IIMs initiate gaming competition, campaign for girl child
By Ruchi Shrimali
IIMs are now focusing on using its expertise to tackle social issues. IIM Rohtak, for example, has started its ‘India for girl child' campaign in an effort to bring down the gender disparity in Haryana, where there are only 826 girls for every 1,000 boys. IIM Shillong, on the other hand, has decided to take steps that can bring down the alarmingly high rate of neo-natal mortality in Meghalaya - 23.6 per 1,000 live births.
‘India for girl child' campaign by IIM Rohtak
According to the data released by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), in the last 40 years, Indian girls aged 1 to 5 years are 75% more likely to die than Indian boys of the same age. Haryana, especially, is at the lowest end of country's girl-boy sex ratio. Hence, IIM Rohtak has started several social welfare initiatives to save the girl child. It is already working with NGOs like Ch Lakhi Ram Anaathalaya, Etasha Society, iCare, Jan Seva Sansthaan, India Earth NGO, and Srishti Gyaan Kendra. Now, it is organizing a marathon on February 19, 2012 to make people aware about the situation.
This marathon will be organized as a mainstream sports event. Apollo Tyres has already signed up as official running partner while Biowell Natural Health is the official health partner for the two races (5 km and 10 km) of the event. It is expected that people from Haryana as well as Delhi-NCR region will participate in the event. One of the highlights of the event will be 100 need-based scholarships for girls that IIM Rohtak will be announcing about, in partnership with the Sun foundation. These scholarships will cover all the educational expenses of beneficiary girls from Class I to Class XII.
Sustainable Healthcare Management Systems (SHCMS) by IIM Shillong
IIM Shillong has decided to use its expertise to bring down the number of deaths of babies from 23.6 per 1,000 live births in the state of Meghalaya. Its professors are conducting case studies and providing 30-day training for the state doctors in hospital planning and management, sustainable healthcare and project, leadership and motivation and management of finance and accounting.
Doctors are provided 14-days of classroom learning, case analysis and simulation and group exercises and then, they undertake field visits and healthcare research. IIM Shillong has also invited best doctors from all over India to visit the hospitals in the state and recommend what can be done to improve them. See how IIM Shillong is making a difference...
Changing scenario
At a time when the country is rocked by scams, such as the Emaar scam conceived by top executives and pass-outs of best business schools in India, it is a relief that Indian Institutes of Management is now paying more attention to how they are impacting the society.
In the multi-crore Emaar-APIIC township scam, CBU has chargesheeted Emaar MGF CEO Srikanth Joshi, who is an alumnus of IIT Delhi as well as IIM Ahmedabad; G.V. Vijay Raghavan, who is finance head of Emaar MGF and a chartered accountant; and Shravan Gupta, an alumnus of the prestigious SRCC, Delhi. Read more about the Emaar scam...
However, not all IIM-A alumni can be blamed for the transgression of Mr. Joshi. Three IIM Ahmedabad graduates have recently launched a month-long online competition to build gaming applications for the education sector through their startup - Educational Initiatives (EI). Titled 'Desafio', the event encourages college students to develop online or offline games, interactive tools and applications calls for college students to develop online or off line games, applications and other interactive tools to help school students learn concepts or skills better.
The scams as well as the noble initiatives taken by IIMs and its alumni are a reminder that Knowledge is Power and it is up to us to use it in the right direction.
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