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The participants and delegates were given a taste of “Tomorrow's Technology” with the use of RFID smart-identification cards, a student-body initiative.
The event was graced by Chief Guest, Mr. Gordon W. Robinson, Managing Director of Timken India Limited; Dr. S.B. Majumdar, President and Founding Director, Symbiosis Society; Ms. Vidya Yeravdekar, the Joint Director, Symbiosis Society; Mr. Bhausaheb Patil and Mr. Anand Agashe of Sakaal Publications; and Prof. K. S. Subramanian, Director SCMHRD.

The 2-day event also included a Yakshagana puppet show, a Karnataka folk art form, by “Bhaskar Koga Kamath & Group” in conjunction with SPIC-MACAY, Pune Chapter.

The awardees under the six different categories included Goodyear Ltd for DMAIC Manufacturing, Max New York Life Ltd, Airtel Enterprise Services and E-Funds International India Pvt Ltd for DMAIC Services, Reliance Energy for DFSS Manufacturing, Airtel Enterprice Services Carriers for DFSS Services, Reliance Industries ltd, Hazira for Lean Manufacturing, HDFC Bank, Wipro Technologies and GE India Industrial Pvt Ltd for Lean Services.

Mr. Naresh Raisinghani, CEO BMG Ltd, applauded SCMHRD's bold stand in not declaring winners in every category. The Director, Prof. K. S. Subramanian stated that SCMHRD believes in awarding efforts towards achieving excellence. Winners have been declared in categories where there has been a clear-cut winner. However, where the panelists felt that the entries needed further work, a runners-up and commendation prize have been declared.

While stating the importance of Six Sigma to business organizations, Mr. Robinson, the Chief Guest, said that he ascribed the phenomenal turnaround of Timken India Limited since 1995, to the Lean Six Sigma initiatives undertaken by the organization. He believes that providing a means to measure the financial impact of change initiatives is the single most important contribution that Six Sigma can impart to businesses. He congratulated SCMHRD for providing a platform to recognize the industry's efforts towards achieving continual excellence in quality and looked forward to more such endeavours.

In their address, Dr. S.B. Majumdar and Ms. Vidya Yeravdekar reiterated the importance of the academia in inculcating a spirit of innovation and continual improvement.

Prof. O.S. Vaidya, Head - “Operations Center of Excellence” SCMHRD, attributed the event's success to the core student committee including Abhijit Ghosh, C. R. Prabu, Neha Chabbra, Priyanka Kohly and S. Balamurugan.

Commenting on the entries received this year, Prof. K.S. Subramanian, on behalf of the academia, urged the industry to encourage true innovation and continual improvement on a continuous basis. He further stated that SCMHRD should continue to host the “Sakaal Six Sigma Excellence Awards” in the times to come as a platform to recognize industry efforts in quality arena.

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The SME sector, which contributes to almost 70 – 80 % of the manufacturing economy, has for long been unorganized as far as IT solutions gone. The conclave raised some hard questions about the cause of inefficiency in the current system of the manufacturing sector and how leveraging IT could benefit the sector. It also highlighted whether the existing services and solutions were relevant, portable, and cost effective to the manufacturing economy system. Among the key speakers were Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman, Satyam Computer Services Limited, Rajesh Gupta, Chief General Manager - IT, Maruti Udyog Limited, Srikant Mokashi, Chief (IT, STEEL) - Tata Steel.
Also present at the event were M Ramamohan Rao, Dean, ISB, Professor N Vishwanadham, Executive Director, Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies, ISB.

In his address, Dean Rao said, “The penetration of IT in the manufacturing sector is very low, we want this conclave to address these challenges. The three Centers of Excellence at the ISB will take forward the findings of the conclave and will set the roadmap for the future.”

“There has been a major shift from China to India as far as the manufacturing Industry is concerned. This transition should be taken advantage of, “ added Rambling Raju. He conveyed that IT solutions in this sector were affordable and dependable. He stressed on the creative use of technology and judicious use of Soft Infrastructure like Human Resources, Customer base, Building Processes etc., which he felt were yardsticks of enterprise evaluation that do not reflect in the balance Sheet.

Mr. Raju maintained that the demarcating lines between large and small enterprises are blurring and that quality, response to stake holders and understanding of the consumer and investor psychology should be on the forefront of any enterprise. He guaranteed that NASSCOM would continue to provide support to the SME's.

Rajdeep Sharawat, VP, NASSCOM, made some interesting observations. “Unless an SME sees IT solutions as a critical need it will not incorporate the same.“ He said the SME perceived the IT Industry to be arrogant and that they shared a rather adverse relationship. Thus the first step needed is for the two sectors to be more collaborative and for the IT industry to act as the facilitator and enabler.

The Indian School of Business has initiated several activities this year to enhance the interface between academia and industry. The School believes that such interactions will pave the way for an active, research based, solution development for the unique problems that are faced by emerging markets such as India, Asia, and other countries.

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The occasion was to award Lakshya Business Visionary 2006 to Chairman ITC Ltd. Mr. Y.C Deveshwar, Chairman Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Mr. Keshub Mahindra and Chairman Wipro Technologies Ltd., Mr Azim Premji. Mr. Rajat Sharma, Chairman India TV was awarded Best Startup Entrepreneur of the year 2006. Honorable Finance Minister, Govt of Maharashtra Shri Jayant Patil was the Chief Guest of the grandeur. The main concern expressed was how to empower the rural India with innovation and comprehensive infrastructure development.


The results of the Modules of Lakshya are -:
Supply Chain Module-; 1st - Marico , 2nd - Dr. Reddy's, 3rd – Godrej

Systems & IT Module-: 1st – Mahindra & Mahindra, 2nd – BASF, 3rd – Patni

Operations Management -: 1st – L&T;, 2nd – BPCL, 3rd – L'Oreal

General & HR Module-: 1st – Wipro, 2nd – HPCL, 3rd – Dupont

The overall Mahindra & Mahindra won Lakshya Trophy for their project “Customer Centric IT Infrastructure” which was given by Chairman, Board of Governors, NITIE and Secretary, Ministry of HRD Mr. Sudeep Banerjee.

The jury members consisting of VPs and CEOs complimented the students of PGDIE- NITIE for holding such a confluence of industry giants and young brains, which serves as a wonderful learning exercise for all.

Empresario - the event celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship was held on 15th October 2006 aimed at infusing the sapient elements of entrepreneurship in the students. Mr. Harish Mittal, Chairman, Mercator Lines Ltd. was bestowed the Empresario Most Inspiring Entrepreneur of the year 2006.

The B-Plan contest and Spardha, which attracted participation from far-famed B-Schools like IIM-A IIM-C, IIM-L, XLRI, ISB, FMS, IIT-B, SIBM, DCE, and SPJIMR etc. was chaired by GM SBI Mr. Bhagwanta Rao with Mr. Pravin Gandhi, President TiE, Mumbai as Guest of Honor. The B-Plan winners were FMS Delhi. KJ Somaiya won Spardha consisting of incisive and brainstorming management games. In the elevator pitch idea the student team from ISB clinched the first prize.

The resplendence of Empresario continued further with D'Apprendre, where Mr. R. Sriram, founder of Crossword bookstores and Mr. Dheeraj Gupta, founder JumboKing Vadapav shared their success stories with the audience, moderated by Mr. Manak Singh, Director TiE Mumbai. Their amulet was that “for success, a combination of vision and venture is required”.

The winners of Samadhan - a series of online quizzes organized exclusively for engineering students were also awarded during the event.
The galore of events came to an end with Dr. S. D. Awale, Director NITIE emphasizing that students are not only learning management but also practicing it by organizing Lakshya.
At NITIE, Mumbai the Lakshya of excellence will continue…


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While introducing Mr. Soota, Fr. Abraham, the Director of XIMB, spoke of his impressive track record and rich experience starting with the Shriram Group of Industries in India in 1965 and going on until his present position in Mindtree today and also elaborated on how he has successfully led all the companies he has been in. Mr. Rajeev Kaul, the CEO of the Nicco Corporation Pvt. Ltd then delivered a short speech on how India today is ideally positioned to realize her full potential.

The topic of this year's lecture was “Realizing Your Personal Potential”. Mr. Soota started by saying that the realization of one's personal potential should be the most important task in anyone's life. His focus was not only on successful careers but also on the innumerable other factors that contribute towards the shaping of a personality.

According to him, Success was the ability to set and meet achievable targets, and then continuously raise the bar. He also quoted the following inspiring saying by Sri Sri Ravishankar:

“Stretching sound is music, stretching music is dance, stretching smile is laughter, stretching mind is meditation, stretching life is celebration”

Mr. Soota added his own personal touch to the above saying by adding that “stretching goals is success”.

He then went on to mention some of the reasons why managers fail. He identified six key reasons, as follows:

 Over-stretching or under stretching
 Fear of failure, an inability to take appropriate risks
 Complacency due to early success
 Putting the “self” before the team
 People tending to be either good managers or good leaders, when it was actually necessary to be both
 A mismatch between the skills of the person and the requirements of the job.

According to Mr. Soota, three entities – the head, the heart, and the mind – should all be considered while making personal decisions in life.

He then went on to talk about the importance of living up to one's potential in areas such as caring, learning, sharing and helping other people. He talked about caring as being not about softness but about fairness, and about bringing joy into the lives of people around you.
Going on to the issue of learning, he talked about how the vast amounts of information readily available today were ensuring that the onus of learning was shifting onto the individual, thus creating a situation where individuals were having to take the responsibility of their own self-development. He also said that sharing, rather than diminishing, would actually enhance gains. According to him, it was not about “dividing the pie, but increasing the size of the pie”.

Mr. Soota concluded by saying that the future would invariable be determined by circumstances outside our control but our decisions and our determination to see it through would definitely have a huge impact on the nature of the experience.

The speech was thought-provoking, and as a result there were a number of questions from the student community which Mr. Soota (along with Mr. Rajeev Kaul) answered patiently and comprehensively.

A speech that the audience will certainly remember and look back on, from an unforgettable speaker, made this Foundation day a day to remember.


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Advertisements rely on three key factors: Content, Audience and Media. The Business of Content deals with issues like the fact that we live in an attention deficit society and Multi-tasking. Nearly 176 hours of ads are played over 126 channels on a daily basis, 28000 ads per day with 1100 ads per hour and 202 ads per day per channel only proves the rise of advertising in today's media.

Mr. Srinivasan stressed on the point that content must be relevant and different. Nowadays ads should feature compelling content. Mr. Srinivasan then showed video clippings of popular ads like Adidas, Raymond, VISA, Kiwi, ICI Dulux Paints and Bank of India. He explained as to how these ads used values to target markets and even capture market share from the leaders. He also laid emphasis on the relevance of communication in ads. Ads and their relevance to audience is a matter of utmost importance these days. Not all communication is relevant to everybody. An example is the case of youth being attracted towards bike ads rather than car ads.
Communication that offers a single solution is looked with more attention and keenness. Those with multiple solutions fail to communicate with the audience. Communication must have cues for targeted audience to relate to it. When content is well directed with a single-minded proposition, it has to be brilliantly executed to acheive desired results. Today's world is one of media clutter and attention deficiency. Hence, media function takes centre stage. From support function, more emphasis is laid on Strategic Function. Sharp planning can definitely instigate smart buying.

The Media has challenges often referred to as the 4 Cs: Choices, Clutter, Competition and Complexity. Fragmented audiences are another obstacle for ad makers. Diverse audiences and diverse media often affect affinity and preferences among the media. The audience can be divided into categories like youth, men and women, television being the most commonly used medium for ads. Ads target specific audiences and Mr. Srinivasan used the example of AXE Click and how it targets men and the channels displaying the ad happens to be News and Infotainment Channels.

Mr. Srinivasan also answered doubts regarding the use of latest technology in TV channels which allowed viewers to get rid of ads. He said that CBS, ABC and NBC would lose a great deal in advertising revenues, thanks to this system. But he reiterated that bypassing of ads does not mean the end. He pointed out the example of how BMW released an ad not on TV but online and still succeeded to create a market for them.

Finally, Mr. Srinivasan concluded that Advertising is not words, pictures and fun alone. It's a serious business and one that works only if the messages are well crafted to spur the audience to action.

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12 teams each from the Delhi, Mumbai & Coimbatore Regions were short listed on the basis of their written report on the topic. The short listed teams made presentations before an eminent jury consisting of Mr. V.C.Agarwal (Chief Guest), Director, HR, Indian Oil MD, IBP; Ms. Kamakshi Raman,General Manager, HR, SAIL; Prof. Ashok Kapoor, Dean, Graduate Program, Chairman, EMP, MDI; Mr. B.B.Choudhary, DGM, IIPM, Gurgaon; Mr. N.N.Akhori, Senior VP, HR, Hero Honda; Dr. Sunil Abrol, Head, HR, C Dot and Mr. Rajeev Sehdev, General Manager HR, Moser Baer. Eventually four teams were selected from each region for the National final.

The national finals held on September 16,2006 in New Delhi witnessed participation from teams from MICA Ahmedabad, FMS Delhi, ISB Hyderabad, ICFAI Hyderabad, Amrita School of Business Coimbatore, NMIMS Mumbai, SCMHRD Pune & IMI New Delhi. The teams made their presentations in front of an eminent jury and the team from IMI, New Delhi comprising of Rajesh Biyani, PGP II & Pooja Baid, PGP I was adjudged the best followed by SCMHRD Pune & NMIMS Mumbai as the 1st & 2nd runner ups.

After its victory in the Nationals the team from IMI was invited to make a presentation at the 33rd National Management Convention of AIMA on October 6 and 7, 2006at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. This convention played host to delegations from various countries across the globe and boasted the presence of accomplished personalities like Mr. Kamal Nath, Union Commerce & Industry Minister, Govt. of India, Mr. Shiv Nadar, Chairman & CEO, HCL Technologies, Mr. Subir Raha, ex-chairman, ONGC, Mr. Douglas Baille, President & CEO, HLL to name a few.

Also, as part of the prize, the IMI team members were invited by the Macau Management Association for an eight-day industrial visit to Macau & Pearl River Delta, South China.





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Kriti 2006 was held on October 28, 2006 at XLRI Campus. It comprised of three events, namely, Indian Cultural Performance (a group event for students of Class 8 and below), Rangoli and India Quiz (for students of Class 9 and above). 6 schools participated in Kriti 2006. About 65 students took part in the events.

Kriti was started as an annual programme from last year (2005) onwards. Kriti 2005 saw the participation of 5 schools and around 70 students. The events held were Indian Cultural Performance, Rangoli and India Quiz. DBMS School emerged overall winners of Kriti 2005.

The winners of individual events this year were awarded medals. Little Flower School emerged overall winners of Kriti 2006.

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IMI alumni, called 'Achievers' command powerful and compelling positions in the present corporate environment. Their resounding growth and success have been instrumental in keeping the IMI 'brand' alive within the business fraternity and they proudly acknowledge the role of IMI – the college where they learnt the nuances of management in their success

The Annual Alumni Meet is held to honor these achievers and also to provide a forum where they can catch up with old friends to relive those nostalgic moments of their student days. This would also give them a chance to take a break from their busy and bustling corporate lives.

The event, entirely coordinated and managed by the Alumni Committee will be held at IMI's famed 'Amphitheatre'. The evening is scheduled to begin with initial remarks on IMI's recent developments by faculty and alumni, followed by a short film showcasing 25 years of the Institute. This would be followed by a series of cultural programs organized by the students and then a celebratory dinner. The evening will conclude with students, past and present, swinging to the echoing beats of music, a time honored tradition in IMI.

Let us celebrate our success together. An ode to our alumni – “We salute you all!”

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India is a land of rich natural resources, but economic growth has been accompanied by accelerated depletion of its natural wealth, which has resulted in deterioration of environmental quality and even after continued development and growth, the dimensions of poverty in India is staggering, it still ranks as low as 127th in the Human Development Index. Its ecosystems are highly degraded and the country is still suffering grave ecological crisis.

The present situation necessitates a complete paradigm shift in doing business in the present world which enables rapid development without compromising on the ecosystem to sustain and nurture the natural and economic development. It is, thus required to measure business success from financial as well as socio-environmental point-of-view so that the growth in GDP, per-capita income, PPP and shareholders' wealth today is sustained for the years to come for all industries and businesses.

It is with this goal in mind that Department of Management Studies (DMS), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi is organising Building India Inc. 2006 - “Sustainable development”. The forum would act as a platform for young managers, senior representatives from the industry and academicians to discuss scenarios and alternative growth paths and encourage debate about India's future socio–economic and environmental dimensions. Building India Inc. is a step in this direction that concentrates not only on the hypothetical situations but also recommends prescriptions for India's future, prescriptions that will propel India towards Sustainable Development.

Building India Inc. is an Annual National Conference organized by DMS IIT Delhi. Every year an issue of current relevance for business is chosen and a platform is provided to discuss the topic and develop a roadmap for the industry to follow. It has made the entire corporate world sit and notice, caught the attention of every concerned citizen to be able to contribute, be heard and be able to make a difference and is being widely debated in academic circles for all its dimensions and implications.

On Day one the proceedings would kick off with the inaugural session. Ms. Seema Arora, Head of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development has kindly agreed to deliver the theme address. Prof. S.S Yadav, Head of Department, DMS and Prof. Vinaysheel Gautam would also address the gathering and open up the topic for discussion.

Marketing session will bring forth the issue of delivering products in collaboration with the communities in which the company operates so as to lead to convergence and sustainable development in future. The session would feature many leaders in the field who would share their views on the topic. Some of those who have agreed to be present are Mr. Prasoon Joshi, Regional Director- Creative, McCann Ericksson; Mr. Gullu Sen, Vice President, Dentsu; Mr. Arun Shanker, Ex-Director, Eicher Consultancy Services and Ms. Padmaja Krishnan, Director-Marketing, Planning and Research, CSC.

This will pave way to another very important functional area of management that is Finance. Addressing the need for a more integrated and sustainable financial system, this session would invite a broad range of viewpoints from different groups and sectors. Mr. Colin J.Warren, Portfolio Manager, South Asia, Global Manufacturing & Services Department, International Finance Corporation and Ms Gerlinde Sturm, Director (Finance), Siemens will share their perspective on the subject.

Next session will focus on HR specific issues. The success in this area can be achieved by making sustainable development part of the employee value proposition, assessing how workforce diversity contributes to performance and working in partnership with employees and communities. Notable speakers include Mr. Y V Verma, Director- HR, LG Electronics; Mr. Vineet Kapila, Vice President, Coca Cola; Mr. Rajeev Rao, Vice President, Bharti Televentures.

Day two would start with a session on Information Technology. Aim of this forum will be to provide a stimulus for knowledge exchange and cooperation that focuses on the application of information technology to Sustainable Development everywhere in this interdependent world and specifically in India. Dr Ashok Wahi, Director (IT Operations), Convergys; Mr. Sunil Mehra, Director Sales, Oracle; Mr. Rajeev K Arora, Sr. Manager, BU Head, e-Busines Applications, IBM; Mr. J Kalyan Raman, Sr-VicePresident, HCL and Mr. Venkatesh Velluri, Country Manager, Agilent Technologies have kindly agreed to participate in the discussion.

Telecom sector in India in growing at an unprecedented pace, it is incumbent upon us to sustain the growth so that future generations can reap the benefits. And the specialists will provide their valuable opinions on the same during the Telecom Session. The whole gamut of industry experts will assemble, right from Mr. Rajat Mukherjee, Director-Country Affairs, Idea Cellular to Mr. Abhay Vaish, Country Head, Ericcson. TRAI will be represented by Mr. Surinder Singh, Advisor, TRAI.

The contribution of the manufacturing industry towards Sustainable Development can be gauged through three main parameters, namely its share in total employment, per capita value added in manufacturing and of course in environmental protection. As a developing country, the industrial sector has a very important role to play in driving India towards progress at an accelerated pace. This sentiment will be echoed and looked upon by academia and corporate during Operations session. Mr. K.J. Gupta, Head- Projects, Dabur India and Mr. Shiva Gulvady, Ex-Vice President, Pepsi Foods would share their viewpoints on the topic.

About 200 participants are expected to attend the conference. The event hopes to serve as a platform to bring together the government, the corporate, the media and the academia to deliberate on issues and challenges facing the nation with regards to sustainable development and share their experiences and views with the larger audience.


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The themes are as follows:

1.) Challenges and Opportunities in Retail Marketing.

2.) Future of Banking in India – Changing Imperatives

3.) Creative Chaos of Today's Business World

The sponsors for this event include Canara Bank, Covansys, CavinKare, FSS, Infosys, Sify, Tata Consultancy Services and Viveks. The media partners for the event are The Hindu, Business Line and PagalGuy.Com

The plenary session is expected to be addressed by Dr. K. Ponmudi, Hon'ble Minister of State for Higher Education. The keynote address will be delivered by Rev. Fr. S.J. Christie, Director, LIBA

The two day event (November 2-3) will be held at Le Royal Meridien, Chennai and the event shall showcase brainstorming sessions on the above themes by some of the masters of the industry and here is the list of the speakers:

1. Balakrishnan, V, Senior Vice President & CIO, Polaris

2. Capoor, Jagdish, Chairman, HDFC Bank

3. Chhibba, Rajan, MD, Intrim

4. Das, Shamik, COO – South & Central, Airtel.

5. Deshpande, Chinar, Chief – Information Technology, Pantaloon

6. Dhabhai, Pranay, Director & COO, Haier India

7. Ganapathy, Somasekhar, CEO, Tamil Nadu & Kerala, Reliance Infocomm

8. Kannan, H, Vice President, PepsiCo

9. Kaul, Hemant, President, Retail Banking Division, UTI Bank

10. Mahadik, Yashwant, Vice President, Johnson & Johnson

11. Mahendran, A, MD, Godrej Sara Lee

12. Naware, Ravi, Chief Executive, ITC Foods

13. Panchal, Sarang, Executive Director, AC Nielsen – South Asia

14. Pillai, Raghu, President & Chief Executive, Reliance Retail

15. Pingali, Chandrasekhar, Head HR, Standard Chartered Bank

16. Raj, David, Director, Virtusa

17. Raman, Srividya, Vice President, Citibank

18. Ramesh, G.S., Senior Vice President, Hyundai Motor India

19. Ramprasad, G, President, TI Cycles

20. Ravindran, G, Global Head HR, Covansys

21. Ravishankar, D, MD, Risk Solutions, Asia Pacific, Standard & Poor's & Executive Director, CRISIL

22. Sathe, Chandrashekhar, Group Head (Risk Management), Kotak Mahindra Bank

23. Setty, B.A., Kodandarama, CMD, Vivek Ltd.

24. Shekar, G.P., Head – Consulting Practice, FSS

25. Srikrishnan, H, Executive Director, YES Bank

26. Srinivasan, Vijay, Director, Maya Appliances

27. Trivedi, Sanmitra, Head HR, Verizon Data Services India

28. Unnikrishnan, T.M, CTO, Shopper's Stop

29. Venkatraman, R., Ex-Executive Director & Head – Business Advisory Services, KPMG

30. Verma, Alok, CIO, FMCG Division, ITC

LIBA welcomes savants and mavericks of the corporate world and students of other management institutes to Insight'06. Be there to witness the changes that are happening to our dynamic business world.

For registration details – www.liba.edu/insight
K. V. Arun - 098414 23924
Kavithan Felix – 098841 33282

Email: [email protected]
[email protected]

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The celebrations included Kaikottikali, the popular folk dance, and the traditional feast served by the Malayali students themselves, but what stole the show were two elephants, decked up in traditional style, sporting a Nettipattam, the ornamental head gear worn by elephants during festivals. As they ambled into the centre of campus, with traditional music playing in the background, the evening got underway.

The presence of the faculty and staff of XLRI along with their families added to the flavor. With the Malayalis among them also joining in as hosts, the bonding was there for all to see. The dance performance, by the girl students, which was a variant of the famous Thiruvathirakali, was held on the lawns of the college and the fluid, elegant movements were appreciated by all.

The crowd then moved into the Chaya Kada (tea stall) that had been set up in the mess. The faculty and students mingled as they sat down for dinner, and food was served. It was a sumptuous spread, it had been made in traditional Kerala style,and the results were there for all to taste. The crowds kept pouring in, and the army of amateur waiters was hard pressed but in what was a great example for solidarity, lots of enthusiastic volunteers took over, thus ensuring that it went off smoothly.

All in all a wonderful experience to cherish till next November 1, 2007!

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Post-lunch on Saturday, November 4 is when the fever catches on. Regional winner teams of Acumen 2006 have started pouring into Mumbai to participate in the National Finals event at The Ballroom, ITC Grand Central Sheraton and Towers. The teams comprise the who's who of Indian B-schools - two Indian Institutes of Management, IIFT, IMT, Sydenham and SIBM. Even among the B-school Alumni rounds, the finalists are familiar names from the campus quizzing circuit as it was a couple of years ago.

What is Acumen 2006 host Harsha Bhogle expecting at the National Finals?

Do take a look at the event schedule of the Acumen 2006 National Finals event and notice the large number of activities planned for the audience. Besides a whole lot of MBA students and alumni from top Indian B-schools, the National Finals shall have appearances from top executives of the corporate world, including from Acumen's main sponsors Aditya Birla Group and Business Today.

Event Schedule

B School Quiz National Finals
3.20 pm - 4.20 pm

Audience Quiz / Draw of Lots (Audience Prizes)
4.20 pm - 4:30 pm

Tea Break
4:30 pm - 5.00 pm

Audience Quiz / Draw of Lots (Audience Prizes)
5.00 pm - 5.15 pm

Debate National Finals
5.15 pm - 6.05 pm

Audience Quiz / Draw of Lots (Audience Prizes)
6.05 pm - 6.15 pm

Alumni Quiz National Finals
6.15 pm - 7.15 pm

Presentation Ceremony including Audience Bumper Prize
7.15 pm - 7.30 pm

Keep watching this section for LIVE updates as they happen!

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Harsha, how has your experience been so far at the Acumen National B-school challenge?

Excellent! It is my second year at Acumen and I am enjoying being with young, intelligent people. Also, I like the people there, which has been important to me in everything I have done so far. I find people at Business Today very easy to get along with. There is a certain class about them as there is with the Aditya Birla Group which has a very understated elegance. I've never been much in favour of shouting from the rooftops and that 's what I admire about the Aditya Birla Group and Acumen has such a wonderful concept.

What do you feel is the difference between hosting a B-school-specific Quiz show like Acumen as opposed to other general quiz shows?

I think you expect a certain level of awareness and the desire to be inquisitive. On that front I have been a touch disappointed with the standard of quizzing; the alumni have been sharper. The only other quiz shows I do are sports related and while there is a greater level of comfort there, there is a sense of curiosity within me as well when I do the B-school quiz. Also, having been a B-school student myself, even if many years ago, I can relate to the excitement.

What are you looking forward for most in the National Quiz finals etween IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IMT, Ghaziabad and SIBM, Pune at Mumbai?

I would like them to have a lot of fun and be able to look upon it as an adventure rather than as a contest that must be won at all cost.

What kind of research do you do before a quiz show like Acumen?

To be honest, very little. Anustup Datta, and his colleagues, as quizicians develop the questions and I go through them very closely before I reach the venue to check comfort levels. I do not comment on the quality of questions since they are experts in that category and they know better. We have formed a very good relationship as a result. I am aware that I am not a quizzer and so I think I know where my role begins and where it ends.

What has been your funniest and most awkward moment at Acumen?

The funnier moments have come with the alumni quiz but you rarely get moments that have you rolling on the floor with laughter. But there is nothing like a smile to dilute tension. Luckily, no awkward moments so far.

How do you manage multiple roles - quizzer, commentator, and entrepreneur - at the same time?

I wish I could, I suspect my story is getting a little over-romanticized. Professionally, I fear that I am becoming more of a performer and less of a thinker, which is what I would like to be more of. I am not an entrepreneur; we need to be careful not to assign big words to modest activities. Being a quiz host is quite simple and I have been doing commentary for many years now. There isn't a huge difference between the two. I think the key to multi-tasking though is to focus on one thing at a time and not let them mingle with each other. I think my strength lies in being able to switch on and off, in believing that every activity that I am involved in is very special and deserves the best I can do. If I don't do something well enough I can live with it but if I haven't given it everything I have, I will be disappointed with myself.

Which one of quizzing or commentary do you enjoy doing more of?

Oh, commentary any day. I love hosting live sport, which is where my experience and ability lies. It gives me a huge buzz I am not a quizzer. I don't have credibility in that area like I think I do in cricket. But live television has taught me to think on my feet and I think that comes in handy in hosting a quiz show.

Coming to your B-school background, how has your journey been so far starting from Hyderabad to IIM Ahmedabad to journalism to becoming a renowned commentator and now a famous quizmaster also?

I could not have asked for more. Interestingly, while we read about so much crime and about the bad people in the world, at every stage I have met really nice people who have generously given me time and allowed me to imbibe their expertise. I think growing up in Hyderabad was excellent, it allowed me soak things in without being under pressure all the time. And working in Mumbai showed me a certain work ethic. Also, working with cricketer commentators made me tougher and more competitive than I ever thought I would be.

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Which was your most memorable day or event at IIM A, when you were a student there?

One event is tough to pinpoint. In retrospect it would be the day I knew I had met the person I would spend the rest of my life with. The first term was devastating and the last day was a bit emotional. While I didn't yet realise how important
the two years were going to be, there was sadness at the fact that it was over and that is why I tend to go back as often as I can. There was one other event that was crucial for me and that is when the PGP chairman, now director, Prof Bakul Dholakia, allowed me to miss my second term exams to do my first test match as a television commentator. I did my papers after I came back and that kind of academic flexibility is one reason why the IIMs are awesome institutions.

imageHarsha, how would you say your IIM credentials helped you in getting where you are today?

In one word, confidence. I have always maintained that my IIM A degree (a diploma if you want to be absolutely correct) is like my test cap and it tells me that I belong in this world. It has also ensured that I didn't benchmark myself too low and being with outstanding talents might have rubbed off a bit on me because it was just an awesome collection of talent – the best I have ever seen. Curiously, it has started meaning a bit more now for the people who I meet because IIM A is a bigger brand than ever before. Doing more than 350 internationals doesn't quite give me the same reaction as 'you are from IIM A!'

When and how did you know that you wanted to be a commentator?

I knew I wanted to do commentary after my first match but I did not know that it could be a professional pursuit till much later, till the early nineties.

What is your most favorite match and cricketer and who is your idol in management and in cricket?

My favourite test match is one in which India beat England at Leeds in 2002. They took bold decisions, batted brilliantly in bowler friendly conditions and the spinners won the game on the last day. Whether in sport, or in management, I like people who underplay their abilities, let their performances speak for themselves. People like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman. I admired Ganguly for his spunk but my all-time favourite cricketer is Anil Kumble, big heart, great competitor, very tough, extremely understated and soft-spoken. Like Tendulkar he carries his enormous achievements very lightly. As a child my cricketing idols were Sunil Gavaskar and BS Chandrasekhar, tried to copy their styles quite often. On the corporate front I have always admired the Tata Group for all that they have done and they way they have done it – with great class and without shouting about it. And now I like the big three IT Companies since they have put India on the world map and they have done it very ethically. Being Indian and being honest means a huge amount to me.

Who is your favorite commentator, your role model?

I didn't have a broadcasting role model to start off since in television, they didn't exist in India. My earliest heroes were the cameramen, engineers and replay editors. They never went wrong and I thought I had a great responsibility as the front man to live up to their standards. On radio I admired Anant Setalvad and after I got to know him, Tony Cozier, he is awesome. Michael holding was very nice to me and Geoffrey Boycott and Dean Jones were challenges to work with. And I think we have a very fine team at ESPN star.

So what is your company Prosearch about? Are there prospects for MBAs from Indian B-schools there?

For better or worse, no. It is just my wife, Anita, and I. She runs the show, she is the driving force. She is a brilliant talent, great ability to seize a situation and react. She is outstanding at organised thought and that is the real reason why Prosearch has become so successful doing corporate programmes. But we are currently very happy with the level we are at.

Are you planning to write more biographies, books?

Not in the immediate future. I have often talked about writing a book and done nothing about it so I have decided that I will not talk about it again till I have actually done it.

Thanks for the interview Harsha!

You're welcome and thanks for the opportunity.

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The summit proposed to address the challenges and compile possible cures in the Indian Pharma Industry. Intellectual Property Rights Management, Health Insurance, innovations in Rural Health, Medical Tourism and positing the Indian Pharma industry in the global scenario were some of topics tackled.

Dean Rao in his welcome address expressed the ISB's willingness to contribute to the public health scenario in India. He said that the institute would initiate health awareness programmes in the future, and facilitate an equitable and professional health care system for the masses.

Ranjit Shahani, VC and MD Novartis India Ltd, and President (OPPI), in his keynote said, “Health care is not a paradox but a challenge”. The main obstacle that the pharma industry faced, according to him, was the inability to communicate its value proposition. “The challenge is to build on our corporate reputation, to foster responsibility and reliability and to win public confidence.” Shahani stressed that research in the pharma industry is a long process which involves clinical trials, safety aspects etc. Moreover, it is an expensive proposition. This meant that cost per patient is also on the rise. The challenge that the industry must take on full front is to improve the quality of life while building on innovative treatments. Shahani said that the healthcare infrastructure scenario in the country is insufficient, and availability of drugs is alarmingly low specially in the rural sectors. A public private partnership, according to him, is essential to provide healthcare to Below-Poverty-Line families in India. While India is poised to be one of the top 10-pharma players in the world, Shahani ironically pointed out to the high mortality rates and cases of night blindness in rural India. While India boasts of having the lowest priced medicine, much of the benefits are inaccessible.

The discussion then moved on to talk about how intellectual property can be harnessed for sustainable competitive growth. “The pharma industry has taken globalisation as an opportunity and not as a threat,” voiced Ajit Dangi Director General, OPPI. He said that to sustain the dynamic growth that the pharma industry is witnessing, an environment that fosters innovation is required. Here comes in Intellectual Property, which comprises of trademarks, copyrights, traditional knowledge, design rights etc. Dangi pointed out that in a country like India which is a biodiversity hub, it is essential to balance national interest, healthcare issues, availability and medicinal prices in order to use IP as an aggressive commercial weapon. Pointing out to the importance of IPR training courses he said that institutes like ISB can go a long way to institutionalize it. “IP should be an integral part of business strategy and not just a legal or R & D issue. Latent IP of a company can help it take leadership positions and help in competition,” said Dangi.

Unlike other industries, Pharmaceutical industry has been able to weather the wave of globalization primarily because it managed and protected its IP well. He believes that the future growth of an industry or a company depends on a) financial capital b) Management talent and c) Environment that fosters research. Existence of favourable IP provisions helps foster innovation, which inspires growth of the industry.

According to him, a national IPR policy in healthcare is formulated by considering following four attributes:

a) National Interest
b) Science & Technology; Research & Development
c) Availability of medical facilities and price of the facilities
d) Healthcare Services

Quoting example from famous case studies, Dr Dangi stressed on the importance of managing IP. He laid down few key opportunities related to IP provisions and IP management for Indian Pharmaceutical companies:

a) Bulk Drugs
b) International clinical trials
c) Technology Services
d) Herbals Neutraceuticals
e) Bioinformatics, Biostatistics
f) Training & Development
g) Turnkey Projects
h) Contract R&D;

Kwela Handa, MD, Pfizer, focused on making regulatory changes competitive. “In India, regulation is more of control in nature and prohibits growth. Unlike the IT and telecom industry, the Pharma industry is still struggling under the yoke of over-regulation,” he said. Pointing out to the fact that a right regulation system could increase productivity by 60 per cent, Handa said that in India there is a vast difference of mindset between the government and the industry, which needs to be addressed. “We need an optimum regulatory frame work and the government doesn't have the mind set to put this in place. We need open transparent regulations and not some draconian laws. Regulations cannot be political driven,” he said. He brought to light the fact that the government spends only .09% of the GDP on health care whereas the WHO recommends a 7 to 8%.

Handa spoke about the issue of over-regulation in the Indian market. He said that the ideal role of regulations is to facilitate fair competition and shape the structure and conduct of the industry. However, in recent times, the industry is experiencing an environment of over-regulation in India. He said that the perception of industry towards patents and IPR is significantly different from that of government. While the industry sees patents as safeguard of innovations, government simply views them as tool for WTO compliance. He stressed on the need for linking corporate strategy to the regulatory environment, which can be done by:
a) Defining and understanding impact
b) Stakeholder management
c) Conductions stakeholder analysis
d) Managing tradeoffs
e) Communicating strategies
f) Organizing regulatory management

He expressed concern about lack of optimal government framework to introduce and implement IPR laws and provisions. Few of the government policies that are cause of concern are:

a) Laws are ambiguous
b) Delay in decisions
c) Price control
d) Labour regulation
e) No drug reimbursements in form of labour
f) Code of marketing practices

He concluded by saying that the business models for Indian pharmaceutical companies are evolving and some key models are:

a) Migration towards innovation
b) Core generics companies
c) Partnership seekers
d) Niche players

Co-relating Intellectual Property with the tale of the three blind men who have different views about the elephant, Sails Ayyangar, MD Aventis Pharma Ltd, traced out the history of patent, from the 19th century diktat that patent was enemy to free trade to the present scenario where patent is the key to manage economic prosperity. “65% of the pharma industry would not have launched a product if there was not patent,” he said. “The reason is the long lag period in the research arenas of the pharma sector, and also because of the high investment in the R&D.; Ayyangar posited advantage India as a mantra to strengthen the IP in the industry. “We have exclusive brainpower, we have entrepreneurship in our blood, we have excellent manufacturing facilities, all we need is to build a reputation and get out of the copycat label. We need to manage IPR for forging alliances and for clinical research,” he said. Encouraging ISB students to venture into this sector Ayyengar said, “The Pharma industry is an industry of choice and a challenging one for young business minds.”

Analyzing the phenomenon of medical tourism Vishal Bali, CEO Wockhardt Hospitals said the initial euphoria of a first world patient being treated in a third worlds hospital is over. He claimed that Healthcare Delivery is going to be the major key driver as far as the growth of the pharma industry is concerned and that Asia is going to be the next best destination for health care practices. Bali said that we have come full circle. “From being a net exporter in patients to the developed world, we have become the net importer,” he said. The reasons being that while in Europe the Social Insurance Scheme is under pressure, the US healthcare comes at a premium rate. “Today we are the treatment destination for the developed world and this is due to the fact the India has above 600,000 doctors, lower medication cost, availability of global healthcare brands, a global recognition of clinical talent and also because of the fact that India is a civilization 5000 years old,” he said. Bali however maintained the need to sustain the advantages. “We need to have consistent cost advantage, have transparency of clinical services and confirm to international quality and standards, he stressed.

Dr P Namperumalsamy, Chairman, Aravind Eye Care System, spoke about his institution's efforts at providing healthcare to the 500 million who comprise the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' segment in India. Aravind's healthcare strategy aims at subsidising the middle income group and providing free healthcare to the poor people. One way of doing this was through optimisation of their resources – they do 2000 cataract surgeries per doctor per year, where the figure stands at 250-300 cataract surgeries per doctor per year for the rest of the hospitals in the country. And they do not compromise on quality. Aravind was also aiming at making optimal use of IT through telemedicine efforts where paramedics take care of the preparatory activities and a qualified doctor takes care of the diagnosis.

Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Health & Lifestyle Limited, speaking about the medical insurance sector, said that the Mediclaim policy, with all its limitations, was virtually the only product available in medical insurance in the country. He stressed the need for more insurance products in the Healthcare industry.

The afternoon session had a panel discussion on “Indian Pharma in the global game”. Utkarsh Palnitkar, Partner, Ernst & Young, was the moderator for the discussion. He said that the biggest impact of globalisation in the Indian consumer context was that earlier there were two kinds of products manufactured in India – one was 'export quality' and the other was meant for lesser mortals in the country. Now, with globalisation, there is only one kind of product available – the 'export quality' kind. “The Indian consumer has never had it so good,” he said.


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The project is a path-breaking initiative by BRIDGES where students across multiple B-schools in India will collaborate to work on a single assignment. It is an attempt to tap the talent at these “islands of excellence” and form a geographically spread team that will work together.

Two students each from XLRI Jamshedpur, FMS Delhi and NMIMS Mumbai have been selected to work on the project which will involve identifying links in the value chain, benchmarking processes and generating options for market entry. The team will interact with customers & distributors in Kolkata, Delhi & Mumbai to obtain market information and develop an action plan. The final presentation, to the management in Singapore, shall include a detailed discussion on the findings and a business proposal.
Olam International is a Singapore listed global and integrated supply chain manager that sources, processes, distributes, and markets select agricultural commodities in over 40 countries across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. It is the world's largest player in cashew, sheanut and Robusta coffee markets and a significant global supplier of cocoa, cotton, rice, sugar, timber and sesame.

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Strong research, good team coordination and presentation skills won Arka Bhattacharya and Swarnim Bharadwaj of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi the Business Today Acumen 2006 National Debate Championship at the event National Finals in Mumbai on Saturday.

The event itself was judged and set rolling by three accomplished elocuters in Aditya Birla Group's HR Director Dr Santrupt Mishra, Mr Sunil Alagh of Britannia fame, the young Rajya Sabha MP Jai Panda and Business Today Editor Sanjoy Narayan.

Warning the finalist teams from IIFT-Delhi and Komal Puri and Siddhesh Ranade of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education, Mumbai that Dr Mishra's double PhDs would make him a very keen-eyed judge, host Harsha Bhogle threw the session open for a debate on 'Indian managers are global but Indian companies are not'.

The MBA student team from IIFT speaking in favour of the motion used Pepsi CEO Indira Nooyi's example to establish that Indian managers had broken into the global league. However, they said that absence of significant global operations, outdated accounting systems and the family-managed nature of Indian businesses made Indian companies not fit to be called global yet.

The Sydenham team on the other hand stressed on the quality, innovation and scales of Indian IT companies Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys to speak against the motion and establish that Indian companies had in fact gone global.

Things got more interesting in the question answer session that followed, when IIFT pointed out that TCS and Infosys could not have surged ahead if it were not the extended tax holiday from the government. Sydenham lost the edge somewhere around this time with a wrongly timed and weak argument, shifting the balance and eventually the championship title in IIFT's favour.

Closing the debate, Mr Sunil Alagh raised the question of whether Indian managers could really be called global since the middle management in Indian companies had not quite evolved to that level.

"The lady from Sydenham (Komal Puri) gave the most compelling argument in the debate when she spoke about TCS and Infosys and I relate to the data she provided," event judge Dr Santrupt Mishra told PaGaLGuY.com after the event. "However, as a team and in terms of presentation the IIFT team was better," he added.

Business Today Editor Sanjoy Narayan said that IIFT had from the beginning maintained an edge in terms of defining the topic, presentation and strength of arguments. "But at the end of the day, it is the quality of interpretation of the topic that is more important in a debate," he added.

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Cite De La Prerana

Cite De La Prerana was conceptualized to bring together stalwarts from all walks of life. This year to explore another facet of professionalism in association with Prithvi Theatre's celebration of Prithvi Raj Kapoor's 200 birth centenary, NITIE Business school's Prerana showcased Working Title's production of Ramu Ramanathan's play Mahadevbhai (1892-1942) on the evening of 3rd November 2006 on the NITIE lawns.
Mahadevbhai (1892-1942) is a tribute to the modest, self-effacing scholar, whose personal account Ramu Ramanathan used for his script, who served as Gandhiji's closest aide from 1917 until his death. Through Mahadevbhai's narrative we are taken through several historic acts and moments that decided the fate of the nation, such as Dandi March, Champaran and Bardoli Satyagraha.

Ramu Ramanathan (Editor-PT Notes) used Mahadevbhai as a response the criticism leveled at Gandhiji in present times.
In his words “ I was clear about devising a play that will reach-out to the uninitiated, and those members of the audience who are hostile to Gandhiji and his tenets. For me, Mahadevbhai became a tantra to reach that tatva.”
The actor slipped effortlessly into his various roles and the rendition of lines in Gujarati, English and Hindi seemed natural. The shades of humor with help from the informality of narrative helped balance the seriousness of the message being delivered.It was a fitting finale to a day dedicated to saluting and celebrating Mumbai.

Palash makes NITIE Euphoric

Dr. Palash Sen and his all famous Euphoria group had come down to perform in NITIE( National Institute of Industrial Engineering). It was a normal Saturday night and the success of the business conclave was apparent and there needed no better reason to celebrate. Frisked by a set of commited NITIEans Dr. Palash Sen took to the stage along with his troop.

All through the past week there had been skepticism about his ability to take to a stage because of illness and he thanked NITIE and said that it was the only college that had come down to visit him and wish him a speedy recovery. He said it was an honor to play for NITIE, one because it was one of the top business schools in the country and because he realized the effort the organizing committee had put in to get him down to campus. The best part of the whole evening was that he could identify himself with the pulse of the crowd as much as they felt a part of his songs.

It had to come to an end with the organizers of Prerana requesting him to stop and take care of his health. He was willing to go on but realized that he had already given his best and the show had to come to an end. As usual the crowd had a mixed feeling of an exotic treat to music and the feeling that it was getting over. Palash thanked the crowd for stretching him and for giving him the honor of performing before them.

Summer Project Contest

With Summer Project Contest, the first of its kind in the country, we took the road less traveled and we knew that we would make a difference. Over the years, it has grown to epic proportions, recognizing and rewarding the efforts of the future managers. It has provided a rostrum for corporate stalwarts to interact with brilliant minds from the top B-schools of the country.
The Summer Project Contest, the flagship Event of Prerana, is the first and foremost event of its kind in the country. The Summer Project Contest, or SPC as we call it, provides a platform for the students to benchmark their summer projects against the best in the nation. Over the years, the event has grown in stature covering all aspects of management.
SPC – Supply Chain Management Module started off with five participants contesting against each other. The participants were given a time limit of 20 minutes for their presentations and 5 minutes were allotted for the questions and answer session.

Mr. Sameer Kochar, VP Asia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson,
Mr Jiten Sandu, Head Supply chain, i2 Consultancy,
Mr. K.Subramanian, MD, Ascons Infrastructure Ltd.,
Mr S. Bobhate, President, Global Supply Chain, Nicholas Piramal and
Prof. Sambandam were the jury for the presentations.
The participants were asked a range of questions regarding the innovation in the project; savings to the company due to this project, future scope of work and the users' reactions. The presentations were followed by Panel Discussions on “Risk Management in Global Supply Chains – Issues and Mitigation Strategies.”
Prof. Ganapathy distributed the prizes for the winners. The first runner-up was Rajesh Reddy from NITIE for his project in Asian Paints and the winners of the event were Rohit Nishant & Sankara Narayanan from TAPMI for their project in Pricol Ltd., Coimbatore.

SPC- Marketing

NITIE Business school's Summer Project contest's Marketing segment, held on 4th November as part of Prerana 2006, was a truly was challenging one, and it tested the future marketing managers' abilities to come up with innovative solutions to problems faced by companies today.
The Jury for the event comprised of some of the most prominent personalities in the corporate world today:

· Mr. Chandrashekhar Pitre, National Marketing Manager, DHL Express India
· Ms. Gayatri Yadav, Director Marketing, General Mills
· Mr. Deepak Malkani, Partner, Accenture Consulting
· Mr. Ashwin Rajgopal, head Marketing, L'Oreal India

The Finalists of SPC Marketing comprised of some of the most talented budding Marketing Managers of tomorrow:

1. Akansha Mohla, NMIMS
2. Gaurav Batla, K.J Somaiya
3. Nishant Gupta, NITIE
4. Piyush Sharma, IIM C
5. Sanika Rathod, IIM I

After the presentations, the speakers debated on the topic “Global Brands: How to appeal to the Multicultural International Customer “.
A plethora of ideas were generated, as to whether people really are different, or have more or less similar tastes all over the world. Plenty of examples were quoted, for e.g. Pillsbury's, which sells baked foods in US, while sells Aata in India, even in India, there is product difference. The question answer round was also very interesting.
The First Runners up prize went to Sanika Rathod, IIM I , while the winning award went to Akansha Mohla,NMIMS.


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Day one started off with the event being inaugurated by Mr. Ramesh Chandak, Managing Director of KEC International, an RPG group enterprise. It was followed by a workshop on 'Innovation to leap frog' by Ms. Parvathi Menon of Erehwon Consulting. This thought provoking lecture took the audience into the hearts and minds of the innovators who successfully innovated and grown in the worst of times. The Colosseum - the championship game embarked with the 12 short listed teams from top B-schools of the country vying for the coveted prize of one lakh. The day saw Systems, Mutual fund and Negotiation games of the Colosseum being played out. The 'Grooming Workshop' from Raymonds was a huge hit with the student community. The Case Study competition was won by VGSOM, IIT-KGP beating teams from IIM Ahmedabad in the finals. The case was on 'Teach For India' foundation and was sponsored by Piramal Enterprises. This was followed by the Stock Game, Markus maxim – a Marketing strategy game, prelims and elimination round for the Quiz.. The Stock game was bagged by SJMSOM, IIT-B. Through out the day, two on spot games were going on in parallel with the other events– The Google Lounge and National Gaming Championship to be played on X-box 360 terminal sponsored by Ceat which drew people in throngs.

Day two day was mostly scheduled to host the finals of various competitions that had taken place over the last day and prior to that. The first talk of the day was by Mr.Avinash Vashistha, chairman and founder of Tholons. The globalization Guru spoke on 'Globalization: where is India heading?' . There were two other talks scheduled for the day .The first one was by the Dabbawalas who once again showed that 'Impossible is nothing' with almost zero errors in spite of 75,000 Tiffin Boxes, maddening locals and pouring rains. The next was on 'Webpreneurship' by the PaGaLGuY.com, India's biggest management forum and a successful e-business in itself. 'Gladebators' – the debating competition, was won by IMT, Ghaziabad and 'Advenues' - The ad making competition was won SJMSOM, IIT-B itself. The biggest sensation of the day was Markus Maxim, the marketing game sponsored by ZEE Business. It was an on-field real life marketing challenge of earning maximum profits by selling product/service on the street. Among the five teams, NITIE Mumbai won the competition. The evening saw the grand finale of Avenues 2006 in the form of a business quiz titled Intellectus, sponsored by Raymonds. And the quizmaster was none other than Avinash Murlidhar of Karnataka Quizzing Association. And did he carry the program with élan. He had the audience craving for more and more as he made it a highly interactive event.

The overall Championship game – Colosseum was a closely fought event with strategy game being played on the second day. Finally, NITIE emerged as a champion beating MDI and JBIMS for the title. All in all, a fabulous ending to Avenues 2006.

The title sponsors of the event were RPG Enterprises. The Colosseum sponsors were Infosys Technologies, Wizarth Advisors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Other events were sponsored by Raymond, NEN, Piramal Enterprises and Aramax .The media partners include PaGaLGuY.com, Zee Business, Radio One 92.5FM, Loksatta, DNA and JAM magazine.




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It was really convergence of the corporate world and the academic fraternity, which is one of the ways that the institute looks forward to extend its tie – up with industry.
The event saw panel discussions taking place on three wide topics under the theme “India Inc on the path of conquest of the world”. In the presence of Mr. Nanik Rupani (Chairman, Enkay Telecommunications), Mr. Rajnikant Patel (MD and CEO, BSE) and Mr. Uday Salunkhe, (Director, Welingkar institute of management) the event was set rolling .

The panel members and the topics they discussed were as follows-

Going Global – Leveraging the Indian Human Capital

Mr. Ramkumar (Group Chief HR, ICICI Bank)
Mr.Nishant Kolgaonkar (Director HR, CA)
Ms.Anjali Chatterjee (GM –HR, VSNL)

ODI- India Investing abroad

Mr.Himadri Bhattacharya (CGM, Incharge- DEIO, RBI)
Mr.Ashwin Parekh (Partner – E&Y;)
Mr.John Mathew (GM, EXIM Bank)
Ms. Zarin Daruwalla (GM, ICICI Bank)

Creating Global Indian Brands

Mr. Rakesh Barikh (VP, Marketing, Deloitte)
Mr. Ishmeet Singh (GM, Customer Marketing, HLL)
Mr. Ajit Alexander (Business Development &Projects;, VISA Facilitation Services)
Ms.Zia Hajeebhoy (Business Head- Agri Chem- Monsanto)

The panel members not only gave their views but also made it and interactive session with the students whereby they were allowed to ask questions on the relevant issues and it must be said that each question was done justice with the well-structured answers. The students were enlightened and enriched by this session.
On the lighter side some of the panelists who did their b schooling from Sydenham itself shared their thoughts on the days gone by and how the learning at Sydenham has helped them reach the pinnacle of corporate success ladder, and remarked that the institute is a center of excellence in imparting management education.

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The distinguished panel comprised of Mr. Mukherjee, the Assistant Editor of Business Week acting as moderator, Mr. Pal a Member of Parliament belonging to the CPI (M) party, Mr. V.K. Timothia, a Non-Executive Director on the board of Vedanta and Mr.V.S.Jain the MD of Jindal Stainless. With the panelists possessing diverse views on the subject, a fiery debate ensued. The audience too contributed by questioning a lot of the viewpoints that the panelists had advocated.

The two flagship events of Xpressions- Skill City and Kurukshetra- started on the next day with participants from B-schools across the country. Kurukshetra is designed to test the decision-making skills of the participants in the business world and is played in three modules. XLRI swept both the first and the second prizes in this event with S P Jain coming third. All the participants were very appreciative of the amount of effort that had gone into creating the game and even wanted to replicate the same in their colleges.
Skill City on the other hand is a series of games, played across 10 modules, designed to test the soft skills of the participants. Here the event was won by a team comprising of a mixture of students from NMIMS and XIM. The participants claimed to have really enjoyed the games and did not really expect the level of creativity that had been displayed in the games.

Each interest group of XIM from XSYS and XIMAHR to XFIN and MAXIM had a lot of events in their areas of interest, which attracted participation from students in every corner of the country. The level of participation was really encouraging and the feedback given by the participants would definitely ensure even better events next year.
The series of quizzes organized by Xquizzite were very exciting, made more so by the quizmaster Mr. Aravind Mudaliyar. The quality of quizzing on display was really amazing and the kind of innovative questions that were asked made all three quizzes a great success.

One event that XIM had not seen before was “Carnivale de vogue”, a fashion show that had 4 different undergraduate colleges participating. It was an evening to remember with different styles, colors and fashions flaunted by those walking the ramp. The shows-stealer was of course the last part of the event where XIM's home team too took to the ramp.

The three days saw three concerts in the evening. The first was a show by India's first Boy Band – The Band of Boys. The evening saw a huge crowd from all over Bhubaneswar who had come to enjoy the music. Decibelz the competition for Amateur rock bands for all over the country was held on the second day. The contest judged by one of India's top rock bands Pentagram had 4 bands participating and was won by SystemHouse33. As a fitting end to Xpressions 2006 the last evening had a rock concert by Pentagram itself who gave a performance that delighted the hearts of many, rock fans and non-fans alike.

The result of 6 months of sleepless nights, endless arguments, fights, discussions, heart-wrenching moments, goof-ups, anger, passion, dedication, creativity and definitely lots of hard work – Xpressions 2006 proved to be bigger and better than ever imagined.