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A total of 12 teams - four each for the b-school quiz, b-school debate and alumni quiz - drawing from the best talent of India's top MBA programs reached Mumbai on December 15 for the Acumen finals. The names of the b-schools itself - IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Bangalore, SIBM Pune, IIFT Delhi, Narsee Monjee Mumbai - should give you an indication of the quality of people in the fray. These teams had beaten a total of more than 50 other b-schools in their regions to deserve a place in the finals.

What is Business Today - Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2007?

The Ballroom at the ITC Grand Central Sheraton Hotel in Mumbai, the venue of Acumen 2007 finals was packed right from the beginning. The first event being the B-school Debate National semi-finals, teams from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIFT Delhi and IIM Bangalore took positions on the stage while debate judges Praveen Chakravarty, COO of BNP Paribas, Sumant Sinha, CEO of Aditya Birla Retail and R Sridharan, Managing Editor of Business Today put their notepads and scoresheets on alert.

The first debate semi-final between IIFT Delhi's Arka Bhattacharya and Anchal Gupta and IIM Ahmedabad's Mohit Sadani and Vinamra Shrivastava turned out to be a battlefield of numbers and statistics. Not surprising, given that the topic was 'India's demographic dividend is marketing hype'. In the three minutes that each team member received, they used data from UNDP indices, Goldman Sachs reports and census figures to put their point across. The research put in by each contestant was simply dazzling. The IIFT team argued that although the demographic profile of India made for good potential, it was of no use because there was no concrete plan to tap it. Until the dismal state of education was tamed, the excitement about the demographic dividend was hype, they said.

In defence, the IIM Ahmedabad team highlighted that although things were not perfect, the presence of a large young workforce pool in India was a major factor behind the success of the IT and BPO industries and was evidence that the demographic dividend of India was not mere hype. A heated round of questioning among the team and by the judges followed, leaving everyone including the audience more enlightened.

"IIM Calcutta, you like being on the left side of the stage as usual, so it must be a good start for you," said Harsha as the IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore teams took their positions on stage for the second leg of the debate semi-finals. The debate on whether India Inc was doing enough for women centered around rather predictable arguments. Sahil Barua and Sandeep Das from IIM Bangalore while supporting the motion asserted that the last few years had seen Indian women take up leadership positions in places like Pepsi, HSBC Bank and ICICI Bank, which was a good sign that Indian workplaces were becoming open to women executing key roles. The IIM Calcutta team comprising Arzi Adbi and Navin Ibhrampurkar disagreed to the motion, saying that Pepsi and ICICI were very special instances and were not representative of a positive change in India. Large scale and manufacturing industries which formed the bulk of India Inc was still a male dominated place and little was being to elevate women there, they argued.

The shape of the debate finals was announced soon after the lunch break, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta being the semi-final winners.

The alumni quiz followed next. Avid quizzers during their college days, the Acumen alumni quiz allows MBA graduates from Indian b-schools to get back on to the scene. This time, the winning team comprised Rabi Sankar Saha, working with Bharat Petroleum and alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and Jayashree Mohanka, working with Eveready and alumnus of IIM Calcutta.

They beat the rest of the teams with ease, finishing with 135 points over the first rummers up who ended at 115 points.

After a short tea break came the debate with the highest stakes. The national final round of Acumen 2007 b-school debate between IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta was fought on 'India Inc's Business Leaders Should Take over the Political Leadership'.

IIM Ahmedabad speaking for the motion gave examples of Civil Aviation Minister Prafull Patel and how he had brought a major turnaround in the way airlines and airports functioned. The IIM Calcutta team opposed the motion arguing with the example that the UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya who was a Member of Parliament from Karnataka could not express his opinion on the Cauvery dispute because he might lose the market for his company's spirit products in Karnataka and Tami Nadu. Business and politics had a conflict of interest, they reasoned.

As the question and answer session followed, the IIM Calcutta team evolved their argument saying that businessmen should be on advisory roles in the government but not pur political roles.

Harsha Bhogle, while moderating the debate observed how the level of the debates rose clearly with the transition from regional rounds to the semi-finals and national finals. IIM Calcutta was adjudged the absolute winners of Acumen 2007 debate.

The last and the most-awaited event of the day, the b-school quiz finals followed next.

Click here to download Acumen regional rounds quiz questions

The teams from IIM Kozhikode, IMT Ghaziabad, XLRI Jamshedpur and Narsee Monjee Mumbai all had comfortable starts with 10, 30, 10 and 20 points respectively after the first round. The nearly neck-to-neck fight continued all through the event and the Narsee Monjee team finally won with a lead of only 5 points to IMT Ghaziabad's 85 points.

The surprise of the evening however was the sudden appearance of John Abraham as the evening's chief guest. Not many people know that John Abraham before becoming an actor was a qualified MBA graduate and the trivia surprised many people.

John Abraham with the winning quiz team from NMIMS

"I did not know the answer to any of the questions in the quiz. I thought that maybe I would know something from the round on the Retail Industry, but there too the questions were too tough for me. I feel humbled by the level of intelligence among the participating teams," John said while distributing the prizes.

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NMIMS is located in one of the best cities in the country. How would you differentiate NMIMS from other B-Schools in the country in terms of facilities and location?

NMIMS School of Business Management addresses the need of the sector-specific and at the same time domain programs. To give a general example, let's take various specializations in the field of medicine. A general physician does not have a clear demarcation in terms of duties as compared to an ENT or a heart specialist. So there are always two factors, a general field and a specialization area with a market for both. These days we have certain specialized markets like Retail, Banking so on. We at NMIMS realized this potential and had a tie up with Bombay stock exchange 5 years before with which we provide Management in Capital markets. We already have a management program in Retail in association with Pantaloons and see that we meet the needs of sectorial program and domain program. Today 70 pc of the business is family owned or managed, and when we talk of family managed business we see that different communities like the Marwari's or the Parsi's have different way of conducting business. Also, there is a generation gap within the communities. So what is required is to give them the input to business but at the same time enable them to upkeep their family customs. Doing this, we must ensure that we do not compromise on the quality of NMIMS. At NMIMS we are looking at two things, corporate success and academic quality. So at NMIMS we would like to follow all corporate policies, procedures and practices and also in order to ensure that we have academic quality there are two factors that we follow namely selection procedure and faculty development. When we talk of selection process, today NMAT is a known test across the country. Last year we got around 33,000 applications for 240 seats. Of the 33,000 who appeared we short listed 2500 and finally gave calls for the top 240 for the core MBA program. This clearly shows the popularity of NMIMS in the market. We also want NMIMS to have a selection process which is transparent. We see that the NMAT test is comparable in terms of difficulty to other tests conducted by various testing agencies and we take various parameters into judging the ability of a prospective candidate. Having short listed the candidates, before calling them for the GD we have a computer based test, which is an extended portion of NMAT. This test is just to ensure the candidates ability once more after the actual NMAT.

In the near future, are you planning to move NMAT to an online based test?

Actually NMAT was an online test initially, the feedback we got from the students showed that they clearly preferred taking tests on papers than to take tests online. We also figured out that an online pattern might work in metros but in the certain other cities where NMAT was being held power failures and power fluctuations could be a serious hindrance to the test taking process. So we have shifted back to paper pencil tests and have plans to shift to an online test in future, but before we do that we must ensure that every student has access to log in to take these tests.

Could you elaborate on your selection process?

After the NMAT we have a round of group discussions and personal interviews. Talking about the GD process, we have a panel that looks into certain qualities in students and judge them based on that. Some of the key parameters we look into during a GD are the candidate's ability to communicate clearly and efficiently, and put forth his ideas to the team in a convincing manner. Certain candidates believe that by talking non-stop during the GD process they are able to score more points, but in reality that is not true. We look for candidates who can arrive at conclusions by logic and reasoning. When it comes to Personal interviews, we look for the candidate's scores in HSC, Pre University, graduation his work experience and how does that relate to his written exam. On the whole, we look for students who are not just academically strong, but also have good extra curricular skills like participation in sports and other organizational activities. Last year our students have won around 108 awards at many different B-Schools across many different events. During the selection process we also look at the skills a student already has like philosophical skill or talent in acting, singing and so on. Also, a candidate should have fair amount of knowledge about the environment and the happenings around him. Another very important aspect we look at is the concern for society that a candidate has. We try to look for hints which show his attitude towards society at large. At the end of it we try to see if there is consistency in his performance.

Can you tell us about your placement process?

In NMIMS placement is a 24 hour process. We try to maintain a regular relationship with corporate bodies and invite them to give lectures and insights into the requirements and positions in a corporate organization. This is one of the main focuses at NMIMS.

Besides the flagship MBA program NMIMS has entered into domain-specific management education (Retail, Capital Markets, Family Business, and Pharmacy). What is the major difference between these programs? How are they different from the full time MBA program?

Well, for someone who comes from a retail background, he is naturally more interested in retail. Similarly if someone is working in banking he is naturally more inclined to that. So our job is to provide the needed input and leave the rest to the candidate to explore and figure out.

What is the selection procedure for candidates who want to opt for the sectoral program?

Well to start with, they have to answer NMAT, and then go through our selection procedure. From next year onwards, we plan to put out advertisements in papers for sectoral programs, as we do not want a situation where a candidate who does not make it through domain program to opt for sectoral program. We are trying to ensure that when we release the advertisement, we try to put forth the point that, for sectoral program, the test would be common, but the GD-PI would be slightly different based on the stream that the candidate wishes to pursue the management course in. For instance during the selection process the candidates are required to make a presentation and we also expect a certain minimum work experience. A candidate interested in taking the Pharma stream has to give a presentation of pharmaceuticals, and also answer a test, by which we can ensure that he or she knows about that domain.

How different is the sectoral program from the core MBA program based on academic curriculum?

Now, certain core subjects are common between the sectoral program and the regular MBA program, like marketing or principals of management, these are what we call as fundamental courses. After this we move on to the sectoral program, and here we start offering courses based on the stream. If for instance the candidate opts for capital markets, then the entire second year will be based on equities, shares, securities and so on. We also have industry experts who come in to share their knowledge on these topics.

Tell us about the proposed new NMIMS campus.

Well, as per the plan, the current NMIMS campus is going to be demolished and we have a proposed an 8 storey building on a 50 acre campus. The new campus will have state of the art infrastructure and is planned to be completed in the next 2.5 years. At NMIMS we also believe in social development, and probably we are the first school in the country to launch 3 year part time MBA program
in social enterprise.

Where else are you planning to open up campuses?

Right now we are planning to open a campus in Bangalore and the work on that is in full swing. We would start in Bangalore with school of business management and we would have NMAT as the entrance test for it. We would ensure that in the new school that we start, the subjects that are taught are the same with the subjects that are taught in our existing B-School. The delivery mechanism might be different, but we do not want any student to say that a particular topic was not covered. So here we talk of compatibility, and this improves performance.


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Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former President of India joined the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi as an Adjunct Professor on December 22, 2007.

The first lecture focused on Leadership Qualities and essentials required for a Creative Leader. In an interesting discourse to the bright students, Dr. Kalam illustrated graphically how Creative Leadership can help transform India into a developed economy and the various links in the entire chain of transformation. He also spoke at length on his personal experiences with creative leaders like Prof. Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. Satish Dhawan. He urged on the managers of tomorrow to challenge the rapidly changing scenarios and change their traditional roles from commander to coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self-respect. According to Dr. Kalam, leaders accept failure and manage it and when they succeed, they pass on the credit to the team.

The entire lecture was full of real-life examples and showcased Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as a great scientist and an even better manager and not just the dynamic President we all know. The lecture ended with an assignment to the students. As part of this, the students need to answer questions on their experiences of managing failures and success, facilitating nobility in management and capabilities that needs to be built through the education system to create creative leaders.

Today's lecture was attended by the selected 90 bright students from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, a delegation from South Korea who are on a visit to FMS and the Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS) who are here to attend the first international business school sports meet(Altius 2007) organized at FMS. The lecture was the first in a series of eight to ten lectures that shall be delivered as a part of the course " Economics, Technology and National Development".

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The West Zone regionals of the Business Today - Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2007 National B-school Challenge kicked off at Mumbai's Welingkar Institute of Management, campus on Friday 26 October, 2007.

The weekend Acumen fever started off with 20 debate teams and 29 quiz teams turning up from across Pune, Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai and Gujrat management schools. The preliminary rounds yielded IIM A, Institute of Rural Management Anand, SCMHRD Pune and Welingar Institute of Mangement as debate semi-finalists while IIM A also made it to the quiz finals along with SJM-SoM IIT Bombay, SIBM Pune and NMIMS.

On the second day of the event, students from Mumbai b-schools started pouring into the Welingkar Institute of Management auditorium. The thrill in the atmosphere was unmistakable, more so from Welingkar students who had turned up in huge numbers to cheer for their quiz team. Judging by the huge turnout, the fact that simultaneous festivals were on at other b-schools in the city seemed to have no effect on Acumen.


Acumen 2007 West Zone winners

The event came into full swing when host and quizmaster Harsha Bhogle joined the teams on the stage, quick with his trademark wit. The first round of the semi-final debate competition witnessed Vinamra Srivastava and Mohit Sadani of IIM Ahmedabad speaking for the motion while Giridhar Gopal Bagri and Nayana Renukumaran of IRMA spoke against the motion 'An MBA is the most over-hyped academic qualification in India today.' A most relevant topic for everyone in the crowd, leading Harsha to speculate that the topic could take a high-voltage turn. One could argue that the IRMA team lost because they were in a sort of uncomfortable self-contradictory position vis-a-vis the motion, but still they put on a good fight against the IIM Ahmedabad team that won this round.

The second round saw Navtej Singhand Ashwin Jain of SCMHRD speaking for the motion and Deepak Verma and Raj Singh Chauhan of Welingkar speaking against the motion 'Economic reforms in India have benefited only the rich.' The subject saw a volley of facts, data and statistics thrown between the teams but in the end, constructive and meaningful arguments constructed over those statistics helped Welingkar win the round.

West Zone finalists IIM Ahmedabad and Welingkar Institute of Management then spoke on the motion 'Soft skills, more than technical proficiency, are what separate the great managers from the good ones.' The Welingkar team, speaking for the motion, stressed on the importance of soft skills quoting examples such as Mahatma Gandhi. On the other hand the IIM A team, which was speaking against the motion, argued that that an individual had to prove his technical know-how and only then the soft skills came into picture. They said that no matter how much PR or marketing an individual did for himself, he could not prove his worth in his organization without proving his technical abilities.

Each contestant spoke for three minutes followed by questions and answers to the opponent team. Things went interesting when the judges HR Shashikant - Senior President, Group Human Resources, Aditya Birla Group and Pavan Varshnei, Publishing Director, Business Today asked questions to the teams. Mr Varshnei asked the IIM A team what percentage of technical skills and soft skill they would consider while selecting a CEO for their organization. IIM A team answered the question very diplomatically, saying they would consider more of soft skills than technical abilities for a CEO as he would have already proved his abilities in the initial stages of his career. While for a fresh graduate they would look for technical skills above than soft skills, they added.

At this stage, Harsha opined that the debates in final rounds were much more mature as compared to semi-finals. Eventually, IIM A's Vinamra and Mohit won the West Zone regional to reach the natinal debate finals.

The B-School quiz finals for West Zone followed. Souvik Basu and Govind Grewal of NMIMS, Prashant Sampath and Chaitanya Marathe of SJM-SoM IIT B, Tanmay Kumar and Alok Malshet of SIBM and Srinath TB and Abid EH of IIM A took their positions. NMIMS made a good head start in the first round itself.

Harsha made the quiz a very interactive session involving both the teams and the audience. Questions that where not answered by contestants were thrown to the audience. After one such answer from a college student, Harsha aimed a gift box towards him warning that "If you don't catch, it will strike the man sitting in front of you who anyway is losing hair like me and you will be responsible," to roaring laughter.

NMIMS won the finals with a perfect score of 135, leaving behind SJM-SoM IIT B at 85, SIBM at 40 and IIM A far off at 15. It was really strange to see one team of IIM A rocking the debate competition and the other losing out badly in quiz competition.

Later in the evening, Harsha's humor hormones were active again at the Alumni quiz competition. IIFT alumnus Saurabh Goel and FMS Delhi alumnus Rakesh Taklikar were the winners of the alumni quiz competition.

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The eastern part of India is not particularly the hotbed of business education, the number of b-schools here being being much lesser than those in the rest of India. However, all that seems to change every year at the Aditya-Birla Group and Business Today's b-school quiz and debate event Acumen 2007. The fever of
excitement at IIM Calcutta, the yearly venue remains as high as that in the other regional Acumen rounds.

The East zonal round, the last of Acumen 2007's regionals took place on Friday and Saturday with b-school teams from Kolkata, Bhubhaneswar, Jamshedpur and Kharaghpur pouring into the IIM Calcutta campus for the biggest yearly b-school challenge in this part of the world.

Friday, the day of preliminary rounds saw the written stage of the quiz rounds yielding XLRI Jamshedpur, IISWBM Kolkata, IIM Calcutta and IIFT Kolkata as the zonal finalists. The elimination rounds in the debate competition resulted in IIM Calcutta, Praxis Business School Kolkata, IISWBM Kolkata and XIM Bhubhaneswar reaching the semi-finals.

While IIM Calcutta and Praxis Business School Kolkata debated on 'We have failed in building brand India', IISWBM Kolkata and XIMB debated whether India should push for the 'Asian Dollar', the Euro equivalent for Asia. An interesting but at times heated round of debate sent IIM Calcutta's Arzi Adbi and Naviin Ibhrampurkar and Praxis Business School's Vinay Joshi and Saurabh Agarwal to the regional finals.

The topic for the finals debate, 'Diversified conglomerates will have to break up to retain focus', addressed the essential problem faced by Indian companies, of breaking up into smaller units or staying united in a single conglomerate as they diversify into vastly different product ranges.

While Adbi and Gupta from IIM Calcutta spoke in favor of the topic, stressing that staying together as a conglomerate helped subsidiaries to reuse the conglomerate's revenue as fresh capital while if they went alone, their risks would increase. The team from Praxis on the other hand argued that being independent helped brands to set their own strategies without the legacy of a larger brand.

Event judges Amit Chincholkar, Group Head Compensation & Rewards, ABMCL and Manohar Samuel, Senior Vice President, Birla Cellulose finally awarded the East zone winner title to the IIM Calcutta team.

The quiz finals on Sunday hosted by none other than the charismatic Harsha Bhogle saw the teams going through seven gripping rounds spanning diverse subjects as business, politics, sports, technology, advertising and entertainment. The crowd was constantly kept at the edges of their seats with frequent audience questions and prizes. Eventually, the XLRI Team comprising Raghu Reddy and Shrikant N won.

The alumni quiz had equally engaging moments and the winners Rabi Sankar Saha, working with Bharat Petroleum and alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and Jayashree Mohanka, working with Eveready and alumnus of IIM Calcutta won the event with ease.

Click here to download Acumen 2007 regional round questions

The winning teams will now face the other regional winners from North, South and West at the Acumen 2007 national finals on December 15, 2007 at Mumbai.

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The program involved two parts, the first being an overview of Australian business climate and industrial scenario.

As their visit coincided with elections in Australia, the students began with an assignment to cover election issues and different political agendas. They were also asked to analyse the policy shifts that the new Kevin Rudd government proposed to implement.

The second part of the program involved a week's internship in an Australian organization. The work placement was designed to enhance their understanding of local business operations and provide Australian companies with an opportunity to gain valuable insights into doing business in India. Renowned companies from a range of industry segments, like KPMG, Wackett Aerospace Center, CSIRO, Yoober etc participated in the process.

Dr Ron Harper, Director GBS, RMIT, who led this engagement with XLRI, said "The exercise is regarded by RMIT as an important grassroots engagement of Australian industry with the new economic superpower that is India."

The sponsored candidates from Tata Steel were sent for a similar stint to Corus, UK. A few students preferred to stay back for internships in Indian organizations like SBI Caps, UTI Securities, IBDI and more.

GMP is a one year full-time business management program for executives, who have had a prior experience of five years or above. The batch placements are scheduled in second week of Feburary at Mumbai , followed by rolling placements till the end of April. Many major companies have expressed interest in participating in the placement process and recruiting the students at middle and senior management positions.

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“Each year our esteemed guest lecturer is carefully selected from the world's foremost leaders on business ethics,” said Fr E Abraham S.J., director of XLRI. “Dr. Snyder was chosen because he is an eminent leader known for his intelligence, enterprise, social and ethical concern.”

As a distinguished guest lecturer and innovator of leadership competency development, Snyder will deliver a speech entitled, “Triple Bottom Line: Pathway to a 21st Century Business Paradigm.” Triple-bottom-line business accountability, which is also gaining global recognition as “sustainability reporting,” is the practice of expanding traditional business reporting to take into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial results.

“It is truly an honor to present as part of the JRD Tata Oration,” said Steven Snyder. “Sustainability reporting, or triple-bottom-line business accountability, is an emerging concept in India. But with the country's rapidly growing economy, it is important to make sure businesses are accountable for the long-term impact they are having economically, socially and environmentally to ensure a strong future for India and its people.”

Past JRD Tata Oration lecturers include University of St. Thomas Business Ethics Professor Ken Goodpaster, and Peter Eileen, founder and chairman of Transparency International, the world's leading organization fighting against corruption.

Snyder began his acclaimed career at Microsoft where he secured the company's relationship with IBM and helped shape the history of the personal computer industry. He introduced organizational and process innovations that have become hallmarks of Microsoft's strategy. As co-founder and CEO of Net Perceptions, Snyder successfully commercialized the groundbreaking technology, “collaborative filtering,” to enable the real-time personalized recommendations that have become central to the online shopping experience with Amazon.com.

Through his business experience and innovative thinking, his consulting firm, Snyder Leadership Group, helps organizations assess executive candidates, coach executive team members, and successfully connect talent with business strategies. Snyder also teaches a master's-level business ethics course as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

The JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics, which began in 1991, is supported by an endowment from Mr. JRD Tata of the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate company. The Tata Group, with more than 90 businesses operating in steel, oil and other industries, has a global reputation for innovation, research and professionalism.

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"The results of CAT 2007 will be available on the cat website: www.catiim.in on the 8th of January from 3 pm onwards. The scores can be accessed by keying in the test registration number and either the date of birth (preferred) or the cat application number," says an official update on the CAT website.

Getting your CAT result should be easier this year and not involve fighting with the sluggish IIM websites. CAT 2007 scores can also be obtained telephonically or over SMS.

"To access the results through SMS, the candidate should send an SMS to 57333 as follows: 'CAT space registration number space date of birth (dd/mm/yy)' or 'CAT space registration number space application number. Example: CAT 5370082 030482," says the CAT website.

Admitting a typographical error in one question of CAT 2007, the website also clarifies that the test will be evaluated on 74 questions instead of 75. "Question Q41 of the Test Booklet Form Number (TBFN) 111, Q33 of the TBFN 222, Q48 of TBFN 333, and Q33 of the TBFN 444 had a typographical error. Hence, this question will not be considered for evaluation," it says.

Meanwhile, the results for JMET 2008, the qualifying exam for MBA programs at the Indian Institutes of Technology and the India Institute of Science, Bangalore were released on Friday morning at http://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/jmetresults/result.php. Here are some useful links from the PaGaLGuY.com Forums to help you once you have your JMET result.

Check how your JMET rank stands as compared to other JMET aspirants

Ask your admission related queries to existing MBA students from SJMSoM-IIT Bombay, VGSoM-IIT Kharagpur, DoMS IIT Madras, DoMS IIT Roorkee, IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi.

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Mr. Purendu Kumar spoke on “Changing Retail Landscape in India”. As a practicing consultant himself, Mr. Kumar covered the Retail Sector in India from past to present and to the future. Starting with the history of retail in India, Mr. Purendu Kumar reflected on how retail has changed over a period of time and is poised to change more in the near future. He talked about a retail revolution on the anvil on similar lines what we witnessed of IT in 1990's. He talked about major players already in the arena in India and all those who want to be part of the Indian retail revolution. Mr. Kumar shared the strategies major players are adopting to make their presence in the Indian market, their strengths and weaknesses. He also informed the audience that rising retail trade in India does not mean the end of local ration shop. He elaborated the fact that the market potential in India is huge and has space for everyone; the big retail giants as well as the small time shopkeeper in our neighbourhoods. He gave insightful snippets of the current state of Indian economy and the reasons why retail has a definite future in India. Finally he touched upon the challenges faced by retail in India and the effect it will have on the strategies of the retail giants in India. This enthralling and informative presentation was attended by participants of EXPGP, PGP and eminent faculty members. This was followed by question and answer and the session concluded with a grand standing ovation by the audience.

The final section after the question answer session was presentation of a memento to Mr. Purendu Kumar by the EXPGP chair Prof. Ashraf Rizvi. The eventful Day finally concluded with a vote of thanks from the student fraternity.

EXPGP program in one of the flagship programs of IIM Indore and was started in 2002. The entry to this course is through CAT/GMAT and applicants need to have at least 5 years of industry experience prior to joining the course. The program runs for a period of 18 months and has campus components, where students are exposed to classroom teaching and off campus component where students do projects and apply their learning in the industry. The program has been well received by the industry.
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The result has been released online, via SMS and a telephonic service.

The results of CAT 2007 are available on the website: www.catiim.in. The scores can be accessed by entering the test registration number and either the date of birth (preferred) or the cat application number.

According to the CAT website scores can also be obtained telephonically or over SMS. To access the results through SMS, the candidate should send an SMS to 57333 as follows: 'CAT space registration number space date of birth (dd/mm/yy)' or 'CAT space registration number space application number. Example: CAT 5370082 030482.

However, the details of the date and venue for the GD/PI will be available by post as well as on the individual IIMs web sites, after a couple of days” says CAT website.

You can also participate in the CAT Results 2007 discussions and share your score.

Network with others who have received IIM GD/PI calls.

Click here to download CAT answer key!

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TECHNOVANZA is an exhilarating blend of technology and fun. Various events, competitions and exhibitions ensure that the creative side of an aspiring engineer is unearthed. We aim at focussing on Industry Institute Interaction. BLUEPRINT 2020- II will see VJTI hosting a very intellectual conference involving eminent industrialists. Budding engineers from VJTI will suggest improvements in infrastructure and amenities to the civic authorities in a major event called MASTERPLAN MUMBAI. Some parts of India face floods in the monsoon while others face droughts. The event, INTERLINKING OF RIVERS, will provide solutions to India's water quandaries. X-CON provides a great platform for enthusiasts to display their innovative technologies which would be useful in many fields.

VJTI has always been a pioneer in F1 racing. We were the first to introduce F1 racing as an event in the robotics section. As India gears up to host an F1 Grand Prix in the near future, we are proud to present our Delhi Heights circuit. This is the first ever IC engine based Robotics Event at VJTI. AUTOPORT will show automation of the Mumbai Port which would introduce further efficiency in its working. Engineers build bridges to connect two points and while doing so it is made sure that the materials used satisfy certain standards. But how about a bridge made up of recycled paper! Yes, you can witness it in our exhibitive event called PAPER BRIDGE! RED SHIFT will give a glimpse of the surfaces of Mars and Titan. Various robotics events like Nautilus (underwater robotics) and IR-BOT (robotics at its best) are sure to attract swarms of engineers and enthusiasts from all the participating engineering colleges.

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Manfest is a yearly fest organized by IIM Lucknow. It is a three day management event wherein students from across the country participate in rigorous management games and activities. Business leaders and other chieftains from across sectors also gather to create a definitive platform for shared learning.

Manfest 2008 will revolve around the theme 'mobilizing mind and transforming thoughts'. The event has also received ISO 9001:2000 certification for its processes, becoming only the 2nd B-school event in Asia to achieve the distinction.


The fest includes a series of management competitions where in the best teams from B Schools in India will compete to outshine each other. In the events like the Battle of B-schools, Next CEO, and On line quiz, the knowledge and analytical skills of participating teams in functional areas are comprehensively tested and consistent competence in management principles and flair attract handsome reward.

Several eminent personalities from business, art, politics, bureaucracy and the arts have confirmed their participation. These include Dr. Kiran Bedi, Jatin Prasada, MP, Naveen Jindal MD, MP Jindal Power, Mahesh Bhatt , Raghu Pillai, Reliance Retail, etc.

The fest includes a whole gamut of events. The main attraction of this year's Manfest is the Entertainment and media industry conclave. This year's conclave will focus on “Entertainment and Media Industry - the road ahead”, celebrating the promise and potential of the entertainment and media (E&M;) industry. Confirmed speakers are Mahesh Bhatt, Partho Dasgupta (CEO, Future Media), Rangita Pritish Nandy (Director, Pritish Nandy Communications, Indrani Mukerjea (Executive Director, INX Group) and Mr. Sandipan Deb (Editor-in-Chief, Financial Express).

Besides the Conclave, another major attraction is the corporate luncheon. The luncheon would comprise of Talks and Interactive Sessions towards knowledge enhancement and thought leadership. The Manfest committee is in talks with the Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the keynote address at the luncheon.

A very scintillating event is the exciting rock band competition, HeLL Raiser - The hunt for the rockiest of the campus rockers! Student bands from across the country will compete with their musical axes in what will be truly epic performances in an effort to be crowned the best of all the beasts. Professional Nights will see Euphoria performing, The band is known across the country as the band that defined Hind Rock.

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SAB ka Bheja Fry, an innovative media contest in association with SONY entertainment television, is giving a chance to the student 'directors' across various B-Schools to conceptualize an innovative show that can be aired on Sony Entertainment Network's mass youth entertainment channel, 'SAB'. The genre of the show along with the storyline and the characters will all be decided by the competing teams as they come out with new ways to make money through television.

Beat the Market - Business is alive on the other hand, is a business simulation game where participating teams act as the 'Board of Directors' of a firm and will be exposed to a simulated market situation. Organized in partnership with Gold Simulations, a US based firm, the contest promises to be a nail-biting challenge with participants making real-time decisions spanning across domains of Marketing, Research & Development, Finance, Operations & Quality and Human Resources, in order to reap maximum profits for their firms.

In association with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, Backwaters also brings out a refreshing new look at mergers & acquisitions. Deloitte Deal with it gives a chance to budding managers to not only valuate an M&A; scenario but also negotiate a deal, thus providing a complete business merger experience.

One gets awarded, not just for winning but participating as well! Targeted at the non managerial crowd, PayMate PrimeTime is a unique daily online quiz which is open to everyone with every participant getting a voucher redeemable at 2500+ online stores.


For more information, please visit www.iimkbackwaters.com or contact Harish at [email protected] or Jotinder Singh at [email protected].
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Prominent participants include Adi Godrej – Chairman, Godrej Group, Mallika Srinivasan – Director, TAFE, G V Prasad- CEO, Dr Reddy's, Ashwin Choksi – Chairman, Asian Paints, Sunil Kant Munjal - Chairman, Hero Corporate Service Ltd, Pramath Sinha – Founder & MD, 9.9 Media, Cyril S Shroff- Managing Partner, Amarchand& Mangaldas and several others from India besides prominent heads of family businesses from Sri Lanka, Middle East, Kenya, and Switzerland. They will share their experiences in successfully leading and managing their businesses.

Speaking about the importance of such a conference, Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group and Executive Board Member, ISB, said, “Family Businesses are at the core of India's extraordinary economic growth. I am delighted that the ISB is holding a research based International Conference on Family Business.”

Commenting on the significance of the conference, M Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB, said, “Family businesses have been contributing almost 70 pc of the GDP in several countries. They face several unique challenges that have not been addressed, especially in the Asian region. This conference will bring together the rich experiences of family business leaders, professional executives, and academicians. It will help business leaders to understand how to build and strengthen a successful business across generations.”

The conference will also host a research meet of leading academicians from countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, USA, and Europe besides India. They will discuss and debate on the emerging trends in family business across different cultures.

The conference will focus on the following themes

Family Business Research
Leadership Challenges
Professionalisation Challenges
Family Governance
Mentoring/ Coaching CEOs and the Next Generation

Explaining the relevance of the research in the area of family business, Professor K Ramachandran, Associate Dean - Academic Programmes and Thomas Schmidheiny Fellow of Family Business and Wealth Management, ISB, said, “We have concluding evidence that with appropriate governing mechanisms and timely actions, family businesses can sustain themselves and prosper. The ISB has pioneered comprehensive research in this area and. aspires to become a knowledge partner for the industry by creating a strong research base on family businesses, with a special focus on emerging economies.”

The Thomas Schmidheiny Chair of Family Business and Wealth Management at the ISB is the First Research Chair on family business in the country. It conducts research, training and teaching in the area of family business. The Chair is the India partner for a global study on sustaining entrepreneurship across generations in family businesses. It offers courses in family business for the post graduate programme and also conducts executive education programmes.

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At SIIB, we take pride in the fact that the case study is totally developed internally by the students under the mentorship of eminent personalities from the industry and the academia.

AAROHAN 2008
It is a one day conference intended to generate insightful discussions on supply chain complexities concerning today's industries. The brief format of the event is as follows:

Rollout of the event through internet on January 17, 2008

Participants to submit their final analysis of the presentation in form of a report and a Power-point presentation by February 10, 2008

6 shortlisted entries to be invited for a final round of presentations on March 8, 2008

Prizes:

First Prize : Rs. 30,000
Second Prize : Rs. 20,000


Student Coordinators:

Debojyoti +91 9860332871
Adish +91 9860572051
Email [email protected]
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The event comprised of two competitions – Antithesis (a debate) and Minerva (a quiz). The topic for the debate was whether “vintage is losing ground in today's competency driven workplace”, and it was a hotly contested motion. Minerva consisted of three gruelling rounds of quizzing, which had diverse questions from the field of HR as well as general management.

The chief guest at the event was Mr Mohit Seth, Senior VP, Talent Management, HSBC. Accompanying him was Ms Nidhima Malhotra, who is a member of HSBC's Campus Awareness Team and an XLRI alumnus. Mr Seth gave away prizes worth Rs 60,000 to the winners and later delivered a talk on talent management. With Nike T-shirts on stake as audience prizes, the event saw huge participation from XLRI students and was a grand success. The chief guest expressed his appreciation for the smooth organisation of the event and hoped for more collaborative efforts between SAPPHIRE and HSBC in the future, thus further cementing the relationship XLRI has with corporate organizations.




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RankInstitute
1Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore
2Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad
3Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad
4Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta
5Xaviers Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur
How respondents from South India ranked the Top 5

Start by taking a small walkthrough of the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings 2008, or jump straight to the regional insights. View a list of our complete national, regional, private b-school and exam-wise rankings.

Discuss the rankings with the community and help us evolve the methodology.

You should see how we arrived at the results by reading about CommunityRank, our extremely simple and scalable methodology for ranking b-schools. Where do we go from here? Here's a future roadmap for the rankings.

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The fest hosted its flagship event, Reliance White Knight 2008 - an event that is conceptually unique across all B-school fests, where discussions were held on the theme 'Urban Development'. Some of the interesting ideas which emerged during the presentations of the finalists focused on improving healthcare, transportation infrastructure and waste management. The panel of judges included Ms. Rohini Nilekani and Mr. Prakash Gurbaxani, the CEO of QVC Realty. The fest also included a media contest in collaboration with Sony Entertainment Television. This contest was successful in churning out new concepts for innovative shows including ideas for reality shows and new age comedies. A few chosen concepts among these will be implemented by Sony Entertainment Network's youth channel, SAB for its forth-coming shows.

Backwaters, this year, also featured a new business simulation game, spread across all verticals and organized in collaboration with Gold Simulations, a US based firm. Labyrinth, an online treasure hunt, held as a precursor to the fest was huge success with thounds of hits and hundreds of participants from around the world. 'Deloitte Deal with it' was a game which required participants to value the fictional firms based the financials given to them and negotiate deals based on their analyses. Various other informal in-campus games and cultural events also marked the three day extravaganza. The annual IIMK alumni reunion called 'Nostalgia' saw alumni from all over the world converge and interact with the students here. Another first for Backwaters this year was K-Dio (the in house IIMK radio) going live on the net; this is the first time in Indian B-School history that a campus has gone live on the web. Apart from live quizzes, songs and other fun activities, K-Dio also served as a channel through which alumni, who were not able to come to the campus, were able to participate in 'Nostalgia'. Kolossus - the rock concert, served as the the grand finale to Backwaters with 'Parikrama', one of India's biggest and most sought after rock bands enthralling a jubilant crowd.

Backwaters 2008 was sponsored by Reliance Industries, Freudenberg, Deloitte, Bristlecone, CapGemini, TCS, Vodafone, Lenovo, ONGC, RPG, Gold Simulations, SET and Paymate. The Week was the official print media partner while Pagalguy was the online media partner for the event.

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Spornado '08 encompassed 13 different games played across three days. The games included the likes of volleyball, football, basketball, cricket, chess, carom, table tennis, badminton, lawn tennis, squash, pool and snooker. 63 students from Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi and about an equal number of students from Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee had participated in this sports extravaganza. The system of the points tally for the sports meet was such that the games were assigned differential weightages and the institute gaining maximum points at the end would be declared as the overall champion.

Day 1 - January 11, 2008

The event was kicked off on Friday morning by Prof. Zillur Rahman on the Volleyball court. The day followed with an exciting schedule of games lined up between the two institutes.

• Volleyball:
Volleyball was the first game of the event. Teams from both the institutes were pitted against each other for around 45 minutes of exciting play. Finally, DMS, IIT Delhi emerged as the winners by defeating DoMS, IIT Roorkee by the margin of 2-0 DMS, IITD gained 30 points from this win.

• Pool & Snooker:
Pool and Snooker were held at the UG club of IIT Roorkee with around 9 participants from each institute fighting for victory. After many exciting rounds, Sachin Dhawan from DoMS, IIT Roorkee emerged as the final winner of Pool and Snooker, thus crediting 40 points to the tally of DoMS, IIT Roorkee.

• Carrom:
Carrom was again held at the UG club of IIT Roorkee. Each institute consisted of 5 players who were pitted against each other in various combinations, i.e. singles/doubles. Players from DoMS, IIT Roorkee proved to be too good for those from DMS, IIT Delhi for them to provide any threat. Led by Sachin Ambade, the Carrom captain of DoMS, IIT Roorkee, IITR comprehensively defeated IITD by 4 games to 1. This led to addition of 25 points to the tally of DoMS, IIT Roorkee.

• Lawn Tennis:
Lawn Tennis was the other outdoor event held on the first day of the event. Held on the lawn tennis courts of the sports complex of IIT Roorkee, the game comprised of 5 players from each institute playing against each other in singles and doubles' formats. DMS, IITD looked very well prepared and they deservedly won the game beating DoMS, IIT Roorkee by 3 games to 1. Lawn Tennis awarded 30 points to DMS, IIT Delhi.

• Football:
Being the last and perhaps the most awaited game of Day 1, football was to be played under lights at the football stadium of IIT Roorkee. The match began around 6-30 p.m. with a huge crowd supporting the home team. Inspired by the crowd support and an electrifying atmosphere, the football team of DoMS, IIT Roorkee, put up a splendid show by beating DMS, IIT Delhi by 1-0. The football win led to an addition of 30 points to the overall points' tally of DoMS, IIT Roorkee.

Thus, Day 1 belonged to DoMS, IIT Roorkee with an overall tally of 95 points while DMS, IIT Delhi was put on at 60 points with 2 wins to their credit.

Day 2 - January 12, 2008

• Badminton:
Day 2 began with the most popular of the indoor sports, viz. Badminton, played at the Badminton courts at the IIT R sports complex. With 9 players from each side pitted against each other, a hard fought contest was on cards with 30 points at stake. Players from DMS, IIT Delhi once again demonstrated their mastery in racket games by defeating DoMS, IIT Roorkee by 5 matches to 3. DMS, IIT Delhi bagged 30 points with their Badminton victory.

• Cricket:
Day 2 was scheduled with the most important or rather, the mother of all games in India, viz. Cricket. Along with 30 points, pride and prestige were also at stake in this game. Scheduled at 2 p.m. the match began at the Cricket stadium of IIT Roorkee. On winning the toss, DoMS, IIT R, elected to bat first. With several twists and turns, DoMS, IIT R managed a score of 120/7 in their scheduled 16 overs. With their superior bowling and fielding, led by their captain Trushin Barai, DoMS, IIT R sustained a constant pressure on the batsmen from DMS, IITD. Unable to tackle IITR's aggression, IITD managed to score only 108 runs from their allotted quota of 16 overs, thus losing to DoMS, IIT R by 12 runs. With an inspiring cricket win, DoMS, IIT Roorkee added 30 points to their overall points' tally.

• Basketball (Girls):
The last game of Day 2, the girls' basketball match perhaps saw the highest amount of excitement from the both the institutes. In an interesting contest between the two sides, DoMS, IIT Roorkee was able to suppress the initial aggression from DMS, IIT Delhi. DoMS, IITR had a better team than their counterparts and eventually defeated DMS, IIT Delhi to bag 20 welcome points to their overall tally.

At the end of Day 2, DoMS, IIT Roorkee stood at a healthy 145 points while DMS was able to manage only 90 points. Thus, Day 2 again belonged to DoMS, IIT Roorkee. Day 2 was also marked by the arrival of the sports coordinator from DMS, IIT Delhi, Dr. K. Momaya, who had come along with his family to be a part of the sporting event.

Day 3 - January 13, 2008

The final day of the sports meet was going to decide the overall champions of Spornado '08. With squash, table tennis and men's basketball lined up in the day, the event was moving towards a close finish.
• Squash:
DMS, IIT Delhi had mastery in the racket games and this was again demonstrated in the squash matches, held at the squash courts of IIT Roorkee's sports complex. Barring Colonel Vivekanand Chowdhary, no player from DoMS, IIT R was able to win a squash game against his counterpart from DMS, IIT Delhi. With their superior game, DMS, IIT Delhi defeated DoMS, IIT Roorkee by 4 games to 1 and thus bagged 25 points to their overall tally.

• Chess:
This event, which was held across the 3 days in stages, saw a clash of grandmasters from both the institutes. With close encounters in each of the games, the event comprised of some nervous moments, which added to the spice of the event. Eventually, DMS, IIT Delhi defeated DoMS, IIT Roorkee with an overall difference of 1 point and thus bagged 20 points to their tally.

• Table Tennis:
In contrast to the other racket games, this was one game in which DoMS, IIT Roorkee had an upper hand. Held at the table tennis courts of IIT Roorkee's sports complex, this event consisted of 8 players from each side pitting against each other for 25 valuable points. A win in this event would have ensured the overall championship win for DoMS, IIT Roorkee. Well aware of this fact, players from DoMS, IIT Roorkee drew extra inspiration and defeated DMS, IIT Delhi by 4 games to 1 and thus bagged the Overall Title in their kit.

• Basketball (Men's):
With the overall winners already decided, both the sides were playing this game for pride. While DoMS, IIT Roorkee had nothing to lose, DMS IIT Delhi were eager to salvage their lost pride to some extent by winning the final event of Spornado'08. With what eventually constituted as to be one of the most balanced encounters in three days of the event, DMS, IIT Delhi defeated DoMS, IIT Roorkee by 1 point. The final scores of both the sides stood at 35-34 in the favor of DMS, IIT Delhi. With this win, DMS, IIT D raised their overall points' tally by 30 points.

At the end of all the games, the overall points' tally for both the institutes was as follows:
DoMS, IIT Roorkee  170 points
DMS, IIT Delhi  165 points

DoMS, IIT Roorkee was declared as the winner of Spornado '08.