XLRI Jamshedpur recently concluded its three-day annual sports and cultural festival with a host of sports, music, dance, drama and other fun activities. The fest, called Valhalla 2013, witnessed about 1,500 participants from top B-schools across the country including IIM Calcutta, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar, IIM Ranchi and Faculty of Management Studies New Delhi.

XLRI Jamshedpur also recently hosted the three-day GIZ Aarohan workshop on ?Ecosystem Development and Capacity Building for Social Enterprises in India? at its campus. The workshop aimed at improving the support infrastructure for social enterprises and social incubation initiatives and was anchored by Fr Arrupe Centre for Ecology & Sustainability, XLRI. The initiative was launched by Aarohan Ventures, CIIE, in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaftf?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

IIMK to conduct a short-term course on the trends in publishing

A national-level executive development programme on ?Publishing 2.0: Business Strategies for the 21st Century? will be held at IIM Kozhikode from August 26-28, 2013. The current mainstream publishing process, scholarly and trade, has been influenced by the endless possibilities offered by computers, internet, world wide web and its suite of technologies. ePublishing offers a way to bring a new equilibrium to the scholarly publication ecosystem. The programme aims to map the changing landscape of the publishing domain.

Plan panel deputy chairman addresses Great Lakes students

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission, addressed students of Great Lakes Institute of Management as a part of the institute?s Thought Leadership Lecture Series, a series where the students get to learn from and interact with global thought leaders. It was attended by the GEMBA (Global Energy Executive MBA, offered in partnership with the Bauer College of Business, University of Houston) participants and students from Great Lakes Gurgaon?s two-year Energy management and one-year fast-track MBA batches.

Convocation held at BITS Pilani; more than 800 students graduate

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) has held the convocation ceremony for the class of 2013 for graduating students of the Pilani campus. Padma Bhushan K Srinath Reddy, the president of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), graced the occasion as the chief guest and was joined by BITS vice-chancellor BN Jain, director of Pilani campus Prof G Raghurama, members of Board of Governors Manjushree Khaitan and Kris Ramachandran. As many as 828 graduating students of first degree, 301 higher degree and 47 PhD programmes were awarded degrees on the occasion.

Microsoft launches Office 365 University for higher-ed students

Microsoft has announced the availability of Office 365 University for full-time and part-time students studying in accredited colleges and universities in India. Students can now subscribe to Office 365 University which includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications and works across 2 PCs or Macs, comes with Office on Demand and an additional 20 GB Premium SkyDrive storage. Office 365 University can empower students to study better resulting in future jobs and provide them a winning edge in the young and competitive Indian job market. ?Office 365 University is in a class by itself and university students will love the capabilities of new Office,? said Ramkumar Pichai, GM, Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India. Shaurya Mittal, a student of Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi, said, ?Office 365 University can make my life much easier as I can now study, work and enjoy on the move, can edit and share documents/notes in real-time and store more on the cloud.?

SHRM India identifies top Indian HR influencers on social media

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world?s largest association devoted to human resource management, has published a second and detailed edition of its report on ?Top 20 Indian HR Influencers on Social Media.? Last year, it had identified influencers who had great following, tweeted regularly and conversed with people on HR. This year, SHRM has taken it a step further by also paying attention to the content of the conversations on HR in social media. The current lot of youngsters, Gen Y, is more social than ever and believes in both sharing experiences and learning from others? experiences through social media as they start their career. SHRM India?s latest report can thus be useful for both head-hunters as well as job seekers to source solutions in various specialised areas.

Conference on control computing held at United Group of Institutions

A two-day international conference called ICCCCM 2013 was recently held at the United Group of Institutions, Greater Noida. Research scholars and academicians from different countries participated in the same. It provided ideas, approaches and models for inclusion in the current and existing research contributions for expanding horizons of academic, social and commercial avenues.