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pagalguy_news · November 12, 2008, 7:49pm

Last year, Megabucks saw total participation of 8000 students from
around 80 technical and 40 business schools. Following are the events
to be held this year:

a Ideas, the Business Plan Contest with cash prize money of INR 2.5 lakhs and seed fund of around INR 4crores.
a Battlefield, the case study competition to be judged by executives from Xerox, Technopak, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Avaya Labs.
a The online trading competition, aBulls and Bearsa will be hosted on KheloStocks.com, the virtual trading portal.
a 25 start-ups will be giving presentations in front of Venture Capitalists as a part of aImpresarioa.
a Two conferences with the theme of aSocial Entrepreneurshipa and aYoung Gunsa will be held during the festival.
a Megabucks will also have a Casino, with roulette tables, poker, black jack, casino wars and darts.

Log on to http://students.iitk.ac.in/megabucks for details.

pagalguy_news · November 13, 2008, 11:40am

The competition had four stages and started with an executive summary and then moved on to the complete Business Plan. At the second stage, the 20 teams were each provided with a mentor and experienced person from the industry. Team Progenie had Mr Sandeep Manudhane as their mentor. Mr Sandeep Manudhane is the Chief Mentor, PROTON Business School; CMD and founder of PT Education.

Five teams were invited to IIM Indore for the last two stages. Team Progenie from Great Lakes competed with the other four teams - two from IIM Indore, and one each from ISB, Hyderabad and NITIE, Mumbai. The Final stage was a boardroom discussion with Seedfund, NEN and DARE, who judged and declared the team from Great Lakes Institute of Management as the winners.

pagalguy_news · November 13, 2008, 11:55am

The programme will be taught by Judge Business Schoolas faculty and will be held from April 19-24, 2009 in Cambridge. It will combine teaching sessions based on the research, thinking, and visits to key financial regulators, including to the Bank of England, the FSA and the Takeover Panel in London. Delegates will be provided with the opportunity to look beyond the usual operational concerns and discuss the larger issues placing demands on them as leaders in a volatile and global environment.

Topics will include the changing economic geography of Asia and Indonesiaas role; the new regulatory landscape likely to emerge from the current financial turmoil; leadership in a global context; the impact of major shifts in the energy and commodity markets and technologies and the next round of industry consolidations and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

pagalguy_news · November 14, 2008, 11:47am

Sponsored by the World Economic Forum, participants at the event will include the Prime Minister of India and his senior Cabinet colleagues, Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr LK Advani, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dy Chairman Planning Commission and many other national and international dignitaries. Many economists and experts from India and other countries including US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, West Germany, Switzerland, Middle East and South east Asia and other parts of the globe will be the speakers during the two-day event.

Professor Amit Kapoor is among the three educationists invited from India. International institutions including the Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, University of Washington, and many other universities will be represented in the summit.

pagalguy_news · November 14, 2008, 1:52pm

The one week seminar focused on Indian business practices, features of the industrial structure, economic policies being implemented at the national level, understanding of cultural issues and the nuances of doing business in India. It included a series of interactive sessions with leaders from business and industry and visits to selected organizations to facilitate participants in gaining a practical understanding and appreciation of Indian business practices, CSR initiatives and sensitivity to cultural issues in the changing global context. The seminar included a session on Socio-Cultural Environment in India, Macroeconomic Environment and Economic Trends in Contemporary India, Telecom Sector: Indiaas Growth Story & Future Challenges and Development of Financial Markets in India. There was a panel discussion on The Indian Markets and HRM Trends in India- Focus on IT Sector.

It included a visit to ST Microelectronics, Genpact, and Perfetti VanMelli facilities amongst the corporate sector. The students also visited Humayunas Tomb and learnt about the Conservation of Heritage & CSR initiatives by the Agha Khan Foundation. A visit to Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for a talk on Indian Economy was also a part of the students' India visit. During the seminar the students got to interact with Mr. Subodh K. Bhargava, Chairman, Tata Communication Ltd, Mr. Pradeep Baijal, Director, Noesis and Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Mr. Vivek Sharma, Head, India Operations, ST Microelectronics, Mr. Aadesh Goyal, CEO-People Strong, Mr. Asim Talukdar, Sr. V P HR, NIIT, Mr. Pradeep Kashyap, CEO, MART , Mr.Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cyber Media Group and Mr. Abad Ahmad, Chairman, National Committee Agha Khan Foundation.

pagalguy_news · November 16, 2008, 8:33am

According to Mumbai-based CAT trainer Munira Lokhandwala, "Data Interpretation was considerably tougher than last year, while Quant was as tough. English was easier." Munira attempted 85 questions, the 5 unattempted questions being from DI.

CAT 2008 Analysis and Discussion threads on PaGaLGuY
Overall discussion | Quant Section | Data Interpretation Section | Verbal section

Now while we'll keep bringing you analysis from across coaching institutes as they come, what you really need to check out after 3 pm is PG Scorecard, one central place where you enter your CAT answers and get score according to every coaching institute's answer key - IMS, Career Launcher, TIME, Professional Tutorials and others. Once you enter your scores at PG Scorecard, you can keep checking back to see whose cutoffs you're clearing, where you stand among other PaGaLGuY users and more.

Click here to launch PG Scorecard.

pagalguy_news · November 16, 2008, 6:06pm

It was through networking at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learningas Ignite programme in June 2008 that Abel found the Chairman for his company, Professor Alan Barrell, Entrepreneur in Residence at the Schoolas Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning. Professor Barrell who has 30 yearsa experience in technology based industries commented: aI am very excited about my appointment at Eagle Genomics. When I met Abel and his colleagues, I could immediately identify with their vision and purpose and admire their knowledge, competence and ambition. Iam looking forward to working with them, and helping them makes Eagle Genomics a leader in its field.a

Abel Ureta-Vidal commented: aChoosing the Cambridge MBA was an easy decision. Cambridge is home to the largest biocluster in Europe and I wanted to stay in touch with the field of biology I had been researching. And of course the University has an unrivalled reputation for excellence. The entrepreneurial environment of Cambridge enabled me to build confidence in my abilities as an entrepreneur. I learnt new business skills and the vital importance of networking and collaboration in the business world.a

pagalguy_news · November 16, 2008, 6:13pm

NMIMS will initially offer a twenty-month weekend Management Program for Executives (MPE) leading to Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) under its Bengaluru Operations. This will be followed by a fifteen-month full time program for Executives leading to Executive PGDBM.

While addressing the gathering, Shri Aravind Limbavali, chief guest on the occasion welcomed the NMIMS to start its operations and provide education to students of Karnataka. He quoted that "The state of Karnataka needs institutions like NMIMS, which are known for its quality education and have proven track record of serving society, and being the education minister of the state it will be my endeavour to bring such institutions here. I will also request NMIMS to start its operations in other cities also. Karnataka Government would always support such projects in the larger interest of local students."

pagalguy_news · November 16, 2008, 6:27pm

The event required students to set up a trading enterprise with a unique brand name. This enterprise had to create its own portfolio by sourcing NGO products strategically from E-Cell and subsequently selling them in the market in a stipulated time period. E-Cell had procured the products from the NGOas Mouth and Foot Painting Association (MFPA), National Association for the Blind (NAB), Doorstep School and OM Creations. The main goal of the venture was maximizing the profits which would be donated back to the respective NGOas.

The first prize was sponsored by Mr Arun Sehgal & Mrs Chhaya Sehgal, the founders of Winning Edge and alumni of JBIMS. The Chief Guest for the event was Mr Harshid Rajan, Director Gammon India. The teams devised their own strategies to sell the various products to maximize their profits and Return on Investment (ROI). The teams were evaluated on ROI, profits and total sales. There were prizes for the most effective strategy, innovative enterprise name and the most exciting experience.

Devina Jaca from the winning team said "It was our first sales experience and we were actually amazed by the way we convinced our prospective clients. In all, the Marketing Maestro was a fun event, filled with varied experiences I would cherish for long!" According to Chandan Roy whose team was the first runner up, aThe marketing maestro not only taught me the abc of marketing but also how to use the perfect blend of attitude, body language and confidence to deliver when it matters the most. And since I intend to specialize in marketing, it was a great learning experience in all aspects.a

pagalguy_news · November 16, 2008, 6:33pm

The project Dream4Others was inaugurated by the President of Asian Institute of Manila, Mr Francis Estrada. Also, the event was flagged off by Mr Estrada, President, AIM Manila along with Fr Abraham (Director), Mr Rana Sinha (President, Jamshedpur Alumni Association& MD Telcon), and Mr Kamani (Chairman, CII Young Indians chapter). The students of XLRI as well as some of the exchange students were among the winners of both the individual and team categories.

pagalguy_news · November 17, 2008, 6:24am

Faculty from IMS say, aThe increase in the number of questions in the Verbal Ability section would have caught many by surprise, but this was offset by the fact that the questions were easier as compared to the last two yearsa. According to Munira Lokhandwala, aAs the number of questions increased, ambiguous questions will play a smaller role in overall Verbal percentiles. Hence, students who are above average to good will do well in this section, despite the few ambiguous questions present." Coaching institutes apart from TIME (cut-off predicted: 41-43) are at a consensus that a minimum score of 44 would be required to clear this yearas VA section. Career Launcher and IMS have released the range of cut-offs for the section as 44 and 46-49 respectively.

aQuantitative Ability proves to be on the difficult side again for an average student,a say faculty from Career Launcher. TIME predicts a cut-off in the range of 17-19 marks for this section of CAT 2008 while Career Launcher, IMS and PT have released cut-offs exceeding a net score of 30 for this section. aThe overall difficulty level of this section was similar to last year with a slight but important difference. Questions that seemed easy had tricky answers and the ones that were not easy were anyways difficult to solve. So this section would see a high attempt rate but accuracy would be low,a comments Munira Lokhandwala.

Experts from Career Launcher put forth an interesting point, aOne can also assume the larger number of verbal ability questions to be a reflection of the pattern followed by GMAT where verbal ability questions are almost as much in number as QA and LRDI put together. Are these signs of CAT going online?a Faculty from IMS comments, aThe paper was overall on the easier side. The uneven number of questions across sections also meant that time management was crucial.a As far as overall cut-offs are concerned, IMS and Career Launcher predict that a score of 120 would be required for an IIM call while according to TIME a score range of 114-118 would suffice.

	Quantitative Ability	Data Interpretation	Verbal Ability	Overall
Career Launcher	30	26	44	120
IMS	32-35	32-35	46-49	120
TIME	17-19	27-29	41-43	114-118
PT	30	29	47-49	115-120
Career Forum	28	32	46	121

Table of coaching centers and cut-offs for CAT 2008

To save you from entering your answers at the individual sites of these coaching institutes, PG Scorecard is a central place for you to see how you have fared across the different answer keys and cut-offs that have been released. Further you can also get to know how your performance compares with others who enter scores at the PG Scorecard.

pagalguy_news · November 18, 2008, 5:29am

Dr Runde will give a one-hour presentation entitled: 'Users, user innovation and the identity of technological objects'. He will draw on the philosophical discipline of aontologya (the study of what exists and modes of existence) to demonstrate that the identity of all of the technological objects that surround us flow from both their physical form and social function. Taking the case study of the rise of aturntablisma a the musical form of scratching records adopted by hip-hop bands and DJs in 1970s New York - Dr Runde will explain how a consumer group can change the way a product is used. In so doing, the users create a completely new identity for what is essentially the same object, offering opportunities for manufacturers.

The MasterClass in Management Seminars is a series of lectures organized by QS as part of the World MBA Tour which looks at themes such as strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing and leadership. Presented by professors from various business schools, the series provides potential MBA candidates a taste of the business school classroom and an insight into best practices drawn from case studies around the world.

pagalguy_news · November 18, 2008, 5:34am

Electronic Commerce is a blend of technology and application oriented approach. It has multi-tiered architectural framework in explaining e-commerce. The book is strong on internet security issues and electronic payment concepts and provides examples from India proving Indian orientation. The role of electronic commerce in the world of business cannot be overemphasized. With the convergence of communication technology and devices, the number of people having access to Internet has been growing at an astonishing pace. The transition from traditional commerce to electronic commerce improves the efficiency of both internal and external processes and hence the advantages offered are applicable to almost every organization.

IIM Lucknow under complete guidance of Prof. Bharat Bhasker initiated a course aInternet Applications in Business Managementa for postgraduate students in 1997. This course follows an integrated approach to make students aware of the technological and managerial aspects of electronic commerce and challenges involved in deploying Internet applications in business organisations. Prof. Bhaskeras search for a suitable textbook for this course motivated him to write this textbook.

pagalguy_news · November 18, 2008, 5:41am

The Advanced Diploma harnesses the resources, knowledge and networks built up over ten years of producing various programmes in entrepreneurship and helping fledgling entrepreneurs develop their wings. The Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) brings expertise in delivering programmes designed to assist career development.

The programme is applicable to postgraduate students and to those currently in the workforce. It will be of interest to those responsible for developing transferable skills, and to employers looking to build skills and create an enterprising culture within an established organisation.

For further information, email to [email protected]

pagalguy_news · November 19, 2008, 5:45am

The game has three levels. In the first level, players were challenged to develop a small provider of express services into a national champion through sound management decisions. The interactive application asks for strategic and operational decisions and simulates their effects on the business in a realistic manner. The Great Lakers were amongst 500 others that made it past the first round.

In the next main round, the first level's top players competed in three different areas of logistics services, namely forwarding, express, and supply chain services. They were playing in teams of five players that are put together from countries all around the globe. Effective intercultural communication was one of the key competencies for success according to DHL.

In the Final Level, the teams have to develop their company into a sustainable market leader through focus on quality of service, customer orientation, and innovation. The successful teams will have the opportunity to interact and establish contact with top managers at Deutsche Post World Net - the sixth-largest private employer in the world, besides the finalists can win prizes with a total value of more than 50,000 Euros.

pagalguy_news · November 19, 2008, 1:32pm

Prof Schwass said a70% of all businesses, whether in North America, Europe, Middle East or China, are family owned. In India, around 95% of all registered companies are family businesses or founded by entrepreneurial families. Therefore it becomes imperative that the nuances of relationships be understood and worked upon so that family run businesses run from strength to strength and expand in the global arena.a

Family businesses are the oldest and most common type of business worldwide. Creating a major share of turnover, employment and tax payments, they form the backbone of our economic system. With their long-term perspective and stakeholder orientation, family-owned businesses represent capitalism with a human face a combining social responsibility with a determination for economic success. Particularly in hard times they play off their competitive advantages. Recent studies show that excellent family-owned companies around the globe outperform public companies in terms of long-term growth, profitability and stability.

Courses on family business help the companies in evolving as corporate entities as well as develop robust relationship capital. These would help organizations to improve and learn in a phased manner. These will also help explore the issues of strategic growth, governance structure, culture & sustenance.

pagalguy_news · November 20, 2008, 10:27am

Watch UTVi business news channel for a special half-hour show on PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings 2009, featuring b-schools such as IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, XIM Bhubhaneswar, FMS Delhi and NITIE Mumbai.

Show timings: Saturday, November 22 at 3:30 pm and 6 pm

Sunday, November 23 at 12 noon and 5 pm

While it is true that management education in India is evolving at afast pace - what with efforts by business schools to advance technologically, to reach out to and become more relevant to the larger international scene, expanding the relevance of education to specific business domains that show promise - none of these changes are as substantial in a single year as to show up in perceptions of people in consecutive years.

It is hence little surprise that only a handful of b-schools showdrastic movements in the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings compared to their rankings in the previous year.

Also see: How MBA alumni from 2006 are getting affected by the current economic crisis

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad is undisputedly number 1 across all regions of India. Except in among respondents from East India who have rated IIM Calcutta as the second more preferred b-school, IIM Bangalore is undisputed number 2 across all regions.

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad is consistently ranked at number 4 immediately after the top 3 IIMs, except among people in West India who rank it at 3 above IIM Calcutta. A pioneer of one-year programs, it seem to be the immediate next choice of people after the IIMs.

Read: How Indian b-schools are evolving from a cottage industry to an organized sector

All IIMs except the one at Shillong feature in the top 10 this year, while all except one schools of management run under the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) feature between top 20 and 30. This is a clear indication that people place the IIM education brand among top 10 while the IIT MBA brand is generally placed later in the top 30.

Last year at the 11th position, IIM Indore breaks into top 10 of the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings in this edition, one position above IIM Kozhikode. This is interesting, considering that the Kozhikode IIM is older than the one at Indore.

Also read: An IIM Bangalore's professor's take on why faculty is attracted to the IIMs and why it might change

IIM Shillong,ranked at 24 this year will take some years to live up to the IIM brand. Considering how tough the older IIMs are finding it to place students for summer internships this year, IIM Shillong will not have it any easier. Prevailing economic conditions will not make this easy either.

Like IIM Shillong, the second campuses of schools such as Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad at Nagpur and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune at Bangalore have not been able to cash in on the reputation of their mother brands yet. While IMT Ghaziabad is ranked nationally at 15, IMT Nagpur is 35 ranks lower at 50. SIBM Bangalore is ranked at 33, 16 ranks lower than its veteran SIBM Pune. People are not buying into the brand without taking a reality check on what the school can deliver back.

Also read: AICTE is strangulating quality MBA education in India, says SP Jain Dean

The other well known cluster of schools under the Symbiosis International University do not have a well demarcated position in people's perception as the IIM or IIT brands do. SIBM, Pune, the top Symbiosis school in the rankings is at 17, two places lower than its previous year's ranking of 15. Between SIBM Pune and Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nasik which is ranked at 67, there are six Symbiosis schools scattered across various levels. This is a place where the explicit absence of differentiation between IIM and IIT schools might be working in their favor and getting them ranked within a very short range of each other. Because each one of the Symbiosis schools have tried to work on a specific niche (Human Resources, Operations Management, Telecom Management and more), people can tell the academic nature of each of these schools from the other, therefore scattering these schools across the rankings.

For the first time, we featured two schools of management run by the government-owned National Institutes of Technology (NITs) - ranked by our respondents as: NIT Trichy at 55 and NIT Durgapur at 74. The reputation of IITs and NITs as good engineering schools does not seemto be carrying through to their MBA programs. In fact, the most preferred engineering MBA school in the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings is the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) at Mumbai, ranked at 16. Among the biggest movers this year are the two IIT departments of management at IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur, jumped 4 and 10 ranks up to register at 21 and 26 respectively this year.

Also see: Sectoral MBAs are creating frog-in-the-well managers, says IIM Indore Placements Chairperson

The two NITs are part of the nine new schools we added to the rankings this year. Midway into the rankings, the department of management studies at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore declared that they were closing their MBA program due to its non-viability. The school had to be removed from the rankings.

The New Delhi-based International Institute of Management (IMI) has been steadily rising across all major b-school ratings and in the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings 2009, it stands at 31, up three positions from its rank in the previous year. Similar increases are seen by Mumbai's KJ Somaiya Institute of Management and Research and Welingkar Institute of Management.

Amity School of Business, Noida slides 3 ranks lower in people's preference to 65, contradicting beliefs that perceptions are basically creations of marketing and advertising.

Discuss the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings in the PaGaLGuY.com MBA Forums

pagalguy_news · November 20, 2008, 12:40pm

The event was started with speeches by Dr Ramana and Prof Banikanta Mishra, faculty members at XIMB. They pointed out that corruption has now become rampant in our society and that it is up to us to make sure that we weed out this disease once and for all. A few students also spoke about the issue at hand. A minuteas silence was then observed to pay obeisance to Manjunath.

A peace march was then organised. Students, faculty members with their families and the support staff all came together and marched holding candles from the XIMB campus to Xavier Square and back. Prof. Latha Ravindran, faculty member at XIMB, then led the gathering in a pledge to fight corruption in all its forms and to stand as a beacon of hope for the countryas future. Prof Rajeev Roy, faculty member at XIMB, proposed the vote of thanks. The proceedings were then concluded with a rendition of the national anthem.

pagalguy_news · November 20, 2008, 1:46pm

The theme for Ensemble 2008 is Magis: Delivering Excellence. The major events of Ensemble 2008 are the Idea Summit, the flagship game, Olympians, and a special event sponsored by the Principal Partner, Aditya Birla Group. The Idea Summit is a panel discussion on the theme of Entrepreneurship with participants including Mr Gagan Banga (CEO, Indiabulls Financial Services), Mr Rahul Butalia (CEO, ISEO Chemdis Pvt. Ltd.), Mr B V Bhargava (Chairman, CRISIL), Mr Prabhakar Valivati (MD, Mentor Partners), Mr Raghunath Medge (President, Mumbai Dabbawallahs), Mr Rajesh Mahajan (CEO, Maspar), and Mr N Sivaraman, Director, (L&T-VIAdel; Engineering Ltd.).

Aditya Birla Group Boardroom event has quarter of a million rupees in prizes. The participants, will get a chance to suggest a Global Growth Opportunity to the group. Apart from the prize money, the winners are also offered a chance to sit for Pre Placement Interviews, which they can convert into offers. Cognizant Olympians is the flagship event, where participants will compete against each other to attain the position of the Olympians. The winner of the event takes home one lakh rupees.

The games at Ensemble 2008 vary across business verticals and apart from the management events, there will also be events for adventure-lovers, budding entrepreneurs and quizzing enthusiasts. This year, Ensemble 2008 has two events for the ones who are socially inclined a Samarpan, wherein the participants have to develop a sustainable social B-plan, and Ashraya, which encourages participants to use their skill and knowledge in helping Self Help Groups to put their funds to right use. There is also an on-spot quiz competition for quizzing enthusiasts, El Dorado. The quiz-master for the event is Barry OaBrian.

The preliminary rounds of these events have already kicked off online at the Ensemble 2008 website (www.ensemble-xlri08.com). Ensemble 2008 will culminate in a rock competition followed by a rock show by the Indian band Bandish.

pagalguy_news · November 22, 2008, 8:14am

The CapstoneA Business Simulation Challenge is a global online competition held in the spring and fall semester each year. The competition is hosted by Capsim Management Simulations, IncA, a provider of business simulations to college graduate and undergraduate students. The competitions are open to all students who have used a Capsim business simulation in their university course. The winner was Tom Kung from National Cheng Chi University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Finalists in Capsimas Fall 2008 CapstoneA Challenge:

Tom Kung, National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan. Dr Andrew Chu (Winner)
Alexander Tsui, Washburn University. Professor Norma Juma
Liao Hong Tao, Webster University. Professor Renee English
Trevor Daly, University of Colorado, Denver. Professor Vinit Desai
Mahalakshmi Panchapagesan, Sonali Gupta and Sanjoy Joseph, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Professor Dharam Pal
Man Chun Li, Chun Man Wong and Ho Man Wong, Curtin University, Perth Australia. Dr Kyle Bowyers.

Dan Smith, President of Capsim Management Simulations, said the competition was a great opportunity for aspiring business people to develop and prove their skills. Sonali aims to be a social sector entrepreneur, Mahalakshmi to excel in the field of Human Resources and Sanjoy to someday run a company.