Alumni@imdr

 

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A Trip Down Memory Lane

Nostalgia hung in the air as the Alumni meet dawned on the Institute of Management Development and Research. IMDR hosted its Alumni meet on the 26th of September 2009. The first event on the agenda was the “Symposium on the Banking sector in the times of recession”, organised by the Alumni Committee of IMDR. The distinguished speakers for this symposium were –
-  Ashish Deshpande, Vice President & Head – Distribtion Sales (West and South) Kotak Mahindra,
-  Ajay Prasad, Merchant Solutions, Regional Sales Manager, Western India, Southern India & Sri Lanka
- Huzefa Patalwala, Branch Manager, Barclays
- Manmeet Singh, HR, ICICI Bank
All the speakers, as usual, were alumni of IMDR.  Huzefa Patalwala kicked off the discussion by talking about the banking sector and the growth figures for the sector as a whole. He delved into the technical aspects of the entire banking scenario and spoke about the policies and procedures that were put in place by the Reserve Bank of India which cushioned the Indian banking sector from the turbulence that was coming in from the other countries, especially the Western world.
Ashish Deshpande spoke about the conservative nature of Indian banking which helped the banks in the country cushion themselves from the crises originating elsewhere. He spoke about the sub-prime crisis and how lending money to “sub-prime borrowers” was a very bad idea to begin with.
Manmeet Singh was very candid and spoke about how the “spending” culture in the West has impacted them adversely and had praise for our conservative fiscal policies which helped the banks tide over the crisis without a dent. He stated that we were not really in a recession. He urged all banks to relook and rethink their policies and strategies and not to forget the fundamentals.
Ajay Prasad gave a practical insight of how it is to run a Financial Institution and how team work plays a crucial role. He spoke about how technology is changing the rules of the game. Companies need to cut down costs as far as possible and look for other sources of revenue generation. He spoke about how the RBI regulations have made life more difficult for the banks but also said that these steps taken by them were necessary and in the right direction.
The discussion was very enriching and the students were greatly benefited by the thoughts that were shared on the stage. It was a great opportunity for them to meet IMDR alumni, who were holding key positions in the industry and learn from them firsthand. They were abuzz with a lot of questions which the speakers graciously answered.
The Symposium was followed by a cultural programme by the students who enthralled the audience with their creativity, talent and overwhelmingly high energy levels!

 

Congratulations! 

Mr. Nitin Pradhan - Departmental Chief Information Officer in Obama administration

 

 

(A brief note on IMDR alumnus Nitin Pradhan by Dr S.P Kandalgaonkar, Mr Pradhan is sworn in as the Departmental Chief Information Officer in Obama administration in July09 )

Nitin Pradhan completed MDBA course management way back in 1983-85 period.. If I remember correctly, he graduated in textile engineering but what I distinctly remember is that he learned and picked up management concepts very fast. His method of learning conceptual / academic subjects remains my favorite example to all batches of PGDM 1 students for course  in  “Psychology of learning and Development.”

 I remember even now that after every lecture, Nitin has a habit of converting the contents of the session into a block diagram on one page. It presented the linkages among key terms that he noted in the lecture. With the help of terms, blocks, circles, and arrows, he created picture of the essence of the lecture as he understood it. I realized that this method of visualizing the content made him the most effective learner in the class and scored excellent marks in written examination without apparently doing hard work for study. Nitin is a smart and effective learner.  

 On campus,  he  participated in all co curricular activities on the campus with enthusiasm, particularly in seminars and case-study competition .With little guidance he made confident presentation to knowledgeable audience of managers and faculty. Yet ,the most endearing quality of Nitin is his modesty and humanness. Whenever he visited the campus later he met the faculty and staff of IMDR an informed us about the current development in career and family life.

When we at IMDR, learned about the news that “ Nitin was sworn in on July 6th, 2009 as the Departmental Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the US Department of Transportation (DOT) as part of the Obama administration’, it created a feeling of pride and appreciation for  the achievement of  this illustrious alumnus.  

We are happy to inform the readers and alumni of IMDR that Mr. Nitin Pradhan is now the chief advisor to Secretary Ray LaHood in all matters relating to information technology. In this role of the Departmental CIO, Nitin would provide IT vision, strategy, planning, policy and oversight for DOT’s $3.0+billion IT portfolio. This would use his rare expertise in integrating diverse elements like entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and institutional knowledge.

Congratulations to you Nitin and wish the best of success in your new assignment



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