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Showing posts from 2010

Diffusion: Business Skills for Non profits

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For registration, please log on to http:// http://bit.ly/isbnetimpact   ,  Email nitin_raj 2011@pgp.isb.edu call 8142555422 Limted seats,  Participation fees : Rs 750, Certificates will be awarded to all participants

Net Impact Hyderabad Chapter Launch

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The Net Impact Hyderabad Professional chapter was launched with the help of ISB Net Impact graduate chapter on 24th Oct 2010. The event saw some eminent personalities like Dr. Jai Prakash(Leader, Lok Satta party),Mr. Robert Katz(Acumen Fund), Mr. Sanjeev Jain(GE) and Mr. Shantanu (Naandi Foundation) as the guest speakers and many others who had come forward to join hands in their efforts for a better world. The two hour event was dotted with presentations, speeches, discussions and most importantly the giving away of Bandhan Scholarships to 25 students from 6 schools on a need-cum-merit basis.  The Hyderabad Professional Chapter aims to bring together the local professionals seeking to network and take action to foster a new generation of leaders who use the power of business to create a better world.  On the occasion, Jai Prakash the founder of Lok Satta party congratulated and wished the team for achieves higher social impact, he succintly highlighted the issues in national devel

Lighting up lives( write up by fellow classmate Julian)

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Sunday October 24 th , 6pm. We are back on the decrepit government bus which takes us to the main city, Visakhapatnam from where we will catch our night train to Hyderabad.  Obscurity has fallen on the green hillsides that border Araku valley. A few words spoken in Telugu and the old bus is plunged into darkness. There, carried away by the movements of the road, each of us relives the incredible week-end that is slowly wearing to an end. Now and then, faded horn sounds reach up from the bottom of the valley. At the back, Ko, Keisuke and Marc have fallen asleep, Bart dozes off or thinks. Arvind, Sudhir and Shiv, the three NGO members are conversing quietly. Somewhere in the front, the two girls on our small team, Muyura and Deepa, are eating bananas in silence. One must admit that these two days have been emotionally intense and physically grueling. And while we are here, seating on the bus, our spirits are still out there, wandering about the tortuous footpaths of Araku’s jungle. Ar

Launch of Net Impact Hyderabad Professional chapter

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Launch of BANDHAN Scholarships

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Net Impact ISB launches Board Fellows program

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Net Impact ISB launches the Board Fellows Program which gives the students of ISB a n unique opportunity to serve as board member(non-voting) of a Non Profit Organization. A few opportunities that students should look forward to from the engagement: • Gaining an in-depth understanding of the role of business leaders on non-profit boards • Offering a high-impact way for students to serve their communities using their business knowledge • Developing the skills for effective and thoughtful community leadership. • Providing real-world environments to further develop business and communication skills • Partnering with experienced mentors • Integrating tools learned in the classroom with real-world application • Developing the professional knowledge and skill in board governance that facilitates future board service • Practicing how to manage and complete a consulting project. S.no Organization Brief Description 01 Keystone Foundation -- Eco-development initiatives wi

Bandhan:The Grandest and Happiest Day at ISB

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Net Impact@ISB organises Pochampalli village trip

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St udy rural tourism and sustainable livelihoods in Pochampally

Teach for India comes to ISB on 8th Sept 7pm AC2MLT

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Panel Discussion: CSR is it a socially responsible INVESTMENT?

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The Net impact club organised an engaging and thought provoking discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility, the need for CSR ,different models and issues with getting share holder buy-in, trends in India and finally questioning whether it truly  is  one of ‘most responsible ‘ of actions.            Mr Siva Kumar , from ITC talked about 4 levels/ladders of social responsibility ranging from a Purist approach of  being solely profit oriented  , progressing to compliance , transparency and to finally proactively creating business models that are socially responsible.          Mr P.S Narayan from Wipro shed light into why Wipro adopts the ‘sustainability ‘ approach and not CSR  approach. He spoke about various social initiatives by Wipro especially in the education sector. Wipro did not prefer a  check-book approach to CSR but rather preferred a well thought out execution for its sustainability initiatives. ·          Ms Janet Geddes from KPMG’s  International Development Services

Its been quite a while..few updates on what I am upto

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Its been quite sometime since I wrote a post. I have been occupied with doing things for the most of the time .Here are some of the things we at Net Impact@ISB did ..Net  Impact Probono Consulting was launched with15+ projects.We organised BANDHAN-Grandest ever with the highest collections. We launched Idiya -Som Mittal NASSCOM came over for the launch it is indeed Bigger and better then before.We had a host of speaker sesions.Manoj kumar  from Naandi foundation on Social entrepreneurship,Bradley Googins on Social responsibility, Ramji ragahavan on Education,Dave Haliday on Solar lighting, Shreya sharan on Joy of Giving and lastly Venkat from Give India. We are working on the careers front too.Lot of students interested in Development  careers, and we are following with Careers department for tangible results. Meanwhile we hosted a delegation from Kwangong University, South Korea to understand Social entrepreneurship in India, exchanges such as these promote cross fertilization of

Prof Bradley Googins at Net Impact Talk: ISB

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Prof Bradley Googins, an expert in corporate citizenship and a Professor at the Caroll School of management gave an interesting talk on the "Changing role of business in society". He spoke on how social responsibilty is a strategic objective for business organisations in these changing times.He shared a global perspective drawing from experiences in china, Brazil and  United states.From his research he observed people expect business organisations to drive out social inequality and do more social good.This is something convenionally thought to be a government's job, hence with changing times it is imperative on us to integrate responsibility in our business. He spoke of how economic,social and political sectors of the nation impact people.He shed light on the stagnation issues faced by some of the developed nations today in the economy and education and how this insecurity shapes their outlook towards social responsibility.How can employees be engaged/empowered to meet

a real good poem

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती, कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है, चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है। मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है, चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है। आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती, कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है, जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है। मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में, बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में। मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती, कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। असफलता एक चुनौती है, स्वीकार करो, क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो। जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम, संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम। कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती, कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। -हरिवंशराय बच्चन

Narotam Sekhsaria Scholars 2010

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How to drive Social change through social networking

A good majority of us think of social media as a time waster, so much so that corporate IT networks block them off. However social media today has moved beyond personal “keep in touch” vehicles to one of the strategic ways to drive social change. How does it all happen? What should non profits do? Is it just for the big non profits? What are the most important things in implementing a social media strategy?. This paper gives a practical approach drawn from experience reaching out social media skills to more than 750 non profits in India. A good majority of us think of social media as a time waster, so much so that corporate IT networks block them off. However social media today has moved beyond personal “keep in touch” vehicles to one of the strategic ways to drive social change. How does it all happen? Its fairly simple: passionate people write (blog, tweet, post) high impact stories, donors and interested people read them and ACT. They act to raise donations (Facebook causes, paypa

Net Impact Core Team @ISB

Vice President Ashwin G Knowledge Initiatives Coordinator Swetha Balasubramanian Marketing and Communication Coordinator Jinu Net Impact   International Careers Abhishek Srivastava Social entrepreneurship and innovations coordinator Puneet Gupta Net Impact Conclave Coordinator Vani Malik Social Responsibility   Coordinator Deepika Seth ISB Responsible Coordinator Sushama Board Fellows Coordinator Saurav Shekhar , Veena Kondaveeti ISB Global Probono Consulting Coordinator Sowmya Ramakrishnan, Satish Kumar Subramani Events Coordinator Namrata Jagdish, Bhargavi Net Impact Evangelist   Mudita Chauhan Fund Raising and Corporate Relations Coordinator Anuradha Agrawal

Shriya Sharan comes to ISB

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Shriya shared her experience with ISB Community on the national movement – “Joy of Giving Week”, the initiative that aims to engage more than 1crore Indians in different "acts of giving"- money, time, resources and skills- spanning the corporate, NGO and government sectors, and also schools, colleges and the general public. The idea of creating a "festival of philanthropy" that can, over the years, become a part of the Indian ethos, with the Week being celebrated every year covering Gandhi Jayanti. The Week that’s designed as a "public platform" and is being co-ordinated by GiveIndia, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote "giving". Last year, ISB in partnership with the GiveIndia ( http://www.giveindia.org/ ) launched the ‘Shadow a CEO’ programme to coincide with The Joy of Giving Week.  The objective of this programme is twofold – engage ISB students in the act of giving and provide with a lifetime opportunity to observe and learn by spendin

Net Impact Core Team @ISB

Just finished off Job descriptions for the Net Impact Core Team in ISB. The Graduate Student Board will be shortly sending an official release calling for applications to Net Impact. The core team will have 15 members, Here are the official core roles that we will have in Net Impact Vice President Knowledge Initiatives Coordinator Marketing and Communications Coordinator Website and Design Coordinator Social Entrepreneurship and Innovations Coordinator Net Impact Conclave Coordinator Social Responsibility Coordinator  ISB Responsible Coordinator(look after ISB Corps too) Board Fellows Coordinator ISB Global ProBono Consulting Coordinator Events Coordinator Net Impact Evangelist Fundraising and Corporate Relations Coordinator We will start off with interviews tomorrow and will end it by Saturday evening.

Net Impact@ISB

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Hi!! I am delighted to share that I have been elected President of Net  Impact@ISB.  I am humbled by the confidence the student body has expressed in me  and would strive to make it better. Net Impact Chapter @ ISB is gold rated, only 7% of  graduate student Net Impact chapters across the world received a Gold  Chapter rating. Net Impact@ISB is the first chapter in Asia. . Net Impact achieve the mission to inspire, educate, and equip  individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and  environmentally sustainable world( http://www.netimpact.org/index.cfm )

Reflections

Its been quite a while since I really wrote something interesting. Yes I am enjoying the ISB experience, its been very different for me. I was deep in rural settings (ah when I think back ...so much so that what is really normal, in all places is actually a luxury in the most parts of India,can think of hundreds of instances Diet Coke in Hubli :) ) and here I came to an International Bschool. It feels good that I kept faith in times few would, happy perhaps that I followed a singular vision no matter where it takes me. By the way would love to go to Africa if given a chance :) But then I have loads of things to do as of now, ISB has a Net Impact Chapter and a lot of conventional social wisdom prevails here, not that I do not value convential wisdom but I think India today needs revolutionary business acumen to solve critical social issues.The Manmohan Govt recognised this pretty clearly by appointing Nandan Nilekani for the Unique Identification project. Its exciting if we could ge

Manifesto for President, Net Impact

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Selected as Narottam Seksharia Scholar

Finally, I have some respite in terms of lessening my liabilities post my MBA, have been selected as  a   Narottam Seksharia  Scholar, will get upto 10 Lakhs of interest free loan and mentorship. Wow it is indeed exciting. Furthermore I would be standing for the elections of the Net Impact Club. I would love to utilise all my learnings in making ISB's social impact more meaningful. The immense talent here can really make a whole lot of difference to the socielty and I plan to do my bit in harnessing it.

4:35 am at ISB

Hey!! Its 4:36 am and I am still awake, I have endterms coming this monday, need to study in the next two days. Its been a roller coaster first term, I have enjoyed the term thoroughly.

Last Class of Term 1

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Class Pics

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Launching the ISB RTI movement

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Midterms over, time to chill and get back to real stuff

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Time really flies quickly in this place. Its already been a month here and the midterms for the first core term just finished today. As always I am pretty clear about my takeaways at ISB on the marks front,I will do all that it takes to be above average, I need to make the most of my learnings here, after all in a year from now, grades won't matter but the way you can apply classroom learnings in real life will matter. Although there is too much on the cards to keep everyone busy here, I find my time to do my stuff. For each class that goes by, I am trying to look at things from my angle. I wish to play with ideas that may not be in the book, somehow i believe I will stumble upon something worthwhile. This is how I have always liked it. I have found the professors intellectually stimulating and enjoy listening to them, on the flip side there is a lot of banter that goes around by the term Class Participation. Students are expected to speak and marks are awarded for them, its a nu

Some Fun at ISB

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The fun at ISB never ceases, my room overlooks the 08 lounge and its party always. The real fun really begins from Monday when we have the Core terms starting. Too much to read. ISB has a case study mechanism of teaching, effectively it means you come prepared , profs guide you and strengthen the thought processes. If you  do not read its as good as not coming as you will not have a clue of what happening. We will be taught Marketing Management, Managerial Economics, Business Statitistics and Accounting. Looking forward to sleepless nights inundated with cases, cases and more cases. If this was not enough the frenzy of Clubs kickstarted 3 days back, right from Astronomy, Reiki,  you name it and we have a student pool who is interested. I have my own interest areas and would stay focussed on them :)) Bye for now, Have a great weekend!!

Whats good about this place

Being in ISB is a unique feeling, apart from people with stellar profiles and awesome workex , the school itself is very different. Undoubtedly it is the best in class in terms of infrastructure , the majestic atrium, the well made student villages. I can vouch that this is the first time I have come to a school that looks and treats you like a five star guest. The student body is very vibrant, since people come from all backgrounds, people have different interests, any time you would find a group of people doing what they love to do be it sports, dance, social issues, the school has no set rules and students team up to do what they love to do. One of the good things about the school is the party culture, it is awesome, everyday you have a party here.Since my room is near the Class of 2008 Lounge i get to hear the music pretty much everyday. The last must be the faculty. Profs here are gods said Alums and very soon I would be attending classes from world renowned subject experts

First week at ISB

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Its been an awesome time so far in ISB. I am now settled. I have been alloted SV-3 I-13 (Student village :)) I belong to section C , we have our chant Sec C,Sec C.. I have met a lot of people since I came here . Here are few pics of what went by

Off to ISB, Hyderabad

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At the onset, I would like to thank all readers who have made this blog what it is. Thank you so much!!.Over the next one year I would be in Hyderabad at the Indian School of Business. For the uninitiated ISB is one of India's premier Bschools, it wa ranked 12th in the Global FT rankings and is the only Indian Bschool to achieve this feat. This post is meant to inform that over the next one year there may be a change in the context and content of this blog This blog will have lot of content from the happenings at ISB, Although the focus on using professionals skills to impact the society will remain as one of the core elements of the blog, yet some additions can be expected from my learnings there.  I do not want to make this blog a daily MBA diary, but I with frequent posts this will sum up my MBA experience. I hear that time will be as scarce commodity, but I am sure I would be regular just for the love of blogging and as they say, one always makes time for what he likes doing

Govt Workshop Sangli

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Society, Politics, Development and me

Its been quite some time that I left the formal corporate sector, in the last two years I have had  diverse experiences from foundations, social entreprises, ngos to govt departments and industry bodies.If there is something to be missed I guess my class at ISB would complete it. As known, that I am in Lucknow, and have been hearing and feeling UP politics after a long tine, In the last few days I have also have had a chance to meet people who are keen to work for social good but do not know how and where to begin, they have few ideas but also have the limitations that a normal Indian life puts on us. Anyhow I wish to put up a few things that have emerged out of these discussions. First there is some news, the entire city of Nawab is today completely decked up in Blue, the official color of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party party, 200 cr is being spent for a rally that will have 20 lakh people, all state departments have jobs assigned to do, i mean jobs at the rally, so its kind of ra