The last three years have seen an unprecedented renewed interest in the emerging markets, which have shown rising productivity and high growth due to forces of globalization and information technology. “EMERGING MARKETS STRIKE BACK” as our main theme seemed perfect for this setting.

On the first day, Mr. Rajinathkanth Patel, MD and CEO of BSE, set the ball rolling by speaking about how India lauded as an Emerging Market needs to be active to make it investor friendly. He laid emphasis on the grass root level changes. He was quoted saying “I believe India as a nation is at its turning point. We need to realize the power within us to catalyze the change for better.”

This was followed by a talk on “Macro Economic aspects of capital inflows from India perspective” by Prof. Pushpa Trivedi.
Dr. Ashok Nag, Senior VP, RiskRaft consulting Pvt Ltd emphasized the importance of Risk Management, esp. in the emerging markets. He briefed upon the Micro concerns and the Macro concerns and VaR. He gave a detailed explanation about the various risks in different domains and how to evaluate them.
Day one closed with a highly spirited, interactive panel discussion with Ms. Ritu Anand, Deputy MD & chief Economic Advisor, SBI, Mr.Nainesh Jaisingh, Head- Private Equity India, Standard Chartered, Mr.Saugata Bhattacharya, VP & Chief Economist, UTI Bank, and Ms. Susan Thomas, Assisant Professor, IGIDR on the topic “From money markets to Hedge funds: How do we address the changing needs of investors”.

Day two, on a Sunday morning, saw a lively audience assembled for a workshop on ‘Stock picking’ conducted by equitymaster.com. This session focused on how the nature of the sector matters before investing, what to look for before picking up a stock, and what influences a stock performance. Being an interactive session, many queries were answered, myths busted, tips exchanged, a case study about Hero Honda analyzed.

In all, Finance Continuum- 2006 turned out to be a successful event with huge participation from various B-schools across Mumbai as well as industry delegates.