THE DIRECTOR’S REPORT ON ANNUAL DAY

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??THE DIRECTOR’S REPORT ON ANNUAL DAY
The presentation of the report by the Director in the Annual Day is an important cultural ritual where we reflect on our achievements in the preceding academic year and look forward to a meaningful year. If the report is too short, then it might imply that the Institution has been sleeping through the year; but if it is too long, you might go to sleep; therefore, striking a balance, I will finish it within 10 minutes.
Before I move on to present my report, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor KVM Varambally, an erudite educator and an outstanding scholar, for his yeoman service to this School as its Director since 2002 until his retirement last month. I am glad that he would continue with us as the Professor of Economics, mainly guiding our research programs, and for an in-patriate like me who was away in Australia for over 20 years, having him with us and be able to take his guidance seasoned with experience is of immense value to me.
We’ve 293 MBA students on roll, with this year’s intake being 147 students.?We did kick-start the academic year with an induction program for the 2015-batch; the new students who came from far and wide were encouraged by the eminent educators and management practitioners, including Dr H. Vinod Bhat, our University’s Vice Chancellor; Dr Ravi Thilagan, Head HR, Financial Software & Systems Ltd.; Mr. Rajesh KS, Senior Manager, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. who is also our alumnus.
We have been augmenting student classroom learning with hands-on training sessions, notable among them are: a couple of Six Sigma Green Belt workshops with KPMG; Financial Decision Making Analytics training with the assistance of TAPMI; Yoga Camp for Stress Management in partnership with KMC Yoga Department; a series of Academic Writing Skill training sessions offered by Professor Aparna Bhat.
A 2-month Summer Internship is the indispensable attribute of today’s MBA study in India, usually taken up at the end of the first year MBA. We have successfully arranged summer internships to 2014-intake students in reputable firms such as Goldman Sachs, ONGC, Big Bazar, 沙巴体育 Hospitals, Birlas, Taj Westend, Toyota-Kirloskar, TVS, Titan-Tanishq, Public sector banks, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL, HDFC, L & T, Apollo Hospitals, and Narayana Hridayalaya.
Our social-events calendar has been filled with a number celebrations that include Sadbhavana Diwas on August 20th and Ektha Diwas on 31st October, 2015. We’re fortunate to have eminent industry leaders and renowned scholars visiting the campus and giving guest talks to our students: They include Dr Sreedhar Rao, Founder Director, Dr Rao’s Ayurveda Sanctuary; Dr Donald A Donahue, Retired Lieutenant Colonel, US Army; Dr Joseph Thomas, HOD Urology, KMC 沙巴体育; Dr Annapoorna K., HOD Department of Yoga, KMC; Rev. Fr. Francis Lewis, Pastor of Christ Church 沙巴体育; Dr Charan Singh, RBI Chair Professor, IIM Bangalore; Dr Jutta Berninghausen, University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany.
Our students not only play sports and athletics every day, they also excel in tournaments. Our star performer has been Ventakesh Kamath, the national level badminton maestro who stood 4th in the 沙巴体育 Zone National Tournament in Chennai held two months ago, and, last month, in the All India Open National Championship in Gwalior, he secured 10th Place. That means, our Venkatesh Kamath is the Top-10 Badminton player in India. He’s not only tall, he made us tall too!
Following his footsteps, Chirag Rao stood 3rd in the district level intercollegiate table tennis tournament.
The interclass team sports tournaments have been conducted throughout the year with energetic student participation.
25 students are learning Yoga in the yoga camp now going on. Our Yoga initiative is featured on the front page of today’s Time of India newspaper.
This year our Hockey team did well by being the Runner-up in the University Hockey Tournament. Our athletes are looking forward to the annual sports day to be held next month.
In a nutshell, we have successfully engaged every student to take part in one or the other sports or athletics.
Our students have participated and competed in B-School Fests. Adithya Kamath and Apoorva Joshi have come home with prizes in their kitty.
We have established fresh contacts and networking with our alumni through social media – our Facebook page and website are very popular with them as well as with the ongoing students.
In India, B-School Rankings are looked up as the indicators of B-School education quality and excellence. We’re ranked 25th among the Private, 沙巴体育 Zone B-schools in the ‘2015 Week-Hansa Best B-Schools Rankings’. We secured 6th Rank in the “Rankings of Top B-Schools of Excellence” in the 2015 CSR-GHRDC B-Schools survey.
Besides these honors, we are a certified institution with ISO 9001:2001 and ISO 14001:2004.
Our achievements in the scholarship of research has been noteworthy. After winning the European Union’s Erasmus-Mundus Scholarship, our faculty member Dr. Smitha Nayak has joined and is pursuing postdoc research in the Reutlingen University in Germany and will join us back around the middle of next year. Our 19-strong faculty members and students have published 13 refereed international conference papers, 1 winning conference poster, and 5 refereed book chapters. The School has edited and published a research book namely, “Management of change: Issues and development perspectives.” We have enrolled 3 PhD students with scholarships. 3 more PhD students with scholarship will join us next month.
In conclusion, we have made significant strides in achieving excellence in the scholarships of learning and teaching, research, and engagement. As we grow in confidence, we will increase our momentum towards fulfilling our vision to be in the Top-10 B-Schools in India.
Thank you all!
Dr Raveendranath Nayak
Director SOM 沙巴体育
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