In the western region, Mr. Partha Ghose, PMP, a Champion Advisory Committee (CAC) member, had been pursuing advocacy efforts at SIES College of Management Studies, Nerul for a while that helped 10 operations management students complete their formal training for Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® certification on 2 February. He also addressed a larger group of students on 3 February on project management that triggered interest in rest of the students and professors to learn about the CAPM® credential. The students who completed the training now intend to take the CAPM® exam.

In the southern region, associate CAC member, Mr. Sai Prasad, PMP, delivered a two-hour session on ?Value of Project Management and CAPM® Credential? at S. A. Engineering College, Chennai on 4 February. The session, attended by around 200 final year engineering students, focused on three areas ? project selection, planning, and monitoring project progress, and value of the CAPM® credential and the procedure to apply.

PMI India Champion designate, Ms. Dipti Trivedi, PMP, strengthened the project management advocacy efforts in the automotive industry by conducting an interactive session on ?Project Management Best Practices for the Automobile Industry? on 15 February. Mr. Kanchan Kumar Biswas, head - learning &development, TACO House, Pune, delivered the welcome speech. Around 18 automobile engineers from different functional departments of Tata Motors attended the session. The participants ranged from freshers to engineers with significant field experience. Ms. Trivedi shared her experience and lessons learned in managing projects in the automotive industry. She underlined the power of standard PMI methodologies in managing projects to achieve objectives within the defined scope, cost, and time. She also spoke about various PMI certifications for career growth and knowledge enhancement, and conducted an informative session on the importance of PMI credentials at Cybage Software Services, Pune, her current employer.

In Chennai, PMI India Champion designate, Mr. M. Manikandan, PMP, conducted a five-hour interactive session on ?Path breaking practices of Six Sigma, Lean and Project Management? on March 8 at Sathyabama University. The session was inaugurated by Dr. Venkataraman, a celebrated scientist and associate director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). As many as 22 scientific officers from the quality assurance department of IGCAR Kalpakkam attended the session.

In Sivakasi, PMI India Champion designate, Mr. Shanmuga Velayutham, PMP, presented on ?Project Management and Career path? to students of Arasan Ganesan Polytechnic College. The lecture elaborated on the key concepts of project management, while giving an introduction to various chapter activities, volunteering initiatives, memberships, and certifications offered by PMI India.
PMI India Champion designate, Mr. Kalyan Sathyavada, PMP, ITIL, conducted a one-day PMP® workshop for managers. The participants included employees from organizations like Wipro, EA, Ness Technologies, STC, Semantic Space, Ramco and NTT Data. The session touched upon the 10 key knowledge areas and 47 work processes, included mock tests for the participants and ended with information on PMI credentials, the advantages of becoming a PMI member, and ways to maintain credentials.

Another PMI India Champion designate, Mr. Abhishek Sharma, presented a paper on ?Constraints in your project? Not a problem ? INNOVATE!!? The paper highlighted the importance of constraints in projects, how to look at them positively, and identify opportunities to innovate with constraints.

Mr. B. Sai Prasad, PMP, also delivered a three-day workshop on Microsoft Project 2013 to scientists at the ONGC Geodata Processing & Interpretation Centre in Dehradun on 28-30 March. The workshop, in collaboration with PMI India, is part of an initiative to see research work as projects and use Microsoft Project for planning, tracking, monitoring project progress to forecast the total cost and effort, and improve resource utilization.

(Contributed by PMI India Champion Mr. Sunil Telkar, PMP, MIMA).