Tag: Management

The Soul Set Free

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filed room
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little – but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared
Miss me but let me go
For this is a journey that we all must take
And each must go alone
Its all a part of the Master’s plan
A step on the road to home
When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds
Miss me but let me go.

IIT Kharagpur community bids adieu to Prof. Kailas Chandra Sahu who left for his heavenly adobe on 14th April 2023 from his Los Angeles home. Prof. Sahu received his B.Tech, M. Tech and PhD degree, under the guidance of his revered mentor and supervisor Prof. R. Misra from IIT Kharagpur. He began his teaching career from his Alma Mater IIT Kharagpur and was also the Director of National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai. The Department of Industrial Management Centre was founded in 1973 under the leadership of Professor Sahu.

Among his many accolades, he was the Founding Head and Professor of Industrial Engineering & Management (IE & M) between 1972 and 1996. He was the guide and mentor to countless students at IIT, including 21 PhD scholars. Many of his students have made notable contributions in their careers. Along the way, he published over 135 papers and 8 monograms.“Works Organization and Management”,“Industrial Organization and Management” and “Education and Social Change” are some of the books that he authored and co-authored which made significant impacts. He consulted widely for various public and private sector entities and headed various Expert Committees for government organizations along with active involvement in numerous professional organizations. His memoir “Made in IIT” was published in 2012.

Prof. Kailas Chandra Sahu

Prof. Sahu was an inspiring teacher. He won multiple awards and recognition, including the Distinguished Alumni Award by IIT Kharagpur, the Distinguished Teacher’s Award by IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the IIT Alumni Association of Southern California. He was the National President at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE),  the National President at Operational Research Society of India (ORSI) and was an Advisor for DRIEMS, a premier technical university in his birth village, Odisha. He has also served as a member on the Board of Governors for IIT.

Academic accomplishments aside, Prof. Sahu immersed himself in student life throughout his tenure at IIT Kharagpur. Being an Azadian himself, he later served as the Warden of Azad Hall, then the President of Gymkhana, and as the Dean of Student Affairs. These prolific roles nurtured his bonds with his Alma Mater and gave a sense of fulfillment.

“Professor Kailash Chandra Sahu, my Guru was a great student friendly teacher par excellence. He was an Institute Builder, a motivator and had a superb personality with all the qualities of a Kgpian. Truly, he was made in IIT Kharagpur for IIT Kharagpur. He considered his students, faculty members and employees of his department as extended members of his family. He was a professional and was regarded at a very high esteem. He was the founder of the current Department of Industrial and System Engineering of the Institute. His contributions to Institution building as President Students Gymkhana and as Dean Students Affairs will be always be cherished and remembered. His loss is truly a loss of gem to IIT Kharagpur and to the Industrial Engineering Community and certainly a personal loss for me,” said Prof. Damodar Acharya, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur. 

Throughout his lifetime, he was a proud IITian and held IIT Kharagpur very close to his heart and would often reminisce about specific moments and times that he spent with his friends and colleagues here. Our sincere condolences to his wife and partner Mrs. Bimala Sahu, their four children Ranajit Sahu, Nivedita Sahu, Sanghamitra Sahu, and Sucharita Sahu, and his grandchildren. May the Almighty give all of them enough strength to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace for his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action. IIT Kharagpur will forever acknowledge his contributions to the Institute.

Inputs by: Prof. Damodar Acharya, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur
Email: acharyadamodar94@gmail.com

Edited By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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IIT Kharagpur ranks 6th in NIRF Ranking 2022

Since Independence, India has made reasonable progress in providing accessible ‘Education for All’, strengthening higher education. With the increase in the number of higher education institutions across the country, the quality of education has continued to remain a serious concern specially when the entire country was suffering because of the pandemic that still lives with us. As per UNICEF’s report 2020, more than 376 million students worldwide suffered because of the pandemic. Remote/Online Education became the only source of education followed by a technological transition that turned the entire world into a ‘Global Village’. The education institutions faced many challenges to manage and pace up with the new era of engaging digital knowledge, enhancing the wide spectrum of e-learning. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which outlines the vision of the new education system of India with a comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher education as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India, aims to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% in 2018 to 50% by 2035.

In order to recognize the higher education system in India, National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was launched in November 2015. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. NIRF Ranking 2022 of top performing colleges in India has been released by the Honorable Union Minister of Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan on July 15, 2022. The list includes top 100 ranking colleges and Universities in the field of Engineering, Management, Medical, Dental, Law and Architecture. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has secured an overall 6th ranking in the latest National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022. The institute ranked 5th in Engineering, 6th in Law and 12th in the Management discipline. IIT Kharagpur is placed 5th as a Research Institution. The Architecture department of the Institute ranked 3rd among all its native peers in the country.  The top engineering college rankings are mostly dominated by the IITs in the country.

Every higher education institution in the country will now be rated by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), said the Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan while stressing on the fact that the MoE is attempting to unify institutional accreditation by next year. Robust and unified system for assessment, accreditation and ranking will play a major role in enhancing the quality of higher education. The minister added that going forward the NIRF accreditation system will expand to include every single school in India. This accreditation procedure will be mandatory. He also asserted that self declaration and transparency will be the basis of this particular assessment and accreditation. The Hon’ble Minister remarked, “By next year, we will unify institutional accreditation, which is presently done by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the programme accreditation which is presently done by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).”

While the NIRF is of recent origin, its importance can be determined by the fact that only universities and colleges with NAAC grading or NIRF ranking are eligible for inclusion in the University Grants Commission list for receiving financial assistance. The Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the group of prestigious engineering institutes across India, continued to dominate the top 25 ranks in the Engineering category. For the third consecutive year, 14 out of the top 25 engineering institutions belonged to the IIT ecosystem. Moreover, seven of the first 10 places were held by the IITs.

Speaking on the NIRF Rankings 2022, Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur remarked, “Overall IIT Kharagpur has retained its positioning as an Institute that imparts technical education with multidisciplinary mandate as envisioned in NEP 2020. However, we need to improvise our strategies to prioritize our lab to market propositions and sharpen our research focus to initiate and engage in industry-academia collaboration. Also, there is a need to acknowledge study and explore different genres that inculcates a sense of responsibility towards societal development.”

NIRF Rankings are released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India assessing the quality and performance of higher educational institutions in India. The overall ranking is prepared based on the parameters such as Teaching, Learning, Resource Quality, Research, Professional Practice, Graduation Outcomes, Outreach, Inclusivity and Peer Perception. There has been a rise in total institutions applying for the NIRF rankings since 2016. As per the government, 4,786 institutions applied for rankings under the overall category-specific and domain-specific rankings this year. The number of institutions applying for rankings has increased by over 97 per cent – from 2,426 in 2016 to 4,786 in 2022.

Media Coverage : 

Hindustan Times The Hindu Times Now
Zee News Deccan Herald Mint
Telegraph TV9 Hindi News 18
Indian Express Navbharat Times Times of India (Education)
Business Today Free Press Journal The New Indian Express
Business World Jagran Josh Business Standards
Jagran (English) The Print Business Today
Gadgets Now One India Pragativadi
News Careers 360 Moneycontrol.com Statesman
News D Ommcom News

Content Writer : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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IIT Kharagpur Alumnus Mr. Subir Chowdhury awarded the Mensforth Manufacturing Gold Medal

Mr. Subir Chowdhury, Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur is awarded the prestigious Mensforth Manufacturing Gold Medal for his pioneering work in the field of Quality Engineering and Management by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK and outstanding contributions for improving process and product quality in all types of manufacturing industries. He was also honoured with the Corps d’Elite Lifetime Achievement Award by the Global Gurus organization. This award is only presented to those who have gone beyond the “Guru” status and developed gurus themselves, based upon their long-standing top ten position on the Global Gurus lists and their unique contributions to the world.

Air Marshal Sir Julian Young, IET President, stated, “I am honoured to present Dr. Subir Chowdhury with the Mensforth Gold Medal for Manufacturing. He has excelled in his profession and made a notable difference within the manufacturing industry and its subsequent impact on the society. This award is one of the IET’s most prestigious achievement medals, showcasing the very best global innovators. Mr. Chowdhury should be rightly proud of his achievements as he is an incredible role model for the next generation.”

The Mensforth Manufacturing Gold Medal is awarded to individuals who have made major and distinguished contributions in the manufacturing sector. Mr. Chowdhury is the chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, LLC, headquartered in Michigan who has led many industries to transform their organizations by elevating quality and develop processes that increased profitability saving billions of dollars and increase respective market share. He is considered as one of the Most Influential Management Thinkers in the World by Thinkers 50 of London, UK and has improved the quality of life on a global scale. As his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) established the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability, the first of its kind in the world to promote the education and research on quality and reliability. Mr. Subir Chowdhury has authored fifteen books including several international bestsellers such as The Power of Six Sigma, The Ice Cream Maker and The Difference. He is the honorary member and fellow of 10 global prestigious professional societies and received many awards including Outstanding American by Choice Award by the US Department of Homeland Security and Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Gold Medal.

Mr. Subir Chowdhury, CEO of ASI Consulting Group & Alumus of IIT Kharagpur remarked, “I am deeply honoured to receive this international award in recognition of my services and accomplishments in the manufacturing industry. To know that my work has contributed to the improvement of manufacturing processes, quality and the subsequent benefit to society is very humbling. I hope it inspires other young manufacturing engineers to continue to drive forward change in the sector.”

Content Writer : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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Purvodaya 2021 – Excellence Through Resilience

Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, is proud to host the first-ever online adaptation of the institute’s Annual Business School fest Purvodaya, an amalgamation of different events where budding managers from top business Schools test their mettle against one another. The central theme – “Excellence through Resilience” – is especially relevant in contemporary times because of the pandemic’s devastating effects. The role of resilience is all the more critical regarding the shifting geopolitical, economic landscape as building adaptable businesses has been the mantra of the corporate world steering across these unprecedented times.

The three-day affair is a prodigious mix of competitions spanning across multiple domains like consulting, analytics, finance, supply chain management, and social entrepreneurship and is all set to launch on 5th February 2021. The event will be graced by the esteemed presence of our Chief Guest, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal’ Nishank’, Hon’ble Minister of Education, our Guest of Honour, Mr Ronojoy Dutta, CEO at IndiGo and Mr Vinod Gupta, philanthropist, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and founder of the Vinod Gupta School of Management. The event will also be graced by Mr Ramesh Ramadurai, Managing Director of 3M India Limited, Dr Raghunath Anant Maashelkar, a Padma Vibhushan Awardee who has served as Ex-Director General of CSIR and Mr Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, ABB India & South Asia. 

This festival provides an ideal platform for aspiring leaders to sharpen their skills as top B-school talent across the country come together to test their prowess against their peers. The enthusiasm surrounding the preliminary rounds has given us a glimpse of the intense competition that we are to witness in the finals. Deliberations with renowned industry stalwarts are also spaced throughout the event to inspire the budding managers in their corporate journeys ahead.

The event attracts CXOs, strategists, technology evangelists, thought leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals pioneering change to come together to analyze real-world business scenarios and bring to life theoretical concepts in a practical framework. It is a platform for the industry and academia to come together to engage in discourse and the students to draw lessons from this. The Leadership Summit is all set to go live on 6th February 2021 will witness the fusion of enriching insights put forth by renowned corporate leaders from different realms of industry on the topic – “Reimagining Leadership: Building resilient and sustainable businesses.” Additionally, the fest will also play host to Reminiscence, the annual alumni interaction session that is a testament to the institute’s legacy.

For more details please visit: https://www.purvodaya.in/

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Higher Risk in Concentrated Business Control – VGSOM Researchers

Award-Winning Research from IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management Indicate Higher Risks with Family-controlled Firms

In an award-winning research study conducted by faculty and alumni at IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management, the researchers have found that family and family control ownership is negatively related to firms’ profitability due to lags in management. 

The study is based on decadal data from 2007 to 2017 of 421 listed firms in emerging markets which have at least 5%-20% of the equity capital is owned by a family group including concert promoters. The results show that family-owned firms dominant with concentrated ownership pay lower dividends leading to lower valuation and higher idiosyncratic risk.

“While the firms undertake significant trading in the stock market, high-risk tendencies and lower dividend payouts are the outcomes of ineffectiveness in managerial decision-making and policies. Our study points to the concentration of ownership as the primary reason rather than to the information asymmetry,” explained Prof. Arun Kumar Misra. 

The researchers used three measures of firm profitability, namely, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS).

“The results on the relationship of firm profitability with ownership structure (family and non-family firms) are consistent across all three measures in the context of the list of Indian firms in our sample,” said Prof. Abhijeet Chandra.

“Our findings are in line with the uncertainty and signaling theory, suggesting that (a) dividend is preferred over uncertain capital gains by investors, and (b) higher dividends signal superior health (lower risk) of a firm. The payment of low dividends negatively influences the firm-specific risk,” he further added.

The study has been named for the ‘Emerald Literati Award 2020 for Highly Commended Paper’. The paper titled  ‘Impact of ownership structure and dividend on firm performance and firm risk’, has been published in the international journal of Managerial Finance by Emerald Publishing Ltd. UK. The authors included Dr. Abhinav Kumar Rajverma, Former PhD Scholar, VGSoM (2015-2018), currently Faculty (IRMA, Anand, Guj.), Dr. Arun Kumar Misra, Associate Professor, VGSoM, Dr. Sabyasachi Mohapatra, Former PhD Scholar, VGSoM (2011-2015), currently Faculty (IIM Bodh Gaya) and Dr. Abhijeet Chandra, Assistant Professor, VGSoM. The editorial team said that it is one of the most exceptional pieces of work they saw throughout 2019. 

Citation: Rajverma, A.K., Misra, A.K., Mohapatra, S. and Chandra, A. (2019), “Impact of ownership structure and dividend on firm performance and firm risk”, Managerial Finance, Vol. 45 No. 8, pp. 1041-1061. https://doi.org/10.1108/MF-09-2018-0443

NIRF 2020 Results Announced

IIT Kharagpur has been ranked in the widest category of disciplines ranging from Engineering, Architecture, Management, Law in the NIRF Rankings 2020 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. While the Institute has been ranked the best in India in the category of Architecture, it has jumped one rank in the management discipline to be among the top five business schools in India. 

In Law it retains last year’s rank at the 4th position along with the overall and Engineering ranks at the 5th position. 

The Dept. of Architecture has been a clear winner in the areas of Graduation Outcomes, Peer Perception, and Outreach and Inclusivity. The Department has scored the best in the country in the metrics for University Examinations and Number of Ph.D. Students Graduated. 

Vinod Gupta School of Management, the business school of IIT Kharagpur has performed exceptionally well in the areas of Research and Professional Practice and Graduation Outcomes, while the law school which is one of its kind focussing typically on intellectual property law scores high on Teaching, Learning & Resources and Research and Professional Practice. 

Earlier this year Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur identified  institutional ranking as a thrust area. Dwelling on the issue of institutional ranking Director Tewari said,

“Our goal should be to compete with the top ten universities in the world to climb the ladder of global ranking. However, institutional ranking is a sum reflection of holistic performance and impact created by any higher educational institution. The past Directors’ advisory group will engage extensively towards this goal.”

Vinod Gupta who patronized both the management and law schools and initiated the disciplines in the IIT system calls it a remarkable achievement and the overall excellence of the academic, research and graduate outcome culture at IIT Kharagpur. He said,

“In my view the student intake largely with Engineering and Science backgrounds enable them to focus more on analytical skills in research and other projects which gives them the edge over other schools. Additionally, being part of the IIT KGP system the schools have successfully attracted best-in-class teaching faculty. This leads to the overall success of the schools.”

VGSOM Assigns COVID Case Study

IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management assigns Pandemic Case Study for Organizational Leadership education

It has been almost 2 weeks since the teaching and learning at IIT Kharagpur has gone virtual. The Center for Educational Technology at the Institute has been using the online interface Webex for conducting classes across all levels of study. Shorter sessions are also being conducted through Zoom. 

Several research groups are also conducting studies on people’s perception and behaviour towards COVID-19 through progression of time. In one such initiative, the Vinod Gupta School of Management, business school in India of IIT Kharagpur ranked among the top ten in India, has launched a project based on COVID-19 pandemic. The project titled “Invisible Leadership and the CoronaVirus Pandemic” is being assigned 126 students in the second year MBA class at the School as part of the Organisational Leadership course.

Speaking about the project Prof. Susmita Mukhopadhyay said, “Pandemic or any other wide spread disease such as COVID-19 demand exemplary leadership and decision-making capabilities to manage finances, human resources, supply chain and overall business operations. Managers if prepared for desperate times may even plan and improvise the desperate measures. The project aims to teach the students to see the power of invisible leadership in the fight against a pandemic.”

“Leadership is more about taking tough decisions now while keeping the greater good in mind than appeasing your countrymen with misleading information. Covid-19 has turned every one of us into soldiers fighting for the very survival of our species and the real leader here is invisible. So when we miss the leader micromanaging things, we look inward for leadership,” said Pinak Samui, student at VGSOM.

The students will be studying the facts from diverse shades of leadership and understand the ethical issues connected to such situations as COVID-19 pandemic. They will also explore whether the Pandemic itself has acted as an invisible leader in enhancing work-life balance of people, cohabitation of species and environmental sustainability.

“We have given the topic to the students to have a free flow of thought and explore the topic from various perspectives, frame the case based on archival news and keep track of day to day developments and strategies undertaken by governments and other related stakeholders. We plan to develop business case studies based on the project output,” remarked Prof Biplab Datta.

Student Feedback:

“This assignment has helped us to keep track of the COVID-19 situation and all related happenings as they are happening around the world. It also helped us to dive deep into the invisible leadership principle and apply the same, in order to add a new perspective to the current situation, just like looking through a different lens,” said a student Pritam Sharma.

 

Sharing about his learning, another student Aniket Sanyal said, “Leaders, who can take quick actions, who are flexible in adapting their bold decisions to suit the needs of a situation, will have more success in a crisis environment.”

VGSOM’s Placement Record

IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management Completes Final Placements in Record Time with 31% PPOs

India Today       NDTV

With the onset of 2020 IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM) has set a new record with close to one-third of its placement offers being PPOs. It has also become one of the first management schools to conclude its final placements for the 2019-2020 academic year.

The MBA Class of 2020 have mostly opted for Consulting as their preferred domain with a dominant share of 26%. Among the other key domains are Operations, Sales & Marketing, Analytics and Finance with 19%, 17%, 15% and 12% of the offers respectively.

Among the top recruiters were ITC, Accenture Digital, Amazon, PwC, Deloitte, Blackbuck, ZS Associates, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oxane Partners, Vedanta, ICICI Bank, Axtria, Tiger Analytics, Wipro, IBM, IDFC First and Tata Power. In a first several new corporations participated in the campus placement drive. These included McKinsey, Crompton, EPIKInDiFi, Facebook, Cogoport, Media.net, Loadshare and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Top 25% of the students have secured an average compensation of ₹ 23.2 LPA and top 50% and ₹ 20.8 LPA. The highest offer also rose up to ₹ 29 LPA.

The Dean of Vinod Gupta School of Management, Prof. Prabina Rajib, remarked, “VGSOM was able to defy the current economic slowdown due to the School’s unique pedagogy, calibre of students and focus on learning outside classroom. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our cherished corporate partners and alumni whose trust and unreserved support ensured a successful placement drive at the campus.”

The School is constantly upgrading its teaching and learning experience as well though collaborative and new academic programmes. It has recently tied up with Singapore Management University (SMU) to develop a broader view of management studies with constant upskilling through projects with companies like Lendingkart, GSK, Citibank, and DBS. As part of this experiential learning program, a group of participating students also secured runner up position in a portfolio simulation competition organized jointly by SMU and Stocktrak.

About VGSoM (IIT Kharagpur)

The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM) is a premier MBA institute of India which was established in 1993 under the aegis of IIT Kharagpur and is the first management school that was set up within the IIT ecosystem. The institute is ranked as one among the top B-Schools of India that is equipped

International Outreach Programme @ VGSOM

Economic Times         Jagran Josh       India Today       Times of India

IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management has signed an MoU with Singapore Management University for ‘SMU-IITKGP Inclusive and Immersive Experiential Learning (I2XL) Programme’. The programme is aimed at providing a managerial education and business school experience like no other – one that encourages students to apply classroom concepts in a global business environment. The scope of the MoU will include student projects and immersion programmes, reciprocal exchange of research and teaching staff, research and other collaborations.

The programme is focused on enriching the students with managerial concepts through classroom lectures on portfolio management, alternative investments, innovation and entrepreneurship, and technological adaptation. Another feature of the programme was industry interactions regarding practical challenges in financial markets. The programme has been designed with a two-fold objective – expose students to the dynamics of functioning on an international platform and complement classroom learning with a global business perspective.

Twenty-five students from MBA and Executive MBA of VGSOM participated in this collaborative programme who were selected based on their prior work experience in diverse sectors.

Eminent academicians from Singapore Management University and industry leaders offered experiential learning experience at the first edition of the programme. Another remarkable aspect of this programme was the live industry projects undertaken by the students under the aegis of corporate giants like DBS Bank, Citibank, GSK and niche players like Lendingkart and BondEValue.

Prof. Prabina Rajib, Dean, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, on the success of the programme remarked, “We are very proud to include the International Immersion Programme in our curriculum. Its right emphasis on theoretical and practical learning coupled with the unique international exposure it offers the participant makes it a priceless experience. We plan on increasing the number of participants in the years to come to extend this opportunity to all our students, making this a yearly event. We are confident that this collaboration between two institutes of global repute will promote excellence in managerial education globally.”

Students were allowed to showcase their business acumen through a live simulation exercise on Portfolio Management which was both engaging and challenging. The field trip included a visit to the Singapore Stock Exchange with a focus on the global economy and technological adaptation in an exchange. Students further got the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with Asia’s leading business leaders which gave exposure to the students to understand the Indian business scenario from a global perspective and consider international career opportunities.

Students further worked on challenging business problems requiring leading-edge technological solutions based on a strong understanding of fundamental business concepts. These projects which form a part of the MBA curriculum are currently afoot with mentors from both institutes and respective companies being assigned to guide the students.

“This practical approach based on real-life projects is the singular feature that makes this international immersion programme unique among other such programmes by B-schools in the country,” said one of the participants.

Recounting his SMU-IITKGP I2XL experience, Swastik Paul, a final year MBA student, says, “It was the best part of my MBA journey and gave me an edge over my peers. The interactions with industry experts were extremely insightful which provided me with invaluable professional experience. I highly recommend this programme to all who would like to explore and shape their careers on a global stage.”

 

VGSoM HR Conclave

Times of India

In the age of Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0, while many business functions are undergoing momentous changes, the human resource is emerging as the most critical area of management functions considering the not-so-futuristic alarming trends. The Vinod Gupta School of Management organized an HR Conclave this weekend addressing new avenues in Human Resource Management through HR Innovation and Upskilling.

A panel of India’s top HR experts who attended the Conclave at the IIT Kharagpur campus debated on the impact of technological innovation on HRM. Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals opined that despite the improvement in technology through offline management and the automation of HR Processes, there hasn’t been a proportionate improvement in employee experience. Sonia Sahgal, Director of University Recruiting, Microsoft India, furthered the point with an emphasis on the human element being fundamental to organizational success. She substantiated her claim by providing the example of decreased synergy in the workplace despite the provisions afforded by modern technology. The panel deliberated further on the importance of upskilling to increase employee engagement with Sonali Misra, Head-HR, Bain & Company (India) speaking about the holistic aspect of upskilling and how it can be leveraged to value addition of industry professionals.

Vivek Vyas, Country Head, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Scotland focused on the point of employee-driven organizational growth which was further elaborated by Yamini Krishnan, Director – HR, IQVIA who advocated upskilling as the only method in case organizations want more innovative solutions. The panel on Rethinking people management to propel organizational growth was moderated by Hetal Sonpal, a TEDx speaker, Angel Investor and a Mentor of Change at Atal Innovation Mission.

Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Officiating Director of IIT Kharagpur, keeping in mind the ever-changing market demands said, “In this day and age, the dynamic paradigm of Industry 4.0 demands constant upskilling by employees who wish to stay relevant.”

In the recent years, Vinod Gupta School of Management has emerged among India’s top-ranking management schools within 25 years of its establishment by QS and MHRD’s NIRF rankings. With its unique mix of management programmes backed by the interdisciplinary engineering, science and mathematics platforms of IIT Kharagpur, the School presents a unique opportunity to its students to pursue electives in various subjects other than Management.

The School, which was seed funded by IIT Kharagpur alumnus Vinod Gupta, focuses in several multidisciplinary areas of research and development in the Institute as well as collaborative projects.