The Indian School of Business (ISB) launched the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise on February 7, 2015. The Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise is funded and supported by Dr. Thomas Schmidheiny. The inauguration of the new Centre coincided with the Fifth Asian Invitational Conference on Family Business being held at the ISB and witnessed the participation of many dignitaries like Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group and Chairman of the ISB Board and Dr Thomas Schmidheiny, Chairman, Spectrum Value Management; at the event.

The new Centre is an expansion over the Thomas Schmidheiny Chair for Family Business, which was established in 2006. Over the years, the Chair has contributed significantly to the growing body of research on various aspects of family business, such as governance, leadership, professionalization, role of women in family businesses and entrepreneurship. "Trust can be a source of significant competitive advantage to a family business," says Adi Godrej.
The Centre has been established with the objective of creating sustainable family enterprises and institutions, strengthening the custodianship role of business families and other stakeholders, which in turn will create value for the economy and the society. Some of the new areas that the Centre will focus on are wealth management, philanthropy, developing mentors for family businesses, managing family business boards, and research on global family enterprises. The ongoing activities will include research, case studies, training, teaching, external engagement and institution building.


JGU Opens Gates for Afghan Students

Afghanistan delegation of women parliamentarians and civil society leaders, visited the OP Jindal Global University recently to discuss opportunities for higher education for students, and in particular women students from Afghanistan. In an effort to strengthen people-to-people linkages between India and Afghanistan, the OP Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat, Haryana, announced 100 percent scholarship for 5 girls and 50 percent scholarship for all students from Afghanistan. "The purpose of the scholarship program is to encourage bright Afghan students who would otherwise be unable to access quality higher education," says Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, JGU.