International workshop to be held at IIM-Kozhikode

Kozhikode: A five-day international workshop on Digital Libraries will be held at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, (IIM-K) from August 20 to 24. 
   
The objective of the workshop was to conduct rigorous and advanced training programme coupled with state-of-art lectures delivered by doyens in the field on Digital Libraries, a release from IIM-K said.
   
The software selected for the workshop will be'Greenstone', a top of the line and internationally renowned software system for developing digital libraries, promoted by the New Zealand Digital Library project research group, it said.
    
The aim of the software is to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries, and other public service institutions, to build their own digital libraries. 
   
The Centre for Development of Digital Libraries (CDDL) at IIM Kozhikode has the distinction of coordinating the Greenstone Support for South Asia for the past six years, on behalf of UNESCO.
   
Around 25 participants admitted for the workshop include delegates from the Middle East, as well as from prestigious institutions all over India.
   
Participants will be instructed in how to design digital collections of different publications in a variety of file formats, including multimedia such as audio, video, and images, the release said. 

Century real estate in tie-up with IIM-B

Bangalore: Realty player Century Real Estate and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, have inked a MoU for setting up the IIMB-Century Real Estate Research Initiative.
 
The IIMB-Century Real Estate Research Initiative will focus on collecting data and conducting scientific, cross- disciplinary research on the Indian real estate sector that will be published in leading academic and practitioner journals, IIMB Director Pankaj Chandra said in a statement.
 
In addition, the Research Initiative will seek to provide guidance and policy prescriptions to government and industry stakeholders on major issues relating to the real estate sector, he said.
 
P Dayananda Pai, Founder-Century Real Estate, said there was a "tearing need" for such an initiative in the real estate space that will focus on research besides acting as an interface between the industry and the policy makers "and eventually churn out quality human resource for this sector."
 
"The initial charter for the Research Initiative will be to create taxonomy of relevant data that will be required to do meaningful research, initiate research projects that fill key knowledge gaps and engage with key stakeholders within the industry," said Prof Venky Panchapagesan, who has been leading the effort to set up this initiative at IIMB. 

Higher percentage of OBC students in IIMs, IITs: Government

New Delhi: The percentage of OBC students among new entrants in IIMs, IITs and Central universities has increased in 2010-11 over the previous year, the Rajya Sabha was informed.
    
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said during Question Hour that the percentage of OBC students among new entrants in IIMs and IITs in 2010-11 was 23.05 per cent and 23.61 per cent respectively, against 14.52 per cent and 20.38 per cent in 2009-10.
    
Similarly, the percentage of OBC students among new entrants in Central universities increased to 19.09 per cent in 2010-11 from 13.52 per cent in the previous year. 
    
Sibal also said the total percentage of OBC students "currently enrolled in IITs, IIMs and Central universities is 18.98 per cent, 24.3 per cent and 14.2 per cent respectively."
    
He also said the government has allocated an additional Rs 2,166.89 crore to Central universities and Rs 4,227.46 crore to centrally funded technical institutions for 54 per cent capacity expansion in each of the central institutions to provide OBC quota without reducing general category seats.
    
Sibal said the government has also decided to amend the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006, to enhance the period of implementation of 27 per cent reservations for OBC in central institutions, from 3 to 6 years.
    
The amendment would also ensure that even in the central institutions located in the north eastern states and those located in areas covered under 6th Schedule of the Constitution, OBC reservations are provided to the extent possible, he added. 

Nobel laureates to take part in IIM's global conference

Kolkata: Nobel laureates, management gurus, business leaders, academicians and dignitaries from various walks of life will meet next year at the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) for a global management conference.

The first of its kind two-day conference in the country will discuss various issues and challenges of emerging and developing economies like India and China at the IIM-C's campus in January 2013.

Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Dean (External Relations) of the institute told that the project would be funded by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development which had requested them to take the lead in organising an international-level management conference.

All the other 12 IIMs are also taking part in organising the conference, "which will do for IIMs and Indian management schools what the Literature Festival at Jaipur has done for Indian writing," said the institute's chairman of Board of Governors, Ajit Balakrishnan.

Situated at Joka, on the outskirts of Kolkata, IIM-C is ranked as one of the top ten B-schools of the country.  

The list of the speakers are yet to be finalised, Banerjee said adding a large number of people, including 3-4 Nobel laureates and other dignitaries, are expected to participate in the conference.

"We are inviting people from varied backgrounds for this conference. The issues of emerging and developing economics like India, China and Brazil will be discussed. Our issues are similar but the standard and conventional management practises may not apply here," he said.

Experts will re-look at the market model, issues, challenges, the way we are tackling it, and the solutions which can improve the lives of the people in the emerging economies, he added. 

IIM- Ahmedabad presents blueprint for ARGUCM

Guwahati: Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad made a presentation before Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on the blueprint of a roadmap for Assam Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management (ARGUCM) for making it a Centre of Excellence. 
     
IIM, Ahmedabad has been working with ARGUCM since August 2010 following the signing of a MoU.
     
A three-member team of IIM, Ahmedabad comprising Prof. Sanjay Verma, Prof Vijay Paul Sharma and Prof. M R Dixit highlighted the structure of the university was made on strategic academic architecture, broad outline of the activities, key management process and milestones.
     
They suggested the opening up of five major schools namely Entrepreneurship and Management, Innovation and Technology, Culture and  Media, Public Policy and Law and Ecology and Sustenance.
     
Prof. Dixit pointed out that the broad academic areas for the university were teaching, training, research, consulting and holding seminars and workshops. 
     
The faculty members underlined the need for the university to have an international perspective and linkages with sensitivity from local to global issues.
     
The Chief Minister thanked the team members for completing the task professionally and urged the university to take concrete steps for realisation of its goal for effective socio-economic transformation of the masses, particularly the marginalised and disadvantaged groups. 

IIM-Calcutta to host global management conference

Kolkata: Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) said it would organise a global management conference inviting management gurus from all over the world.

"The Ministry of Human Resources has requested IIM, Calcutta, to take the lead in organising a world management conference," the Institutes chairman of Board of Governors, Ajit Balakrishnan, said at the convocation ceremony.

To be held later this year or early next year at the institute's campus, this conference "will do for IIMs and Indian management schools what the Literature Festival at Jaipur has done for Indian writing," Balakrishnan said.

IIM-C Director Prof Shekhar Chaudhuri said they were in the process of collaborating with some top-ranking  institutions such as US-based Fox School of Business of Temple University and Heinz School of Carnegie Mellon University.

"We have also started dialogues with some of our existing partners to explore opportunities for expanding our relationships from student exchange to include faculty exchange, joint research, joint conferences/workshops and other collaborative efforts," Chaudhuri said.

Ranked as one of the top ten B-schools of the country, IIM-C has partnership with 48 leading B-schools of the world with whom they conduct regular student exchange programmes.

Attracting and retaining quality faculty was the biggest challenge IIMs were facing, the Director said adding that to solve the problem IIM-C would launch a one-year advanced teachers programme after creating the infrastructure.

"Strengthening of the fellowship programme is one route to augment future supply of teachers. Another route is to train and refresh existing teachers in non-IIM management institutions or facilitate mid-career executives who may desire to move into academia," Chaudhuri said. 

IIM Indore to have international centre in Abu Dhabi

Indore: Indian Institute of Management- Indore will soon have an international centre in Abu Dhabi in UAE with students expected to come from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Iran.

A high level faculty team has submitted a report for opening up a study campus there, chairman of IIM  L N Jhunjhunwala said at the convocation ceremony.
    
He also informed that efforts were under way to get a deemed university status for the IIM.
    
Director of the IIM Dr N Ravichandran said the institute has grown 10-fold in the last 13 years with number of students going up from 45 to 450.
    
Meanwhile, IIM sources said that barring two, all those who passed out got placement in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 38 lakh. 

Eight IIM-B graduates awarded gold medals

Bangalore: Eight bright students of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) were Friday awarded gold medals for their outstanding performance in the post-graduate programme (PGPs) courses at the B-school's 37th annual convocation in this tech hub.

Of the 371 graduates passing out from the reputed institute in management course, gold medallists Ritesh Ritollia bagged first rank and Shravan Chandra second rank while Anish Nazimudden was judged for best all-round performance.

In the software enterprise management course, gold medallists Harsh Vitthal Badli secured first rank while P.S. Sanjeev Kumar was honoured for best all-round performance among 96 graduates.

Out of 28 students who passed in the public policy and management course, gold medallist Neelima Rebecca Phillips got the best academic performance.

Of the 62 graduates in the executive management course, gold medallists Vimal Chandra was ranked first while Harish Balkrishna Shetty was selected for best all-round performance.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao, who was the chief guest at the convocation, presented the degrees to the two-year PGP batch of 571 students passing out in the four main courses.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who is also chairman of the B-school, addressed the students in the presence of their parents, director Pankaj Chandra, institute faculty and distinguished invitees.

An electrical engineer from IIT-Roorkee, Ritolia will soon join Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in New Delhi, while bio-engineer from IIT-Kanpur Sharma has been selected by the global financial services firm Nomura to work in its London office.

Nazimudden, an electronics engineer from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) at Pilani in Rajasthan, will also join BCG as a management consultant.

Similarly, Badli, a computer science grad from Visvesvaraya Technology University (VTU) at Belgaum in Karnataka, is a geek at Honeywell Technology Solutions Ltd.

Kumar heads solutions engineering for the APAC region at Philips Lighting and Neelima is an additional general manager in the state-run BSNL at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Vimal Chandra, an electronics engineer from Lucknow, has worked in various capacities at Indian Oil and IT bellwether Infosys, and Shetty, an electrical engineer from Mumbai University, will soon join Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in Mumbai.

IIM-Rohtak organises marathon for girl child

Rohtak (Har): The IIM-Rohtak organised a mini-marathon race under its ongoing campaign 'India for Girl Child' campaign to draw mass support for addressing the issue of gender disparity prevalent in some parts of the country including Haryana, infamous for its adverse sex ratio.
    
Over 2500 participants from various walks of life took part. 

Placement process gets underway at IIM-Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: The final placement process on Monday got underway at the premier B-school Indian Institute of Managament-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) with global strategy consulting firms and i-Banks recruiting candidates on day one.
The global firms have offered roles to the candidates in their India offices as well as in international locations such as London and New York, an official statement said.

Around 410 students are seeking placement from IIM-A this year, including 372 from its flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management, in the first cluster.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) made the maximum number of offers this year. The consulting firms have been a major recruiter at IIM-A over the years.

"BCG recruited 17 PGP students from IIM-Ahmedabad this year. It continues to be one of our core campuses for recruitment," Partner and Director BCG Ravi Srivastava said.

The recruiters on day one included BCG, McKinsey & Co, Bain & Co, AT Kearney, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Oliver Wyman and Accenture.

The duration of the final placement process has been cut short this year by IIM-A, with shorter gaps within two cohorts.

The placements for second cluster will be held on 17th February.

IIM-A has adopted Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) and it will be releasing a detailed report on the placements for 2010-12 batch three months after the convocation.

IIM-B announces sports-based executive education programme

New Delhi: Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore (IIM-B) announced a sports-based executive education programme for middle and senior managers with an aim to help to them face challenges in their domain.

This is the first ever programme that leverages the experiences of sportspersons to develop a learning platform for corporate executives and help them approach day-to-day situations differently, said chairperson of IIM-B's executive education programmes Shyamal Roy.

The two-day programme titled 'learnings from sport' is being launched in association with TENVIC, a professional sports consulting company and is scheduled to be rolled out on March 16 and 17.

As a part of this programme, successful sportspersons from various sports will share their anecdotal experiences with the participants.

Knowledge will be shared through classroom sessions, interactive talks, panel discussions, video based case studies and informal interactions. The learning frameworks have been co-created by faculty from IIM Bangalore and professionals from TENVIC, said a statement.

This intensive programme will expose participants to several innovative concepts like altruistic mentoring, performance-based leadership, managing the ups and downs of the game, cross-training and equipping with skills beyond their role, and leadership jugglery.

"It is our intention to take a long-term view of this programme and look at all aspects of sports with a research and management lens" Roy said.

"This program cuts across the conventional management experiences and draws on the learning from sports to empower corporates to tackle challenging business situations", said Hari Iyer, VP, learning from sports, TENVIC.

IIM-Rohtak to organise marathon on sensitising gender disparity

Rohtak: In its effort to highlight the issue of gender disparity in Haryana, infamous for its skewed sex ratio, the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak will be organising a marathon on February 19.
   
The Rohtak marathon is a part of a series of initiatives taken by the IIM to tackle social issues, an official of the institute said, adding that it is a part of the ongoing campaign- India for girl child.
    
According to a recent data, released United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs ( UN-DESA) for 150 countries over 40 years shows that Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75 per cent more likely to die than an Indian boy.
   
The two-year-old institute has been involved extensively in various social welfare initiatives in association with NGOs such as Etasha Society, iCare, India Earth NGO, Srishti Gyaan Kendra, Ch Lakhi Ram Anaathalaya and Jan Seva Sansthaan.
   
"The city marathon will be a mainstream sports event. We are planning to organise a marathon every year and are expecting participation from people of Haryana and Delhi-NCR region.
    
"Rohtak has an enduring sporting culture that can be leveraged to connect people, raise awareness about social issues, and find sustainable solutions through collaborations," said Pritam Agarwal, member of PR cell of the IIM.
    
He said that this year Apollo Tyres and Biowell Natural Health have signed up as the official running and health partner respectively for the two races (5 km and 10 km).
    
"During the event, IIM Rohtak, in partnership with the Sun foundation, will be announcing need based scholarships for 100 girls to cover their educational expenses incurred over twelve years from Class I to Class XII.
    
"This announcement will take the 'India for girl child' campaign one step further and will open up new possibilities," said Pritam.
    
"The marathon will be a defining moment in Haryana's history, as IIM Rohtak attempts to create awareness about a burning issue.
    
"Haryana has a skewed sex ratio of 826:1000," said Priyadarshee, a student of the IIM, adding that the marathon would serve as a platform where all these objectives can be achieved.