Dr. K. Raghu Naga Prabhakar, Director

Dr. Raghu Naga Prabhakar Kalepu is an academic-cum-management professional with an accomplished educational background. He holds a Bachelor of Computer Applications, MBA in Hospital Management from Osmania University and MBA in Marketing Management from Acharya Nagarjuna University and M.Phil in Business Administration from Annamalai University. He has obtained a PG Diploma in Planning and Project Management from the Hyderabad Central University and Ph.D. in Management Studies from Acharya Nagarjuna University. With more than 13 years of experience in Industry and Academics, Dr. Raghu is currently the Director of Aurora's Business School and heads the Placement, Admissions and Corporate Relations Division of the Aurora Group, Hyderabad.

In the west zone of Hyderabad, Punjagutta is an emerging industrial hub providing fresh graduates with the cream of job opportunities in a plethora of repudiated corporate firms. Situated near the twin bridge flyover of Punjagutta, Aurora Group is only a stone throw away from these thriving industries. In fact, for the past two decades, Aurora Group has been acting as an excellent feeder-service for the businesses to flourish by preparing ready-to-employ graduates. Enrolling more than 6,000 students every year, Aurora Group has become one of the largest private education bodies in South India, offering quality undergraduate and postgraduate level professional courses in Engineering, Management, Commerce, Science, Education, Law, Pharmacy, Architecture and Information Technology.

Aurora's Business School (ABS), the only management college under the Aurora Group for earning a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, has inherited all qualities of its parent institutions. "ABS is set up with a vision of crafting eco-sensitive global business leaders with human values to serve the emerging needs of the business. The students of this school have multiple advantages like the state-of-the-art campus, industry-oriented and internationally exposed faculty, all-around grooming, world-class teaching-learning practices, excellent placement opportunities, international vetting and so on," says Dr. K. Raghu Naga Prabhakar, Director, Aurora's Business School. Recognised by the AICTE, ABS offers two-year full-time PGDM with specializations including Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations and Supply Chain, Hospital Management and Rural Management. Catering to the demand of working professionals, the institute has been providing Executive PGDM for 15 months, a three-year part-time PGDM.

Operating amidst of buzzing businesses, today ABS is a beehive of professional activities. Dr. Raghu states, "Industry plays a key role in the functioning of our B-school. Our governing council members are drawn from the senior executives from the industry. They give valuable inputs for framing our curriculum." ABS has dynamic and regularly up to date syllabi, which is delivered through a finely crafted interactive and experiential teaching-learning methodology. "Our syllabus is the latest, comprehensive and is highly industry oriented. It is benchmarked with the curriculum of globally best B-school," adds Dr. Raghu. The curriculum of ABS supplemented with a number of add-on courses.

"Over 67 companies visit the ABS, recruiting 97 percent of its graduates from the campus by offering salaries ranging between Rs. 3.75 to Rs. 8.3 LPA"

"Our faculty members deliver content beyond the syllabus to cover updates on the business. They have past work experience in the industry and are well aware of the business education sector. We encourage them to go through various b-school surveys and reward for innovative suggestions for improving our business school's functioning," elaborates Dr. Raghu. Employing 17 PhD holders in a team of 53 faculty members, ABS is not less than any top-notch business schools in the country when it comes to the teaching arsenal. As a research-focused institution, ABS augments the learning experience of the students by bringing the latest knowledge into the classrooms. "We publish a quarterly journal entitled Aurora's Journal of Management, a monthly newsletter entitled Akshara and a monthly finance bulletin entitled Finscape regularly. Most of our faculty members are now engaged in research and publication," shares Dr. Raghu. At present, the research activities at the ABS are focused on Entrepreneurship, International HR and Business analytics. On the flipside, the institute also arranges international study tours every year for both students and faculty members. Last year's tour covered Singapore and Malaysia and this year's tour covered Dubai and Abu Dabhi. "The International Study Tours help students to understand the global context of business, to have international exposure and to understand business opportunities outside India. These, in turn, are helping our students in placements and entrepreneurship," opines Dr. Raghu.

ABS has also entered into tie-ups with the several organizations for giving add-on courses (STEP- THE HINDU), industrial visits and Internships, international travel (Thomas Cook), and pre-placement training (Berkedia, Directorate of Training and Placement, Aurora Consortium). Students benefit from such tie-ups in securing summer placements and final placements with reputed companies with decent packages and in undertaking Industrial visits and visits to top foreign universities and b-schools. "Each student is given formal pre-placement training of 160 hours duration in two different spells; one before internship placements and the other before final placements, to help them crack selection drives," claims Dr. Raghu.

Today, over 67 companies visit the ABS, recruiting 97 percent of its graduates from the campus by offering salaries ranging between Rs. 3.75 to Rs. 8.3 LPA. Karvy, Cafe Coffee Day, Bajaj Finserve, Deloitte, Franklin Templeton, IndusInd bank and Amazon are a few prominent recruiters to name among them. In addition to that, ABS encourages the students to become entrepreneurs through workshops and introducing courses of study on entrepreneurship. They have also signed MOU with NEN Wadhwani Foundation in this regard. "Now, our immediate goal is to secure 100 percent placements. In the long run, we want to become one among the top 5 b-schools of India," concludes Dr. Raghu.