Conversations with Female Contract Workers

These conversations with women contract labours in Jamshedpur were recorded by two XL students (Madhu Bala and Mahima) of the "Intro to Social Entrepreneurship" course @ XLRI during their field visit. These women get 10-15 days of work in a month, mostly at Rs 90-110/day for manual work on construction sites, which may last between 10-15hrs - with no creches, toilets, or drinking water facilities..

The family income varies between Rs 2000-4000 depending upon how many members work. Some had bank accounts, but hardly any savings. The daily struggle to survive would leave them ever-suspended in a present, with hardly any thoughts about their future. But what could be a "hope" is that they shared their assets/ resources with each other in the "basti", were less bothered/bound by "caste", and sent their children to school, as much as they could...

XLRI to launch agri biz mgmt course with Ikisan

From The Financial Express

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources and Hyderabad-based Ikisan Ltd is launching a six-month certificate programme in agri business management in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

It's in the form of an ‘agri portal’, promoted by the Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, thus extending management education online to the agricultural sector.

The online certificate programme in agri business management, whose first session commences from the last week of August 2009, aims at equipping agricultural graduates and agri-business field assistants in undertaking marketing and sales jobs in the agri-business sector.

Speaking to FE from Hyderabad on Tuesday, XLRI dean Prof P Venugopal said the B-School was looking forward to enrolling around 100 students from all over the country for the first batch, through an academic merit-cum-interview process. The course fee has been kept at Rs 45,000.

Some of the B-School’s existing faculty along with some agri industry experts have been involved in designing the course, which would have a compulsory industry visit, the XLRI dean said.

Although IIM, Ahmedabad runs a two-year full time management course for the agriculture sector, none of the leading B-Schools today have a short duration management course for the sector.

XLRI logs in for farm crash course - Six-month online certificate programme being launched in association with Hyderabad-based Ikisan

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, July 28: After business management courses, XLRI is ready to enter the field of online agriculture.

The premier B-school is collaborating with Hyderabad-based Ikisan, a web agriculture portal promoted by Nagarjuna Group, to run a six-month online certificate programme in agri-business management.

The objective of the course, which will be launched in Hyderabad tomorrow, is to prepare graduates and postgraduates for marketing and sales roles in the agriculture sector.

“Not core agriculture studies but agriculture management is what we are offering to students. XLRI has successfully formulated the programme, which will be yet another way of online learning for those interested in the marketing, management and agriculture. This venture was in the XLRI’s agenda for quite sometime,” said P. Venugopal, dean (academics) of XLRI, who is in Hyderabad to launch the course.

The agri-business management will be on an online self-learning course. Registered students can download study material from the Ikisan website. However, students will be free to interact with the XLRI faculty through e-mails or other means. Students will have to avail online tests on the Ikisan website.

XLRI will also organise industrial visits for more exposure.

Students who are pursuing their final-year bachelors or masters degree in agriculture or are in allied sectors will be eligible for the programme. Freshers would need to have at least two years experience in agri-business for being eligible to apply.

Registrations will be open twice during an academic year — in August and January. The course fee will be Rs 45,000 per student.

“We are trying to run the programme for about 100 students. The special feature of the programme is stress on self-learning but students can also call up the faculty for clarifications,” said Venugopal.

Among other institutes that offer such programmes are the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Institute of Rural Management, Anand. IIMA conducts a postgraduate agro-business management programme that prepares students for a career in enterprises related to agriculture and allied sectors. IRMA also offers a two-year postgraduate programme in rural management, divided into classroom studies, fieldwork, organisational and management traineeship.

Soldiers turn grads at XLRI

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, July 18: Warriors donned the gown and cap instead of their military uniform for the fifth graduation ceremony of the executive management programme for defence officers at XLRI’s Father Prabhu Hall today.

This year, 49 officers from armed forces graduated from here — 43 from the army, four from the Indian Air Force and two from the Indian Navy. XLRI launched the certificate programme in business management for defence personnel in 2007 at the request of the Union ministry of human resource development who perceived the need to resettle servicemen. The programme was designed in association with the directorate-general of resettlement, ministry of defence, for officers seeking a career in the corporate world. The event was designed keeping in mind the needs of the business world with the aspirations of the service officers.

Saroj Vinayak, the director-general of ordnance factories and chairman of Ordnance Factory Board, Calcutta, was the chief guest at the function. She presented certificates to those who successfully completed the course.

Vinayak encouraged the students to take on the challenges of the corporate world. “The present corporate atmosphere offers a number of complex challenges for students. Dedication, hard work, sincere efforts and courage are essential sills for overcoming the challenges,” she added.

Vinayak urged students to pay heed to their inner voice while taking important decisions in life. “The inner voice of a person helps him take crucial decisions,” said Vinayak.

Institute officials pointed out that they got officers from distinctive educational backgrounds — engineering, medicine, management, commerce, architecture, basic sciences and arts — with experience ranging from six to 34 years.

The six-month programme equips participants with basic concepts and skills of all functional areas of management along with an area of specialisation, thus enabling them to find a career in the corporate world. During the course, for which enrolment began on February 2, students took part in quiz contests and undertook various assignments.

“The corporate sector has expressed keen interest in batches comprising a good blend of officers who are set to face challenges. Our course allows a smooth transition and re-orientation for officers towards a life and career as business managers and entrepreneurs,” said E. Abraham, the director of XLRI.

3rd Batch of Defence Batch Graduates

From The Telegraph

XLRI director E. Abraham awards a student. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, June 26: The third defence officers’ batch of the executive management programme at XLRI graduated today at a function held on the B-school campus.

XLRI launched the certificate programme in business management for the defence personnel on January 14, 2007, and 59 officers graduated from the present batch.

The programme for defence officers was launched on the request of central ministry of human resource development, which perceived the need for resettlement of officers.

The batch comprises engineers, doctors and air traffic controllers, mountaineers, naval aviators and submariners with experience ranging from five to 30 years of service.

Professor Pranabesh Ray, the course in-charge, said: “The executive management programme has been designed keeping in mind the needs of the business world with the aspirations of the service officers. This programme has been structured to focus on the theoretical formulation and is designed to augment and adapt the officers’ varied experience to disciplines and functional areas relevant to management of business.”

The programme equipped the students with basic skills of all functional areas of management thereby enabling them to find a second career in the corporate world.

Bhushan Raina, the managing director of the Tinplate Company of India Limited, was the chief guest at the graduation ceremony.

Addressing students he said: “From defence officers to management personnel — it’s a huge transition. All the officers are already efficient managers as in their previous career they always had some uncertainty to deal with.”

Based on their academic excellence Captain Kavita M., Colonel Krishna Dev Singh and Captain Esha were awarded the first, second and third ranks, respectively.

XLRI trains specialised batch for ICICI Pru, looks for more

From The Financial Express

Jamshedpur, Jun 14
XLRI, the premier business school, on Saturday produced its first batch of students trained specifically for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co in coordination with the insurance major.

Following the successful training of 56 students in the one-year management programme, XLRI said it is now looking for more such company/industry-specific tie-ups for meeting their human resource (HR) needs.

While the initial MoU had been only for two batches, it is expected that the two institutions would, after a review, agree to continue with the programme.

"According to Prof TAS Vijaya Raghavan, XLRI's associate dean for international & corporate programmes, the next course for around 55-60 students, which takes off in mid-August, would be catering to an insurance company's "higher managerial grade needs".

Eligible candidates for the course are screened by talent acquisition Companies hired by ICICI Prudential, short-listed, and sent to XLRI for the final selection to be done by the B-School.

With the insurance industry in India witnessing unprecedented growth, both XLRI and ICICI Prudential perceived the need for such a programme.

XLRI is in talks with the HCL group as well as with Sterlite Industries for running a one-year programme on human capital management.

"We are looking at our internal resources and have still not committed; subject to the director's and the Companies' approval we may consider that," added Raghavan.

The emphasis of the ICICI Prudential programme is both on general management concepts as well as on intensive training in the insurance and finance domain.

The module in general management covers marketing, statistics and economics, organizational behaviour and personality development, business communication, business strategy as well as legal aspects in business and information technology.

A two-month internship at the end of the course came in as a good "hands-on" experience for the 56 students who received the post-graduate certificate in management and insurance here today.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has assured the students employment as executive trainees in the company offering MBA-equivalent compensation.

XL's 1-yr Exec-MBA Placement (Mumbai Feb 9th-16th) work-ex: 7.5yrs average

Note:
For more information for the following, please contact:
gmpplacement[at]xlri[.]ac[.]in
Srinidhi Vavle

================
As many of you may be knowing, since 1997, XLRI has a full-time 1 year Executive MBA program (1000 contact class hours).

Since last year, XLRI is also providing the placement facilities to them (given the difference in profile and coursework, this process is separate from the placement process of the 2 year course). Last year’s placement got an average number of offers per candidate equaling 2.16 and average salary for domestic offers being 15 Lakhs INR.

This year's placement will be taking place in Mumbai during Feb 9th-16th at

Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Convention Centre
2 & 3B, Near Chinmayanand Ashram; Powai,
Mumbai - 400 087
(list of companies participating in the recruitment process is pasted below)

The current batch consists of 55 self-sponsored students

Minimum Work-Ex: 5 yrs
Average Work-Ex: 7.5 yrs

Experience in diverse sectors such as Airline, Energy, FMCG, Banking, Government Services, IT & ITES, Management Consultancy, Manufacturing, Shipping and Telecom.

Functions handled: Operations (30%), IT/Consulting (25%), Marketing (17%), Engineering (15%), Finance (10%), R&D (3%)

Average age: 29yrs

Detail Profiles can be downloaded from:
http://www.xlri.ac.in/downloads/GMP-Profiles-2007-08.pdf

If you know someone who would be interested, please pass on this information

Companies Participating in the Placement (Feb 9th-16th, 2008):

Accenture Consulting
Ashok Leyland
Barclays Tech Centre
Cairn Energy
CTS
DLF Ltd
ENIL(Times Group)
Frost & Sullivan
Genpact
Hexaware
HP
IBM
ICRA
IMACS
Inautix
ITC Infotech
Jindal (JSW)
Jindal Stainless
Jindal Steel & Power
L&T
L&T Infotech
Meghraj Finance
Mindtree
O3 Capital
Patni
Photon Infotech
Reliance ADAG
RPG
Satyam
SBI Caps
SKS Microfinance
Tata Motors
Tata Power
Tata Steel
Tata Trent
TCS
TechMahindra
VSNL

Want to halt attrition? Go to XLRI

From Business Standard

XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business and Human Resources, has drawn up a number of courses this financial year for companies to help combat attrition rate across industries.

These are expected to help managers and senior-level executives, especially HR personnel and team-leaders, to understand ways to retain employees and manage teams effectively.

Beginning November this year, a series of courses at XLRI will train managers in manpower planning, recruitment and selection, performance, career and succession management, managing and coping with the trauma associated with mergers and acquisitions, technological change, training, development and redeployment problems, retention and motivation strategies, empowerment and team-building, redundancy and downsising.

According to XLRI officials, the success of managerial efforts largely depend on the executives’ ability to develop and sustain team-spirit among the people under his or her care, both as a team member as well as a team leader.

The interpersonal skills for building and working in teams, and for managing conflicts, become essential prerequisites for managers as team leaders.

The new courses are therefore designed to help participants learn how to manage their own styles and orientations, while influencing others as leaders in their teams.

The courses will also help to understand the dynamics of peoples’ interaction within team members and to develop skills for working with others and leading teams.

Moreover, with the rapid growth of information technology , information systems has evolved to become the core of many organisations’ competitive strategies.

According to XLRI, the Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) capitalises on the synergy between the two precious assets, human resources and IT.

So, specialists and generalists in the area of human resources are required to develop and improve their information system competencies in order to add strategic value to their organisations.

The new set of courses are also designed to improve the participant’s understanding of technology and tools, the people who work with it, and their role in organisational performance.

The courses will impart training in evaluating, selecting and planning an appropriate human resources information system, re-engineering human resources for HRIS, the human resources processes of SAP HR, emerging trends in HRIS that involve networking, the internet, the intranet, as well as internet recruiting, privacy, security and employee self-service.

The courses will cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. The duration of these programmes will range from two days to one month, depending upon the variety, magnitude and complexity of the topics covered.

XLRI's Entrepreneurship Development Institute becomes a reality

From : The Telegraph

Ranchi, Sept. 28 (The Telegraph): The state government and Jamshedpur-based XLRI today inked an MoU to establish the state’s maiden entrepreneurship development institute.

The institute would come up on about five acres beside the XLRI campus in Jam- shedpur.

The state government has provided the land to the B-school for setting up the institution.

The Centre and the state government have agreed to pay Rs 1 crore each to establish the centre.

XLRI, too, has agreed to invest on the centre. The total project cost would amount to Rs 3.91 crore.

The recurring cost for running the institute would be about Rs 62 lakh a year.

The secretary of the industries department, S.K. Satpathy, and the director of the premier B-school, Father N. Casimir Raj signed the agreement in presence of deputy chief minister and in-charge of industries department, Sudhir Mahto, here today.

The industries depart-ment director and special secretary Sunil Kumar and Dhirendra Kumar were also present.

The institute “in making” would offer a one-year diploma course on entrepreneur development.

Its capacity would be 60 seats.

Fifty per cent of the seats would be reserved for the students of the state. The cen- tre would also conduct short-term management development programmes for young entrepreneurs.

The classes for the one-year diploma course would start in October 2008 and XLRI would conduct the entrance examination.

The state government would provide scholarships to the deserving students who hail from economically weak family backgrounds.

“The institute is a big boon in the industry sector. The B-school would gift new entrepreneurs to our state. Our government is committed to promote trade and industry,” said the deputy chief minister, after the signing of the MoU.

The XLRI director assured that the B-school management would try its best to shape up aspiring entrepreneurs of the state.

XLRI to roll out new courses for managers

From Business Standard

Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata September 26, 2007
XLRI Jamshedpur, the school of business and human resources, plans to offer a number of courses this fiscal for senior and middle-level managers.

The B-school, for instance, has designed a course for executives and owners of large- and medium-sized enterprises that are in the process of expanding their operations overseas.

According to XLRI officials, there are many instances that led to the designing of the course — the recent ones being the takeovers of Arcelor and Corus by Mittal and Tata Steel, respectively.

Christened “Challenges of Internationalisation: Risks and Strategies”, the course has been designed to meet the HR and management challenges faced by companies planning overseas expansion.

The programme will focus on understanding the challenges of globalisation that Indian businesses face when venturing abroad. This will involve risk assessments of the economic, political, technological and cultural factors to draw up appropriate winning strategies.

According to XLRI, strategies which make a business successful at home are, many a time, redundant in the new environment.

After assessing the environment, the participants would be better equipped to devise strategies for globalisation of their businesses, tailoring the capabilities and resources of their organisations to meet the challenges that may lie ahead. The focus will be on China, India’s primary competitor in Asia.

XLRI has also lined up courses for analysts, traders, fund managers from corporate treasuries, banks, funds, and executives in brokerage houses.

In its introductory course this December on derivatives, the focus will be on understanding the design, pricing and usage of derivatives in general and futures, options and swaps in particular.

According to XLRI, this course would also look at the characteristics of the markets in which these instruments trade and the nature of the players in the market.

The fees of the courses will range between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. The duration of these programmes will be between two days and one month, depending upon the variety, magnitude and complexity of topics covered.

XLRI launches PGPMI program in collaboration with ICICI Prudential

On 18^th August 2007, XLRI will add another feather in its cap with the launch of its Post Graduate Program in Management and Insurance (PGPMI). This unique and innovative one year management course is conducted by joining hands with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, India’s No.1 private life insurer for students aspiring to make it big in the Insurance Industry.

The insurance industry in India is witnessing unprecedented growth and the trend is likely to continue for many years to come. Taking this into consideration the course is aimed at tapping the huge opportunities available in the insurance sector and providing a platform for budding sales professionals to learn and grow in this sector. All the students passing out of this program will be offered an assured employment in the sales function of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company as Executive Trainees, receiving MBA equivalent compensation levels.

The program would offer courses covering both general management concepts as well as intensive training in the Insurance and Finance domain. The module in general management would broadly cover the following areas:

• Marketing
• Statistics and Economics
• Organizational Behaviour and Personality Development
• Business Communication
• Business Strategy
• Legal Aspects in Business
• Information Technology

The program, especially the module on Insurance and Finance, would leverage ICICI Prudential’s extensive domain expertise and draw heavily from their experience. It would follow a trimester based system with the various courses under the two modules spread over the three trimesters. This would be followed by a two month internship with ICICI Prudential which would give the students the opportunity to apply the skills they have learnt in the classroom.

Following a philosophy of putting merit first, the program fee has been kept to a level which would make it accessible to a far larger cross-section of prospective students.


From http://xlri.blogspot.com/