Message from Vice Chancellor
As 2011 draws to a close, there are several images that would linger long in one’s mind and several lessons to be learnt. While the Oct- December quarter saw the creator of the ‘Common Man’, cartoonist R. K. Laxman, celebrating his 90th birthday quietly in Pune, the world at large witnessed the celebration of the birth of the ‘Common Man’ in 2011. Whether it be the ‘Jasmine Revolution’, the ‘Arab Spring’ or the Libyan struggle against Muammar Gaddafi or even closer home, the Anna Hazare-led movement against corruption and the imprisonment of political big-wigs in various scams, the larger lesson to be drawn is the impatience of the Common Man world-wide, with a system that was considered perfectly passé, just some time ago.
With the Indian economy slowing to 6.9%, a serious leadership crisis is being perceived at various levels of the government. In fact, experts from across the world have been blaming leadership as India’s biggest worries. Such leadership issues at both the micro and macro levels could in fact pose serious challenges to our emerging economy status. Not only so, leadership, especially Ethical leadership, is today the biggest challenge facing organizations and institutions too.
In the wake of these developments, NMIMS continued its journey to excellence through a pursuit of quality across its programs, pedagogy and evaluation and people-development. The continuous increase in number of hopeful aspirants across all our Schools vindicates our position as the ‘Leader’ in the provision of quality education in the fields of not just management, but also Pharmacy, Engineering, Architecture, Commerce and Economics. We also take our role of Change-leaders and Innovators seriously and seek to not just educate, but also make a meaningful contribution to the society in which we live. The various extension and social outreach programs initiated by our different Schools are borne out of this desire to give back to the society. This desire also finds manifestation in our Shirpur Campus. NMIMS has taken upon itself the task of providing education to the predominantly tribal youth in this area, so as to increase their employability. We hope to create ‘Ethical Leaders’ through all our initiatives.
We also believe that entrepreneurship will play a significant role in shaping India’s destiny in the future. The ability to take risks- which saw a young lad from a small village in Bihar transforming himself into a billionaire and getting his company, Vedanta Resources Plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange- will strike a chord with almost all our students, especially our School of Commerce students. The students got to meet the dynamic Chairman of Vedanta Resources and Sterlite Industries, Mr. Anil Agarwal, our Guest of Honor in December 2011.
The Anil Surendra Modi School of Commerce, which teaches entrepreneurship, among other courses to its B. Com. and BBA students, is the School featured in this December edition of the e-Spandan. Led by its dynamic In-charge Dean, Ms. Sangita Kher, several of its students have not only been placed in the top-rung companies, but some have in fact, decided to put the lessons on Entrepreneurship learnt in the School to good use and have started their own ventures in a modest manner, albeit successfully.
The young student team at the ASM SOC, comprising of Siddhant Mishra, Tanya Priyank, Rahul Tikiya and Pratikshya Paramita, guided by Prof. Sangita Kher and the faculty member, Ms. Manju Meenakshy along with with our editor, Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar and her team, have done a great job of putting up this edition of e-SPANDAN.
I hope you enjoy reading this edition of e-Spandan. Do send in your feedback to the editor.
I take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a Very Happy New Year. May the Year bring peace and happiness all round.
Best regards,
Dr. Rajan Saxena