Director's Report

Convocation 2004
DIRECTOR'S REPORT: 2004

Mr. Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Board of Governors, Mr. Tarun Das, Director General of CII and Chairman ACC and Haldia Petrochemicals and our distinguished Chief Guest and Convocation Speaker, members of the Governing Board, faculty and staff, Graduates of the class of 2004, parents and relatives of the graduating class, present students, distinguished guests. Members of the press and the Media, Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all of you on the occasion of the 13th Annual Convocation. I sincerely thank you for your presence here this evening.

We are extremely privileged to have as our Chief Guest and Convocation Speaker, Mr. Tarun Das who is the Director General of CII and will soon to be its first Chief Mentor. For 40 years Mr. Tarun Das has been associated with the shaping and remarkable growth of CII. Under his leadership, the organization evolved from the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI) to the Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI), to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as its membership and scope of its activities expanded. During his tenure as Director General, CII has become the largest association of business and industry in India, with the broadest range of activities covering many facets of socio-economic development and developing international business and trade relationships for Indian Industry. Mr. Das, all of us are eagerly looking forward to your address.

At the outset, I want to place on record my thanks and appreciation to the members of the Governing Board for their valuable guidance, the Deans – Fr. George and Prof. William, Faculty, staff and students for all their cooperation and unstinted support. What I am going to report is the result of our teamwork and our determination to take the Institute forward and make it more international and globally competitive in the years to come.

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

I am happy to inform you that the Governing Board has reelected Mr. Rajive Kaul as Chairman of the Board of Governors for another term.

I welcome the new members of the Board: Dr. U. Sarat Chandran, IAS, Finance Secretary, Government of Orissa, Shri Ajit Tripathy, IAS, Industry Secretary, Government of Orissa, Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director, Corporate HR, Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Roopen Roy, MD of Price Water House Coopers, Kolkata and Dr. M. Rammohan Rao, Professor, IIM, Bangalore and Chairman, All India Board of Management Studies. We thank Shri U.S. Bhatia, IAS, former Industry Secretary of the Government of Orissa, and Dr. Dharni P. Sinha, President, AMDISA for their valuable support and guidance as members of the Board.

RECOGNITION AND RANKING

The Institute’s postgraduate programme in Management has been recognized by NARIC (UK), as equivalent to British Master’s Degree.

· Business India ranked XIMB A+ Institute after the top 10. Last year they had ranked us 9.

· Business Today has ranked us No. 13

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMME

XIMB launched its Fellow Programme in Management equivalent to doctoral level programme this academic year under the Coordinatorship of Dr. D.P. Dash.

NEW RECRUITMENT

We welcome to the XIMB family the following new members:

Dr. M.G. Jomon in Human Resource
Prof. Mukti Mishra in Marketing
Prof. S. Harinarayana in Placement & Alumni Coordinator
Mr. S.S. Rath as Administrator and Law Officer
Mr. Guru Patnaik as Academic Associate
Mr. Partho Sen in Dean’s Office
Mr. S. Chandrasekhar in CENDERET as Coordinator, EORC & NORC

We wish them rewarding experience in XIMB.

We bid farewell to Prof. Utpal Bhattacharya, Prof. S.B. Mohanty and Prof. S.K. Samal, Mr. R.K. Panda, Mr. Sidhartha Padhi, Ms. Sumitra Das, Ms. Minakshi Priyadarshini, and Mr. S.N. Mohanty.

Mr. Simon Nayak (Carpenter) and Mr. K.C. Padhi (Security Guard) retired from their services on superannuation. These are the first two employees to retire from the Institute.

We thank them for their services and wish them well.

FOUNDATION DAY LECTURE

The Institute held its first Foundation Day Lecture on 1st November, 2003. Dr. JJ Irani, Director, Tata Sons, delivered the lecture on Corporate Governance. We will be holding this lecture every year.

AWARDS:

Centre For Change Management and the august Jury of National and International repute had selected the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar the Best Institute in Management The award was presented on 22nd January, 2004 in the Asia Pacific HRD Congress, at Nehru Centre, Worli.

INSTITUTE-INDUSTRY INTERFACE

MARICO has tied up with XIMB under 'PREFERRED CAMPUS PROGRAM -2003'.

Under the aegis of this program a workshop INNOVATION SKILLS by Mr. Pankaj Bhargava GM - HR & OD.and guest lecture in Sales & Distribution by Mr. Arnab Banerjee, GM – New Business Development. have been conducted by Senior Executives of Marico.

Samreeti Mishra, alumnus of 92-94 has initiated this and played a vital role in making it happen.

We look forward to more such collaborations with other organizations which are beneficial to both the organisation and XIMB

INSTITUTE JOURNAL

XIMB Journal of Management: For several years we were planning to publish a Journal. I am happy to inform you that the first issue of VILAKSHAN: XIMB JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT is released tonight. Our sincere thanks to Prof. Nina Jacob, who is the Editor of this Journal, for bringing out this journal in a short time.

May I request our Chief Guest to kindly release the same.

Prof. D. P. Dash has taken the initiative to start an Academic Journal titled: Journal of Research Practice: Innovations and Challenges in Multiple Domains. This will be published by Sage Publications.

A manager, who had just returned from a motivation seminar, called an employee into his office and said, “Henceforth you are going to be allowed to plan and control your job. That will raise productivity considerably, I am sure.”

“Will I be paid more?” asked the worker.

“No, no. Money is not a motivator and you will get no satisfaction from a salary raise.”

“Well, if production does increase, will I be paid more?”

“Look,” said the manager. “You obviously do not understand the motivation theory. Take this book home and read it; it explains what it is that really motivates you.”

As the man was leaving, he stopped and said, “If I read this book, will I be paid more?”

XIMB has grown to what it is today is because of the commitment and an urge to excel by all the faculty and staff. What I am going to report is only a glimpse of our achievements during the past one year.

FACULTY

ACHIEVEMENTS

Congratulations to Prof. Saroj Kumar Mohapatra for completing his PhD in Utkal University. His thesis topic was "Human Resource Planning during Transition: the challenge of right sizing - a case study of Rourkela Steel Plant".

BOARD MEMBERSHIP

Prof. Latha Ravindran has become a member of the Governing Board of (i) Gram Vikas, one of the leading NGOs in Orissa and (ii) Harsha Trust, one of the consulting organisations in Bhubaneswar. (both since April, 2003).

Prof. Banikanta Mishra joined Sunadaram (Mutual) Asset Management Company, Chennai, as a Director. He had also been appointed to be a member of an Expert Committee constituted by the General Body of Orissa State Cooperative Bank besides being a member of an Expert Committee of the Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange.

Prof. D.V. Ramana has been invited to be a member of the panel of Advisors of School of Accounting.

Prof. Amar KJR Nayak was nominated as a Member of Association of International Business, India Chapter and Member of the Board of Governors, Association of International Business, India Chapter.

Prof. S.P. Das has been appointed as a member of the Task Force for village Industries by Government of Orissa Department of Industry.

PAPERS PRESENTED IN INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL FORA

Prof. W.S. William presented a paper titled “Quality of Hospital Care – An Indian Perspective” at the Industrial Engineering Research Conference (IERC)-2003 in Portland, USA, held from 17-21 May, 2003.

Prof. Dipak Misra, presented a paper co-authored by Prof. Kaushik Sahu at the “32nd International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering” at Limerick, Ireland from 11-14 August, 2003 titled “Object-Oriented Modeling of Supply Chain Interfaces.”

Prof. M.N. Tripathi had presented a paper 'Emerging Markets - The Big Opportunity' in 'The International Conference of Comparative Management' at the College of Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan in December, 2003

Prof. Amar KJR Nayak presented a paper at the International Conference of the Association of International Business, 14-16 January, 2004

Prof. Amar KJR Nayak presented papers at Strategic Management Forum, XLRI, Jamshedpur, 24-26 April 2003, XXVII All India Social Science Congress, IIT Kharagpur, 3-7 Dec, 2003 and International Conference on Management, IIM Bangalore, 28-30 Dec, 2003

Prof. Nayak’s doctoral paper "Case Based Research Sampling Method - From Exploratory Research to Theory Building" presented at the First International Conference of the Management Association Scholars at IIM Bangalore has won the Second Prize.

Prof. Nayak had also presented a paper titled “Globalisation Process in India: A Clash of Developmental Objectives of Host with Growth Objectives of the Foreign Companies” at the Second International Conference, Association of International Business School at Loyola College, Chennai during January 14-16, 2004.

Dr. Banikanta Mishra presented a paper titled “Simple Approach to Management of Consumer Loan Portfolios” at the 2002 International Conference on Business and Finance organized by ICFAI University & Philadelphia University on 15-16 December 2003 at Hyderabad.

Dr. Mishra had also presented a paper titled “The New State versus the Old civil-Society: A Four-Pillar Perspective” at the Second International Conference, Association of International Business School at Loyola College, Chennai during January 14-16, 2004.

Prof. D.V. Ramana’s paper “Value chain analysis in the insurance sector” has been accepted for presentation at the 6th Annual Convention of the Strategic Management Forum in XLRI Jamshedpur from April 24-26, 2003.

Prof. Ramana had also presented two papers titled ”Rate Base and Rate Return: Some Suggestions for Utilities” at the 2002 International Conference on Business and Finance organized by ICFAI University & Philadelphia University on 15-16 December 2003 at Hyderabad and “Redefining the Role of the Government in the Power: The Electricity Act 2003” at the Second International Conference, Association of International Business School at Loyola College, Chennai during January 14-16, 2004 respectively.

He also presented a Paper on 'Financial Aspects of Power Sector: Some issues relating to Depreciation': Accepted for publication by Centre de Sciences Humaines (network of 27 research centres funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and IIT Kanpur.

Prof. Mukti Mishra had presented a paper titled “Reforms of Public Institutions and Governance: A Conceptual Note” in the National Seminar on Indian Society in the new Millennium: Socio-Economic-Political and Cultural Issues conducted by Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, A Government of India Research Institute on Economic Policies. This has been accepted as a refereed paper and he have received the royalty payment for the article which is being published as part of an edited book by them.

He also presented a paper on Metaphysics of Governance: Business Vs Ethical Issues, Is the dynamics of Governance Contentious? at the 15th Annual Convention of the Association of Indian Management Schools at XIMB, Bhubaneswar.

PUBLICATIONS – INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL

Prof. Amar KJR Nayak’s research paper was published in Journal of International Business Studies, USA.

Prof. Banikanta Mishra article titled "Financial Innovations: Some Old Wine and Some New" was published as an invited article in Treasury Management.

Prof. Mukti Mishra’s article titled ‘Role of Ethics in Governance Reforms: A Public Sector Perspective’ has been published in the Annual Journal of Indian Institute of Public Administration (vol. XI)

Prof. P. Mishra’s two Research Articles viz: a) A Comparison of Forecast Errors Using Technical Analysis: An Experiment with ICICI Bank Share Prices and b) Forecasting Time Series Data with Special Reference to Structural Stability - A Comparison of three Forecasting Methods have been accepted for publication in two different journals.

PUBLICATION OF BOOK

Congratulations to Dr. M.G. Jomon for the publication of his book: HRD IN REAL TIME- A COMPREHESIVE MACRO VIEW ON HRD, Published by NIPM

Prof. Latha Ravindran, Prof. M.G. Jomon, Prof. Gopal Nayak and Fr. E. Abraham has edited book on Corporate Governance and Corporate Citizenship: Challenge for Business and Management Education published by the Association of Indian Management Schools.

An article titled “Second-order Creativity in Research: Exploring an action-oriented perspective” by Prof. D.P. Dash has been included in the book titled Creative Social Research: Rethinking Theories and Methods, published by Lexington Books, USA (2004).

PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES / WORKSHOPS / TRAINING

Prof. Latha Ravindran participated in a workshop on "Research Priorities in Health Systems Research" organised by the DANTB and WHO in Bhubaneswar on 23rd February 2004.

Prof. Amar KJR Nayak participated in the Workshops on Model Credit Based Semester System, IIT Kharagapur, 2 Dec, 2003, National Workshop on E-Resources, IIM Lucknow.

Prof. P Mishra had attended a conference on Intellectual Property Rights hosted by the MBA Deptt, Sambalpur University.

Prof. Snigdha Pattnaik attended a two-day workshop on Sexual Harassment at Workplace in Kolkata organized by Sanhita.

Prof. Saroj Mahapatra attended a workshop on Advance Labs on Human Process in Agra organized by the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science.

Prof. S.S. Singh participated in a study programme on “Local Self governance and Cooperative Management” in Philippines.

VISITS TO INSTITUTES / UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA AND ABROAD

Prof. S. Govindrajan went to the USA from 17th May – 7th June 2003 on an exchange programme sponsored by USAID.

Prof. G.K. Nayak attended the 33rd ISC Symposium in St. Gallen University, Switzerland.

Prof. Mukti Mishra taught a course in International Management in Beijing University in November 2003 and in Melbourne, Australia.

Prof. D.N. Rao was invited to Colombo by the World Bank to attend one of their programme called Global Electricity Village Project (GEVP) to discuss appropriate technologies for rural electrification.

He also went to Africa to market the international training programmes from 18th August to 4th September, 2004.

Prof. Nina Jacob was invited by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie to be part of the expert group reviewing the syllabus of the Management courses being offered by the Institute.

Prof. Latha Ravindran and Dr. Gopal Nayak went to XLRI, Jamshedpur as visiting faculty

RESEARCH / STUDY UNDERTAKEN

Prof. Latha Ravindran made a documentary film called "Asha...", which is a visual report on the lives of tribals displaced from Similipal Tiger Reserve. (August, 2003)

Prof D.V. Ramana developed a virtual centre: Utility Regulation Research Centre for undertaking studies on the various issues affecting the regulation.

Prof. D.P. Dash has completed a Research Study on “Improving Traffic Behaviour: Exploring a Self-guided Learning Approach” sponsored by XIMB.

TALKS

Dr. G.K. Nayak also delivered the Keynote Address on 10th January at NIT Rourkela in the Confluence 2004.

Prof. Banikanta Mishra was invited by the Government of Orissa (Finance Department) to participate in the State Level Seminar on State's Memorandum to be presented to the 12th Finance Commission.

TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS CONDUCTED

Prof. Saroj Mahapatra, Prof. S. Peppin and Snigdha Patnaik conducted an MDP at ITR Chandipur.

Fr. E. Abraham and Fr. E. McGrath conducted a 5-days Management Development Programme on Basic Leadership Skills.

Prof. M.N. Tripathi conducted a two-day non-residential in-company programme on ‘Negotiation Skills’ on 30-31 May for the IMFA Group. It was attended by the middle and senior management personnel. He also coordinated several programmes for NALCO senior executives and GNIIT students.

Prof. S.P. Das had organised workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility at the Institute involving Corporate Sector, Government and NGOs.

He had also organised one STUP at Bolangir from Western Orissa Potential Entrepreneurs on behalf of SIMAP Cell besides organising an In Company Programme on Entrepreneurship Development at NIST, Berhampur for their faculty and students and taking sessions in the MDP organized for GNIIT participants and NALCO Middle Level Executives.

Prof. P. Mishra had coordinated six months training programs for SIMAP and coordinated three training programs for small-scale entrepreneurs in different places in the state.

Prof. Ibha Kumar conducted a three-day MDP on "Effective Communication and Presentation Skills".

Food Security: XIMB and Emergency Food Security Network (EFSN), Ahmedabad, held a one day consultation workshop on 16th October, 2003. Presentations of tools and monitoring methodologies developed by EFSN and XIMB for monitoring food security situation especially in times of emergencies were made at the workshop, followed by participatory consultation meetings. The objective of the consultation was to improve the toolkits and customize them for use in local Orissa situation. The workshop was inaugurated by the Chief Secretary, Government of Orissa.

CONSULTANCY

A young man wearing Gucci shoes, an Armani suit, Rayban aviator shades, drove into a farm in his BMW. He meets a farmer there grazing his sheep. He asked the farmer what he was doing and the farmer replied that he is a sheep farmer.

The young man asked the farmer “ If I tell you how many sheep you have in your farm, will you give me one?” “Yes”, said the farmer. The young man takes his laptop, connects the modem, takes a satellite photograph using the latest GIS software and after some complicated calculations, arrives at a figure.

“You have 1522 sheep” he tells the farmer. “Very good, you are right, this is fantastic. Here, take one sheep” said the farmer.

The young man took the sheep and was about to leave, the farmer asked him, “by the way, are you a consultant?” “Yes”, said the surprised young man. “How did you know?”

The farmer replied. “For three reasons”
1. I did not call you, you came here on your own, uninvited.
2. You did complex processing and calculations for a simple answer which I already know.
3. You don’t know anything about my business, I gave you a dog, and you think it is sheep.

It is because consultants like the above that the XIMB consultancy has been very successful. Our faculty members always go invited, give insights the clients did not have, and know the business inside out since they get their hands dirty.

Consultancy in power sector – new assignments:

The “Orissa Model” of improving quality of supply and improved revenue in rural areas by involving the consumers as intermediaries in the process is now being replicated in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh after incorporating suitable modifications that factor in local conditions. The projects, which have commenced/are due to commence, are given below:

§ A project has commenced on the 1st of September 2003 at Gulbarga under the aegis of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL). This project covers 6 taluks of Karnataka (Gulbarga region), is for a duration of 12 months and is valued at Rs. 64.80 lakhs.

§ A project has been cleared in the Hubli area under the aegis of KPTCL. This project will cover 8 taluks of Karnataka (Hubli region), will be for a duration of 12 months and is valued at Rs. 81.60 lakhs. The MOU is to be signed towards the end of this month (October 2003) with the project commencing on the 1st of November 2003.

§ A project in Hubli, which came to an end in September 2003, is being extended for a period of 6 months. This was a pilot project from which much of our learnings emerged. This project covers 5 taluks and is valued at Rs. 15.00 lakhs. The MOU is to be signed towards the end of this month (October 2003) with the project commencing on the 1st of November 2003.

§ A proposal to commence operations in Mangalore under the aegis of KPTCL has also been cleared. This project will cover 20 taluks of Karnataka (Mangalore region), will be for a duration of 12 months and is valued at Rs. 204.00 lakhs. The MOU for this project has been signed in late October 2003, with the project commencing on the 1st of December 2003.

In Orissa, XIMB is working closely with CESCO in the Salipur and Nayagarh Divisions. Projects undertaken there are valued at Rs. 20 lakhs.

In WESCO, Orissa has helped in the development of the concept of the "Input Based Franchisee". This concept has been acknowledged in the New Electricity Act.

In Uttar Pradesh, XIMB is working with Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) in developing effective demand side management in rural areas. This is a project spread over 5 years and valued at Rs. 1.50 crores. The loss reduction activities in the rural areas of NPCL have surprised the experts in the field.

In Bhadrak, XIMB has developed a off-grid solution using biowaste for a village of 22 consumers. This was developed based on the funds contributed from the MLA LAD by the MLA, Mr. Samal. This project is being done under the aegis of the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Our work in the niche area of power sector reforms has ensured that the services of XIMB are much sought after by State Electricity Boards as well as consultants working in this area. Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young, CRISIL and PA Consulting are some of the firms who are working with us or have bid for projects with XIMB as one of the partners.

CONSULTANCY IN POWER SECTOR – ASSIGNMENTS IN PIPELINE

§ A proposal for covering 16 Electrical Substations (33 KV) in Andhra Pradesh has been submitted – and the client has given an “in principal clearance”. The project is for a duration of 12 months and is valued at Rs. 96.00 lakhs.

§ We have received an invitation to submit a proposal for replicating the Orissa Model in Western Uttar Pradesh. This proposal is currently being developed and is to cover 7 Blocks in the Meerut region. The project is likely to be valued at Rs. 84.00 lakhs over a 12-month period.

Advisory assistance invited from XIMB

§ The Chief Secretary, Government of Orissa has invited a Concept Note from XIMB. The Chief Secretary is keen to speed up the process of Franchising Electricity Distribution in Rural areas of Orissa. He also wanted to accelerate the process of rural electrification in Orissa. He wanted a note outlining the current status and XIMB’s advice on how this can be implemented. This Concept Note has been submitted.

§ The Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) is aware that the Orissa Model is being replicated in other states and has requested us to make a small presentation to them at regulat intervals in order to appraise them of developments in other states.

§ The World Bank is constantly in touch with us discussing the franchising model developed by us for rural areas.

CENTRE FOR GOVERNANCE

The Institute has decided to set up a Centre for Governance which will work very closely with the Government of Orissa. This Centre will focus on project management support for citizen-centric services. Recently a MoU was signed with the Panchayati Raj Department to implement Project Accounting and Monitoring Information System developed by Dr. Gopal Nayak in 342 blocks of Orissa.

The Director had signed a MoU between the XIMB and the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad on 28th October, 2003.

Prof. W.S. William has completed a consulting assignment on “Evaluation of Medical Care of ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries in Orissa”.

Dr. Gopal K. Nayak visited IIMK, SP Jain and ICFAI to promote Academic Information System developed by him. Several other Management Institutes have shown interest in the package.

Prof. Jaydeep Mukherjee is working on the development of a "Centre for IT Enabled Services". A small step in this direction has been taken by taking up CRM training modules.

I thank Prof. Govindarajan, DN Rao, and the members of the consulting team for keeping the XIMB flag flying.

CENDERET:

In last 15 years of existence, CENDERET, the rural development wing of XIMB continues as one among the key developmental players in the State of Orissa. The establishment of four regional resource centres viz. Southern Orissa Resource Centre (SORC), Western Orissa Regional Resource Centre (WORC), Northern Orissa Resource Centre (NORC) & Eastern Orissa Resource Centre (EORC) in the year 2001, emerged out of organizational restructuring process is one significant change brought in the history of CENDERET with an objective to come closer to the grassroots realities and building effective relationship with the local institutions such as district administration & line departments, PRIs, CBOs and voluntary organizations to address their needs on the basis of their requirements. At present, CENDERET with these resource centres has been successfully progressing ahead to not only establish itself in the regional context but also to accomplish its vision of “Catalysing sustainable development for the empowerment of rural people of Orissa”.

ONGOING PROJECTS

WORC

Project: Food Security (1st phase followed by the continuation), supported by CORDAID, Belgium
Duration: 2001-2003, 2003-2006
Operational Area: Kalahandi, Bolangir & Nuapada district of Orissa
Project Title: Institutional building

Project: Women empowerement through Self help (WETSH)
Duration: 2000-2005
Operational Area: Kalahandi, Bolangir & Nuapada district of Orissa

SORC

Project: Sustainable Livelihood Options for the Rural Poor, supported by DIAKONIA, Sweden
Duration: 2002 - 2005
Operational Area: Koraput, Nabarangpur, Raygada and Malkangiri district

Project: Panchayat Raj – An experiment in empowerment of tribal people, Broederlijk Delen, Belgium
Duration: 1999-2003
Operational Area: Koraput, Gajapati, Rayagada and Malkangiri district

Project: Women Empowerment Through Self Help (WETSH), supported by European Union, CORDAID, Belgium and DIAKONIA, Sweden
Duration: 2000-2005
Operational Area: 12 districts of Orissa, viz. Bhadrak, Jajpur, Nayagarh, Khurda, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Bolangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Puri, Malkangiri & Rayagada

NORC

Project: Education for All (EFA)
Duration: 2002-2003
Operational Area: Keonjhar district

Project: Women Empowerment Through Self Help (WETSH), supported by European Union, CORDAID, Belgium and DIAKONIA, Sweden
Duration: 2000-2005
Operational Area: Bhadrak, Jajpur,

EORC

Project: Women Empowerment Through Self Help (WETSH), supported by European Union, CORDAID, Belgium and DIAKONIA, Sweden
Duration: 2000-2005
Operational Area: Khurda, Puri Nayagarh

The projects in pipeline

The following are the details of the projects, which are in the pipeline:
§ Launching of Total Sanitation Campaign & Swajaladhara Programme: In this regard the District Water & Sanitation Mission (DSWM) of Puri district has requested CENDERET-XIM for a collaboration to provide technical and managerial support to add quality to project outputs. CENDERET-XIM has shown its interest towards such collaboration. Based on the discussion with DSWM, a detail TOR will be developed for collaboration.
§ Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Project (WORLP): CENDERET-XIM gave a presentation on the proposal submitted to WORLP for managing Livelihood Support Team (LST) in Bolangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada district. Very soon a decision will be taken by State Government to sanction this project to CENDERET-XIM.
§ Tribal development in Scheduled Areas of Orissa: A concept note is prepared on this and submitted to TROCAIRE, Ireland and SDC, New Delhi. Both the funding agencies have shown interest in the proposal.
§ Micro plan and sectoral plan preparation on behalf of World food programme : The proposal for the preparation of micro plan (6 nos) and sectoral Plan (06 nos) submitted to world food programme .The initial discussion with the WFP personnel already over and expecting the offer in the month of January 2004.
§ Capacity Building of local groups / organizations/ institutions: A training proposal on the same is submitted to CORDAID, Netherlands for support. CORDAID has shown interest to support such program
§ Perspective Study on poverty on behalf of CASA : A study design have already given to CASA Calcutta to undertake a research study on poverty in 8 Districts of Orissa

I thank Prof. Bipin Das, Coordinator and all the staff of CENDERET for their continuous and sustained work.

AIMS CONVENTION

XIMB hosted the 15th Annual Convention of the Association of Indian Management Schools. The Convention on the theme “Corporate Governance and Corporate Citizenship: Challenges for Business and Management Education” brought together representatives of management education, industry and policy makers. It was heartening to see our Board Members like Mr. C. Venkataramana, Dr. Santrupt Misra and Dr. D.P. Sinha participating as Plenary Speakers and Fr. PD Thomas chairing Sessions.

Among the participating delegates we had Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri and present and past Directors of IIMB, IIMC, IIML, IIMK, IIMI, TAPMI, NMIMS, XLRI etc., faculty members and students of different management schools. The other speakers were Dr. P.K. Mohanty, IAS, Director, Centre for Good Governance-Hyderabad, Mr. KK Nohria, Chairman of Crompton Greaves, Dr. Ursula Schneider, Director of International Institute of Management, University of Graz Austria, Shri KV Raghavaiah, GM, Corporate HR, ITC Ltd., Shri Sharu Rangnekar of Rangnekar Associates, Dr. Uddesh Kohli, President, AIMS and Dr. Sankaran P. Raghunathan, Chairman, Blueshift India Private Ltd-Chennai.

The Convention was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik and the Valedictory Address was given by Shri. Braja Kishore Tripathy, Minister for State for Steel (Independent Charge), Government of India.

I want to thank specially Profs. Gopal Nayak, Lata Ravindran, Jomon, Fr. George, Reena Ravichander, the student volunteers, and all the others who worked very hard to make the convention a grand success. All those who came from outside were very impressed by our infrastructure, hospitality and professionalism.

NATIONAL HRD NETWORK

The Institute organised a one-day Seminar on Leveraging Competencies for Competitive Advantage on 20th December, 2003 in collaboration with the Bhubaneswar Chapter of the National HRD Network.

Dr. Santrupt Misra, Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, Mr. G.P. Rao, Mr. Bimal Rath, Mr. Anand Nayak, Mr. R. Vidyasagar, Mr. Rajan Dutta, Mr. Arunav Banerjee, Mr. V.J. Rao and Dr. Udai Pareek were Speakers for this seminar.

We also hosted the Board meeting of the NHRDN which was attended by a large number of senior HR Professionals.

Project WATER

Project WATER of XIMB conducted a Workshop jointly with CIFA on World Environment Day, June 2003 at NICCO Park, Bhubaneswar on the theme “Water – Two Billion People are Dying for it”. Dr. Priyambada Hejmadi presided over the programme.

Prof. D.N. Rao has taken over as Project Director of Project WATER from Prof. R.C. Das who is indisposed. We thank Prof. Das for shouldering the responsibility from the beginning of this Project.

STUDENTS

ADMISSIONS

Over 10000 students applied for our programmes this year.

The Admissions interviews were held in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Bhubaneswar for PGP, ExPGP and PGPRM. For Fellow Programme students, the interviews will be held next month.

In order to attract best domicile talent, the Institute made presentations in 14 colleges in various parts of the State.

A case had been filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa by a candidate who had not been called for interview challenging our admission process. The Court dismissed the case after going through the details stating that it did not find any tangible infirmity or illegality in the selection process of XIMB to interfere in the matter of admission.

I thank Prof. Jaydeep Mukherjee, Mr. Xavi Thomas and the Admission Team for doing an excellent job.

PLACEMENT

One of the XIMB students went for an interview where the Managing Director of the company was a member of the interview panel. The MD asked him what he would like to be after 5 years on the job. Our student promptly replied: “I want to be the MD of this company.” The MD was aghast and asked him “Are you crazy?” to which the student replied: “Is that a necessary condition”.

XIMB had an excellent placements this year. On day one 110 students got placed in companies of their choice.

A total of 51 companies participated in the Placement Process. The 51 companies made a total of 155 offers to 117 students. The average salary offered was Rs. 4,65,086 with the maximum salary being Rs. 12 lakhs

The Placement in XIMB had some “firsts” to its credit. For the first time, XIMB had students getting recruited for foreign postings. 2 students were recruited by Insight Asia, Jakarta on Dollar Salaries. The number of offers per student was 1.32 – an all time record. Plus, almost all students got jobs from among their list of “Top 5” companies they had applied to.

Companies visiting XIMB for the first time included JP Morgan India, Prudential ICICI, Delphi, Frost & Sullivan, Ernst & Young, HCL Comnet, Kotak Group, Birlasoft, Delphi and Mahindra British Telecom. The regular recruiters from XIMB – AV Birla Group, GE Group, Godrej Group, Britannia, Marico and PricewaterhouseCoopers also participated in the Placement. The IT Companies included Infosys, TCS, Kanbay, Sonata, Polaris and the Wipro Group.

8 more companies are slated to take part in the Placement Process. Since there aren’t enough students left, these companies have been advised not to make the visit.

All our PGPRM students got placed in various development organizations, NGOs and companies like Amul, Friend for Women World Bank, ICICI Bank, SEWA, PRO-AGRO SEEDS, PPL, SIDBI, TERI, CAPART, VERVE CONSULTACY, LINERLAND and BIRLA SUNLIFE etc.

I thank Prof. Harinarayana, Prof. Govindarajan, Prof. Mukti Mishra, Dr. Sanjeev Kapoor and the Placement team for making this happen.

A big corporation recently hired several cannibals. “You are all part of our team now,” said the HR rep during the welcoming briefing. “You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any of the other employees.”

The cannibals promised they would not. Four weeks later, their boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard, and I’m quite satisfied with you. However, one of our secretaries has recently disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?”

The cannibals all shook their heads no. After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, “Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?”

A hand raised hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals continued, “You fool! For four weeks we’ve been eating Managers and no one noticed, but nooooo, you had to go and eat someone important!”

I am sure when our students join industry as managers, they will become important people.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Our GE Scholar, Amandeep Singh Syali was selected to the final position of the “Leaders in the Making” Competition organized by IIM, Lucknow. He also represented XIMB in All India Best Student in Management Contest (2003-04) held in Mumbai (in November). The selection was done based on Academic Excellence combined with Leadership Qualities, Extra curricular attainments and the capability to excel and network in hyperactive Environment

Student Coordinator of Ulysses – Open market, Hidden strategies, a business strategy game completely conceived and developed by students of XIMB under the guidance of Prof. G.K Nayak. The game involves different aspects of management from Finance, Marketing, and Operations.

Ankur Bhandari and Gaurav Sood won the Birlasoft Entrepreneurs of the Year at ICEG – 2003 Award given by the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam.

Ankur Bhandari and Gaurav Sood wrote and presented a paper at IIML, which was published in the Journal of Marketing on the topic “Experiential Marketing – The way ahead”. They also wrote and presented along with Dinesh Gupta at IIML, for finance which was published in the Journal of Finance.

Ankur Bhandari and Satwik Das wrote and presented a paper at MICA on “Entertainment Marketing” which was amongst the top 4 entries.

Kumar Gaurav Kwatra and Moksh Chopra won the 2nd prize in the Marketing Paper Presentation at Manifestations 2003 (IIM Bangalore) for their paper on "Commoditization of Brands"

Kallol Bagchi and Vijay Kumar were the finalists at the Operations Paper Presentation at Manifestations 2003 (IIM Bangalore).

Shweta Markandeya and Varun Kapoor won 1st prize at the Marketing Paper Presentation at Confluence 2003 (IIM Ahmadabad) for their paper on "Marketing of Financial Products for the Rural Poor".

Shweta Markandeya and Shikha Garg (Batch of 2005) won the 2nd prize at the Finance Paper Presentation at Lekh 2003 (XLRI) for their paper on "Managing Risks in the Indian Agricultural Sector using Derivatives".

Gaurav Sood and Shweta Markandeya won the 2nd prize at the Business Excellence Awards during Xpressions here in XIMB.

Apurva Sharma respresented XIMB at the "Best Management Student Award" at TAPMI.

Vivek Thomas, Rajeev Lamba and Vibha Tripathi were finalists at TAPMI for their Business Plan.

Vibha Tripathi represented XIMB at "Aswamedha" at IIM Indore.

A paper on "Experential Marketing" by Kumar Gaurav Kwatra and Shalu Jhunjhunwala was selected for publication by IIM Lucknow for their journal.

Ashish Sacher and Moksh Chopra won the 2nd prize in the Case Study Competition at MICA.

GE SCHOLARSHIP:

After careful assessment by the Academic Committee, the GE Fund Scholarship for the Class 2003-2005 was awarded to Ms. Manideepa Dasgupta. Congratulations!!!

SPICMACAY’s VIRASAT:

There was a vocal recital, lecture-cum-demonstration session by Gundicha brothers on the campus on November 4, 2003.

There also was an Odissi Dance performance by Padmavibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and his disciples 17th February 2004 in our Auditorium.

XPRESSIONS 2003:

An Institute’s creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing these four elements: religion, royalty, sex, mystery. The prize-winning essay read: “My God,” said the Queen. “I’m pregnant, I wonder who did it.”

In Xpressions 2003, our students were at their creative best.

Xpressions 2003 – the Annual Business School Meet was held from 6-9 November, 2003. The theme of the year was ‘Formulating Infinity’. The entire 4-day program was conceived and executed by the students. It was an integration of imagination with purpose and value with identity. The activities included paper presentations, quizzes, panel discussions, management games and cultural programmes.

I convey my appreciation to the students specially Sudhanshu Misra and his team for organizing this unique event.

ACCOLADES FOR OUR ALUMNI:

One of our alumni, Partha S. Mohapatra, studying in the University of Kentucky has been honoured for his achievements in the face of adversity and is the recipient of the 2002 Carol S. Adelstein Outstanding Student Award.

Piyush Chowhan (2001 Batch), currently with Wipro, has won an Encore Feather-In-My-Cap (FIMC) Award for his contribution towards the successful implementation of the Warehouse Management System (WMS) application at the Sony Electronics LCD Division. [Last year, he was nominated for a Spot Award for the Transportation Optimization Project for Praxair Inc. He was then the functional lead for the design phase of the project.]

INSTITUTE ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH/SEMINARS/WORKSHOPS

A number of Research Training Seminars were conducted on the campus.

28 June'03: Prof. D P Dash, What is Research ?

26 July '03: Prof. A K Giri, Creative Social Research

02 Aug'03: Mr. Biju Dominic, Market Research

15 Nov'03: Dr. Beverley Kitching, Toward the Unknown Region - Challenges & Choices in Research

16 Nov'03: Ms. Tripti Singh, Guidelines for Research Students: Do's, Dont's and
Other Tips

17 Nov'03: Ms. Tripti Singh, How to write a Research Paper?

22 Nov'03: Prof. S. Saberwal, Perception of Reality: Everyday and Scientific

23 Nov'03: Prof. S. Saberwal, Ideas, Institutions and Experience

29 Nov'03: Prof. S. Saberwal, Can We Plan For Creativity?

13 Dec'03: Prof. Dharm P S Bhawuk, Science of Culture and Culture of Science

18 Dec'03: Prof. Richard Modjeski, Instructional Systems Development

19 Dec'03: Dr. Udai Pareek, Research in HR Area

17 Jan 04: Mr. Tejeshwar Singh, Academic Publishing in India

TALKS BY CEOs AND SENIOR EXECUTIVES:

We had a number of visitors on the campus giving talks and Seminars.

19.12.03	Competency Paradigm and Performance	Dr. Udai Pareek, Chairman, Academy of HRD, Ahmedabad
19.12.03	WTO/GATT negotiations and commodity Modeling	Dr. Samarendu Mohanty,Asst. Prof, Dept. of Agricultural & Applied Economics, Texas University
17.12.03	Alternate Channel Options which FMCG Companies are Exploring	Mr. Arnab Banerjee, Head, New Business Development, Marico
12.12.03	Intellectual Property Protection: Why Does it Matter?	Ms. Doris Long,Prof. Of Law, Marshall Law School, Chicago
26.11.03	Emerging Opportunities in the Development Sector for Rural Management Graduates	Mr. Dileep Ranjekar CEO, Azim Premji Foundation
25.11.03	Operations Research in Airline Industry	Ms. Sneha Thakkar, Skytech Solutions
22.11.03	Career with ITC	Mr. Vaidyanath, Exe. Director (Finance) on the Board of ITC Ltd.
21.11.03	Financing Infrastructure & Power Sector Reforms	Mr. Shubhranshu Patnaik, Principal Consultant, Pricewaterhouse Coopers
21.11.03	Values and Ethics in Rural Management	Prof. R.Ramaswamy, Former Director of IIMB
12.11.03	London Metals Exchange, Heding & All That	Mr. Pinaki Rath, Tata Group, Singapore
31.10.03	Career Management	Mr. Bimal Rath, VP (Group HR), Tata Sons
26.10.03	Indian Banking in Future	Dr. P.J. Nayak, Chairman & MD, UTI Bank
26.10.03	Handling Interviews and Marketing Yourself	Com. Dilip K Mohapatra, Head (HR), TCS
18.10.03	CorporateFinancialStrategy:Hedging,Securitization & Structured Deals	Mr. Hrushikesh Kar, Business Leader, Product Development Strategy, Capital One
08.09.03	Enterprise Integration Software - FutureTrends	Dr. Chandan Chowdhury,CEO, IFS India
26.08.03	Telecom Sector Scenario after entry of Private Operators	Mr. S.D. Saxena, Director (Finance) & Member on the Board of BSNL
25.08.03	Gearing to Meet the Challenges of the Future	Mr. Mohan Das Pai, CFO & Director, Infosys
01.08.03	Indo-Canadian Business Opportunities	Mr. Peter Sutherland, Canadian High Commissioner to India
28.06.03	What the Industry Expects Out of a B-School Graduate	Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director (Corporate HR), AB Birla Group

Others who visited the campus and gave talks are Ajay Bagga, Vice-President-Marketing, GE India, P. J. Anand, General Manager (HRD), ITC, Mr. Paul Narain, Vice Consul, US Consulate, Prof. Arkadev Chatterjea, Professor, IIM-C

STAFF TRAINING

Mr. H.M. Jha, VP-HR, ITC Hotels Ltd., New Delhi (XLRI batch 1969) has offered to train 6 of our MDP Staff in Sonar Bangla, Kolkata. We have received communication from the Hotel Sonar Bangla confirming the training programme for a month for six of our MDC Staff during the month of April-June, 2004.

CONCLUSION

It was time for the monsoon rains to begin and a very old man was digging holes in his garden.

“What are you doing?” his neighbour asked.

“Planting mango trees” was the reply.

“Do you expect to eat mangoes from those trees?”

“No, I won’t live long enough for that. But others will. It occurred to me the other day that all my life I have enjoyed mangoes planted by other people. This is my way of showing them my gratitude.”

And now a final message to the newest members of our Alumni Association, our outgoing graduates. The efforts and hard work we have all put in have been worth it. I congratulate you and wish you well for a bright career in management. As you leave XIMB, remember that you have been stamped with the seal of Xavier like our Chief Guest today who is a student from St. Xavier’s School and St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, which stands for professional excellence, dedication, a concern for larger socio-economic issues of poverty and underdevelopment, corporate, social and ethical responsibility, and an openness to change and growth. You have received much from the society and it is time now for you to return something back to the society. May God bless you and accompany you in your journey through life.

I once again thank Mr. Tarun Das who took so much trouble to be with us this evening, To our Chairman, Rajive Kaul, and to you Ladies and Gentlemen, a big thank you for your presence.

May God Bless you All.

Alumni Home: Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar 751 013, INDIA, E-mail: <alum@ximb.ac.in>