Tata Steel Ideation Contest

# This post is created as requirement for MIS Course,Autumn Semester,VGSoM Batch of 2014, which will serve as a dual role of entry to the Tata Steel Ideation Contest and Assignment # 4 for the course

#This assignment was solved jointly by Happy Garg (12BM60103) and Shehzad Karkhanawala (12BM60065)

Objective:

Tata Steel is looking for an original idea that will use any aspect of digital technology (cloud, mobile, Android, IoS etc ) to create a application or platform that can be integrated with the strategic management requirements of the company. Since this is an ideation contest, no software need to be built but paper must contain the following sections.

1. Identify a need or a gap in the current management architecture of Tata Steel. Information available in the public domain can be used for this purpose.
2. Propose a solution that will show how the current gap can be closed or narrowed significantly
3. If possible give examples where a similar solution has or is being implemented.
4. List benefits -- economic or otherwise -- that will accrue to the company if it is implemented. Also identify potential problems or difficulties that need to be guarded against.
5. Provide  rough estimate of costs including people costs that the company would have to incur as a one time expense and as a regular expense.

The Solution which was required to be submitted as a presentation is as below:

Tata steel ideation from Happy Garg

Movie Review: Jab Tak Hai Jaan

Rating: 3/5

Needing 4 runs to complete a career average of a perfect 100 in Test Cricket, Don Bradman fell for a duck in his final innings. Eternal romance weaver Late. Yash Chopra Ji's swan song felt the same.

Jab tak hai jaan reeks of old scripts, it’s like a big crossword to locate the references to other Yash Raj movies. It borrows elements from Dil to Pagal Hai in Anushka’s character similar to Karishma Kapoor, the dance sequence Ishq Shava, Silsila in conversations of the two leading ladies, Daag  in the way Katrina comes back into Shahrukh’s life, Kabhi Kabhi and Zindagi na milegi dobara in the way Katrina comes to look for her fugitive mother played by Neetu Singh, the theme of the movie is reminiscent of Veer Zaara in which lovers sacrifice their years for each other’s well being  and the way Katrina doesn’t marry like Preity Zinta’s character in Veer Zaara.

Also one could find tit bits from English movies like Fifty first dates and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind in this.

The film is based on the threadbare premise of a promise to God which becomes the basis of the entire conflict just like Rab ne bana di jodi where again the almighty played a major role in deciding the fate of love and literally so. The British police allowing a common man to diffuse a bomb while being mute spectators themselves and an accident which happens twice seem unconvincing.

Jab tak hai jaan belongs to Shahrukh Khan who single handedly uplifts the flawed script through his never ending charm, animated emotions and his eyes which speak through unwritten verses. He delivers aces after the other in perfect romanticized resonance in one scene and with a hard to handle stubborn army men in other. The emotions of the unrequited love conveyed by his character of Major Samar Anand are surreal and reminds of his star performance from Devdas. His ability to handle related roles with different emotions and expressions speak volumes about his class.

Brand Shahrukh Khan was build over the years through great scripts like Darr, Bazigar, DDLJ, KKHH, K3G and more, and now filmmakers are using that brand power, charisma and acting genius to steer forward average scripts like RNBDJ, OSO and JTHJ.

The other highlight of the movie is the crackling chemistry between Katrina and Shahrukh, which also marks the first on screen kiss of Shahrukh Khan after 20 years. But, they don’t seem out of place in this movie. Anushka Sharma also does her role of a happy go lucky girl who falls for Major Samar, with utmost élan and confidence. The incredibly tight screenplay of the movie also keeps you engaged throughout the film. Watch for the brilliance of Yash Ji who infests likeableness and his magic touch to the entire film which helps the audience to look beyond the shortcomings here and there.

The songs are melodious and go well with the script but they easily won't be rated among the best works of either Rahman or Gulzar. The cameos of Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Neetu Singh and Sarika are well put and add dimensions and weight to the storyline and help it move forward.

The use of the title song in the ending credits which was supposed to be shot in Swiss Alps is brilliant and a fitting tribute to the maestro.

Overall, it would be a treat for Shahrukh’s fans, me being one of them, because he can make any ordinary film seem extra ordinary and that’s not just because of his star persona but through his unmatched acting calibre and years of industry experience. At even the age of 46 he gives run for money to the younger generation with his magnetic charisma.

Watch Jab tak hai jaan as a romantic saga without paying much heed to the lapses, you will definitely find it endearing. Think of it as poetry on celluloid allowing for generous bits of poetic freedom.

All about "Purvodaya 2012": Annual business conclave of VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur

When you realize what obstacles really are, you soon realize that you are already empowered enough to get to your dreams, you just have to have an enormous amount of will power. People who make things happen, people who actually make their dreams a reality aren't any better than you, and they just learned how to turn the thoughts and hopes they had into a reality.

It all began with a dream, a vision, which few of the brave hearts of VGSoM had for their college. Days of sweat and storm, opposition from a lot of others still couldn’t undermine their souls and thus was born PURVODAYA. The annual management festival of VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur was incepted this year in November but the seeds of the brilliant idea of having a single business conclave combining the best of “Madison Avenue” and “Saamanjasya” the previous events of VGSoM, were sown much before.

Purvodaya meaning the rise of the East, added another feather in VGSoM’s cap, as the motto of Purvodaya goes Believe, Rise, Achieve. We truly believed, we rose to the occasion and yes we achieved, achievement which goes beyond tangible things but which has lot to do in contributing towards building VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur’s brand as a force to reckon with in the years to come.

Purvodaya comprised of the traditional “Kalaakar Vikas” of VGSoM which had artisans coming from neighboring states to portray their works combined with plethora of events in almost all management domains be it marketing, finance, operations, consulting or entrepreneurship.

Purvodaya began on 2^nd November 2012 with a glistening opening ceremony which had attractions like performance of the Western technology music society. The Director of IIT Kharagpur inaugurated the 2 day affair. After that there was a fun event called Fission for the students in which teams had to multiply Rs.100 to as much as they can in a short span of one hour. The coming two days were packed with events which contributed to the learning and development of not just the participants or organizers but also any person who was even remotely associated with the scheme of things.

In the marketing domain events like Leader’s Challenge which focused on diversification strategy of a product, Beddazled effective use of social media for marketing, Quizzard and Support my school ruled the roost. In finance private equity events Lucri Causa, M&A strategy Synergie and Trading events in form of Bull’s eye were there. Other events Srijan – the B-Plan contest, Goldratts’ cage- operations strategy, Vishleshan-IT Strategy, Ghaasphoos – taking grassroot innovations to a newer level, Shaastharth – Parliamentry debating events were hugely popular. We also had plethora of online events like Wired – promoting a social cause, Shutterbugs – photography contest etc.

In addition to the events there were workshops Anugraha-The entrepreneurship talk, Kaaryashaala– The consulting wokshop and Abhisamaya-The Scope talk.

Purvodaya saw participation from renowned B-Schools of the country like IIMs, IITs, IMT, XIMB and the rest, it was a huge success and reinstated VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur’s image as a leading B-School of the country. Apart from the students, faculties and other people involved in the event a big role for the success of Purvodaya was of the sponsors without whom it could never have reached the scale it did, some of our generous sponsors included State Bank of India, SIDBI, Ministry of Textiles, Tata Steel, Steris, Coca Cola NDTV support my school, Perkins, Rang De, CoolAge, FLIP, The Financial Express and Spykar.

Purvodaya provide the ideal training ground for young managers and future business owners to sharpen their knives, hone their skills and test their wits against their peers before heading out for the actual battle. Apart from the high-intensity clash for supremacy, Purvodaya featured wisdom talks and panel discussions featuring the best from the world of business, eminent academicians and bureaucrats.

The virgin rays of Purvodaya will shine over the eastern skies for times to come and will return next year much bigger and better.

Student support system: IIT Kgp

#this post is created as a requirement for Assignment # 2 Implement and Deploy a Business Application which is due on 20th October 2012, MIS Course, VGSoM Batch of 2014, Autumn Semester.
#screenshots have been added to aid the user or the evaluator



Business Problem:

Creating a support system for students of IIT Kharagpur where they can raise tickets which will go to the concerned authorities for solving.

Software Evaluated:

Open web messenger
Dolibarr
OrangeHRM
Trellis Desk
osTicket
HESK

Why did you select the particular software:

I started my project with a child's sense of curiosity, I wanted to evaluate a number of software packages, even If they didn't look much towards solving my problem.

Problem Faced: The X2 cpanel was allowing for at max 2 project installation at a time in the free version so had to delete the data for the evaluated softwares after testing them out.

Experience with other Softwares:

Open web Messenger: It is a live chat software, whereas I wanted a system in which messages can be sent by students and can be seen by admins at a later point also.

Dolibarr: Its a very detailed software package, in which several modules can be added and also third party contacts can be managed, it was way too detailed for a simple problem that I wanted to solve, I added a few modules in it but did not go beyond that.

OrangeHRM: Going by the name I was sure that it is not for the problem that I wanted to solve but wanted to explore an Human Resource Management software so installed it, It is a complete repository of all kinds of HR activities like Timesheet, applying leaves, recruitment mode etc.

Trellis Desk: Moved on to customer support systems to solve my problem, I first evaluated Trellis Desk, Its look and feel was good, but it was difficult to configure on admin perspective.

osTicket: It was a very simple ticket managing tool, but features such as category adding, extra fields in ticket requesting were missing, also it was giving some problems in sending the email with the error : #unable to load template.

HESK: finally I choose HESK because it suited all my requirements, It was simple to configure and it had knowledge bases and categories along with other things, it had these additional features.

1. One can create as many categories he wants.

2. Canned Response which allows you to pre create most responses and store them.

3. File attachments in queries and replies.

4. Knowledge Bases for storing related articles.

5. Anti-Spam checks.

6. Rating of articles.

7. Anti Spam check while submitting a ticket.

8. E-mail notifications for new tickets and responses.

9. Option of customising "Submit a Ticket" field.

10. Option to search your pre logged ticket.

11. Unlimited personal accounts for staff.

12. Simple interface for user and admin.

13. Auto closing of tickets after X days.

14. Assigning individual permissions to all users by admin.

15. Lets the admin see the reports for a particular period.

Customizations done in the software

1. I created 9 categories in which student can register a complaint or raise a ticket namely, more categories can also be added

General

Hostels

Mess

Academics

Department

Fests

Gymkhana

Grievances

Guest House.

2. Added extra fields in student ticket registration like:

Gender

Hall of Residence

Course

Year

Contact Number

3. Created a category head for each user and assigned individual permissions to those,however did not assign direct admin status to any of those, designed it in a way that each query would come to main admin first which is me and then I can assign it to any category head.

4. Created a few canned responses which would be sent to student for ease of the category heads.

5. Added few knowledge articles, many more related articles can be added to it.( citation: wikipedia.com)

6. Updated admin profile and configured it in a way that mails go to particular admin ID only.

7. Being an admin I can change the ticket in many ways:

Assign the ticket to any category head.

Delete, modify, close the ticket.

Change priority of the ticket.

Search for a ticket according to various categories.

See the tickets in waiting, new, replied, resolved, on hold and progress categories.

Link to the working application

"IIT KGP Student Support"

To login as a admin click on Go to Administration panel on the bottom of the page and enter the following

Admin Login ID: admin
Admin Password: adminpass

The greatest advice ever

"GEETA SAAR...From GOD to YOU"

लफ्ज़...

क़ैद से हो गये हैं लफ्ज़,
मेरे कलम की स्याही में,
पूछ रहे हैं मुझसे,
मेरा वजूद, मेरी पहचान.

कहा मैने लफ़्ज़ों से,
मुझे यूँ दगा ना दो,
नया नया शायर हूँ मैं,
ऐसी सज़ा ना दो.

वजूद और पहचान,
तो बाकी है बनाना,
थोड़ा साथ दो तुम मेरा,
तो हो जाए यह काम आसान.

लफ्ज़ सकुचाए,
थोड़ा मुस्कुराए,
थोड़ा इतराए,
और मुझसे बोले.

कहते यही सब शायर हैं,
फिर जाते हैं भूल,
अपनी ही बातों पे उनकी,
पड़ जाती है धूल.

तुम भी तो क़ैद करोगे,
अपनी नज़्म की बंदिश में,
जी लेने दो मधुर प्रवाह में,
जब तक ज़िंदा हैं.

लफ़्ज़ों का अभिमान देख,
थोड़ा मैं घबराया,
फिर मैने बड़ी निपुड़ता से,
उनको यह समझाया.

लफ़्ज़ों का मोल नहीं है,
स्याही के  तरण ताल में,
उनकी सही पहचान तो है,
किसी कविता के मायाजाल में.

लफ़्ज़ों का है बड़ा महत्व,
उसकी तुम पहचान करो,
लफ़्ज़ों की भाषा इस जग में,
तीखा तेज प्रहार है.

यही लफ्ज़ बन जाते अक्सर,
फूलों का उपहार  ,
यही लफ्ज़ रखते हैं खुद में,
तलवार की धार .

लफ्ज़ हंसकर बोले,
तुम जीते हम हारे,
पर तुम हो शायर नादान,
नहीं है तुम्हे गुमान.

होती नहीं लफ़्ज़ों के बस में,
संसार को बदलने की कुव्वत,
यह तो कवि की कल्पना हैं,
शायर का ख्वाब हैं.

कवि ही देता है लफ़्ज़ों को,
पंखों की उड़ान,
हम पर तू निर्भर ना रह,
बना खुद तू अपना मकाम.

©HG

Largest IITs, IIMs in India

This is a comparative study of the areas of the IITs and IIMs in India.This includes the old ones of which campuses have been established. This will give a fair amount of the idea of magnificence associated with these elite temples of learning.

IIT Kharagpur :  2100

IIT BHU: 1300

IIT Kanpur: 1055

IIT Guwahati: 700

IIT Madras:  620 

IIT Bombay: 550

IIT Roorkee: 356

IIT Delhi: 320

IIM Lucknow: 200

IIM Indore: 193

IIM Calcutta: 135

IIM Shillong: 120

IIM Ahmedabad: 106

IIM Bangalore: 100

IIM Kozhikode: 97

(all values in acres) 

(source: Wikipedia)

In addition to the above mentioned IITs and IIMs, there are 8 more new IITs and 6 new IIMs, the campuses of which are under construction and are being run in temporary campuses elsewhere.

The new IITs are situated in (Bhubaneshwar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Patna, Mandi, Ropar, Jodhpur) and new IIMs at (Ranchi, Rohtak, Raipur, Trichy, Udaipur, Kashipur).

Interestingly, Indore becomes the first city to have both IIT and IIM.