The award recognizes high-impact, scalable business models that propose innovative solutions which directly or indirectly address India's healthcare crisis. The Piramal Prize consists of two parts: (1) Rs. 10 lakh cash prize for the winning entry, and (2) Incubation support at IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.
Entries include innovations in medical devices, service delivery models, health insurance plans, and various other ideas that seek to seek to revolutionize Indian healthcare. Out of the 150 odd applications received eight finalists have been shortlisted through two rounds of competitive judging. The finalists comprise of renowned organizations like Aravind Eye Care, Drishtee etc. The final event is going to be covered on CNBC and will be broadcasted as a prime time television show at the end of July.
About CIIE and the Healthcare technologies incubated at CIIE
The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship was established in 2001. The Centre aims to foster innovation and entrepreneurship development through research, incubation, consultancy and training in hi-tech and mass impact technologies to enhance welfare and competitiveness of the Indian economy. CIIE has been supporting several healthcare related innovations in the past and believes that this focused program would play a vital role in solving this problem. Some of the healthcare technologies currently being supported by CIIE include Inflow meter; an infusion flow rate monitor to measure the flow of intravenous fluids into the human body, Save The Environment; provides arsenic filters to arsenic-poisoning prone areas of West Bengal and Bihar, Flexinails; a cost effective orthopaedic nail to treat unstable fractures of femur (hip-thigh joint and around) in elderly and long bones in children and Proctotub; a medical device used to give sitz bath for patients who have undergone operations of piles, fistulas and perennial abscesses. (www.ciieindia.org )
About Piramal Foundation
Through the pursuit of practical innovations for India's development, the Piramal Foundation aims to identify replicable solutions to some of our nation's most pressing challenges. In the process, the Foundation aims to nurture a generation of socially conscious leaders who will make a difference. The Piramal Foundation's method is based on a belief that talented young people, challenged to address some of our country's most common development issues, will find innovative solutions that are relevant, cost-effective, and applicable to the nation at large. (http://www.piramal.org.in )
The batch consists of 78% engineers. Also, the number of students with work experience has consistently been on the rise. This year, 69% of the batch consists of people with some work experience and 53% of them have more than one year of work experience. The number of girl students in the batch has almost doubled from 17 in the last batch to 32 in the current batch.
While welcoming the students to the institute, KT Chacko, Director, IIFT said “IIFT will provide you exposure to a host of subjects which are of extreme importance in the field of international business. Students will get exposure to subjects such as international finance, international marketing, international economics, international trade operations and logistics and international business strategy here at the institute.”
He encouraged students to hone their leadership and team-building skills during their two years at the institute. “Two companies may have the same products with the same merits, but you will find one of them is doing better because of the kind of teams that they have been able to build using their interactive skills.''
Also, IIFT is the think tank for WTO studies in India and advises both the government as well as international bodies on WTO issues. It also has a centre for Small and Medium Enterprises as well as a Centre for International Trade and Technology. Subjects in international business have acquired extreme relevance in a fast-globalizing world where one has to be globally-competent in order to be locally-competent.
The participants were then addressed by Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is experienced in teaching and recruiting students from business schools across India and across the world. He compared this inaugural function to his first day at IIM Calcutta and remarked that the IIMs have come a long way since then. Addressing, the incoming batch, he remarked that the students were joining the institute at a very crucial stage in economic evolution of India and that, in spite of the current situation of the markets, the incoming batch has come at an extraordinary time.
Having recruited students from campuses all over, Dr. Vardhan said that he had been observing a certain pattern. Students from campuses all over might be brilliant when it came to analytical skills and problem solving capabilities. Students might calculate option values in their heads these days. But, what he clearly found lacking was the depth and the maturity. He did not find students involved in broader reading, even if they might be going in depth with their subjects.
At this crucial juncture for the incoming batch, Dr Vardhan reminded them that the competition did not stop at getting through CAT but rather, started after it. The most important strength that he felt should be developed is the ability to make friends with those who they compete with. He also encouraged the students to go with their gut feeling, rather than peer and monetary pressure. Throughout his experience, he had seen people make mistakes when having chosen the latter.
Various questions were posed to him, given his experience in various fields. The questions were related to entrepreneurial skills, the current oil crisis and the state of education in India. Dr Vardhan felt that entrepreneurial skills have not been developed in India. The MBA institutes offered students a relatively risk-free way to a decent middle class style of living. This was the groove that students were falling into and therefore did not prefer to take up a profession that was filled with risks. Moreover, he felt that in the past years, India has not seen the kind of creative spirit that would be necessary for an entrepreneurial venture. He felt that the IIMs could play a huge role in changing that.
When asked about the current oil crisis situation and the ways of solving it, he posed to main solutions. In the short term he felt that alternative sources which were available should be exploited. Natural gas pipelines would be helpful in reducing the demand. However, in the long term, he pushed for serious policy changes as regards the pricing and investment policies. Moreover, he felt that demand side management was necessary. Energy guzzlers like malls should be taxed more and establishments using solutions that reduced energy consumption should be given tax rebates. This would lead to a demand-side change in energy usage.
Dr Vardhan also stressed on the educational infrastructure in India and its relation to the growing service sector (52% of the economy) that could use it. Responding to the increase in batch size, Dr Vardhan said that an increase in quality faculty was also necessary to cater to the batch.
Among other vital inputs, he said that the establishment of effective supply chain structures was very necessary to cater to the service industry. He also responded to a few doubts on growth, saying that growth in its initial stage was divisive and believed in the fact that enough growth would be distributive.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Prof. Pawan Kumar Singh, Director, IIM Indore said that the course has been designed to deliver the specific needs of the company. He emphasized that with the focused dedication and disciplined approach for analytical problem solving in real-life situations under constraints and pressures – the participants will immensely benefit from the curriculum under the expert guidance of the faculty. The faculty would prepare the participants to meet the challenges in the area of operations, finance, marketing, IT, project management, logistics and supply chain management and the crucial utilization of human capital.
Prof. Prashant Salwan, Programme Director for this course presented the overview of the programme. He briefed that the programme is divided into three terms. In the first two terms, the participants will be offered 16 core courses in economics, marketing, finance, accounting, organisational behaviour, costing etc. All these courses are compulsory. In the third term, participants will be offered elective courses. In addition to classroom teaching, there would be industrial visits and guest lectures. The participants will also have to work on the live-project concerning their area.
Also present for the function, were the students of the recently inaugurated Executive Post-Graduate Programme in Communications Management (PGPCMX) and the Post-Graduate Programme in Crafting Creative Communications (PGPCCC).
The chief guest for the occasion was Mr Rahul Kansal, Brand Director, Times of India group of newspapers. Citing some examples that have engaged the consumer rather than being a one-way communication, Mr. Kansal spoke to the students on the changing paradigms in the field of marketing.
The director of the institute, Prof Atul Tandon, addressed the gathering. “Effective education harnesses the minds of individuals, helps them evaluate and interpret various issues. MICA teaches you to how to exercise choices and take decisions as a manager and handle the responsibility that comes with it.”
The meritorious students of the 14th Batch of PGPCM students were given awards for their academic performance over the last year. Indranil Goswami bagged the Director's award for academic excellence, while Tanvi Sudhir Sikand and Arati Anand Jere were the runners-up. Also part of the proceedings for the day was the Sankalp Scholarship award which has been instituted by the institute's theatre festival, Sankalp. This scholarship derives itself from the funds generated during the fest, and aims to promote education among financially backward but meritorious girl children in the nearby village of Shela. The first recipient of this scholarship is Ms Subhan Salimbhai Kokhar, who will be pursuing her Eighth Standard. The programme concluded with a vote of thanks from the registrar, Mr KGK Pillai and was followed up by lunch.
Working Managers' Programme was launched in 2005 along with the launch of the Noida campus as a three year part time programme in Management for professionals having minimum three years of work experience.
(WMP) is designed for working executives, entrepreneurs and professionals who have a desire to enhance their knowledge and skills in a formal setting while continuing to be engaged in their ongoing professions/businesses.
"Our focus is on imparting the management knowledge to an experienced professional that allows him to become a top-notch manager", says Director, IIM Lucknow.
The first batch passed out in May 2008.There has been a rise in number of applications for the programme and the final list has 68 participants which is the highest till now.
Alumni wasted no time in establishing new connections over the dinner, while at the same time, strengthening the old ones. The evening also provided the present batch, the organizers, to pick up a tip or two from their seniors. Overall, alumni and students of TISS had a wonderful time at ALTIBA '08 and went back with memories that would last with them well beyond ALTIBA '09. TISS holds alumni meets in major Indian cities during summers every year. This gives TISSians, who cannot make it to the annual Alumni meet on the campus, an opportunity to connect with their alma-mater and friends.
“This is a very unique gesture on part of the current students to bring together alumni from Bangalore and every year I get impressed by the organization and enthusiasm… I truly appreciate the attention to details, the video, games etc … the gifts are really special.” – Archana Mehendale (MSW Batch of 1992).
Addressing an audience, Mr Reddy started off by underlining the emergence of India as a world economic power and its approach towards innovation. Influence of technology, rapidly changing market environment, competition and pricing pressures have put tremendous importance on innovation for companies to survive. He mapped MNCs such as UPS, Genentech, Satyam and Motorola on a strategic grid signifying the changes made by the company to combat the globally changing industry. These companies revolutionized the way they do business by implementing innovative solutions. The process of innovation might be long-drawn and cumbersome but the returns can be earth shattering, added Mr Reddy. One of the most apt examples would be that of Microsoft which has consistently outperformed others through its innovative strategies. He ended his talk by quoting Jack Welch - “If the outside environment is changing faster than the inside environment, the company is doomed”
After the talk, Mr Reddy participated in an informal session answering questions put forth by the students. He shared his corporate and academic experiences and tried to establish credibility to the fact that innovation is the path to be followed for achieving success. He answered questions touching upon areas such as real estate, securitization, venture capitalists and the IT industry. The session ended with Mr Reddy being presented with a memento on behalf of the institute. Mr Reddy is a Ph.D in marketing from Columbia University, New York. He has taught management students in Stanford Business School, New York University, UCLA and Columbia University. He has consulted for various fortune 100 companies including Coca Cola, IBM, Miller Brewing, United Parcel Service and Ford Foundation. An author of three books on corporate strategy, Mr Reddy has been awarded MBA Teacher of the year in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2005.
The “Leadership Series”, an Industry Interaction Cell (IIC) initiative launched in 2004 involves year round talks by senior people from the industry and other walks of life on topics ranging from established business practices to emerging trends, their implication on the economy and value-addition to the society.
The students from the SDM Institute will be undergoing courses during their first semester in Shanghai University. According to Ramesh Venkateswaran, Director, SDM-IMD these short-term study tours between the universities to understand each other's country, business practices and cultures giving students an edge when it comes to international opportunities.
The duration of each program will be 7 to 10 days and will include sessions by faculties and visits to various organizations in the country. The program also extends to other initiatives like faculty exchange programs, joint research, collaborative academic activities and joint MBA programmes between the two institutes in future.
“This is the beginning of an international focus of SDM-IMD, Mysore, and it is expected that in the years to come, more such arrangements would be worked out,” elaborated the Director.
The participants of IPMX had an opportunity to interact with Dr Yashovardhan Verma, Director - HR, LG Electronics India. Dr Verma provided key insights and ring side view of the challenges and drivers of the senior management in a global organization.
Dr Verma stressed upon the importance of innovation by pointing that, “Excellence of today is obsolesce of tomorrow”. He emphasized the significance of empowering the lower level employees in an organization that could result in ideas and solutions not thought of before. Introducing the concept of 360 degree leadership Dr Verma emphasized the importance of influencing without necessarily being in a position of formal authority.
With reference to the increasing globalization of business, Dr Verma spoke about the challenges faced in integrating the different cultures and possible strategies to overcome the same. He also mentioned that while the skills & knowledge levels of most organizations are almost the same, the key differentiator of current business leaders is their agility & speed of execution.
About IPMX IPMX is a full time, one-year residential executive management programme being conducted at IIM Lucknow - Noida campus and is designed for mid/senior level professionals, to prepare them for leadership roles. The programme aims to accelerate understanding of business at functional and strategic levels, and prepare students to manage enterprises engaged in global business.
The class of IPMX 2008-09 includes 45 leads and middle level managers from diverse industries such as FMCGs, Financial Services, Government Services, Information Technology, Management Consultancy, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Projects/Construction, Shipping, Telecom, Automotive and Instrumentation. The class profile has an average GMAT of 701, age of 32 years and work experience of 9.5 years.
Currently, e-CPMG is running at Genpact with has 119 participants who are attending sessions from e-enabled classrooms located in Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Jaipur. The program is divided into twelve modules. Keeping in mind the requirements of the industry, the modules are designed to create managerial and leadership competence among professionals. There are 120 hrs of e-enabled interactive sessions (March 2008 – January 2009). Classes are held on every Saturday afternoon. Most of the participants have one to three years of work experience.
“The objective of this program is to develop managerial capabilities among the people who are at the early stages of their career to enable them to effectively make managerial responsibilities”, says Prof. Ajay Singh, Course Director, e-CPMG.
The programme invited applications from young executives having minimum 1- 3 years of work experience. For this batch, the participants were nominated by Genpact. However, the Institute released the final list after scrutinizing the individual application forms of these nominated applicants.
The students will be awarded “Certificate in General Management” by Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow on successful completion of the program.
Click on the link below to launch a pictorial slide-show exploring all this and more on the country's youngest IIM - Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, Shillong.
Last week, the students of the GMP Program at XLRI, got an opportunity to interact with Mr Ghosh. In an hour long discussion, Mr Ghosh explained how a social credit system can act as a social security system in villages in India. In any developed nation, social security system is based on the income of people. Mr Ghosh's idea is unique on the context that his social security system (piloted by the Governments of MP and Maharashtra) is based not on people's income but on people's expenditure.
Mr Ghosh, during the discussion, told the audience about the nuances of the social credit system and how it has been functioning smoothly in the villages of MP. Among the other topics discussed, was that of a 'Museum School'. This initiative involves the use of 'museums' to teach the slum kids.
About Pradeep Ghosh: Pradeep is an Ashoka Fellow, an IT professional who switched to social entrepreneurship, and the founder of Bhopal-based OASiS(http://www.ashoka.org/node/2581). His main work has been in the area of Micro-Insurance, and has developed a consumption-based model for micro-insurance, which is being piloted by Govts of MP and Maharashtra.
MDI's 15-month Energy Management Program trains the participants in various disciplines of power sector and teaches about the latest techniques of management. As for the first time the school has admitted 20 self sponsored candidates, MDI has also constituted a placement cell to help place the students after the conclusion of the course. Dr. Atmanand, Dean MDI School of Energy Management said, industry interfaces with power companies and general industry has been formed to help 100 per cent placements of the self sponsored participants in the course.
Inaugurating the program, RV Shahi former Secretary Power, Government of India and Chairman Energy Infratech, congratulated the 52 participants to the course and said, the days to come will witness sea change in the working and managing of the power sector in the country. He made no bones about the fact when he acknowledged that the power sector in the country had been largely mismanaged and neglected. He attributed the customer indifference scenario mainly to lack of proper training and modern techniques adopted in the sector. Supervisors in the field had little exposure to modern management techniques and there was no significance attached to human resources development. He warned the participants that if they had to survive in the modern competitive field a customer friendly approach was necessary where we have to be sensitive and friendly to our customer's needs and requirements.
RV Shahi who is also a member of the MDI Board of Governors impressed upon the participants to decentralize and modernize for which computerization will help the sector immensely. Stressing the role the power sector plays in the over all growth of a country, he said during the next 25 years, power sector has to have between eight to nine per cent growth in order to enable the over all growth to maintain its upward trend. For that we have to improve the performance of our power stations and bring out more and more innovative ideas to register this growth.
Welcoming the chief guest, MDI Diorector Prof CV Baxi said, while investments in power structure were significant, it was necessary for the participants to come out with fresh ideas and approach that needed changing people's mindset.
The new institute has a campus located in the center of Electronic city in Bangalore. The campus comprises various recreational facilities for the students. The academic block consists of auditorium, lecture theatres, computer labs, cafeteria, reading hall and a library with a large catalogue of books. The hostel facilities include a dining hall, gym, indoor & outdoor sports facilities apart from the spacious rooms. Also, The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled.
The campus was inaugurated by Arjun Singh, Honourable Minister of Human Resources, Government of India on July 11, 2008 with the function presided by M Yedyurappa, Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka. Symbiosis initiated to open a campus in Bangalore looking at the need for managers in the countries IT capital which also has big corporate houses from other domains.
The Centre of Excellence at LIBA will see the amalgamation of industry thought leaders, domain experts, academicians and technology partners in the SCM arena. TAKE Solutions will offer scholarships to one PhD student of LIBA every year in the area of SCM. Further the research activities will be open to all academia and industry professions.
Research and analysis, to produce solutions to some of the pressing problems and bottlenecks that organizations are facing today, will be conducted. The programme schedule will include ethical supply chain, extending Newsvendor models, unlocking the value of RFID, leveraging the value of information in closed and open loop supply chains, reverse SCM, and contemporary topics such as inventory decision and policy development, time compression, demand amplification, supply chain design and integration, and international supply chain management.
In addition, a Centre of Excellence Laboratory will be set up at LIBA jointly run by TAKE Solutions and LIBA. The lab will develop best practices and advanced algorithms on the existing and emerging supply chain challenges.
“The scope is endless as the Centre will provide solutions that span a multitude of industries and will help organizations rapidly exploit opportunities in ever changing conditions. We had realized the potential for research in this area two years back when we had set up the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management. I am extremely happy that the new Centre of Excellence will augment the existing Centre for Supply Chain Management and further help in bridging the knowledge gap in the area” said Fr. Christie, Director, LIBA.
The offers to the students started even before the Placement Week with Pre-Placement offers to students from companies like SBI Capital Markets, Aranca, Apollo Health & Lifestyle, Genpact to name a few, offering profiles such as Project advisory, Business Analyst and Business Development.
Consulting companies participating in the placement process included Avalon Consulting, Bristle Cone India and Gallup India. Marketing Profiles were offered by IMRB and Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd. IBM India which was the top recruiter last year offered consulting roles in the area of Strategy and Change while companies like Infosys and Newgen Software Technologies Limited were some of the other companies in the IT space. Banking and Insurance industries were represented by Kotak Mahindra Bank and insurance industry leaders, ICICI Prudential and ICICI Lombard. The Placement process witnessed participation from companies in the high end Analytics space viz. Market Rx, a Cognizant Company, Evalueserve, Grail Research, Aranca etc.
12 pc pf Students opted for consulting roles in areas like Strategy and Supply Chain management, SAP and CRM. The Banking and insurance companies offered exciting profiles to 24 pc students in Product Management, Branch Banking, Project Advisory, Risk Management etc. Analytic profiles offered were preferred by 12 pc of the batch in the areas of financial modeling, Sales & Marketing solutions, Energy & Power etc. DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, an Indian MNC offered profiles like Brand Management, Corporate Finance, and Supply Chain Management etc. UDeC which is in the Infrastructure space is another company which offered the Corporate Finance Profile. Some students were bold enough to leave aside high paying jobs for profiles that they had personal interests in.
The programme aims at women who have the desire to initiate their own enterprises and have determination to bring this dream to reality. The course is an Indian Adaptation of The Scottish Enterprise Foundation of the University of Stirling, Scotland and it is subsidised by Maharashtra State Finance Corporation (MSFC) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
Since its inception in 1993, the programme has trained women who have aspired to establish their own business. Of the women trained under the programme 42 percent have started their business. The programme provides a platform for the women to develop their business ideas by providing managerial inputs in a comprehensive package. It covers various aspects of setting up of a business like creating business plan, legal aspects, marketing, financial management, human resource management, risk management and other related subjects.
On this occasion, Chairman Prof. Dinesh K. Gupta addressed the students and introduced the institute and its faculty members to the new batch of future managers. Speaking to the audience, Mr Tulli emphasized the importance of perseverance to students. He urged the students to be world class in their attitude if they have to compete and succeed in today's times of hyper competition. He asked the students to do their own SWOT analysis and find out for themselves that what they want and then work towards it with ardor and zeal. He spoke at length about the importance of passion quotient (PQ) and curiosity quotient (CQ) in the ever changing world of business and substantiated it with really good examples.
The program concluded with Dr. Satish Kapoor, faculty at UBS, guiding the fresh batch with his words of wisdom and expressing his heartfelt gratitude to Mr Rajesh Tulli with a vote of thanks and a memento.
Mr Patil addressed a gathering of around the 150 students from the flagship programme (PGDM-Communications), the executive program (PGPCMX) and also students and faculty from the Southern Methodist University, Texas, USA who are presently in MICA on a study tour. He shared with the students, consumer insights which influenced the design of shows like the Roadies, MTV Bakra and Ghoom (the first Fully Faltoo film). He threw light on the aspirations of the young generation, what makes them tick and how MTV was utilising those triggers to strike a popular chord with the youth of today. Some of the topics touched upon by Mr Patil were the positive state of mind of the youth, twinsumerism, and the importance of style, personalization and the need for double impact in half the time. Mr Patil also shed some light on 'Colors', the latest Hindi general entertainment channel to be launched from Monday.
As Chinmaya, a first year student put it, “It was so cool! He really gave us great insight into how we are. It's what we feel and that's what he expressed.”