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SEBI Chairman Mr. M. Damodaran spoke of the tremendous progress that the country has witnessed. The theme for the meet-“Financial Markets in India-The Way Ahead” was explained by him in a fashion that simplified all the technicalities involved in the subject. From the nationalisation of banks to the Capital Markets to the Indian Regulatory Scenario, Mr. Damodaran covered a vast array of subjects. He also spoke about formal education in Capital Markets with an institute on the outskirts of Mumbai in the wings.

J.Niranjan, Head Investment Banking, ICICI Securities addressed the following session. He gave a brief overview of Fund raising in India where he underlined the fact that the Equity Fund raising by Indian Companies has increased significantly. He explained the Private Equity trends, IPO (Initial Public offering) trends & FPO (Follow on Public offerings) in great detail. He quoted the recent transactions & thus made it easier for the audience to grasp the subject and its intricacies.

The next speaker was the Executive Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Mr.N.S. Kannan. He charted the evolution of the Indian Insurance Industry from the pre-liberalisation era till date and assured a good health for the industry in the coming years with rising income levels playing an important role & the socio –economic trends looking
upbeat. He also spoke about the penetration of the Insurance Industry in Rural India.

The Summit also had Mr. Amul Gogna who spoke about the IPO Grading in India.Mr. Gogna, Executive Director, ICRA answered all queries & doubts on the topic leaving the audience better informed on the subject.

Before the curtain call, the last speaker for the day, Mr.Rahul Roy, Director Ernst & Young enthralled the audience with his speech on ”Risk Management & Value Creation-A Framework Approach”. Mr. Roy illustrated a host of examples interspersed with humour, which ensured that the last lecture of the day did not have a moment of dullness. He emphasised the importance of Risk Management and its applications not only in the financial sector but also political, social & cultural aspects. Be it the Kyoto Protocol or the Stella Awards - the theory of Risk avoidance to Risk embracement was explained in all the examples with perfection. He drove home the point that merely having codes, rules, and laws in place does not ensure good Corporate Governance; they need to be followed up with consequent Management measure.

With Industry experts sharing their insights, the Finance meet at SIBM was indeed an experience that the Corporates & Students will cherish.

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Kicking off with a debate on 'Services will drive India's Economy tomorrow', the Business Today-Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2006 National B-school Challenge opened its east zone regionals at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta's Joka campus on Friday.

Besides from Calcutta based Bschools, MBA students from Kharagpur and Bhubhaneswar turned up for the event, each of them eyeing the coveted slots representing east zone at the national finals.

The preliminary and quarter-final rounds yielded semi finalists of the Debate event in Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) students Saikat Gupta and Bula Panigrahi who shall face the VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur duo Bala Subramaniam and Ranjana Joy Choudhary to debate if 'Sensex is a misleading indicator of the Indian economy'.

The other two semi finalist teams in Institute of Business Management, Jadavpur University, Calcutta's Saikat Dutta and Swarnangka Samaddar and IIM-C's Arzi Adui and Vikram Gunjal shall debate if the 'Indian consumer is price obsessed'.

A nail biting Quiz preliminary event sent the Army Institute of Management, Kolkata's Sumit Kumar Naik and Rahul Pachauri, IIM-C's Puneet Jain, Rahul Gupta, Eastern Institue of Management, Kolkata's Aritra Pramnaik, Amitava Bhattacharya and VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur's Anuja Gulati and Anghshuva Bhaduri to the East zone finals.

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Experiential marketing is an idea, a mindset, a focus on creating fresh connections between brands and consumers out in the world where things happen. Connections - in the form of experiences that are personally relevant, memorable, interactive and emotional. Connections that lead to increased sales and brand loyalty.

Prof. Rajat Baisya of Department of Management Studies chaired the inaugural session. He also introduced the theme for the day. Experiential Marketing can be a powerful tool, which can supplement the effort of brand building through the traditional route, exploiting mass media advertisement. However, it cannot substitute the traditional methods of marketing, said Mr. Chandra Mohan Sethi, CMD of Reckitt Benckiser. The company showed the application of XM in the case of Harpic, with sales growth from 700,000 in 2003 to the current 3.5 million. Mr. Harsh Verma, Professor at Faculty of Management Studies, explored the philosophical angle of the topic. He touched upon different levels of experience, right from the physical to the spiritual. Mr. Prem Raj Pillai from CSC enlightened the house with his practical experiences in the IT sector and discussed the Internet as a medium of Marketing.

Mr. Harish Chaudhary of Department of Management Studies flagged off the 2nd session. Mr. Mayank Pareek, Marketing Head, Maruti told students about the Maruti Swift experience. Innovations with regards to XM, be it preparing dealerships, new sales force called Energizers or night test drives coupled with personalized experiences resulted in huge sales and a different customer base (23% of all Swift customers are women). Shefali Chhachi from Nokia emphasized on notion “Customer Touch points create experience moments". It navigated from creation of a branded experience to after sales service. This was followed by an address by Mr. Anupam Saronwala, Head of
Innovation, IBM. He emphasized on application of XM in technology. A question answer round closed the session where the speakers interacted with the inquisitive audience.

The Post lunch session began with an introductory note by the session chair, Prof Ranjan Chaudhary. He emphasized upon the dilemma that the consumer is faced with when choosing a product/service as the market is constantly bombarded with media clutter and hence the need for XM. Following this, there was an enlightening address by Mr. Amitav Virmani, currently with Ranbaxy. His interpretation of XM involved adding an experiential layer to the marketing programs by inserting a brand into a target's life where he can feel it, eat it, hear it, touch it or play with it. He concluded with a case study on his previous company Bristol Myer Squibbs, and the way his team used XM to enter Indian market. Ms. Saloni Nangia from Technopak explored the topic “ Retail Theatre: Experiential Marketing”. It covered the entire gamut roving from manufacturing, retailing right down to services and travel.

The event served as a platform to bring together the government, the corporate, the media and the academia to deliberate on issues and challenges facing the nation and share their experiences and views with the larger audience/students.

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The seminar was held to commemorate 15 years of Indian economic reforms, and to celebrate 10 years of IIM Kozhikode's establishment. The event assessed the achievements and fallouts of fifteen years of liberalization, and identified means for future development. The discussions revolved around three sectors: Infrastructure, Manufacturing and ICE (IT, Communication and Entertainment). The seminar also focused on Public-Private Partnership as a model for future growth and the role of managers as drivers of change.

A host of eminent personalities from the highest echelons of industry and government shared their experiences and vision for the high growth sectors of infrastructure, manufacturing and I.C.E. The speakers included:

· Shri Suresh Pachauri-----> Honorable Minister of State for Personnel, Public
Grievances, Pensions and Parliamentary Affairs

· Shri Rajeeva Ratna Shah-----> Member Secretary, Planning Commission

· Mr. B D Khurana---------> President, Reliance Infocomm

· Mr. K Ananth Krishnan-----> CTO & VP, TCS

· Mr. P. S. Banarjee-----> Executive Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers India

· Dr. P Nandakumar-----> Professor & Economics Area Chair, IIM Kozhikode

· Mr Partho Banerjee-----> President & CEO, Hughes Communication India

Shri Pachauri talked about the importance of probity in public life, and the space vacated by the state, which is being occupied by the free market and civil society. He mentioned that the Indian Economy now stands greatly liberalized and integrated with the global economy. He cited as erroneous the belief that public servants have not played a major role in the growth of the economy after liberalization, because no growth can take place without having strong governance systems in place. Systemic reforms require a strong, performing bureaucracy, and thus public servants have played, and are still playing an integral role in development. However, this demands a radical role shift, from that of being active participants in the market process to that of setting and enforcing the rules of the game for the market competition. Thus now they need to become facilitators, and stay alert to emerging global opportunities, along with their associated risks, if the country is to be an attractive investment destination.

There are enough success stories that bear testimony to successful policy mechanisms, he said, citing the examples of IT & Telecom. He praised visionary leaders like the late Smt Indira Gandhi, who understood the critical importance of science and technology, and Shri Rajiv Gandhi. We should be grateful to the late PM Rajiv Gandhi, he stressed, since it was he who established the telecom committee under Mr Sam Pitroda in 1985, and introduced computers in India at a time when they were nascent even in advanced countries.

He stressed the need for providing global opportunities for all-inclusive growth, since there are still millions who have little assets or skills to participate in the growing economy. Thus, he said, public servants have a greater role in ensuring growth with a human face. It is their responsibility to implement policies that upgrade status of old economy sectors like agriculture, while remaining sensitive to environmental sustainability concerns. In such a scenario, he said, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme of the UPA government assumes added significance, since it tries to spread the benefits of liberalization across all segments of society.

Shri Pachauri quoted Kofi Annan, “Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and bringing growth.” Therefore, he noted, professionalism in public servants is an overarching value, as they seek to balance the old values of Neutrality, Transparency, Diligence, Probity, and Fidelity, with the new imperatives of Innovation, Initiative, and Creativity. The key to gaining public trust, he said, is to focus on results, but not at the expense of process. Since erosion of public trust and cynicism towards governance can lead to loss of public order, he said public servants needed to be committed to ethics, and use their judgment and discretion while carrying out official duties.

Shri R R Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, focused on demographic dividends that India could reap if it can unleash the power of its youthful population. He started his talk by juxtaposing today's economic situation with the pre-independence era, and comparing the self-sufficiency and zooming 160 billion plus forex reserves of today with the poverty and insecurities that were present at the time of Independence. He then talked of emerging fields like nanotech and the huge amounts of data that need to be processed now, thus making it necessary for us to greatly strengthen our existing ability with supercomputing, since it will lead to future strategic advantage. He mentioned the visionary bureaucrats in the early 80s who first understood the importance of IT and initiated its adoption in offices and school curricula. Due to that, IT has now entered our genetic makeup and thus Indians have excelled in this field.

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Shri Shah then talked about the demographic advantage that India has, due to the high youth ratio. He said that for the next 25 years, India will have the largest number of young able workforce, and we should leave no stone unturned in utilizing this 25-year window that history is giving us. He noted that developed countries are not liberalizing labor rules not because they are feeling liberal, but because they need the skilled manpower that we are providing them. He cited a BCG study, that says that there is going to be a shortfall of skilled manpower to the tune of 45 million, and India is going to supply 25 million of that manpower. Mr Shah stressed that we need to impart those skills to this young workforce that are demanded by the global economy, and have adequate global economy linkages to harness that skill. Thus, he said, the 11th Five-year Plan has Human Resource Development as its core thrust area. Unless we exploit this opportunity, he warned, we could end up with 25 million unemployed labor rather than globally respected professionals. He said institutes like the IITs and IIMs are an important part of such skill-upgradation initiatives. Building India into a knowledge society has to start from below, he noted, and thus the huge initiatives being taken by the current government in increasing the primary education outlay. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan outlay has been successively increased from Rs 1800 crores to 5000, then 7000, and now 11000 crores by the government, and in next year's budget, it will be 13200 crores, he informed the participants. He said that enrolment rates in primary schools were rapidly rising, but a focus should also be maintained on the retention rate, by reducing the number of dropouts. In the second phase, this universalization of education would be extended to the secondary stage, and later to vocational education, which would take a major investment. He said that higher education is based on a troika of 3 concepts: Expansion – More enrolment, Inclusion – of all segments of society, and Excellence – in the skill sets being imparted to our youth.

Mr Shah said that the Moily Committee, of which he is a member, is actively working on this. At the next levels, we need to focus on intellectual property and R&D;, since Manufacturing and Operations can be outsourced, but those who have intellectual superiority control the levers. Finally, he said, we must move towards strategic superiority, by creating workforces so skilled and specialized, that no other country can do the kind of work Indians can do.

Dr Krishna Kumar, the Director of IIM Kozhikode, spoke about the phenomenal growth of IIM Kozhikode over the first decade of its establishment. He discussed how politicians, administrators, industrialists, and educationists have to partner to achieve economic growth and ensure its equitable distribution. IIM K's strengths in the fields of Faculty Development Programmes (FDP), Research initiatives, and Management Development Programmes (MDP) were also highlighted. Special focus was given to Executive Education Programmes through the Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) mode, by having Hughes Communication as a technology partner. He detailed the networks with foreign Institutions for research and perspective building, and the focus on collaboration with management Institutions in India for undertaking joint programmes. He also talked about the stellar record of IIM K in strengthening industry-institute interaction through conferences and seminars across all functional areas of business.

Mr K Ananth Krishnan, CTO & VP of TCS talked about the prospects and challenges in the IT sector. Mr BD Khurana, Group President of Reliance Infocomm, spoke about India's digital future. Mr PS Banarjee, Executive Director, PwC gave a speech on enhancing the competitiveness of Indian manufacturing. Professor P Nandakumar, Economics Area Chair at IIMK, talked about Indian infrastructure and economic variables. Mr Partho Banerjee, President & CEO, Hughes Communications India, discussed the march towards e-economy.

The event saw active participation from industry delegates and management students.


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The event draws its inspiration from the success of COMMODEX, a two-day workshop on commodity markets conducted by National Commodity & Derivative Exchange of India (NCDEX) at FMS, South Campus in the month of July.

Inviting participation from the leading B-schools of India, the game is all set to start on the October 1, 2006. Prizes worth Rs.1, 75, 000 are to be won at the end of the game.

Played over a period of 45 days, the game intends to help the students gain practical experience in Commodity Futures Trading and also help them appreciate its growing importance in the economy.

Commodity futures trading is said to have existed in India from the ancient times and even finds a mention in Kautilya's Arthshastra. A commodity futures contract is a standardized contract, issued and traded on a future exchange, to buy a certain underlying commodity at a certain date in future, at a fixed price. A trader needs to be a risk taker to conquer the stimulating world of commodity futures trading. The Finance Society of MBA (Management of Services), FMS foresees lot of excitement and high adrenalin levels as the participants respond to the vagaries of the commodity markets.

This intriguing contest will definitely challenge the wits, stimulate grey cells and eventually prove to be immensely beneficial for all the participants. The registration to the game closes on 21st Sep, 2006. For further details regarding registration and other queries, visit www.fms-comsmart.com


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The report By Dr Pravin Sinha included the following: Strike involves stoppage of work as a tool for securing the attention of employers. It arises when bargaining and persuasion by the employer and employees have failed. In many country trade unions have right to strike. In India too trade unions have an implied right to strike. In fact strikes are not uncommon in India, however the adoption of new economic policies aimed at opening the Indian economy have introduced new influencing factors. . The issue of strikes secured national attention in 2003 when the Tamil Nadu State Government suspended 170,000 government employees for having gone on strike and subsequently the Supreme Court held that the workers did not have the right to strike.

Three recent strikes concerning the Airport Authority of India (AAI), Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd. (HMSI) and the State Bank of India (SBI) also received a lot of attention. Each of these strikes saw interplay of interests. It is to understand the issues at stake, the compulsions and the implications in these strikes that the International Management Institute (IMI) in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES-India) organised the one-day workshop.

Mr. P. P. Mitra identified lack of dialogue and transparency as the primary cause of the SBI strike. In the case of HMSI strike, according to Prof. D. S. Saini, it was the Japanese management, which was at fault because it disregarded social factors and presumed that Indian workers would not react. In the case of AAI strike Dr. L. D. Mishra blamed external factors.

These presentations were followed by inputs from trade unionists and employees. Mr. R. A. Mittal of HMS objected to the notion that trade unions are not sensitive to the interests of the company. He said that it was wrong to conclude that workers, and their representative body, worked against the interests of the company. The cases indicated that the management actions were not transparent. The workers had no sense of belonging, as they were not integrated into the decision-making process.

Mr. K. J. Thakkar of the BMS raised the issue of the work culture of management and of politicians. He suggested developing a positive mindset to work for the development of a national approach. Mr. Pavan Kumar of SAIL highlighted the constructive role played by trade unions in the revival of SAIL's manufacturing facilities. He emphasized that as the profile of Indian workers is changing the trade unions need to re-orient themselves to meet emerging challenges. He said that it is important for trade unions to know when to strike. Mr. Rajneesh Kumar of BPCL questioned whether there is a place for strikes in the open global market. He highlighted the importance of confidence building measures.

Dr. P. D. Shenoy, Member – National Consumers Disputes Redressal Commission and former Secretary (Labour) of the Government of India delivered the valedictory address, drawing on his experience as the Chief Labor Commissioner. Dr. Shenoy said that industrial relations was a difficult area and needed to be undertaken with sensitivity. The HR practioners, trade unionists and students of the Human Resources Management programme at IMI attended the workshop.





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Day 2 events at the Acumen 2006 East Zone began on Saturday, September 9 2006 post-noon with star host Harsha Bhogle introducing the participating business schools and sponsors.

The debate semifinal rounds were judged by Mr Amit Roy, Vice PResident HR, Hindalco, Polay Moitra of Business Today and Prof Biju Paul Abraham and Prof Arojit Sen of IIM Calcutta. Debating on whether the Sensex was a misleading indicator of the Indian economy, IISWBM beat VGSOM-IIT Kharagpur to reach the East Zone finals.

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Meanwhile, the second Debate semi-final was fought between IIM-C and Institute of Business Management, Kolkata on whether the Indian consumer was price obsessed. IIM-C won, reaching the finals to face IISWBM.

At that point, Harsha Bhogle took over the stage again to conduct the B-school Quiz finals. IIM Calcutta consolidated its position from the beginning, so that at the end of round 4 IIM-C had 45 points, VGSOM-IIT Kharagpur had 25 points and Army Institute of Management and Eastern Institue of Management railed at 20 and 10 points respectively.

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IIM Calcutta on Saturday emerged winner of Acumen 2006 East Zone regionals by taking both the Quiz and Debate titles.

Puneet Jain and Rahul Gupta, both from IIM Calcutta won the East Zone Quiz with a clear margin and shall now face IIFT, New Delhi and IIM, Bangalore and the West Zone winner at the Acumen national finals in November at Mumbai.

Puneet Jain is currently a PGP-1 student at IIM-C before which he completed his engineering from NSIT, Delhi and worked for an year with Hughes Software Systems. An avid quizzer since several years, Puneet has represented his school and college at various levels and won several quizzes.

"Preparation for a quiz like this is not a one day or a one week affair but a continuous process. To be a good quizzer one has to be a regular reader and should have the curiosity to learn new things," he says.
His partner Rahul Gupta is also his batchmate at IIM-C and shares the same undergraduate alma mater in NSIT, Delhi.
"Preparing for a quiz is not possible. To be a good quizzer you have to be a good reader," he stresses.
Meanwhile, the Acumen 2006 East Zone debate was won by IIM Calcutta's Arzi Adui and Vikram Gunjal, when they debated the finals topic 'India can never create an iPod' facing IISWBM.
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The event will be held in the University Conference Center, Delhi University and will feature four panel discussions, each dealing with a specific industry sector, namely IT and ITES and the PSE/ Manufacturing sector. To be chaired by eminent faculty members and Industry experts, each panel discussion will focus on three key issues plaguing the specific industry.

Featuring burning issues like creation of a sustainable employer brand, benchmarking of performance linked incentives, Outsourcing of Human Resource Functions; this conclave will bring together some of the most influential personalities in this field on a common platform.
With industry stalwarts such as the Tata group, Mitsubishi, Maruti, Sony, Satyam being a part of this conclave; the take-aways for the participants will be a greater insight into the changing role of human resource practitioners in the organization. For the academic community too this conclave will be bringing forth discussion on the latest trends and best practices in this key functional area of management.

Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi; the first business school in India, was founded in 1954. It has been consistently ranked among the top five business schools in Indian Business School Surveys and is well respected in both in and outside India.

The HR & OB Society at FMS, Delhi is a proactive student initiative, which conducts various workshops, seminars, guest lectures and other interactive sessions to emphasize the significance of HR in corporate strategic planning. The society also attempts to inculcate a sense of Corporate Social Responsibility through various Social Initiatives like Tsunamika.


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Over the years, this fest has been used as a platform to bring together eminent professionals and the best brains from the top B-schools in India and put them through grueling rounds of events that bring to the fore their ability to think on their feet. As the pre-eminent Communication Management School, MICA has always blazed the trail in inviting people to look beyond boundaries, to think out-of-the-box. As MICA Director, Prof. Atul Tandan says, “All learning at MICA and Micanvas is managing the theatre of the mind to nurture ideas, harvest solutions and deliver effective results.”

October 27,28 and 29, 2006 will see India's top industry minds meeting at MICA and sharing and challenging conventional wisdom on the intensifying battle for consumer mindshare in the new marketing millennium. In keeping with this same ideology, the theme of Micanvas this year is “The Black Box – Unlocked”. The Black Box is “space” – the consumer's mind, a space in which the consumer operates, the amalgamation of the cultural shifts and attitudinal changes, the sum and substance of all these wherein somewhere lie the consumer insights that define the new age Indian Consumer. All stereotypes will cease to exist. At Micanvas 2006, together with you, we plan to explore the mysteries of the Black Box, and perhaps define new stereotypes.

A continuing tradition at Micanvas, the theme will be the topic for Micanvas' flagship event, The Panel Discussion, where eminent industry professionals will share their points of view in an engaging, interactive discussion between the panel and the audience. Speakers invited this year include Mr. Dalip Sehgal (Executive Director, New Ventures, Hindustan Lever), Mr. Santosh Desai (President, McCann-Erickson), Mr. Ravi Naware (Chief Executive, ITC Foods), Ms. Vinita Bali (CEO, Britannia), Mr. Sam Balsara (Chairman, Madison Media), Mr. Kunal Dasgupta (CEO, Sony Entertainment Television) and Mr. Shantanu Khosla (MD, P&G; India).

The competitive events range from business plan competitions, like Cerebrus, to the hard-sell event, Sell Hell, to informal events like the Treasure Hunt and theme based quizzes. The events will be interspersed with workshops on just about everything, from Integrated Marketing Communication insights, to Salsa dancing, while the nights will be spiced up with performances by popular rock bands. The grand finale will be a party to end all parties, when all the participants will dance the night away.
Apart from the top-of-the-line B-schools, MICA has for the first time thrown Micanvas open to undergraduate colleges, providing them with an opportunity to put their talent right out there on a stage that doesn't get any larger than this. For all those of you who thrive on challenges, who want to be apart of the roller coaster without batting an eyelid, who live for the ride and not the destination, all roads lead to Micanvas. The quest for the very best has begun.

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)
Shela, Ahmedabad – 380 058
Tel: +91-2717-237946-51 Fax: 237945
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:www.micanvas.mica-india.net
Vipin Nair: 09824009874
Abhiruchi Tiwary: 09825980975
Aasish Francis: 09925849346


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Ms. Rashmi Bansal, addressing the gathering held everyone's attention as she described with passion her 11 year long tryst with JAM. Ms. Rashmi Bansal had started 'Just Another Magazine', popularly known as JAM, 11 years ago with a capital of just Rs. 50,000 and today it is a huge success with sales of 31,000 copies every fortnight.

Ms. Bansal said that the desire to start a new concept and meet an unmet need of a large untapped market was the driving force behind the idea that is JAM. She went on to describe what all were the hurdles she faced and how she overcame them. Her advice for the aspiring entrepreneurs was to do a thorough analysis before taking the plunge. “Think about your likings and your values and then decide what you want to do” she advised.

Talking about the business and growth prospects of JAM she said the future holds immense possibilities. Right now though catering to a niche market in Pune and Mumbai she plans to expand the geographical reach to the corners of India.

The spirit of entrepreneurship sure trickled down among the participants. In an informal chat after the event, she listened to all innovative business ideas from the enthusiastic students giving her views on making them successful entrepreneurial ventures in future.

All in all, participants found Ms. Bansal extremely down-to-earth and approachable and hence could relate well with her. Most of the participants interacted one on one with her for a long time after the formal session, which just goes to demonstrate that the session was extremely successful and truly exhibited the spirit of ENTRECOM'06@SP – “Forging the Spirit of Entrepreneurship”.

And with the ENTRECOM playing a diligent host, the evening turned out to be a really exhilarating experience.








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As Mr. Mukherjee was introduced to the audience, the welcome applause was aptly complemented by the eagerness to learn, exhibited on the faces of the young managers of tomorrow. The presentation stated thence. A legend of a manager himself, Mr. Mukherjee first gave a brief layout on how the entire discourse would go. Post presenting the agenda, he went on to talk about some of the popularly held beliefs about outsourcing, some of which were correct and some downright erroneous. According to him, the fact that quite a few people will lose their jobs is true. This is inevitable as the economic forces of demand for good quality labour together with the supply of cheaper alternatives for the same, elsewhere, rule supreme in today's global economic environment. However, the belief that these jobs will disappear couldn't have been farther from the truth. What many people forget while reaching this incorrect conclusion is that the process of outsourcing actually creates job opportunities elsewhere around the globe.

A fear most of the people in the western countries are grappling with is that wage rates there will decline due to the effect outsourcing. This, according to Mr. Mukherjee is true to a certain extent. He justified his statement by stating that this was a simple yet inevitable economic cycle. This kind of a thing is bound to happen as the demand for more expensive labour falls. Then again, one must not forget that the wage rate of the emerging economies will rise as well. A large chunk of paranoid westerners are from the United States, feel that the U.S. economic recovery is not having the desired affect of creating jobs. This is a wrongly albeit popularly held belief. According to Mr. Mukherjee outsourcing jobs offshore has nothing to with this lack of job creation, which by the way are finally on the rise, thus negating this wrong belief. Another fact most believe in is that the U.S. is becoming dependant on other nations. Mr. Mukherjee mentioned that there is nothing that can be done to prevent this simply because US, after all is also a part of the global environment. Moreover, some of the real advantages the developed economies possess have a great deal to do with culture, attitude, innovation and a wealth of upcoming infrastructure. The emerging world cannot possibly duplicate these that easily. Then again, one must not forget that it was the U.S. who pioneered this process of outsourcing business to reduce costs.

A popular misnomer is that world trade is not fair because of outsourcing. Arguing otherwise, Mr. Mukherjee sad that restricting offshore services will do nothing to make the world a fairer place. In fact growth in the wealth of the emerging economies will serve to rectify some of the trade issues of the developed nations. Trade of all types does cause dislocation in society in the short term, but it always has led to positive outcomes in the medium to longer term. Offshore services should be no different. There has so far been no compelling evidence otherwise. Global engagement has been proven time and again to be far more powerful than global isolationism. Not a single example exists in world history that points to an isolated economy that has been strong and vibrant, and there is no reason to believe that future will be any different.

Next Mr. Mukherjee went on to mention the benefits that derive for outsourcing. Primarily amongst these is that the outsourcing company and the government, as a whole get to concentrate on their core competencies. This process of outsourcing also reduces myriad risks. By reducing operating costs, it accelerates business transformation. On top of this off-shoring of services accelerates re-engineering benefits thus freeing internal resources for other value added tasks. Off shoring promotes a much more effective and efficient global work culture where the world never goes to sleep, for the tyranny of time zone differences can easily be countered by this process.

In one interesting section of the discourse, Mr. Mukherjee actually proved that off-shoring of services actually creates more job opportunities everywhere. This is how it works out. When you outsource, your costs decrease resulting in lower prices and increased profits. This in turn has a positively cascading effect on increase in exports and thus wealth is created for newer investments, products and services finally resulting in the creation of newer jobs. Thus Mr. Mukherjee proved quite articulately how jobs will be created. He also mentioned that offshore service efficiencies will significantly impact overall job growth even in the U.S. and most other western nations. Using graphs and figures he pointed out some of the Fortune 500 companies such as G.E. and Microsoft that have benefited form outsourcing.

In the penultimate section of his discourse, Mr. Mukherjee mentioned how India was going to benefit from all this as the other countries where quality labour initially was cheap have started to raise the wages. Slowly yet surely, these nations such as Israel and Ireland are losing out to countries such as India as the prime outsourcing destination because of the availability of cheap labour for comparable quality of output.

Indeed what an enlightening session this was. In the end the return on time invested in the session was far greater than initially expected. Whatever doubts remained were promptly cleared by the question and answer session that followed Mr. Mukherjee's lecture. Finally when the event came to an end, the students left the auditorium with smiles on their faces and a lot of knowledge in their bellies.




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For two days the 'Haats' situated in Balakati (25 Kms away from Bhubaneswar) in Khurda district and Naya haat (70 kms away from Bhubaneswar) in Puri district would bear witness to event where more than 8000 people from rural areas are expected to visit the fair. For companies like ITC, Cavin Kare and Paradeep Phosphates limited which are taking part in the groundbreaking event, the main aim would not only be centered around promoting its products to potential customers in rural areas but also in collecting valuable data on the customer preferences which would prove invaluable in formulating future strategies to tap the rural markets.

For the students of Rural Management of XIMB, the fair marks an ideal platform to test the theoretical knowledge in a real life situation. The Pre-event promotion has included numerous Jeep campaigns in more than 30 villages which have announced the staging of event along with holding meetings with Self Help groups (SHG's) located in those areas. More than 30 SHG's have been individually met to mobilize them to take part in the rural marketing fair. A SHG federation meeting which was facilitated by a local NGO was also conducted attended where more than 40 SHG's participated. These interactions also gave an opportunity for the students to study the possibility of having SHG's as an alternate distribution channel for FMCG goods.

Dr B.Mohanty, Dean (Academics), XIMB says, “The fair would serve as a golden opportunity for the PGPRM students to learn the real nuances of rural marketing and even explore new trends arising in this field.”
Mr. C.K. Ranganathan, CEO&MD;, CavinKare , echoed the same sentiments saying, “I am impressed by the effort that has been put in organizing the fair of such magnitude and I am quite optimistic that this would be grand success.”

The promotion stalls would exclusively focus on brand building exercise where product demonstrations would be given to visitors. The research stalls, which would be handled by the students, would focus on collecting valuable data on consumer preferences. Special games have been designed not only to facilitate greater participation from visitors but also expose their inner needs and preferences that would be involved in buying behaviour.

Fr. E.Abraham, Director, XIMB says, “I am hopeful that the rural marketing fair would prove to be an innovative step in benefiting all the stakeholders involved, the students, companies which are participation and also the customers.”


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The recent workshop by Bristlecone, a leading consulting firm and a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra on Supply Chain Management at DoMS, inspired an effort at organizing a broad-based seminar on the topic. How efficient supply chain management is working wonders for companies, cutting across industries, is the question sought to be addressed.

A privileged gathering will be audience to top guns from top companies sharing their part of the story. The story will be about how technology has helped transform business, with an efficient supply chain forming the backbone. The various ramifications of effective SCM and its optimization across different industries will be put under the spotlight.

As an effective business philosophy, supply chain management has captured the imagination and attention from academia and practitioners alike, in recent years. Companies known for their superior SCM, like Central Warehousing Corporation, Hero Honda, Delphi, Subros, NCDEX, Intel, ProAct Management, and Technopak have obliged with cheerful promptness. The list of invited speakers includes eminent figures at the very top of the supply chain.
Invited Speakers -


Ø Mr. Mukund Annigeri, CEO, NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd. - Warehousing and Supply Chain Management

Ø Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Former Dean IIM Lucknow - E-commerce and its impact on supply chain management

Ø Mr. P. Srinivas Garudachar, Principal Architect, Intel - RFID and sensors; their role in augmenting the efficiency of Supply chain

Ø Lt. General (Retd) D.V.Kalra, PVSM, AVSM - Emerging trends and best practices in supply chain management

Ø Mr. G. D. Sharma, Head, Logistics, Hero Honda

Ø Mr. Ashok Manaktala, Head, Logistics, Delphi

Ø Mr. Y. S. Negi, GM, SCM, Subros - Customer satisfaction through effective supply chain management

Ø Mr. Akshay Chaturvedi, Sr. Consultant, KSA Technopak - Evolving landscape of retail and supply chain related issues in retailing

Ø Mr. Ashutosh Mishra, Consultant, Mother Dairy ProAct Management Consultancy - Supply chain management of fresh and perishable goods.

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Mr. Ashish Kataria, Asst. Director, Fixed Income Derivatives, Calyon Bank conducted the workshop on treasury operations. He familiarized students with the set up of the treasury desk; terminologies used in the dealing room (treasury desk), the charts and screens involved and also spoke at length about the various events that might take place during the course of the day and their indications. The participants had a glimpse into the live action scenario and came to know about the risk management associated with the derivatives market. The workshop was a highly interactive session and replete with examples of daily transactions at the treasury desk.

The workshop on treasury operations was followed by the panel discussion.The panel comprised of eminent personalities from across the diverse length of Indian banking industry brainstorm over the challenges facing contemporary banking scenario in India.
The theme for the discussion was "Banking 2009: Survival of the fittest"

Dr. Ashok Lahiri, Chief Economic Adivsor, Government of India flagged off the discussion with thought provoking reflections on the current state and future potential of the 'India Growth Story'. He said, "India is living in exciting times. The GDP growth rate of 8% is all set to catapult Indian standard of living by 74%. Financial sector is the pivotal matchmaker which has to intermediate effectively for this scenario to materialize."

Mr. Vinod Rai, Special Secretary, Banking and Finance Division, Ministry of Finance stressed on the need for banks themselves to be goal-driven rather than function at the mercy of bureaucracy. He said, "Banks should be left unshackled, unbounded and allowed to grow".

Mr. Suresh Sethi, Country Head, Transaction Banking Group, YES Bank described India's growing position among BRIC countries, crediting the rapid emergence of India's banking sector to conducive policy and regulatory framework.

Ms. Sonu Bhasin, Senior Vice President, Wealth Management, UTI Bank gave incisive insights into the commoditization of the banking sector. She stressed on the integration of young talented people and a strong knowledge quotient to lead India's banks into the risk-ridden volatile future.

Dr. J.S.Juneja, Member, Governing Body and Senior Advisor, WASME broadened the scope of the discussion by including the challenges faced by and the role of the SME sector in "Banking 2009 scenario". He threw light on the imperative need for the SME sectors growth in order to sustain the India Growth story and the role of strong financial support system in the same.

Mr. B.N. Mittal, Chief General Manager – Corporate, Punjab National Bank lent a public sector perspective in the discussion. Mr. Krishna Kumar, Senior General Manger - Corporate, ICICI Bank focused on the varied risks confronting banks as well as the need to tap rural India to lend more credence to the current base of the banking sector.
Mr. Suresh Nanda, Regional CEO, North and East, ING Vysya Bank threw light on the critical role of technology in the rapidly changing banking sector.

Mr. Vinod Rai, Secretary of State, Min. of Finance addresses the panel and the gathering
The panel discussion was a huge learning experience for the participants in the audience, which comprised of business school students from across the country. They came to know the viewpoints of the stalwarts in the banking industry who would guide the growth of the sector in 2009.

The daylong event culminated with a paper presentation contest. The contest witnessed participation from business schools all over the country. Of the entries received, 6 teams from IIM-A, IIM-C, IIM-I, MDI and FMS were short listed to make the final presentation. The contest was won by Parthasarthy Sinha and Sonal Singh from IIM-A and the joint runners-up were Rahul Gupta and Sanchita Binwal from FMS and Sandeep Kumar and Vivek Chopra from IIM-I.
The Finsoc, the Finance Society at FMS, successfully organized the entire event.

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Some of the other personalities who made their presence felt include Mr Jyotirmoy Banerji , Assistant Vice President, Computer Science Corporation(CSC), Mr. Sanjiv Bakshi ,SAP Lead, IBM, Mr. Samir Shukla, Lead Consultant, BristleCone, Dr. Veena Bansal, Faculty, Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur and Dr.Jayanta Chatterjee, Faculty, Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur.

The event took off on an auspicious note with Dr. Kripa Shanker, Deputy Director, IIT Kanpur and Dr.R.R.K.Sharma, Head of Department, Industrial and Management Engineering, lighting the lamp.

Mr.Ramakanth Desai started off by speaking on 'IT Service Delivery-Paradigm shift'
Mr.Desai traced the initial days of outsourcing when cost arbitrage was the key leverage that Indian IT firms had, after which the roles have been gradually redefined with Indian IT firms breaking the big deal barriers. It is expected that IT revenues (export) would be approximately 60 billion dollars by 2010.

He then shifted focus to the poster child of the IT sector-the BPO industry. With a compounded annual growth rate of close to 50%, it is on the steady growth path. As on 2005, there were 410 players in India and the numbers are steadily increasing. Despite all this the BPO industry still faces certain challenges such as data security and protectionist regulations in various countries. Another segment that Mr. Desai spoke on was R&D; outsourcing, which has been growing at a CAGR of 30% per annum and is expected that it will reap revenues of close $8 billion by 2010.

The classic dilemma facing the Indian IT landscape is the dichotomy between choosing high value versus high volume. Increasingly there is a need to balance between the two.
Another issue that emerged is the dearth of talent availability. Despite the large numbers of graduates being churned out there is still a large unmet demand due to unemployability of the graduates passing out of Indian colleges. Mr. Desai recommended that there be 10-15 centres of excellence to churn out trained professionals.

Mr. Desai also highlighted the challenges to get large deals- quoting low contacts in boardrooms of big companies, and minimal interactions with the CFOs and CEOs.
He went on to reinforce that joint ventures and Mergers and acquisitions were the way to grow.

The next speaker for the day was Mr. Jayant Krishna who focused on the topic “Creating a global mindset for Indian managers for a vibrant outsourcing industry.”
Building on the theme built up by Mr. Desai, Mr. Krishna went on to talk about the Indian outsourcing industry. The Indian software and ITES industry is a 30 billion business, it is expected to touch 90 billion by 2010.It is expected grow at a rate of 25-30% per annum.
Mr.Krishna spoke about how the web has enabled more firms to access a global audience, and technology has made distances meaningless. He also threw light on another aspect of outsourcing- the effect it has on jobs of the people in the home countries of the companies that outsource business processes.

The focus is now shifting from routine to strategic outsourcing. For companies to survive in today's business scenario it is quintessential for them to deliver strategic advantages beyond merely cost arbitrage.
While India has emerged as the outsourcing destination of choice, it has other countries like China running close. Mr. Krishna spoke of how China has turned the cards in their favor through their aggressive English language improvement drives.
He also brought out the various loop holes prevalent in the Indian system. He said many a times foreign clients found Indians to culturally insensitive and lacking a holistic approach. He stressed on the need for Indians to develop cultural sensitivities and to learn to work seamlessly with the non Indian Global employees.

Mr Krishna then went on to talk about the changing global economy, and the need to understand the complexity and the need to prepare to adapt to uncertain environment.
The paradigms are fast changing from product and services centric to 'experience solutions'.
Mr Krishna also on talked about the conditions under which a company must outsource- Companies must retain their core competencies and outsource peripheral businesses.
Mr. Krishna identified a global mindset, workability with diverse backgrounds among many others as the key ingredients to make a successful next generation global manager.

Our next speaker, Mr. Jyotirmoy Banerji spoke on 'Project Management-The Key to Success in the IT Industry'.
A unifying theme in the entire conclave was the concurrence of the speakers on the importance of mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Banerji too stressed that this was an inescapable part of the changing face of global business.
The internet revolution has created waves of change in the way business is conducted; Indian software companies are giving tough competition to their bigger western competitors by posing as low end disrupters by offering a significant cost advantage.
According to Mr.Banerji, the context of project management determines what actions present what results. Project management is a unique balance of arts and sciences. Project success is achieving equilibrium in cost, schedule and quality, and creating a win-win situation for both the customer and the IT company.
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Mr.Sanjiv Bakshi was the next speaker. He spoke about 'IT-A strategic tool for increasing business competitiveness'.
Mr, Bakshi started off on a highly interactive note involving the audience and coming to a consensus on basic management definitions of strategy, tool, business competitiveness, and information technology.
He then went to take two classic Indian examples-one wherein Information technology had made a significant difference and one wherein IT had no role to play.
His first example was the Indian Railways that has seen a quantum leap from being a loss making organization to a profit making one in a short span of 2 years.
He went on to show how incorporation of IT into the railway systems, facilitating e-ticket, computerized reservations etc has contributed in this turnaround. On the other hand the dabbawalas, known for their highly efficient supply chain, who have been awarded the six sigma certification use very little of high IT applications in their operations. He cited this as an institution that had found a place among multinational corporations to be awarded a six-sigma certification without any highbrow technology involved.

Having posed these two classic examples Mr.Bakshi went on to define how 'business competitiveness' is measured. The first step is to get the right people to do the right job, secondly it is important to face and accept brutal facts, and then he drew an analogy of a hedgehog where in it walls itself of all dangers. Apart from these discipline and technology acceleration are indispensable.

The next speaker was Dr.Veena Bansal who chose to speak about Corruption, India and IT. Dr. Bansal's speech presented another critical viewpoint about Information technology. India is ranked 45/ 49 countries on honesty of officials. She stated that a large reason for this was the lack of punishment, the state of the economy and poverty.
Dr Bansal then went on to define the role of IT in improving this situation citing e-governance, and effective information dissemination, through media –citing the tehelka scandal as a classic case.
Her speech was focused largely on the passport application process were corruption is rampant. She quoted e-seva, a service for filling passport application and other services as a classic example. Its focus is more customer centric than conventional systems sparing the customer a lot of inconvenience.

The next speaker was Mr.Samir Shukla- who spoke on 'Enterprise Application Implementation: A Consultant's Perspective.'
Mr Shukla started by defining the business process life cycle and spoke in depth about how service oriented architecture would be the future of ERP. Rather than a monolithic organization, the industry is moving towards smaller split solutions. This enables in creating flexible solutions. For corporates to effectively carry this out top management guidance and support is essential.

The conclave concluded with a valedictory address by Dr Jayanta Chatterjee, Professor , IME department and former President of Allen Bradley (A wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwell automation).Dr Chatterji deftly summarized the speeches delivered through the course of the day, and added that India should now move its focus from IT outsourcing to higher up the value chain in order to sustain its growth curve.


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Father N Casimir Raj, SJ, director, XLRI, said, “The Shanghai University has shown keenness to tie up with us, especially for our input in the areas of research and HR. They, on their part, are strong in production, which we hope to benefit from.”

Father Raj indicated that the partnership with the Victoria University would be at different levels, though exact modalities are yet to be finalised. Victoria University has over a hundred academic exchange agreements with overseas institutes.

“Many companies want us to conduct courses for their employees, especially in terms of global management programmes, and Victoria University and XLRI will be collaborating in this regard. We are trying to work out the possibilities of these students getting industry exposure in both the countries,” said the director.

As of now, XLRI has existing tie-ups with the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Malarden University, Sweden and the Asian University, Bangkok. “We hope to benefit from more such tie-ups in the future,” said Father Raj.

The faculty and student exchanges, field trips and internships overseas facilitated through these tie-ups give students the required exposure to forge international careers, and even get first-hand global perspective.

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The idea of coming up with Scully is to inform the B-school students and corporate houses about the latest in the marketing world. The magazine will act as a forum for students to express their views on the subject of marketing.

The first issue of the magazine has sections on brand acquisitions, partnership strategies, company watch and market update.

The magazine has information for coffee lovers in Dubai, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and in several south-east Asian countries. The people in those countries will get their coffee with a distinctive Indian flavour as the Mocha outlets are expected to come up in the countries in early 2007.

The magazine also informs readers that two major automobile companies, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors are planning to enter the used car market. Both the companies have initiated pilot projects. These and more such information can be found in the magazine.

The next edition of the magazine is expected to have 50 pages and not 26 as in the current edition and will also cover social initiatives undertaken by marketing companies. It will also cover articles from alumni and faculty members of the B-school on contemporary issues.

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Mr. Narayanan's focus was on the function of a business analyst in the industry. He talked about the opportunities that change creates, and the need for higher education in management as well as other fields. Contrary to the perception that the country generates more educated professionals than are employable, Mr. Narayanan said that we still face a talent crunch with a dire need for quality professionals.

He emphasized on the fact that with single skills one can survive but with the various skills, which are developed during the course of MBA study, the individual can thrive in the corporate world.

He spoke about the evolution of an entrepreneur: the first two to four years are training intrinsic that lay the fundamental business groundings, the entrepreneurship and innovation spirit evolve and finally empowerment.

A volley of questions were hurled at him by the inquisitive future business managers of LIBA regarding CTSs expansion plans, knowledge management, scope for careers in research and development, and the company's focus on services rather than product development.

In this regard, he stressed on the need for placing emphasis on the learning process. Around 1% of CTSs revenue is spent on knowledge management. Channel One, the portal of Cognizant for knowledge dissemination helps employees learn access and transfer information extensively. Also, CTS doesn't intend to venture into product development, to assure its clients that the solutions provided would be specific and exclusive to their needs only.

He pointed out that the primary reason why there are more innovations in Silicon Valley was the prevalence of a culture of tolerance towards failure. While they maintained a never say die spirit there, in India, one would be written off as a serial failure. This indicates a need for an attitudinal shift in the Indian perspective.

While technology is important there also exists a need to create new business models and develop required competency to survive in the volatile business world-something a management education provides.

In the words of Mr. Narayanan, “With technology, there exists only shades of black and white-but the world is full of uncertainties, only those who can thrive amidst ambiguity can succeed.”


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The Business Today-Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2006 fever moved to the west, converting the venue at Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai into a battleground between some of India's top B-schools. The headlining surprise of the day was that the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) went empty handed after participating at the Quiz, its traditionally strong constituency.

After the preliminary rounds on Day 1, Mrunmay Mehta and Saurav Palit from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune spoke for and Pahuna Tagra and Amit Kumar of SP Jain, Mumbai spoke against the motion 'Made in India is far from being a world class brand'.

The other two semi-finalists NITIE, Mumbai, represented by Shreyas Srinivas and Amit K Shah spoke for and Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai's Siddhesh A Ranade and Komal Puri spoke against the topic 'Strategy is a matter of intuition and not formulation.

SP Jain and Sydenham made it to the Debate finals, slated to talk on the subject 'Peter Drucker once rightly said, "Profits will seize to be a reason of death for corporations'.

Meanwhile in the Quiz preliminary round, SIBM-Pune's Rohit Jain and Nikhil Narayanan, IIM Ahmedabad's Ashiwin Bale and Rohan Murarka, K J Somaiya Institute of management and Research's Sandeep Rajpurohit and Shameer Bandeally and Narsee Monjee students Brian D'souza and Eva Joshi made it to the West Zone Quiz Finals.