The ET Citi Grand Masters program has been initiated by Economic Times, a financial paper and Citi, a financial services company. Participation is open to students of Management Institutes across India. The event will be held across five cities namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
The ET Citi Grand Masters has a series of Business games, simulations & quiz spread over three rounds. The students will participate in a debate that will be judged by a jury at the event.The debate would be followed by a Business Quiz. The last round has the bourse game, which is a part of the zonal round, is designed to enable the participants to grasp the foreign exchange and money market instruments. The game involves the introduction of basic concepts and products in the forex and money markets, the relationship between these two markets, utilizing these markets to establish risk positions or to hedge risk positions, measuring and monitoring these risk positions and book keeping & revaluation.
Mr Shekhar Gupta, Editor in Chief of The Indian Express, spoke about the transformation which we can see across the entire world and especially in India, with respect to youth and their contribution to the society. Stating the words of Nandan Nilekani, he explained how Indiaas demographic bulge is double-humped like a camel. Southern India has already experienced the first, while Northern Indiaas burst of youth will shortly be seen. Mr Gupta, who hails from Chandigarh, feels that the 62% turnout in the recent Kashmir elections is a great sign of optimism and the faith shown in Omar Abdullah is in the right direction. He also emphasized the shift in Indian politics from, Identity Politicians to Youth Politicians. Mr Gupta visualizes an India where this youth will contribute to vital policy decisions in all sectors like health, education, administration, etc.
Mr KN Padmanabhan, Director of Prerana Educational Media Pvt. Ltd., discussed the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. He spoke about elevation of the masses through education and empowerment of women and a society that would facilitate the exchange of ideas from different quarters. The message that was delivered to the youth was to have faith in themselves, love their nation, possess a strong will to overcome obstacles, be steadfast to ones goals and to take responsibility.
Every year, Indian corporates bring their marketing research problems to XLRI students, who design games to solve them. The Aditya Birla Group, RPGas Spencer Retail and Tata Steel are the three corporates participating in MAXI Fair this year. Spencer Retail had, in fact, used strategies suggested by XLRI students to facilitate its entry into Jamshedpur the previous year.
In order to celebrate the thirtieth year of the Fair, students have taken MAXI Fair down the social route this year - for the first time, there are three social organizations participating in MAXI Fair 2009. UNICEF, NEEV and Byrraju Foundation are the three organizations that have chosen MAXI Fair as a means to solve their research problems. Another new initiative by the students is an attempt to assure increased quality for the research conducted at MAXI Fair. An external agency has been engaged to evaluate and provide feedback on the games and research conducted at the fair.
MAXI Fair had started a rural component in the past couple of years, and this will again be implemented this year. The student will travel to a village outside Jamshedpur and set up stalls there to get data about the product preferences of people in the rural community.
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) on Saturday, January 10 organized an international conference called 'Chutnefying English' in Mumbai to analyse the economics, culture and linguistics behind the usage of Hinglish in India. Rita Kothari, professor at MICA and co-convenor of the conference who introduced the conferenceas theme of 'Hindi in English ya English mein Hindi' said, aUrdu is a language which emerged from army camps and Hinglish appears to have similarly spun from youth campuses. At this conference we would like to analyse whether Hinglish will eventually become as rich as Urdu or similarly allow for expression of complex thoughts.a
Professor Harish Trivedi a faculty at Delhi University and visiting professor at the University of Chicago and University of London explained some of the reasons behind Hinglish coming to be, aAt times the use of Hinglish is a valid necessity. For instance, if the object for an idea comes in a certain language then it may be best to communicate in that same language.a Executive Chairman, McCaan Erickson and lyricist a Prasoon Joshi raised an interesting issue when he said, aHinglish is of two kinds: There is an Hinglish of experimentation with words like chutnefying and rakhoed which has Hindi words twisted for effect and this Hinglish is practiced by English medium educated speakers. And, there is a Hinglish of survival in which people do not have a choice but to use English words while talking.a aWhen a driver tells me, aSahab yeh gaadi comfortable haina then he is using the word acomfortablea because he simply doesnat know the Hindi word to express that thought,a he explained.
Professor Trivedi also said, aHinglish is used in some cases because of the convenience that certain English words offer as compared to their Hindi counterparts.a Rupert Snell, renowned expert on Hindi expressed his concern regarding this issue, aConvenience is the root of the lowest common denominator. I am worried what future generations may use in the name of convenience. I regret the demise of classical Hindi and not the arrival of Hinglish. The fact that people are not worried about how they speak Hinglish is worryinga.
Gurcharan Das, author of aIndia Unbounda and noted literary figure moderated a panel discussion which he kicked off by saying, aWhen a 100 million middle class Indians who consume in the global economy speak a certain language then the entire world will speak that language soon.a The panel included prominent media professionals such as Prasoon Joshi, Prashant Pandey a CEO, Radio Mirchi and Cyrus Broacha, MTV VJ who asserted that the primary purpose of language is to communicate and Hinglish achieved this very well. Further, Hinglish was freely used in the media only because the audience had accepted it as a means of communication. Rahul Dev, senior journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Hindi news channel - CNEB was the lone purist and voice of dissent in the discussion. He quoted from an article on Hinglish which had appeared in the mainstream media and said, aHinglish creates linguistic cripples which translates to intellectual cripples.a aI know of villages in the Kumaon region who had ten different words for soil, a dozen words for wind and so on and now they have quite simply lost these words,a he added.
An audience member raised the issue of bilingualism and how it stands with regard to the dayas discussions. Professor Trivedi explained, aThese days, every person thinks that he or she is bilingual. A simple test for a person to check this assumption to spend all of 24 hours speaking only one language; during this time, begin every sentence in one language and make sure that you only use that language through the sentence.a Cyrus Broacha concluded the dayas panel discussion and said, aHinglish is in a sense universal. It is wonderful that at some villages there is a larger body of words to choose from but at the end of the day one has to communicate with a lot more people and that too from many kinds of placesa.
The three rounds event began on January 13, 2009 with a bourse game, which was followed by a debate and a quiz. The debate was moderated by Mr. Andrew Scolt of Derek and Co. He also was the quiz master. The DMS team will compete with other zonal winners at the National Finals to be held at Mumbai on January 22, 2009.
Now in its 15th year, the tour visits 35 countries annually with over 360 of the world's international top business schools. The Indiaas MBA Fair is biggest event with more than 90 MBA programs present, including a majority of the highest-ranked American, Canadian and European schools.
"The fair provides Indian MBA candidates the chance to meet face to face with the admissions officers and alumni of these prestigious business schools as they shortlist the right school for their MBA studies. The Fair is packed full of information on full time, part time MBA programs, fees, admissions, scholarships, financial aid, the GMAT test and graduate MBA career opportunities," said a QS World MBA Tour spokesman.
"In addition, the QS World MBA Tour offers US$1.2million worth of exclusive scholarships during the Spring 2009 season. The scholarships, for top business schools including Wharton, Chicago and Cass, are available only to attendees of the fair," he added.
The Fair will feature a Panel discussion with admissions officers and alumni from top Business Schools, a GMAT seminar by Princeton Review and a Careers panel with MBA recruiters and alumni.
Lemon Tree hotel, Infosys and Cognizant campuses were the landmarks that I rattled off to the auto drivers at the Wakad flyover bus stop in order to get to the Symbiosis University campus in Hinjawadi, Pune. After some haggling I was on my way to the Symbiosis campus. I clutched my bag close to my chest to warm myself as there was quite a nip in the early morning Pune air. I soon reached the neat, clean and organized complex hosting the Symbiosis Infotech Campus (SIC) where the Symbiosis institutes of Symbiosis Center of Management and Human Resources Development (SCMHRD), Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB) and Symbiosis Center for Information Technology (SCIT) are located. The complex is an IT SEZ and this is probably the reason that three b-schools are located in a campus which has a name that one would be forgiven for associating with a software firm.
The three Symbiosis institutes occupy two floors each in the campusas academic building and a similar allocation is followed for the hostels. There are two messes in the campus with SIIB and SCMHRD students each having a mess that they favour. I soon met some second year students of SIIB who explained the competitive spirit which exists between the students of the three institutes. An annual sporting event called Symbolympics is held which is extremely keenly contested between students with innovative slogans often used by onlookers for commenting purposes. Interestingly enough, in order to improve interactions between the institutes, another sporting event called aThe Friendship Cupa is organized in which each team consists of students from all three b-schools. Further, each institute closely guards information concerning placements and students do not share such data with other schools until after completion of processes. Students do however freely use library and faculty resources from across institutes.
aOn paper each of the three institutes here focuses on a particular area but practically speaking the coursework is not very different and we compete for the same placements,a comment students of SIIB. aDue to the academic rigours at SCMHRD we really do not get time to interact a great deal with students from the other institutes and frankly speaking we do not really mind thisa, says a first year student at the institute. But, does the inter-institute rivalry allow for friendships between students who stay in the same hostel buildings and eat in the same messes? aWell, amongst the boys there is some level of camaraderie because they play a lot of sports together. This is comparatively less between the women here. Over time of course, you do tend to acknowledge people that you see frequently,a explains Jyoti Ghegi of SIIB. Abhijeet Lahiri of SCIT opines,a Well, one needs to clearly identify what is professional and what is personal.a aFriendly enmitya is how Pradeep Mehta of SIIB succinctly sums up the spirit prevalent between students at the campus here.
SIIB students tell me that birthday parties are usually celebrated in a completely uninhibited manner. However, with placements at the b-school being severely hit there has not been a customary birthday or placement celebration in the last month or so. The mood while obviously on the somber side is expectant with students having resolved to not throw placement parties until the entire batch gets placed. The days of all students getting placed within two days are gone with half the batch left after placements having begun a month back. The placements situation is of course similar at most of Indiaas business schools.
SCMHRD students dryly comment that the institute truly lives up to its slogan of 'The finest residential B-school' with fines being levied for a host of reasons ranging from carrying cellular phones to missing guest lectures. So donat students here find these restrictions to be irksome and unnecessary for a post graduate institute? Campus timings are meant to be broken say students simply. If they do get late then they try to excuse themselves on the pretext of project work and if that fails too then they try to convince authorities in any which way. aTo convince, thatas why we are doing an MBA in the first place!a quips an SCIT student. An SIIB student raises an interesting issue when he says, aStudents from the three institutes stay in the same hostel buildings. Itas only SCMHRD which calls itself as 'The finest residential B-school'. aIt is important for SCMHRD to change the perception of it being an HR specific business school and this is an issue that we are currently wrestling with,a says a women student of the b-school.
While I was at the campus I quite enjoyed the meals of breakfast and lunch that I had in the mess frequented by SIIB students. Students at the institutes did inform me that the dinner wasnat usually quite as good and that they often had meals at the nearby McDonaldas. Further, after sunset a whole host of vendors line up outside the complex and students often enjoy snacks such as fruits and pizzas at these joints. Movie screenings are often organized in the auditorium which is shared by the institutes in the campus.
Interestingly enough, movie shootings have also taken place at the Symbiosis Infotech Campus. Jyoti Ghegi of SIIB muses: aIt almost seems as if film producers land up here whenever they need to shoot at a university campus! 'Summer 2007' and 'Halla Bol' as well as some Marathi films have been shot over here. Sikander Kher and Nana Patekar have played cricket in the campus. We've even had Gul Panag requesting us to fill in as extras and some of us not being able to oblige because of an assignment submission! A change of sign boards, some touch ups and Symbiosis University becomes a Kasturba Medical Collegea she adds.
Sunday afternoon at the SIC campus saw students in large numbers participating in the events of a cultural fest organised by SIIB. There had been enthusiastic participation in sketching and painting competitions as well as other informal events. The campus was buzzing with activity when I left in one of the city bound buses that regularly ply from the SIC campus.
So, the PaGaLGuY.com B-school Backpacker has made his third stop! (His first two stops were GIM, Goa and SJMSoM, IIT Bombay.) If you wish to invite him to your campus please feel free to shoot a mail to editor pagalguy com.
In 2008, over 2600 participants from around 80 B-schools and 33 Agricultural Universities across India and abroad participated in the event. Amaethon 2009 will feature participants like Mr Piruz Khambatta, MD and Chairman - Rasna, Mr Ajit Kumar, joint secretary a MFPI and Mr. Praveen Laheri, former chief secretary a State of Gujarat.
Students can register online for the MDMS program at www.iima-amaethon.com
There is a significant restructuring of industries, be it the financial services, automation, pharmaceuticals, publishing or entertainment. Part of it is caused by the current financial crisis but the trends are as much driven by long term and enduring changes in technology, consumer expectations and globalization. Does the Indian industry have the unique opportunity to reposition itself in this process of global change? What are the advantages that the Indian industry can leverage? How will this transform emerging Indian multinationals and what impact will it have on western multinationals? Dr CK Prahalad threw light on some of the aspects during the hour long lecture.
Said, Dr CK Prahalad, during his session aIndia has a clear advantage over other countries and can actively shape emerging world order through its economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership.a Rather than take an introspective look at what the country has achieved at 60 years of independence, Dr CK Prahalad urged people to imagine an aIndia at 75a and work diligently towards it. By the year 2022 India can emerge as a leader in industry and commerce, if it is able to capitalize on its advantages. Elaborating on a successful business model for the country, he explains that the ideal circumstance for a successful entrepreneurial venture is one which is alow on resources and high on aspirationsa. India needs to find that balance by investing in its people and raising aspirations.
NIFM is a financial training institute under the aegis of Ministry of Finance. NIFM offers 2 years Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, Diploma in Public Financial Management, Diploma in accounting and Internal Audit. The Institute also offers short term MDPas in areas of Public Expenditure Management, Budgeting, Public Financial Administration, IT, HR etc. to serving officers of the Government of India.
Speaking on the Convocation, GP Gupta, Director, National Institute of Financial Management, said aWe hope that the officers will bring laurels to their alma mater. In todayas context, where despite being a booming economy, we are reeling under economic depression, we need to ensure that safeguards are put in place to look at the interests of stakeholders and the courses at NIFM will enable students, who are senior officers with the Government, to take informed decisions. The need of the hour is to hone the skills and expertise of officers who not only have in-depth knowledge about finance but also are closely attuned to the question of work ethics.a
On this occasion, the Resource Center invited Mr Walter Vieira, an author and a Management Consultant as the chief guest. The books were displayed on various subjects in Management, Research, Banking, Insurance, Economics, Environment, Travel & Tourism, Mathematics, and General Management.
The programme covered major WTO issues such as the scope, function and structure of the WTO, its implications on international business, trade protectionism, regional economic integrations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, antidumping measures, intellectual property rights, subsidies & countervailing measures, special and differential treatment, trade in services, trade facilitation measures, non-agriculture market access (NAMA) and WTO issues in agriculture.
Prof Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Chairperson, Management Development Programmes, said, "Growing economic interdependence has significantly influenced the domestic economy. Inflow of low priced foreign goods is pushing Indian industries especially in the SME sector to shut down leading to mass-scale unemployment. Member countries are required to follow the WTO regulations while making their policies as to what subsidies and incentives can be given to the industry for trade and investment. Therefore, it becomes imperative for the government officials both at the administrative and functional levels to understand the implications of global upheavals and integration of trade and investment under the WTO framework".
Amerendra Khatua, Joint Secretary, trade policy division of the Ministry of Commerce emphasized upon that officials at grass-root level in the districts or at departments and ministries in the states have to understand the implications of the emerging world economic order and WTO issues involving labour, environment, and employment. Prof Biswajit Dhar, Head, WTO Centre, emphasized upon evolving an institutional mechanism for WTO issues between the centre and the states. Prof. Rohit Mehtani, the programme director elaborated upon political economy of international trade and multilateral negotiations.
KT Chacko, Director, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) received the President along with Dr RM Joshi, Chairperson, Management Development programmes IIFT. "We are delighted that President of Rwanda has chosen a premier management institution like IIFT for his visit. This is indeed a prestigious event for us," said Mr Chacko
HE Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda stated that "Though the current turbulent times of global meltdown have left the industry anxious, Africa still is a frontrunner in the list of potential markets for the world. With states still playing key role in many of the sectors in Africa, the time is ripe for a comprehensive business dialogue of Indian industry with the key stakeholders of both Public as well as Private sector in Africa." Mr Kagame also added that India could help in the much needed capacity building of the people in these countries in the area of international business, negotiations at WTO forum, trade policy formulation and so on.
The objective behind the regional cooperation is first to achieve economic union by raising the standard of living of people, reduction in inequalities in incomes, bridging gap between rich and poor, moving towards free and fair trade through reduction in marketing barriers, movement of natural persons, common passports, single monetary system, optimal use of resource endowments and so on. Empirical evidence shows that countries sharing common borders are working on the economic and political union to reap the benefits of the key factors of production viz. labour, capital, technology, investment, and the natural resources. In recognition of its expertise in the area of International Business, the Government of India has entrusted IIFT for the conduct of Capacity Building Programmes in International Business in African countries over the next five years.
The panel discussion saw participants like Mr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman NASSCOM, Mr Sharad Sharma, CEO Yahoo! India, Mr Aravind Sitaraman, MD Cisco India, Dr G Venkatesh, Executive Director CTO & CSO Sasken Communication Technologies, Dr Kamlesh Bajaj CEO DSCI, Mr Sridhar Jayanthi, Head McAfee India. The discussion was moderated by Dr Ganesh Natarajan and saw participation from the audience comprising of professionals, students and the faculty.
Students can choose to take a specific module that is of interest or mix modules to address their specific development gaps. With this flexibility, they can amix and matcha educational modules according to their needs and interest areas. Alternatively, students can also opt to study for a professional certificate in specific disciplines. For example, a Certificate in Management will be awarded to participants who complete eight modules from at least three different areas of study. Other specialized certificates are available for participants who complete six specified modules.
Commencing in the first quarter of 2009, the Global Management Development Series is a fully integrated online programme. Students can access courseware materials 24 hours a day and study at any time that suits them. The virtual classroom environment is facilitated and mentored by a professor who will guide students through the interactive learning process. Students are also encouraged to share their work experiences and views with other students in the class via the online discussion boards.
Various events at Unmaad will be also open to corporate participants. The online quizzes have already received participation from many software companies and colleges in the country. The fest will host events like Fashion Show, freestyle dance competition Footloose, and Choreography competition. Unmaad 2009 will have a semi-professional Rock Competition aB-School of Rocka where invited bands from across the country will compete for prizes including airtime on radio and a CD release. Amateur bands can compete at aBattle of the Bandsa. Another attraction will be the Pro-Nite by Krishnakumar Kunnath where he will take the stage with favorites like aTadap Tadap Sea and aPala.
MR Venkatesh, Author and Columnist will take a session on aThe fallout for India Inc. from Satyam fiascoa. Also, a panel discussion will be held on the topic aAre the intellectuals performing their national duties?a. The fest includes aAcruxa, an HR case based study and online events such as Adrenaline, Armageddon, Fever Pitch etc. The highlight if the event will be OBD (Outbound at Dawn) which includes outdoor competitive events conducted in the forests of the IIT campus. Samanvay will close with a valedictory address from Mr S Mahalingam, CFO, TCS.
The festival will also hold seminars on issues related to digital entertainment such as films as catalysts for social change, gaming boom, animation, business of VFX in India, digital going regional and the digital theatre revolution.
The list of speakers this year include Madhur Bhandarkar, Prahlad Kakkar, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Dibaker Banerjee, Rajat Barjatya of Rajshree Media Ltd., documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, K Hariharan - Dir. of LV Prasad of Film & Television Academy, regional filmmakers Bipin Nadkarni (Marathi) and Ringo (Bengali), film critic Rajeev Masand (CNN-IBN), Luke Kenny ('Rock On' actor and ex-VJ) who will be screening his directorial debut '13th Floor', Dr Sunil Patil-CEO - PVR Digital, India, VK Prakash - digital filmmaker based in Bengaluru, Arnab Chaudhri - director of animation movie 'Arjun' slated to release in mid-2009 and Gitanjali Rao- animation filmmaker ('Printed Rainbow') and illustrator.
Dr Vikas Anand, Professor and faculty coordinator at Sam M Walton commented, aThis is our second in a series of annual visits to Fortune Institute. Through this tour our students learn about cross-cultural activities and about Indiaas economy and functioning of corporate world. Main objective of the programme has been to enable the students to appreciate country's economic outlook and relate to its business environment.a The visiting team gathered inputs about Indian management practices and styles, Indian consumer behaviour and economic environment of the country. Students undertook marketing research project inclusive of visit to Reliance retail outlets in Delhi and Wal-Mart office in Gurgaon. Interactive classroom sessions were also conducted as part of the exchange programme by the faculty of Fortune Institute.
Starting from an initial pool of over 8,500 participants, 46 participants from 12 countries made it to the Final Round, where they competed in 10 international teams. 5 of these 10 teams had a Great Lakes student as a member. Prasanna Joshi, Oza Rutvij Siddharth, Rohit Menon, Parth S Bhimani and Adarsh Nand Bahadur flew to Germany to take part in the final round that consisted of two realistic case studies, and were judged by a jury of experts. The teams competed live for two days at the Post Tower in Bonn, Germany.
At the end of the contest, Prasanna Joshias team a that consisted of a German, a Turk, an American and an IIFT student-bagged the top prize worth 25,000 Euros. "While all of the finalists demonstrated a very high skill level, the strategic approach, creative ideas and very professional presentation delivered by Team ARBOCADON (the winning team) made a particularly favorable impression on us," noted Walter Scheurle, Board Member for Personnel at Deutsche Post World Net. Rutvijas team (consisting of a German, an American, a Mexican and an ISB student) won the second prize worth 15000 Euros while Rohitas team (consisting of Germans, a Filipino and an IIM-C student) got the third prize worth 10,000 Euros.
The three Symbiosis institutes occupy two floors each in the campusas academic building and a similar allocation is followed for the hostels. There are two messes in the campus with SIIB and SCMHRD students each having a mess that they favour. I soon met some second year students of SIIB who explained the competitive spirit which exists between the students of the three institutes. An annual sporting event called Symbolympics is held which is extremely keenly contested between students with innovative slogans often used by onlookers for commenting purposes. Interestingly enough, in order to improve interactions between the institutes, another sporting event called aThe Friendship Cupa is organized in which each team consists of students from all three b-schools. Further, each institute closely guards information concerning placements and students do not share such data with other schools until after completion of processes. Students do however freely use library and faculty resources from across institutes. 
Interestingly enough, movie shootings have also taken place at the Symbiosis Infotech Campus. Jyoti Ghegi of SIIB muses: aIt almost seems as if film producers land up here whenever they need to shoot at a university campus! 'Summer 2007' and 'Halla Bol' as well as some Marathi films have been shot over here. Sikander Kher and Nana Patekar have played cricket in the campus. We've even had Gul Panag requesting us to fill in as extras and some of us not being able to oblige because of an assignment submission! A change of sign boards, some touch ups and Symbiosis University becomes a Kasturba Medical Collegea she adds.