Hello Puys :: The IIFT GD/PI process starts from tomorrow 2nd Feb 2009. 
Please use this thread for posting your GD/PI Experience. Use the earlier thread (http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/other-exams-xat-fms-jmet/36052-official-iif…
Hello Puys 
The IIFT GD/PI process starts from tomorrow 2nd Feb 2009. :)
Please use this thread for posting your GD/PI Experience.
Use the earlier thread (http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/official-iift-2009-11-gd-pi-list-out-25036052) for generic queries and please don't post anything irrelevant here.
All the very best to everyone :thumbsup:
Cheers!!!
Siddharth
PS:- Moi having it first day itself 
Friends,
Lemme be the first one to post the topics they gave for Essay and GD/PI today. EVen though I have my GD/PI tommorow!
Venue:-- Coffee Board, bangalore.
Essay topic----- " Implications of Us presidency change for India".
Gd/PI------ " Corporate governance in India".
I feel topics are predictable and general enough for everyone to have something to say. (Hoping similar kind of topics for tommorow)
cmon guys start posting ur interview experiences.
Had my IIFT Interview today at 9:30 AM
Venue: Coffee Board, Bangalore.
The essay is back.
20 minutes, 300 words.
Topic: The implication of the change in US presidency for India
There are 4 panels each with 3 people.
There is one alumni who passed out in 1971.
GD:
Topic: Corporate Financial Transparency:Need for more regulation
Panel:IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration Prof Vijaya Katti
IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration Prof Basanta Sahu
Alumni
I was in GROUP 1. 13 candidates,1 guy was absent
Each guy gets a minute to express his views.
Followed by 15 minutes open discussion.
After this, they chose some people randomly to summarize.
(In my group, Prof Sahu chose 3 people. I think he chose them because they had the lowest airtime in the group. My guess though.)
The moderator thing is there. Prof Sahu kept the time and he placed the bell in front of a candidate and took it to the next guy himself.Moderators were chosen at random and not on the basis of seating order.
Nobody did much with regard to moderatorship. One guy pressed the bell and spoke for 30 seconds and said so far we have spoken about these 3 things. Lets talk in detail about them or some such thing. Apart from that guy most people didnot bother about moderating.
I came in 4 times and made decent points.
I felt the gd went well for me.
Interview:
Panelists:
IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration Prof Rakesh Mohan Joshi(P1)
There were 2 more people.
One person was introduced as a Maketing Prof(P2). Name is Venkatesh or some similar sounding name. Not in the faculty list in the website.
Maybe seniors can help.
There was one very very old Professor(P3).Again could not get his name from the faculty list.
Interview was very cool and short.
At the end of it, I am not sure if it went well or not.
P1 : (As I was walking in)
Me: yes sir
P1:Tell something about Madurai?
What is it famous for.
Me:Answered
P3:A question about the book I had mentioned.
The book is "When genius failed"
P2:which city is your college in.
Me:Madurai
P2:2 negatives about Madurai.
Me:Conservative city, not much growth.
P1 :A tech question on Networks.
Me: gave a stupid answer. He left it at that.
P3: You have mentioned Indian value system has undergone subtle changes? In the last how many years has this change happened ?
Me: In the last 15 years, after the economic liberalization.................
P3 : Was reading the answer to that ethics vs morality answer) Said an incident involving Dhirubhai Ambani. Asked if that was ethical.
Me: Was not clear about what exactly happened in that incident. So said something
P3: Repeated the question.
Me: Dont know the facts about it. So dont want to comment on that incident.
P1: Why sudden dip in acads in UG
Me: extracurrics. So could not balance.
P2: Which is more important: Extra currics or Acads?
Me: I said proper balance is necessary.
P1:What is the importance of Acads ( in 100 pecent- How much for Acads,
How much for extra currics)
Me: 70 for Acads
I dont know what to say. Personally believe the tech question could have been answered well. Also the ethics question, I think I made a few mistakes.
Long wait for the results starts...
All the best guys..
hey dude thanks for posting so quick! sure is a great help to us who are yet to have it man! can you do one more quick favour? do u have work ex or are u a fresher?
ppl who are going to post henceforth - can you please mention your scores and whether ur fresher or not?
Thanks in advance guys!
Whew!!Season 08 got kicking and finally i've got some chance to be of some material use to puys.Lets start chronologically:
(Disc: Guys who've been thru iift process b4 , pls bear with me, this info is for newbies like me)
1. Even though the location of coffee board is well known, don't underestimate bangalore traffic (especially weekday ) and plan to reach there by 8:30 under no traffic conditions.This will allow you to be there by 9 am at the least.
2. All the candidates are divided into group size of around 12-13 in different stage of the admission process. After each stage, the people in the groups are shuffled. For eg. We had a different group for essay writing and different one for gd/pi.
The first part is essay writing.Topic was "Ramifications of change in US presidency on India" One has to write on a 2 page paper back-to-back(something like the xat essay paper reproduced backwards).Time limit is 20 min
Important points wrt essay:20 min is not a lot of time. In fact many of us were only done with 1st page when the in-charge announced only 5 min left. The last part was thus written in a hurry. So start off as soon as you can collect your thoughts.
The second part is Group discussion. As many of you might be aware of the IIFT GD process,we've 2 min to jot down our thoughts. In serial number in clockwise/anticlockwise direction, everyone is asked to speak for 2 min(not a strict time limit though...they don't keep a bell to tell that 2 min is over) Then the floor is thrown open for around 20 min where anyone can start.
Today the gd topic was "Corporate Financial Transparency. Is there a need for regulation" I'd rate the group as an excellent one. Lot of original points were coming in and a very peaceful gd. It was completely unlike the mock gds that i'd attended and for the first time i was allowed to complete my point without being interrupted. Guess being in an actual knockout-round makes many people cautious :). I'd rate my own performance as above par with the first 2 min as the high point.
Some imp points wrt. gd: The IIFT process is a unique one in the sense that it allows everyone to talk for 2 min. One drawback here is that the serial numbers are decided and hence suppose by the time NO.8 gets to speak most of the points will be exhausted. For eg. I knew that by the time my turn comes, "SATYAM" will have been teased apart. Hence, in the first 2 min of thinking time, try to think of points which'll still stand and few ppl are liable to think of by the time your turn comes. Eg. a person at NO.11 suddenly started speaking about the political-corporate nexus and this was not raised earlier. This should illustrate my point.
Finally comes the most chilled out part of the process.The personal interview. I'd 2 people in my panel. One was fair prof (fp), other was studious prof(sp). Finally moi.
moi: Good morn sirs
fp: take a seat.
sp: So introduce yourself
moi : blah-blah and then some more blah-blah.
fp: so Mr Ganguli...
moi: yessir?
fp: how many more gangulys do you know.
moi: Lots sir, cbse chairman Ashok Ganguly,trio of kishore kumar,ashok kr,anoop kr. trio of ravi shankar,anand shankar...and of course our own dada.
fp: Where do you rank yourselves among these?(both profs smile)
moi : try to say something then just smile
sp: you seem to have done more research on gangulys than military history(my hobby) (smiles everywhere)
Intermittently both the profs were reading from the cv which we'd sent them.
sp: What is this best "mobile idea" prize in IIT roorkee
moi : told
sp(looking through the cv) has nandan nilekani written a book (didn't know whether that was a question or an answer)
moi: yes , imagining india ..very recently released
sp: What is this book about
moi: blah-blah somewhere in middle mentioned how e-choupals are benefitting farmers.
sp: what is e-choupal
moi: Its an initiative by itc in which they've a (got stuck for some time here dunno why..prob was trying to find the right jargonised word)
fP: mobile...
moi: yeah rite mobile platform sir which is used to provide farmers with market access eg. MCX,NCDEX etc which helps eliminate the middlemen.
sp: How many echoupals are there and its impact?
moi: The ITC gives numbers in a few million sir but i don't have an idea regarding its real impact:frown:
sp now looks to fp. now the fun part starts.The rest of the interview is hindi question-english answer.
fp: yeh kaunse college se engg kiya hai....spelled out each word P..E...S..I..T
moi: sir it stands for People's education society Institute of Technology.
fp: where is it?
moi : near mysore road sir.
fp: bakwaas college hoga. These private colleges their ranking is determined by how much a management seat costs there.ye Thapar hai na, its management seat costs 20 lac and hence is given best ranking.
moi: (smiling) sir, the college is among top 3 in karnataka. In terms of placement its comparable to good nits and has great faculty as well.
fp : how much is management seat in ur coll?
moi : comp sc arnd 15 lac
sp: how did you get in -written or management
moi: sir we'd to write CET karnataka. That was the last year that cet was held for outside karnataka students.
fp: cat ka kya raha?
moi : told
fp: xat ka kya raha?
moi : told
fp: in sab mein ho jayega toh kahan jayega? (both profs were laughing now)
moi: Its very difficult to say at this stage sir.In this era of globalization, anyone who's trained to in international business has a definite edge and blah-blah...i'm not decided yet sir(this was my Why IIFT answer)
I'm not sure about the answer but was having discomfort saying point blank that iift is quite down in my scheme of things .Comments welcome on how this will be taken.
So here's the full blow-by-blow account.Actually it was a very chilled process and they didn't make you feel uncomfortable for a moment. In fact the interviews are chill for everyone. There might be a lot of back-end thinking going on but the apparent process is really gr88..As usual,comments welcome.
Final verdict : Waitlisted for IIFT (D) which automatically means an IIFT(K) convert
hey dude thanks for posting so quick! sure is a great help to us who are yet to have it man! can you do one more quick favour? do u have work ex or are u a fresher?
ppl who are going to post henceforth - can you please mention your scores and whether ur fresher or not?
Thanks in advance guys!
My IIFT Written score: 29.9
Work ex-18 months
Acads: 10-91
+2-93
Engg-73
All the best
My IIFT Written score: 29.9
Work ex-18 months
Acads: 10-91
+2-93
Engg-73
All the best
your acads seem great....70% in engg is considered awesome in Mumbai atleast....not so in Madurai?
Whew!!Season 08 got kicking and finally i've got some chance to be of some material use to puys.Lets start chronologically:
(Disc: Guys who've been thru iift process b4 , pls bear with me, this info is for newbies like me)
bhai....I have graduated from thapar...I din`t know that thapar has this kinda reputation in the the B Schools... :confused:
luckyamrit1 Saysbhai....I have graduated from thapar...I din`t know that thapar has this kinda reputation in the the B Schools... :confused:
:laugh: actually even i was surprised by the thapar example...its supposed to be a good school...he also gave example of PSG tech coimbatore (i forgot to mention that) which i guess is among the best pvt t-schools. Maybe all pvt colleges except BITS Pilani share the same repo
meshed Saysyour acads seem great....70% in engg is considered awesome in Mumbai atleast....not so in Madurai?
In Tamilnadu,70% is normal.
Lotsa people get 80+ ...
Hi guys,
2 topics, out of 11 which I had thought of, on the very first day!!! Felt like posting these topics. Hoping M not considered
I hve a list of few topics which summarizes the events in the last 6-8 months or so, globally.
1. Barrack Obama: Challenges ahead.
2. Sub prime crisis.
3. Lehman fall.
4. Why was meryll lynch saved, but lehmann allowed to fall?
5. 26/11, effect on India-Pak relations.
6. Satyam scandal.
7. Attcks on Gaza:- Where is UN.
8. Corporate governance.
9. The success of Ghajini: Is it the revival of action movies?
10. Slumdog millionaire: Oscar race/publicising poverty?
11. Next assembly elections: What's in store.
Lets hope tommorow is the day for Satyam and Sub prime.
Am also done with the Essay/GD/PI process 
It was super cool process and everything was carried in a very formal way :)
Venue: Hotel Golkonda, Hyderabad
Time: 9:30 sharp
We had 2 batches of 14 & 13 members in the group. We were sent to two separate rooms for the essay writing and Group Discussion.
As we all know the topic for today's essay was "Implication of change in the US Presidency for India" :). We were given 20 minutes and the 300 words limit. The candidates will be judged on the following factors in the essay:-
- Clarity & depth of the topic (40 %)
- Logical expressions (30 %)
- Writing skills (30 %)
I wrote about 4-5 different points in the essay
The panel consisted of one IIFT faculty (IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration) and 3 other members.After the essay we were given a break for 10 minutes and then they explained about the rules of the GD and they are as follows:-
- 5 minutes for collecting the thoughts on the topic.
- 1-1.5 minutes for each of the candidate on what is their view on the topic and after that the group will be open for discussion.
- In those 15-20 minutes, one would have to become a chairperson for the group discussion and see to it that the discussion is going in the right direction.
And the candidates will be judged on the quality of the content, team player, logical expressions and listening skills.
The topic given to us was "Corporate Financial transparency in India: need for more regulation?"
I was the 6th in the group and mentioned about my views on the topic and when the floor was open for discussion, I pitched in with 4-5 different points and then the group started discussing about those points. There was a crosstalk in between and a fresher out there stopped a person on his right from speaking in a violent manner ;)
After around 15 minutes they asked 2 people to say what do they think about the topic and these were those people who didn't got much air time. When 5 minutes were remaining the panel reminded us that and I took this opportunity to summarize on all the points discussed.
so overall a good GD where almost everyone got the chance to speak. After the GD we were swapped with the other batch so there is no biasing with the candidates. There were 5 members in our panel with only 1 faculty from IIFT as Professor Harkirat Singh IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration
Finally my turn came and went in
Panel: Introduce yourself in brief
Moi: usual blah blah
Panel: What do you do in Avaya?
Moi: Explained them in detail :)
Panel: Which company you like better Wipro Technologies (my previous company) or Avaya?
Moi: Told them that both are good but I didn't like some of the policies of Wipro : and also explained about the levels of hierarchy of both the companies
Panel: What have you learnt from the book "A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini" and the same time the other person asked me and which one you liked the most between Kite Runner and a thousand splendid suns
Moi: Mentioned that both are good books in themselves and explained about the books
Panel: Seeing the golbal economic slowdown, do you think is this the right time to do MBA? This was asked by a femal member.
Moi: Absoultely madam. By learning the nucances of business administration I would like to do may hands dirty as it will be the best time to show your skills and talent
Panel: What is the currency of France?
Moi: Euro
Panel: What is SAFTA and how many countires are its members?
Moi: South Asian Free Trade Agrea and 8 countires are its members.
Panel: Though US is the most affected by the recession why the dollar value has remained aroun Rs. 48+ and why the value of Pound has descresed from 90 to 60? A real bouncer :|
Moi: Told them that all the FII's are removing their dollars from the Indian markets and as dollar is the most sought after currency for trade purpose that's the reason.
Panel: What are your strengths for the MBA programme?
Moi: again blah blah
Panel: How many countries are there in the continent of Africa?
Moi: : I mentioned some figure and they said that it is 54 :
Panel: Do you think that the unification of the European Union has done any good?
Moi: gave them some positive points and some negative points
That it
. It lasted for not more than 10 minutes 😃 I had a gut feeling that either they have decided to take me or kick me out :Anyways that's the end of the season for me until FMS gives me call ;)
All the best for the remaining people
And though we carried our files with us they didn't ask anything as each of the panel members were having our CV form with them Cheers!!!
Siddharth
Hi guys,
2 topics, out of 11 which I had thought of, on the very first day!!! Felt like posting these topics. Hoping M not considered
I hve a list of few topics which summarizes the events in the last 6-8 months or so, globally.
1. Barrack Obama: Challenges ahead.
2. Sub prime crisis.
3. Lehman fall.
4. Why was meryll lynch saved, but lehmann allowed to fall?
5. 26/11, effect on India-Pak relations.
6. Satyam scandal.
7. Attcks on Gaza:- Where is UN.
8. Corporate governance.
9. The success of Ghajini: Is it the revival of action movies?
10. Slumdog millionaire: Oscar race/publicising poverty?
11. Next assembly elections: What's in store.
Lets hope tommorow is the day for Satyam and Sub prime.
nice set of topics....but i feel points 2,3 and 4 can be clubbed....6 and 8 are pretty much done in today's topic.....9 and 10 i think are a little too specific...altho contemporary, they might put people who hvnt watched these movies at a big disadvantage....point number 11 is scary to say the least....hope it doesnt come 😁
Puys who had their GD/PIs today can you please tell us what the attire was - did all the men come in blazers?
meshed SaysPuys who had their GD/PIs today can you please tell us what the attire was - did all the men come in blazers?
As far attire is concerned only 2 people out of 27 were in blazers while rest of us were in formals with a tie. Though some of them were not even wearing a tie.
If you don't have a blazer its ok but don't forget to wear the tie
Cheers!!!
Siddharth
help what is the answer to"why u want to do mba" red light
To add to it, going by the prev GD topics at IIFT, its clear that most of them are either economic, social or political topics that are in some way or the other related to foreign trade
meshed Saysnice set of topics....but i feel points 2,3 and 4 can be clubbed....6 and 8 are pretty much done in today's topic.....9 and 10 i think are a little too specific...altho contemporary, they might put people who hvnt watched these movies at a big disadvantage....point number 11 is scary to say the least....hope it doesnt come :D
Am also done with the Essay/GD/PI process
It was super cool process and everything was carried in a very formal way :)
Venue: Hotel Golkonda, Hyderabad
Time: 9:30 sharp
We had 2 batches of 14 & 13 members in the group. We were sent to two separate rooms for the essay writing and Group Discussion.
As we all know the topic for today's essay was "Implication of change in the US Presidency for India" :). We were given 20 minutes and the 300 words limit. The candidates will be judged on the following factors in the essay:-
- Clarity & depth of the topic (40 %)
- Logical expressions (30 %)
- Writing skills (30 %)
I wrote about 4-5 different points in the essayThe panel consisted of one IIFT faculty (IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration) and 3 other members.
After the essay we were given a break for 10 minutes and then they explained about the rules of the GD and they are as follows:-
- 5 minutes for collecting the thoughts on the topic.
- 1-1.5 minutes for each of the candidate on what is their view on the topic and after that the group will be open for discussion.
- In those 15-20 minutes, one would have to become a chairperson for the group discussion and see to it that the discussion is going in the right direction.
And the candidates will be judged on the quality of the content, team player, logical expressions and listening skills.
The topic given to us was "Corporate Financial transparency in India: need for more regulation?"
I was the 6th in the group and mentioned about my views on the topic and when the floor was open for discussion, I pitched in with 4-5 different points and then the group started discussing about those points. There was a crosstalk in between and a fresher out there stopped a person on his right from speaking in a violent manner ;)
After around 15 minutes they asked 2 people to say what do they think about the topic and these were those people who didn't got much air time. When 5 minutes were remaining the panel reminded us that and I took this opportunity to summarize on all the points discussed.
so overall a good GD where almost everyone got the chance to speak. After the GD we were swapped with the other batch so there is no biasing with the candidates. There were 5 members in our panel with only 1 faculty from IIFT as Professor Harkirat Singh IIFT ::. Faculty & Administration
Finally my turn came and went in
Panel: Introduce yourself in brief
Moi: usual blah blah
Panel: What do you do in Avaya?
Moi: Explained them in detail :)
Panel: Which company you like better Wipro Technologies (my previous company) or Avaya?
Moi: Told them that both are good but I didn't like some of the policies of Wipro : and also explained about the levels of hierarchy of both the companies
Panel: What have you learnt from the book "A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini" and the same time the other person asked me and which one you liked the most between Kite Runner and a thousand splendid suns
Moi: Mentioned that both are good books in themselves and explained about the books
Panel: Seeing the golbal economic slowdown, do you think is this the right time to do MBA? This was asked by a femal member.
Moi: Absoultely madam. By learning the nucances of business administration I would like to do may hands dirty as it will be the best time to show your skills and talent
Panel: What is the currency of France?
Moi: Euro
Panel: What is SAFTA and how many countires are its members?
Moi: South Asian Free Trade Agrea and 8 countires are its members.
Panel: Though US is the most affected by the recession why the dollar value has remained aroun Rs. 48+ and why the value of Pound has descresed from 90 to 60? A real bouncer :|
Moi: Told them that all the FII's are removing their dollars from the Indian markets and as dollar is the most sought after currency for trade purpose that's the reason.
Panel: What are your strengths for the MBA programme?
Moi: again blah blah
Panel: How many countries are there in the continent of Africa?
Moi: : I mentioned some figure and they said that it is 54 :
Panel: Do you think that the unification of the European Union has done any good?
Moi: gave them some positive points and some negative points
That it
Anyways that's the end of the season for me until FMS gives me call ;)
All the best for the remaining people
Cheers!!!
Siddharth
U r in man.....gr8 interview
Done with the IIFT interview. Only one this season. :)
Profile: Software Developer with 2.5 years of work ex
Location: Hyderabad
Essay: The implication of the change in US presidency for India
GD:
Topic: Corporate Financial Transparency:Need for more regulation
PI:
5 people in the panel (a lady and 4 gentlemen)
Q: So what should we ask you? I guess everybody already told you what we are asking.
Q: Why IB? What do you know about IB?
Q: What is globalization?
Q: Explain your job profile.
Q: So how is it like working client side?
Q: Does India import or export more?
Q: Name one main import?
THANK U AND GUD NIGHT!!!!
Was inside for 5 mins TOPS!! Man I take more time to run a 100m race.
At least the tea and biscuits were good!!
Best of luck to the rest!!!