• Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis visited Somaiya Vidyavihar campus on 29th November, 2017 to inaugurate the new Girls’ Hostel - Maitreyi

• State Cabinet Minister for Housing Department, Shri Prakash Mehta and Shiv Sena MP, Shri Sadashiv Kisan Lokhande also attended the event

• Shri Samir Somaiya, President, Somaiya Vidyavihar welcomed the guests with a guard of honour Read more

Team ALCOM is elated to bring the December edition of Imprints to you. With Thanksgiving just passing by and Christmas round the corner, our theme for the current edition is Joy of Giving. Regular alumni interactions and industry exposure have always been SIMSR’s stronghold. This edition also features exciting entrepreneurial activities on campus and an exclusive interview with Ms. Sudha Jayashankar, an expert in the field of HR, Alum of batch 1987-89.

• We are proud to share that an MOU has been signed on 13th November, 2017 between Somaiya Vidyavihar and WINTEC (Waikato Institute of Technology, New Zealand)

• This agreement would help in expanding our borders and opportunities that can help accelerate our development and bring back best practice from other parts of the world

Read more

• Héctor Cueva, Consul-General and Trade Commissioner of Ecuador visited SIMSR on 21st November, 2017

• He showed interest in understanding different courses offered by SIMSR and addressed the PGDM International Business first year students on doing business between India and Ecuador

• Somaiya Vidyavihar in collaboration with Consulate of Italy and Uni-Italia, hosted 15 of the most prestigious Italian universities like Academia Albertina, University of Bologna, and others on 25th November, 2017

• SVV HOIs and University Representatives discussed about potential cooperation

• We would like to congratulate our Director, Dr. Monica Khanna for being awarded the Prof. Y. K. Bhushan 100 Most Dedicated Teachers of India

citation, Dr. Sivakumar and Prof. Vandana Khanna for being awarded in their areas of expertise

• The ceremony was held at the World Education Congress by the jury of the Dewang Mehta National Education Committee of the Silver Jubilee year

• Dr. Monica Khanna was recognized for the qualities of Strategic Perspective, Future Orientation, Track Record, Integrity and Ethics, Ability for

Sustainable Education and Making an Impact to the lives of a Generation

• Dr. Sivakumar was recognized as the best professor in economics

category for his contribution to research, teaching and

publications for the past 7 years

• Prof. Vandana Khanna was recognized as the Best Professor in

Marketing and International Business

• Our institute was awarded with Dr. Arun Arora 50 Best

Educational Institutes of India

Impr i n t s

Q. You have been associated with sponsoring the education of

girls in schools along with sponsoring other amenities like

solar panels, water purifiers etc. India has a long way to go to

provide basic amenities in schools. How was your experience

while taking up this cause?

A. Donating money is easier than thinking through which project you

want to support. It is now so much easier to make a direct impact in

someone’s life - if you have the time and the interest. It also gives one

immense satisfaction and simultaneously humbles one. There is always

something you could do more.

Q. What are the significant learnings you had in your two years

at SIMSR?

A. The campus life was very memorable. I have made some of my

closest friends there. As a course it gave me insights into the

importance of genuine teachers who want to make a difference. It

inspired me to teach for some time.

Q. Companies usually focus on hiring individuals that are

like-minded and passionate to create a positive workplace

environment. However, big companies today are shifting their

focus on diversity, which means reducing hires who are

like-minded to create an inclusive culture. Do you think this

shift is a challenge or an opportunity for HR as a profession?

A. There is major difference between like-minded and

diversity. Individuals who have a similar value systems as an

organisation would create a culture for the company. Including

individuals because they are diverse - in gender, look , ability - would

create an organisation which is also empathetic and this is definitely

an opportunity for HR to have more impact in the community as well.

Q. Indra Nooyi in an interview had said that 'women can't have

it all' and that the biological clock and the career clock are in

total conflict with each other. We'd like your opinion on the

same. Is it possible for a woman to strike a balance between

intense personal and professional demands?

A. First of all, I feel women can definitely have it all. It is easier now to

strike a balance between intense personal and professional demands.

More so with the technological advancements. If you are at office you

can easily stay in touch with home and vice versa. Having said that,

you should also know how to manage time well. However, it's not just

women who miss home. It’s the same case with men as well when they

know they are at work for 9 hours, they know they are missing a lot

that is happening at home. But times are changing and organisations

are taking note as well.

AlumSpeaks with Ms. Sudha Jayashankar,

SIMSR Alum Batch 1987-89 | Executive Director - HR of a Reputable MNC

Q. You did your MMS in Finance and then shifted to HR while

you were working at the Stock Holding Corporation of India.

Was it a conscious decision? How easy or difficult was it to

switch from Finance to HR?

A. It was a conscious decision. I was a topper in Finance, at SIMSR and

had initially joined the Operations team at Stock Holding Corporation of

India. After a time it felt what I was not able to use the concepts learnt

and enjoyed so, a year later, I joined the HR department as I felt it was

more dynamic. A finance background helped me a lot in having an ana-

lytical view of HR and it helped add value to any conversation.

Q. What has been the most memorable event in your

professional life so far? .

A. It was when I was working at Unilever Arabia, in UAE that I learnt

that HR was not only a representative of the team’s interest , but more

importantly we had responsibility to translate the vision of the

management to action.

Favourite Movie

How Green was my Valley

Favourite Holiday

Destination

Home

One Word/ Line you say the most

"So…."

Favourite Quote

“ If they don’t know you personally, then don ’t take it personally “

Role Model

My father

Favourite Book

The Myth of Sisyphus – Albert Camus

I feel women can definitely have it all. It is

easier now to strike a balance between

intense personal and professional demands

Q. What would your advice be for young alumni starting their

career?

A. Be patient. Some things take time and never stop learning. Always

enjoy what you are doing – there is less time than you imagine.

Favourite Food

Pizza

Retention of the right talent is

important and for that a strong

Employee Value Proposition is needed

Ms. Sudha Jayashankar is the Executive Director of Human Resources in

a world renowned MNC. She is a veteran in the field of corporate HR

having over 27 years of experience. She has held prestigious positions in

many organizations both in India and UAE.

To read the complete interview, click here

Mr. Upendra Namburi, Alum of batch 1994-96 launched his third book titled ‘8 hours’. The launch was followed by an interactive question and answer session. The audience radiated happiness on their faces as Mr. Namburi himself signed the copies of his book for them. He is the Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer at Bharti AXA General Insurance Read more

• Ms. Janki Vyas Ravani, our Alumnus of batch 2006-08 recently delivered a TED Talk on Mind & Body Connection. In her speech she talked about the importance of letting go of negativities from the mind to lead a longer, happier and healthier life

• She is currently a therapist, healer & happiness coach at House of Happiness

• You can watch the complete video at https://youtu.be/m2q2V5TzHc0

• It is said ‘Kindness in thinking creates profoundness and love’, Enactus did that by celebrating Joy of Giving

• Enactus -The Social cell of SIMSR celebrated the ‘Joy of Giving’ week with the kids of Aarna Foundation

• The event 'Taare Zameen Par' organised at SIMSR had mesmerizing performances by the kids where they actually shined brighter than the stars and stole everyone’s heart

• All the donations and money received from the newspaper recycling drive was utilized to buy toys for

• The students of the Alumni Committee met the alums for Outreach, where they connected personally with alums working in different sectors

• It gives the students a chance to have a closer view of the corporate challenges. We also let them know about the current happenings at SIMSR and ask for their suggestions for the overall improvement of SIMSR fraternity

• We had the privilege to meet the following alums recently

Alumnus Batch Designation Organization

Mr. CG Prakash 1987 Area chair, Operations &SCM VESIM

Mr. Anuj Mathur 1992 Human Resource Consultant Self Employed

Mr. Deepak Saluja 1998 Executive VP - Head Branding UTI

Mr. Sachin Parekh 2002 DGM, Marketing &Sales Apollo Hospitals

Mr. Praveen Nair 2002 Manager Kotak Mahindra Bank

Mr. Gaurav Goyal 2006 DGM, M&A Mahindra & Mahindra

• Milaap–Batch Reunion of 2002 was held on 25th November, 2017 to celebrate the completion of 15 years of being a SIMSR Alumni

• The nostalgic event was addressed by Dr. Radha Iyer who enlightened us about the latest SIMSR Alumni Relations developments followed by a performance by Mauj, an enthralling voiceover by our Alum Ms. Gurdip Wadhwa and the 'Batch 2002 Witty Awards' which was heartily enjoyed by all making the event a great success

Read more

• Alumni High Tea 2017, Reunion of MMM, MIM, MFM, MHRDM, MCA/MCSA & PG-Executive batches of SIMSR Alumni, was held on 18th November, 2017

• The Event was addressed by our faculty members Dr. Reena Mehta and Dr. Davendranath G Jha followed by a musical performance by our very own Alums

• Dr. Bharati Wukkadada, Chairperson, Alumni Relations also addressed the event Read more

• The International Business Summit 2017, the flagship event of the International Business Society at SIMSR was held on 3rd November, 2017

• The theme was ‘Business in Emerging Markets’

• Mr. Shashi Shekhar Kumar, Vice President International Business of Cachet Pharma along with two of our Alums Mr. Sajid Khan, batch 1995-97, Country Manager of South African Airlines and Mr. Vishal Dubey, batch 1995-97, Telecom and E-commerce professional were present for the Panel Discussion Read more

• Campus Company, an initiative by Pathfinder – The Entrepreneurship cell of SIMSR was held on 14th November, 2017

• It helped to promote hands-on experience of running a business and assisting young minds in the campus to establish their own company

• The participants presented brilliant ideas and responses to the panel that consisted of Mr. Harish Iyer, Regional Sales Manager, Dabur India, Mr. Aashutosh Taparia, Regional Business Head, Big Basket and Mr. Ruchir Gupta, Zonal Manager, Sales & Ops, Box8, as well as the SIMSR faculties

• The top 4 teams were declared as winners

• Consultancy committee at SIMSR hosted Industry

Interaction sessions on 7th and 8th of November, 2017

• Mr. Sanjay Rao, Director HR Owens Corning India and Mr.

Alan Rosling, Chairman Griffin Growth Partners Limited were

the prime speakers

• The sessions provided insightful knowledge about the

various career options and the skills the students need to

develop during the course

SIMSR is proud of its alumni and always tries to foster better Alumni– Institute connect which forms one of the key blocks in our journey. SIMSR is undergoing a accreditation process and as a part of our alumni base, the alum satisfying the following criteria were requested to take part in the survey

• Entrepreneurs

• Pursued or are pursuing higher studies

The purpose of this survey is to help improve the institute ranking (SIMSR has regis-

tered for NIRF 2018 and this data shall help the institute advance its ranking for the

same. This survey will also help us to build a network to develop business

relations & opportunities among alumni. Survey link: SIMSR Alumni Survey 2017

• The eve of the 25th November 2017, saw the onset of ‘Aagaaz’, the

official theme launch for Melange 2017, flagship event of SIMSR

• Aagaaz was collectively organized by the student council,

Mauj – SIMSR’s official band and Grooves – SIMSR’s official dance group

• The student council unveiled the theme for Melange 2017,

‘Tech It Up’ as Mauj and Grooves lit up the evening with music and

dance. The final act of the evening was a special comic performance by

Mr. Deepak Gopalkrishnan a.k.a. Chuck

• Information Technology area of SIMSR organized a corporate workshop on Automation Testing for the students of 2nd Year and 3rd Year MCA on 7th

October, 2017

• The workshop was conducted by Ms. Karishma Lala, Senior Consultant at Capgemini, MIM Alum of batch 2014-17. She is ISTQB Foundation Level

Certified and has over 6 years of experience in the field of Testing. She is a part of

Agile CoP and a Gold medalist in the All India Agile Olympiad 2016

• She discussed the process of Manual Testing and Automation Testing. She also talked

about the various trends in Software Testing and the future of testing. She also gave

students an insight into a tester’s mindset

• Anandwan – a co-operative village carved out of barren land was established in 1949 by Baba Amte, an internationally renowned social activist.

• It has been relentlessly working for the holistic development of leprosy afflicted, differently abled and socially backward populace benefitting 2.7 million people till date

• It aspires to become the first ‘SMART Village’ in India. To further provision the cause of Anandwan and to help integrate the idea of a SMART Village among other villages in India and serve as a benchmark, they need our support

• One of our Alums Ms. Sowmyashree Belur of batch 2009-2012, MHRDM is currently working as a Project Coordinator for NGO - Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Anandwan, Warora situated at Chandrapur district in Maharashtra

Please visit www.anandwan.in for more details or mail at sbelur@anandwan.in

• Patent Holders

• Authors of published books/ research papers

• FORSE, Operations committee of SIMSR, cordially invites you to the Global Supply Chain Management Conference on 16th December, 2017. The conference aims at providing a medium to discuss the latest research and developments in the field of Supply Chain Management

• Prof. Dr. Katja Kuhn - Dean, Faculty of Technology and Vice – Rector, Dual University of Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) will be the Keynote speaker and Mr. Sanjay Digambar Patil – Cluster Head (Mumbai region) Toubro’s Heavy Civil Independent Company, the guest speaker at the conference

Link for registration : http://simsr.somaiya.edu/simsr/scm/opsconf/

Job Opportunities

Total no. of recruiting companies

13

Total no. of Vacancies

20

Top Recruiting Companies

(in November)

To share a job opportunity at your organisa-

tion write to us at

simsrjobs@googlegroups.com

Connect with our Alum family by signing up

here- Alumni Portal Sign-Up

Team Alumni Relations

Chairperson

Dr. Bharati VW

Advisor

Dr. Radha Iyer

Manager

Arvind Pandi Dorai

Co-ordinator

Hemanchi Hublikar

Team Imprints

Chief Editor

Arvind Pandi Dorai

Editor

Suryani Sinha Ray

Designer

Kushal Thakkar

Sreya Mukherjee

Contributors :

Tulika Singh

Divya Parekh

Ankit Kumar

Ishita Gulati

Jagruthi Tippana

Priyanka Shetty

Riya Jain

Shreyas Bhaskare

Smruti Thaker

Swarna Sanghai

Taha Chechatwala

Yesha Kulshreshtha

Arvind Rungta

(Convener, Alumni Committee)

Kushal Thakkar

(Co-Convener, Alumni Committee)

Surabhi Singh

(Co-Convener, Alumni Committee)

• Reconnecting with the college friends is indeed one of the best things one can experience

• After getting the degree, the feet leave the grounds yet the heart dependably lives in college

• SIMSR brings to you ‘Milaap-The Batch Reunion’ where our Alumni of specific batches come together and cherish their memories

The below mentioned reunions will start at 5:00 P.M.

Batch Reunion Date Link

1997 Vicennial Reunion 9th December,2017 MILAAP-1997 Registration link

1992 Silver Jubilee Reunion 9th December,2017 MILAAP-1992 Registration link

Write to us / Contact us

alcom.simsr@somaiya.edu

022-6728 3120/3295

Contact Us

The city meets are going to be held in 16 cities and the schedule for them are as follows.

The registration link for the same will be floated soon

• Amazon India

• HSBC

• HDFC Limited

• Bajaj Electricals Ltd.

• Ogilvy & Mather

• Cognizant

SIMSR City Meets 2018