• ISB Hyderabad ranked 12 in global b-school rankings by Financial Times
• IIM Indore Students go on ‘MP Darshan’
• 31st Marketing Fair held at XLRI
• Backwaters ’10 held at IIM Kozhikode

ISB ranked 12 in global b school rankings by Financial Times

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad has been ranked 12 in the global B-school rankings released today by the Financial Times, London. This is the third successive year that the ISB has featured among the top 20, in the list of top 100 B Schools in the world. Previously, ISB was ranked 15th in 2009 and 20th in 2008.

“We began with the idea of creating a school in India that would rank among the best in the world. Today, I am delighted that the ISB is consolidating its position as a top-ranked global business school. To receive this news on the eve of the completion of 60 years of the Indian Republic makes it all the more special. I congratulate the entire ISB community on this success”, said Rajat Gupta, Chairman, ISB.

Echoing this sentiment, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB said, “This is indeed a proud moment for the ISB. Our goal has always been to pursue excellence in education and research. As an outcome of this effort, we accept any ranking that we get with humility, and rededicate ourselves to this goal. I would like to thank our alumni, our faculty, students, staff, our board, our associate schools, industry and our well wishers for contributing to this continuing success.

The ISB was established in 2001 with the launch of its Post Graduate Program in Management (PGPM). From an initial class of 126 students, the school has grown successively over the years, and currently has 570 students in the class of 2010. The school has over 2300 alumni who are making a strong impact in business and industry. The school has also established itself as a leader in Executive Education through its program designed and delivered for private and public sector corporations, small and medium enterprises, and central and state governments. The ISB faculty research papers are consistently published by top ranked peer reviewed international journals.

After a successful first phase of growth, the ISB has now entered its second phase of growth and expansion. It recently launched its second Post Graduate Program in Management for Senior Executives (PGPMAX), which has generated a lot of interest among senior business professionals. It will soon set up its second campus in Mohali, Punjab. The first academic session at the ISB campus in Mohali is expected to commence in 2012.

IIM Indore Students go on ‘MP Darshan’

Groups of students from the first year PGP of IIM Indore went on ‘MP Darshan’ for about a week in which they visited different districts of Madhya Pradesh to understand ‘Bharat’, study various government schemes, identify rural problems and offer recommendations to the local authorities. Around 200 students went to 19 districts of MP such as Satna, Panna, Guna, Katni. Also, 50 students visited BSF camps in Amritsar, Kolkata and Siliguri.

The exercise was part of the ‘Government immersion’ program where students resided in districts and villages, analysed and tried to find solutions to the problems which include problems related to livelihood, rural economy and industries. As the students visited the districts at a time when the Panchayat elections were being held, they had an opportunity to experience the whole process first hand.

The students studied about various government schemes such as NREGA, Indira Awaas Yojna, Kapil Dhara and many more. They felt that the schemes laid out by the government were very inclusive in nature but their success depends on the ground level implementation. Gaurav Mathur, a member of a group who visited Dewas district said that the practical implementation is more difficult than what is on paper. The groups observed that the villagers were not very receptive towards the government schemes and it was difficult to create a sense of ownership for the government-developed property amongst them. A communication program to motivate villagers to develop a sense of ownership might go a long way in improving the effectiveness of the program.

Students also visited various self help groups formed under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana which provides assistance to the poor families living below the poverty line in rural areas for taking up self employment. The visit acted as an eye opener for the students, a majority of whom come from the urban India as they realized the value that the rural people give to basic amenities such as water, electricity etc. They also looked into the possibility of PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), a project of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Dr Kalam in his visit to IIM Indore had motivated students to develop PURA plan for different districts of Madhya Pradesh.

Border Security Forces also provided a lifetime opportunity to students of IIM Indore by inviting them to stay at their camps, observe their activities and learn about their hardships. Shreyas Panse, a student who visited Amritsar camp felt that the experience was exhilarating as they got a chance to learn the art of man-management of the highest degree.

Dr N Ravichandran, Director, IIM Indore was thankful to the CM Secretariat and the District Administrators for helping in the successful completion of the first version of MP Darshan. Director also thanked the BSF for the invaluable exposure to the students about its life and the hardships that goes through to protect our borders. He advised the students to keep the learning experience higher than the consultation role.

31st Marketing Fair held at XLRI Jamshedpur

The 31st edition of MAXI FAIR, the marketing fair conducted by XLRI, Jamshedpur on January 17, 2010 witnessed a footfall of over 2500. The day-long event, conducted on the campus grounds, had three research projects being conducted simultaneously, complete with full profiling of the people attending the event, identification of target group and research processes through a simulated game environment. The event now boasts of an ISO 9001-2000 Certification. An achievement, indeed, for the Fair.

The idea was conceptualized 31 years ago, much ahead of its time, by Sharad Sarin, Professor of Marketing at XLRI and a visionary. Year after year since then, major Indian corporate houses bring their market research problems to the students of XLRI, who design elaborate games around them. These games are hosted in the XLRI grounds, and are open to public who visit the fair and have a good time apart from winning prizes. The students, on the other hand, get useful data about public preferences, which they then analyze to solve the problems faced by the companies. This makes the task of conducting the otherwise boring and mundane research easier and interesting.

This year, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Tata Main Hospital (TMH) are taking part in the MAXI Fair. While HUL wants to understand consumer behavior and preferences in its Face Care category, TMH wants to determine the factors which drive or inhibit the people from visiting their hospital.

HUL and other companies from the Tata Group, among many others, have been taking part in the Fair in previous years also, which provides a testimony to the quality of the research conducted at the Fair. In fact, the idea has been so popular and effective that it has been replicated and implemented by business schools all over India.

While the Fair was a lot about research and data collection for the budding management professionals of the future, the residents of the steel city were in for a great time at the Fair. Families and friends turned out in great numbers to enjoy the sunny winter afternoon, with game stalls, food outlets and lucky draw and other competitions.

BACKWATERS ’10: Annual Management and Cultural Festival of IIM Kozhikode

IIM Kozhikode concluded its flagship annual management cum cultural festival, ‘Backwaters 2010’ successfully on January 17, 2010. The event saw participation from more than 70 premiere B-Schools of the country for prizes of over rs 6 lakhs. About 100 students were invited to compete for the final rounds at the scenic campus of IIMK. More than 12 lakh hits were registered on the official Backwaters website across 26 countries in a period of just one month. Backwaters 2010 received immense support from the industry with leading institutions like Cognizant, Lenovo, ITC, TiE, KeralaIT, Union Bank of India, NABARD, Gold Simulations, Zapak.com, HDFC Bank, Nokia, and Tata McGraw-Hill partnering the festival. For the first time, IIM Kozhikode students participated in an awareness generation program on animal treatment in association with ‘petaDishoom’ making IIMK one of the few premiere B-schools to have supported such an initiative.

The flagship social B-Plan event ‘White Knight’ organized in association with TiE saw over a 100 entries with eight finalists invited to the campus to present their ideas in front of an esteemed panel of judges. All the teams presented innovative and highly relevant B-Plans ranging from solutions to problems of rural electricity, drinking water, primary education and agriculture. Team Endeavors from SPJIMR walked away with the 1st prize worth Rs 1 lakh including netbooks by Lenovo.

‘Labyrinth-3’, the online Treasure Hunt organized in association with ITC and online partner Zapak, scripted another success story for Backwaters 2010 with enthusiasts across the country and abroad spending days and nights wrestling over the riddles and puzzles presented in the event. Labyrinth was solved after 5 days by IIM Indore students who became the first to enter the Hall of Fame.

The flagship event of the strategy vertical, ‘C-Strat’, organized in association with Cognizant saw the top 6 teams compete in the on-campus round. The teams had the task of creating a viable acquisition strategy for Cognizant and the event was judged by a senior member of Cognizant Management. Team Cognoscenti (IIFT, Delhi) and Team Atlantis (SJMSOM, IIT Bombay) held first and second positions respectively.

Beat the Market, the strategy simulation game, saw unprecedented participation, and teams from IIM Calcutta and Lucknow grabbed the top spots. Team Spartans from IIM Kozhikode won Chain Reaction, the Operations event. Other significant management events like Survivor (the creative Marketing event), Boot Kamp (the HR event), Bid2Win (the finance simulation game), Battle for IT (the IT strategy event), Mall Maul (the mall design event) and ERudite (the equity research event) generated immense enthusiasm in their respective domains. Prizes for the on-campus events included latest Netbooks sponsored by Lenovo.

This edition of Backwaters saw the in-house radio of IIM Kozhikode, K-Dio, going live online. This event was presented in association with Red FM and a huge number of students from across the country tuned in to listen to the programmes being broadcasted. Mindspace, the online Quiz series, organized in association with Zapak.com, involved prizes worth Rs. 40,000 and saw unprecedented participation. On-the-spot events such as Point of Sale, where participants had to sell their products to earn maximum coupons, were conducted and involved prizes worth Rs 25,000.

Cultural events like Navras (the Dance competition) and Kouture (the Fashion Show) saw passionate participation from across the country. The Rock show, Battle of Bands, presented along with Sieben, saw leading bands from all parts of India enthrall the audience with scintillating performances. The cultural events were partnered by Nokia, Vodafone, Sieben, Indigo Nation, Radico Khaitan and ColorMedia Solutions. The final night of Backwaters 2010 saw a memorable performance by the internationally recognized band Indian Ocean (of Black Friday and Kandisa fame). This was their first concert after the unfortunate passing away of their founding member Asheem Chakravarty making the performance special for both the band and the audience. It turned out to be one of the highlights of Backwaters 2010.

Backwaters 2010 has been a great success in the past with overwhelming participation from industry, academia and media. This annual event has helped the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode move towards its stated vision of being one of the leading centres for management learning in the Asia-Pacific region.

The next upcoming event from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode is the first ever marathon for Calicut City, the IPIX Calicut Mini Marathon on the 31st of January 2010. With a theme of ‘Be the Change’ it aims to empower the youth to come up with solutions for problems present in the society. The mini marathon is of 10km and there is also a celebrity run of 3 km. The registration is free of charge. The registration for the event is already underway at Focus Mall, Calicut. Registration teams would be visiting few colleges as well. Interested participants can register themselves online at www.ipixcalicutmarathon.com. The 10 km run carries prize money of Rs 4.1 lakhs (with separate prizes for men and women).