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As we are aware, the Phase I of CoR (Council of Representatives) election is under progress. So far we have received 65 nominations from alumni and 14 from students. The list of candidates is posted online on our website:
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/elections/archives/2008/10/nominations_received.php
We request all our alumni/students who are interested in representing their classes/departments, to apply for nominations. Email to: elections@itbhuglobal.org
More details about CoR are provided as follows:
______________________________________
About CoR:
The Council of Representatives (CoR) is a legal body to help our alumni association in the day to day functions. It has members from alumni and students. The council will represent interests of alumni, students, faculty and staff for our alumni association.
For student, it is one representative from each dept (total 16). For alumni, it is one representative from each branch/year.
Our association has 3-tier structure: bottom is 6,500 (current) registered members, CoR with 100-200 members and top is Board of Directors (BoD) with 17 Directors.
BoD makes all executive decision and directs the working of our organization. CoR members elect BoD and help them in making informed decision.
Thus the responsibility of CoR members will be (“alumni” include alumni, students, faculty and staff):
-To elect BoD by voting process
-To help BoD in making day-to-day decisions
-To discuss about any alumni related issues such as alumni projects, funding, chapters, etc.
-To act as a communication link between BoD and members
-To vote on key issues as and when needed
-To put forward problems faced by own community (from class/department)
The term for CoR member is for two years and next election is planned for the end of 2010. Once elected, a CoR student member shall serve for full two years, even if he/she leaves college earlier.
Most of the work involves participation in discussion by email exchange.
The advantage of CoR is that not all 6,500 members can be consulted every time for decision making (it is not possible). With CoR, the number is manageable. Also by communicating with CoR member, a message can be sent to entire class/department effectively. This also gives the opportunity for a class/batch or department to put forward its view/suggestion/complaint to BoD officially, so that it can receive special attention.
About nomination and selection:
Please note that the selection is a straight forward process. If there is one nomination for alumni, for any seat, there will not be election. If there is more than one nomination, then we will inform all candidates to discuss among them. If still there is more than one candidate, then only online voting will be held. The voting will be done by the respective class or department. We try to avoid voting business.
How to apply:
Send all nominations at election@itbhuglobal.org
For alumni:
Please provide the following info in your email:
Full Name:
Branch/year:
Highest degree at the institute (B. Tech. /M. Tech. /PhD):
Location (city/state/country):
For students:
Please provide the following info in your email:
Full Name:
Department:
Current Year:
Degree Program: B. Tech. /M. Tech. / Integrated M. Tech./PhD
Deadline for nomination:
The election will be done in two phases. It is expected that most of the possible seats shall be filled in phase I.
Phase I
Deadline for applying: October 31, 2008
Deadline for withdrawal of nomination: Nov 03.
Election voting: Nov 05 to Nov 20.
Phase II
Deadline for applying: Nov 30, 2008
Deadline for withdrawal of nomination: Dec 03.
Election voting: Dec 05 to Dec 20.
The first communication from BoD to the elected CoR members shall be sent by November end.
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We are pleased to publish brief profile of our election team as follows. The team will oversee elections for Council of Representatives (CoR), Board of Directors (BoD) and any by-elections, etc. The term for the election team is for 3 years (October 2008 to Sept 2011). The nine-member team includes Chief Election Officer and Deputy Chief Election Officer.
| Name and Designation | Profile | Photo |
(PhD Biomedical 1995) Coimbatore, India Chief Election Officer | Dr. SUPTENDRA NATH SARBADHIKARI Editorial Board Member (MENPA): |  |
(Electrical 1982) Dallas, USA Deputy Chief Election Officer | Jairaj Hegde Director, Motorola Company, Dallas, Texas, USA. Education B. Tech. (Electrical Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 1982 Email: jairajh@yahoo.com | |
(Civil 1958) Lucknow, India Election Officer | Gyan Bhatt Lucknow, India. Joined UP. P.W.D. as Assistant Engineer in the year 1959 and retired from the post of Superintending Engineer in the year 1990. Executed various roads, buildings and prestressed concrete bridges during the tenure. Executed the construction of Spinning Mills at Raebareli and Barabanki for the UP State Spinning Mills Co. Ltd. As General Manager (Technical), UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd. Lucknow, designed 12 spinning mills of 25,000 spindles capacity each, multistoried complexes and other structures like offices, residential, Industrial and Hospital. Executed construction of Hill Roads Steel and Suspension Bridges in hilly terrain of Tehri Garhwal. Significantly – one of the longest Suspension Bridge at Swarg Ashram, Rishikesh (popularly known at "Ram Jhula Pul") Presently working as Civil Engineering Consultant and Structural Design Engineer and carried out structural design of Sugar Factory (Dhampur Sugar Factory Rosa Gaon Distt. Barabanki), Cold Storages, and Hotel project, Commercial Complex, Convention Centre, Industrial Project (BHEL Jagdishpur Distt. Sultanpur) and multistoried residential complex. He is Fellow of Institutions of Engineers (India), Fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (India) Member of Indian Road Congress and Member of Indian Concrete Institute. He is currently retired and moves between India and USA (where his son lives). Education B. Sc. (Civil Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 1958 Diploma in Public Administration (D.P.A.) and LL.B from Lucknow University Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (P.G.D.B.A.) from I.P.M Diploma in Computer Management. Email: bhatt_gk@yahoo.com |  |
(Chemical 1977) Hyderabad, India Election Officer | Anup Bagla Chartered Engineer and Consultant, Hyderabad. His experience has spanned more than 3 decades in Quality, Process - Control and Development and related Plant Engineering / technical services in Process manufacturing projects mainly Rubber / Polymers (Hartex Rubber Ltd. and Bells Controls India Ltd,) Rubber chemicals, Cellulose, Pulp/Paper, Special Polymeric adhesives, paints, Drug Intermediates and Specialty Chemicals along with experimentation with Consultancy and Research Organizations in later years like ASCI , ABC (I) Ltd and Baroda Productivity Council, Baroda & AP in 1990’s and @ turn of the millenium Did a stint at R&D, a Seed Project on 'Energy management Practices in Indian Process Industries' and other projects as project related faculty (Project Associate) @ ASCI in 1990 Thereafter, he worked with Baroda Productivity Council, Baroda and ABC (I) Ltd., Hyderabad as Consultant and Executive - Research till late 1990s ... when, he started as a freelancer consultant doing assignments for Institute of Engineers(I) , Indian Institute of Plant Engineers, national institute of small industry extension training, R V Associates all at Hyderabad and other organizations; Presently associated with N R Rao Associates, Chartered Engineers and another Consulting / Training Organization (Creative Brains) at Hyderabad as Coordinator & Researcher. Education B. Tech. (Chemical Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 1977 Email: anup_bagla@rediffmail.com |  |
(Mechanical 1978) Ahmedabad, India Election Officer | Shreeniwas Chandra Chief Manager, Indian Oil Corporation, Ahmedabad He is Fellow of Institutions of Engineers (India), Chartered Engineer, and Life Member-Tribology Society of India. Education B. Tech. (Mechanical Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 1978 Email: CHANDRAS1@indianoil.co.in |  |
(Mining 1995) Johannesburg, South Africa Election Officer | Vijay Kumar Principal Mining Engineer, Anglo-American Company Vijay Kumar worked with Tata Steel Company from 1995 to 2007. Currently he is working with Anglo-American Company as Principal Mining Engineer. The company is involved in mining of diamond coal, iron ore, platinum, copper, etc. He lives with his wife and two children. Education B. Tech. (Mining Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in1995 MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1998 Email: vkumar@angloamerican.co.za |  |
(Mechanical 1997) North Carolina, USA Election Officer | Arun Tripathi Vice President, Consumer Real Estate, Bank of America Arun joined Bank of America in June of 2003 as an MBA Intern. After graduating the following year, he took a role in the bank in its consumer marketing strategy division focusing on multicultural segment. Currently he manages four growth segments: Associate, Banking Centers, Mass Affluent and Military, in Consumer Real Estate division by defining strategy and ensuring execution of $1.8 billion in mortgage sales. Before joining Bank of America, he was with Infosys (1999 – 2000) and Tata Steel (1997-1998). He lives with his family in Charlotte, NC. Education B. Tech. (Mechanical Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 1997 MBA, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania in 2004 Email: arun_tripathi@yahoo.com |  |
(Civil 2008) New York, USA Election Officer | Prayut Bhamawat Masters Student at Cornell University, New York. Education MS (Environmental Engineering), Cornell University, New York in 2010 B. Tech. (Civil Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 2008 Email: prayut2004@gmail.com |  |
(Ceramic 2008) New Delhi, India Election Officer | Vikas Sharma Manager, AceCalderys Limited, New Delhi Education B. Tech. (Ceramic Engineering), Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in 2008 Email: vikas.sharma.itbhu@gmail.com |
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We are pleased to announce the next meeting of Silicon Valley chapter of IT-BHU Global Alumni Association as follows:
Date of meeting: 16th November 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 4.00 pm
The place is not decided yet, but most likely it will be at Stanford University Campus. The locations and other details shall be announced on our website http://itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/siliconvalley/. All alumni in the area are invited to join with their families.
If you are interested in joining, please send us an email at sv-team@itbhuglobal.org. Please make your friends in Bay Area/ Northern California aware of this event!
Thanking you,
For Silicon Valley Alumni Chapter,
Ratnanabha Sain (Mining 2005)
Email: i2i_ratnas@yahoo.co.in
Anshuman Singh (Electrical 1998)
Email: singh.anshuman@gmail.com
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Mr. SK Chaudhary appointed as director of HEC
It is reported that Mr Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary has assumed the office as Director of Production in HEC Limited.
Mr Chaudhary a graduate engineer in Metallurgy from BHU joined HEC Ltd in 1973. His appointment as director production in the company has given a fillip and boosted, the moral of the employees as Mr. Chaudhary has risen from the shop floor rank to the board level.
He served in Heavy Machine Building Plant, a unit of HEC Ltd as GM operations during which its gross sales nearly increased three folds in 2008 as compared to 2005. He also served in Foundry Forge Plant, another unit of HEC Ltd as GM prior to his new appointment. Mr. Chaudhary has a vast experience in the various fields as Engineering design, production planning and control and quality assurance. He can be contacted at: skchaudhary@hecltd.com (The above info was provided by Nishith Sharma (Metallurgy 1984) of steelguru.com)
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http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=145879
Nuclear fuel fabrication pioneer Rao passes away
DR N KONDAL Rao, an eminent metallurgist and nuclear scientist passed away on October 22, after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife and three sons.
Nidamarty Kondal Rao, born on July 15, 1924, at Nidamarru village in west
He was instrumental in setting up the nuclear fuel complex (NFC) at
Rao was associated with various scientific and engineering institutions in different capacities. He served as the president of Andhra Pradesh academy of sciences, the powder metallurgy association of
He also held key positions in many companies, such as Vidut Steels Limited, Nagarjuna Cements Limited , Golconda Abrasives Limited, Odin Metal Powders Limited, Nagarjuna Steels Ltd, Raasi Cement Ltd, AP Steels Ltd, Energy Tubes Ltd, Oil Country Tubulars Ltd and BRASSCO, among many others.
Rao has been awarded with the prestigious national metallurgist’s award by ministry of steel and mines, government of
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October 1, 2008
How liberalisation has changed you & me
Early Entrants
Those who started working at the time of liberalisation are learning to live in an india very different from the one they were raised to expect. They work hard, and yet have to make an effort to relax, order themselves to enjoy life
If Mathur's is a generation that exudes the confidence of having grown up amid certainty and prosperity, Anurag Sahai belongs to one that has the assurance and experience of straddling two worlds. Growing up in the '80s, Sahai was educated and raised with the values of frugal India--one in which middle class parents obsessed about grooming their children into engineers and doctors, the only two professions that assured employment and life-long employability.
"Life was very different then and the choice of careers was pretty limited," says Sahai. "In a place like Kanpur, where I grew up, pretty much everybody aimed for engineering or medicine. I got into ceramic engineering at IT-BHU and decided to take it up because it was a national level college. In those days, we pretty much took what we got." By the time he graduated in engineering, Sahai realised that he did not want to be an engineer. So he took the next option and decided to do an MBA. Armed with a business degree in the early 90s, Sahai rode the post-liberalised corporate world. "At every crossroad of my education, I was looking for a safety net. After 12th standard, engineering was a safe bet. At the next stage, an MBA seemed a safe choice," he says.
Additional Links:
Similar article in outlook money:
http://money.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?sid=10&cid=71&articleid=7759
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GRAPHICS GEEKS: Some of the Indian engineers who helped to create NVIDIA’s new 9400 graphics processing chip (inset).
Indian engineers at the company’s Bangalore-based Research and Development Centre substantially developed the thumb-nail-sized chip. “From designing the chip architecture to translating it into a form that can be handed over to a silicon foundry to fabricate, pretty much all the hardware work was done by our India team,” Sridhar Manthani, Senior Director, told The Hindu. Software support came from the U.S.-based teams.
The GeForce 9400M is a single-chip solution – in an industry in which at least two chips are normally required to do the job. It has16 cores, or computing units, working simultaneously to handle complex challenges posed by customers. Yet, the chip is much less power-hungry than its predecessors – which means users can view a full-length movie in the upcoming High Definition format without having to recharge the batteries of their notebook computers.
Even as the 70-strong group of engineers here worked for over 18 months to deliver the product, potential customers – PC makers – were trying out early samples. And first off the block, with a family of notebook computers fuelled by the 9400M, is Apple which has used it to fuel the new MacBook family, due to be launched in India next week.
Additional link
Interview of Shridhar Manthani in Chronicle
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2008/08/interview_with_4.php
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http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20081001/1067571.html
BDL Director assumes charge
Mr S N Mantha has assumed charge as the Director (Technical) of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), a mini ratna category-1 public sector enterprise under the Union Ministry of Defence.
He succeeds Cmde P K Samantha, who retired on attaining superannuation on September 30, a BDL release here said.
A Mechanical Engineer from
Additional Link
http://www.ap.nic.in/bdl/dirprofiles.html
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http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1563083/ascent_solar_announces_management_change/index.html
Ascent Solar Announces Management Change
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTI), a developer of state-of-the-art, flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules, today announced that the Board and its President and CEO have mutually decided that a change of leadership presents the best path forward for the company, as it heads into the manufacturing phase of its development. Effective September 19, 2008, Matthew Foster, its President and Chief Executive Officer, has resigned his position. Dr. Mohan Misra, Ascent Solar's Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, will serve as the company's interim President and Chief Executive Officer until a permanent replacement is found. Ascent Solar intends to initiate a search immediately, and Mr. Foster will continue in a consultant capacity focusing on global expansion and business development for a period of one year.
"Ascent Solar is transitioning from a research and development company to a manufacturing and commercially focused organization. I am pleased to have been the leader of Ascent Solar during this initial stage, and I felt that new leadership would be better at leading Ascent Solar's next phase of growth where operational and manufacturing expertise will be critical. I expect Ascent Solar to continue to grow as a leader in the thin film photovoltaics arena," Mr. Foster stated.
"We thank Matt for his outstanding leadership during Ascent Solar's early and formative years," stated Dr. Misra. "Under his watch, Ascent Solar has grown quickly from a private start-up company to a publicly traded company with a well-defined manufacturing and sales strategy. We are pleased that Matt has agreed to continue to support our development efforts in a consulting capacity."
Dr. Misra will begin transitioning into the role of interim President and Chief Executive Officer immediately. Dr. Misra, who has served as Ascent Solar's Chairman since October 2005 and as its Chief Strategy Officer since April 2007, previously founded and served as the chief executive officer of ITN Energy Systems, Inc. (ITN) since 1994. Ascent Solar's copper, indium, gallium, diselenide (CIGS) technology initially was developed at ITN before it was assigned and licensed to Ascent Solar. Before founding ITN in 1994, Dr. Misra spent 19 years with Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin Corporation) in the areas of material research, development and manufacturing. While at Martin Marietta, Dr. Misra worked as manager of Research and Technology (Materials and Structures), then led the company's development of long-term Materials technology strategies. He was a scientist for the Martin Marietta Solar Company's projects that developed solar thermal and concentrator-silicon photovoltaic plants. Dr. Misra has also helped develop and implement several key technologies for aerospace applications including thin-film photovoltaic, smart materials, advanced composites and lightweight structures.
Dr. Misra, age 63, holds a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Benaras Hindu University in India, a M.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
About Ascent Solar Technologies:
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is a developer of thin-film photovoltaic modules with substrate materials that can be more flexible and affordable than most traditional solar panels. Ascent Solar modules can be directly integrated into standard building materials, space applications, consumer electronics for portable power or configured as stand alone modules for large scale terrestrial deployment. Ascent Solar is located in
Additional link
1) Ascent Solar
http://www.ascentsolar.com/ascentsolar.php
Dr. Mohan Mishra in past issues of chronicle
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2007/08/index.html#001393
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http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/dqtop20_08/BestEmployers/2008/108091913.asp
Both the organizations and the midpros will have to ensure that the constant value add at the middle level is maintained
Friday, September 19, 2008
In the IT Midpros Survey 2008, when only 5% of the respondents said that 100% of their potential was being utilized in their current job, 51% felt that their potential was being used between 50% and 80%, and a significant 23% felt that less than half of their potential was being usedit is something that companies need to worry about. Add to this the fact that 40% of the respondents said they intend to leave their current companies in the next couple of years. And a grim picture emerges. Companies are going to be losing out on critical talent that they need to retain and nurture, to keep the growth engines revving.
The above findings are from a survey of Indian mid-career professionals, mostly in the IT industry, conducted in early 2008 by midcareers.com, which focuses on placement and career enrichment services for midprosmid-career professionals. The disgruntlement at the mid-career level is not a unique phenomenon in the Indian IT industry. In fact, Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson and Ken Dychtwald, authors of Managing Middlescence (published in the Harvard Business Review, January 5, 2008), coined the phrase middlescence for the mid-career restlessness arising out of burn-out, career bottleneck, and boredom that affects a significant percentage of mid-career professionals.
While this is the mid-career professionals point of view, the Employers opine that mid-career professionals are just not productive enough.
A report by the Hay Group on a survey of middle managers found that 38% of
Why the Lack of Productivity? Midpros are different from the other three segments of employeesfreshers, juniors, and the senior management. Their uniqueness comes from firstly, the unique position in their personal lives and
the associated priorities, and then, their professional preferences. Attention to family, rearing of kids, caring for aging parents, investing to create assets are some of the priorities in their personal lives. On the professional front, one critical aspect we realized was their alignment toward roles. At the fresher
level, the anchoring of jobs is on aptitude, and at the junior level it is on the skills, while at the middle level it is on the roles. Roles are much more than skills, encompassing the organization context and function in which the knowledge and skills are applied. For example, midpros would like to get aligned to roles such as technical architect, delivery management, business analyst, consultant, business development, product development, etc. But, sadly, the importance of the alignment of midpros to roles is not well appreciated across the IT industry.
Focus on three areas:
Identify and deploy capabilities in appropriate roles:
Roles demand certain capabilities and also personal adjustments. Some are oriented toward technology, few toward management, and some toward both. Some roles are external focused while some others are internal focused. A few roles allow for immediate quantitative results to be seen, typically in a service environment, while others take a longer time for results to be seen, as one would observe in the product development environment. Then, different roles place different demands on individuals. Some may demand extensive travel, some may require long hours at work (within and outside of working hours), and some need a high degree of cross functional interaction and so on.
To start with, organizations need to invest time in understanding and describing the role. In our placement experience, we have seen situations when we get calls saying, We want a delivery manager. Thats it. One phraseDelivery Manager! We politely refuse to work on such a requirement, knowing very well that this is headed for disaster, both for the company and the incumbent. We had a colleague who was a great success when he was heading a practice for a leading services company. He moved to a product company and he failed to deliver. Reason: he was accustomed to seeing results on a daily basis. For him, a product company, where projects take a longer time to develop and execute, was a wrong place to be in. Predictably, he left within months and is now doing extremely well heading a practice in a large and fast growing IT services company. Describing the role in detail, understanding the profile of the person who could fit the role and evaluating for the fit, would help organizations in ensuring a good fit between the role and the midpros.
It is not just during an employees entry into a company that we need to pay careful attention to alignment with roles, but also when the employee is growing within the organization. As years go by, midpros become aware of what and where they are good at and what they are not. Organizations need to let them express these thoughts and decide what best can be done. The most common problem we have heard is that of technically-tuned professionals being placed in managerial roles and vice versa. Such wrong placements result in both the companies and the midpros losing out.
Empathize with their life position and its demands: Given their unique life position, midpros need to be handled with a lot more care and empathy. They need to be listened to and understood, they need flexibility, they need to feel valued for their maturity.
In this fast paced economy, life is not easy. Even when work is interesting midpros can become unproductive, for the simple reason that they find it difficult to manage their life. The starting point is empathy. Unfortunately, HR is not geared to face this unique challenge. HR needs to have people with whom the midpros can relate and dialog.
The midpros need to be heard. Town hall meetings covering all sections of employees are fine, but we need to have dialogs with midpros, exclusively and periodically. Many things will surface out of such interactions and can be addressed. Maybe till the time we develop and identify seasoned and mature HR professionals for playing the role of empathizers (of midpros), we could try some options: create an online community exclusively for midpros within the company, let someone from the mid-career level take charge of this role full time, but not load them with transactions; or perhaps, we could get seasoned HR professionals to work on part-time basis in this role.
Facilitate, but make midpros responsible: Adults learn best by experiencing things themselves or from the experiences of others. Organizations can at best create avenues for adults to experience and share experiences.
Are organizations really valuing learning and development at mid-career levels? Yes, some are. Particularly the bigger and more mature ones. But otherwise the scene is pretty bad. Maybe the industry is doing a fabulous job in training freshers, but the same cannot be said about mid-career professionals. At the fresher level, taking an approach of training them on skills and using similar methodology works well. At mid-career levels, the one program fits all approach doesnt work. With increasing differences in preferences for roles and preferences for learning methodologies, we need to carefully create mechanisms by which we can align the learning goals of the organization and the learning process of midpr
Starting with laying down the broad learning goals for the coming years, organizations could let individuals choose what they want to learn from these select areas, and in the manner they want. Whether they want to do satellite MBA programs, undergo certification courses in architecting, write and present papers, participate in forums, form a discussion group on a subject within the company, support them but let them take responsibility for the same.
Middle Level Needs Attention
As the Indian industry strides forward with ambitious growth plans and aspirations to move up the value chain, whilst facing increasing pressure on the bottomline, boththe organizations and the midproswill have to ensure that the constant value add at the middle level is maintained to fulfill the aspirations of the individuals and the organizations. I want to iterate that middle management professionals are a critical link between strategy and execution. They are placed uniquely in life and career. And, hence, organizations must pay attention to their unique needs and aspirations, create opportunities for developing and learning, nurture them and deploy them in the right roles, to guide them to leadership positions in future.
_____________________________________
Midcareers.com Career Planner (newsletter)
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http://www.pr-inside.com/dr-sajeev-chandarn-bits-pilani-bags-r855715.htm
Dr Sajeev Chandran BITS Pilani bags APTI's Young Pharmacy Teacher of the Year 2008 Award
2008-10-11 08:54:48 - The Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI) applauded the achievements of Dr Sajeev Chandran in the first decade of his teaching career by conferring upon him the coveted APTI Young Pharmacy Teacher of the Year 2008 Award at a glittering function during the Annual Convention at Bilaspur on 03 October 2008.
Headquartered at
Dr Sajeev Chandran who joined BITS in 1998 is presently Assistant Professor in the Pharmacy Group and also an Assistant Dean of the Engineering Services Division of BITS Pilani. The Pharmacy Group of BITS, Pilani is one of the few early schools of Pharmacy in
Sajeev holds a B.Pharm degree from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and M.Pharm degree as well as PhD from BITS Pilani. In addition he holds MBA from IGNOU also. His field of specialization is Pharmaceutics. He has close to 40 publications in peer reviewed journals. Dr Sajeev extensively uses for teaching, case studies, discussion forums, worksheet based assignments, role playing exercises etc. He has also introduced hands-on experience for the students in the areas of rDNA technology & cloning, quality assurance & validation, pharmacokinetics and clinical pharmacy. Apart from various B Pharm and M Pharm courses, he has also taught courses for the M Phil Hospital & Health Systems Management and Master of Public Health degrees of BITS Pilani. One should not be surprised if it is said that he is also playing the role of Warden for Gandhi Bhawan which is one of the Boys hostels of BITS Pilani. The homepage of Dr Sajeev Chandran is discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/discipline/pharmacy/sajeev/index.htm
The 13th Annual National Convention 2008 of APTI was held at
________________________________________
Home Page of Dr. Sanjeev Chandran:
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/discipline/pharmacy/sajeev/index.html
Email: sajeev13@gmail.com
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Our alumnus, Rajat Kashyap (Electrical 2006) has started a company (Learn2consult.com) in partnership with Alok Rustagi and Karan Ahuja. All three team members are engineering graduates and currently students of IIMs at Lucknow and Kozhikode. They also have prior management and consulting experience in reputed firms.
The company plans to develop basic consulting skills in candidates who want to make consulting as a career. Learn2consult.com has made associations with industry experts, national and international consulting clubs and consulting firms to provide an entire gamut of consulting related tools and techniques on the portal. Its website (http://www.Learn2consult.com) offers plenty of articles, simulated cases, comprehensive theoretical articles and helpful hints for someone interested in making management consultancy as a career.
This article includes a news item in Economic Times about the company, Questions & Answers, and a message from team.
http://www.learn2consult.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=5&Itemid=20
 |  |  |
| Alok Rustagi NSIT(2005) IIM-Kozhikode (student) | Karan Ahuja DCE (Mechanical 2005) IIM-Lucknow (student) | Rajat Kashyap IT-BHU (Electrical 2006) IIM-Lucknow (student) |
______________________________________________________________________________
The news item in Economic Times:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3632003.cms
IIM students launch portal to help new consultants
23 Oct, 2008, 1135 hrs IST, IANS
LUCKNOW: Interested in a career in business consultancy, but don't know where to begin? Well, for starters, you could log on to www.Learn2consult.com, a portal launched by three students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM).
"The portal has been designed in such a way that it acts as a one-stop shop for all those who want to know about consulting or want to start their career in the field," said IIM Lucknow (IIML) student and co-founder of the portal Karan Ahuja.
The portal's other founders are Alok Rustagi, a student of IIM Kozhikode, and Rajat Kashyap of IIML.
"As there was no comprehensive portal dedicated to graduate students, management students or beginners who want to make a career in consulting, we thought of designing such a website," added Ahuja.
The portal has also been linked to industry experts in order to provide expert guidance.
The other highlight of the portal is its 'Ask the expert' section where beginners can find answers to their queries and questions.
According to the IIM students, there are still lots of speculations and myths about consulting as a profession.
Most of the students don't have a clear focus towards consulting. This is primarily due to traditional preference for finance oriented jobs and lack of dedicated courses designed to train people in consulting skills, they said.
______________________________________________________________________________
SHORT Q&A SESSION
When you started your new company, how the idea came and who are the partners?
The portal Learn2consult.com is totally dedicated to the consulting profession. Here we want to promote consulting, which, till date, was considered after plum jobs offered by finance sector. The idea of Learn2consult.com came to us about five months back when we were having our short stint at various consulting firms. We saw the difference in what is perceived as consulting profession and what it really is. We believe that there is very less information available on what consultancy as a profession is all about.
People have only a vague idea of what a consultancy assignment is like. There is no interactive medium available for people who have an inclination towards this sector. We believed that we can fill this void by launching a one-stop portal on consultancy (Learn2consult.com). That is when we came together and founded Learn2consult.com. The founders of the portal are all students of Indian Institute of Managements, Karan Ahuja and me from Lucknow campus and Alok Rustagi from Kozhikode campus. All three of us share same passion and enthusiasm for consulting.
What is a consulting assignment and how do you help achieve the goal?
Consulting assignment is a typical problem solved by a consultant. These are problems which are faced by government or companies and for which they go to different consulting firms. We try to create a simulated environment where we present the problems to the registered users of the portal. After fixed time and depending on the questions raised by the members, we provide further information to solve the problem. This method creates a replica of typical real-life problem and gives experience of solving a real case.
Such practices are also helpful in interviews of consulting firms, and different interviews that ask guesstimates, and business analysis problems. There is also a section called "Ask the Expert" where users can ask there consulting related queries with our industry experts, who are associated with the portal.
Who are your typical customers, and how do you rate the fees?
As such, our portal is targeted to students of management institutes and final year students of undergraduate programmes. It is also very beneficial for consulting amateurs and for people who want to switch to consulting as a career.
We do not charge any fees for registration or for asking problems from the experts available on panel of advisors. However, in future, we will expand our coverage where little companies can ask solutions for their problems from selected users of the portal for little fees.
What are the top reasons one should go for consulting business compared to a salaried job?
Consulting as a profession is preferred by people who constantly like new challenges. Consulting provides the opportunity to look into a new problem almost every time. Quality of solutions is the most important aspect in this profession.
Freelance consulting is also picking up where people, after becoming an expert, open their consulting practice. However, the information available for such things is very less and there are a lot of myths about consulting, which we intend to clear while simultaneously developing the basic skills required for this profession.
Any other point you would like to say.
We are still in a developing phase and feedback and suggestions are very important for us at this stage. We look forward to people using the portal and providing their feedback or suggestion in this regard. We are also seeking active association with consulting companies which are small or niche.
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THE MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDERS:
Hi all:
We are the founding members of www.Learn2consult.com. Our intention to write this mail is to make you all understand the purpose and usefulness of this website, especially if you are interested towards consulting.
This website has been developed keeping in mind, the needs of a person who desires to understand the world of consulting and prepare himself for facing case based interviews for consulting firms.
The home page of the website clearly talks about consulting and its various facets. Homepage also links to the L2C blog that would contain wisdom of our prominent board of advisors about various aspects of consulting profession. One of our founding members of the board, Saibal Sen, has also agreed to help the students with their individual queries and the link to the same shall be present on the home page categorized as "Ask the expert" column.
"Crack the case" is a tab where we have tried to capture typical consulting situations (especially the ones that you may face during your interviews) and have divided them into four categories, namely Strategy, Operations, HR and Marketing. You would find typical situations along with a suggested way to attempt the same.
The focus of various consulting firms is to check the case solving skills of the candidate, and generally students are not able to efficiently practice and prepare themselves for the same. A real time environment is needed where a student can discuss the case in a group to see other perspectives and benchmark his own approach. This need has been captured in our flagship module called "Boardroom". In boardroom, which is essentially a discussion thread, we shall post various cases (some of them would also be real time, sponsored by various partner firms). The students would be free to post their views on the case and approach to solve the same, and since it would be open to all the students, one would also be able to learn through other students' arguments.
Efficient use of the frameworks is one gray area, especially when it comes to utilizing them in a cased based interview. We have tried to cover key frameworks, along with illustration of their utility and possible application. Related frameworks will also be present while you will be browsing through the "crack the case" section. This would help you self realize their use and application in a real time situation.
Hope you all make full use of this initiative not only while preparing for your summers but to understand this profession in the long term.
It is an initiative to help the prospective consulting community and is ever evolving. We are thus open to any suggestions and contributions (through blogs and articles).
The cases on the boardroom are already launched and we have sent the information to the registered members. Please register on the website, it is simple and takes 2 minutes.
Best regards,
Alok | Karan | Rajat
Email:
alok.rustagi@Learn2consult.com
karan.ahuja@Learn2consult.com
rajat.kashyap@Learn2consult.com
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Sureeli Yaadein by Tansens music group
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(Suresh and Vijaya Israni) |
Sureeli Yaadein was the debut performance of the Tansens music group presented on Oct 11th 2008 at the Balaji temple in the Chicagoland area.
Just about 3 months ago, a group of 6 singers got together and decided to share and grow their passion for music - and Sureeli Yaadein was born. Singing to karaoke music, the Tansens music group, that included 3 IT-BHU alumni, brought a medley of songs, kuch nayi kuch puraani, to an appreciative audience of nearly 300 people. Melodies from movies such as Abhimaan, Zameer, Jhumroo, Hum Dono, Guide, Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Paying Guest were brought to life. Proceeds from the concert were donated to the temple. The Tansens group has now been approached by other organizations in the area for a similar performance. “Film songs require the support of background music. Having access to a live orchestra has always been a challenge. Good karaoke music goes a long way in filling the gap”, says Suresh Israni (Chemical 1985), who describes himself as a Kishore Kumar bhakt. Suresh also has a Music degree from the Music College at BHU. “The program has been quite a learning experience. It is our first performance in a public venue after the BHU years, and we’re very thankful for the great encouragement we got from our friends. We were unsure about the audience’s capability to relate to older music. Through “Sureeli Yaadein” we have found that the appetite for such music is alive and kicking” says Vijaya Israni (ECE 1985). The ’85 alumni may remember Suresh and Vijaya’s performances at BHU with live orchestra from other very talented students. In addition to singing some Talat numbers on the stage, Mohandas Palakkal (Chemical 1985) played the primary role of bringing the Tansens group together and was responsible for planning, organizing and managing all aspects of the show. The off-stage crew included yet another alumni, Sriram Sitaraman (Metallurgy 1984), who managed the audio system for the show. Vijaya Israni can be contacted at: vijaya_chiusa[AT]yahoo.com> Suresh Israni can be contacted at: sureshisrani@hotmail.com
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| (Tansens Group singing the finale “Chalte chalte…kabhi alvida na kahena”-from left to right: Suresh Israni, Renjini Sanjay, Vijaya Israni, Ashok Menon, Mohandas Palakkal, Rachana Nair, Sunil Pillai) |
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP