Wednesday, July 30, 2008

XLRI Students to Start Clothes Bank

July 29, Jamshedpur (HT): Power dressing would trickle down to the poor people of Jharkhand. Students of XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, in collaboration with Goonj, a New Delhi based NGO, are establishing the first clothes bank in the state.

Social Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance (SIGMA), a student body of the premier B-school is making preparations for establishing the bank. Students have decided to provide bare minimum clothes to poor.

Members of SIGMA told the Hindustan Times that there are policies for poor people to access food and shelter but it is ironical that there is no policy for providing clothes. "Many poverty ridden people fight with extreme cold, monsoons and heat without clothes. It makes them ill and prone to diseases," students said.

Initiative of the XLRI to create a clothes bank also holds significance in the wake of deaths in the state due to cold and heat wave. According to the plans, SIGMA would take care of the technical knowledge for collecting, distributing and tracking of the clothes. It would also see whether clothes reach the poor or not. Goonj has launched clothes banks in many parts of the country. It's the only NGO that took lead in providing clothing to poor masses.

XLRI will partner with local NGOs for distribution of clothes from the bank to the urban and rural poor.... Formal inauguration of the bank will be made in the first week of August. Anshu Gupta, founder of Goonj, and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi would arrive on the XLRI campus to inaugurate the bank. Students would start clothes collection drive from July 31st.


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Posted By Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and Latest Updates at 7/30/2008 07:33:00 AM

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Harsh Khanna (01batch)/ "Nithya Shanti" in News

From newindpress.com

HE draws the attention of the participants with a haunting sound produced by a thick metal cup.The stick that strikes the rim of the cup is taken round and round letting the sound to continue and taper off. Nithya Shanti is the master in white, teaching people how to make today the happiest day of their life at what he calls the Hadayoli Joyshop.

Blending spirituality, emotional wellbeing and physical fitness, Nithya Shanti brings in his Buddhist tradition from his six-year life as a forest monk. An MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, he opted out of corporate life and is now sharing his experience of “is-dom,” He has just two words to help take people to enlightenment and that is “Be Loving.”

Whatever our thoughts, words and actions, the Universe responds with an “And so it is.” This makes our thoughts a reality. His workshop focuses on how to create a loving and joyous reality around us.

When we live consciously, we begin to balance the physical, energy, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social dimensions of life. We learn to live in harmony with the natural principles of the Universe. This gives us the strength, clarity and energy to realise the purpose of our life, he says.

Physically it means to create a sense of lightness, physical freshness and alertness, flexibility and stamina, energetically to have abundant energy and enjoy a high level of activity, emotionally to be expressive and open, intellectually to provide clarity and depth of thinking, spiritually to have a strong sense of values based on love and compassion for oneself and others and socially to be financially independent, with a healthy relationship with family and community.

He teaches the practice of a five-minute miracle that helps the individual to focus positive energy toward any specific outcome with relationships or situations.

He draws four sublime attitudes called the Brahma Viharas which are also mentioned by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra: Metta (Maitri) – loving friendliness to all, Karuna – compassion to all, Mudita – joy in another’s accomplishments and Upekka (Upeksha) – equanimity in accepting both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure with detachment.

www.lovingsilence.org

Friday, July 25, 2008

Xlers in Bangalore - check (post blasts)

Just saw the reports about the Bomb blasts in Bangalore.

Hope all Xlers and their families are safe along with most others.

The news says that there have been only 3 casualties. I hope that number doesn't change.

Cell phones aren't working, but internet networks seem to be ok. So if anyone wants to check in that they are fine or want to find out about someone you can post a comment on this entry.

I will also update the details that I know.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Mini Meet in California

There was a small meet at Tipu (IR 96)'s house in California last Saturday.

Tipu says : "Attended by Suresh Mohan, Kieran Gonsalves, Ratna Kibe & Shailley - thanks for keeping the XL flag flying. Meghna & Mahesh, we missed you. December might be a good time for our next gettogether. Till then, cheers!"

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

First "get together" in DC

Hi,

For the record, yesterday the first ever get together of XLers took place in Washington DC, with two attendees: myself (BMD 1972) and Bhavesh Shah (BMD 1997).

I am based in Jakarta, Indoesia, visiting USA for a holiday and Bhavesh is based in DC, both originating from Mumbai (which we kept calling "Bombay").

So the topic during the get together was mostly "how things are/were back home in Mumbai and now in DC/ASEAN".

Bhavesh, excellent job in organising this first ever XLers' get together in DC and be ready for a larger one next time, when we can locate some more XLers in this part of the world!

C. G. (Shekhar) Moghe

Alumni Meet in NY on 19th evening

Folks!
it is finally final! ;0)... though at the last minute
since, from the communications some of us have been having, 23rd did not seem to be convenient for most, Fr Abraham and Dr Singh have changed their commitments and are free on 19th Saturday evening.
The venue will be:
COROMANDEL CUSINE OF INDIA,
30 Division Street,
New Rochelle,
New York, 10801,
Phone: 914 235 8390
on July 19th Saturday. 5pm
RSVP: Jose Kurian 77PMIR
The place used to be owned by Jose Kurian 77PMIR, (and used to be called Abhilash Cuisine of India). Please confirm with him to enable him to do the necessary reservations
A map to the venue is as below:

have fun
ciao
madhukar

Virtual Tour Through XL

While much is written about XL culture, bonding, activities, achievements, placements, rankings, etc,... nothing much is available online about the XL Campus...

A BIG gap!! - since XL Campus has changed over last 10yrs... no! actually during last 5yrs.... well, actually even within last 1 year or so...

To fill up this gap, I have made "Virtual Tour through the XLRI Campus", and have put it here:
http://lifeatxl.blogspot.com/
(Note: you can manage the slide transition by taking the curser to the bottom of the photo)
have a look! :0)
madhukar

To actually know "HOW much" - across decades - one would need to look at this slideshow as well ;0)
ciao
madhukar

London Alumni Meet - Saturday 19 July @ the Exchange, Soho

All

Just to confirm our meet this Saturday. Are you all looking forward to it?!

My number is below but the bar should be easy enough to get to (see link to map below), so please don't leave yourself to the mercy of my skill in giving proper directions in London.

See you all there from 6.45PM onwards. If you expect to be very late please drop me an email with your ETA but I really recommend everyone gets there early-ish so we can chat a little before it starts to get busy. Also, if you are going to have a companion not accounted for earlier, just let me know.

Come to the reserved area at the back. There should be signs saying XLRI in Polish*.

Shariq

------------------------------
* I know this will confuse some people, so I should point out that this was a joke. The signs will simply say "XLRI". For those curious (for some absurd reason) about how to say XLRI in Polish, try DSPI (Donovan Stosunków Pracy Instytutu)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Brajesh Bajpai (BMD 96) - The Global Manager

From Business Today

The Global Manager
Anusha Subramanian
June 25, 2008

. . . Brajesh Bajpai, 37, an alumnus of XLRI's Class of 1996, is the Regional Head, Middle East and North Africa at Mumbai-based FMCG major Marico, which he joined in 2006 as Country Head for Egypt, after spending over a decade with PepsiCo in India across functions as diverse as Sales, Marketing, Operations and Franchise & Brand Management. He has played a key role in the establishment and consolidation of Marico's operations in West Asia and North Africa. . .

. . . Bajpai and Katikala Natrajan represent a growing breed of global managers who have become a necessity in the rapidly globalising world of business. What’s apparent from the brief biographies of the three is that they have the talent and training to efficiently manage businesses in alien and cross-cultural settings. . .

. . . Taking a somewhat radical view, Bajpai says: “It is simply not possible to create a global manager. However, one important trait of a global manager is the ability to handle ambiguity and change. The person should have an open approach to life and situations.” . . .

Professor Venugopal and the institute are also covered in the article.

XLRI’s P. Venugopal:Tackling global challenges is the mantra
P. Venugopal
. . . Says P. Venugopal, Dean, XLRI Jamshedpur: “It has become important for students to be prepared to take on global challenges.”XLRI does this through its student exchange programme with B-schools in the US, France, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Belgium and Sweden. It sends its brightest students to spend the September-December term in their second year living and working abroad. Besides, it brings faculty from different countries to instil a global perspective in its students. . .

Read the Entire article here

Jampot Jalwa

From The Times of India

Jampot Jalwa
13 Jul 2008, 0242 hrs IST, Bella Jaisinghani,TNN

Imtiaz Ali, the long-haired, dreamy-eyed director who rocked audiences with his Jab We Met last year, has something in common with Madhavan, Simone Singh, Priyanka Chopra and Tanushree Dutta. Yeah, they're all serious eye-candy. But that apart, they all come from a city where Bollywood is considered more than a little infra dig.

Jamshedpur, a gleaming engineering oasis in the jungle of Bihar (now Jharkand), is a place where youngsters are traditionally bred to be managers and engineers courtesy leading institutes like NIT and XLRI.

This is the town that Jamshetji Tata built, whose spotless roads denizens claim you can eat off (we'd take that with a pinch of salt).

Most people here work for Tata affiliates TISCO and TELCO, and everyone knows everyone else. Jamshedpur has the highest per capita income in the country and is the only town whose municipality is governed by a corporate house. And then with all this, it has a serious flaw: it nurtures excellence and creativity and then presses the eject button.

The strange imbalance between an excellent school education and the absence of good colleges forces Jamshedpur's denizens to sever the umbilical cord with their birthplace in their late teens. Imtiaz Ali's passion for theatre drove him to Delhi; Madhavan walked the beaten path by taking a degree in engineering but veered to cinema. Simone Singh flew the nest early because her parents moved.

"It was an idyllic existence that allowed you the leisure to look out the window and dream a lot," she smiles. "My husband laughs because I still recall the flavour of the meatballs and hamburgers I ate at Beldih Club in my childhood."

Imtiaz points out that Jamshedpur is a small place that offers an enriched lifestyle (three golf courses, six swimming pools, billiards centres) and spawns talent but is walled in by a culture that does not allow for much interaction with the outside world. Summer Of 2007's screenwriter Bijesh Jayarajan, the newest Bollywoodian to emerge from Jamshedpur, feels the Tatas have taken care of everything except perhaps ambition. "There are few opportunities for progress," he says.

Madhavan explains the indifference to films here: though the "imperial culture" of the city is "in a class of its own", this translates into few cinema halls "so a career in films is not a highly rated option".

Simone recalls that Beldih screened only English films; Tanushree remembers watching just four films during her growing years—Henna, Hum Aapke Hain Koun,Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Virasat. "Seeing films was not encouraged at all," she says. "Only when my parents were away was I able to watch English films on TV. Later, once we moved to Pune, I mustered the courage to tell them that I wanted to join the glamour industry." Having bred their parenting skills in a place like Jamshedpur, they were "shell-shocked". Little wonder then that Tanushree is a rare Miss India contestant to emerge from this town. Imtiaz believes he is the first Hindi film director from Jamshedpur.

In Mumbai, the tribe comprising former schoolmates and basketball rivals meet occasionally, carrying forward a childhood bond forged over inter-school basketball games and "bird-watching". They appreciate one another's achievements whole-heartedly—the pitched rivalry between the highbrow Loyola students and the down-to-earth DBMS (Dabba Bartan Manjhnewala School, as the uncharitable joke goes) has evidently blurred in the struggle to make it outside Jamshedpur.

For a town that has no natives, for they all migrate after retirement, its once-denizens harbour a fierce loyalty, talking of ‘Jampot' with much warmth and affection. Interestingly, Imtiaz, Madhavan, Tanushree, Simone and Bijesh are all polite to a fault, even in their phone messages. Tanushree laughs and describes it as an effect of the "hellishly strict" schools in the town.

This upbringing has inspired confidence in Imtiaz who says he holds no prejudice in life save one. "If two equally qualified people came to work for me and one was from Jamshedpur, I would choose him over the other," he says. "Simply because I know he will be hard-working and will know how to talk to people."

Friday, July 11, 2008

Gaurav Saklani and Tarun Chandna '92 batch profiled in Business Today

From Business Today

Smells like team spirit
June 24, 2008

Google India’s 50-strong HR team was in for a surprise during their team building exercise at a resort in Coorg recently. Armed with percussion instruments, the corporate educator and his team were exhorting the Google team to take part in a samba performance.

Twisting by the pool: Qualcomm team leaders set sail with a cardboard boat at Hyderabad’s Golconda Resorts
Qualcomm team leaders at Hyderabad’s Golconda Resorts
Initially taken aback, the Google band was swaying to samba beats in unison within a couple of hours. “It was serious fun. Intrinsically, for Google, work is both challenging and fun. It fitted perfectly into our work philosophy,” says Narasimha Prasad, People Programs Manager, Google India. Team Google’s idea of serious fun was one of the 15-odd short duration (2-4 hours) modules of Catalyst India’s innovative teambuilding programs. Catalyst India is an offshoot of the UK-based Catalyst Global, and it has been promoted by Exper Education in India. Exper is founded by Tarun Chandna and Gaurav Saklani (cofounders of iDiscoveri Education) and CEO Jayant Kripalani, renowned actor and theatre personality.

Says Kripalani: “The first reaction of most team members is—‘I have never played these instruments in my life’. With these samba beats, what you think is impossible is made possible. There is a mindset change that happens in a span of two hours.”

Points out Prasad: “It was fun but there were key learnings as well. Unlike other training programmes, where the activities are exciting, but analysis leaves a lot to be desired, the Exper team analysed it brilliantly.” Team Google now swears by both Beatswork and Making the News (See Five Lessons Learnt).

Five lessons learnt

Here’s a snapshot of some of the Catalyst’s team-building activities.

  • Beatswork.Form a giant percussion band using the rhythms of samba

  • Making the News.Create front page news and get to the real story (Read: issues)

  • Fifteen Famous Minutes. Make 15-minute versions of famous movies

  • F1.Build a workable F1 car out of cardboard where aerodynamics, traction, steering all come into play

  • Kontiki.Make poolworthy boats out of cardboard

Breaking the Silos

What’s “serious fun” for Google translates into breaking the silos for Hewlett-Packard (HP). In mid-June this year, a group of around 65 executives from the R&D arm of HP’s Systems Technology and Software Division (STSD) assembled at a luxury hotel in downtown Bangalore for an offsite, a term used to describe an official meeting outside a company’s office or campus. While most offsites are fairly dour affairs, involving day-long sessions of meetings and long-winded presentations, the team took an unusual path this time around, opting to use a bespoke teambuilding exercise to try and invigorate their exercise. The 2,000-person R&D unit had a good reason to take this offbeat route; a new General Manager and Vice President, Rick Steffens, had just taken over as the new head and he needed to get to know his employees and the different teams that operated in India.

Team Catalyst: (From left) Gaurav Saklani, Tarun Chandna, Jayant Kripalani, Puneet Palaha and Saurabh Saklani
Team Catalyst
Adopting an unorthodox approach, HP employees were asked to design the front page of a newspaper to give their new boss insights into their business and the structure of their teams. “We had a non-Indian heading this business unit for the first time; we had to use this page to give Rick an understanding of the key message we wanted to convey to the organisation,” says Dinesh Sharma, Director, Business & Strategy and Operations, STSD, HP India.

Over the course of the day, HP employees considered different facets of their business, covering the history of the business in India, its growth, strengths, weaknesses, challenges and also the opportunities for the unit. “We wanted to make the leadership transition as seamless as possible nd this technique helped us attain this goal,” says Sharma.

Prior to this exercise, HP has also used Catalyst to hasten and improve decision making at other business units. “We found that decision making was restricted to independent silos and it had become hard to make disparate business groups collaborate on projects,” says Sharma. But, as a result of these initiatives, HP was able to break down these invisible walls and speed up the entire process.

For their part, when 180 employees of Walt Disney Company (India) tapped their feet to samba beats in April, they were looking at the rhythm of their future. What helped them decipher that was another module: Making the News (See Five Lessons Learnt) that asked them to bring out the Disney growth story in India, five year hence. The employees were divided into groups and were asked to write a future newspaper about Disney India. Each group had its distinct version of what the future will hold for Disney. However, the story that unfolded through the eyes of the employees was that of technology, innovation and creativity.

Says Subhasis Mishra, Head of HR, Walt Disney Company (India): “Be it making music as a group or creating a newspaper for the future, the modules got our teams thinking and together at the same time.” What’s unique about this approach is that “it brings in the unexpected and makes corporate messages simple and fun for all,” says Mishra.

Pool of possibilities

That’s exactly what the Qualcomm team discovered in early June. Little did Tyler C. Moore, Manager, Global Staffing, HR, expect that a game using blindfolds could end up building trust within his India team members, that pushing marbles down a tube could bring out the importance of team bonding while handling a process or that building blocks in a puzzle could let his team see the big picture compared to a focus on individual detailing.

Not surprising, Moore, who has the India staffing team reporting to him, is visibly happy. By mid-day, he was not surprised when he and his eight other team members (from across the country) were informed of the next task on hand by Kripalani.

Rhythm divine: Walt Disney employees tune in to samba beats
Walt Disney employees tune in to samba beats
The Qualcomm team was told that in the next two hours they would need to build a real boat from five big cardboard sheets and actually put it to use. The aids made available were only the cutting tools, pens and some drawings on how to build such a boat. Moore and his team at Qualcomm did better and put it together in just 90 minutes and as required, wrapped it in a plastic sheet and actually rowed it across a swimming pool.

At the end of it all, Moore was amazed at how the exercise helped generate lots of fun, and at the same time allowed team members to relate to their real life work environments. He should know, for Moore had earlier attended other team-building exercises but this, he feels, was very different and out of the box. “Others have been either more academic or classroom-type sessions or there were things like say a whale-watching tour, where the team got to spend time together, which was great, but there was little gained that one could relate back to work.’’

Boat-making, says Kripalani, was a task that had an element of fun but which simulated a real life work-under-pressure environment. People in the team had to debate, resolve conflicts and reach a resolution and in good time or the project would sink.

And if all that proves inadequate, you always have the samba to catch the rhythm of team-building.

If You're in Chicago on 16th - join in the XL Get-Together

Folks!
On behalf of Avijit Ghosh - 74BMD I am passing on an invitation for an evening together to meet and welcome Fr E Abraham, and Dr Jittu Singh

If you have not already RSVP'd, a confirmation to him will be appreciated.
have fun
madhukar


July 16th
5:30pm-7:30pm

University Club of Chicago
75 East Monroe Street
(Corner of Monroe & Michigan)

Book Release : Dr. Ramesh Subramanian (84 batch)

From amazon.com

Computer Security, Privacy and Politics: Current Issues, Challenges and Solutions

Product Description
The intersection of politics, law, privacy, and security in the context of computer technology is both sensitive and complex. Computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spy-ware, computer exploits, poorly designed software, inadequate technology laws, politics and terrorism all of these have a profound effect on our daily computing operations and habits, with major political and social implications.

Computer Security, Privacy and Politics: Current Issues, Challenges and Solutions connects privacy and politics, offering a point-in-time review of recent developments of computer security, with a special focus on the relevance and implications of global privacy, law, and politics for society, individuals, and corporations. An estimable addition to any library collection, this reference source compiles high quality, timely content on such cutting-edge topics as reverse engineering of software, understanding emerging computer exploits, emerging lawsuits and cases, global and societal implications, and protection from attacks on privacy.

About the Author
Ramesh Subramanian is the Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems at the School of Business, Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Dr. Subramanian received his Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems and M.B.A. from Rutgers University, NJ. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma (Honors) in Management from XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur, India, and a Bachelor of Applied Sciences from Madras University, India. Dr. Subramanian s research interests include Information Systems Strategy, Technology and Culture, Cross Cultural Issues, Security, Historical and Philosophical underpinnings of IS/IT, Digital Asset Management, E-commerce Peer-to-Peer computing and IT education. He has published and presented several papers in these areas. Hi edited book Peer-to-Peer Computing: The Evolution of a Disruptive Technology (co-editor B.D. Goodman) was published by Idea Group Publishing in 2005.
Product Details

* Hardcover: 300 pages
* Publisher: IRM Press (March 28, 2008)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1599048043
* ISBN-13: 978-1599048048

Thursday, July 10, 2008

More Pictures of the Canada meet

Here are the photos of the picnic. It was really nice touching base with XLers, especially for me as I am hardly ever in Toronto. KNV - thanks for making it all the way from NJ.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lansnet/XLPicnic20080706?authkey=vA0KTahCS84


Enjoy,
Srini

Thursday, July 3, 2008

XLRI welcomes Author, Army Major for GMP Class of ‘08

Jamshedpur – XLRI, One of the oldest Management Institutes of Asia has welcomed students for GMP its one year full time General Management Program. The Institute has increased its intake from 60 to 100 this year following increased demand from corporate world.

The incoming class profile represents an interesting mix of students from diverse sectors. To name a few, a writer who has authored text books for Graduate studies and an Army major who has served on Indo-Pakistan border in Kashmir. The class has an average experience of 7 years with professionals from Shipping, Power Generation, Retail, R&D, Automobile, IT & Telecom, Indian Engineering services and many other sectors. This year only 2.5 % of the applicants could make it to the hallowed campus, making it one of the Asia’s toughest General MBA program to gain admission to.

What brings these elite professionals into this programme is the extent of learning offered through GMP & a chance to realize their true potential. As Captain Samir Ranjan, a student puts it “After having worked in shipping industry for 12 years I felt an MBA would add the right vigor & zest to my career. Nearly 40% of the class has worked on multiple international assignments, which adds a unique dimension to the learning of these participants.

The students represented middle to senior management in organizations such as General Motors, DRDO, WalMart, Suzlon, V-Ships, Alcatel-Lucent, NTPC, Cognizant, Infosys, Accenture, Oracle, TCS, SAP Labs, HAL, Mahindra and many more.

So, what’s on their plate for next 1 Year – they will brainstorm for solutions to the emerging challenges that businesses face in 21st Century. The batch will also attend a 3 week International immersion program to learn nuances of International business. The outgoing batch had an average of 2 jobs per participant with an average domestic package of 17.8 lakhs and International package of $130000 per annum.

London XLRI Alumni Meet - Saturday 19 July

Hello all

Pleased to report that we now have a venue for our get together, which I trust will be easy for everyone to get to as it's as central as it gets.

Venue: The Exchange Bar
Address: Gerard St (Soho / Chinatown) London W1D 6JA
Date:
Saturday, 19 July
Time:
6:45PM onwards
Dress code: Relaxed urban chic (OK seriously, wear whatever you want)
Closest tube: Piccadilly Circus / Leicester Square
Entry: FREE! (look for the reserved area at the back)
Ambience:
Industrial / Shoreditch vibe with live DJs and lots of space inhabited by smart people of all ages
Map: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=529784&y=180836&z=0&sv=W1D+6JA&st=2&pc=W1D+6JA&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
rsvp: Shariq (contact details below)

Please confirm attendance to ME (i.e. not to the entire group) ASAP (PLEASE!), and mention the following:

Name
Email
Mobile
Batch
Name of spouse (if attending), along with batch (if from XL)

I'll circulate details later of any special deals we manage to get at the bar, but expect an affordable array of cocktails and gourmet pizzas in a rare relaxed West End venue with a Shoreditch vibe in the heart of Chinatown!

Shariq Siddiqui (BMD 2001)