9Celebrating 90 Glorious Years Annual Report SHRI RAM COLLEGE OF COMMERCE Founder of the College SIR SHRI RAM 1884-1963 Shri Ram College of Commerce Annual Report 2016 9Celebrating 90 Glorious Years Mr. Piyush Goyal, Mr. Ajay S Shriram, distinguished members of the Governing Body, illustrious alumni, guests, students, dear colleagues and friends: My warm greetings on the Annual Day of the College. We are fortunate to have in our midst Mr. Piyush Goyal, the Hon'ble Union Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy. A strong communicator who understands the media well, Mr. Goyal looked after all the party's advertising campaign and the social media during the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. Mr. Goyal has earlier been an investment banker and advised top banking professionals on management strategies and growth opportunities. In the past two years, he has already turned around state-run Coal India, tackled chronic power shortages and backed renewable sources of energy. We welcome you, Sir. We also extend a very warm welcome to our Chairman, Mr. Ajay S Shriram. He is a visionary who looks upon education as an investment in the future of the country. In the past, whenever it came to providing resources to further our quest for excellence, he has always come through. We count on your continuing support in the times to come, Sir. As the College enters the 90th year of its existence, we must salute the foresight of our founder, Sir Shri Ram, who understood almost a century ago the role of wealth creation and management in nation building. Deep down, he realized the importance of moving a step at a time, and therefore started so modestly in 1926. That modest beginning has now brought us to this august day. Students have always been the biggest strength of SRCC. Their intelligence and hard work has enabled SRCC to retain its position on top, thus maintaining its course to becoming the College of global choice. Let us put our hands together for our students whose achievements we applaud with great pride. It's our great pleasure to announce that Ayush Mittal is the overall topper of the GBO programme. Ipshita Aggarwal is the overall topper of the B Com Hons programme. Hardik Wadhwa has topped the BA Hons Economics programme overall. Indeed our students have worked very hard to keep the flag of SRCC flying high. Likewise, in the extra- curriculars, a heroic performance by Mrityunjay Sharma won him a place in the Guiness Book of World Records for playing continuously on the keyboards for 127 hours. The College is proud to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the student achievers in the printed report. None of this would have been possible without the able guidance of the faculty in these challenging times of flux. We therefore must applaud the efforts of the faculty who have shown such remarkable adaptability and delivered quality instruction in times of intense syllabi, course and | Annual Report 2015-16 scheme revisions. The administrative staff has done a wonderful job of liaising with the University and the UGC in these times of change. We would like to place our appreciation on record. As the country moves forward on the path to development, attempting the herculean task of carrying its people along, newer challenges keep emerging every moment. The needs of the people, its industry, its services sector keep changing. The University also keeps evolving its examination scheme, pedagogy and content to meet and exceed the current and future requirements of the country. The titration of the content to arrive at the optimal syllabus during successive academic sessions has placed immense demands on the faculty and students. The CBCS is the latest effort to find this perfect mix. In line with the vision of the CBCS, student mobility and inter- disciplinarity, the College has set up an Internal Quality Assurance Cell to enhance the best practices and quality of learning. Currently the Cell is examining ways in which a switch could be made from rote learning to interactive activity based learning and to replace podium teaching with participative learning. We intend to actively move away from text book learning to research based learning, including field work, case studies, project work etc. From our library resources to College Magazine, dramatics to debating, literary and artistic pursuits showcase the rich vibrancy of our talent pool. We need to give a structured format to these cross disciplinary pursuits by actively embracing the provisions of the CBCS, and offering a greater range of electives, to bring innovation to the learning process. The CBCS has, theoretically, enabled a mechanism for credit transfer across Universities. Once the modalities are worked out, the long pursued vision of the College, of letting our students do a part of their courses in specialized institutions and Universities abroad could finally be fulfilled. Over an extended period of time, SRCC has put in place various MOUs with partner institutes and universities abroad. Several international conferences were co-hosted with reputed Universities in the USA and Africa. The effort to reignite those linkages now has begun in earnest. Soon, it would be possible to see students and visiting faculty members of various nationalities in the SRCC campus, and to see many of our students and teachers in our partner institutes abroad. Closer home, the College will now pursue the formal declaration of the rigorous and demanding Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Operations as a Masters in Business Administration programme. The College is considering introducing management studies at the under- graduate level. We are hopeful that the University of Delhi will stand by the College in this endeavor. Under the aegis of the Centre for Professional Development, the College has been conducting focused short term courses for the students. We have organized faculty development programmes, workshops, and Shri Ram College of Commerce | 2 specialized lecture sessions. We are in the process of putting in place the ground work for offering Executive Development Courses, Customised Training Programmes, Consultancies etc. The college has initiated grants for faculty research, and for publications in national and international journals. SRCC faculty and students can also avail of grants to present papers at seminars and conferences in India and abroad. Women's Development Cell was inaugurated in October 2015 to formally place on agenda women's development issues like sexual harassment, domestic violence, female foeticide, trafficking etc. This has been an year where the College has witnessed student interaction with an extraordinary number of distinguished visitors from all walks of life. We thank the Students Union and the numerous Societies for their keen interest in extra-curricular activities, and their phenomenal organizational ability. Among the notable visitors to the College were Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways. Mr. Jayant Sinha, Hon'ble Minister of State for Finance, Government of India, Mr. Rajnath Singh, Hon'ble Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Rajat Sharma, Chairman & Editor-in-chief, INDIA TV, Mr. Adi Godrej, Chairman of 118 years 'young' Godrej Group, Mr. GM Rao, Founder and Group Chairman, GMR Group, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Mr. D Shivakumar, CEO of Pepsico India, Shri P. Chidambaram, Former Union Finance Minister, SriSri Ravishankar, Founder, Art of Living Foundation, Mr. Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi, Ms. Shiela Dixit, Ex Chief Minister, Delhi and Ex Governor, Kerala, Mr. Javed Akhtar, Writer and Poet, Ms. Medha Patkar, Social Activist and Founder of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Mr. Rishi Kapoor, Bollywood actor and Mr. Suresh Raina, Cricketer. This is by no means an exhaustive list. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Since the College believes in imparting holistic education, sports and games are given due importance. We congratulate Nishant Malhotra for being awarded the title of Arena Grandmaster by the President of World Chess Federation (FIDE) Mr. Kirsen Ilyumzhinov 2016. The Men's basketball team won the Inter College Tournament at the University of Delhi, at the Festival of Youth Sport SRCC, and at BITS Pilani. Not to be outdone, the women's team were placed first in Festival of Youth Sport (SRCC) and first in Dr. Bharat Ram LSR Invitation. They were winners of the YMCA Inter College Tournament. In table tennis, Dev Khandelwal, Himanshu Jindal, Nishaad Shah, Aayush Tayal and Mahima Kalra won prestigious championships. In women's swimming, Divya Satija, Priyanka Priyadarshni, Anjali Nair, 3 | Annual Report 2015-16 Kavya Anand and Aashna Monga won several gold medals in various competitions through the country. Rahul Sharma among the men won several gold medals. In hockey, Vikas Dahiya was awarded the Best Goal Keeper in Junior Asia Hockey Championship held at Quantan, Malaysia. We are proud to acknowledge your constructive contribution to sports. Work is on to make the College website CMS based and more responsive. It should be ready in time for admissions to the coming session. The Placement Cell worked tirelessly through the year and ensured more than 300 placements for different profiles with about 50 renowned companies. We applaud their effort. Under a UGC initiative, remedial classes are being conducted in various subjects for students who feel the pressure getting to them. Our students are toppers from every state of the country. The alumni are spread across several fields that go beyond business: Mr. Arun Jaitley, Mr. Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Mr. Gulshan Grover, Mr. Ashok Dilwali and Mr. Siddharth Yog are some of the notable names that come to mind. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the faculty, staff and students for their contribution in maintaining SRCC as a dream destination.