Emphasising on Krea’s mission statement ‘to help humanity prepare for an unpredictable world’, Dr Sunder Ramaswamy discussed how classes weren’t just about dispensing information, but rather about aiding students to learn, to think like a mathematician, a scientist, a philosopher.
Category: General Topics
Shobha Das on world post COVID-19
Dr Shobha Das, Dean at IFMR GSB shared her perspectives on the world post COVID-19 and its domino effect on organizations. The panel of experts discussed ‘COVID19 Impact on Innovation and Innovation Trajectories’ in an e-conclave hosted by IIM Sirmaur. The discourse featured thoughts on COVID-19’s impact on Innovation processes, role of technology, healthcare products, and challenges for leaders and organizations in revamping innovation trajectories.
IFMR GSB at Krea University welcomes incoming MBA cohort
IFMR GSB at Krea University welcomed the new cohort of MBA students with Prarambh – a week long virtual orientation program. The orientation programme for the 2020-2022 MBA batch was a 5-day event, hosted from July 1 until July 5, packed with engaging sessions from leadership, faculty, staff, students and alumni. This is a historic year for IFMR GSB, marking a journey of 20 years steered by some of the best minds from academia and industry, creating immense value for students and society.
Prarambh 2020 witnessed the Krea community extending a warm welcome to the incoming cohort. The incoming class comprises 182 students from across the country who have been through a holistic admission process which evaluates applicants with tailor made rounds catering to diverse aspirants.
Leading industry leaders actively participated and engaged in Prarambh 2020.
Industry stalwart Mr CK Ranganathan – Chairman and Managing Director of CavinKare, addressed the 180+ students on the inaugural day. Tracing his humble beginnings in Cuddalore to building a major business, Mr Ranganathan encouraged students to walk the path of personal transformation and use education as a starting point.
On day 3, Tech leader and co-founder of Fractal Analytics, Mr Srikanth Velamkanni spoke to the students. He carried them through important life lessons that students can take from their business school, including staying humble and constantly keep pushing to learn more broadly.
Speaking to the students on the concluding day Mr Rajiv Lochan, Executive Director at Sundaram Finance Limited, shared 5 key lessons with students. Addressing the uncertainty of our times, he highlighted why this is the best period to remain a student and learn as much from the world as possible, so they are prepared to reap the benefits of learnings in two years.
Renowned academia including Prof N Ravichandran, Former director, IIM-Indore and Prof V Anantha Nageswaran, Part-time member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India & Former Dean, IFMR GSB, actively interacted with students.
In her welcome address, Dr Shobha Das – Dean of IFMR GSB commended the students for their decision to invest in education amid the global crisis and put forth her vision for the new cohort, “We hope to develop well rounded human beings as well as managers. There are four attributes we hope IFMR GSB graduates will come out with, they are elements of being reflective, ethical, effective and professional.”
Dr Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice Chancellor, Krea University added, “As the world has shown, with crisis comes opportunities. Hopefully it prepares you to handle these opportunities, no matter what you want to do when you graduate with an MBA degree, whether you want to join the corporate sector, be an analyst, join the banking sector, the nonprofit sector or want to be an entrepreneur. What I really hope that you’re here for is building yourself up as a professional and as an individual and human being, because I think that is really what the world currently needs.”
Krea hosts dialogue sans borders- conversations with the world
Krea University hosted a series of compelling conversations between eminent subject experts from world-renowned universities and research organizations across the globe, and the academic minds at Krea — on the post-crisis future of our nations, health, families, societies, environment and the interconnected world we live in. These curated diverse global narratives redefine the world of tomorrow. With more than 20 eminent speakers from 7 nations across the globe, dialogue sans borders was a four session global event.
In the inaugural session on ‘Future of Public Health, panelists from University of Oxford, The George Institute for Global Health and Krea University imparted learnings and shared perspectives on research, trends and policies while also shedding light on critical interventions needed for public health in a world with and beyond COVID-19.
The session on ‘Future of Social Behaviour’ witnessed academic practitioners from Australia Council for the Arts , Nottingham Trent University, University of Witwatersrand, Krea University and IWWAGE unfolded the changing face of social behaviour, our attitudes towards each other and societies, mental health and new coping mechanisms and the gender-based challenges that lie ahead.
In the upcoming session on ‘Future of Sustainability’, panelists from University College Cork, Energy Policy Institute at University of Chicago (EPIC), M.S. Chadha Center for Global India, Princeton University and Krea University, brought together the emerging narrative of environment sustainability in a world that’s evolving with COVID-19.
The final and concluding session on ‘Future of Global Relations’, witnessed panelists from University of Sussex, Victoria University of Wellington and Krea University share insights into the transforming narrative of global relations, the international policies in times of crisis, and its long-term impact on global migration, trade and societies.
The sessions were moderated by Mukund Padmanabhan, the former editor of The Hindu and Visiting Professor of Practice at Krea University.
You can watch the recordings here.
IWWAGE is partnering with DAY-NRLM through SWAYAM
With over 60 million women mobilised to be part of one of India’s largest livelihoods programme, the Deendayal Antayodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), holds great promise for advancing women’s socio-economic empowerment by organising them into self-help groups (SHGs) and institutions of the rural poor. These platforms are facilitating financial opportunities and livelihood support services for women. NRLM believes that gender sensitisation and social action should be mainstreamed in its framework, systems, institutions and processes. To this end, it devised a Gender Operational Strategy in financial year 2019-20 committing actions that recognise women’s heterogeneity and the unique socio-economic barriers faced by them.
Through SWAYAM (Strengthening Women’s institutions for Agency and Empowerment), IWWAGE is partnering with DAY-NRLM to provide technical assistance to support this strategy and institutionalise gender across all levels of the Mission. More specifically, the partnership aims to:
- Strengthen capacity of staff at all levels in the NRLM through trainings to work on gender issues;
- Redesign the existing gender training curriculum used by State Rural Livelihood Missions;
- Design and test innovative solutions for delivering the trainings;
- Design, implement and evaluate the impact of pilot Gender Resource Centres in four states as models to promote gender equality and help women claim their entitlements; and
- Build performance indicators, generate rigorous evidence and develop knowledge management mechanisms to inform programme design.
IWWAGE is partnering with SRLMs in four states including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, and several implementing partners to test pilots and scale these institutional models for SHG federations to serve as gender resource centres. Read more on IWWAGE work with NRLM here.
COVID-19 and the Future of Seafood Markets in Chennai
The seafood industry is a lifeline for coastal communities in India and women play a significant role in post-harvest operations. While it’s still early to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, Research Fellow Rahul Muralidharan notes that rapid insights from the ground are important to shape policy actions and programs. He shares his insights in this piece based on interactions with small-scale fisherfolk, co-operatives and union leaders in Chennai.
Tackling Gender-based Violence Through the Lens of Space
LEAD concluded their three-part webinar series on rising gender-based violence amid COVID-19 . The final part explored the role of space – public, private and digital, in gender-based violence, especially in the current context. Highlighting gaps in current research, the young and dynamic panel answered questions from the participants and presented a way forward towards building safe and inclusive spaces for all.
IFMR GSB student committee presents pan India contest ‘Entangled’
With a rush of adrenaline and picking a lesson from the looming crisis of today, comes ‘Entangled’. A unique case study competition hosted by Sanchalan – the IT and Operations Student Committee from IFMR GSB, challenging graduates with prioritization and resource allocation skills during crisis.
600 participants from across India geared up to compete, make an impact and win the contest. Contestants from 190 institutes and 20% of them from top tier ones vied for the ultimate spot in this innovative case study competition.
IFMR GSB welcomes the L&T C EMBA cohort of 2020-23
IFMR GSB at Krea University, welcomed the new cohort of L&T Executives to the EMBA program 2020-23. Dr Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor at Krea University and Dr Shobha Das, Dean of IFMR GSB, personally welcomed the new executives. Other distinguished guests at the inauguration event included Mr. Ramkishore, Vice President & Head – Divisional Corporate HR, L&T Construction and Mr. Karthikeyan TV, Executive Vice President – Finance and Accounts, L&T Construction.
Dr Sunder Ramaswamy expressed in his welcome address, “L&T Construction is one of the iconic companies in India which has played a major role in building India’s defining infrastructure projects. The company has admirably continued to invest in its employees even during these tough times.”
He also added, that we live in a world, where information is cheap, instant and universally available, the differentiation between information and knowledge is how to optimally harness information aided by effective coaching and teaching. IFMR GSB faculty would teach learners ‘how to learn’ and remain relevant in the increasingly dynamically changing world that we inhabit.
In her welcome note, Dr Shobha Das shared the rich history of IFMR GSB, set up in 1970 – the 1st of its kind in the financial research and education center in Asia. “This partnership brings together two organizations who excel in their respective fields and both organizations place a lot of importance to knowledge and learning.” , stated Dr Das . She lauded L&T Construction as a much-admired company for several reasons, a key reason being its willingness to invest in employee development, even more admirable, in the current crisis amid uncertainties.
In his insightful address to the incoming cohort, Mr. Ramkishore explained the rigorous selection process that handpicks 45 participants who make it to the committed program. He added, “An MBA instills certain key attributes essential for success; quick thinking, analyzing data and converting it into information, turning information into insights and converting insights into focused actions.” He urged participants to make the most of the virtual situation they are in, free themselves from the constraints of time and space that this opportunity affords and make the most of this education that participants are about to receive.
Reinforcing the partnership, he stated that L&T C partners only with institutions of excellence as their academic partners and IFMR GSB at Krea University is one of them.
Chief Guest of the inauguration event, Mr. Karthikeyan T V, shared words of wisdom and emphasized that it was up to the participants to make the best use of the faculty and the resources made available to them. “At the end of this three year MBA program, my experience and expectation is that participants would have excellent business sense, that only an MBA course imparts- ‘How to run your business’, ‘How to deal with situations that are commercial oriented’ and ‘How do you think professionally, but in a business focused manner’ , ‘How do I make money’.
The incoming cohort includes L&T C IC Head HRs- Mr. Srikant Srinivasan, PT&D; Mr. Bartanu Kumar Das, HC ; Ms. Poonam Chandok TI; Mr. J Kabilan B&F; Ms. K Meena Priya IEL; Mr. Girish, Smart World & Communication; Mr. Binu L&T GEO and L&T Divisional Corporate Academic Contact head – Mr. Raghavendran.
Emergence of Sports Industry and its Future
“The emergence of the sports industry presents an opportunity from a career standpoint, as an economic contributor and as a contributor to nation building.” With that, Deep Mukherjee, CEO, CII- National Committee on Sports, shared insights from the evolving realm of sports with the students at Krea. Speaking of opportunities across talent management, programming, data analysis and tech in sports, Deep touched upon the explosive growth of sports as an industry, its potential to create millions of jobs in the near future, inculcating sports into curriculum as a wholesome subject and not a supplement and how it helped in the holistic development of a student. Speaking of the campaign ‘Making India Play’ he encouraged the need to build a sporting culture in India.