Mumbai-based National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) organized aPreranaa – its annual three day management festival on Thursday, October 23. The event kicked off with a seminar on the topic – aIndiaas growth story: Is the roar bigger than the Tiger?a. Senior executives from organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, Aditya Birla Minacs and National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL) spoke at the seminar and shared their views on the economy in India and how MBA students ought to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead.

Speaking on the subject, Mr Chander Mohan Sethi, Chairman a Reckitt Benckiser said, aIf one doesnat realize that itas a long term challenge then one will end up running very fast but eventually trip. At the end of the day, no shortcuts should be taken. If youare good then thereas no threat. If youare good then youad better be very good. People would have to be a lot more realistic and asillya salaries would not be around anymore. Not to imply that companies would use the crisis as an excuse to shortchange students, but slow and steady earnings would be the futurea.

Mr Tim Utama, Head a Wholesale banking, Standard Chartered Bank added, aI like talking to MBA students as I can provide them with a reality check. Itas great to be ambitious but one cannot cut corners and short-circuit experience especially in a downturn economy where experience counts. Itas time to move beyond labour arbitrage and explore more critical issues such as how we add value. You create confidence levels by adding value. You canat change whatas coming but you can change how you react to it. Students should attempt to benchmark themselves with the rest of the world. Whichever sector a student is in, he should make sure that his fundamentals are stronga.

Mr Dev Bhattacharya, MD a Aditya Birla Minacs commented on the financial crisis, aOne of the problems is that we still donat know the size of the problem. Itas good to know of open-ended bailout packages but thatas proof of the fact that we still donat know what weare up against! What we are witnessing now is a asupply overhanga situation; lots of assets created in anticipation of demand which has resulted in a supply overhang for assets. Capitalism as an institute is getting besieged and socialism is making a vicarious entry into the global market. Marx would be saying now, aI told you soaa.

He further said, aSo much wealth has been created in the past five years that the global economy can sustain itself and liquidity wonat be a problem. People are saying that seven percent growth is also good but deceleration is not just indicative of slowdown but in fact of a crash. China should teach us how we can deal with the problem of supply overhang. Its overwhelmingly export driven economy has created this situation for them and it remains to be seen how they shift the burden to their domestic economya.