INDIA BEHIND THE WEST
BY 20/30 YEARS IN START-UPS
He speaks so softly that it is hard to decipher what he is saying even if you are just a few feet away. But his
colleagues vouch for the fact that he is a hard task master, who moves at breakneck speed and expects others
to do the same. A PhD in Economics & Ethics from KU, WWF, Ingolstadt, Germany, Prof. Dr. Fr. Paul
Fernandes, S.J., Vice Chancellor of Xavier University Bhubaneswar (XUB) is also the Director of the Xavier
Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), the flagship venture of the University.
In this interview with Sandeep Sahu of Outlook, Fr Paul dwells on a host of issues including the state of
B-schools in the country, their role in developing a culture of entrepreneurship in the country and the future
plans of the University.
n The mission statement on your
website says “Education in the spirit of
‘Magis’”. What exactly does this ‘Magis’
stand for?
“Magis” is a Latin word, which means
“more”. You can acquire more knowledge.
It means a striving for greater excellence
in higher education. It is also about the
person acquiring greater capability in
whatever he or she is good at; about
identifying the most extraordinary qualityamong the 100 top B schools of the world.
It will be a four-year global BBA course,
the last of which the student can study in
France or any of Ivy League institutions.
The memorandum of understanding was
signed at the Indian embassy in Paris and
we are taking in the first batch of students
this academic session. We have also
started several futuristic programmes
under the School of Sustainability like the
MBA in Sustainability, Environmental
Management and Sustainable
Management, Natural Resource
Management and so on.n Where do you expect the pass outs
from these new age schools that you
just mentioned ending up in the job
market?
For Sustainability programs, an obvious
destination is the companies that have
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
divisions. But that is not the only avenue.
Take, for example, the energy sector
which needs technological solutions
to the problem of environment and
sustainability. Consultancy is another
avenue open to them because companies
are always looking for good advisoryProf. Dr. Fr. Paul Fernandes, S.J. ,
Vice Chancellor, Xavier University
Bhubaneswsarin the ordinary lives that we live; about
developing the leadership qualities in
the student. So, it’s a high quality higher
education institution.n There are so many B schools; some of
them much older than you and others
of relatively recent origin. Where would
you place XUB in the list of management
institutions in India?
It is a good question. XLRI is the oldest
management institution in the country.
When we set up XIMB, we took the
DNA of XLRI, but we also borrowed
some elements of the IIM model so as to
blend the best of both the models. XIMB
is the oldest management institution
of the University. We have added the
Xavier School of Human Resource
management, which is a very specialized
school having the best of students and
faculty. Then we have the Xavier School
of Rural Management , among the best in
the business, which was ranked 19 in the
World by Eduniversal in 2018 and second
only to IRMA in the country. The latest
addition is the Xavier EmLyon Business
School (XEBS), which is an Indo-French
collaboration venture with EmLyon,- Prof. Dr. Fr. Paul Fernandes, S.J., Vice Chancellor, Xavier University Bhubaneswar