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The two day summit has been divided into four sessions:

1) Cross-Border Investments: Managing the Downturn

Participants:
Mr Adesh Jain, Chairman, Council of Delegates, IPMA
Mr Ambuj Jain, Controller, Foreign Exchange, Jubliant Organosys
Mr Amit Khosla, Managing Director, AsiaBridge Capital Advisers Private limited
Ms Kalpana Jain, Senior Director, Deloitte
Mr Manish Aggarwal, DGM Finance, Honda Cars

2) Innovation and Quality: Building a Resilient India

Participants:
Mr Brijesh Kapil, Director, Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare
Mr Parikshit Sharma, Vice President, Business Development, Lifestyle Stores
Mr Sudhir Banerjee, Global Business Director, Global Customer Support Center, Honeywell India
Mr Salil Aggarwal, Country Head, Eicher Consulting

3) Infrastructure: Catering to Needs, Creating Opportunities

Participants:
Mr A P Verghese, Executive Director (LNG), IOCL
Ms Anjana Dhar, GM(PI&BDD;), Powergrid
Mr Arun Bhalla, Executive Director (BD), Power Trading Corporation
Mr Deepak Bajaj , Director, Unitech Reality Investors
Mr Prem Subramanium, Principal, Business Development, IDFC
Mr Rajeev Chak , VP, Adani Group

4) Conclave - Politics plus Business: A Bitter Cocktail?

Participants
Mr Josey Puliyenthuruthel John, National Corporate Director, Mint
Mr Pavan Chaudhary, CEO, Vygon India
Mr Pratyush Kumar, CEO GE Infrastructure
Mr Rajiv Karwal, CEO Milagrow
Mr Rohit Mahajan, CEO, Saviance Technology


For more details visit: www.bii08.com

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October 20-21, 2008 saw aStrategym 2008a, JBIMS' annual business convention at ITC Grand Maratha. The theme for this year was aHope: In Current Turbulent Timesa. The paper on Connecting Bharat proposing to connect urban India with the rural India won Strategym 2008. Papers on Home Equity Liquidation and Social Security in India were the first and second runners-up respectively.

On October 23, 2008 JBIMS' annual corporate symposium aSamanvaya was organized at the BSE convention hall. The theme for this year was aHope: In Current Turbulent Timesa. Samanvay 2008 started with Mr Samir Sain, CEO & MD, Future Capital Holdings sharing his view on the current financial turmoil. Mr Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director & CEO, Reliance Money and Mr Arun Maira, Director, Boston Consulting Group also participated at Samanvay 2008.

aPrayaaga, JBIMS' annual inter B-School corporate festival was conducted on October 24-26, 2008. Prayaag 2008 consisted of 16 events spread across three days. The event was inaugurated by the Director of JBIMS, Dr C Chavan. The event, aThe Quest to reach Olympusa saw 12 participants being shortlisted for a press conference, group discussion, quiz, round involving risk taking ability and jury interviews. The event was judged by - Mr Govind Iyer- Managing Partner Egon Zehnder International, India; Mr KVS Manian- Group head, Retail Liabilities & Branch Banking, Kotak Bank and Mr Rohit Shrivastava- Head (Strategic Planning), Contract Advertising. Another event was aKwizkrafta, where students were pitted against corporates in order to find out who knows more about the world around was conducted by quiz master, Dhananjay Shettigar.
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Starting with a brief history about Infosys over the years, Mr Purohit noted how important decisions were based on corporate strategies and long term development themes. He remarked that strategies evolve as we travel through time; because the environment is fluid we have to constantly think on the move. Talking more on the business model of Infosys he opined that there are enormous opportunities for the company and that a lot still needs to be done. As an example he mentioned the point about creating a more global workforce; despite Infosys having employees of over 72 nationalities, Indians make more than 95% of it.

Strategies should increase profitability, growth prospects, as well as be sustainable and predictable. These are the principles guiding the corporate strategy of Infosys said Mr. Sanjay. Stressing on the importance of flexibility in tuning the strategies he remarked that aIt is like the capability to change the engine mid-flight over the Atlantica. He also elaborated on the abrand positioninga and abrand image buildinga strategies of Infosys.

Answering to questions from the students Mr. Sanjay elaborated on how the strategic decisions manifested itself in all the important decisions like organizational structure, budgeting practices, corporate intelligence, product portfolio & mix, talent retention & development and also the branding efforts.
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Indian food processing industry is dominated by micro-small and informal enterprises, some medium level and a few large enterprises, for manufacturing a large variety of food products and ready to eat foods, with varying tastes and qualities. However, the challenges in production, food preservation, distribution and processing sectors are diverse and demanding and need to be addressed in several fronts to derive maximum market benefits in domestic and export requirements.

Speaking on the occasion Mr KT Chacko, Director, IIFT said "The export of processed food products is much below the potential today. One of the important factors for this state of affairs is the limited access and availability of appropriate technologies and technological support services and facilities to the producers, especially micro units, besides several other factorsa. Mr Subodh Kant Sahai, Union Minister for Food Processing said "As per the eleventh plan, the ministry of food processing Industries is implementing various schemes to encourage investment in the food processing sector for the development of the sector".
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Training programmes will be conducted so that the participants can act as trainers and facilitators for Targeted Interventions (TIs) amongst High Risk Groups (HRGs). Members of HRGs and even former participants of the LAMP programme will act as consultants for the STRC. The goal of the programmes operated by the STRC will be to train the participants to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS with the active participation of the target community. The participants passing out of these programmes would go on to become consultants for implementation of TIs amongst the target groups like Female Sex Workers, Men having Sex with Men, Injecting Drug Users, and migrant truckers and labourers.
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'The Arena', will be a platform to compete in technical events organized under each branch. 'ACUMEN', the management symposium will have case studies and Business plan contests. Robotics will be explored in 'BOTCRAFT' with aquatic, semi-autonomous, autonomous and manual robots. 'MYNDSNARE', the quizzing contest comprises of two main quiz shows: COGNOMANIA: the general quiz and CORP-DE-BIZZ: the business quiz. Previous editions of the event included quiz-masters Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Avinash Mudaliar and Mr Dhananjay Shettigar.

Also, a social entrepreneurship contest titled 'PRAYAAS' will be held. Giving an opportunity to school children to display their talent is 'ESPIRIT', the school fest which includes quizzes, debates and elocution for the young. Workshops by REDHAT, TCS, ethical hacking by Ankit Fadia, National conference on 'Recent Advancement in Mechanical Engineering' etc are also a part of the event. 'BATTLE-de VIRTUALIS' will have online games like Counter-Strike, AOE, NFS MOST WANTED and FIFA 08. TA, Accommodation and Food facilities will be provided to all outstation participants.
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The two day event was inaugurated by Professor Dr SK Jain of Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi who was accompanied by Mr Gurcharan Das, Author, Columnist a Times of India and Mr Krishan Kalra, Secretary General, PHD chambers of commerce. Speaking at the occasion, Dr SK Jain talked about how there has been a change over the years in the way India and Indians are perceived abroad.

The first session 'Cross Border Investments a Managing the downturn' on day one started with inaugural address by Professor S.K. Jain and the discussion was continued by Mr Adesh Jain, Chairperson IPMA; Mr. Ambuj Jain, Controller, Forex, Jubilant Organosys; Mr Vikram Thakur, Senior Manager, Deloitte; and Mr Amit Khosla.

The topic for the post lunch session was 'Innovation and Quality- Building a Resilient India'. The session had Prof Sushil, the chair for Strategic Management and Flexible Management at DMS, IIT Delhi as the chairperson. The speakers for the session included Mr Parikshit Sharma, Vice- President, Business Development, Lifestyle Stores; Mr Brijesh Kapil, Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare; Mr Salil Agrawal from ECS Ltd and Mr Rajeev Chak, Head of CNG, Adani Energies Ltd.

The second day of BII took off with a session focusing on the issue of 'Infrastructure a Catering to Needs, Creating Opportunities'. The chair for the session, Prof DK Banwet gave the introduction on the necessity of building up our infrastructure and highlighted the importance of education infrastructure as an investment in the future. The participants for the session included Mr Alex P Verghese, Executive Director in Business Development in Indian Oil Corporation, New Delhi; Ms Anjana Dhar, General Manager, Business Development and Private Investment at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited; Mr Prem Subramanium, Principal Business Development, IDFC; Mr Arun Bhalla; Dr K V Damodharan.

The second session, a conclave to discuss 'Politics and Business: A Bitter Cocktail' was inaugurated by Professor RK Baisya, Professor at Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi. He was joined in by Mr Pavan Chaudhary, CEO, Vygon India; Mr. Josey P John, National Corporate Director, Mint; Mr Rajeev Karwal , Founder and CEO, Milagrow; and Mr Rohit Mahajan, CEO Saviance Technologies. The session as well as the two day event, Building India Inc. finally ended with the vote of thanks by Pratyush Thakur, Event coordinator.
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'Meguriai', a Short Term Project competition, where the best of short term projects in the field of HR will compete and interact with young student managers of Human Resources Department and industry executives.

'Taiketsu', a contest designed to test the innovation and event management ability of the participants, where they will design and conduct an intra-IMT event, related to HR vertical, in IMT campus itself. The participants will be provided with a fixed budget and an overview of the resources which they can use. The two best entries, based on creativity, feasibility and magnitude, will be invited to the campus for conducting their respective events. Winners will be decided on the number of participants and event management skills.
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Prof AK Puri, Director General of the Institute stated that as per research findings on past Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, candidates securing very low percentage of total eligible votes got elected, primarily due to low polling. This is a matter of grave concern as such candidates do not truly represent majority of the voters a the essential spirit of democracy.

aThe Institute is launching a campaign in public interest beginning with participation in the Marathon to perk up polling during elections, exhorting all voters to cast vote on the polling day. The Institute invites all likeminded persons and organizations to come forward and join in this campaign for a truly patriotic causea, stated Prof Puri.
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Given the unprecedented upheavals that the global economy is experiencing, the implications and opportunities for the Indian Businesses in such a scenario have become especially relevant. The idea behind keeping this as the theme was to invoke ideas within the student community about the changing dynamics of various industrial sectors given the backdrop of the crashing markets the world over. Delph-o-Mania, an inter B-school online quiz has also been launched for the outsiders.

For further information, please visit www.mdi-delphique.com
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The discussion was started by Mr Ramesh, who at the outset said that he felt that social entrepreneurship and venture capitalism go hand-in-hand. He highlighted that the focus on the issue at hand is relatively new and it is only off-late that venture capitalists (VCs) are moving funds into Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), in a big way, because of which, the potential is huge. He said that the general tendency was to use oneas capital for a start-up and the aversion to court outside capital must end and VCs must be courted with greater frequency. He then backed this by stressing the importance of VCs, who not only bring in finance, but valuable expertise as well. He also cautioned that the selection of the VC must be done with care and interest alignment must be given utmost priority. .

Next, Mr Vasudevan told the gathering about the activities of Equitas, which is Indiaas fourth largest and fastest growing MFI. He said that Equitas targets women in urban areas and addresses their credit needs. It also encourages group bonding, which develops a strong social capital which can be used as insurance. He emphasised the importance of credit in improving lifestyle a a fact which has been amply demonstrated by Equitas. However, he cautioned that one needs to think big and have a strong capital backing for oneas ideas to take root and proliferate.

The final speaker was Mr Sudeep Mahapatra, who highlighted in brief the contributions made by Bakul Foundation. He said that one his organisationas important projects were the development of a library for children, which runs only on peopleas contribution, sans funding. Using this example, he said that the most important part was to convey the idea, along with hope, to the people, and the funding would follow. He stressed that funding should not be the primary focus. The idea should be to encourage mobilisation, focus on peopleas strength, and aim to unite them into a strong group.

The conclave closed with Prof. Rajiv Roy giving his final comments on the issue. Although a general consensus could not be arrived at, it was largely accepted that venture capitalists with the proper orientation could make a difference in the social sector. However, the bottom line remains the motivation factor both, with the entrepreneur and the capitalist. Only if they are able to find a common ground, can some effective headway be made. Thus venture capitalism and social entrepreneurship are interdependent only if the dependence can be factored in.
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The event is a brainchild of the faculty at the EABS, Dr T Prasad who conceptualized the Mandi initiative to help students understand and discover management wisdom. The educational toys made by Navnirmiti aim to help students learn and innovate. Navnirmiti caters to providing children from the slums, tribal children and children from special schools, an opportunity for better education. All the efforts and funds collected by the students at the Mandi day which amounted to Rs 45000 were channelized towards the cause that Navnirmiti stood for.
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The flagship event of the festival is the war of words, Caviar and Daydreams, a competition designed to ignite the spark in the corporate event. This three day event commences with a seminar where speakers like CB Bhave, Chairman, SEBI, Jayant Patil, Minister of Finance & Planning, Government of Maharshtra and Mr Jignesh Shah, Founder & CEO, Financial Technologies India Limited will participate. Other events at the fest include Parijja - the paper writing competition, Pratyancha - the simulation game, Prashnottri and Prashnavalli - the quizzes, case study discussions and more.

Some of the executives participating in Paragana 08 include Mr Arvind Sharma, Chairman Leo Burnett, Ms Chanda Kochhar, CFO & MD, ICICI Bank, Mr Jagdish Kapoor, Samsika Consultancy, Mr Ramkumar, Senior General Manager, HR, ICICI Bank, Mr Amit Varma, CEO, Audience Map, Mr Varun Bajpai, MD, Macquarie Bank, Mr Vijai Mantri, CEO and MD, DLF Pramerica, Mr R Chandrasekar, Head Corporate Development, Suzlon and Mr Niranjan Hiranandani, MD, Hiranandani Group.
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Stressing on the business scenario in India, Mr Mitra said sectors like tourism, automobiles, and real estate had tremendous potential and we need not look for outside help in these areas. While foreign tourists need be lured and foreign exchange earned, 95 per cent Indian tourism growth has been on account of domestic travelers. Professor C V Baxi, Director MDI said the present economic scenario called for introspection leading to formulation of an appropriate strategy to meet the global challenges.

Industrial firms like Mercer, Indian Association of Investment Professionals, Procter and Gamble, Deloitte and Computer Sciences Corporation were the knowledge partners for the different discussion panels. In each of the panels, the discussion by the industry executives was followed after a presentation by the student research team. Some of the participants who formed panel were Mr Davinder Singh, Director, New Product Commercialization, Coca Cola India Inc., Mr Manoj Bhalla, Treasurer, GE Capital India, Mr PV Ramanmurthy, Vice President HR, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Mr Venkata M Reddy, Vice President, Supply Chain, Spenceras Retail Limited, and Mr Baba Varanasi, Head, Office of Innovation, Computer Sciences Corporation India Pvt Ltd. aDelphique a08a concluded with Mr. Manoj Kohli, President & CEO, Bharti Airtel giving a speech on the opportunities of India to progress as a country.

MDI hosts National Convention for Energy

Also, MDI, Gurgaon organized National Convention on Energy on November 09, 2008 on the theme of enhancing energy security of India. The convention was organized by MDI School of Energy Management headed by Professor (Dr) Atmanand. In his welcome speech, Dr. Atmanand said that energy security being the demand of the time, power engineers have to work for sustainable growth of the power sector. The convention was inaugurated by MDI Director Professor C V Baxi.

Senior power engineers, experts, and consultants representing National Thermal Power Commission (NTPC), IREDA, State Electricity Boards, NDPL(Delhi), NPTI (Faridabad), Secure Meters, Emergent Venture India, Simon Carves (I) Ltd., Gen Next Business Consultants and many more power industries personnel participated in the convention. Speakers emphasized development of non-conventional energy sources particularly solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear energy. The experts stressed on reduction in carbon foot print, and review of government policies besides efficiency measures by the power industry in the country.

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Keeping in mind the growing preference of the B-school community for online events, this year Xpressions had six online events. Flagship events like Kurukshetra (simulated business environment to test cross-functional decision-making ability), Skill City (a test of soft skills like communication, negotiation, conflict handling and resource management), Gladiator (an evaluation of a contenderas potential to be a cross-functional manager in an objective manner), Helios (the only pan-India B-school game for undergrads to test their inherent management skills), and Spardha (an opportunity to experience life in the hinterlands of Orissa) were held on campus.

On the night of Nov 08, Celeblitz nite was opened by Ushma, XIMBas inhouse band, followed by Evergreen, the band from Kerala, and Kross Windz, the band from Kolkata. Also, the event hosted a Hasya Kavi Sammelan with participants like Surender Sharma, Dr Sunil Jogi, Dr Suman Dubey and Surendra Dube. This was followed by a Karaoke nite by KJ SUBZ and concluded with a JLT a XIMBas own version of a dance party.
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The call for applications to pursue U21Globalas MBA programme attracted around 350 applicants. The scholarships were awarded to 30 applicants across India. Applications were jointly evaluated by senior management team of Financial Express and U21Global. Evaluations were made based on the applicantas academic and professional achievements, along with a statement of motivation. The winners are expected to commence the MBA programme in December 2008. Conducted completely online, the programme is catered to help prepare executives for leadership roles in the emerging global economy by equipping them with essential managerial know-how.

"This Scholarship Programme is the first of its kind, focusing on the professional development of young managers. The recipients will now be able to pursue higher education while working, as an online platform offers them flexible studying hours. The MBA offered by U21Global is backed by 17 international universities and has received the European Foundation of Management Development (EFMD) TeChnology Enhanced Learning (CEL) accreditation. This ensures global recognition and exposure for executives, which is invaluable in todayas ever-evolving business environment." said Bhaskar Ranjan Das, Director a Corporate Business Development & Marketing a India, U21Global.
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Some of the issues that will be discussed over the two days include:

a Challenges in Mobilizing,
a Retaining and Motivating People for Sustained High Performance in a period of Economic downturn
a Layoffs in the Transport Sector the World Over
a Lessons in Recent Conflicts
a Response of Collective Bargaining to economic down-turn
a Recent trends in collective bargaining
a Social Protection as a pre-condition for flexibility-options and issues

The event will also feature Empleado a an inter B school paper presentation on 'Future of IR, and IR in future' and 'Transitioning from IR to ER'. Also, the event will host a debate session, where speakers will share their views on 'Trade Unions a are they friends or foes?'.
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Psychological and biomedical research has traditionally considered risk-taking as an abnormal expression of behaviour, as exemplified by its association with substance abuse and bipolar disorder. However, the Cambridge research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, found that entrepreneurs represent an example of highly adaptive risk-taking behaviour which can result in positive outcomes during stressful economic circumstances. This afunctional impulsivitya, the ability to make quick decisions under stress, may have evolutionary value as a means of seizing opportunities in a rapidly-changing environment.

To test their hypothesis, the scientists had 16 entrepreneurs from aSilicon Fena (the cluster of high-tech companies in and around Cambridge) and 17 managers complete a computerised neurocognitive assessment measuring various aspects of their decision-making abilities. On a decision-making task that required acolda processes, entrepreneurs and managers performed similarly. (aColda processes govern real-life decisions such as when planning the opening of a consulting company or hiring staff.)

The researchers then had the entrepreneurs and managers make ahota or risky decisions which involved evaluating rewarding versus punishing outcomes. (For example, the decision between financing one of several potentially excellent but risky business opportunities is a hot decision a it is too difficult for emotions not to play a role.) On this test, although entrepreneurs and managers both made good quality decisions, entrepreneurs were significantly riskier. Entrepreneurs also showed superior cognitive flexibility and higher ratings on questionnaires which measure impulsivity. These cognitive processes are intimately linked to brain neurochemistry, particularly to the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Professor Barbara Sahakian, lead author of the study, said, aThis study has shown that not all risk-taking is disadvantageous, particularly when combined with enhanced flexible problem solving. In fact, risky or ahota decision-making is an essential part of the entrepreneurial process and may be possible to teach, particularly in young adults where higher risk taking is likely and age-appropriate.
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The first academic session at the ISB campus in Mohali is expected to commence in 2012. The ISB campus at Mohali proposes to have 280 seats in its Post Graduate Programme. It will also have several short duration Executive Education Programmes where approximately 750 professionals will be able to participate.

ISB, with the support of existing associate schools, Wharton School and Kellogg School of Management, will set-up and run the Mohali campus, providing Post Graduate Programmes in Management and short duration Executive Education Programmes. The ISB campus at Mohali will have the following four specialist Institutes, termed as Centres of Excellence, for promoting research and offering additional specialisations in the Post Graduate Programme:
a Max India Institute of Healthcare Management
a Bharti Institute of Public Policy
a BML Munjal Institute of Manufacturing and Operation Excellence
a Punj Lloyd Institute of Physical Infrastructure Management

ISB will have a unified governance structure, with the ISB Board as the Statutory Body overseeing and supporting both campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali. A Deputy Dean, will be appointed to run the ISB campus at Mohali, including the four Centres of Excellence. It will additionally have the benefit of a Campus Advisory Board while the Centres of Excellence will be advised by their individual Institute Advisory Councils. The ISB faculty will be available for teaching on both campuses and all standards and processes will be common across both campuses.

The Founder Supporters of the ISB campus at Mohali, who are playing a key role in setting up the Business School, will contribute a sum of Rs. 50 crores each. While they are members of the ISB Executive Board, they will also be represented on the Campus Advisory Board of ISB campus at Mohali and will Chair the respective Institute Advisory Councils. The Founder Supporters will extend their existing support for Placements/Internships, Programmes on Campus and Visiting Faculty to the ISB campus at Mohali.