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The students who went in to the conference room believing it to be just another PPT were in for a pleasant surprise. The talk covered the entire spectrum of the commodities markets, drawing parallels with the capital markets and had the students engrossed for a good two and half hours.

As Mr. Aggarwal put it, the commodities future market in India consists of 24 exchanges including the national level NCDEX, MCX exchanges with the FMC at the top of the hierarchy. These exchanges trade various commodities ranging from agro-products like spices and fibers to metals, bullion and crude oil. Mr. Aggarwal explained the functioning of the futures markets and contrasted them with the spot markets or the “mandis”. He talked about how the futures markets eliminated the inefficiencies present in the spot markets and helped in insulating the market participants from the vagaries of the future.

The presentation also covered the benefits of the futures market from the perspective of the businessman and the farmer. Futures contracts provide information about the cost of goods in the future which aids the business man in his financial planning. It also ensures smooth operations in the future because the business is sure to obtain the required raw materials. The futures market helps the farmer by providing him the information needed to make strategic decisions regarding crop selection and marketing. The discussion also included the methods adopted to assure the quality and the reliability of the goods.

Change is the only constant and nothing survives without adapting. Mr. Aggarwal went on to speak about the various initiatives and incremental policies adopted by the exchanges like corporate governance, electronic trading and mark to market accounting designed to enable fair and transparent trading. He also highlighted the various awareness programs being taken up by the commission to spread the knowledge about the futures markets and their benefits.

The students bombarded Mr. Aggarwal with questions on the nuances of the market, its functioning's and the future of FMC. The evening ended on a positive note and both Mr. Aggarwal and the students of SJMSOM dispersed content and satiated.

The NMIMS University, which was accorded the Deemed University status by the Ministry of HRD, Central Government in the year 2003 and is running seven schools of higher education in various fields The University will invest Rs. 130 crores in five phases for the establishment of the Off-Campus center with state of the art infrastructure and facilities, the statement added.

In the first phase, University plans to establish School of Business Management , Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering and School of Pharmacy & Technology Management to admit students in MBA, MBA-Tech., B. Pharm. And B. Tech Programmes.

In later phases, various courses in the field of Commerce, Fashion Technology, Architecture, Hotel Management and Medical Science will be offered.

For Mr R Sriram and Mrs KS Anita of 'Crosswords', the passion and knowledge of books were the basis of confidence and impetus towards forever revolutionizing the face of book-stores. The ambience 'Crosswords' offered encompasses a healthy mix of modern and conventional aspects about books. Its true success came from offering the best experience to customers, which even encouraged browsing and thus creating avid book-lovers. According to Mr. R. Sriram and Mrs. K. S. Anita, “Entrepreneurship is about pursuing one's dream with passion and belief, to have a vision of making a healthy difference to society, not just of making money.” They hand-picked people who shared their love for books and made them a part of their work culture, one marked by positive attitude, vibrancy and continual evolution. For them, values are quintessential, thus upgrading and communicating values became a way of 'Crosswords'. The venture capital was provided by Mr. Mirchandani M.D. of 'India Book Publishing House' and on 15th October, 1992, the first 'Crosswords' was launched in Hyderabad, AP, India.

riginally from Orissa, Ms. Sunita Nayak, MD of CBT Infotech, aspiration to pursue journalism led her to Mumbai, where she first wanted to initiate a venture in I.T. Belonging to a totally different background and knowing absolutely nothing about Information technology did not deter her from going ahead and conceptualizing and implementing the entrepreneurial venture related to Software development. Drawing inspirations from her own shortcomings, and from the astronomical success of software giants like Infosys and TCS, she dreamt of making 'CBT Infotech' into the next 'Infosys'. They started with Software Training which enables them to fund themselves and ultimately moved into Resource Contracting, which involves manufacturing customized 'Business Enabling' software applications. Outsourcing of Space and Talent imparting to Corporates are other activities, this 300 strong man power company is involved in today.

Dr. Sarika Kulkarni, MD of Suyash Software, a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Mumbai, believes and candidly professes that every one of us is a born entrepreneur. Biographies of iconic women entrepreneurs were the source of, what she quotes a kick and also first sowed the seeds of inspiration which would ultimately lead her to realize her dream. Having come from a family of teachers, she herself started teaching Operations Management in JBIMS, Mumbai. Whilst writing a research paper, she happened to meet Raman Kumar, an IRS officer turned entrepreneur, partner C-Bay Systems, presently the world's largest 'medical transcription' company. What inspired her was CBS's business model, the anticipated growth prospects, the technology platform used and the services CBS planned to offer. An observation she made about CBS was that they were targeting only Tier 1 cities for franchising their business in India and were insecure about venturing into Tier2 or3 cities fearing lack of infrastructure and availability of skilled labor. She saw opportunity in this difficulty and decided that she would start out with the franchise of CBS in the city of Nagpur, a place where CBS would not dare to venture into alone. After some months of learning the nitty-gritty's of the Medical Transcription business and with about 25 Lac rupees, Dr. Sarika landed up in Nagpur to initiate her own company. The contemporary closure of another medical transcription company was a simultaneous source of insecurity and also for economic and skilled labor at the time of establishment of Suyash Software. Her inherent womanly traits enabled her to ride over the adversities and finally start with a staff of 30 people in around March 2002, which saw phenomenal growth right from the beginning. But she found that she could barely break-even, after one and a half years also. The only solution appeared to be expansion. After a lot of deliberation and searching, Bank of India's regional manager helped her out with money required for expansion, without any collateral. Then there was no looking back for Suyash Software after that, and today Suyash is so successful that she is even considering selling out her stake to C-Bay Systems, who is offering her a more than handsome sum for her stake in Suyash Software.

Ms. Smita Pethe, MD of Verjinia Foods, an MBA from JBIMS, and started out as a 10 pc partner in a company doing outsourcing jobs in the edible oil industry. On a family visit to London, she realized that cooking oils were obsolete in international cuisines. Travelling further and meeting renowned people in the cooking industry in UK and USA, she was struck with this idea of marketing the Indian taste globally. Returning back in around 1996, she convinced her partner to shift from edible oils to packaged Indian curries. In around 1999, she pioneered the 'Retort Technology', which involved heating vegetables at around 121 deg C, in order to meet international hygiene and safety standards. Exim Bank of India was the bank which whole-heartedly helped out Ms. Pethe with the seed capital required to establish 'Verjinia Foods' in its true sense. The thrust of this company is exports, which earns around 50 pc of the revenue for Verjinia Foods. She states that her recipes and packaged food curries are ahead of our times and will therefore see a sustained growth in the future too and the advent of the organized retail sector will augment the market for her products.

Sunita Singh, Program Manager, NEN, was the moderator for the WES panel discussion and played an integral role in tapping the best out of the panelists and the key-note speakers. Having a vast experience in panel discussions and lectures, she grasped the pulse of the audience and directed the discussion, eliciting relevant and interesting points. As a result, we became aware of various challenges women entrepreneurs of today could encounter. This made the panel discussion extremely contemporary, lively and interesting for the audience.

The Women Entrepreneurship Summit, an event hosted by Pathfinder E-cell at SIMSR, witnessed many professional revelations by the three eminent women entrepreneurs on their path to success.

The 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.N. Seshan served in office between December 1990 and December 1996. Born in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, he is known for his introduction of many electoral reforms and his uprightness.

Prior to his stint as the CEC, he served as the Director, Ministry of Atomic Energy; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Space; Secretary, Department of Agriculture; Government of Tamil Nadu; Member (Personnel), Oil & Natural Gas Commission(ONGC), Additional Secretary, Ministry of Space, Cabinet Secretary and many other posts.

During his stint as the CEC, he came in confrontation with many politicians because of his strong desire to ensure free and fair elections in many parts of the country. He contested for the post of President of India in 1997, where he lost to K.R. Narayanan. He was awarded the Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1996.

He has been active even after retirement, founding the Deshbhakt Trust, an NGO devoted to social reforms in India.

The festival is a thriving mélange of case studies, business plan contests, paper presentations and strategy games. Last year, Ensemble 2007, with the theme India Unbounded: Unleashing the Tiger, saw 200 participants from the best b-schools in India battle for top honours and a prize money of around 7.5 lakh rupees.

The theme for Ensemble 2008 is Advantage India: The bird of gold spreads its wings. The Indian economy, with its technical prowess and its large talent pool, is poised for take off. It is consistently averaging GDP growth of about 8-9 pc, and the biggest companies of the world are queuing up to invest in the country. Ensemble 2008 is devoted to this bird of gold, with games and events organized around the opportunities and the potential that lie ahead. The Aditya Birla Group is the principal partner of the fest.

The showcase events of Ensemble 2008 are the Idea Summit and the newly-christened flagship game, Discessio Imperators. The Idea Summit is a panel discussion where eminent panellists from all walks of life share their experiences with b-school students. The topic for this year's Idea Summit is India: Domestic & Global Inclusion for Sustainable Growth. The panellists are: Mr Y C Nanda, Chairman of Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd and ex-Chairman of Chairman of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); and Mr S.J.S. Swamidoss, Ex RBI Director. Mr Govindraj Ethiraj will be acting as the moderator.
In keeping with XLRI's image as a b-school run by students, the events of Ensemble 2008 have all been organized by the numerous committees on campus. The games vary across all business verticals, and enthusiasts of Finance, Marketing and Human Resources will all find something for them at Ensemble 2008. Apart from these, there are events for adventure-lovers, budding entrepreneurs and quizzing enthusiasts. The preliminary rounds of most of these events have already been held, and b-school students from all over the country are converging on the XLRI campus in Jamshedpur.

However, Ensemble 2008 is not an 'All work and no play' event. The fest will culminate on 26 January with a performance by Parikrama, one of the best rock bands in the country. Not only that, the 27 of January will see XLRI hosting Astarte, the cultural festival of the institute. For more information, please visit http://ensemble-xlri.com/ and www.astarte-xlri.com



With the Common Entrance Test (CET) to Maharashtra's b-schools around the corner, PaGaLGuY.com caught up with last year's CET Rank 1 Shreyas Shah between his busy class schedules at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai and asked him how he cracked the exam all the way to the top. We were surprised to find a very outspoken guy who made complete sense!

Hi Shreyas, so how's life treating you at JBIMS?

The thing about JBIMS or b-schools attached to universities is that you have to do a lot on your own outside the institute curriculum based on how much value you want out of the MBA. You have to be constantly reading more books or taking part in business plan competitions. I believe in working hard and then partying harder and since the institute is close to Churchgate in Mumbai, there are many places we unwind at after college. My summer training is with the Sharaf Group in Dubai where I'll be given a business development role.

That's great! So tell us, how did you prepare for your management exams last year?

Management entrance exams today test the abilities of a student to be able to interpret and reason out the underlying principles rather than simply solve numerical and grammar based questions. So, my preparation for these exams was also in line with these traits of the exams. My focus was more towards thoroughly understanding the concepts that I was studying rather than plain procedure – based solving.

After having prepared for CAT, how much extra effort did you put for the CET?

The CET is a speed-based exam unlike the CAT which is an out-and-out reasoning based exam. So, once the CAT was over, the preparation for the CET was more towards solving questions that had little depth but a lot of variety. Practice tests are of a lot of importance as they would go a long way in helping one identify the strengths and weaknesses as well as work upon the very much sought – after SPEED. Also, visual reasoning questions which do not appear in the CAT were required to be worked upon and practiced.

How would you differentiate CET from CAT and other management exams?

The CET is an exam that is heavily biased towards speed whereas exams like the CAT, XAT, SNAP, etc. do focus on the Accuracy aspect. This also owes to the fact that there is no negative marking in the CET.

Was the difficulty level of CET different from that of CAT? How?

CET questions cannot be termed as difficult. Though there are a few trickster type questions to differentiate between an average and an intelligent student, the questions in the CET are more biased towards solving, which when done intelligently without relying on pure procedure yields a great amount of speed. CAT questions, on the other hand test a candidate's ability to apply the concepts learnt and reason out with them. The focus is not so much on speed as much as is on Application and Reasoning.

What would you say your biggest mistakes were, while preparing for the CET exam and during it?

My biggest mistake during my preparation could have been the fact that I may not have laid enough emphasis on the analysis of my scores after I attempted the practice tests. During the exam, I never really had the time to think about mistakes. I just kept on solving questions all the way from 1 to 200!

How was your experience in the CET Group Discussion and Personal Interview (GD-PI)? How different was it from other Group Discussions?

During the CET GD (which is compulsory for everyone who takes the test), the saddest part is that the people you are discussing with are not necessarily like-minded people. They are with you just because their roll numbers are close to yours. So, many a times, the discussion never proves to be productive. This is something that is very important in order to score well. Other GD-PIs actually ensure that the people who are called are more or less of the same intellectual and emotional intelligence level. So they are much better.

What do you think you did right, in order to clear the CET GD-PI?

I just stuck to the basics. Make sure that your point is put across. You may have to be aggressive but not at all impatient. Talk sense and involve everyone in the discussion. During the PI, I was only ensuring that whatever I put on the form was true and I knew completely about it. I spoke with full conviction and they liked it. The basics are important, which means that you should have some basic knowledge of what's happening with you and around you.

imageWhat mistakes did you see other people making in the GD-PI?

People pretend to be what they are not and that really shows. In the GDs specially, people make nonsense points just because they have to make a point. But really, if you don't know what you are saying, you should better keep your mouth shut.

Any, exam taking strategies you would like to advice to this year's aspirants?

Since the exam is speed based, the strategy you use while appearing must also be in line with the same. I used a simple strategy: don't waste a lot of time on any question. If you can't solve one, go to the next and save time. There is never a shortage of questions to solve. Another thing, it is very important to attempt all 200 questions if you have to score well. Generally what happens is that people find themselves with another 50 questions not even seen when there are only 5 minutes left. This should never happen. So, with the help of the practice – tests, it is imperative to work upon your speed!

Next Page: Interview with MAT topper Ankit Agrawal
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Like many management hopefuls Ankit Agrawal, a BE from Gujarat University wanted to attend a top business school and started early with his preparations for getting into one. Ankit, who goes by the nickname 'the_CONSTANTINE ' on PaGaLGuY.com is now a first year MBA student at the reputed Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). And he did it by topping the Management Aptitude Test (MAT), an alternate route to many state-level management institutes in the country. PaGaLGuY.com spoke to him and found out more about this journey to this top school.

Right after college, Ankit went to work with Nokia for almost two years as an engineer in their GSM technology division. His focus on a management degree was unwavering and he wrote exams like the CAT, CET, XAT and the MAT. Every year he converted admits to some of the better schools, but he was never satisfied. Ankit was clear in his resolve and wrote the exams every year to try to make it to the top schools. When asked about how he made it to JBIMS, Ankit mentions rather unassumingly that he was the number 1 ranked student in the MAT exam.

Explaining about the admissions process, Ankit mentions that JBIMS accepts most of the nationally ranked examination results including CAT, CET, MAT and JMET. People who do extremely well in these exams can also apply to JBIMS with those scores. However, JBIMS does require that you do take the CET exam as a matter of process and get a non-zero percentile. Ankit not only did well on the MAT exam, he also did extremely well in the CET exam. He is not from Maharashtra and therefore falls under the OMS (Outside Maharashtra) category, under which he ranked, 4th.

Not wanting to take any chances, Ankit knew he had the best chance of getting an admit at JBIMS using his MAT score. He applied with his MAT score and the rest as we say is history. He is now studying at JBIMS and is heading to Singapore for his summer job stint.

Speaking about his experience at JBIMS, Ankit gushes about the fact that all the activities at JBIMS are completely student run. From placements to class room scheduling to alumni events – everything is student run and this allows him and his peers to learn 'on the job'. However he does note that all this does come with a cost attached to it – the absolute lack of sleep. He muses that academics too suffer due to such a hectic and uncompromising schedule and wished that there was more time to devote to academic activities. Talking about his classmates, he notes that while there is some amount of diversity it is not as much as he would like it to it. He estimates that approximately 85 percent of the batch strength is engineers with a lot of work experience primarily in the IT/ITES space.

imageTalking about professors, Ankit mentions that the core of JBIMS is made up by the visiting faculties, most of which are JBIMS alumni themselves who work in senior positions in the industry. He quickly notes that all these faculties are extremely accessible and are very interested in working closely with students and are available on email and personal cellphones when they are not on campus.

As we wind down, we can't be not impressed with the focus and determination that Ankit has had in converting his dream of attending a top business school. Years of examinations, smart planning and yes some luck have all played a part in Ankit's success. Before departing, we asked him what he would have done had it not made it to a top school like JBIMS.

“I would have taken the GMAT and would have applied to a top global school”, retorts Ankit.



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The names of these MBA institutes have remained a well-guarded secret, because most of the time, the whistleblower in these stories is a fresh MBA graduate who, invoked by his conscience but under the condition of anonymity, decides to ride against the tide and divulges to the media the inaccuracies in the average salary, highest salary and median salary figures quoted by his institute on its website and released to the Press.


The names of these b-schools really become inconsequential, given that many business schools in Indias top 20 list have been known to inflate their salary figures somehow or the other. But thanks to negative media coverage, there is now growing awareness that clubbing international and domestic salaries together to calculate the single average salary figure is one of the few tricks that b-schools use to inflate their placement data and improve their marketability. It is only when an MBA aspirant cracks the school and joins it does he become aware of some of the best kept dirty secrets of the Indian business school industry.


Youre probably wondering where all this is leading to but no, this article does not mean to rake up controversy on this rather sensitive issue. But, it surely aims to inform what you, as MBA applicants aiming to be in the best MBA programs of the country need to do to ensure that you get the right facts and figures about b-schools, and not what the b-schools want to feed you.


Come September, and most of you flock to the newsstands to buy magazines that pull out b-school rankings, or are scouring the resources in your coaching institute or the Internet to decide which b-schools to apply to this year. Even as I write this, there are half a dozen forms for admission into b-schools live. Because each form burns about one-grand-big a hole in your pocket (or in your parents pocket depending upon your situation), its a good idea to research the schools and their placement performance well before investing the moneys.


It becomes especially important for you in February, when you ought to choose between three schools that have more or less similar brand perception and their placement salaries would turn out to be one of the tie-breakers (along with location, expenses, etc).


Why do some b-schools tend to report inflated salary figures? It works out well for everyone, if you really think about it. Since the salary package is the most glamorous and easily perceptible parameter to judge the quality of a job offer (as opposed to other parameters like the job profile description, future growth prospects, etc), by showing inflated salary figures to MBA aspirants the b-school can attract better quality students, sell more forms and gain a few notches above a rival b-school.


By showing inflated salary figures to companies through the media, the school is able to attract better and even higher paying companies for next years placements. The companies whose pay packages are reported in an exaggerated manner by the institute dont mind, because they get free press and become a desired company in other b-schools. Everybody wins!


Two standard tricks are applied to manipulate numbers and arrive at the inflated salary figures. Compensation packages offered by companies come in a fixed and a variable component and a Cost-to-Company factor (CTC). So say, the annual fixed component amount is Rs 6 lakh, then youll take home Rs 50,000 home every month for sure. However, the variable component, which includes performance-based bonuses or e-sops may or may not come to you depending on your performance. Placement committees in b-schools, however add the highest possible variable component to the salary figure. So lets say, your variable component, which you get if you perform really, really well, comes out to Rs 2 lakh per annum. Add to it the most controversial component, the CTC. The CTC simply, is the amount of money the company needs to spend on your maintenance. In reasonable CTC calculations, companies might add the cost of putting you through training and induction programs, your mobile bills and official travel expenses and your tax liabilities. But it starts bordering on the absurd when the floor space rent of the employees cubicle in your Gurgaon office is added to the CTC. The CTC component then shots up to as much as another Rs 4 lakh, and the total salary paid by the company shoot up to Rs 6 lakh + Rs 2 lakh + Rs 4 lakh = Rs 12 lakh! So even though youre getting paid only Rs 50,000 each month, b-schools are pros at showing your salary figures as Rs 12 lakh!


The other way to inflate salaries is by playing around with the wonderful tools of averages. Many b-schools include both the Indian and international placement packages in their average salaries by converting the dollar amounts of the international salaries to rupees. Its unfair, because they do not normalize the purchasing power parity in different countries during the conversion. So earning 3750 in London converts to Rs 30 lakh, but is hardly a lot because the cost of living in London is extremely high!


On top of that, when all the salaries offered to students are calculated inflated by adding the CTC and variable components, the average salary is bound look very, very attractive.


Other b-schools calculate average salary by including only the highest offers made to each student, regardless of whether those offers were accepted or not (these days, many students prefer to take up jobs that pay half a lakh less because the profiles are more interesting).


One can go on and on about this, but the important question is, how do you as an MBA aspirant see through all this and get the right data about a b-schools salary figures to make an informed decision for yourself?


The key lies in asking the right questions. The next time you read a b-school placement report, take it with a pinch of salt. While most of the data in there would be accurate, you just need to dig a little deeper to be sure that the placement data figures are correct. When you contact a b-school or want to know more about a b-school by reaching out to its students through your coaching institute or social communities like Orkut, Facebook or Pagalguy, keep the following things in mind:



  1. Ask for the average salary figures without the CTC component. If they do not have the exact data, ask for an estimate. A b-school is obliged to do this much if youre spending a thousand rupees on their forms.




  2. Ask for separate average salary figures for domestic and international salaries.




  3. If youre getting into MBA with a specific goal in mind (for example, you want to join the media industry in a business development role), ask specifically for a list of offers made in that domain in the last two years. If the b-school does not arrange those kinds of placements, it makes little sense for you to join it!




  4. Ask for the lowest salary in the placements. In many cases, a b-schools placements look good only because of a couple of really high packages that shoot the average up.


You owe yourself at least this much, because one wrong choice about a b-school could change your life!



The number of PPOs is a crucial indicator of the trust that industry places in the quality of managerial talent from the institute.
Additionally, the interesting point to note is that interns from IIMK boast of a 100% PPO-conversion rate at top-tier organizations like KPMG, Dubai, HSBC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Marico, Asian Paints, Futures First, CHAINalytics and Sony Entertainment Television. Significantly, PPO statistics from a number of key recruiters reveal that of all the offers made by these recruiters, interns from IIMK have bagged the maximum share.

An interesting trend observed this year is a marked increase in interest levels in IIMK from premier European organizations. Freudenberg initiated its relationship with IIMK during summer placements season, making offers for roles in Germany and Singapore. European organizations in the consulting, banking and financial services domains have expressed keen interest in establishing a relationship with IIMK in the near future.

The Lateral Placements program is for students with prior industry experience. In the past, Lateral Placements had a decided IT/ITeS orientation, possibly because of the IT-related work experience that the batch brings to the table. This year, however, with a more balanced batch profile, Lateral Placements Season at IIMK has evolved into a better-rounded affair with sizeable representation from diverse industries, recruiting for a number of functions. A number of firms have participated in Lateral Placements in the Finance, Consulting, Marketing and General Management space. IT companies have also participated in laterals in big numbers this year, continuing to demonstrate immense faith in the quality of managerial talent on offer at IIMK. Banking and Financial Services, Consulting, Telecommunications, Software Products, Software Services, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, General Management and Niche Operations Consulting were some of the industries that saw representation from top organizations at Lateral Placements 2008.

Citibank, Standard Chartered, Yes Bank, Lehman Brothers, Ernst & Young and Verizon are some of the organizations that recruited from IIMK this year.

IIMK students have always placed a huge emphasis on the role, profile and long-term career prospects when making their career decisions on campus. This directly translates into IIMK being one of the very few institutes where the sheer diversity of roles and profiles on offer ensure that every student will choose a profile best suited to his or her long-term career aspirations. Carrying last year's momentum forward, some of the roles expected to be on offer this year will include Economics Consulting, Microfinance, Carbon Credit
Trading and Environmental Consulting, to list but a few.

With a powerful performance during Lateral Placements, and soaring corporate interest in IIMK just before Final Placements, the institute seems poised to enjoy a landmark placements season this year as well. A rich variety of roles, and a keen focus on engaging deeply with top recruiters through a number of innovative avenues will continue to fuel IIMK's exceptional growth. Consistently challenging itself to break new frontiers and push the envelope further, IIMK is truly redefining the moniker – the Next Generation IIM.

The showcase event was the 'Idea Summit' wherein renowned speakers from different walks of life distilled and shared their experiences, insights and thoughts with a diverse audience. The summit revolved around the vital discussion on inclusiveness in India's growth story. The competitions were a treat not just for the participants but also for the audience who got the opportunity to listen to extremely innovative ideas put forward by the participants.

Ensemble also consisted of several competitions to test the various managerial concepts that students pick up during their education in a Bschool. The central competition – 'Discessio Imperators' - sought to find managers who can lend structure to ambiguity and create order out of chaos but testing their ability to adapt to a constantly changing business environment. The other contests covered areas such as marketing, finance, consulting, entrepreneurship etc. There were also informal events held throughout the two days including informal quizzes, crosswords and Dumb Charades to keep the competitive spirit alive in between the main competitions

Ensemble enjoyed attracted participation from the premier business and technical schools across the country who vied for top honours in the 2 day fest. Students came in from top B schools across the country such as IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, IIFT Delhi as well as IIMK, IIML and XIM Bhubaneshwar. Total prize money including informal events was around 8 – 8.5 lakhs, which was distributed amongst students from these B schools. They were also awarded goody bags and mementos of the event.

The event drew a slew of support from the corporate circle and included the who's who of corporate India including the Aditya Birla Group, who was the prime partner for the fest. The individual events also included corporates such as ITC, Tata Steel, Accenture, HSBC, GSK, BIG FM, Tata Teleservices and kitnebaje.com. Other partners included NDTV, Human Capital, Zuari Cement, Swastik, Myntra, the Pioneer, Brand Reporter and the National Innovation Foundation. The interest shown from the corporate world was heartening for both organizers and participants as it can only bode well for increased interaction between the industry and the institute, and will further the strong relationship between XLRI and the corporate world.

The event finally culminated in a fantastic, rip roaring rock show by Span and Parikrama, one of India's finest rock bands. It was the perfect finale after two grueling days for both participants and organizers, who finally let themselves go to a great performance by both bands. Parikrama played some of their original hits, along with some classic rock songs. They were then followed on by Span, who also entertained the crowd with a heady mix of popular rock numbers and original compositions. Ensemble 2008 was a grand success for the students of XLRI, and has paved the way for further organization of such events of an even grander scale.

i2I 2008 is being held in partnership with the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), National Entrepreneurship network (NEN), and Seedfund, taking the original competition to a different league of its own in terms of scale, scope and seriousness. In its new avatar, i2I has divested off its potentially 'academic character' by moving away from traditional 'business-plan competitions' which end up reducing to essay competitions with the rush for the cash prizes and no inclination to really start up.

Seedfund, the investing partner, has funded Redbus, Printo and Carwale among others. According to Anand Lunia of Seedfund, even start up plans that are right now only on paper stand a chance to get funded, so people in jobs thinking of leaving to start-up as well as students seriously looking at starting up right after education can take this as a serious opportunity.

The National Entrepreneurship Network, with its prominent presence across 282 member institutes across the nation and relationships with corporate leaders, has contributed significantly in generating wide awareness of this nonpareil event as well as providing access to jury, mentors and other experts for the contest. According to Laura Parkin, the Executive Director at NEN/Wadhwani foundation, “NEN is delighted to partner with IIM Calcutta for i2I, one of the leading business plan competitions in India. This year, there is a new level of excitement to i2I. By offering winners the chance to receive investment funds, IIM Calcutta has taken business plan competitions out of the classroom and into the real world, thereby creating a valuable platform for new entrepreneurs. NEN is delighted to be supporting this unique initiative alongside TiE and Seedfund.”

The finale is part of a 2 day entrepreneurial conference and TiEger Awards ceremony held by the TiE Kolkata. The TiEger Cub awards seek to recognize young aspiring entrepreneurs from the Bengal region towards improving the entrepreneurial culture in Bengal. In another unique dimension to the event, E-cell is working with an online television, thebig.tv to run an online contest. Alankar Jain,the person behind Business Baazigar, now running theBig.tv plans to create an online reality show where participants can upload self made videos about their business concepts and if selected, they would pitch directly to investors at the second round of i2I'08.

The event will see several luminaries attending such as
Mr. Shashi Tharoor, former Under Secretary General – United Nations,
Mr. Arjun Malhotra, Co-founder – HCL & CEO – Headstrong,
Mr. K V Kamath, Managing Director & CEO – ICICI Bank,
Ms. Laura Parkin, Executive Director – NEN & Wadhwani Foundation,
Mr. R Ramraj, Advisor – Sequoia Capital,
Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman & CEO – Globsyn Group,
Mr. Rajeev Karwal, Founder & CEO – Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions, Mr. Raj Gollamudi, Co founder – Bluestream Ventures,
Mr. Rajesh Jog, CEO – vJive Networks,
Mr. Vinayak Chaterjee, Chairman – Feedback Ventures,
Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani, CEO – Naukri.com,
Ms Vandana Luthra, VLCC

i2I strives to promote plans backed by serious & dedicated teams, which hold the potential to catapult themselves with financial and intellectual support provided by IIMC.

For more details, about the competition log on to http://www.iimcal.ac.in/i2i/home.htm .

Chaos, the annual cultural festival of country's premier B-school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is back with a bang. This time Chaos, has been woven around the theme of “Nasha” – symbolizing an exhilaration and addiction that celebrates youth and talent in a festival that cheers everybody around. From the earthy splendor of rangoli to the colourful brilliance of face painting; from the comic gesturing of Dumb Charades to the literary charm of poetry writing, Chaos NASHA comes with its staple share of cultural competitions to keep students from all round the country interested.

The festival this year has a formidable line-up of performance packed shows to keep the audience hooked and awed. Music aficionados are in for a treat to their senses as Chaos brings the internationally acclaimed and highly respected Pt. Divyang Vakil in a live concert. Pandit Divyang Vakil's latest masterpiece Tabla Ecstasy presents all facets of modern tabla playing in an enthralling and exciting form. Entrancing its listeners, Tabla Ecstasy is performed by four senior and professional students of Pandit Divyang Vakil: Rushi Vakil, Nishant Mehta, Kaumil Shah and Sahil Patel. Tabla Ecstasy is a performing group under Rhythm Riders Music Productions.

And if that isn't enough the ever so popular KK, the pop icon will make the crowd sway to his latest chart busters. All this is topped by music that will transcend barriers of man-made boundaries, yes, the Pakistani Rock band Fuzon gets to enthrall the audience at Chaos'08 as well.

The festival is not just for those who have made a mark, but also for the young and aspiring. Chaos'08 is the right platform for the budding rock stars / models / singers / dancers of tomorrow with events like Fashion Parade, Rock Nite, Choreos and Musicals.

Then there are contests like the Great Ahmedabad Race, modeled on the lines of The Amazing Race which have their own distinct flavor. The event has been made zippier this time and guarantees the participants a journey that will take them to the nooks and crannies of this city.

Amidst all the fanfare, IIMA will take the opportunity to provide the launching pad to one of its proud alumni, since Gaurav Dagaonkar, a PGP from the 2006 batch will fittingly release his debut album College Days during the course of the event.

For more, visit www.iima-chaos.com


Ms. Neeta Nagar spoke on how innovation is driving the future of IT across the world. Ms Nagar emphasized how CEOs and business leaders around the world see increased competitiveness and need to realign business model going forward. The leaders see many things being commoditized and they realize that all roads lead to innovation. With the advent of Internet and the proliferation of semiconductors, trillions of things will end up connected; not just individuals but cars, roads, homes, appliances, health-care data, and pacemakers.

Ms. Neeta Nagar reflected that innovation is becoming the strategy in an era where cost cutting and consolidation had previously dominated for increasing returns. It is much harder, however to innovate than to reduce costs but there seems no choice but to innovate and transform the way business is conducted. Hence one sees a movement to a more grassroots approach to drive growth, and many major companies are adopting systems and process to facilitate this new growth model. Ms. Neeta gave live examples from the industry to elaborate on her point. The lecture was followed by question and answer session.

Participants of EXPGP, PGP, staffs and faculty members attended this enthralling and informative presentation.


This workshop is unique in the sense it is offered from the Institute to fulfill its social obligations. There is no registration fee for this workshop. The workshop will provide insights on work ethics comprising of work and conduct, devotion to duty, integrity, the concept of trust, individual ethics and institutional ethics, image of institution etc. It will also try to address issues such as fair play, discipline, effective supervision through leadership, rewards and corrections, effective communication, empathy and responsiveness, customer satisfaction etc. All these issues will be discussed with reference to Indian Philosophical and Classical literature of which Dr. Ramakrishnan is an expert. Notably, Dr. Ramakrishan has been awarded the President's Medal for Meritorious Service along with the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

Participants are drawn from different segments of the society such as Principals and Teachers, Educational Officers, Vigilance Officers, Police Officers, Magistrates, Administrators of Educational Institutes, Public Sector Undertakings such as BPCL, ONGC, GRS&E;, faculty of B Schools etc.

The Management Centre for Human Values at IIMC has been engaged in institutionalising teaching, research and training on Human values and ethics in management through PGP courses, corporate training programmes and by conducting seminars, workshops and conferences at national and international levels. Centre's aim is to achieve an authentic synthesis of Western and Eastern (especially Indian) approaches to management by creating frameworks of knowledge and methods of application of the same in the context of existing management concepts and practices. This Centre has been contributing enormously to enrich the vision of IIMC which is to produce Ethical Leaders. This workshop is one more activity in this direction and has drawn an overwhelming response says-Prof. C. Panduranga Bhatta, Coordinator, Management Centre for Human Values.

This workshop will be inaugurated by Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director of the Institute at 10.00 a.m. on February 1, 2008 at Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.
The participants competed in 17 different sports. At the end of the event, the scorecard
read 10-7, in favour of IIM-C. Apart from the participation of boys in games like hockey,
cricket, football, girls participated in sports like throw ball, tennis, volleyball and
table tennis. Badminton was a favorite among both the genders.
“It was a well cherished victory, but more importantly, it was about enjoying sports. We at
IIMC are very passionate about sports. Sure we won! But it was the competition that we
enjoyed.” says Raman Deep Singh, the Sports Representative of IIMC.

The event provided students an insight of the following areas:
+ Importance of the Mutual Fund
+ Projection of Expected Returns
+ Asset Allocation
+ Risks Involved
+ Regulatory Framework for Mutual Funds

The Exhibition was inaugurated by Ms Renuka Chowdhury, Union Minister. In her opening note she pointed out the importance of imparting Disaster Management Education to children and their role in shaping the future in times of disaster. Quoting Israel and Japan, she stressed that these countries have shown us how to build a society that can face the challenges of inevitable disasters with courage. She emphasized that there is a need to facilitate Public Private Partnership in providing Disaster Management education.

Dr NM Kondap, Vice Chancellor of NMIMS University also supported her viewpoint and discussed the Disaster Management education as a part o socialization Process. Followed by this Ms Renuka Chowdhury had an interactive session with faculty members and students of NMIMS University where she spoke on 'Women's Empowerment and Role of Universities'. She spoke about contemporary issues which women face both in family and workplace. She also requested the University to start a course on 'Inter-personal Counseling' which can be of great value to the society at large.

Last year's public production featured 'Silence, the court is in session', an English translation of a Vijay Tendulkar's Marathi play. This year's play scripted by the students, is about Communalism as a threat to the country. By telling the story of five strangers in a train compartment, they bring into focus different people's experiences of the Gujarat riots.

According to the institute's press release, the content of magazine will figure various macro and micro economic issues faced by contemporary managers. Apart from articles of experienced people in Indian and global economy, the magazine will also have inputs from the faculty of the institute and students. The institute is targeting not only corporate leaders as readers but people aspiring to become a manager. They also intend to reach out to various colleges through this magazine to provide an interactive platform for encouraging innovation in the field of management. The magazine will be a printed quarterly and distributed in all the cities.

According to the press release, both schools will work together on implementing the following points:

  • Exchange of at least two faculty members per academic year.
  • Jointly design, market, and conduct short duration executive development programs in countries, especially, in the Asian region.
  • Identify research themes of international, particularly Asian, relevance and to form joint teams for carrying out research.
  • Launch a drive to develop Asia-based cases and publish them on an annual basis.
  • Launch a new, international-class management journal by January 2010.
  • Continue student exchange as per the agreement signed on December 13, 2004.

The inaugural address was given by the guest of honour Mr Chandra Wadhwa, President ICWAI and Dr AK Sarkar, Director (Finance) CCL, Chief Guest for the seminar delivered the keynote address.

Dr D Ravishankar, Ex. Director, Investment & Risk Management-CRISIL, discussed about risks faced in Banking Industry, Basel II and the risk management architecture & framework. Mr CES Azariah, CEO-FIMMDA explained the Interest and Foreign Exchange Risks, ten year G-Sec yield movements and the change in the behavior of banks with the change in interest rate trends. Mr Robin Roy, Associate Director, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, in his session on 'Enterprise Wide Risk Management' discussed about enterprise risk systems and their relevance in today's global economy.

In a discussion on Mergers and acquisitions (M&A;), the panelists discussed on how corporate restructuring strategies are an important aspect of the corporate finance world and can dictate the fortunes of the companies involved for years to come. As industry structure moves towards more consolidation it becomes imperative for upcoming managers in India to understand the process of due deliberation and its importance in working out a deal.