Friday, September 21, 2007

XLRI Faculty Scale New Heights

Prof. Pitabas Mohanty, one of the stalwarts in the world of finance; has added a new feather to his cap. He has now co-authored the book “Principles of Corporate Finance” along with Brealey, Myers and Franklin Allen. This book is a Bible in the world of corporate finance and used by leading universities all over the world. It is indeed a matter of great honour for XLRI to have one of its professors to co-author such an illustrious book. Prof Mohanty has also co-authored another prestigious book “Investments” along with Bodie, Kane and Marcus. Prof Mohanty is the Chairperson of the Finance Area at XLRI.

Prof Mohanty has won the Best Young Teacher Award from AIMS in 2002. He has also won the first prize for two consecutive years in the Capital Markets Conference organized by the UTI Institute of Capital Markets. He has also got the prestigious Citibank Research Excellence Award in IIM Bangalore. To add to his ever expanding list of achievements, he has also won the Best Research Paper Award from AIMS in 1999.


Rear Admiral Rakesh Chopra , IN, VSM, (RETD), will be attending the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War as a Visiting Research fellow in Michaelmas, Term 2007.

After serving in the Indian Navy for 38 years, on retirement he took up appointment on the faculty of XLRI Jamshedpur, one amongst the top five B-schools in India, as Professor of Strategy and was subsequently appointed as Chairperson of the Strategy Area.

He studied at Bishop Cotton School, Simla. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Defence Services Staff College, he was a founding member and Chief Instructor of the College of Naval Warfare at Karanja, Mumbai. He has also been one of the guiding members on the Directing Staff of the Staff College and Chief Instructor of the Navigation & Direction School.

A specialist in Navigation & Direction and diving, he has navigated several ships, controlled aircraft from the carrier and commanded three major Indian Ships. He has been moving perfectly between multiple roles assigned to him, as part of his four decade long career with the Navy including National Cadet Corps, Flag Officer Sea Training, Joint Ops, Information Warfare and Weapon systems etc.

He commanded a ship in the 1971 Indo Pak war in the Eastern Theatre and was a member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1988. Subsequent to this service, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for exemplary service by the President.

He is an MSc from Madras University and an MBA from a prestigious B school in Mumbai. After doing an MPhil from Mumbai University on “Energy Security”, he was awarded PhD for his thesis on ‘The Strategic Significance of Oil and Gas for the Security of India’.

He is a member of two prestigious institutions dealing with strategic and security matters, the USI, New Delhi, and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He regularly contributes articles on national security and strategy to professional journals and reads papers at national and international seminars. He is also on the Board of Directors of a think tank ‘Peace Operations Institute’ in Washington DC.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Prof. Pitabas Mohanty. Proud of you teaching at XLRI.
Mr. N. Krishna Kumar of Mindtree - a great achiever. Proof that fertile brain and hard work will result in great success.
SS