Here's the d00d from Vizag, Chandoo's study partner and yet another stud @ A from PaGalGuY.com. Sushanth a.k.a.Tadka (dorm name) a.k.a. psmith on our forums.
Under-Graduation: Andhra University (B.Tech.- Computer Science) Fresher
CAT Percentile: 99.95 (what did the poor 0.05 do ;) )
Final Calls: BLACK + XLRI + IIFT
CAT Gyaan:
----> Start with section you are most confident in
----> Stay cool during the exam
----> Don't try too many new things in last few days before CAT
----> Do around 2 tests in 3 days and analyse them thoroughly
Sushanth, @ A, loves these:
----> Enjoys the strange time schedules (now, this one's a first ;) )
----> The people around ; One can really learn a lot from others
----> God-level Professors
And he isn't particularly fond of:
----> The pressure there; sometimes gets to a person
----> One has to run to stay where they are (prolly, a truer word hasn't been spoken !!)
----> One can't take a break without feeling guilty
Loves these @ PaGaLGuY forums:
----> Tips from all over the country
----> The GD/PI experiences helped a lot
His take on Life @ IIMA:
----> Crazy time schedules
----> Fun
And he's majorly lookin forward to second year where he can take it more easily
Survivor's kit @ IIMA:
----> Commitment
----> Being truthful
And here's Sushanth @ his room
Discuss this article in the Forum!
Here's the guy who was primarily responsible for the involvement of PaGaLGuY.com with Confluence 2004, the cultural secretary @ IIMA, The guy who literally counted his way into IIMA @ the forums, Here's Gaurav Dagaonkar a.k.a the_dawg on the forums.
Under-Graduation: Mumbai University (B.E.- Info Tech.) Fresher
CAT Percentile: 99.31
Final Calls: A & L
CAT Gyaan:
----> Identify your strengths and strengthen them
----> Analyse the mocks very carefully
----> Stay Cool
----> Keep choosing whatever you can Score
----> Go for quality attempts
Gaurav, @ A, loves these:
----> God-Level Profs
----> Some students @ A, real studs
----> Good infrastructure
And he isn't particularly fond of:
----> Crazy hard work
----> Little sleep (can vouch for the insanely few hours that gaurav slept during confluence ;) )
----> Very few holidays
Loves these @ PaGaLGuY forums:
----> Discussions before CAT; really good
----> Get to know a lot of good strategies
----> One gets to know a lot of people, some really fundoo ones (ahem ;) )
----> Makes you aware what others are doing
Guarav sez he sleeps for close to 3.5hrs on weekdays and around 5hrs on weekends (am personally inclined to cut these figures by atleast 20% considering my xp with him over the 5 days that I spent with him !!)
His take on Life @ IIMA:
----> Pretty fast
----> Loads of work with very little time
----> Good Co-operative Junta
----> Very informal atmosphere
----> Attention on learning in class
Surviver's kit @ IIMA:
----> Don't have any misconceptions
----> Term1 is really hard, so one has gotta slog
----> Get your priorities right if you wanna understand where you wanna go.
----> Be prepared to slog, benefits are too good
----> Learn some accounting before coming here
He feels the driving force for freshers on campus is placements while for people with work-ex in excess of 3yrs, it is learning.
Sound Bytes:
----> CAT is NOT a matter of life & death
----> IIMs are NOT the only good institutes
----> Learning only matters
----> Be yourself in interviews
----> Be Focussed
Parting-Shot:
“PaGaLGuY.com ROCKS!!! Keep surfing it till atleast the results are out; it brings you so much luck :) (so true gaurav, right !)
Discuss this article in the Forum!
Before starting to write anything whatsoever about B School I would ask you to rent your ears to a truth which a lot of us forget in the big bang of salaries and entrance test preparations.
What might that be?
B Schools are a place where, at the end of the day you are going to do a post graduation in a chosen field. Doesnt sound as romantic as those Swiss holidays and 6 figure dollar salary quotes? But yea thats about it. All hype and hoopla must be put in the right perspective. I do not expect that all you young enthusiastic folks are going to take a post graduation for the love of learning and wisdom of words emanating from the Porters and the Kotlers of the world. But believe me when I say that it sure helps if you walk into the hallowed portals of a B School having a rough idea as to how you want to use two very important years of your life in an appropriate manner. It is entirely up to you as individuals to define and redefine what appropriateness means to you.
I dont like your preaching. Im in it for the dough!
Fine. But the catch is the media exemplifies everything that is wrong with projecting salary as the key driver of educational decision making. One Ravi Singhvi at IIMA getting 150000 + USD as starting salary must not be the driver for your decision for more than one reason. For starters, he has relevant and wide ranging experience spanning firms like Anderson and Citibank. Then again he was chosen as associate, a post not many graduates even from IIM A, can aspire as freshers. But the more critical aspect that a lot of folks tend to forget is that it is the highest salary offered. And by the very definition of highest, it follows logically (yea a no brainer!!) that it was offered to only one person! Logically it also follows that half of the batches in any B School gets less than or equal to the average salary projected (at around 7-8 lakhs) by most top schools. And the definition of average remains same whether it is A or B or Z! (Yea yea, I know. A no brainer again, but sad is the fact that a lot of people tend to forget this basic truth!).
Ok. Accepting that half of the class gets only around 8 lakhs, which in itself is some good money. 66666.666 rupees a month is good enough for me and my girlfriend to lead a happy life!
But unfortunately for you and your girlfriend, that is obviously not what you get in hand. That, in jobstreet parlance, is what is called the CTC (Cost to Company). At the end of the day if one gets around 35000 post the tax pie eaten by the government, one can consider oneself lucky.
Oops, I get more than that in my ABC Tech firm taking in underwear billing orders outsourced from Texas based retailing big wig !Why the hell should I then even heed this rigmarole of B schooling gibberish? Especially when I have been frightened by seniors regarding the sleepless nights and extreme workloads. Add on to that the unhealthy competition within batch mates and suddenly B school for me looks as appealing as Britney Spears and the boy bands!
Ok. Academic rigour exists. For the sole reason that there is so much to be taught, and only so much that can be learnt in a given period of time. At least the faculty thinks there is so much to be learnt before one can get out with the PG Diploma. If you are literally scared of studying, then it could be a tough time. But then one hopes you havent decided to do a PG for partying, pubbing and watching movies as prime motives .At the same time u shall get to sleep 4-6 hours depending on the match (or mismatch) between your aspirational levels (read positioning in the grade point scale) and smart study habits. I for one do not think intelligence has a lot to do with getting great grades in B Schools as much as smartness in writing exams and hard work has. It does help if you are a 9 pointer from IITs because you have been there and done that. The first thing one needs to do in the initial weeks of B Schooling is to understand that it is best to compete with yourself than with the entire batch. Set benchmarks for yourself and try to beat the bar. This in turn helps in relation building too! I reckon lot of people think that due to Relative grading (RG) relationships are tough to be built up at a B school. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The students understand the importance of networking. So whether with sincerity or otherwise folks here do build up relations and makes sure embarrassing fights are avoided. (The beer bottle swinging, drunk, rowdy brawls of engineering days are over for ever!!) The idea is simple. Most of the smart dudes surmise that tomorrow in the corporate world, a lot of their classmates are going to be head honchos in some XYZ corporation. They would rather not be in the bad books of anyone around, for you never know whos going to be in need of whom! I for one have made some real fruitful friendships (which I hope stands for life) without such thoughts in mind. It again is incumbent on your own attitude to competition and how well you manage your relationships.
Ok. So what else can one practically gain out of 2 years other than building bosom buddies?
First up is a good first job!!!(Yea I come back to that!!) Hopefully in terms of profile as much as in terms of money! But there is definitely more to B schooling than placements. Remember that one gets out of any institution how much ever you want it to give you. If you spend more time with Sylvia Saint or J Lo than with something more productive (Ok, no pun!) you might not get too much of learning out of the system. But then you do not have a right to crib that there is no value-add in an MBA! You come across some amazing professors who are eager to teach and help you in any sphere, a great infrastructure setup, and a bunch of folks who generally are more ambitious and probably more intelligent than the majority. Their insights and drive might inspire you or at the very least help you appreciate different perspectives. You work a lot in groups (You are expected to work!!).Whether you end up doing it or not at least you get a feel of group dynamics. This is further bolstered by the innumerable chances you get to manage events and teams. If you want, you can go on exchange to international schools (in most of the top rung schools there are large number of options to choose from). You develop confidence by speaking/presenting your ideas in front of some of the best brains and getting it dissected by them threadbare. (This does help you in real corporate life especially in stormy meetings with subcontractors and clients).The course content also provides you some knowledge on theories which can come in handy in corporate life or even if you start something on your own. (Things like the accounting and financial management fundae, apart from the more critical aspects of Organisational Behaviour and Human resource management).
But can none of this be learnt or acquired out of a B School?
You can. B School helps you in being a single window providing these various services! If you individually start acquiring these, it might take you more time, energy and much much more motivation to be successful. But in the long run it wouldnt make much difference. But again in the long run we are all dead!!
The author is a current student @ WIMWI, better known as the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. He is presently doing his summer internship at a leading consulting firm. Prior to his joining IIMA, Suhas was working in East Africa in the Oil & Gas vertical of a construction major.
Street children across various cities of India, between ages seven to thirteen years are working as 'bartenders' at several liquor shops of the city, wasting away their childhood through this stepping stone to graver criminal activity.
As the Child Labour Regulation and Juvenile Justice Acts have little teeth, social organizations and the administration find it unable to rescue and rehabilitate these children.
Consider this situation in the capital City of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal. Picture an early evening scene in front of any of the Wine and Beer shops at Bhopal revelry hotspots Tinshed, 5 number market, Bittan Market or Manisha Market.
A car with a bunch of 20-somethings screeches to a halt in the public parking lot in front of the liquor shop with the intention of setting up a 'car-o-bar' (a drinking session inside the car).
One of the fifteen odd boys below fourteen years of age walks up to the front window, to be given a few hundred-rupee notes by the car occupants.
The boy understands the rest.
Within five minutes, he returns with bottles of whisky and beer, soda, disposable glasses and namkeen to boot.
As the youths inside the car indulge in their booze party, the boy waits outside for his cut: a share of the liquor, near-finished cigarette butts, the liquor bottle and maybe a tip.
The boy then consumes the liquor and smokes the cigarette butt off and puts the bottle in his gunny bag to be sold later to the scrap dealer for two rupees.
The exact scenario might vary slightly across other cities, but isn't this something all of us encounter, in one form or the other. Sometimes probably, and unknowingly, encouraging too.
"I make nearly twenty to thirty rupees each day this way. Sometimes I even get whisky to drink from the customers. I went to school for fifteen days two years ago but stopped going when my teacher hit me," is what eight-year-old Sunny at the 5 number liquor shop at Bhopal says.
Interestingly, most of these children are not orphans and their earnings go to the family.
Three brothers who peddle liquor at the Tinshed liquor shop are sons of an auto-rickshaw driver.
"Our father broke the rickshaw in the accident and does not have money to repair it," said nine-year-old Afzal, as he downed half a bottle of beer within seconds.
And this is something the Hyderabad based NGO, MVF Foundation is trying hard to change the perception of. Headed by Magsaysay Awardee Shantha Sinha, MVF has been trying for increasing acceptance of its research which it says has conclusively proved that every parent, no matter their economic status, wants their child to have a good education.
Recognizing the problem as grave, child rights activist RK Sharma of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan said, "Children keep finding newer ways of entry into criminal activities. Today it is liquor peddling, tomorrow it might be pick pocketing, drug peddling, burglary or even more serious crimes."
According to child labour activist Archana Sahay, controlling such vices is tough because of weak laws.
"There are laws to rescue children from child labour but only if the labour is in a hazardous industry, if the child is being made to work forcibly or if the labour activity is criminal. But if no law is being broken, we are left helpless," she said.
More than the legalities, or the lack of it, activists are uniform in saying that the problem has now transcended from a legal problem to one of a social nature. As long as people, and that is you and me, continue to encourage child labor, albeit implicitly, this evil is bound to flourish and harm many future generations.
What can we do about it?
Phenomena such as these are a dark reality of every city, perhaps in other flavours and varieties. What can we do about it?
First and foremost, not encourage these children by using their services.
Secondly, following are some important phone numbers you ought to have:
a. The local Assistant Commissioner of Police or Superintendent of Police (SP) or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), whichever applicable for your city.
b. The district Collector
c. The government Childline/Child Helpline
d. Child Rights Activists working in your area
Phone numbers a,b,c are available from your local Police Station, Collectorate or the State Government Website. It is your fundamental right to know their landline as well as mobile numbers.
Phone number is something you have to find out.
Finding these phone numbers can be tedious, but it is a one time investment.
The moment you see any activity happening where children are doing/being made to do something inappropriate, send off phone calls to all four of the above people. If they don't seem to listen, make a lot of noise, threaten going to the Press.
Ask them what they did about it a couple of days later.
Social evils like these the result of extreme apathy of the general public.
Clear yourself of preconceived notions about child labor and the reasons for its prevalence. THE FAQs given on MVF's site at this link (http://www.mvfindia.org/faqs.htm) will help you understand and appreciate the nature of the problem and the probable path to solution.
And Lastly, do not expect immediate results.
Author Apurv Pandit is a Correspondent with The Pioneer, Bhopal and operates an NGO 'Soochna Mitr' for IT content development in rural areas. He abortively contemplates appearing for CAT again approximately 37 times per annum.
A series of articles regarding MBA programs and US B-Schools will be put up on a weekly basis. These are mostly a student's perception of the entire application process and in no way unquestionable. This is not the one-stop for all the information you ever wanted about acquiring an MBA abroad. But for starters, it is a feeble attempt from the author's side to encourage prospective MBA students to look at various opportunities outside India. The sole purpose, here, is to create some kind of awareness by clearly demarcating the black/white from the grey areas. Just a plain honest attempt to make a few things less hazier than they actually are!
Global MBA... Why not!
At the end of the day, it is all in the mind. See, an MBA anywhere will obviously give you some requisite skills to sustain in some kind of industry or business. So, when you are in the peak of your career and look back, it doesn't matter whether you graduated from X, Y or Z Business School in India or abroad… It might not matter to you but for people around you, it always will. There are some amazing schools in India and after graduating from the IIMs, ISB, XLRIs etc, you will surely be among the coveted few. But that is not the point we are discussing here.
All I am saying is, why don't you spare a moment and think about some really amazing B-Schools abroad? For anybody who has been working for about 4 years plus, it is definitely worthwhile to investigate the opportunities available outside India. Now, others who have done something substantial and have lesser work experience can also give it a shot. There are no definite profiles of people who make it to the Harvard, the Stanford and the likes; you could be a painter or an orthopaedist but the more passion you exude in your essays and your application, the better your chances of being accepted. One point to be noted here is, it is extremely challenging, if not impossible, to make it into a TOP MBA School abroad. You don't have to necessarily be the next Nobel Prize winner but an attitude such as that will take you a long way.
These weekly articles will slowly take you through the process of selecting schools, taking the requisite exams, applying and of course funding. I have said earlier that guys with 4 year plus work experience in their pockets have some advantage because they are already touching that average age of 26-27 that these schools prefer. Schools abroad look for some specifics because they want to ensure that a student has enough smartness to gauge where he is going after some exposure in an industry. Sure, there are 22 year olds who already know where they want to end up exactly 5 years from now. But they are exceptions. For mere mortals like you and me, some kind of experience in different roles and different industries will be more valuable. Firstly, the finite number of years gives you inkling about your interests and strengths and hence enables you to portray realistic future goals. Secondly, the essays you need to pen are real long and arduous, so, the more examples you can quote from experience the more you can pass off as an intelligent adult. Thirdly, the school will at least be sure that you might end up in a decent firm with reasonable responsibilities and that they do not have to spend endless nights worrying about your post-MBA scenario, and hence their recruitment statistics. Think in this direction and you will encounter more reasons to apply with adequate work experience.
Before you get totally excited and start jumping about 'Apping' let me warn you that applying to a Business School is a 'big' ride with innumerable hurdles and kinks of traumas and heartaches but along with it, comes immense satisfaction of reaching that 'ideal-dream' school. But the most important thing, either you get accepted or not, is that feeling of understanding self. Also, there are expenses involved, for the GMAT, then the application, later on the confirmation deposits once you get admitted and of course the actual living and tuition fees. Do not get into the game of applying and then worrying yourself to death about the costs incurred. See, nobody can tell you whether you will get that 'right' job or whether you will network with the 'right' people but start seeing the MBA from a TOP School as an investment in yourself, a life-long investment that will bear good returns sooner or later. Attending Business School can be a life-changing experience for some. For others, it might just be a wonderful phase, may be the best but for all it will be a challenging time – balancing studies, parties, friends, communities, alums and much more. So, week after week, stay with me and we shall together unravel the mysteries of the Application Game. :)
{pagebreak}
Till then...
The authoress, Sowmya aka Simba is one of the moderators of PaGaLGuY forum. She is currently working with a leading telecom provider in Mumbai, India and apart from being a regular volunteer of MLCS group; she has diverse interests in various activities that are beyond the scope of this small introduction. Having seen the admission process with interviews et al for 2 continuous years and being successful in getting admitted into 5 and a ½ schools out of 7 schools, she definitely has some useful things to share, though no one knows for sure where she is heading for her MBA. Now, she is enthused to help others go through the maze of applying and getting accepted by schools abroad.
Discuss this article in the Forum!
Hello there! How have things been with you? I hope with the calendar in hand, you are now in a comfortable position to look closer at the Application Game. Now, I am making a safe presumption that you are done with the GMAT and have had a fantastic score. Even if the score is not so great and you feel that you may as well concentrate on other parts of your application, then it is just fine. There are after all many things you should be working on rather than holding on to a bad exam score. Just move on in the application process and we will see how things turn out.
What is it about the 'Fit'?
If you have been in this MBA mode for a while and have become a prowler lurking around MBA/ discussion forums, then you must be hearing a lot about words such as 'right school', 'the fit' etc. During the initial few days, it will definitely be difficult to gauge how 'right' or 'wrong' the schools will turn out to be for you, after all thousands of students graduate from Top Business Schools and it is not that you will be the only misfit out there! But still a careful study of the available programs in different schools and some good research can make you feel much better about spending your hard earned money on those applications and school visits.
This article is by no means exhaustive and is just an attempt to just get you kick-started. I highly recommend the readers to do their individual research to boil down their schools depending on the criteria which mean the most for them. Before you sit down and start off, spare some time to analyze yourself and understand what you need out of an MBA program. Remember, there are more things in a B-School than just a 'great job' at the end of the season. Research the schools with your criteria in mind and give yourself ample time to pick & unpick and finalize on 4+ schools. I have always maintained that each of us should try to be the best we possibly can. But at the same time, it pays to be a little realistic too. Harvard may be the only school you are willing to attend but it will be foolish if you apply only to Harvard and none other, no matter what you feel your chances are.
As you analyze your interests and future goals, keep some of these pointers in mind. The specialization you are looking at can make a big impact on where you want to graduate from. There are some definite 'gurus' in some particular fields like, Kellogg in the Marketing field and it would be wise to start off here. Check out the school websites, read the online brochures, talk to current/ alum students and understand what the school is famous for in the corporate industry. Choose schools which have specializations in your chosen field of interest. If you are however happy with a general management program, then there are some real great schools which you should possibly be looking at. Next immediate concern should be the school and the MBA program itself – location, class size, teaching methods, rankings, environment and cost. The location of the school might matter to you depending on the proximity to the kind of industries you want to intern with. Class size may not be a major differential factor but be sure you are aware of the strength of the incoming class, choose to be a big fish in a small pond or a small one in a big pond, it is your call. Teaching methods do not drastically differ from school to school; most of the schools have a healthy mix of case-studies, theories and group-assignments. The environment you will be in should be one of the crucial factors before you hop onto a school. There are some schools which admit some of the best minds and hence the atmosphere can tend to be competitive and a little scary for the weak-hearted. But there are some communal schools which harbor a lot of team spirit, the best examples being Tuck and Duke. Your basic task is to figure out your personality and apply to the schools where you will enjoy studying and socializing in. Ensure you check out the school in various publications and journals. Meet the school representatives through the MBA tours and try to attend the information sessions that most of the top schools conduct in major cities across the globe. An ideal thing would be visiting the B-School and not only meeting the students but also gauging the atmosphere and the learning spirit.
{pagebreak}
Other interesting thing you can look at is the kind of industry associated with a B-School. Talk to people working in the industry you love, try to know about the schools they have attended and the schools they deeply respect. Refer to various recruitment statistics available on various websites and keep a tab on your favorite companies. Find out where they are hiring from, salaries/ bonuses they are offering and the kind of profiles and responsibilities they look in B-School graduates. Jobs and Career management services are some of the important characteristics that distinguish schools from one another. The global reputation of a B-School will really matter if you choose to work in different parts of the world. US B-Schools offer 2-year MBA programs whereas their Europe counterparts (barring some) offer 1-year programs. Choose something that suits your taste and is in sync with your future goals. Spend a lot of time in understanding the electives on board and the workload given by the professors. Also, it will be a great experience to study under well-read professors who have authored textbooks, have consulted in various firms and strongly follow the open-door policy.
![](\"/images/article_4_3.jpg\")
Though nobody can hold you for applying to less or more number of schools, you can give yourself a safe estimate of the schools you can target at. It all depends on how serious you are about getting an MBA the coming fall. If you are looking at only the Top 5 no matter how long it takes, then I really admire your tenacity. For others, as I said in my earlier article, 5-7 schools might seem decent if you can submit a part of it in R1 and another in R2. If you are solely rushing in one round, keep the number to 4, no point in applying to many schools without doing justice to each of them. Apply to a couple of schools that might 'most-probably' accept you depending on your age, work experience, academics, GMAT score & extra-curricular. Apply to at least one safe school that will definitely accept you no matter what the odds. And then, go for a brisk walk, eat a big chocolate bar and once you are all perked up and happy about life, go, give your best shot at your dream school. It might be Harvard or Stanford, but don't let some arbitrary thoughts keep you away from your dream school. You may never know how close you were. ;-)
About the Authoress
The authoress, Sowmya aka Simba is one of the moderators of PaGaLGuY forum. She is currently working with a leading telecom provider in Mumbai, India and apart from being a regular volunteer of MLCS group; she has diverse interests in various activities that are beyond the scope of this small introduction. Having seen the admission process with interviews et al for 2 continuous years and being successful in getting admitted into 5 and a ½ schools out of 7 schools. She is now heading to the Duke University, Fuqua School of Business and she is enthused to help others go through the maze of applying and getting accepted by schools abroad.
Discuss this article in the Forum!
• There are 100 million children who do not go to school in our country today.
• India has the largest number of child labour in the world and the number is growing day by day.
• More than 40% of school going children do not complete class five.
• Only ten children out of one hundred who join in class one reach up to class ten
• India ranks 127 in the HDR of UNDP list of 150 countries. This puts us below several sub Saharan countries
• India spends only 3.2 % of its GDP on education whereas 6% of GDP is the globally accepted standard. This is indeed an alarming situation!
Appeal for Total Abolition of Child Labour
This is an appeal to get involved in the campaign for a total abolition of child labour in the country to make education a reality for every child. It is a call on behalf of the millions of children who are condemned to lives of drudgery, exploitation and untold misery. Children who are working relentlessly day in and day out instead of being in schools, with friends, at play discovering the joys of growing up and marveling at earth's bounty and the cosmic harmony. They need the support of each one of us to get out of work and child labour. They need you to believe that children must not work and must be in schools.Child labour exists because we think children must work
Even if just one of us begins to think and argue that children have to work because they are poor, or have to earn an income to keep the family going or else it would collapse, it would weaken the resolve to extricate children from work places. The truth is that children are working not because they are poor. They are working because in our country we are neither shocked nor outraged that children do not go to schools. They are working because we think it is normal and find it acceptable that poor children must work for survival. The reason for child labour is primarily the absence of a social norm in favor of children and their right to education.
One may ask the question 'how would our thinking have any influence at all on the lives of children'. Simply put, many forms of oppression in the society get accepted because we think it is inevitable. In case of child labour it allows for children to become available in the labor market, for all those who want cheap labor can seek child labor because it is not considered wrong to employ them. Conveniently, children are engaged in work, as they are a source of labor that will be docile, hidden, and invisible and work unquestioningly. They are available as domestic servants in our own middle class homes precisely because we think that it is an economic necessity for the poor families. We even believe that if we did not take 'care' of these children, giving them food and shelter, allowing them to watch TV, play with our children and their toys, their condition would be far worse.
Say 'NO' to child labour and Children will be in schools
We also saw what the impact has been on the villages once child labour is totally abolished in that area. Adults have replaced children in the labour market and since they would not work for cheap, they are now getting better wages and have better conditions of work. Fathers are drinking much less and are working harder because they have to invest in their children's education. Further, parents have become parents, with a lot of pride in the fact that their children are no longer in work but are students. The quality of life in the family has vastly improved and there has been a break in the intergenerational cycle of poverty and deprivation. Schools have become schools, teachers have become teachers and processes of resolving conflicts without resorting to violence, caste and community hatred have emerged.
Thus with a change in the social milieu where everyone speaks in one voice that children must not work and must all be in schools, with everyone participating in caring for the child there is a protection of child rights and strengthening of democracy. Support poor parents and their battle for schools
I also think that we have failed to recognize the yearning of the poor for their children and their education and in fact deliberately ignored this aspect. We have seen how hundreds of thousands of parents are entering into debts because they want their children to get the best of education. They are sending them to the English medium private schools and are willing to do all that they can to give them the best of education. For those who are not able to afford, we find how they are sending their children to overcrowded schools; to schools that lack teachers; to schools without water or toilets; to schools that do not respect their children; to schools that subject them to corporal punishment as if it were an indispensable pedagogic tool. Even as it is incessantly argued that the poor cannot and will not send their children to schools, they send them in a hope that one-day the school system would learn to respect them and their children.
Being stubborn and determined to study, many poor children prefer to endure the insults of the system as they see the struggle to be in schools as a struggle for their dignity, self respect and discover their strengths. In fact, if the education system is surviving even at the level it is in the country today, it is because of the poor and their battle for schools. All those children who survived in a government school and made it up to class ten have paved the way for future generation of children in the country.
Join campaign for Amendment to the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986If we are to release millions of children from the labour force today in the country and prevent millions of them from joining the labor force, we need to support the cause for children's education as a matter of right. There cannot be a negotiation on this. The 86th amendment to the Constitution has made right to education a fundamental right. We have to create a social environment that compels the State to provide all facilities to translate their promises into action. We must also press for an amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which is very flawed. The Act is limited in its content since it abolishes child labour in certain so-called 'hazardous' industries alone. In fact children may work in the hazardous industry if it is contribution for a family enterprise. When carpet industries were subject to global scrutiny many looms were shifted form the factories to the homes of the poor as family enterprises!
In effect, the Act condones and allows the existence of millions of children who are subject to the hazards of not being in school, and indeed working in extremely exploitative conditions. How can a child realize his fundamental right to education, if s/he is simultaneously asked to be made responsible for earning a living?
The Bill on “Free and Compulsory Education' would make sense only when correspondingly there is an amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. They must to include clauses for abolition of child labour in all its forms in the country, thereby relieving all children from their lives of drudgery so that they can go to school.
We need your support to the cause of total abolition of child labour in all its forms and for children's right to education only through full time formal day school. This will go a long way in liberating the children and consequently liberating the country as a whole.
About the author: Dr.Sinha is the Secretary Trustee of MV Foundation, a non-profit organization working towards the total eradication of child labour. She is also a Professor in the department of Political Sciences at the Hyderabad Central University. Dr.Sinha has, in the past, been honored with such awards as the Padmashri, The Ramon Magsaysay award, The Albert Shanker International Award. PaGaLGuY.com thanks Dr.Sinha for having taken the time out to write this article for our portal. To learn more about Dr.Sinha's work, and the campaign to amend the child labour act, log onto MVF-India
Xavier's Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar organized Ashwamedh, the national level conference on India's manufacturing sector at the XIMB auditorium on Saturday evening.
Distinguished speakers from different segments of the manufacturing sector came down to the campus to share their valuable insights on theme 'Manufacturing excellence in India - Opportunities and Challenges.'
Mr Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Board of Governors played moderator for the evening and initiated the discussion highlighting the need for a faster rate of growth for the country's manufacturing sector if India had to become the third largest economy in the coming decades.
“Although the service sector forms more than 50 percent of the Indian economy, you would ideally want the industrial sector to increase its share from the present 27 percent. Until this happens the economy will not get the necessary impetus it needs to grow at an accelerated rate”, he observed.
Mr Ram Mohan Rao, Dean, Indian School Of Business, Hyderabad while pointing out the auto mobile, pharma, oil and chemicals sector as the best performing ones, felt that it was imperative for the entire manufacturing industry to take that quantum jump of excellence with the world standards soon.
“Infrastructure development is a serious bottleneck obstructing the manufacturing sector's growth, and has to be cleared. Moreover companies should also develop and flexible and effective supply chain that can sustain the most demanding manufacturing processes,” he added.
He stressed on the need to view both India and China as a combined economic power instead of always comparing them.
Mr MK Choudhary, Senior VP, Lafarge India highlighted factors such as government patronage, market distortions and ineffective management philosophies as serious barriers to growth.
He said, “Besides China, countries like Thailand and Malaysia have taken a head start in developing sound manufacturing processes. Therefore we must now focus on aspects like quality management, leveraging human capital, optimum use of IT recourses in order to improve the productivity of the manufacturing sector.”
Mr HM Nerurkar, Vice President, Tata Steel gave a historical overview of manufacturing trends. He spoke about innovative concepts ranging from Henry Ford's assembly line production to the more modern concepts of total productive maintenance (TPM).
“Innovation in production techniques coupled with a constant endeavor to reduce cost not affecting the quality should be the focus of India's manufacturing sector”, he commented.
He gave an instance from Tata Steel where they had successfully trebled their output despite reducing their workforce by half as an example where the world productivity standards could be reached even after reducing the human resource of the company. He added, “One who is more adaptable to changing trends would do well the future”, as an ending remark.
Mr CR Pradhan, CMD, Nalco gave the public sector perspective to the discussion by speaking about the new success stories from the manufacturing units PSUs.
He said, “Although factors like the dearth of technical labour, social obligations towards masses, employment generation might have impinged the growth of manufacturing sector, the scenario has now changed with most PSUs performing on the stage.”
He too agreed with concepts like TPM, insisting that the productivity of any concern could not ever improve until it took care of its equipment.
The Q&A; session followed where the students had a free interaction with the panel. The speakers addressed questions ranging from the importance of labour reforms to corporate social responsibility and improvement of labour productivity.
The first CEO talk in the new academic year turned out to be a great learning experience for the entire batch of XIMB students as they got to interact with Mr SK Mohapatra, CEO, Dhamra Port Co Ltd.
Mr SK Mohapatra, who has recently retired from the IAS, addressed the student gathering by stating that India was well on the way onto manufacturing excellence, especially after the liberalization policies of early 1990's.
He added, "Signing the General agreement on trade and tariff (GATT) has no doubt given an impetus to Indian manufacturers for improving their performance, allowing free import of goods and services."
He highlighted India's vast human resource as a definite advantage in the era of globalization but pointed out that a multi skilled labour force was the need of the hour.
He added that while other sectors in India had witnessed reforms, the labour sector remained excluded from these reforms. As a result, the final surge towards industrial dominance was not happening.
He also highlighted the need of the infrastructure development as a key ingredient of industrial growth. Mr Mohapatra stressed on strong political will required to implement key reforms especially in power sector. Throwing light on the discrepancy in power rates between urban consumers and agricultural households, he stated non-economic reasons for the lack of privatization in the power sector. "Often political reasons come to the forefront rather than economic ones when it comes to implement crucial reforms," added Mohapatra.
A Q&A; session was held in the end where students got to interact with Mr Mohapatra on key issues such as divestment in crucial sectors and the restructuring of social security systems prevalent in India.
The Human Resource Development Ministry on Tuesday launched a portal on a wide range of educational support such as scholarships, fellowships, freeships and educational loans. The portal, www.educationsupport.nic.in, will serve as a ready reference/single window source of information relating to scholarships available in India, said a Ministry press release.
PaGaLGuY.com adds: For management aspirants seeking financial assistance, the relevant section of the portal is at: http://www.educationsupport.nic.in/showinst.asp?catid=&disid;=156
The portal, the release added, is aimed at saving the valuable time of students and other aspirants from the trouble and inconvenience of searching for information from various sources.
First of its kind in India, the portal presents information on various types of incentives available from all sources such as educational institutions, universities, Ministries of Government of India, organizations, non-government sources and information about educational loans from various public and private sector banks.
The portal presents around 200 scholarships for study in India offered by over 60 universities, institutions and organizations, 20 scholarships from the non-government sources and 28 external scholarships exclusively offered by MHRD for study abroad. The website also presents information about educational loans offered by 23 banks in India. The information will benefit over five million students pursuing different fields in education. The portal also deals with admission policy announcements and the facility of applying for scholarships online with the support of universities and institutions. This facility will enable the students to know of the status of their applications for scholarships applied for.
The International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi in its endeavor to induce the thought process among its future managers by bringing them face to face with the names running the show in the industry today organized a talk by Perfetti Van Melle Managing Director Mr Stefano Pelle.
(Mr Pelle joined Perfetti India in 1998 and is slated to take over the reins as Vice-President Chief Operating Officer for South Asian and Russian units of Perfetti in September 2005.)
Mr Pelle gave the students an insight into the launch, development and sustenance of a product through innovative marketing.
The talk began with the advent of Perfetti's flagship product Big Babool into the Indian market and its creating a niche for itself as a nationwide brand, slowly eating into the share of its low quality Indian competitors. He also discussed the strategies adopted by the company to penetrate the Indian market, such as introducing the Mono-pack instead of the usual Five-pack, besides giving advertising campaigns an Indian flavor in order to increase brand visibility. He also indicated the importance of India as a big market for Perfetti products holding exciting future prospects.
The talk gave the budding marketing whiz kids of IMI Delhi an insight into the functioning of a consumer oriented firm with flexible marketing strategies to cater to changing times. Mr Pelle also illustrated the effect of Perfetti's competitors and the concept of add-ons like Tattoos which boosted sales of the bubblegum industry in a major way. He gave the students an insight into strategic business decisions of introducing new radical products like Spyro and Squeeze, which were meant for students. One of the top priorities on the minds of tomorrow's marketing managers is the need to stay one step ahead of the competitor. In this regard, Stefano Pelle's talk focussed on the need for constant and sustainable innovation in the competitive market environment. Perfetti has always prided itself for its policy of production development and diversification that guarantees continuous innovation, he said. Innovation today, he stressed, includes all the elements of the marketing mix - product innovation, packaging and promotions. It extends beyond the traditional lines into innovation in the distribution network, in advertising, and most of all in satisfying and often anticipating the diverse demands of the consumer.
Mr Pelle was very forthcoming and took great interest in the questions put forward by the students. Through an interactive and candid session, he helped map the road to building brands through successful innovation. Big Babool was studied as a representative case in enhancing brand value and market share through continuous efforts to innovate on various levels.
An MBA with his masters in Marketing from the Luiss University of Rome, Mr Pelle's straightforward manner and appealing sense of humour helped make the talk one of the most successful ones this year.
Kshitij 2005 is an effort in the direction of sharing the diverse knowledge acquired by B-school students during their summer projects. The event is open for Summer Projects in all the areas viz Marketing, Finance, Operations, Systems, Human Resources and Rural Marketing.
The event would be conducted in two phases. In the first phase the atudents have to send a hard copy of their project reports along with an executive summary (not exceeding 1500 words). The entries would be short listed on the basis of their merit. In the second phase, the short listed candidates will be required to make presentations to a panel of eminent persons from academicia and the industry.
Participants from B-Schools across the country are invited to send their entries. There will be one prize in each of the specializations, namely...
1. Marketing
2. Finance
3. Systems
4. Operations
5. Human Resources
6. Rural Marketing.
An overall Best Summer Project (one of the above six) would be awarded the Rolling Trophy.
The last date of sending the entries is July 30, 2005. Further details of the competition can be obtained from the site www.ximb.ac.in/~xops . Interested people can download the registration form and have a look at the rules and guidelines.
Further queries can be directed to [email protected]
Synapse 2005, the two-day annual marketing seminar of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK) was organized at the institute's scenic campus in Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala, on July 23rd and 24th, 2005.
The event was organized by MPower, the marketing interest group at IIMK, and was supported by CII, with ITC as the Platinum Sponsor. The online media partner for the event was Exchange4Media and Business Line was the print media partner. The event featured top marketing gurus expressing their views on the theme "The Brand New World: Local Competencies, Global Challenges". The theme of the event was chosen keeping in mind the changing face of marketing, where the old rules no longer hold and new market dynamics evolve overnight.
The event was inaugurated by Dr DS Broca, Chairman, Post Graduate Programme who opined that seminars like these help students hone their management and leadership skills and provides them with an opportunity to get a dose of real industry challenges. He stressed the need for socially sensitive corporate citizens, one of the guiding principles of IIM K.
Mr Hemant Mallik, VP Marketing, ITC Foods, delivered the keynote address. He gave a riveting account of ITC's foray into the food industry. He took the two case studies of Aashirvaad Atta and Sunfeast Pasta and explained how the company leveraged its considerable knowledge in areas like blending and supply-chain management. He highlighted ITC's concept of 'honest pricing' and the rural initiative 'e-choupal'.
Mr VK Chandrashekaran, VP Sales & Marketing and Regional Head (India & SAARC), Dr Reddy's Laboratories, gave a comprehensive overview of the patents regime in the country, in light of the recent change in patenting procedures. He called this era a paradigm shift from the time when global organizations exploited Indian markets to now when the Indian organizations are going global. He attributed India's favourable position in the global scenario to a large talent pool and Indian innovativeness.
An interesting first-hand account of rural marketing was given by Dr G Ravi Prasad, Vice President (marketing), Murugappa Group (Godavari Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd). He shared how the sudden shift from an urban environment to a rural one can unsettle a young marketing executive. He spoke about the importance of monsoons, the rapid growth of the market and the challenges of infrastructure and complexity in that sector. He pointed out that innovation in reaching out to the villages of India is the need of the hour.
The celebrated Mr R 'Balki' Balakrishnan, National Creative Director, Lowe, deconstructed some of his acclaimed advertisements and explained to the spellbound audience how the common thread that ran through these commercials was simplicity. He felt that advertising is not just about award-winning creativity but about getting rewards in the market for the client.
The second day began with Mr Vijay Balakrishnan, Principal Sales & Marketing Officer, Bharti Televentures Ltd, who spoke on the marketing of services and the innovations required in the fast changing, competitive market. He noted that, "our only source of competitive advantage is our people and the service they provide."
Mr S Ramachandran, Principal Consultant, Littler Associates (Ex VP Sterlite Industries) drove home the point that most of the market research is not fully leveraged. Drawing from his vast experience in companies like Sterlite Industries, Pidilite, Exide and Amaraja, he urged on a more practical perspective on the field of Marketing Research. He noted that an understanding of the basics behind any methodology used for market research is essential.
The inimitable Mr Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc gave an entertaining and thought-provoking presentation on Rural Marketing, its potential, its idiosyncrasies and its peculiar position of suddenly being the 'in' thing in marketing. Mr Bijoor, interestingly held the urban market responsible for creating misconceptions and blamed it for the high-handed and secondary treatment of the rural market. "What has been tapped is just the tip of the iceberg", he said about that sector.
Representing the Retailers Association of India (RAI) was the CEO, Mr Gibson Vedamani who spoke on in-house brands. For an in-house brand to succeed he felt that there must be a brand vision and transparency in dealings. "Keep thy store brands and thy store brands will keep thee", he remarked.
From the marketing research space, Mr Sandeep Budhiraja, Associate Director, AC Nielsen ORG-Marg, talked about the making of cult brands. Backed by radical examples from both the national and international arena, he emphasized how cult brands dare to be different and don't sell a product or service, but a lifestyle.
The seminar concluded with the vote of thanks delivered by Prof Sunil Sahadev, the Area Chair of the Marketing Dept, IIM Kozhikode who also complimented the student organizers for their excellent event management skills. "It's only when one listens to such people does one understand that classroom learning must be seen from a real world perspective," said Miss Ritamoni Boro, a first year student. Pranay Rao, a co-coordinator of the organizing team was happy at the successful conclusion of Synapse and added, "We always try to get the best people to come to campus and share from the wealth of their diverse experiences. The knowledge-gain that accompanies the presentations given by such top minds is incalculable."
Synapse provided the students with a platform to interact with the stalwarts of industry and get insights into the dynamics of the Indian market. Terming the event a grand success, Media Cell Co-coordinator Vijay Ramani said, "Two days of interactive sessions during Synapse has been an experience that left the students enlightened".
The business case contest based on a live social marketing situation featuring former Olympian PT Usha's athletics training academy, USHA (Usha ScHool of Athletics), remains open till 31st July, 2005.
Understanding of the pulse of the Indian consumer is often underrated, but it plays a very important role in the decisions and strategies of the business leaders. Management students need to meet and observe customers and understand them more closely as a part of learning marketing management, consumer behavior or personal selling. This has been met with some success at NITIE, Mumbai where a unique learning method has been implemented by Prof T Prasad for the first year management students.
Mandi is a teaching method where 'Learning becomes Self Discovered'. Thus the concept of 'MANDI' came into being, "A Field Sales Campaign for Teaching Personal Selling Skills through Experimental Approach".
The first year students of NITIE's Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management (PGDIM) course undertook this unique sales exercise and were seen dressed in one of its kind Mandi t-shirts selling toys in different parts of Mumbai on July 24 2005. The students were given an inspiring speech by the CEO of Bayer India, Mr Rajesh Agarwal who also flagged off the event. The students were given the freedom of choosing their respective groups. As part of the exercise, they were supplied with educational aids used for teaching math and science. A total of Rs 1,00,000 worth merchandise was distributed for the exercise by a NGO named Navnirmiti. The products that were chosen for the exercise were: Jodo 3-D Wonder Kit, Tangram, Pyramid and Rangometry. These products were designed with a purpose of inducing a sense of creativity and innovativeness within a child.
Each group of two students were given goods worth Rs 2000 and they had to sell at least 30 percent of the stock. However, almost every group sold out. Together the students managed to make sales worth Rs 74,000. The highest collection by a single group this year was Rs 8000. Harsha Venkatesh, a student said, "Mandi provided us the opportunity to understand the mentality of the people. All the people were interested in the puzzles and games we were selling. We were surprised to see college students and young professionals also buying the toys along with small children. It only showed us that every individual has a child inside her. Our entire stock of Rs 2,000 was sold in two hours at Phoenix mills at Lower Parel."
During the exercise, each of the student teams experienced the complete personal selling process a number of times. This gave them a feel of different customer types, their expectations, possible product objections and so on. Says Saumya Sarpal, a student, "I was trying to sell one of the 'Tangrams' (a toy) at Worli-Sea-Face to this rather uninterested guy, when a kid tapped my elbow and asked "what is this?", pointing to the frame of a house built using 'Jodo', that I was carrying. Initially I thought of brushing him off, but something in me hinted that this is the end-user of the toys standing in front of me and I should try to sell it to him. I sat down patiently, and gave him a demo. The kid taught me a lesson not to ignore anybody."
After the exercise, the students had a feedback session where the central idea was to bring reflective observation and abstract conceptualization together. Explains Yugit Bhansal, a participant, "What I learned from Mandi is that there is a market for almost everything. You only need to know how and whom to approach. When we were selling at the railway stations in Mumbai initially there were no customers but once we were able to gather few of them then the group effect propagated and after that there was so much curiosity that it was getting very difficult to handle the number of queries." The fact that the proceeds were going for a social cause inspired the students to work harder at their sales process.
However it was not a cakewalk for these students all the time. For example a person mistook a group of students to be desperate job hunters and offered them a job where they would have to actually work full time as salesmen for a salary of Rs 4000 per month including a clause that said that the job was only for a period of three months. As students hailed from various parts of the country, the language barrier in some instances also hampered some of them.
The first phase essentially focused only on the selling experience and its impact on student learning, leaving aside many other aspects of the field selling experience, such as setting sales targets and achieving them, and detailed planning including pre-sale planning, post-sale review, specific target markets and customers. Hence these are the aspects that Prof T Prasad and his team hope to cover in the next two phases of Mandi which are planned sometime during the next month. So don't be surprised if you find budding managers from NITIE back on the streets of Mumbai for a fresh and new selling spree!
Following litigation, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have opened doors to students from educational institutions that are not recognized by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
The IIMs until now allowed graduates only from educational institutions recognised by the Associaiton of Indian Universities (AIU).
However, anyone who qualifies in the CAT exam will now be eligible for admission to an IIM.
"Students from non-AIU member institutions too can prove their talent at the IIMs now," said IIM Ahmedabad Director Bakul Dholakia, adding that the older rule now stood void.
The decision comes after two graduates from DAIICT, one of whom had scored a 99 percentile in CAT, but were denied admission in IIM A went to court on the matter.
IIM A had denied them admission because DAIICT was not an AIU member.
Prateek Agarwal alias ManDevIan is in his second year at Management Development Institute-Gurgaon. In a conversation with our in-house PaGaL Interrogation Squad sleuth DJ Krish Kay, Prateek sheds more light on his life at MDI-Gurgaon and what goes into surviving the two year bootcamp that is an MBA.
A little Bit on your background please.
I did my schooling from Lucknow (La Martiniere Boys College), and then went on to appear for C.A. Foundation. I did my initial training (articleship) in Delhi, but soon shifted back to Lucknow and completed my 3 years of training there itself. Meanwhile I completed my B.Com (Honours) from Delhi University (correspondence). I moved back to Delhi in 2002 and cleared my CA exams in May 2003. Meanwhile, I also worked as a Senior Audit Assistant in a reputed CA firm in Delhi. After clearing the CA exams, I started my own firm in South Delhi. So before joining MDI, I had 17 months of work experience.Hmm…An MBA after CA. Was it for the placements??
Quite contrary to belief of many, my decision to go for MBA was not motivated by placements, but rather, by my desire to go through a college and hostel life before finally trying to settle down. MBA was my first choice, as that would have helped me enjoy the life I missed, and help me groom my personality.
That's the first time we've heard of that reason ! So, how did you go about choosing the institutes to apply? And also do rank the parameters that you based your decision upon.
My choice of institutes was restricted to the top 10 colleges in India, which consisted of all 6 IIMs, MDI, XLRI, SP Jain and IIFT. Although, FMS was also on my list, I was not keen on it, since FMS wouldn't provide me with a hostel life, which was my main reason for doing MBA.
RANKING:
Campus life
Quality of batch mates
Quality of faculty
Placements
Quality of education
City your B school is located in
Amount of on-campus research
Rank your B school gets in 3rd party surveys
And how did you go about your CAT preparation?
My entrance test preparation was a total disaster. I joined T.I.M.E., South Delhi centre for classes, hoping that I'll be able to juggle classes with my office (which I was running as a proprietor). However, I rarely made it to class, and just appeared for the weekly AIMCATs. Every week my percentile kept going several notches lower (I never went through any reading material).
However, I took a break during November and studied for around 15 days. During those days I used to attempt one or two Mock Cats daily, along with a friend of mine, keeping a strict time regime. At the end of the day, we'd analyse the Mock Cats, to get a hang of tougher questions. This preparation worked well for me – and due to high work pressure – this was the last time I studied before taking the final CAT in February 2004.
I have managed to keep my cool before and during my exams and CAT was no exception. I took 3 days off from my office and went back home to family. I watched loads of movies and met a lot of friends. On the day of the CAT, for the first time, the nervous faces of people around me took a toll on me. But then the question paper took over and everything was fine after that. I was not very optimistic of converting any call, but then MDI came as the biggest surprise to me.
So, how different are interviews for CAs as compared to other graduates?
During the interviews, I was quizzed on taxation, accounting etc, which I was quite comfortable with. Suddenly one of the interviewers asked me the latest number of Accounting Standards which were issued by ICAI. I was not very sure – but nevertheless, had a vague idea that it's 31 and that's what I answered. The interviewer asked me twice to think again before finally telling me that the answer is 29. However, quite unlike myself, I told him confidently that its 29 for the general public, but 31 for the Chartered Accountants (as 2 of them are in draft mode and we have already received them). Eventually, the interviewer was quite convinced. Later, I discovered that there were only 29 AS at that time and that there were none in draft mode. But I still got through. 
{pagebreak}
Now that you have been inside a B-school for over an year, do give us some insight into how B-school life goes.
I always thought that campus life is all about studying, having a good time with friends and a few extra curricular activities. However, after joining MDI, I realised that the “extra” bit in 'extra curricular activities', is in fact “extra large” for it controls the biggest chunk of my time. Life at Bschool also involves dealing with the dynamics of high competition, human relations and as is the case anywhere else, politics!
Every moment in B school is a good one till I'm in class or have to study. Specifically, being part of so many things such as organising an inter b-school fest, running a student cooperative store etc. have been the best experiences of my life. Staying up the whole night, doing projects with groupies, and hitting the sack after breakfast is always fun! By the way – did I mention the all night DJ parties?
Its not all good, though. Waking up early in morning for classes and watching (some) people being so loyal towards R.G. (Relative Grading, mostly used as a slang for high competition) is the not-so-bright side to this coin.
OK, now we'll make this quick. Five things that you can't live without at MDI-Gurgaon
My laptop – it's the most important thing in my life here.
Internet – it's the lifeline here!
Meeting – Nothing can be done without regular meetings, be it group meetings, club meetings or open house.
Determination – To survive in a b-school one needs to have sheer grit to keep up with the pace of life here.
Adjustable Biological Clock – the biological clock of the students has got to be adjustable for the unpredictable schedules and unearthly deadlines
What kind of jobs are you looking at, post-MBA?
I am hoping for a good Corporate Finance job in one of the MNCs. Am quite flexible about the job profile, so no worries there…
To all aspiring B schoolers: Just be yourself. What others do and how they study is immaterial. Everyone has their own style of grasping things. Get your own. Once you make it to B school, don't waste all your time studying and raising your grades. B school has so much more to teach – find them and take all it has to offer.
Discuss this article in the Forum!
The Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), one of India's premier management institutes, has tied up with tech services retail chain Reliance WebWorld to foray into the e-learning space.
Under the agreement, a postgraduate certificate in logistics supply chain management (PGCLSCM) programme on a virtual classroom platform will be launched, said a statement.
The programme will be available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune through Reliance WebWorld outlets. The 14-month course has been designed by XLRI and will entail over 400 hours of teaching.
The professors of XLRI will use Reliancee WebWorld's video conferencing facility to reach the student community across locations on a real time basis, said the statement.
Reliance WebWorld is a nationwide chain of retail stores for digital entertainment and communication and serves as one-stop-shop for telecom services major Reliance Infocomm's products and services.
"This programme is a part of XLRI's larger plans to up-skill corporate India by offering premium programmes right at the doorstep of its managers without hampering their existing jobs," said XLRI director N Casimir Raj.
BCG Workshop on "Careers in Consulting" held on August 10, 2005
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, consult," this is a common misconception among many people about the coveted profession of consulting. Consulting is a job which stimulates your intellect, deals with people and impacts the way an organization does business. Many B-school students aspire to join top global consulting firms when they graduate. The main reasons for this are the excellent pay packets, foreign postings and luxurious life-styles that accompany such jobs. But the knowledge about the job content and clarity about long-term career goals can help students make a firm decision. These were some of the views expressed in a talk on "Careers in Consulting" held at IIM Calcutta on August 10. The guest speakers included Vikram Bhalla, Saurabh Tripathi and other IIM Calcutta alumni from Boston Consulting Group, one of the top global consulting firms.
The guests gave their juniors an insight into the career path and nature of assignments of a consultant. Vikram Bhalla, a 1996 batch IIM Calcutta alumnus and now Partner in BCG, emphasized the importance of being sure of what one wants to do in life before taking the plunge. He looked back at his experience as a graduating student conceding that he feels he had chosen the right career but for wrong reasons due to lack of information. "The students face tremendous peer pressure but they should find out what they are really passionate about and take their career decision over a longer term, rather than in just 3 months before placements," says Bhalla.
The speaker asserted that consulting can provide one with an accelerated career path along with exposure to a broad spectrum of management problems. Saurabh Tripathi, Principal, BCG and a 33rd Batcher from IIMC, discussed the kind of assignments a consultant works on using real industrial examples while Shaleen Sinha (38th Batch) reiterated how a consultant gets opportunities to work in projects with motley client teams and gain experience in various businesses.
The talk turned out to be an eye-opener for many students. "I have now realized that consulting is not a monotonous but an enriching profession with challenging assignments in diverse environments," said Abhishek Roy, one such student. "Students at IIM Calcutta have a wider array of coveted career options to choose from, including Consulting, Investment Banking, Private Equity and even Hedge Funds, which translates into a greater dilemma for them. In this scenario, such events become particularly meaningful for our students," opined Anupam Agarwal, another student.
The guests were also happy to return to their alma mater after a long time. They were also impressed by the huge turnout. As Shaleen said, "We hold such events at IIMC because students are very responsive and grasp the relevant issues easily, making for a fruitful interaction." The final advice to the graduating class was summed up by Vikram Bhalla as he quoted Steve Jobs' famous words: "You've got to find what you love... Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
There is sound reason why Dr Bala V Balachandran, a JL Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Accounting Information Systems and Decision Sciences at the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, is one of the most sought after men in the boards of top Indian companies.
"We benefit tremendously from his presence on the board," says Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) says about Dr Bala. "He's an academic of repute, and he brings to bear his knowledge of finance, cost accounting and strategy, of what works and what doesn't work."
Back in 1973, when the Indian Institutes of Management were in state of infancy, the Annamalai University-educated Bala V Balachandran joined the Kellogg School of Management as the first Indian member of the faculty.
Now 32 years later, Dr Bala V Balachandran is arguably India's biggest international figure in management education. After founding the flagship program at the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, he went on to single-handedly set up the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. His current muse is the Chennai-based Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM), which he nurtures like a baby when he is not in the US teaching at Kellogg.
In an exclusive interview to PaGaLGuY.com's Allwin Agnel and KVJ Subramanyam at Chennai, Dr Bala V Balachandran talks about himself, GLIM, Indian B-schools and more.
In this first of the two-part interview, we start off by giving Dr Bala a brief lowdown on the who, what, why of PaGaLGuY.com and its progress over the years. His following response catches us unawares…
Beautiful. That's good. Actually, to be frank with you I do not know about Pagalguy.com directly. I have two sons. One is an Assistant Professor at Columbia Business School and the other son is a Harvard Medical graduate and fulltime faculty there. He has nothing to do with business schools, but he somehow knew about your organization. He is fond of GLIM and he showed me in Chicago a discussion on the Pagalguy.com forums where a student at GLIM was asked about the deficiencies in the institute. I was really surprised by the student's reply to the query. (The query) was about how the management was going to fix shortcomings such as the lack of a proper campus. He (the GLIM student) wrote back saying that the weakness, if any, was the campus but that it was going to be solved in a year or two. That was my first exposure to Pagalguy.com. Since then, I've seen it a couple of times more in other places too. It was a nice experience.
How did the idea of Great Lakes come out and how did it get fructified?
In case you are aware of Great Lakes, probably no other institution has achieved in seven months what we have achieved - from planning to implementation in seven months flat. My experience in converting the National Management Program of MDI-Gurgaon into a PGDBM program (1991-1996), and in setting up the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad (then by a different name) came in handy at Great Lakes. I wanted to have a business school with a permanent campus but in a 12-month format. This was because I felt, why should an 18-month program (basically all two-year programs are effectively 18-month programs) exist when all students are successfully placed after the 15th month and hardly any student pays serious attention to the curriculum? And I do talk of what I call the Money Value of Time, as opposed to Time Value of Money. If these students have had some prior work experience, then we can condense the program into a 12-month format. B-School contact hours can be intense and impactful and the courses can be packed in 12 months, save the occasional holidays. If this is done, then probably the second year salary can be enough for all the tuition fees of the program. Therefore the opportunity cost, if you look at it, for a two year student, is too much. I was convinced we had to have a one year program.
Rajat Gupta (ex-CEO, McKinsey) was my neighbour in Chicago and I discussed my idea with him. He also thought on similar lines and suggested doing this as IIT-Delhi's expanded Business School. I disagreed with him as I felt that a B-school has to be an independent outfit like an IIM but focused, probably, in Mumbai as it is the country's business capital. A lot of other things happened and as a result the proposed school ended up in Hyderabad. I handled designing the curriculum, finding the new dean, recruiting the faculty there. I also taught there for the first batch.
All the while I was getting calls from my friends in Chennai who wanted me to set up a world-class Business School in Chennai, a knowledge city, since it had always lacked one. I wanted to combine the best strengths of international B-Schools and do it on a world-class quality with a low-cost fee-structure. And that is the reason why we have priced the fees at GLIM at IIM level but quality being world-class. I've been at the Kellog School of Management for the past 32 years and this association has helped me in bringing the best of faculty and speakers to Great Lakes.
After creating something of the size of ISB, which is massive, extremely well planned, with a lot of funding put in, how tough was it to create something like Great Lakes?
You see, the point is simple. What is a Business School? Is it brick and mortar? Or, a few faculty who are dedicated and determined to create an institution? I can make do even without an air-conditioned building. Yes, at that time (ISB), there was lots of money, and we did it. As a matter of fact, I say, General Motors produces Cadillac but it produces Saturn also. There's room for a Cadillac and a Saturn as well among customers. So therefore, I felt, let me do a low budget thing. It is a question of faculty that counts and not the building where you operate. Of course I got a very functional building, but I am not going to build a massive campus over hundreds of acres. As a matter of fact, when the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu offered me 30 acres, I told her I needed only half of that. Because maintaining 15 acres of empty space is going to cost me as I cant' leave it as an eyesore on the campus. This is the way I can effectively and efficiently run a business and Great Lakes, right in the first year has a net positive cash flow. This is a not-for-profit institution. The amount that it has generated goes to the building fund. Yes, we need funds for the buildings now. A few people have already come forward with voluntary donations while a few others have taken responsibilities for raising funds. I don't want to say I have a Taj Mahal in town. For a business school you want a business school building. You don't need a Taj Mahal. Look at IIM Ahmedabad. Fantastic campus. Is it a world-class building? No. Fully functional? Absolutely yes. My model is IIM Ahmedabad. My role model is Don Jacobs, Dean (emeritus) of Kellogg and Ravi Mathai, who started the IIM Ahmedabad. I worked with him, taught with him. I also know Sam Pitroda. But Ravi Mathai, as a bachelor's degree holder, in my opinion, built that institution and created a legend and made it a sustainable profitable operation.
{pagebreak}
Something very unique about Great Lakes, is the kind of faculty that comes there. Simply unheard of in Indian B-schools.
Yes. How many other schools have a Nobel Laureate (Prof Finn E Kydland, the economics Nobel laureate for 2004) teaching, who is now the deputy director of the Yale-Great Lakes Research center that we have established at Yale University. We also have the Yale President (Dr Richard Levin) coming to Great Lakes. Recently we had the President of the Northwestern University and the dean of Kellogg coming and spending time with the students here. In February, we have the president of Illinois Institute of Technology coming here. We also have another Nobel Laureate coming here. We've also had people like Vivek Paul coming over and spending time with the students. My younger brother is the Chairman of marketing at Stanford Business School, Seenu V Srinivasan and he also teaches here. My son, a fulltime faculty from Columbia Business School, also teaches here.
Don't the international faculty persons who come to Great Lakes charge exorbitantly?
All the people who came here are my personal friends. And that is why they are coming. For example, the Nobel Laureate (Prof Finn E Kydland) did not charge one penny. I paid him just the business class ticket.
And will you be able to sustain this year-on-year?
You Bet. And I will leave a legacy. And you will see that. Not just these people, there are more coming and I am increasing the number of these speakers. If you see this year's faculty, it is better than the last year's faculty. And I don't see why I should not keep doing that. So long as I am alive. But, after me, I have to create a system and therefore I am now grooming others. This is Team Leadership. I don't make decisions, even though I can. There is an executive committee that decides everything.
What do the international faculty who come to Great Lakes feel when they come and teach here?
They feel very good. Because they get amazing students. Very intellectually challenging. And most of the international faculty coming, with the exception of people like Finn Kydland or Sony Simpson, most are Indians. We are all Indians. Fortunately, we all had a good time and went to the US. Then many of us feel like doing something back to India. Slowly we have been able to bring some Americans here.
Half a decade down the line, you'll have an amazing campus, infrastructure and facilities. Would these very faculties be then willing to teach for free?
True. At that time I'll pay them their market price.
{pagebreak}
With your international stature, are you a one-man army?
(Smiling) It may be looking like a one-man army. But if I create a system where I pass all my contacts and social capital to the rest of the people, it may work. And that is the reason why I have an amazing Business Advisory Council. We recently had our first graduation ceremony where Jamshyd Godrej was present too. Then, every student made sure they hugged me or touched my feet. At which B-school graduation would you see something like this? Not that I am a big deal or anything, but the point was I gave myself to them. Every week I communicate with them on email basis. They are my nephews and nieces. They call me Uncle Bala. I talk to them on all issues they bring up, be it personal or be it professional. Therefore, I am part of their life. Look at this. My flight to India was landing at 2 am. There were 70 students standing at the airport to receive me at that odd hour. Why do they do that? In how many places can you see even one student going to receive their professor? The reason is, I am not a professor. I am their relative. I am their real uncle. This is not just lip-service. I believe in it and I do it. And that's how it is.
Is Dr Bala V Balachandran bigger than Great Lakes?
I don't know. But I feel, India needs some amazing figures who want to make money but also want to give. I want people to make money not to live but to give.
What future plans do you have for Great Lakes?
We're getting subsidized land from the Tamil Nadu Government. The Chief Minister is very happy as I am fulfilling her dreams also. She too wanted a top Business School in Chennai. She is also telling other people how Great Lakes can facilitate entry of major companies into Chennai. We may also be doing some training for the Government of Tamil Nadu. Before I leave for Chicago on August 20th, I will have the land. With people like S Sadagopan who built the IIIT Bangalore in one year, I think we will build the first phase in less that a year. And the second phase should be over in the next one year. The final campus should be functional some time in 2007.
With only three faculty persons, there is a shortage of full-time faculty at Great Lakes.
We are four and today I got my fifth faculty. I want to have twenty full-time faculty. By end of this year I want to have five or six. The faculty student ratio at Kellogg is around 1:9 and we'll be having a similar ratio. Note that I am not having a lot of students.
What is the emphasis on research at Great Lakes?
There will be a true research section. We are going to have me, besides Prof Shyam Sunder of Yale University and Finn E Kydland. We also believe in creating faculty for other business schools. We have an acute shortage of world-class faculty. We won't be taking in more than four to five PhD students. They will be going to Yale University's New Haven, Connecticut campus, do their coursework there for 1-1.5 years; come back here and do their thesis. So the PhD program is the next thing that we are going to start.
You also have started an Executive MBA program. Could you tell us something about that and other programs that you are planning to start soon?
Right now, this institute has also created the Executive MBA program. We have 28 fulltime people enrolled in that. The next batch is coming up. Rakesh Singh, who was at Narsee Monjee (Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai) is going to be the Director of this course. He'll also be teaching them. The first module was taught entirely by the US faculty. The Executive MBA program is a two year program. Three visits to the campus, two weeks to stay in every four months, and five courses in each visit. So 15 courses each year. We are also going to have more MDPs (Management Development Programs). We also want to create in association with other organizations, a program on supply chain management.
And shortly we are also going to make public a tie-up with a leading Chinese University for exchange of faculty, exchange of students and more. I am a firm believer that understanding the Chinese culture, language, way of business is imperative in these days. That's why we have made mandarin a mandatory language here at GLIM.
(To be continued...)
Discuss this article in the Forum!
Finance Continuum at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay
SJMSOM successfully conducted Finance Continuum – the third link in Continuum-2005 on August 21, 2005. .'Continuum' is a rolling seminar series at SJMSOM which brings together the leading personalities of the corporate world in a single platform and covers the latest in management trends. The main theme for Finance continuum '05 was 'Valuations'. The event saw participants from various b-schools across Mumbai as well as industry delegates.
At the outset, Finance Continuum was inaugurated by Prof. M. G. Korgaonkar, Head, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. To set the ball rolling, Mr. David Panna, VP, Transaction Advisory Services Ernst & Young India Ltd shared his experience with various valuation methodologies like multiples method, DCF method, NAV method etc. He delved into the various reasons for the value mismatch between the buyer and the seller and explained how the strategic intent of the buyer affects the valuations. “Valuation is as much an art as it is a science” said Mr. Panna in his concluding remarks. He was followed by Mr. S. V. Venkatakrishnan, VP, ARCIL .The topic for his session was “Asset Restructuring”. He began by mentioning the structural options for NPA cleanup and went on to explain the common theme across ARC models and the benefits of ARC approach. The business model of ARCIL was examined in detail. Then he went on to explain operational issues like asset valuation, acquisition, resolution, restructuring etc. He concluded by mentioning the various regulatory issues and other concerns. Thereafter, Mr. Suresh Goyal, Director, Corporate Finance, Lazard India Pvt. Ltd. presented an in-depth analysis of the valuation of a telecom company. DCF method was used and the rationale behind the various revenue assumptions and cost assumptions were analyzed in detail. Comparable cost analysis was used to determine the final value.
The post lunch session began with the doyens from the Banking industry expressing their views on the hot topic 'consolidation in Banking Sector'. The various reasons for M&A;, the operational challenges while a merger is being carried out and the key factors which determine a successful merger etc were discussed in detail. The future outlook for the industry and the implications of Basel-II norms were covered. This was followed by a panel discussion with Mr. Anup Kapadia, Director, Investment Banking, HSBC, Mr. Vinay Gupta, Head, Operations and Compliance, DBS Bank Ltd., Mr. Hemant Tanna, VP, Investment Banking, ING Vysya Bank being moderated by Prof. S. V. D. N. Rao, Associate Professor, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. This was the chance for the eager students to extract even more knowledge from their vast repertoire of experiences.
The continuum meet was formally declared closed by Prof. M. G. Korgaonkar, Head, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. In his characteristic panache, he asked students and industry delegates to apply the learnings of the day in their respective workplaces and make the faculty proud of them.