Bihar – our motherland – has gone through a very difficult phase in last few decades/centuries. We have moved from the glorious days of being at the heart of the ancient Indian Civilization, Education & Economy to periphery significance. While Biharis have done exceedingly well in traditional careers like Civil Services (IAS/IFS/IPS), Banking, Medical & Engineering, and recently Management related careers, Bihar hasn’t seen many opportunities within Bihar in non-Govt. careers. As a result, in the last 30-40 years, we have seen Biharis migrate across Globe and within India for education, career and other reasons.

We might be spread across world or remote corners of world but our hearts still lie in our motherland. Wherever we are, we miss the warmth of our Bihari culture and regret the untapped potential of Bihar’s Talent Pool and resulting under-development of our motherland. We do pay occasional visits to meet our families, for festivals, social occasions etc. but feel that we can and should do more. No matter how well we do in our personal careers & life, we will never feel proud unless and until Bihar – our “extended family” – does well.

Bihar has to change for the better and needs some payback from it sons & daughters. To create awareness towards this purpose, there are various online groups, which are active in different areas. Some of the online groups on yahoo are Bihari, Coolbihari, Biharbrains, WorldBihariForum, NonResidentBiharis, BiharisInMedia, Golghar and many more on Orkut.

Between Diwali & Chath many of the non-resident Biharis will converge in Bihar from across India and world. They have planned an informal career seminar in Patna with help from all online & offline groups. Primary agenda is to provide an opportunity for students of +2 and higher level to get some insights from people who are already in Industry and to provide an opportunity to ask career questions in an informal and friendly setting. Depending on response to this initiative, we can make it a half-yearly or yearly event on a grand scale. We also plan to come up with an online discussion forum so that students have access to experts from across the Globe on a real time basis.

Venue: B N College, Patna Date: 25-October-2006

Agenda


10:00 - 10:15 Introduction and What the whole event is all about
10:15 - 10:45 New Career Paths from HR Perspective
10:45 - 11:30 Career Paths in Management / CAT-XLRI-ISB and beyond
11:30 - 12:00 Higher Studies options abroad
12:00 - 12:30 Careers in Media and Mass Communication
12:30 - 13:00 Open Source Software Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
13:00 - 13:10 Introduction to the Career Brochure prepared by Bihari Group
13:10 - 13:15 Closing Note
13:15 - 14:00 One to One Interaction with Students
14:00 Wind – up


Look forward to an invigorating day with you!

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Ajit Chouhan: Ajit is working as Business Partner-HR with Infosys Technologies Limited in Mysore. Ajit has a Post Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management from XLRI and also has a Master’s degree in PMIR from Patna University. He is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project. Ajit's expertise lies in Performance Management, Career Development, Talent Retention, and Human Resource Information Systems. Ajit is owner of the Cool Bihari group and also Cool Bihari blog ,the first blog dedicated to Bihar. Ajit is a member of Patna University PMIR Alumni Group, and XLRI Alumni Network. He is the owner of an International HR group, HR Funda, having over 800 members from HR Fraternity. He also writes an HR focused blog, HR Funda .He hosts “The Job Shop” that is dedicated to listing of HR opening in India. Ajit is also involved with Local Bihar level NGO’s which are actively working with destitute children’s and slum dwellers.

Atul Kumar: Atul is AVP at Genpact located in Danbury, CT. Atul did his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Prior to his current role, Atul served in various roles with GE Commercial Finance, and GE Capital International Services. He has significant work experience in Europe. He is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project. Atul is a member of World Affairs Forum, IIMUSA and IIMA and various Bihari groups including AN College Patna Alumni group. He is also associated with Bihar and Patna focused developmental/education projects. Atul also blogs at www.atultech.blogspot.com

Chandan Singh: Chandan is Executive Director at Greenpower India, an organization focused on environment and Tigers, based out of Patna. He is heading the Project Similipal along with WWF-Orissa at Similipal Tiger reserve, Orissa. Chandan is credited with developing country’s first polythene based biogas plants, which have been installed in Mayurbhunj district in Orissa. A Civil and environmental engineer by qualification, Chandan also has a bachelor’s degree in Computer science. Prior to Greenpower, Chandan worked as the Project engineer at FANUC GE at Bangalore. He is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project and presently its member secretary. He has undertaken some successful international projects on renewable energy and bio diesel production with ‘Taking IT global’ (http://www.takingitglobal.org/), MBR (Mayurbhunj Biosphere Research). Chandan is also a member of coolbihari and bihari.org.

Mayank Krishna: Mayank is Sales Manager at Pidilite Industries Limited. He did MBA from IMT Ghaziabad. He is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project. He was awarded CRISIL Young Thought Leader award in 2003. Mayank is a prolific writer and has some published articles in publications like The Economic Times, Times of India, Indiainfoline, etc. He also writes a business management blog, Logical String, at http://www.mayankkrishna.blogspot.com/. He is an active member of the Cool Bihari group.

Rahul Kumar Barnwal: Rahul is Manager at Siemens Power Engineering Limited in Gurgaon. Prior to his current role, Rahul served as Executive Engineer at Larsen & Tourbo Limited in Baroda. Rahul has a B Tech from NIT, Surat and his core expertise includes Power Plant Engineering co-ordination & management. Rahul is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project.

Rajiv Vidyarthi: Rajiv is a senior consultant with Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd. Rajiv completed his B Tech from IIT Delhi and MBA from IIM Lucknow. Rajiv's expertise includes business analysis, proposal preparation, project bidding, market research and new product development. Rajiv is a moderator and core group member of the largest Bihar based groups "Bihari".

Saroj Kumar: Saroj is Senior Consultant at Satyam Computers located in Fremont, CA. Saroj attended Regional Engineering College, Trichy where he studied Production Engineering and earned a Bachelors degree. Saroj is moderator of the Bihari group. Web:http://bihariworld.blogspot.com/

Samir Misra: Samir is System Architect at IBS SafeWorld and based out of Australia. Samir has over 10 years of experience in IT and Technology solution in reputed organizations like Cognizant Technology Solutions, PSI Data Systems Limited, iGate Global Solutions, etc. Samir is a member of various groups like IT Pro Australia, Bihari, Bihar Brains, Patna Rice.org and Cool Bihari group. Samir is a Master’s in Computer Science from IGNOU. He blogs at www.semanticdb.blogspot.com. Samir is currently pursuing MPhil (Masters by Research) on Semantic Database form University of Queensland (Brisbane).

Sweta Singh: Sweta is Program Coordinator with Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication New Delhi. She is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. She has worked as reporter with Doordarshan News and Aaj Tak in New Delhi. She is also the moderator of a couple of online groups, the most active being the “biharis in media” group on Yahoo.

Thakur Vikas Sinha: Thakur Vikas is a Sr. VP at Polaris Software based out of Mumbai. He in an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and B Tech from IT BHU. Prior to his current profile, he has served in senior level position in reputed IT companies like Mphasis, and CMC Ltd. He is one of the founder members of the core group of Patna Rice Project and currently its chairman. He is a member of Bihari Org. He is a prolific writer on Bihar related issues and his articles are regularly published on the Patna Daily (http://www.patnadaily.com/) and the Cool Bihari Blog (www.coolbihari.blogspot.com).