N Ramakrishnan Chennai | Updated on October 29, 2019 | Published on October 30, 2019 PALS, an educational initiative by pan-IIT alumni that is now in the seventh year, hopes to become like a centre of excellence that will create workflow and processes for similar such projects across the country. Mohan Narayanan, Chairman, PALS, says the programme launched in 2012 by IIT alumni to help improve standards of education by targeting both students and teachers can be replicated in other places where there is a strong institute-industry linkage to make a similar impact. It started off with six institutions in 2012 and now covers 32 engineering colleges in Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Madurai. PALS, which earlier stood for Pan-IIT Alumni Leadership Series, has impacted more than 28,000 students and over 2,250 faculty members since its inception, according to him. In 2018-19 alone, it impacted more than 13,100 students and 1,250 faculty members. PALS has also tied up with more than 50 companies for eld visits. Narayanan, who has a Master’s in electrical engineering from IITMadras, says the need for a nishing-school kind of arrangement for engineering students where the IIT alumni could contribute was felt because of the gaps that were noticed when these graduates went for jobs, especially in the software industry. A few IIT alumni got together to see if they could help in bridging this gap, using the infrastructure  10/30/2019 PALS hopes to become a centre of excellence –The Hindu BusinessLine https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/pals-hopes-to-become-a-centre-of-excellence/article29825453.ece# 4/7 Published on …

(PALS), the body comprising alumni from various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country, on Saturday launched its 2018-19 annual activities aimed at making engineering college students ‘Industry ready. PALS offer a year-long program with various activities for students, faculty and management of Engineering Institutions. PALS is supported by IIT Alumni Industry Interaction Centre (IITAIIC) and IIT Madras Alumni Charitable Trust (IITMACT) for the benefit of engineering college students in Tamil Nadu. Till Academic year 2017-18, PALS has positively impacted more than 15,000 students and 5,000 faculties across member colleges in Chennai, Tricky, Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem. Sharing his thoughts on the role he would like PALS to play, Prof M K Surappa, Vice Chancellor, Anna University, and the Guest of Honour, said, “The number of engineering colleges has increased exponentially in recent years. However, some of these affiliated institutions have difficulty in imparting engineering education at the same level as some of the top institutions. In the last four years, many engineering colleges have had trouble attracting students and have closed down. Perhaps, a body like PALS can prevent this from happening by focusing on elevating the quality of education.” Further, he added, “The roles of Social Sciences and Humanities have fast become vital for making engineers well-rounded. This has already come about in the West and now, in India too.” In its seventh year now, PALS started as a series of motivational lectures given by IIT Alumni at various engineering colleges’ campuses in and around Chennai. The …

But we’re not able to find more than 700: Minister Minister for Tamil Culture and Archaeology Ma Foi K. Pandia Rajan said that the State was keen on identifying more entrepreneurs who would benefit under the NEEDS scheme. “We are chasing to achieve helping 1,000 entrepreneurs but we are not able to identify more than 700,” he said. The Minister was addressing a seminar on Disruption Through HR (Human Resource) Apps – Challenges and Opportunities for Business organised by The Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). Hotspot for innovation Mr. Pandia Rajan said said Chennai had been the hotspot for innovation including design thinking. “We were the leaders in Design Thinking done by Polaris,” he said. Rafeeque Ahmed, President, SICCI, said that in today’s era HR technology plays a critical role. He also said that Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) were investing heavily in this segment. The Minister along with Mohan Narayan, head, SICCI HR Committee, released a study on Disruption Through HR Apps – Challenges and Opportunities for Business. According to the study, globally, the market for HR technology was estimated to be $400 billion, based on data from Deloitte. It was estimated that companies spent $2,000 per employee per year on HR technology. The study further pointed out that India’s HR tech market was set to double in the next four years, as per PC Quest. While the size estimated of the Indian HR technology market varied, it was said to be $500 million.

This involved fundamental changes to the HR structure and continuous monitoring of the HR function for over 2 years  so as to bring HR closer to the ‘business’.

Conducted an in-depth external diagnosis to highlight the reasons for low motivation and high attrition among employees which resulted in restructuring the organization, redesigning  compensation philosophies and revamping of key HR policies to create a more professional, open and meritocratic organization.

Worked with the global HR team in Paris to  create grades and corresponding compensation bands in line with industry benchmarks. Defined the HR handbook with key HR policies for all employees in the new Company. Provided advisory on optimal HR practices for recruitment, compensation, and employee management. This resulted in creating an attractive, fair and equitable workplace for new and existing employees with a ‘smooth ’launch of the new Company.

Revamped the selection process for the KPO of a large global bank which comprised identification of key  competencies required for effective performance, creation of a focused interview toolkit along with extensive retraining of all interviewers in the Organization. This resulted in a significant reduction of recruitment ‘mistakes ’, and enhanced the Organization ’s ability to select the right person for the right job.

which spanned the key leadership development touch points from identification and assessment of leaders to creation and implementation of multiple developmental interventions. As part of this global program, roped in some of the world ’s best strategic thinkers to upskill the Organizational leaders. This resulted in a tremendous step-jump in identifying leaders across levels and developing capability in a structured, systematic manner to align with the Company ’s growth goals.

The key challenge in this case was to map a career progression lattice for employees across functions and roles .This involved  resolving inter business unit complexities to arrive at a comprehensive identification of unique ‘roles ’in the Organization , followed by a detailed technical, functional and behavioural competency map required for employees to move upward /laterally. This resulted in greater transparency of career growth decisions and provided employees with a  structured career map for the first time.