Second Coming at IMT Nagpur- Musings

Musings on my Second Innings (Feb-Sept 2013)

Came back to IMT Nagpur just before the Convocation 2013 in March. It was executed flawlessly again, and Mr. Azim Premji was a very nice Chief Guest (simple, humble and focussed) to have. A farewell party for outgoing students in February was a highlight. Made some new acquaintances among the departing students- Dushyant, Madhulika, Esheeta, Haritima, ...

Now, as I prepare to go back to Ghaziabad, I am looking back at a few things that happened between then and now. We (IMT Nagpur) became a member of the AACSB, and plan to apply for the global accreditation. We have also applied to the Indian accreditor of B-Schools, the NBA.

We revamped the curriculum and evaluation methodology in a series of meetings at Nagpur and at Marble Rocks, Bhedaghat (off-site) in April, to address dissatisfaction among students and faculty. Done through a consensus among faculty, it should stick. Three bright young faculty, PhDs/FPMs from  IIML, IISc.  and NITIE, joined us. So did new Faculty Research Associates, Urvika and Samiksha.  Romaa, an alum of Ghaziabad from 1987 joined us in the Delhi placement team, and T.K. Chatterjee took over as Placement Chair.

The faculty outing at Bhedaghat in April was great fun (and work). Stayed at MP Tourism’s hotel overlooking the Marble Rocks. We also revived a tradition of having faculty parties, and a new element of these- Karaoke singing- caught on, with lots of colleagues getting (and using) one.

We added an IBM Analytics lab with Cognos and SPSS certification available to students who want it. A Bloomberg terminal is also available, with a new course being designed to make use of it. We started an HR Analytics centre, with a launch at Centre Point hotel in town. We did training programs for Asian Paints in the summer of 2013. A great monsoon followed, the best in recent history at Nagpur, leaving the campus beautiful as ever. We developed a second golf green at the campus, and inducted some new members (like Madhuri Helchel) into the IMT Golf Team. The golf team celebrated good performances by having a party for each birdie and par!

Alumni chapter meets were held in May-June with a lot of warmth, at Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. Met a lot more people in these, and exchanged views on life and careers. Some of the alums I remember meeting are Kaavish, Piyush, Abhinav, Mohit, Harshad, Chetan, Akash, Sheetal, Anumeha, Shuchi, Veethika, Hanika, Vaishali (the heroine of a feature film made at IMT), Abhinav (the maker of that film and now an independent director), Sushant, Anjali, Himani, Shilpa (twice), Bhagyashree (aka Bugzy, who portfolioed a lot of students while here), Akshar, Garima, Aditi, Nidhi (Maheshwari), Shivangi, Kedar, Shreyasi,  Sriram and Sriram (Chennai/Bangalore and Kolkata), Meenu, Abdullah, Roshan, Meghana (Joshi), Varun, Vikas, and of course, some of the organisers, like Nancy, Sonia, Chaitra and their gang.

For the first year, I taught a class on the Case method of learning, and a class on How to Play Golf at the IMT Golf course. This is a USP that no Indian B school has, and I hope it catches on with some students. We also did an inaugural IMT Golf tournament for first years, with about 44 competitors, including an alum of 2010, Nidhi Shukla, who joined in. Lots of bright people in the new batch, including a full-blown author, Tanya Shrivastava, who has written and published a novel!

Some  students that I interacted with included Saksham, Nikita and Kanika of Placecom, and Punyashlok and Vishal of the Corp. Communication student team.  Bhawana Moondra was an impressive host to some guests who visited for lectures. Students have planned a mock United Nations at the campus later this year. Seems appropriate, considering the situation in Syria right now.

Managed to get in a golf-cum-sight-seeing trip to Kodaikanal and Vedaranyam with Vijayakumar and Gadgil, colleagues at IMT, and Dhanapal (a former colleague at Kirloskar Institute, Harihar).  Before that, a memorable, long-awaited trip to the Lonar meteorite crater happened in August, with friends and family. It’s a weekend outing from Nagpur, and worth seeing. Not too well-known, until I started publicising it! MTDC might appoint me their ambassador.

Some classmates from IIMB, Prabhakar, Sandhya and Subbu Vaidyanathan came for guest lectures on various occasions, sharing their corporate and life experiences with us. Jaya Jha, (alum of IIML and founder) of Pothi.com and Devapriya Roy, an author and friend, also visited to talk to students.

Parting is difficult, but recounting the good times ( and the lovely people in those) helps. Hail IMT Nagpur!