Saturday, March 28, 2009

28 Mar : Bangalore observes Earth Hour

2,712 cities, towns and municipalities in 83 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.
8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth. Saturday 28 March 2009
You may have heard about Earth Hour or seen an advertisement or hoarding in Bangalore city. Some of my friends in Bangalore have been actively promoting Earth Hour - a huge global campaign to spread awareness about global warming and climate change.
If you want to be a part of this campaign, all you need to do is switch off your lights this Sat (Mar 28) from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

Some huge organizations in India are joining this campaign, the RBI, AIR (yes, govt bodies!), ING Vysya Bank, HSBC Bank, HP, Wipro, Intel, Infosys, Google, and TPI.

Even better, get your friends and families to switch off their lights too. There’s a whole bunch of activities and resources that you can get on this from www.frogg.in.

If you would like to take it a step further, you can join the candle campaign at Forum mall at 8:30pm on Saturday. Thanks to the efforts of passionate individuals like Kuruvilla Kurian and Sonalee Panda, even Brigade Road Association and Forum Mall have agreed to observe Earth Hour and turn lights out for a whole hour on Saturday. They have also signed up Anil Kumble to help them promote the cause in Bangalore. (

More details on Earth Hour, can be seen on :

http://www.earthhour.org/home/
http://www.earthhour.in/
http://www.frogg.in/

Join the Fan Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59682824420

Show your commitment to the environment. Save our planet!

XLRI achieves 100% placement

From Business Standard

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources, Jamshedpur (XLRI Jamshedpur), has completed its final placement procedure with all its 180 students getting placed.

The highest salary offered this year was Rs 22 lakh, while the highest international offer this year was $110,000. Around 76 companies visited the campus this year and made 193 offers to a batch of 180 students. The average domestic salary package offered this year was Rs 12.12 lakh per annum.

This year companies were conservative in terms of pre-placement offers (PPOs), with 30 PPOs being offered. Around eight students ventured with their own niche business plans.

Last year, 57 companies came to campus and made 298 offers to a batch of 180 students. The average domestic offer last year was Rs 14.75 lakh and the highest domestic offer was Rs 28 lakh. Around 12 international offers were made with an average of $90,000, while the highest was $100,000.

Despite news about job cuts, recruitments in human resources continued in the consulting, FMCG and finance sector for international banks and group companies alike. Various specialised roles were offered, such as the one by global pharmaceuticals major, Novartis, offering its HR leadership role at Basel, Switzerland, exclusively to XLRI, making the highest international offer of $110,000.

XLRI’s commitment to promoting and fostering entrepreneurship received a boost this year. With the introduction of deferred placements for students starting out on their own, XLRI established a new legacy in promoting nation builders. This year saw the launch of three startups. Also, one student signed out with deferred placements.

XLRI recently raised close to Rs 14 lakh from its alumni network and other donations towards its XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust. The Singapore chapter has also generated close to SGD 5,000. This would go towards the seed fund reserved for student entrepreneurs.

Notwithstanding the financial crisis, XLRI maintained its stand as a premier finance destination with 30 per cent of the total offers coming from the financial sector. Offers were received in investment banking, treasury, corporate finance, commercial banking and insurance. The domestic investment banks were led by Centrum and SBI Capital. Banks such as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda offered roles in their treasury and foreign exchange desks as well as their corporate and retail banking functions.

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recruited from XLRI for the first time, while roles in trading were offered by Futures First. The insurance sector recruited in their product development and distribution functions. Firms such as Bharti AXA, HDFC Ergo, ICICI Lombard and ICICI Prudential offered product structuring roles to students. Corporate finance roles were offered by the likes of Pepsi, L&T, Tata Steel, among others.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

XLRI Alumni (98) Ministhy vs. Mulayam

Ministhy Dileep (XLRI 98 batch) the current District Magistrate and Returning Officer of Mainpuri, UP has been publicly threatend by SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav for cancelling SP workers’ illegal gun licences.

We support Ministhy for her conscientious and brave effort to enforce the law and ensure free and fair elections.

Join the Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=63935026827

Read the Reports on :
CNN IBN
GG's Blog
Express India

Sunday, March 22, 2009

XL Get-Together in London (March 28th, 2009)

Hello Folks!
some of "us" - actually about 30 of us (list below)- are meeting in London on 28th March evening for an XL get-together.
So if you are around - or know someone any XLer, who is around - please ask him/her to connect with - and join in! :
Reena Dayal (93PMIR)
and/or
Garima Garg (01PMIR)

ciao
madhukar
ps: "us" means that I am also gate-crashing :0))
Confirmed List:
Mrs and Mr Ashok Aranha (1972 BM)
Vikas Garg and Ria George
Gaurav Singh 1991 BM
Prateep Sen 1992 BM
Sumeet (1993 PM) and Shefali Salwan (1993 PM)
Reena (1993 PM) and Arun
Sameer Devgan (1995 BM)
Dhritman Mukherjee (1996 BM)
Badri (1997 PM), Prerana (1997 PM), Madhav and Sharanya
Amit Banthiya (1997 BM)
Suraj (1997 BM) and Menka (1997 PM)
Bappaditya Basu (1997 PM)
Ganesh Iyer (1998)
Rhia Mukherjee (2001 BM)
Garima (2001 PM), Nikhil and Arhan
Akita (2001 BM) and Shashi Lakhotia
Shariq (2001 BM)
Abhijit (2002 BM) and Shashwati Deb
Smriti Sinha (2002 BM)
Maryann (2002 PM) and Shailesh (2002 PM)
Gaurav Gooptu (2003 BM)
Nidhi Kajaria (2003 PM)
Debasri Ghosh (2003 BM)
Divya (2005 PM) and Aditya
Dinesh Daddala (2005 BM)
Abhishek Pandey (2007 GMP)

Friday, March 20, 2009

XLRI Aims for Global Accreditation

From The Telegraph

B-school aims for global tag

Jamshedpur, March 18: In a quest to match global standards, XLRI is inching towards an international accreditation.

The B-school has applied to the Association of Management Development Institutes in South Asia for getting the South Asian Quality Assurance System (SAQS) accreditation. A four-member team from the association visited the B-school campus today to carry out an assessment.

SAQS is the South Asian system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. SAQS is the quality assurance scheme as a service to management education worldwide. Its fundamental objective is to raise the quality and standard of management education.

A four-member peer review team, comprising A.H. Kalro, the former director of IIM, Kozhikode, and executive director of AES Post Graduate Institute of Business Management, Ahmedabad; Abdul Mannam, a professor of School of Business Administration, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh; C.S. Venkataratnam, the director of International Management Institute, New Delhi; and C.D. Kamath, the managing director of Tata Refractories Ltd, visited the campus from March 16-18. The team will submit their report to the association and results are expected in April.

This is the first international accreditation that XLRI has applied for. With more tie-ups with international business schools across the world, international accreditation will help the B-school. A global accreditation can help B-schools notch up global placements, get potential international recruiters, add to its student exchange programmes and recruit internationally-qualified faculty.

The tag will also help the B-school to apply for further international accreditation like European Quality Improvement System and the Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business.


Thursday, March 5, 2009

B-schools assist student-entrepreneurs

From Business Standard

Business Standard (Kolkata March 03, 2009, 0:19 IST): While venture capitalists (VCs) are reluctant to fund several entrepreneurial ideas this year, a few of the country’s B-schools are helping student entrepreneurs to go ahead with their own ventures by providing seed funds, mentorship and using the alumni network to raise funds and get in touch with useful contacts.

While many B-schools and IITs have introduced deferred-placement-policy, which enables students to take a break from placements for a maximum period of two years and even come back for it in case the venture does not kick off, students, on the other hand, have been making progress with the funds provided by respective institutes and alumni networks.

Though the final placement season is likely to continue for another month in many B-schools, several students have already put their business ideas in place.

XLRI Jamshedpur is the forerunner so far, with as many as three business plans in place.

According to Madhukar Shukla, a professor at XLRI, “XLRI recently raised close to Rs 14 lakh from its alumni network and other donations towards its XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust. The Singapore chapter has also generated close to SGD 5,000. This would go towards the seed fund reserved for student entrepreneurs. Right now, the students are looking to generate more funds to complete the various orders they are receiving from companies on a trial basis.”

“As many as seven students may opt out of placements this year. Each venture needs large funding. If the students are able to get it, which is a work-in-progress, they will opt out of placements. Otherwise, one person from the team will stay with the venture, while the others will perhaps take up a a job to keep the venture going... but for sure, whichever way, the ventures will continue,” Shukla said.

‘Parichay’, an initiative by XLRI students, is a venture to connect rural and tribal artisans and craftsmen to the mainstream market. According to the student body handling Parichay, a large part of India’s traditional rural and tribal art is dying because the artisans, being disconnected from the market, have not been able to contemporise their designs, and since they have no direct access to the market, they do not find their work remunerative enough to continue.

The students have roped in a few designers, who have developed product-prototypes for them, and are negotiating with NIFT, Pearle Academy and others, who have shown interest to send their students for internship.

The Parichay members have also built the ‘Learning & Design Centre’, where the rural tribal artisans are being trained to develop the product prototypes. The students are also in the initial stages of negotiation with Nabard, which has shown interest in the venture. The ‘Parichay’ team has already got close to Rs 3 lakh as seed funding from XLRI, and has also generated some funds through the prize money in various competitions.

Another initiative by the students of XLRI is ‘Swavalamban’, a venture that aims to use ‘ox-driven generator’ (a technology patented by a BIT Mesra professor of 20 years’ standing, and a known name in the renewable energy circles) to provide electricity to the villages in Jharkhand. So far, the Swavalamban team has an order from the Jharkhand Renewable Agency Development Agency (JREDA), and has also got sanction from the Jharkhand tribal minister to electrify one village as a working ‘proof of concept’. Tata Motors’ CSR department and SEEDS (an NGO) have showed interest by ordering five units each for testing in their villages, while NTPC has shown interest to acquire 200 units at a research level. Larsen & Toubro has seen the prototype, and in principle agreed to acquire some for their CSR activities.

A third project, Dream4Others, is the youngest of all ventures at XLRI. The venture aims to use online market surveys to generate funds for registered NGOs. It is being mentored by a director at A C Neilson.

Likewise, at Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) Bangalore, at least two students are opting out of placements this year to pursue a project that converts petrol-run two wheelers into CNG-led vehicles. According to Nigel Job, one of the two students opting out of placements to pursue this venture, “This project ensures savings of close to Rs 6,000 every year on fuel prices and is eco-friendly too. Our project will convert two wheelers which are running on petrol to CNG.”

“The start up cost is close to Rs 15 lakh. We are talking to National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) and a few venture capitalists for the funds,” informed Ranju George, another student who is opting out of XIME Bangalore placements this year to pursue this venture.

At S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, first-year student Praveen Gera plans to start a venture on manufacturing auto-ancillary parts made from carbon fibre, which is expected to ensure longer life with smooth and durable texture. “Around Rs 1.3 crore is the capital required for this project. There are four of us involved in this project and we intend to opt out of placements next year to pursue this project. Our institute helps students with seed fund of up to Rs 20 lakh,” Gera said.

At IIM Calcutta, at least two first-year students are opting out of summer placements to pursue their own ventures. Pranav Kumar, a first-year student of IIM Calcutta, has decided to pursue a venture on mobile value-added-services. He, with his team of six others, has started ‘Mobme’, a social networking venture on mobile. “The entrepreneurship cell at IIMC is helping us meet several venture capitalists. We are also looking at angel funding for our venture,” said Pranav Kumar.

Likewise, Pathikrit Ghosh, another first-year student of IIMC, has decided to opt out of summer placements to start a consultancy project, offering consultancy services for sectors such as energy, sales and marketing, human resource, and others. “This is a low-capital business and would need close to Rs 2 lakh to start off,” said Ghosh. Abhishek Nagaraj, another first-year student at IIM Calcutta is planning a social networking site on videos. “It will be a Wikipedia centred on video. I already have a prototype and the start-up cost is very little and manageable,” Nagaraj said.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pune Alumni Picnic - 15 March

Hi All

The Pune xlgroup is planning a Trip Out this 15th March. Venue of the Trip is yet to be decided, I have suggested Garudmachi - 75 Kms from Pune, 140 kms from Mumbai.

This link will give an idea about Garudmachi:

http://www.hpmpl.com/garudmaachi.html

This link has the maps of reaching to Garudmachi from Mumbai and Pune

http://www.hpmpl.com/garudmaachi_outdoor.html

The Arrangements described in the webpages are property of High Places consultancy who run their Outdoor Training and Management Development centre at Garudmachi.

Regards
Avijit