XIME International Conference of BRICS countries..

Conference of BRICS Business Schools

January 31, 2009 at XIME, Bangalore, India

It was in 2001 that the US investment bank, Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to categorize the leadingemerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China–which have the potential to rank as the four dominant economies of the world by 2050.

Since then the world has warmed to this defining idea about the twenty first century.

In the coming years, BRIC countries will be seen cooperating in several fields, ranging from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to non-governmental programmes and initiatives. The process of globalization will draw considerable strength and purpose from such cooperation.

Management education is a field which should have the pride of place among the possible areas of cooperation among BRIC countries. For in all the four countries, developing managers for their expanding domains of business and industry is a formidable task demanding much by way of ideas, resources and execution. Sharing of experiences through academic exchanges and cooperation among their business schools is bound to provide enormous benefits to faculty and students alike.

This was the guiding thought which led the Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME) to hold a conclave of BRIC Business Schools in January 2008. The event was organized as part of a seminar on "Management Education in a Globalizing World" – and it proved to be an auspicious starting point. All the more so, because the conference also added another country to the group – South Africa, the leading economy of the African continent – the acronym now becoming BRICS and representing all the five continents.

Following this seminal initiative, another conference to pursue the theme of cooperation among business schools in BRIC countries took place in Shanghai last April. This was followed by a conference with wider participation which was held in Moscow last October, hosted by the State University of Management. A Memorandum of cooperation among BRICS universities was signed on this occasion.

The idea of cooperation in the field of management education having progressed so far, XIME is now hosting another conference of select business schools from BRICS countries entitled "Conference of BRICS Business Schools" during January 30-31, 2009. The venue is the XIME campus at Electronics City in Bangalore.

This conference will bring together representatives of business schools from all the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in an exceptional gathering. They will discuss not only possibilities of exchanges and cooperation in the field of management education, but also deliberate on issues of common concern to BRICS countries in the context of the present global economic slow down.

Presentations at the conference from delegates will include :

• Managerial Capacity building for Russia's Economy

• Industry-Academia Collaboration in Brazil

• China's Special Economic Zones

• Entrepreneurship Training and Development in China

• Prospects for Cooperation in Management Education between China and other BRICS Countries

• MBA Curriculum Development Issues in China

• What South Africa can bring into BRICS

This is truly a 'BRICS moment' as it is the first-time that such a gathering is taking place and deliberating on issues of topical importance to management schools in these leading emerging nations of the world.

Venue : Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Electronic City Phase II

Date : 31 January, 2009

Time : 9 AM

The Conference would get over by 3.30 PM.

XIME feels immensely privileged to host such a conference.

george..

St Marys Orthodox Church Jalahalli, Bangalore is now Valiapalli ...

25 January saw St Mary's Orthodox Church Jalahalli Bangalore being conferred the Valiapalli status .. Being the oldest church in Bangalore starting the first service on Aug 15, 1966, in the premises of the CSI church at Jalahalli, after 42 years St Marys Orthodox Church presently at Kalathur Layout, finally got the recognition which was long overdue. It was elevated to the status of Valiappali by the Metropolitan of the Chennai diocese of the Indian Orthodox Church, HG Yakub Mar Irenius.

The colourful function saw HG Mar Irenius reading out the order from the Catholicos, HG Didymos I from Kottayam in the church amidst the rejoicings and bursting of crackers.

The function which started with the Holy Qurbana went upto 1.30 PM. More than 1000 people from different churches and denominations from Bangalore took part in the celebrations and shared the joy of the parishioners..

Al speakers, wic also included priests from the CSI and Catholic congregations, were unanimous in their hopes that the Vicar Fr T M Jacob and the 300 families of the parish will continue to show VALIA (big) hospitality, generosity, spirituality in the coming days and be a model parish for Christians in bangalore. 

george..

Mess Pak finds itself in ...

Pakistan is in deep mess ....

When America indirectly indicated that Pakistan and Afghanistan are the terror centres of the world, the Pakistan nationals and its war mongering, hate peddling army generals could not have expected more. They would have got a shock of their lives..

The recent attempts by Taliban from Afghanistan to impose its writ on the North Western areas of Pakistan, by banning girls from attending school and punishing men who dared to shave is simply going to the other extreme. Taliban wants to make Pakistan another Afghanistan or anarchistan ..

The Islamic terrorists and the army generals from ISI who help and promote these extremists to continue with their destructive activities in the name of harming India, long time enemy of Pakistan, over Kashmir, is yet to understand the futility of their destructive actions.

These activities are not helping take their country forward even an inch, it is only taking them back hundreds of years. The investment in time, money and effort required to bring  Pakistan back into mainstream activities of development and progress is going to be tremendous.

By sending some terrorists to Mumbai and remaining in perpetual denial mode as to the origin and training of these terrorists, is only going to damage Pakistan, it is not going to dent India's reputation as a peace loving nation and pull back its growth on the path to super power status.

The terrorists and their military and  political leaders in Pakistan need to understand that it is growth and development through hard work and enterprise which will take a nation forward and not destruction and extremism.

As Obama quoted in his Presidential Inaugural speech, the leaders in Pakistan if they wish to be remembered need to do it by constructing a new and vibrant Pakistan and not destroy the exisitng one. As the Pakistani intellectual Talat Mahmood has also quoted, if Pakistan and its citizen do not understand this plain truth as early as possible, it will only result in producing a generation of youngsters who know nothing else other than to fight.

A very tragic and pitiable sitution Pakistan will find itself in after all these years of independence. It is also a situation which India, would not like to find its neighbour to be in at any point of time.

george..

George Mitchell to Middle East and Richsrd Holbroke to Pak-afghanistan

Obama has thought his strategies well or he has been getting solid advice from his deputies.

Just two days into his term as the President of the United States, the appointment of George Mitchell who shepherded the Irish people to settle the Irish insurgency, as the new representative in the Middle East, may well signal the solution to the painstaking Middle East conflict. 

The appointment of Richard Holbrooke as the envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan shows that US looks at both these countries as potential threats to world peace as terrorists come from both of these countries.  With a rich history of having handled sensitive diplomatic assignments and having helped sort out the Balkan crisis, Holbrooke will indeed help Pakistan to sort out its internal contradictions and threats to world peace emanating from its territory.

It is indeed worth waiting and watching these developments and its consequences unfold in the coming days.

ge..

Orthodox songs ....

pl check up this site ..

http://discconnect.blogspot.com/2008/08/english-songs.html

Lot of beautiful orthodox songs and hymns ..

george..

world's most powerful duo ..

Most powerful duo of the world...

Will Obama follow his predecessors or be different ??

Will US policy to the outside world change?? The world is very closely and intently following how US would live upto the words of Obama..

Now that the administration is in the hands of the descendents of the slaves who built US (let us not forget even the CAPITOL, which was built from slave labour !!) , its farms and industries from scratch, we can hope the sensitivity will change a bit..

As Obama was giving his brilliant inaugural speech last night ( he is a terrific orator, no doubt..), he mentioned that US wants to be friends of all countries. But they have estranged so many countries with their high handed bully attitude, for the selfish concerns of maintaining the status quo as the most powerful country on earth.  It is no doubt a herculean task ..

Words and oratorial skills won't take Obama anywhere .. until he is able to translate them to action ...

After withdrawing from Iraq, going after terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan should be his top priority, unless he is hellbent on following the usual American style, double standards..

Meddling in Kashmir is welcome, but if only and when asked for !!

Obama has not spoken publicly about China as yet, maybe he has to understand China somewhat better before he can utter any nonsensical irritating utterances .. Very agreeable tactic, given that the dragon is now inching behind US and Japan and can overtake them anytime soon to be the top economy of the world !!

Gaza and Israel will bring to limelight US' bias in Palestine .. ( Lehman brothers is gone, Solomon brothers also may crumble, with reduced Israeli interests in Washington,  Palestine and Israel will be a high risk and expensive proposition for US to be meddling for long !!)

Time can tell !!

ge..