The festival is a thriving mélange of case studies, business plan contests, paper presentations and strategy games. Last year, Ensemble 2007, with the theme India Unbounded: Unleashing the Tiger, saw 200 participants from the best b-schools in India battle for top honours and a prize money of around 7.5 lakh rupees.

The theme for Ensemble 2008 is Advantage India: The bird of gold spreads its wings. The Indian economy, with its technical prowess and its large talent pool, is poised for take off. It is consistently averaging GDP growth of about 8-9 pc, and the biggest companies of the world are queuing up to invest in the country. Ensemble 2008 is devoted to this bird of gold, with games and events organized around the opportunities and the potential that lie ahead. The Aditya Birla Group is the principal partner of the fest.

The showcase events of Ensemble 2008 are the Idea Summit and the newly-christened flagship game, Discessio Imperators. The Idea Summit is a panel discussion where eminent panellists from all walks of life share their experiences with b-school students. The topic for this year’s Idea Summit is India: Domestic & Global Inclusion for Sustainable Growth. The panellists are: Mr Y C Nanda, Chairman of Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd and ex-Chairman of Chairman of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); and Mr S.J.S. Swamidoss, Ex RBI Director. Mr Govindraj Ethiraj will be acting as the moderator.
In keeping with XLRI’s image as a b-school run by students, the events of Ensemble 2008 have all been organized by the numerous committees on campus. The games vary across all business verticals, and enthusiasts of Finance, Marketing and Human Resources will all find something for them at Ensemble 2008. Apart from these, there are events for adventure-lovers, budding entrepreneurs and quizzing enthusiasts. The preliminary rounds of most of these events have already been held, and b-school students from all over the country are converging on the XLRI campus in Jamshedpur.

However, Ensemble 2008 is not an ‘All work and no play’ event. The fest will culminate on 26 January with a performance by Parikrama, one of the best rock bands in the country. Not only that, the 27 of January will see XLRI hosting Astarte, the cultural festival of the institute. For more information, please visit http://ensemble-xlri.com/ and www.astarte-xlri.com