Archive for the ‘IIM Ranchi’ Category
ThinkBig launches online business education venture
ThinkBig Edu-Venture today launched its new initiative myBskool.com – an online business education venture. According to Mr Swaminathan K, Founder & CEO of ThinkBig, myBskool.com will provide management lessons using a 3-screen platform – mobile phone, tablet and PC, offering a ‘complete portable classroom’. Elaborating on the technology, he said the company uses “advanced technology solution to ensure almost buffering-free flow of digital content”.
The company has tied up with the Indian Institute of Management-Ranchi (IIM-R) for an 18-month Executive MBA programme. To start with, IIM-R and myBskool would jointly create content and explore more advanced technologies to offer more practical and interactive learning experience to distant communities. “We are also in talks with various other B-schools for similar tie-ups,” he said. Besides, it also proposes to bundle this product with handsets and broadband services through tie-ups with mobile operators and handset manufacturers. He said India’s B-school market is of Rs. 5,000-crore (Rs. 50 billion) split equally between distance learning and class-room education, “and there is enough and more room for us to grow in this market.”
India would require 800 more universities and at least 35,000 colleges by 2020. “Just think about the faculty requirement,” Mr Swaminathan said adding, “only technology can bridge the gap.” Rolling out statistics, he said going by the US metric, with a workforce of 400 million people, India needs 20 million managers, thereby creating a huge demand-supply gap.
Launching the product at a press conference here today, Prof. M.J. Xavier, Director, IIM-R, said there is already an acute shortage for managers at entry and middle level the demand is only expected to grow exponentially in the years to come. He said, beginning next year (2013), the institution is intending to increase the student intake (for the executive programme) to at least 1,000 by reducing the work experience requirement from the current 7 years to 2 years. “Once that happens we may encourage distant education with study centres in major cities. The fee may also come down to Rs. 150,000 (it charges Rs. 450,000 for the programme currently).”
ThinkBig Edu-Venture has so far invested $1.5 million in this initiative. This was funded by the US-based NRI entrepreneur and angel investor Mr K.B. Chandrasekhar. “We are in the process of raising another $2.5 million,” said Mr Swaminathan.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, January 4, 2012
IIM Ranchi Nanos business education to reach out to masses
What Tata Motors Ltd. did to cars, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Ranchi wants to do to business education — by offering a post-graduate diploma in business management (put simply, an MBA) for Rs. 100,000. The IIM aims to adopt the open university concept to reach out to the masses and, according to the institute’s director M.J. Xavier, plans to set up small study centres across India and integrate them with the main campus.
“Over 200,000 students appear for the Common Admission Test (CAT), but less than 5,000 make it to IIMs. Here, we want to reach out to a larger base,” Xavier said in an interview. The director was in New Delhi last week to participate in the Indian Management Conclave. “There is a demand for quality management education at an affordable price. We want to be innovative — by opening study centres and linking them to the main campus, we can achieve that,” he explained.
On an average, the tuition fee for an MBA works out to around Rs. 1 million. There were 204,000 people who appeared for CAT 2010; the p
revious year the number was over 242,000. CAT is a computerized entrance exam for those seeking a berth in IIMs.
IIM Ranchi is convinced it can reach out to 10,000 students in three-five years with its new programme. Xavier said two large companies in south India are ready to send 200 employees each for full-time courses through study centres. He declined to identify the companies. “IIM Ranchi wants to create its own brand for others to follow by reaching out to the masses, both in the corporate sector and otherwise. I am already working on the model and in the next six months a few institutes in Jharkhand can be interlinked with the IIM,” he said.
Xavier said that while critics may find the model wanting on account of those enrolling for the programme not benefiting from a campus atmosphere, this century is all about reaching out. “Why cannot we reach smaller cities and towns? The country’s economy is growing and here rural India plays a key role. We need efficient managers in those parts of the country. I know IIMs have not done it so far, but we want to cater to such a market,” he added.
The school would not need to invest much in creating and running the programme, Xavier said. “One-third of the course will be taken care of by the permanent faculty, one-third by the visiting faculty from both academia and industry, and the rest will be e-content,” he added.
Sanjeev Bajaj, chief coordinator at the Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), said IIM Ranchi is changing the tradition. “Unlike other IIMs, IIM Ranchi is believing in collaboration with private institutes. Xavier has a vision and he is working towards it,” he added. XISS is one of the schools in Ranchi that the IIM is looking to work with when it offers the programme.
But not everyone is enthusiastic about IIM Ranchi’s idea. “It does not look to me as a great idea. Let’s see how the IIM works it out,” said S.S. Sarkar, head of the department of business administration at Tezpur University, a central university in Assam.
Source: Mint, August 18, 2011
IIM-Ranchi to map MS Dhoni’s brain for new course
If star cricketer MS Dhoni is game, Indian Institute of Management-Ranchi (IIM-R) would like to examine his brain. The country’s premier business school is planning to foray into neuro management by mapping the brain of Team India’s most acclaimed captains and understand the reasons for Dhoni’s success as a leader.
The institute wants to take Ranchi’s renown in mental health to the next level, and is in the process of tying up with the city’s Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) to start the new course. The results of the Dhoni study will be the precursor to a full-fledged neuro-management course.
Dhoni has been sent an invitation, and the institute is waiting to hear from him. “The study of biological reactions and people’s animal instincts mixed with management theories will not only create better managers, but also better human beings,” says IIM Ranchi Director MJ Xavier.
He believes neuro-marketing will be the next big thing. “Brain reactions as well as its functioning, can now be mapped. We know what chemicals react in the brain in what ways, and how they trigger human reactions. When we have the resources here in Ranchi, why not start a course in neuro-marketing, which is already in vogue in the UK and at a research stage in China,” he says. IIM-R believes neuromarketing can be employed for design of products and services, packaging and branding.
Coke and P&G are well-known users of such skills. The idea for such a course came when Xavier saw the vast technical resources available with the CIP. “I was already interested in neuro-marketing and was doing some research in this sector, but after joining IIM Ranchi, I asked CIP if we could work together. They got excited and we are now on the job,” says Xavier. CIP, on its part, will facilitate the technical aspects like study of the electrical patterns of the brain, says Director S. Haque Nizami.
The institute was in the process of getting necessary technical infrastructure such as the functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, with the help of which human behaviour can be predicted with 80% accuracy. IIM-R has already enrolled two research scholars in this field and to hold an international seminar on neuro-marketing next year. “We will start conducting courses spread over three to 10 days and have regular two-year courses from 2014,” says Xavier .
The institute plans to beef up faculty and research strength by then. “We need to do more research and find the market for our graduates,” says Xavier. IIM-R wants a convergence between neuro-marketing and traditional marketing techniques for a holistic understanding of consumers. “I am trying to explore the relationship between what people think, what they say and what they actually do. But the synchronisation is often missing, which calls for a study to see where the gap lies. Unravelling the age-old paradox can help marketing through neuro-management,” he says.
Source: The Economic Times, August 5, 2011
>IIM-Ranchi to start parallel MBA courses
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Indian Institute of Management-Ranchi (IIM-R) will begin parallel MBA courses, with a focus on specialisation in data analytics, human resource management and banking and finance management from June, 2012. IIM-R is eighth in the now 50-year old history of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
The courses, according to IIM-R Director M.J. Xavier would serve two basic aims. First, these would aid in bringing diversity to the campus, where at present, an overwhelming majority of the students are male engineers. Secondly, it would help IIM-R establish a niche for itself as a management institute and carve out an identity within the larger IIM system.
“I have stated earlier as well, that I am not going to try and force diversity in the campus. If the majority of the students who make the cut are male engineers, so be it. The parallel courses will deal with issues of diversity within the campus, while helping in the creation of courses that are relevant given the changing context,” Xavier said.
The much coveted IIMs across the country currently offer a standard post graduate diploma in business management (PGDBM). The institutes had recently come under attack from critics who argue the system is exclusionary in nature and is largely skewed in favour of candidates with an engineering background.
Xavier, however, feels the need at present is for the IIM system to remodel itself in keeping with the demands of the times, and offer various courses which would be more inclusive of diversity, rather than trying to force diversity within the present PGDBM programme. “In keeping with the demands for management students across the world, it is important that IIMs remodel and adapt. These courses will be a stepping stone in that direction,” he explained. Also, this would mean that at IIM-R, which is being mentored by IIM-Calcutta in its first year of operation, would not increase the student strength in the PGDBM programme beyond 60 students.
Source: Business Standard, April 17, 2011
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