XLRI meet raises mortality alarm

Jamshedpur, June 29 (The Telegraph): Maternal mortality rate in the state: 370 per 1 lakh.

Maternal mortality rate in the country: 250 per 1 lakh.

These startling figures came to the fore at the ongoing leadership training programme for medical officers at XLRI today.

The programme on reproductive health also threw up an infant mortality rate shocker. The current rate in the state is 48 per 1,000.

With an aim to bring down the figures, the B-school is conducting the event that will help officers at government health departments and NGOs to increase their managerial efficiency.

“The government departments often complain of non-availability of resources. We are teaching the officers how to increase managerial efficiency amid lack of resources,” said Vishwa Ballabh, the co-ordinator of the programme.

After the training, civil surgeons and medical officers will also find out ways to control maternity and infant mortality rates in the state.

The 10-day training event, which was inaugurated on June 22, is focussed on capacity and leadership building among the participants. Around 21 officers from three districts — Bokaro, Lohardaga and Dumka — of the state and Kishanganj, Nalanda and Gaya in Bihar are being trained to identify the areas where they can bring about a change. The places were selected based on the reproductive health (RH) indicator.

“Doctors also need to be cautious. They need to know their areas of work and bring about a change, if required. The training will help them do so,” added Ballabh.

Officers attending the training also feel that they are more confident and can manage things better than before. “It will help me and my team to use our resources to the optimum level. I will now motivate them to achieve our goals. I now know how to increase our efficiency,” said Pramod Kumar, the civil surgeon from Bokaro, who participated at the programme.

“We got to know more about management and will work on our shortcomings to bring about positive results,” said D.N. Pandey, the additional director of health, Jharkhand.

XLRI alumni connect with artisans

XLRI Alumni Connect with Artisans: Art work centre begins in Khash Mahal, bamboo and handloom products on sale via exhibits, online

Jamshedpur, June 16 (The Telegraph): At a time when most MBAs are trying to secure jobs, these youths have come forward to help young rural artisans of the city.

Parichay, the first social venture of XLRI, which was launched last October, has now started a handloom craft centre in Khashmahal, Parsudih. Employing 12 artisans, all between 25 and 30 years, the project aims at distribute their creations to interior designers and also exhibit them for direct sale.

“We started on June 1 with bamboo products but now we will expand our activities. We want to trade in tribal craft that has good utilisation value. Though the art is demanding, we want to cut across stereotypes,” said Vikas Sharma (Class of 2009), one of the founders of Parichay. Sharma also works at Corporate Sustainability Services, Tata Steel.

Besides bamboo and handloom, terracotta, dokra, stone carving and tribal paintings are being looked at. The objective is to create a fusion of various forms of tribal arts, which will have good utilisation value. Only then can they ensure sales.

At present, their product range includes corporate gift items like conference bags, pen stands and visiting card holders. Other items include candle-stands, salt and pepper shakers, trays, kids’ chair, lamps and gift boxes — all priced between Rs 90 and 1500.

The project is funded partly by the students, a three-member team and partly by the Social Entrepreneurship Trust at XLRI. Samekit Jan Vikas Kendra is also working with the core team. All the 12 artisans are directly employed with Parichay and are paid between Rs 2,000 and 3,000 per month depending upon the number of days they work.

Since October last year, Parichay has recorded a turnover of Rs 1.2 lakh. Besides advertising its products on its website parichay.co.in, where one can shop online too, it has plans to exhibit its products at various national and international exhibitions. The team is also looking at possible tie-ups with organisations like All India Craft Association. It is also associating with two designers from International Institute of Fashion Designing, New Delhi, to conduct a workshop for the tribals at Khashmahal Mahal.

“The idea is to market our products across various outlets of the country. Apart from designers, who are professionally involved, I am taking the help of all the XLRI alumni,” said Sharma.

Plans are already chalked out for the future. After creating employment opportunities, the centre plans to create housing facilities for the families and even pay them more than the government norms of Rs 100 per day. The whole idea is to make villagers self-sustainable and make them understand the value of art and quality products.

“The progress has been great within a year. I think with proper dedication, Parichay will develop,” said Madhukar Shukla, chairperson of the Social Entrepreneurship Trust of XLRI.

ITC Chairman, YC Deveshwar inaugurates IAJBS 15th World Forum @XLRI

Jamshedpur, June 8 (The Telegraph): Proper business education is a necessity for better sustainability, said ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar today.

Stressing on sustainable development, he cited examples from the company’s rural initiatives under corporate social responsibility while delivering the keynote address at the 15th World Forum of the International Jesuits Business Schools. About 80 delegates from the Jesuits Business Schools across the globe - USA, Europe, Asian countries - are participating in the forum held at the XLRI campus.

“Sustainable development is about the triple bottomline across three dimensions — economic, social and ecological, which means creating social and ecological wealth. However, there are some challenges of development that arise from growing income inequities and secondly there’s a threat from global and climate change,” said Deveshwar.

Stressing on the role of management institutions, he said that the institutions needed to spread awareness and education. He suggested areas in which institutes could carry out meaningful research in collaboration with the industry to find solutions.

Citing e-Choupal — a model designed by the ITC to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture — as an example, Deveshwar said that the common man has to be involved in order to achieve the sustainability. “People are not society’s burden. If they are utilised in a proper way, they can be created as resources. Education helps in innovation. With creative business models we can convert threats into opportunities. This begins with a realisation of compelling challenges.”

XLRI Campus Store - Inaugurated!

The XLRI Campus Store was inaugurated today by the Director, Fr E Abraham, S.J., @ XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Here are some photos of the Store:

Best Paper Award for XLRI's Fellow Student at the 12th Strategic Management Forum

XLRI's FPM student, Ms Parama Barai won the Best Paper Award for her paper titled "Deterrence Strategy in Takeovers - a Game Theoretic Model" at 12th Annual Convention of the Strategic Management Forum.

This year, the Strategic Management Forum was hosted by IIM, Bangalore on May 27-29, 2009, and the theme of the forum was "Strategic Management Research in India: Roadmap for the Future".

SAP Research Award for XLRI Professor Sanjay Kumar

BANGALORE (June 4, 2009): SAP Labs India has established the SAP Research and Innovation Award to recognize the scientific and research potential of Indian academics and their role in nurturing industry-ready talent.

“In an effort to set up formidable alliances with some of the best institutions in India, SAP is attempting to harness the Indian talent pool to establish collaboration between Indian Academics and SAP’s research and development departments,” Kush Desai, managing director, SAP Labs India told TOI. “These awards will be instrumental in building an essential framework of knowledge-sharing between the industry and the academia of the country. This will go a long way in ensuring conversion of indigenous scientific ideas into business propositions.”

SAP Research and SAP Labs India had invited entries on contemporary and relevant research topics like advanced web technologies, real-world awareness, real-time enterprise transparency and so on...

Eight candidates were short-listed to present their projects to a committee of SAP Research experts and five winners were selected in the final round, including Prof Jalote, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIT), Delhi, Prof. Balasubramaniam, BITS, Pilani, Prof. Sanjay Kumar, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur and others.

The winning projects will be awarded a research grant of Rs 11,00,000 each for a project duration of one year, and receive an opportunity to collaborate with SAP Research and its partners...

One of the winners, Prof. Sanjay Kumar, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, says, “We are grateful to SAP Research for providing us with a platform to incubate our ideas into business projects. We are excited to work with researchers at SAP Labs India, as this will foster sharing of best practices among the industry and the academia, a quintessential element that ensures success in innovation."

XLRI Duo to Open e-store: Brandtadka.com

Jamshedpur, May 20: Want an Olive green branded T-shirt? Log on and have it delivered at your doorstep. Two second-year students of XLRI School of Business and Human Resources are set to make men’s shopping easy and fun.

Branded apparels from stores in Jamshedpur and Calcutta will now find a place on brandtadka.com, part of XLRI’s first commercial venture in the city.

B. Prathik and Manoj Joshi, two business management students heading the e-commerce plan aim to bring popular brands on one platform, giving competition to single-branded stores.

“We want to make online shopping an experience. The concept came from our own shopping habits. Brand conscious people look out for their preferred colour and the perfect fit and we are going to give it to them,” promised Joshi, adding that seniors had inspired them by taking up similar projects as a part of social entrepreneurship, but this was pure business. The venture is being funded by the two students and a third-party.

The students feel what sets them apart from other online shopping websites is a tool called “wardrobe management”. The website will use this system to ensure that fitting of garments bought would not be an issue for the customer. The students did not wish to elaborate on this yet, as the website was still under construction.

Among the list of items to be made available on brandtadka.com were fabric, accessories like ties, cuff links, belts, caps and branded merchandise. Levi’s Signature and New Bombay Stores, based in Jamshedpur, have already signed up. A store from Calcutta is also on board. Zodiac, Lee, Wrangler, Polo, Arrow and Adidas will also have merchandise on display in the first phase.

The website will also provide style tips every day.

The duo plans to have more brands on board and also expand the delivery to cities other than Jamshedpur.

“We feel stores have space constraint issues. Here, a customer can log in, find his favourite items, surf through the entire range and place an order. The products will be delivered at their doorstep and one can opt for cash on delivery,” said Prathik.

The young entrepreneurs are getting full support from XLRI to start the venture. It has allowed them to use the XLRI address for registration purposes and has also given them office space on campus.

“We are trying to provide all possible help. We will try to link them with the finance houses if they have funding issues. We want to promote entrepreneurship,” said Prabal Kumar Sen, chairperson of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell, XLRI.

XLRI achieves 100% placement

Business Standard (March 28, 2009): 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.

XLRI Aims for Global Accreditation

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.

Student-Entrepreneurs @ XLRI

B-schools assist Student-Entrepreneurs

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.

Videos: 1st National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI

The videos of the presentations by the resource persons
of the
1st National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI (Jan 31 - Feb 1, 2009)

Keynote Address
Ms Sushmita Ghosh, President Emeritus, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

TRACK 1: PROVIDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Mr Giridhar S, Azim Premji Foundation


Mr Pravin Mahajan, Janarth



Mr CV Madhukar, Akshara Foundation & PRS India


TRACK 2: PROVIDING ACCESS TO CREDIT & FINANCIAL SERVICES

Ms Chetna Gala Sinha, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank


Mr Samit Ghosh, Ujjivan


Dr Vijay Mahajan, BASIX



TRACK 3: PROVIDING ACCESS TO HYGIENE AND HEALTHCARE

Mr Venkat Changavalli, EMRI


Mr Keerti Bhusan Pradhan, Right to Sight


Dr Joe Madiath, Gram Vikas


TRACK 4: PROVIDING ACCESS TO SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

Dr Pradip Sarmah, Center for Rural Development


Mr Rajiv Khandelwal, Aajeevika Bureau


Mr Verghese Jacob, Byrraju Foundation


TRACK 5: PROVIDING RURAL ACCESS TO SOCIETAL RESOURCES

Mr Anshu Gupta, GOONJ


Mr Kirti Prasanna Mishra, MART


Mr Ved Arya, SRIJAN


TRACK 6: PROVIDING ACCESS TO MARKETS

Ms Aparna Banerjee, Project Sukanya


Dr Vanita Viswanath, Udyogini


... and last one, about an Access-to-Market initiative from one of the Resourse Persons, who could not make it - due to last minute exigencies..

S Shivkumar, ITC E-Choupal

Coverage: 1st National Social Entrepreneurship Conference @ XLRI

The 1st National Social Entrepreneurship Conference @ XLRI (Jan 31 - Feb 1, '09) in pictures:

Photographs of Day 1:

Photographs of Day 2:

Coverage in Financial Express

Coverage in The Telegraph

XLRI to Host Social Entrepreneurship Conference

Jamshedpur, Dec. 23 (The Telegraph): To make people aware about social entrepreneurship, XLRI has planned a national conference.

The Social Entrepreneurship Trust and Social Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance (Sigma) of XLRI will arrange the conclave on social entrepreneurship on January 31 and February 1 next year.

The theme of the conference would be “Providing Access for Sustainable Devel- opment” while its purpose is to showcase innovative social entrepreneurship ventures by individual entrepreneurs, NGOs, corporate executives and government agencies.

It will also provide a common platform for sharing of experiences, issues and concerns of the social sector.

About 150 development sector professionals would attend the conference.

It will be the first-of- its-kind for XLRI. The conference will be organised in association with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global association of social entrepreneurs, and IndianNGOs.com, a portal on social and developmental of India.

“The conference is part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the B-school. We wanted to give a distinct identity to the social concerns, so we thought of coming up with this conference.

“There are resources but they can’t reach the grassroots and that is a cause of concern,” said Madhukar Shukla, the professor of organisational behaviour and chairperson of Social Entrepreneurship Trust at XLRI.

The conference has been designed around six sessions over two days, each highlighting the problem of “accessing the resources”.

Experts would talk on access to credit and financial services, access to education, access to healthcare and hygiene, access to livelihood opportunities, access to market and rural access to societal resources.

Each session will have three speakers who will share their views and provide solutions.

The conference will also have a social entrepreneurship workshop, a performance by Blind Opera and competitions for students interested in social entrepreneurship.

=======
Confirmed Resource Persons/ Speakers:

Ms Aparna Banerjee
CEO, Project Sukanya
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr Anshu Gupta
Founder, GOONJ
& Ashoka Fellow

Ms Chetna Gala Sinha
Founder, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr CV Madhukar
Founder, PRS Legislative Research & Co-Founder, Akshara Foundation
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr Dilip Ranjekar
CEO, Azim Premji Foundations

Dr Joe Madiath
Founder & Executive Director, Gram Vikas
& Skoll Social Entrepreneur

Mr KC Shashidhar
Chief General Manager, NABARD, Jharkhand

Mr Keerti Bhusan Pradhan
Head of Programs - India Office, Right to Sight

Dr Pradip Sarmah
Director, Centre for Rural Development
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr Pravin Mahajan
Founder & Executive Director, Janarth

Mr Rajiv Khandelwal
Director, Aajeevika Bureau
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr S Shivkumar
Chief Executive, ITC Agri Business - E-Choupal

Mr Samit Ghosh
CEO, Ujjivan

Mr Solomon Jaiprakash
Founder & Chief Executive, Maya Organic*
* awaiting confirmation

Ms Sushmita Ghosh
President Emeritus, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Dr Vanita Viswanath
CEO, Udyogini

Mr Ved Arya
Managing Trustee, SRIJAN
& Ashoka Fellow

Mr Venkat Changavalli
CEO, EMRI - Emergency Management & Research Instt

Mr Verghese Jacob
Lead Partner, Byrraju Foundation

Mr Vijay Mahajan
Founder & CEO, BASIX
& Senior Ashoka Fellow

XLRI's Prof HK Pradhan prepares Theme Paper for UN's Doha Summit

Nov 27 (Hindustan Times): THE XLRI, Jamshedpur, will have its presence felt during the United Nation's Conference on Financing for Development to review the implementation of the Monetory Consensus at Doha (Qatar). The conference is scheduled between November 29and December l. Professor of finance and economics at the institute, Dr H K Pradhan, has been preparing the main paper for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which will be presented at the international conference that assumes significance in view of the global recession.

Dr Pradhan, who was associated with the Commonwealth Secretariat for two years, is the only Indian involved in the theme paper of ESCAP.He has visited 20 countries across the globe on important assignments.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Dr Pradhan said that the theme paper lays enumerates that the world economy must adjust to a lower level of equilibrium and the asset price inflation should correct itself, but not at the cost of losing the financial institution. "Government and central banks must work towards ensuring the development of soundly managed and adequately capitalised banking system that can safely and efficiently intermediate between savers and investors.At the country level, there is a need for stronger institutional arrangements, discouraging all forms of speculations in the financial markets, excessive risk taking, requiring stable macro-economic policy and encouraging productive investments in the real economy," said Pradhan.

He also said that the paper has put forward a proposal for establishing Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) in Asia, a regional currency fund to provide emergency support during a currency for liquidity crisis in Asia, especially in the light of the financial turmoil.

XLRI Summer Placements defy Economic Downturn

Financial Express (Nov 20, 08): Despite the gloom, the financial sector was the one to pick up the largest number of students from XLRI for summer 2009 internships here on Wednesday.

74 companies came to recruit for 2009, compared with 58 for 2008. This goes to show that the corporate sector still has a lot to offer.

Again, the highest stipend for international internship was offered by a Wall Street investment bank for its trading desk in Hong Kong — a package in excess of Rs 5 lakh for the 8-10 weeks’ internship period.

The highest domestic stipend stood at Rs 3 lakh, which also came from an investment bank at the Mumbai desk.

The 74 companies offered 214 internships (202 for 2008) at an average stipend of Rs 85,000 (Rs 48,000 for 2008) to the batch of 180 students.

While the number of companies willing to pay stipends over Rs 1 lakh was at 45, compared with 14 for 2008, the number of first-time recruiters was also higher at 32, compared with 12.

“The spectacular growth on all counts, i.e. internships, locations, stipends, etc in a year marked with various crises signifies the strength enjoyed by XLRI as the most preferred recruitment destination for all recruiters,” said Prof Rajiv Misra, chairperson, placement committee.

From XLRI’s 115 business management students available for summer 2009 internships, the financial sector picked up 41 (35.7%) candidates, marketing sector 31 (27%), general management 25 (21.7%) and consulting firms 18 (15.7%).

The B-school’s 63-odd personnel management & industrial relations (PM&IR) students too have been placed well, with Novartis offering unique HR roles in their leadership programme based out of Basel (Switzerland).

The Al Ghanim group offered HR roles in Kuwait with HUL, Procter & Gamble offering similar roles in there global offices in Singapore and other global locations and the Aditya Birla group offering internship positions at Atlanta (US).

The private equity and investment banking space saw the participation of JP Morgan Chase, which recruited for international desks as well.

Lazard, a first-time participant, recruited exclusively from XLRI for its Mumbai operations, with the Carlyle group, now the largest private equity player in the world, once again choosing the B-school as its exclusive domestic recruitment destination.

Edelweiss Capital, Allegro Advisors and SBI Capital represented the Indian investment banking industry.