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Published : Tuesday, 09 June, 2015 12:05 PM

The batch was carefully selected after a rigorous process of selection that involved a written test and interview.

The 3rdbatch of EFPM has working executives interested in pursuing a career in research and academics. They are from diverse backgrounds and companies like O.P. Jindal Institute of Technology; NTPCLtd; M. D. Solutiuons; Central Excise, Raipur; Amazon, Bangalore; Ministry of Finance, Central Excise & Customs, Govt. of India; Idea Cellular Ltd. Most of the scholars work at senior levels in these companies (Vice President, General Managers, etc.). They work in different domains in their area like marketing, HR, IT and Finance.

            IIM Raipur

Prof. Vinita Sahay, chairperson of the FPM program welcomed the research scholars and shared the vision of IIM Raipur in starting the program and the rigors it entails. She exhorted the research scholars to produce, through various research techniques, the most current, actionable insights for transforming the industry. Executive Fellow Program in Management (EFPM) is a unique doctoral program in management at IIM Raipur specifically designed for working professionals with more than 7 years of work experience in industry.

Participants from industry and academia join the program to finish their fellowship (equivalent to PhD). The program is designed in such a way that working executives need not leave their jobs to further their education. The program has two components. The first component of the program consists of an on-campus course work involving a series of courses followed by a comprehensive examination. The second component of the program consists of thesis work. The thesis work involves undertaking research under the guidance of a faculty guide. The program should be seen as‘training’ for research that prepares the scholar to understand the research process and imbibe a research orientation in his workplace.

There is an acute shortage of trained faculty members in the country. A large number of faculty members in the country are without PhD. The PhD to non-PhD ratio of faculty members in the US is 92.94%. It is less than 30% in India.  The quality of most Indian PhD is also a suspect and only a handful of B-schools have the necessary infrastructure (Guides, research environment and facilities) to deliver good quality programs.

Stressing on the imperative need to fill in this gap, Prof. B.S.Sahay, Director, IIM Raipur pointed to the important role IIMs are playing in providing the country with much needed trained faculty who are not only able teachers but also able researchers. Prof. B.S.Sahay, Director, IIM Raipur, thus encouraged these great minds from the industry to develop independent thought process and fuel their research thinking and practices for contributing to the field of management. He urged on them to work on contemporary issues of national and international importance and create knowledge through high quality research. He shared several examples of research projects that the scholars could take up.

Later the students interacted with faculty members and learnt about their perspectives on management research. The faculty members shared that quality research differentiates a good faculty from a great one and a good school from a great one. They stressed on quality research by pointing to statistics about the total number of documents published from India. While the number increased from 20,600 (citable documents 20,312) in 1996 to 98,081 (citable documents 91,366) in 2012, the quality of documents declined as the average citation per document published from India came down to 0.26 in 2012 from 9.91 in 1996.

The EFPM research scholars also met the other FPM research scholars enrolled at IIM Raipur and had an interaction with them. In the end, the research scholars were introduced to vast e-resources available at the IIM Raipur library.

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