Book Review And Research Work Presentation By National School Of Leadership And CHRIST Scholars at CHRIST, Lavasa

A Book Review Contest was held for first year mentees of MBA on 11^th November 2019 at CHRIST, (Deemed to be University), Lavasa, Central Block. Selected students presented their book review and were assessed by a panel of esteemed judges. Mr Yogesh Joshi, Mr Hrishikesh Joshi and Mr.  Sumedh Gupte represented the jury for the book review. 

Mr Yogesh Joshi is an accomplished journalist for over 16 years with proven track record of flawless writing, editing, generating new ideas and turning them into stories that make a difference. Mr Yogesh has extensively reported on politics, economics, development, human rights, crime, and security issues through print and digital media. A data-driven scribe, Yogesh is a journalist with proven integrity towards professional and organizational ethics. He was part of the team that successfully launched Hindustan Times Pune Edition. He spearheaded interviews of prominent politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists over the years.

Mr Hrishikesh Joshi is a media professional with specialization in business journalism over a decade. As a professional business journalist, Mr Hrishikesh has covered sectors like financial services, automobile, agriculture, commodities, IT and real estate in India through information collection and analysis for a leading financial newspaper Business Standard for seven years. He has in-depth understanding of financial markets and experience in drafting corporate announcements, reports, investor presentations and websites. Currently, Mr Hrishikesh is based in Sydney, Australia and associated with a leading trade title Self-managed super magazine as a journalist covering Australia’s $750 billion self-managed superannuation fund sector. 

Mr.  Sumedh Gupte is the Regional Head of Business Standard in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Mr. Sumedh Gupte has been in the print media industry for more than two decades mainly responsible for circulation, advertising, branding, marketing, and product development. He was the brand and product head in Indian Express India Pvt. Ltd. for Indian Express, Daily Loksatta and Lokprabha weekly magazine. He has also headed several new projects, including new editions and product launches for newspapers like Indian Express and Sakal Group of Publication. His major achievements include Mid-Day Publication launched in Pune, development of Express and Loksatta as a product in totality by introducing various new supplements.

The first contestant was Annabel John and as Dr Neena PC’s mentee she chose `The Art of Choosing’ by Sheena Iyengar. She rightly pointed out that the author tries to explain the importance and art of choosing in different phases of life. She connected the decision making process to psychology, economics, business and relationships along with typical choices which an individual makes every day.

Love for books has always been inculcated by the mentors apart from reading the text books and Dr Ambuj Gupta inspired his mentee, Akhil Ramakrishnan to select `The Making of Star India’ by Vanita Kohli. It narrated the rise of Star India. Mr Hrishikesh Joshi asked him who was a better leader between Li and Murdoch. 

Dr Jayant Mahajan’s mentee was Althea Maria Fernandes and she had selected `The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu. The book by warrior-philosopher of the 5^th century BC is a military treatise composed of 13 chapters, each of which dealt with one aspect of the art of war. It is a classic of martial and military strategy and tactics that has become a contemporary reference for executives and entrepreneurs seeking wisdom on leadership and strategy when confronted with conflict, competition and chaos.

Assistant Professor Sanjay Sahai’s mentee, Rahid Arzoo Choudhary’s choice of book was excellent and dealt with the success story of Dhoni. It was `Think and Win Like Dhoni’ by Sfurti Sahare. The book examines the leadership qualities of Dhoni which brought him unprecedented success. Starting from humble beginnings, Dhoni was able to rise to the zenith of his chosen field of endeavor ie. Cricket. The book brings out his way of approaching a problem and recipe for achieving success.  The book recounts incidents from his life and shows that he had the qualities that make a great leader from the beginning.

It has been rightly said that “All riches have their origin in mind. Wealth is in ideas—not money.” The idea was further explained through a book review by Bharath Vishal M on `Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. Dr Benny Godwin’s mentee explained in a lucid way and articulated that the book was promoted as a personal development and self-improvement book. He claimed to have been inspired by a suggestion from business magnate and later-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

It was an experience in itself to watch young students express their views on a book of their choice. It reflected their taste, ideology and preference. The meticulously selected books ranged from diverse topics but the ease with which they were explained and discussed gave an insight into the matter. The first year students were deeply engrossed in the program and found it immensely informative, encouraging and inspiring. The session was quite informative, inspirational and well researched.

Mr Sumit Gupte announced the results and inspired the students to read extensively. Annabel John was the runner up and Althea Maria stood first in the Book Review contest. Dr Dilip Nandkeolyar gave a vote of thanks. The program was anchored confidently by Utsavi Bhatia and Kshitij Patni.

Following the Book Review selected scholars from National School of Leadership (NSL) in collaboration with few professors from CHRIST, Lavasa gave a presentation based on their research in the auditorium. 

The research seminar was able to bridge the gap between industry and academia and encouraged young students to pursue research diligently. Academic Coordinator, Dr Fr Arun Antony gave the inaugural address and applauded the collaborative effort of CHRIST, Lavasa and NSL and considered it first of its kind. He expressed his appreciation of research by academicians and scholars from industry who presented their findings. Fr Arun believed that their perspective would enlighten everyone as they presented leadership ideas from corporate prism. On behalf of Director & Dean, Dr Fr Jossy George he warmly welcomed the staff and scholars of NSL.

 

Col. (Dr.) Arvind Jha, Sports Psychologist to the Indian Contingent for individual sports in Olympics and Commonwealth Games was the first to speak. He has been associated with the Army Sports Institute (ASI), as a Mentor and Head of the Department, Department of Sports Psychology he chiefly spoke about encouraging young sports enthusiasts at a young age.

Ms Jagriti Deshpande, Counsellor and Child Psychologist is an Adviser for primary education to multiple institutions and Doctoral Research Fellow in Psychology. She chiefly focussed on the contributions of a school counselor's values and leadership practices to school counseling.

Mr Roji Samuel Raju, Test Architect and Automation Lead is the Developmental Manager at Accenture with over 18 years of experience and Doctoral Research Fellow in Market Research and Analytics at NSL. His emphasis was on sentiment analysis and explained his results.

Mr GSS Gopal Krishna, Country Head Market Function and Product Group Head – iON at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Former Chief Operating Officer at Frankfinn Aviations and Doctoral Research Fellow in Strategy and Mentor at NSL. Mr Gopal gave valuable inputs on framework of factors influencing digital learning in educational system and organizational growth. He also gave an overview about the Indian education system.

Prof. (Dr.) Chaitanya Niphadkar, Managing Director, MoNarcia; Associate Professor, Open University of Mauritius; Member - AIMWA; Member - CIPD London; Harvard Business School, Bolton, SBS Certified; Honorary Member to USA Leaders Excellence Harvard Square, Post-Doctoral Senior Fellow in Organisational Leadership and Mentor at NSL. He primarily briefed everyone about change management.

Prof. Ankur Saxena, Assistant Professor, Department of Data Science, CHRIST, Lavasa spoke about Intellectual Process Automation using Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Financial Documents. His research paper was a collaborative effort of Ms Amrita Tamang, Dr Vandana Bhagat and he himself.   

Dr Benny J Godwin, from Department of Marketing, Management Block, spoke about `Primordial Psychodynamic e-Promiscuity: A Phenomenal’. He explained the concept in his invincible style and everyone listened to him in rapt attention.

NSL team comprising of Mr Aditya Tawade, Ms Shilpa Joshi and Mr Parthajeet Sarmah coordinated the event successfully. All the participants were given a memento as a token of appreciation at the end of the program.