IIM-A centre to gender sensitise corporate employers

IN an attempt to resolve gender issues in corporate houses of the country as well as understand the diverse experiences of both men and women in the boardroom, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, has set up a Gender Resource Centre (GRC).

The GRC will focus on how such experiences impact the social, political and economic structures of society, its Chairperson, Asha Kaul said in Ahmedabad recently.

Kaul said the centre will look into forming policies, strategies, rules and regulations for men and women on a wide range of issues including use of language, behaviour patterns, sexual harassment or even salary structure.

"We at IIM-A had been thinking of establishing GRC for last one year. IIM-A is at a position where its voice will be heard in corporate houses and the government, and we will like to make a difference," Kaul said.

The GRC received formal approval at the last meeting of IIM-A board, headed by Chairman M K Narayanmurthy. The Centre has has 12 IIM-A faculty members.

Kaul said even though there were many organisations and academic institutions working in the field of gender equality, with focus on women, only a few of them have a "gendered" focus.

She added GRC would be different as it would study problems faced by both men and women.

Prof (Dr) K K Aggarwal, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and eminent IT expert, has been conferred with the Rajkumar Varshney Award in Systems Theory for the year 2006, instituted by the Systems Society of India (SSI).

The prestigious award, which carries a cash prize and citation, was bestowed on Prof Aggarwal, in absentia by the SSI, at the National Systems Conference (NSC-2006) held recently at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa.

The honour comes to Prof Aggarwal, in recognition of his contribution towards Reliability Analysis of Engineering Systems. He has been working in the area of Reliability Engineering for the last three decades and has published more than 200 papers in national and international journals on the subject. Judged as the Man of the Millennium by the American Biographical Institute, Prof Aggarwal has worked on several practical engineering systems for reliability studies such as High Power Amplifier for Satellite Communications, Instrument Landing System and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, among other things.  — TNS