Sunday, 31 December 2017

The air is redolent with it,
the hope of a new beginning,
starting afresh perhaps,
to right the past wrongs,
a trigger which rouses us
to make resolutions anew,
or sometimes dust off the old ones
and reclaim them in vain daydreams.

A portal to pristine experiences,
Running amok towards the unknown,
Past misfortunes may drag us down,
but the new is the key,
the ink of change,
to refine our manuscripts,
We are the progeny of our past,
seeking salvation in the novel.

“Tomorrow,is the first blank page of a 365 page book.Write a good one”

Ritika Agarwal

Wednesday, 27 December 2017

An Interview with the dance team of Sri Lanka at Udbhav International Dance Festival

Q1. How was your stay in Gwalior?
Ans. In Gwalior, we didn’t thought that we will get so much of cooperation. The cooperation, friendliness that we get here was very nice. After coming to Gwalior, wherever we travelled the coordinators were always with us. We didn’t feel alone. In Gwalior, while travelling we saw Indian culture, Indian specialities, today we also visited the “Maharaja’s Palace”, those things were awesome.
Q2. What did you like most in our institute?
Ans. We liked the cooperation and encouragement that we are getting from the institute. So muchof crowd was there, they were cheering us while we were performing that was really nice.
Q3. What are you expecting from your performance?
Ans.  We want to show the culture of Sri Lanka to other countries through our dance and traditional dance of Sri Lanka. We like Indian culture and we like bharatnatyam form of dance, we also have bharatnatyam dance teachers in Sri Lanka. In a similar way,we want to spread our culture throughout the world.
Q4. How long have you been in this dance career?
Ans. I am doing this since childhood. Infact, all the members of our team are dancing this since childhood so we are very passionate about this.
Q5. How many places have you visited for your performance?
Ans. We have visited many places. We always have dance programs in many places in Sri Lanka and other countries also. This time we came to India and we are proud of that.

Interviewed and edited by:

Manvi Gupta and Saksham Arjani


Prajwal Singh

Interview of HarshaJith Umapathy,Sr.VP & Practice Head at Hansa Cequity.

Q1. How does Azko Nobel manage such a big network which is spread over 80 countries?

Ans. I think it is because of the system that is evolved over 400 years and the procedure that have been let down , I think this is which helps us to manage 80 countries and 210 locations.

Q2. As there are no roses without thorns, likewise you must have also faced many difficulties in your way, so sir would you like to share with us so that as students we get motivated.

Ans Everyday, there is something special that is the belief we are carrying, everyday before going to bed I take into account the leanings I had in the day ,so as to have a good implementation next day.It is a continuous process.

Q3. At the end of day it’s all about profit in business. So Sir, what suggestions would you like to give to new people or students who will enter world of Entrepreneurship

Ans. Whenever you have an idea evaluate it from all angles, if is viable and sustainable and plan accordingly because if planning is done the execution is pretty easy. Start ups fail because the planning is not proper and they are not able survive challenges.

Q4. What are the qualities of an good employee of a M.N.C ?

Ans. Loyalty is the key point, a person must be loyal to his profession as well as company.Then comes the integration ,hard work, communication skills, qualification. So first comes loyalty and then the operational skills of a person.

Q5. Sir, I personally congratulate you on your idea of sustainability. But Sir I would really like to know how do you take people along with you in such a noble taste.

Ans.  Most important part is leadership from front as I told you I travel by Bus , I don’t use car given by company, I motivate my staff , Initially people used to make fun of it but after seeing the results same people are praising me. So a good leadership and good connect with the team are the keys. Connect with people makes a huge impact.

Reporter: Siddharth Jain
                Smita Gupta
Photographer : Yogesh Yesk

Interview of Mr. Kushagra Pande ,Manager Talent Acquisition - Product Engineering and University Relations at Kronos.

Q1. Sir,in your keynote you were talking about Artificial Intelligence,which is going to be the next big thing after Internet, according to  you how long will it take before it starts developing code?
Ans. It's already evolving, it's already there. Artificial Intelligence  has already taken up redundant and monotonous jobs.They have taken up the laborious jobs in which a machine or robot will be more suitable. Primarily, developing nations are getting affected by it. So, countries like china and India will still get opportunities to implement AI more. There will still be few sectors in industry which will need human touch. How much of it we can imbibe AI that's what we need to explore more. How much of the code that you wrote is executable?Can a machine replace that code in a few lines and give you better results?So it's all dependent on the outcome.And we do need a human who will be coding down the machine and it depends on how efficiently the machine is coded, then the machine will start working.

Q2. How hard has global changing demographics made recruitment. How do you keep up with these global competition?
Ans Primarily, when we talk about the global landscape, we need to remember that the labour market is already shrinking. Hiring right people at right point of time, multi-skilled, multitasking people, that is what everyone is hunting for.
People are available who can do an ‘X’ job, but when we're looking at people who can do ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ jobs at the same time, them that is hard job.
From the industry perspective also we need to define what technology we have which can implement the upcoming technologies, like AI, chain block and all.

Q3. What are the things that you look for when hiring a professional and what things lead to an immediate rejection?
Ans First of all, from a Kronos perspective I'll say whenever we go to to campuses we look to hire rather to reject.Practical knowledge is more important , are you really aware of what you are learning in your core curriculum and then beyond that what you have done, have you really explored what is going in the industry? how much of it have you got practically exposed to?That's what matter at the end of the day. CV writing is very very important but what you are writing in your CV is as important.Preparing a page CV if you have really showcased what are your skills and strengths.

Q4. The motto of Kronos is “Workforce innovation that works”. What innovation had Kronos bought in the recruitment sector?
Ans I’ll say not only the from the recruitment perspective, but from the overall perspective, where we have our products not only in recruitment sector but also on payroll, HR systems, leave management, absence management and all such fields.So constantly, we have been evolving.There have been five phases where we have evolved. We were the first company on the world which bought the first microprocessor based punching system in the world. This was way back in 1977. Till that point of time, every organisation was just thinking of taking the employee record over the registers, so it was not that the companies were thinking as to how the attendance can be automatized.
The current need for our product as of now was cloud. We have tough competition, still being world leaders, we've faced tough competitions from companies like paykaro, paycheck. These are the organisations that have been really beautiful in the way they have been working.So the current product that will be going in the market soon, will definitely revolutionize the engine HR industry.
In terms of how Kronos really works from an innovation perspective, there is a very important element, which we call as “Kronovation”. We dedicate almost 72 hours for an employee to get away from work, to let them think about something different from their work.
Maybe a tester can think about a developer, or a developer can think about what is happening in testing. Maybe something you had thought about but hadn't got the time to implement. That what we call Kronovation, and it remains in our tagline as well, “Workforce innovation that works”.

Q5. What are the technical specializations that are important for current market or what are the fields that a student should pursue?
Ans.The current need of the market is cloud, data analytics and artificial intelligence in India is still in its nascent stage but data analytics and cloud is there and I.O.T. Whenever you are related to technology field try to grab the things related to it, when you are from a business managing field try to implement it.

Q6. It is important to maintain a huge network!!! How do you grow your circle ?
Ans.Like these events this is the platform, meeting senior folks from the industry I exchange my cards LinkedIn is the best way to connect to people people and discuss the next meet. Follow people who are leaders in your industry,read their blogs and start making connects. Like mindedness is the main theme or agenda which young professionals like you  can do. Read what really excites you and start following the writer.Twitter, GitHub,Stack Overflow, These are the places , I don't say go away from Facebook you should have a social network but if we are talking about professional network, it's more important.

Reporters: Himanshi Kalra,Nishant Tomar
Photographer: Yogesh   

An Interview of Mr. Sanjay Rishi, the president of USHA Consulting(USHA International Ltd.)

Q.1. Can you tell us something about your job role or job as a consultant?

Ans. Let me give you a perspective of what we do my child. When I was younger, my education was strongly influenced by industrial revolution means skill building i.e., how an instrument or machine works, everything should be measured. But human sciences says that when a person experiences something then that experience has learning as well as unlearning. Unlearning is more important because the learning that made me reach here will not make me reach far. Let me give you an example, suppose I am sports person and I am a regional level player. If I want to reach at national level then I have to sacrifice some of my skills and thoughts to gain something new. So consulting is also influenced this perspective. Consulting is just like adult learning which was also influenced by that industrial revolution so a trainer mind set was developed, trainer centered learning was there, that  is why classes and auditoriums are not audience centered, they are centered to the person who is delivering the matter.
I was very much affected by my upbringing as my father was in army so I studied in 14 different schools for my 16 year’s education. I went to Sikkim, U.P, Shimla, etc. places. I have studied in almost all mediums. So what I learned is that experience is the important part of a person’s life.
In consulting we don’t take anything as an isolated event. It’s not just the issue of leadership, organization structure also matters i.e., whether your organization is supporting you or not, whether you have a correct market understanding, strategies, technologies and policies or not, whether you are working in a right geographies or not. So in consulting we don’t take it stand alone, we look at the holistic solution. Essentially, we look at the business strategies and people strategies to support that business strategy. So we make the people strategies and according to it we make teams and work on developing their skills and leadership qualities.

Q.2. As you have worked with people of different age group, so how do you convince them or deal with them?

Ans. We never convince them. Our work is participant and learner centered . We do the  learner need analysis for example if you are a learner and you are studying physics so you know that what is interesting about physics or boring about it. So we design our work according to the learner’s need. For example, I am working for UNICEF. We have worked with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, etc., they are the part of same organization but every team is unique. Two teams cannot have same policies however some themes are common.

Q.3. How does USHA consulting focus on diagnostic and custom assessment?

Ans. In diagnostic one thing that we do confidential one-to-one people talk, in which we extract your views your ideas and theme and make a schematic analysis without revealing your name.
Second we have a purgatory tool which is the high performance team. In this we get 32 questions and according to those questions we get the data and plot it.
Third thing is we have FGDs (Focus Group Discussions), in this we work in groups and uses sketches, drawings and stories. So we don’t ask any person to tell the problems about any organization, we ask the person to sketch the perspective of that organization and interprets the symbols in that sketch. According to a great psychologist symbols tell us about our sub conscious mind and art, cinema and dance tells us about our culture.

Q.4. Sir, there are many young graduates who want to be in this profession, what advice do you want to give them?

Ans. You can buy resources, competence, can get investors also but the unique thing is your thinking and your voice. My request is that every person should work according to his interest and be completely determined towards it. They should work on their imagination and interest so that they will not regret after 10 years.

Q.5.What should be the strategies for relationship management and developing business?

Ans. For this, go and meet the people who are best in their fields, listen to them. I met a well known painter Sobha Singh in Palampur. In his portraits the eyes of the person are so beautiful. I asked him about this then he told me that a human has eyes as the highest part of the body that is why eyes should be beautiful. So I get a new thinking from him.
Bhindranwale, a terrorist of Punjab who had attacked on Golden temple in 1984 said that history only has violence so what other can be painted.

Q.6.Sir as you said that you were also the part of cinema, painting and drawing, and also a corporate leader so how do you manage all these things or what is your main interest?

Ans. Everything comes from a story. Your thoughts give the direction to leadership. If you have effective thinking then people will listen you gathering around you. So, story matters that is your thinking matters.

Manvi Gupta
Yash Kain


Friday, 15 December 2017

An Interview Of Mr.Gautam Ghosh, HR Consultant with VBeyond

Q.1 Back in 2014 when you were at Flipkart, it was a budding start-up with a huge piggybank. What were the challenges you faced back then and what made it what it is today?

A. Well, it wasn’t a budding start-up back then, it was already valued over a billion dollars at that time. Amazon was still investing a lot in India at that time and Flipkart was the clear leader. It was after that in 2016 that Amazon started to catch up. I think Flipkart had the first mover advantage. It knew the market well, it realised that its growths were in the second and third tier cities. Of course, the focus then changed over the last 12 – 15 months to operational excellence, faster delivery and better choices. It’s been a neck to neck battle with Amazon. But Flipkart is still ahead.

Q.2 Zee news titled you as one of the top 20 Indian HR influencers on social media. How do you feel about that?

A. Well I was lucky I started blogging in 2002 and I was one of the few people blogging about HR and business those days. So, it was just a circumstance of being at the right place at the right time starting off as an early business blogger. I convinced a lot of people within HR that if you take to social media, take to blogging, take to Twitter you could connect with people across the world. So, I guess that momentum from blogging to twitter and to other social media helped.  So, if you start early people know you much more and when you move to another platform they follow you into that platform. I’ve now spent more than a decade on twitter and one and a half decades on blogging. It’s just a matter of being consistent and keeping at it, trying to share something of value. It is not that the audience is always on my mind, sometimes I post interesting stuffs that might or might not interest them like graphic novels, quantum mechanics or science fiction that interests me. People don’t just follow me for HR articles. I try to say these are the kinds of things that interest me, if you want to, if these interest you then you follow me else it’s fine.

Q.3 On Quora you’ve been answering questions on various topics. What I got to know from this is that you are interested in books. Sir what do you suggest students our age should read?

A. Don’t discriminate, read everything, form your own opinions. I think that’s critical. You’ll see some lists like “These are the five books Bill Gates thinks you should read”, “These are the 6 books Elon Musk thinks you must read” but I’ve chosen to read everything from Chetan Bhagat to Amish. I prefer fiction but there are some books that are highly recommended by people like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and its follow up. Most American books have the same pattern, they have a central theme that they extrapolate in the first chapter and then keep repeating. After reading the first chapter you’ll know if the book interests you or not. There are some books that I read on recommendation.

Q.4 Coming back to blogging, HR world says that your blogs are one among the top 75 business blogs in the world. How does it feel to achieve something that big?

A. When it was there it felt great but that was sometime back. These things come and go. After a point of time you realize that people who are ranking you, want you to link back at them. Service or Product Companies give you these titles in the hope that you blog about them and they get inbound links. At one point you realize what the game is.

Q.5. Right now, you work for VBeyond, a recruiting firm. What are the qualities that are usually looked for in a new recruit?

A. We hire recruiters and we hire engineers into recruiting roles. So, if you are an engineer and you feel that you want to try something else, if core engineering is not your cup of tea but you have knowledge of engineering, you can talk and convince a person that you have self-confidence and are willing to work hard and earn a lot of money if you are successful then this is it. What we do is our base pay is minimal but if you achieve more, your rewards are exponential. You place one guy a month, it could double your salary throgh the incentives that you earn, and these are US guys that we are talking about. We are billing clients at the rate of 90000 dollars, 6000 dollars depending on the role and seniority levels. A lot of that we share it with our recruiters. We like people who are achievement oriented. But unlike a sales guy, you are not pushing the customer. The candidate is also a customer. You can’t push a candidate. If tomorrow the candidate does not get the offer, the next time you go to him and say I’ve an offer, he’ll say no you are that pushy recruiter, I don’t want to deal with you or he paints the whole organisation with that brush and you’ve lost a great candidate forever. You are basically 2-3 years out of college and you are engaging with people who have 15-16 years of experience, who are architects, SAP, assistant vice presidents in major software companies and if you are pushing a role to them, you’ve got to be confident, you’ve got to deal with them as equal, so I think this is the number one quality we look for. You learn while working with others as to how you come across and talk to somebody who is at that seniority level and yet come out as an advisor to them saying you’ve worked in so and so, what’s your next career goal. You actually start to empathize and think alike. There is a little bit of coaching and advisory role, but a huge amount of confidence and communication skills is what we look at, somebody who can do things on their own.  If you are not meant to be a recruiter you’ll never be a recruiter, it is something that we say is in the blood. So, if you like it there is no other role that’ll excite you as much.

Q.6 You are active on a lot of online platforms like Linkedin and Quora. On Quora you have more than 2 thousand followers which is astounding! How do you manage all this at once?

A. Quora. I visit out of the blue and once in a while and if you see my answers they are mainly one or two liners. On Quora I haven’t focused on building a followership. When somebody asks me if I should do an MBA in HR or go for higher studies, sometimes I am like “What do you want! figure yourself out!”. You know there are some days when I feel like picking up a guy and shaking him up to ask “What stupid questions are you asking?”. Someone asked me “what is the best time to post pictures on Instagram?”. Well do a google search, why are you tagging me on such questions (chuckles). I think some people use this platform for all their queries without thinking that some things are better answered on google than on Quora. I only answer questions that are worth answering and when I feel that my answers adds value to that question.

Q.7 How should start-ups handle their online presence and what are the key dos and don’ts for them?

A. It helps if the founders of that start-up are social as it increases credibility. In that way I was fortunate enough as in flipkart Sachin and Binny were active on social platforms. Also for a lot of start-ups, not just using it (social media) as a marketing platform but using it as a tool for further research also helps by getting surveys done and finding out what do people need. It’s not exactly a start-up story but it highlights my points. When I was in Philips we were thinking of coming out with a water purifier. As Philips was new in the market, we decided to come up with a strategy. We asked our product managers and brand managers to join mom groups like the Gurgaon moms group or the Mumbai moms group on Facebook and just listen to what issues they face with their current water purifiers. By looking at what they faced and what the strength of Philips are, we realised that this market is not the correct market for Philips to move in and we would not be able to offer something drastically different from what others are offering and yet meet the current need of the consumer. So as a result of the social media feedback, we chose to drop a product rather than ending a market and then taking the risks. A market research will never give you such insight because on social media, people opinions help in validating various assumptions we make about the product being useful or not.

Varun V 
 Nishant Singh Tomar

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

An interview of Mr. Suresh Rangadurai, Indian Business head of Axcend Automation and Software Solutions

Q.As per the ninth National HR Summit theme “Evolving Techno-Managerial Leaders Towards New India”, what do you think we need to do to move ahead as per the theme?

A. The biggest challenge that we face in India is that we don’t have  the kind of in depth skill sets, its all on the superficial level. We  Indians usually don’t go in depth of the things which is the biggest challenge or problem faced by us .This is due to the inherent flaw in India’s education system, half the time we are mugging up the things instead of thinking logically about the problems. We are just imitating others. That’s why China, Taiwan, Korea are far ahead of us.


Q. What are the challenges that a person faces in an industrial world and how can one overcome them?

A. When I am dealing with the millennials, it’s a huge challenge for the industry to be able to keep them interested in the work. The pace with which the millennials work and the pace with which the industry works, both are not in synchronization. Industry is still old fashioned while the millennials are up with forward thinking and always in a hurry, always looking for instant solutions. To keep the interest level high for the millennials they need to be constantly supplied with innovative ideas and need to engage them in constant research mode. Technology driven organisations like flipkart ,amazon,myntra,etc are perfect companies for millennials as they are constantly improving and very agile thus millennials find interesting to work in these companies.

Q. What personal development strategies do you find most successful?

A. There are four mantras for personal development:
    1. Motivation
    2. Articulation: it’s how you communicate
    3. Networking: constantly building relations at your level,seniors and others
    4. Understanding Technology:  be curious and should go in depth of the things. You need to have excellent communication and  explore more and more things and things.

Q. Would you like give any suggestions for our budding new students at the time of college recruitments that would help them?

A. Companies not only look for how much knowledge do you have, what they want is you should be adaptable to the fast changing technology. You need to have clarity about what you want to do in your career or life. We should have knowledge of our field and always be very well informed. Spend at least one hour a  day in reading managerial books or anything of your personal interest.    

Reporters: Palak Jain & Tanmay Sharma

Photographer: Yogesh Yesk

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Interview of Rajkumar Buyya , Director, University of Melbourne, Australia

Q1. How are you feeling staying in Gwalior?
Ans.Of course, it is good.I visit India 3 times in a year.There are many historical places in Gwalior, i enjoyed visiting those places. whenever i come to India, i relive my old memories.
Q2.As you have been in University of Melbourne since 2002, what are the differences in teaching techniques between universities of India and Australia?
Ans. I don't think that there is much difference but the only difference is that in foreign countries students get more exposure and work on a lot of practical assignments and projects.They have big classrooms with the variety of students.It feels like a conference.I feel more connected with my students in a small class as it is easy to interact with them and know them personally.It is easy to maintain discipline in a small class.
Q3.What improvements or advancements would you like to suggest for Indian universities?
Ans. The Indian teaching is good but they can emphasise more on practical learning and lab work, in a big class it should be arranged in a more systematic manner.
There should be a relative grading system so that an average student can also pass,but there should be some tough questions so that one can easily differentiate the intelligent ones.
Q4.What innovations in teaching and research training programs you have introduced to enhance the learning experience of Melbourne students and other students?
Ans. In subjects, we mainly focus on research orientated teaching.During my teaching,i try to acquaint my students with the latest research and technologies so that they can learn about it by themselves.
Q5.What is the vision of cloud computing?
Ans.Cloud computing is about computing services.Cloud is a market oriented distributed computing system consisiting of a collection of interconnnected and virtualised computers.
You don't have to be a filmstar,you can easily post your videos and everyone can access to such services. Now, you can rent a server like linux etc. and when you develop an application you keep in mind that you are targetting the world market.So, the question is how are we going to handle such a mass number?and the simple solution is cloud computing.
Q6.Sir, as you have received "Bharat Nirman Award" and "Mahatma Gandhi Award", could you please share your experience.
Ans. They do this to support and motivate the upcoming authors with good specifications,so that India can connect with the other countries also.This is about helping others when we are involved in the colaborating projects so that we can connect better.
Q7.How did you feel when your first paper got published?
Ans. It was very exciting when my first paper got published, the first one always gets remembered. Effort is necessary whether the paper is first or last. Whenever people ask me about my research work the first thing thing that comes to my mind is my first paper or a recently published one. As they say first ones are always remembered.

                             HIMANSHI KALRA

An interview with Ms SHAIVYA SINGH RATHORE, An Educator, Climate Reality Leader, Environmentalist, Antarctic Expedition Leader & Social Entrepreneur

Question 1:  How was your experience in the journey from being a teaching colleague to a sales director, leadership coach and expedition leader?

Answer: My journey has not been an easy one, it is somewhat like roller coaster ride and had some great experiences. I question myself, like whether I am doing right thing or not. But what I realize is that living in self-doubt is a good thing, it makes me work twice harder. I failed many times and learned many things from  my failures but at the end I am at a decent position. I also felt that whatever I am doing today does involve my engineering skills, analytical mind set and problem solving skills which I have got from engineering institution.

Question 2: How tough was your decision in changing your profession from being an aeronautical engineer to a teacher for ‘Teach for India’?

Answer: To be honest, it was very difficult. The toughest part, in fact, was to convince my parents. Because as Indian parents, they want a very set career for you and we have milestones to achieve by age. Especially as a girl, although it is very wrong to think this, but it is. It persists in our society, like by 25 you should be done with your education, with your job and then by a certain age you should be married. So when I decided to do these things which required me to put in my time, my parents were very uncomfortable. So, the challenge was to convince my parents, to convince the society that I was doing the right things. But also remember that, the people who are with you in the times when you are not at the top of the cliff, are the people that matters to you. The challenge was to build like a support system, to convince people, to show the society that I was up to some good and I was just whiling away my time because I didn’t know where to go.

Question 3: How did you feel when you were featured in article from Femina Tamil?

Answer- It was a great feeling and although it was very weird and funny as I could not read what was written and I had to ask other people to translate but for the first time I felt like a powerful woman. Whereas sometimes you need these rewards to show what you have done or to just celebrate all your efforts.  I am getting famous, getting reward for what  I am doing and it makes me happy and satisfied too.

Question 4: You have set an example of women empowerment so what views do you hold regarding this and what message can you impart to the women of India?

Answer: I think if women can survive in India, balance academics, family pressures, jobs, marital pressures etc. then they are capable of doing anything. It’s just like saying that if you can drive in India you can drive in any part of the planet similarly if women in India can balance these things and emerge then she is capable of doing anything. I think my message for women in India would be to follow their dreams and not give up and not focus on negativity because when you open newspaper there is a lot of negativity and it is very terrible when it comes treating women in India. So, let’s shift our focus from thinking about that to actually doing something productive and get to a position where you actually are a powerful woman to command change over that situation. As a community, women should really become strong, follow their passions, prove a point and become so strong that these things stop happening. And I think women should be more cognizant, should be more friendly and be happy to collaborate other women. So don’t be anxious if another woman is doing well and celebrate with that women and form a community to help other women.

Interviewed by:
Queen Saikia
Rini Pandey

Ruchika Agrawal