered Bank (India), gave a new flavor to our "Bummer-IR" bonding by winning the Microsoft Corporate Challenge 2006. They won a booty each of a jewelled Mont Blanc pen (worth Rs. 1 lac) and a Dolce & Gabbana (limited edition) Gold-plated MotoRazr V3i mobilephone.

The event was a mix of AXN's "Amazing Race" and Star World's "The Apprentice" and got them going in Kerala countryside with cross country running & cycling, rowing, puzzle cracking, deciphering, map navigation, stock market simulation...blah..blah. These guys were even required to make a boat out of bamboo sticks/tubes and row across a lake as well as the Kerala backwaters.

The 35 participating corporates included the likes of Barclays Bank, ICICI Securities, ICICI Bank, J P Morgan Stanley and a host of others like Unilever, Infosys and our formidable Indian Navy.

For more on this exciting event check up Business Today (Issue: 8 Oct, 2006) or catch up the event telecast on NDTV Profit on 26th, 27th, 28th & 29th of September from 6:00pm to 6:30pm. Yup...NDTV has made a serial on the event.

Way to go Kumar and Lara for keeping the XL spirit high and flying beyond campus boundaries and into the corporate world...!! Your golden days are not over yet..;)

Regards
Udit Saraff
Business Analyst (CB-Group Credit)

Diro in Hyd on 28th

The Director of XLRI will be in town again. An alumni get-together with Fr.Casimir Raj is being organised on Sept '28...

Send me an email if you fall into one of these categories:

1. Will attend definitely

2. Interested but not too sure

This info would help in organising.

Venue and time would be mailed shortly.

regards
GG

Chennai alumni get-together dinner on 30Sep

The Chennai Alumni Chapter is organizing an alumni get-together dinner on 30Sep at Gymkhana Club, Chennai. XL crowd in and around chennai are welcome to attend.

RSVP deepti by 26th Sep.

Thank you.

See you there!
P.S. Diro is also attending the meet.

With regards
M.Siddhartha
Chennai, India

XLRI looks to tie-up with Victoria, Shanghai University

The Economic Times today. reports :

XLRI looks to tie up with Victoria, Shanghai universities

SREERADHA D BASU
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2006 03:03:40 AM]


KOLKATA: XLRI Jamshedpur has initialised talks with Australia’s Victoria University and the Shanghai University to forge educational partnerships. While the former tie-up is expected to fall into place by January, the latter is likely to be finalised by October.

Father N Casimir Raj, SJ, director, XLRI, told ET, “The Shanghai University has shown keenness to tie up with us, especially for our input in the areas of research and HR. They, on their part, are strong in production, which we hope to benefit from.”

Father Raj indicated that the partnership with the Victoria University would be at different levels, though exact modalities are yet to be finalised. Victoria University has over a hundred academic exchange agreements with overseas institutes.

“Many companies want us to conduct courses for their employees, especially in terms of global management programmes, and Victoria University and XLRI will be collaborating in this regard. We are trying to work out the possibilities of these students getting industry exposure in both the countries,” said the director.

As of now, XLRI has existing tie-ups with the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Malarden University, Sweden and the Asian University, Bangkok. “We hope to benefit from more such tie-ups in the future,” said Father Raj.

In fact, such educational partnerships with overseas institutes have by now become par for the course at most of India’s leading B-schools, in particular the IIMs.

The faculty and student exchanges, field trips and internships overseas facilitated through these tie-ups give students the required exposure to forge international careers, and even get first-hand global perspective.


Thanks Mohit for alerting us.

Nandita da Cunha (2001) to release "The Magic of Maya"

Thanks Sharky for this bit of news :

One of the coolest people I know has just outdone even herself - by completing her debut novel and getting it published!

I'm tallking about "The Magic of Maya" by Nandita da Cunha (batch of 2001, for those who don't know).

Nan's maiden effort (no pun intended) is up for official release soon, and I'm just giving you all a heads up so you can watch those shelves.

Meanwhile check out http://nanditadacunha.blogspot.com for some more details on the book, including what the biggies have to say about it....

Nan - sorry I just had to leak this....!

More on this later...
S

Music at the Friendship Meet in Bangalore

Hi folks,

we will be arranging the following equipment for bands who wish to play during the XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet - a keyboard, two guitars, a drumset, two microphones and monitors. we would like to know who would be interested in exercising their vocal chords during the few hours that we would have so that we could allocate time
accordingly.

folks are encouraged to bring along their harmonicas or any other instruments that they feel would be appropriate for the evening. It would be great if we could get the number before the 22nd meeting

thanx
chandrasekhar
batch of 2006

Individual Social Responsibility - an article by an XLer - from the Hindu Business line

A case for individual social responsibility

Gayatri Krishnamurthy

Instead of CSR, companies should encourage individual social responsibility of stakeholders

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is the latest buzzword and the in-thing. However, big corporates are only a bunch of shareholders and as a minuscule holder of shares, I would like publicly listed companies to give me the money spent on CSR so I can decide what to do with it. I have an ally in Milton Friedman, the renowned economist, who argued that a company's principal purpose is to maximise returns to shareholders while obeying the laws of the land. If CSR is instrumental in retaining talent and creates a distinct customer preference for companies with a social conscience, I will give it a big `thumbs up'. Otherwise, shareholders should be free to take their money and support the causes they deem fit.

I support an organisation for the disabled. At the beginning of last year, I got a call from them asking for some urgent monetary help. The reason was that the regular corporate donors preferred to give their yearly dole to tsunami-related charities. It is my individual social responsibility that helped the organisation stay afloat. It is this `individual social responsibility' that companies should foster. Unless there is a consensus among shareholders about their commitment to certain causes, companies should focus on the main purpose of their existence: maximising returns for stakeholders

Charity is tough work
Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated current net worth of $42 billion. With his announcement that he is giving away 85 per cent of his fortune to charity, he has, with one stroke, become arguably the most charitable person as well. He is shrewd and far-sighted. The time it took him to decide how and whom to give to was considerably longer than the time it took to make the decision on where to invest.

I have prided myself on being charitable in a practical way. I was outside a bakery and an old, impoverished looking old woman came begging. It was lunchtime and I told her that I would foot the bill for whatever she wanted at the bakery. She walked away in a huff, cursing me for not giving cash. I was told later that she was quite well off and used the money she got to lend to the poorest of poor at a `back breakingly' high rate. It is quite a dilemma to select a cause and charity that actually does good.

I believe that having more than you need has to do with many factors, and quite a few of these are not under our control. As a mark of respect to our good fortune, we should give back. The noblest way to do this would be to do it ourselves by becoming a grassroots social worker. The other, more comfortable way is to finance people who do such work.

Twelve cents out of a dollar dilemma
When we were in the US more than 15 years ago, we gave to a children's charity and were very happy that we had done our bit. We were assigned specific children and given progress reports on them. After a few years, that turned into a bit of unhappiness because a leading newspaper ran a story saying that out of every dollar we gave, only 12 cents went to the child. There were insinuations, but no proof of mishandling. That could happen to you as well. When a charity starts out, a bulk of the money will go towards the set up itself. Then as the scale expands, the percentage trickling down will be more. After some time, every dollar extra will go to the bottomline that in this case was the child. When one gives instead of doing, there will be intermediary costs that one should be willing to bear. Now, there are organisations that assist us in choosing charities by doing background checks on the charities.

How to choose a cause
Every person of some wealth is familiar with the multiple requests for charity that far exceed the total wealth. A charity should be evaluated in the same way that a wise investor looks at a stock. The bottomline here is the contribution made to real upliftment, instead of monetary returns. The business model should be good and scaleable, and it should have good management and corporate governance. Charitable organisations now have Web sites and contact details from which one can obtain information as well.

Charity, of course, begins at home. I end with a famous comment from the `Oracle of Omaha', Warren Buffett, which is an excellent parenting tip, as well, "I want to give my kids enough so that they could feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing." As for me, I plan to keep enough so that I will have a comfortable and hopefully unpretentious lifestyle, and after that it is off to do some really hard work and give away the rest. One day individual social responsibility will be on everyone's lips.

(The writer, an alumnus of XLRI, is a freelance HR consultant and trainer)


Thanks Revive Ramesh for bringing this to our attention

XL Gettogether on 30th Sep in Chennai

We are organising a gettogether and Fr Casimir Raj, Director XLRI has kindly consented to be with us that evening

Please attend with your spouse positively

Venue : Gymkhana Club
Time: 730 PM
Dress Code: Collared T Shirts/Shirts
Shoes or Buckled Sandals

Entry Fee : We are trying to get some sponsors to make it free entry. We will update on the fee soon

Any XLER wanting to sponsor or get a sponsor--Welcome

Pl block this date on your calendar and inform others also

PNS

Annual XL Alumni Homecoming '06

3rd XLRI Alumni Homecoming ‘06
(November 18-19, Sat-Sun, 2006)
Invitation from the alma mater

Folks! November is not too far off… Start planning your trip back home…

Annual Alumni Homecoming:
A trip down the memory lane… a return to the roots… a re-look at what has changed and what hasn’t… a chance to meet XLers from across the decades… interaction with the present faculty, students and staff… to discuss and participate in what the XL Alumni and the alma-mater can do together… and above all, have fun J

Tentative Agenda:
Nov 18th:
· Registration at 9am
· Morning interactions on XLRI Today & XLRI Tomorrow
· Lunch with faculty, students & staff in the Hostel Lawns
· Inauguration of The Entrepreneurship Development Center in the afternoon
· Informal interactions and visits to the old haunts
· Evening: The “big” event @ Tata Audi.
A Panel Discussion on:
Affirmative Action: A Red Herring?
· Cocktails & dinner, hosted by Chairman Board of Governers, Mr B Muthuraman (BME ‘75 & MD, Tata Steel)

And, of course, an evening together

19th Nov:
· Breakfast at BOC Pavilion @ Beldih Club
· Golf, Soft-ball Cricket, trips to places, or agenda with own batchmates… or whatever you decide (we are planning a few things, but you can also plan your own agenda - after all the purpose is also to have fun and we will help making it possible)
· Farewell Lunch at Beldih Club

… so book your tickets, apply for leave, and plan your journey back home…

…Try to reach on 17th Nov evening/night
You can plan your return on 19th Nov evening or on the 20th, as suits you.

Registration will start beginning Oct ’06.

Look forward to having you all here
Madhukar Shukla

XLRI's Rural Drive

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/manager/2006/09/11/stories/2006091100231000.htm

Ambar Singh Roy

FR. CASIMIR RAJ

It is an initiative that is aimed at providing an insight into "another side of India that lives in the 18th century". It is also aimed at ensuring that the rural marketing skills of its students are honed in an arena where it is needed. XLRI Jamshedpur has adopted two villages for "integral development" over the next five-year period. Each of these two villages has around 300 people and the pilot project aims at facilitating their economic uplift.

According to Fr. Casimir Raj, Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, students of the institute were first "exposed to the plight of the villages" last year. It soon dawned upon all that it would augur well for both the student community as well as the village folk to facilitate entrepreneurship among the latter. After collection of relevant data, self-help groups are provided with seed capital for producing goods based on locally available raw materials. These include coir products, bags, wax products and leaf plates. "It is not that these products are not made at present. The idea is to eliminate the middleman and provide a fillip to the rural marketing skills of students. Also, this will make them conscious of their social responsibilities," says Fr. Raj.

According to him, students are made to stay in the villages from Friday through Sunday. They have the local food and use open toilets to get a flavour of the real India. "The experience also helps them attune mentally to what will ultimately be their corporate social responsibility as corporate citizens. The students have appreciated the experience and they realise their CSR obligations. May be, only 10-12 per cent of the villagers will ultimately become successful entrepreneurs but the experience will always be with the students, who are expected to come up with appropriate marketing modules for the products that are made by the villagers," Fr. Raj said.

The XLRI alumni, too, has welcomed the initiative. In fact, it has expressed its keenness to contribute to the Social Entrepreneurship Trust that is aimed at training village-level entrepreneurs at the micro level and providing scholarship to village children.

Thanks Mohit Kishore for bringing this article to our attention

George Zacharias (82BMD) -VideoInterview

George Zacharias (82BMD) -VideoInterview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4omT7GPC2GM

George Zacharias (82BMD) is the Managing Director of Yahoo! India

XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet 2006

Folks,

After a break of 4 years, we are once again having the Sports Meet in Bangalore with our rivals, IIM-C.

When: Oct 14 evening
Where: SPT Sports Academy, Sarjapur Road
What: Cricket, football, lots of games for the kids...

How can you get involved?
1. We need some big sponsorships. There's a huge branding opportunity for any company that wants to be associated with the event. We are also looking for a Title Sponsor (eg Lifebuoy XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet). Let me know if you/your firm would like to be part of this.

2. We need sportsmen/sportswomen. Tell us what sport you are good at. We need to identify sports captains.

We are having a meeting to get into the details on Friday, Sept 22 at the KGA Poolside. It's Rs 100 for booze, snacks and dinner.

We got to THRASH them again!

Kuru
96 batch

More Campus Buzz…. : From the X Factor

More Campus Buzz….

On 14th August, SAPPHIRE organized a Session on "Careers in Consulting". It was conducted by Sunit Sinha , Principal Consultant, Mercer HR Consulting, also an XLer of 98PMIR

…overheard after the session "Thank God, I attended this... Consulting aint that rosy anymore....I really have to think out my career options".

Food for Thought by Fire@x (forum for IR)

How would you handle the management-union relations, if your employees are target of terrorist attacks in Israel?

This was the topic of the Fire@x case competition on Aug 14^th… and the winners walked away with Rs. 2k & 1k, respectively.

The Triple Centenary Football Match between Jrs & Srs (Aug 10^th):

Hi Enthu, Halla Committee, tense penalty kicks to end… good fun

Er…Who won??

Talk by Marketing Guru: Walter Vieira, Past Chairman of the ICMCI and visiting faculty at Kellogg, Cornell & Goizuetta Business Schools, gave a lecture on “How Companies in India are innovating to stay ahead” on Aug 24^th… thought-provoking & some extremely witty examples ranging from Big Bazaar to Reliance Retail, Mr. Walter explained the innovations these Indian companies have done in Product Design, Pricing, Promotion, Distribution and Public Relations. Interjected by peals of laughter, this talk gave immense insights into the changing world of marketing, and left the students satisfied and ready to “Keep Running”.

SIGMA (Social Initiative Group for Managerial Action) has been busy and active. First we had Tagore’s ‘Raja’ performed by the visually impaired.

And then a record breaking Blood-Donation Camp (94 bottles is a record) on August 20^th.

The Great Escape: XLNC goes to Purulia

(when things become tough at XL, they take their bikes and escape)

"It had been a really long time since the gang ventured out. But oh boy, it was every bit worth the wait, as we found out!! That Purulia is beautiful I had read in the book, but that it would

be SO mesmerizing, was a souvenir for the eyes!! On this trip, our longest at XLRI, we were treated to some lovely scenery, a shower in a cascade, miles of unblemished road, and rolling hills stretching into the horizon. And did I mention the desrted Forest Bungalow, the village hamlets, a small accident, a feeling of losing way!! The worst part of the trip was..The End"

- Naqi Abbas (07PMIR)

XL Radio

XL Radio

the all new XL Radio on the Campus... the radio channel where everything but music is played, has gained popularity because it satisfies every Xlers desire for more news... so may it be a Self Assessment Report (MCCD) or a Taxation Exam... XL Radio goes on live and kicking ... we thank Saurabh, Ritika and (RJ) Vinayak Jayaram from the 07PMIR Batch (These guys keep the RADIO going with daily dose of chutputah news on campus)

Also not far behind is the Only Music Radio "412 Live - Alternatively Tuned" hosted by Sebastian Chandy aka (Saji) (the most eligible bachelor of the batch). He plays music to sooth the hearts of many... (of his attempts to find a partner at XL... .hahaha) ....he plays Soft Rock , Jazz , Country and blah..blah... (must say some quality music)

And for all the Rock Lovers there is the radio dedicated totally to rock....they would like to differentiate themselves as "All Rock No Bull".... its hosted by the Lead Singer of Bodhi Tree 07 , Sudhanshu Kasewa… (These guys will always have a fan following)

- Alvin Raskina (07PMIR)

Congratulations, Profs! : From the X Factor

Prof Trishit Bandopadhyay

was the Session Chair of "Service Operations Management" at the POMS (Production and Operations Management Society) International Conference held at Shanghai, and made a presentation there entitled, "Increasing Efficiency in Health-Care Services,- a Case Study Employing Data Envelopment Analysis" .

XLRI helps EPFO (Employment Provident Fund Organisation) to Revamp

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=198652

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), with the help of XLRI, one of the premier management institutes of the country, is all set to change itself into a top class service provider of social security benefits in India. XLRI formally handed over its report to the EPFO in a function at the Press Club on August 27^th. The XLRI project team was led by Prof. EM Rao.

Prof TAS Vijayaraghavan

was re-nominated for the second term as the Education Chairperson of the India Round Table of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals(CSCMP), US ( formerly known as the Council of Logistics Management,US) for the round table year 2006-2007.

Where is Dadus? : From the X Factor

Where is Dadus? L!!! or Dadus’ Journey

“Where is Dadus?” will be the first question any XLer, coming back to campus, will ask! The Chapter 4 of Abhijit Bhaduri’s Mediocre But Arrogant describes how a certain Fr Hathaway (or good old M… oh, we all know) was responsible for Dadu’s presence on the campus of Management Institute of Jamshedpur. The excerpts: “The story goes that Father Hathaway had gone to the hospital to pray for a patient who was dying of kidney failure. Just as he had said “Amen”, he had found a pair of dark eyes willing him to look their way. It was Chittoranjan Das’s wife, Debi. She pleaded with him to come to her husband’s bedside for only one minute. Father Hathaway stood by his bed and asked, “What is the matter?” and then repeating it in Oriya probably to make him feel comfortable, “Ki houchhi?”

Chittoranjan was too embarrassed to ask a stranger for help. But his wife’s insistence, “Gora Sahibs are always the people who helped the poor. They had been the rulers of this country after all” and poverty, which does strange things to people, gave him the courage to explain his plight to the gora sahib. The rains had failed for three years in a row. Chittoranjan Das was forced to sell off his land to the moneylender and walk to Berhampur railway station to catch the train to Kalimati station.

His wife and their two little boys, the younger one who was barely a year old had sat on the painted tin trunk, on a hot and crowded platform for almost six hours. Debi kept looking at her husband and wondered if he would find a job in the Steel Company. …The train reached Kalimati station the following day. Chittoranjan and his wife stood outside the huge factory gates looking for work. After waiting for five days, he got work as contract labour in the Blast Furnace area of the Steel & Iron Company. A month later, just as they were feeling a little settled, he slipped and broke his thigh bone. He had been in the hospital for a month now and the situation was getting desperate. . …Chittoranjan could not get himself to ask for help. But Debi was desperate. She explained as best as she could.

"Listen Chitto-run-john… I will give you a shelter in my institute. But remember, this is only a temporary arrangement. You cannot stay there forever. The moment you have earned enough to pay me back and buy your family a return ticket to Orissa, you have to leave. OK? Bujhi gela?" Father Haathi told Chittoranjan and loaned him Rs100/- to set up a tea stall. The rest as they say is history, at least for us…”

…and Dadus’ continued, and his ‘temporary arrangement’ became a permanent feature in lives of countless XLers… But for all these decades, Dadus’ was technically ‘outside’ XL!!! …initially on the other side of the road, and then behind the campus wall. So, isn’t it great that, Dadus’ has finally moved inside the XL campus, has a place of its own next to where it belongs… the hostel J

XL Alumni in the News

Prof Gerald Tellis (77BMD)

Neely Chair of American Enterprise and Professor of Marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles was awarded 2006 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research by 2006 American Marketing Association Educators' conference in Chicago (August 3-7).

Sify appointed Suri Venkat (83PMIR) as its new COO.

(Incidentally, the previous COO of Sify was also an Xler, George Zacharias (82BMD),

who as we told in last XF is now the MD of Yahoo! india)

An XLer in The White House

Prakash Puram (78BMD) in the US President’s Export Council meeting.

This also makes him the first Indian-born MBA in an advisory role in the White House to help the President U.S. trade policy.

Kudos!

XLRI recommends Structural Changes in EPFO

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200608301510.htm



Structural changes in EPFO suggested

New Delhi, Aug. 30 (PTI): In an effort to instill the spirit of a service provider among the rank and file of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a new business model for its human resources is being examined under a re-engineering exercise.

The proposal has been mooted on the basis of the recommendations of the Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) for a four-tier organisational structure for the EPFO, sources in the Labour Ministry said.

The exercise contemplates total computerisation to enable subscribers to submit their claims for withdrawal, settlement and transfer to any EPF office so that the claims can be processed online and settled within three days.

The XLRI, which was commissioned by the EPFO to undertake a comprehensive study, suggested opening of a branch office at the lowest level and a corporate office at the highest level. Between these two would be a regional and a zonal office.

It suggested scrapping of the district office in the present dispensation and favoured setting up of business units that would have direct interface with the establishments and members. These business units would be relocated so as to be closer to customer-bases, the report said.

The exercise comes in the backdrop of complaints relating to EPFO's services to the growing number of customers.

Dadu's... not the same anymore

http://xlers.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Dadu's....

...long long time back... or perhaps not that long either (upto somewhere mid-80s), Dadus was not where the latter batches saw it... it was on the other side of the road, and looked like "this" in the late 70s

its location then also had certain advantages, since it was beyond the eyes of the 'watchers' and therefore allowed certain freedoms that were not possible otherwise ;0)

so I guess when it got shifted to behind the campus wall (nopes, it was never 'in' XL campus), it must have caused much furore among the batches then...

check out the piece on Dadus in the Aug'06 issue of X-Factor

(http://xlalumni.blogspot.com)

From that beginning four decades back to this new precinct is how things unfold in life...

Read Abhilasha's Post on The XL Collablog on Dadu's