Report of the visit of student faculty team from University of Akron and Redlands to XIME – campus abroad programme.
University of Akron, 14 August 2008 to 23 August 2008 and University of Redlands, 18 August 2008 to 25 August 2008.
The five students, spouse of a student and Prof Vijayaraman from University of Akron reached XIME on 14 th Aug, from Hyderabad. After welcoming them, the team went for a company visit to TIMKEN on that day followed by visits to the city, Banerghatta park etc on Saturday and Sunday, before the team was joined by the team from University of Redlands on 18 Aug, 2008.
The 12 member team from University of Redlands, had four Professors, Prof Hindupur, Prof. Noble Goodman, Prof Keith Roberts, Prof Jim Pick and his spouse. Ms. Aidan Goodman, daughter Prof Noble Goodman and Ms. Jennifer Koons, friend of one of the students were the other members in the group, besides the five students.
Monday 18 th Aug, had the students from both Akron and Redlands visiting Tata BP Solar factory in Electronic City Phase I and II. This was followed by a very interesting talk by Mr. Suresh Jayaram to the students from Akron and Redlands about the richnes and diversity of Indian culture. The XIME students were ready with a discussion next on the future of Indo-American co-operation titled, " Can Indo American co-operation ensure world peace and prosperity". The XIME students, five from each batch, were joined by the American students and faculty members. The discussion was very fruitful and came to the conclusion that Indo-american co-operation was beneficial for both the countries and the world. Mainly looking at the threat to the world from Chinese ascendancy, if only US worked with the Indians, can they rein the Chinese. The American participants were very nice to point out how the Indian students were well informed of world affairs and the very good communication skills.
The next day saw the talks by Mr Rangan Mohan who talked on the Business Process Outsourcing scene in India, Prof. R S Ganapathy and Prof C. P. Ravindranathan. While Prof R S Ganapathy spoke of the Indian Business scene, Prof Ravindranathan spoke of the Indian economy, it's growth over the past forty years, the pre-liberalisation and post liberalisation era. In the afternoon all of them went to HTMT where they were treated to a good talk and doubt clearing session on the potential and future of the BPO scenario in the country.
Thursday 20 August started with a talk on the Indian Engineering scenario by Dr. George Easaw. The students could get an idea of how the technical education scene in the country is maturing. The important role being played by Institutions on National Importance, the IIMs and IITs in bringing about a respectful image for Indian higher education abroad was stressed. It was followed by a visit to Biocon which was very well appreciated by the visiting team. Biocon took the students to the Biocon park in Bommasandra Industrial Estate. The afternoon saw a 30 minute presentation by Prof Ravindranathan wherein he completed his presentation of the previous day. Prof J Philip gave a presentation on the Management Education scenario in India. After that the students were left free and went to the city for shopping, sight seeing etc.
The next day, 21 st August, Thursday started with a presentation by the President Prof J Philip on Indian Management Styles. It was well received by the students as was evident from the feedback which came towards the end. Mr. Vinay Deshpande, the founder of Simputer, the miniaturised version of a palm top computer which is gaining popularity with the military and for GIS applications. Vinay's talk focussed on the Indian initiatives in IT innovation. This gave the foreign students an idea of where India's growth was headed to in the IT revolution. Mr S Balasubramaniam from TCS gave a presentation on the state of IT Industry in India, specifically where the industry leader TCS stands and gave an introduction to software project management, which these companies are too good at.
The afternoon saw a visit to Wockhardt Hospital as the students were interested in knowing the future potential of medical tourism in the country. We were taken aback by the facilities provided at the Wockhardt Hospital for tourists who come to the country for major invasive surgeries under an arrangement between the medical insurance companies in US and the hospital. The most attractive thing for the foreigners is that the expenses in India inclusive of air travel and five star boarding and lodging with a week's recuperative holiday also thrown in comes to just one tenth to one twelveth of the expenses abroad.
Friday, 22 nd August, was the day we had planned the visit to Infosys Mysore. We left the Institute at 7 AM in the morning an after visiting some tourist attractions reached Infosys at 11.30 AM. We were given a talk by the Manager in charge of training, Mr Shyam and then taken around the facility. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that Mysore has two wonders or attractions, one is the Mysore palace built in 1890s by the great grandfather of the present king, Krishnadevaraja Wodeyar IV, and the other is Infosys Global Education Centre (GEC), the largest corporate training centre in the world. We saw the excellent facilities at GEC, including the pool, the bowling alleys, snooker hall, TT hall, fully equipped classrooms, auditoriums etc. After a visit to the Mysore palace and the Brindavan garden where we saw the dancing lights, we left for Bangalore by 8 PM and reached XIME at 2 AM.
The team from Akron had to catch the 8.35 AM flight to Mumbai from Bangalore on Satuday morning and they were off from XIME at 6 AM to Devanahalli. The Redlands team went around the city on Saturday and Sunday, visiting the Bannerghatta park, SOS village and so on. The dinner hosted at hotel Taj Gateway on Saturday was very good.
Monday 25 th August saw sessions at 9 AM on Cross Cultural Management conducted by the Director Prof R Venkataraman, followed by Prof J. Philip on Managing the Knowledge Worker. Prof Anil Suraj from IIM Bangalore did the last session on Managing IP rights in the Business Outsourcing sphere. After lunch the team from Redlands went to visit IISc Bangalore and off to the railway station on their way to Hyderabad.
Dr George Easaw, Co-ordinator for the visit. 5 th September, 2008.
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