Wary of the times ahead in the job market, business schools are working on a risk-minimisation strategy and looking at doubling the pool of companies on the campus for the summer placements scheduled in November this year.
"Funds received from alumni and companies are usually meant for specific projects. These funds pour in between October and December every year. Current projects will not be affected despite the economic slowdown, but new projects might take a hit," said T K Ghosal, deputy registrar (finance), the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur.
Hollywood is all set to use Indian technology for the first time. An erstwhile incubatee at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been approached by prominent Hollywood production houses for his patented technology, which finds its application in the current film technology and also for Digital Intermediate Technology of the future.
The institutes have now begun sensitising students about business ethics and morality as well. Be it inviting eminent personalities like the Dalai Lama to speak on business ethics or incorporating ethics as a compulsory course, IIMs are making efforts to produce socially-sensitive managers.
The BCG project, which is supported by the United Nations' World Food Programme, the government of India and the government of Orissa, involves scanning finger prints and the iris for preparing biometric cards for a population of around 1 million. Srijan Pal Singh, an IIM-A student, who is part of the project, says the biometric cards will be filtered through a super computer to avoid duplications.
This will enable the firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary called CIIE Initiatives, to buy stakes in the companies that it incubates by investing its time and resources.
The Certificate Programme in Business Administration offered by the Institutes of Management has not found favour with information technology companies.
While some have announced setting up of a PE club for aspiring entrepreneurs, others plan courses, special lectures and seminars to create awareness about the booming sector. Students of the Post Graduate Programme for Executives at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, will go through a course on PE in their last term between December and February.
In a unique initiative, students from IIM-Ahmedabad will work with Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury and help in planning for the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme this year. They will be involved in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Provisions of the Right to Information Act will be analysed. Students will assess funds spent by the constituency and create a monitoring system.
Chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani is understood to have expressed interest in footing the salary bills of international faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
After supplying Micro Electrical Mechanical System-based (MEMS-based) Inertial Navigation System to the Navy and the Airforce, Whirlybird Electronics, the co-incubated company of Indian Institute Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), is looking for markets in the automation and automobile industry.
Yet another generational shift is taking place at Arvind, one of India's largest textile players, as the fourth-generation Lalbhai has joined the group. In what could be an indicator of things to come, Punit Lalbhai, son of chairman and managing director Sanjay Lalbhai, is being appointed as the chief manager of the project division.
Two ex-IIT Kharagpur students have decided to come out of their comfortable professional zones to create a venture called 'Demazi', which would enable SMEs to create their own IT solution online at a minimal cost. SMEs owners can log on to the website and key in the requirments they need from the software.
Institutes are encouraging students to work hands-on with the underprivileged of society.
Nothing seems to dampen the spirit of Gujarat's textile industry when it comes to investments. Inspite of the issues arising due to rising input costs, the state government is expecting to witness MoUs worth Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in textile sector at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's Summit 2009. During the summit, the state government will be luring several textile machinery manufacturers from overseas to set up base in the state.
The central government's view of exploring public-private partnership (PPP) in the establishment of new institutes of higher learning has a private hand, right from the first step.
For students aspiring to take up post graduate studies at Canada and getting a work permit subsequently, there is good news. International students will now be able to obtain an open work permit under the Post-Graduation Work Permit Programme, with no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement for a job offer.
The Gujarat government's health department has announced an e-medicine scheme for rural areas. The programme entails offering online and telemedicine facilities to villagers. The department will install web cameras and other infrastructure for distant diagnosis. Of the total plan outlay in the state budget for 2008-09, 4 per cent is for the health sector. The state is also encouraging medical practitioners to set up clinics in certain identified blocks in rural areas.
While states across the country grapple with the problem of getting power to the rural areas, Gujarat stands tall as an exception. The state government's Jyoti Gram Yojana (JGY) has not only ensured 100 per cent village electrification but also 24 X 7 power supply. The result is a resurrection of rural industries in the state and reverse migration to rural areas.
The premier Indian Institutes of Management will have to draw on all their management skills to solve the current financial imbroglio they are in. On the one hand, the fee hike by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore has caused heartburn not only among students and the Union Human Resource Development Ministry but also among the other IIMs who say they were not consulted despite an existing agreement to do so. IIM-A and IIM-B have said that a fee hike is a prerogative of their own
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances