Odisha HRD

HDF (Human Development Foundation) making a B-School with difference

April 5th, 2008

The Chairman of HDF is Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Ph.D in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Among other credentials, Dhanada is the state coordinator of Pratham, an AID Saathi, SEEDs board member and a decent human being. He is the Chairman of the Human Development Foundation (HDF), which is in the process of establishing a business school with difference. With him at the helm of the HDF School of management, HDF’s vision of "an empowered and proactive community enriched by quality human resources" and mission of "facilitating a participatory movement to strengthen development initiatives by promotion of quality human resources and encouragement of shared leadership", and with Dhanada as the chairman of the board of trustees of HDF, I think this B-School will not only be a top-notch B-School in the country but will also be a B-School with difference. To understand what I mean by a B-school with difference, let me copy and past the Chairman’s message below.

Dear prospective students;

Welcome to HDF School of Management!

As you consider your choices for higher education in Management Studies, I would like you ponder for a moment about the kind of institution that you would like to spend two precious years of your life in. As you look at the options I am sure you will realise that you are faced with two very stark choices. On one hand you have public sector institutions offering programs at affordable costs to students selected in highly competitive admission process. It is no doubt that some of these institutions are world-class. Unfortunately, most of the public sector institutions provide poor environment for overall growth of the individual in the sense that they lack the entrepreneurial spirit which is reflected in weak placement effort, lack of up-to-date curriculum, weak industry linkage and so on. These aspects are more pro-actively addressed by the second group of growing number of institutions promoted by edupreneurs in the last one and half decade. However, it may not be an exaggeration to say that most of these second set of institutions are characterised by high fees, unethical commercialisation, lack of transparency and poor quality.

In the above scenario, Human Development Foundation (HDF) is making an attempt to create a third alternative where the best characteristics of public and self-financed education can be offered to the students. The Foundation itself is based on the deep concern of a set of individuals for the over-all development of the society through creation of high quality and ethical human resource to tackle our myriad problems. The School of Management is but one of the several ventures to offer students high quality education at a modest fee. It is driven by highly qualified and motivated faculty. It provides opportunity to students for exposure to social sector development projects for hands-on feel for one’s responsibility towards society beyond career aspirations. Thus, it aims to create a balanced, competent and wholesome individual equipped with the best tools of the trade, ready to engage with the society be it through the corporate sector or through the development sector.
The vision of the foundation, ‘an empowered and pro-active community’, can only be achieved by creation of high quality human resource on a scale matching the enormity of our future needs. We believe that through our passion for this vision, hard work, team effort and dedication we will create an environment where you can achieve your true potential as a management professional of highest caliber ready to take on the world.

I look forward to meeting you in near future.

Dhanada Kanta Mishra, Ph. D. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),Human Development Foundation,Other Management institutions and programs,Pratham