MBA @ IIT Kanpur

The Admission Season...

2012-01-20T00:05:00.004+05:30

Of late it has been in fashion to exaggerate about the chilling cold of IIT Kanpur and believe me they are not wrong. We witnessed a few completely foggy winter days. The dancing fog in and around the hostel lobbies reminded us of Harry Potter’s foggy school... but all this could not restrict us from enjoying the weather...sometimes played football even in 20-30 metre visibility.

But,here, we don’t want to talk about the winter season. we want to talk about another season: The Admission season.
The admission season is back again... candidates are curious as to which college they would end up getting a seat in. The years of preparation is at stake... emotions are pigmented in colours of nervousness, eagerness and uncertainty... queries are galore just to sense whiff of success from one’s dream college... all suffice to make us nostalgic about our very own “season” last year...
IIT Kanpur has also tightened its belt to welcome the new members in its fold. IITs, as is known to all by now, are accepting CAT score for admission into their MBA program. IIT Kanpur has set its own criteria for admission. The distinguishing point is that a cap in terms of 10th, 12th and graduation marks has been introduced. Girl candidates have been encouraged for admission by waving off their application fee (we do appreciate this step! ;))

We here at IIT Kanpur have been trying to answer the queries of candidates at various fora namely Pagalguy.com, Facebook etc. We do encourage the candidates to ask any query regarding admission. We try our best to answer them to the best of our knowledge, as quickly as possible.
Despite many changes have been alluded by our faculty members at different fora regarding the kind of candidates (in terms of experience and past academic record) they are looking for, it’s still to be seen which “breed” of candidates carries the prestigious legacy.
I, on behalf of MBA- 2013 and PR & Media team, wish all the luck to the candidates and hope that they get what they deserve.
Hoping to see u here!

Contributed by:

Hitendra Kumar
PR and Media Cell
MBA, 2013

Workshop On Stock Market Analysis

2012-01-10T12:33:00.000+05:30

Business Club organized a workshop on Stock Market Analysis on 7th and 8th January. The workshop was conducted by professionals from Stock Market Institute, Bangalore. The idea behind the workshop was to bridge the gap between the theoretical and practical scenarios of stock market and other financial aspects. The workshop covered the basics of stock analysis and the fundamental and technical analysis of stocks.

Before discussing the technicalities of the subject, the speaker mentioned that stock markets are all about handling emotions. Further he talked about the role of various participants involved in the process ranging from SEBI, Brokers and Clearing houses. The cycle of stock market was then explained which comprises various stages such as Euphoria, Skepticism, Pessimism etc. Beginning the discussion on fundamental analysis, the speaker highlighted the top down and bottom up approaches. The overall objective in fundamental analysis is to evaluate the strength of the company by means of financial statements, financial metrics and business trends. The relevance of valuation ratios such as P/E ratio and Earnings per share was emphasized upon.

On technical analysis front, the audience was introduced to the concepts of Japanese candlestick formation. Apart from several other concepts, most importantly, the audience was given a number of valuable trading and investing tips from the experts. The students had an opportunity to experience real time trading which enabled them to apply the learnt concepts. The two day session concluded with a panel discussion and freewheeling queries from the audience.

Report prepared by:

Alok Jain
MBA Batch of 2013
PR & Media Cell

December issue of Avant Garde is out!!!

2011-12-17T18:21:00.000+05:30

The December issue of Avant Garde is out. Follow the issue at:

http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/avantgarde/?p=539

Do leave your valuable feedback.

PR and Media cell wishes you all a happy reading

Contributed by:
Hitendra Kumar
MBA-2013

On campus interaction with alumnus, Mr. Manzil Kohli

2011-12-17T11:31:00.000+05:30

Hi All,

Meeting an alumnus is always a fruitful experience, more so when the alumnus possesses a personality as dynamic as Mr. Manzil Kohli. One of the most active alumni of our MBA programme, Mr. Kohli is 2006 batch pass out. From being a core member of Antaragni, Techkriti and other student bodies to arranging many pan-IIT meets in US, Mr. Kohli always seems to be in thick of things. He joined IBM after completing his MBA and is currently in Indianapolis, USA working with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He is influential and has very good rapport with a wide IIT Alumni base.
There was an air of excitement in the current senior and junior batch of MBA, who had gathered in the amphitheatre of new IME building. Smartly dressed, Mr. Kohli didn’t make us wait for long. The session began with each one of us introducing ourselves to him. Though he planned to interact with us through a presentation, the stitches in his mouth prevented him from doing so. Yet, he spoke about his life in and out of IIT. He spoke at length about how friends, acquaintances and social networks aid in the growth of one’s career. He wanted all the students to make an impression, be visible, grow their network and socialize. He urged all of us to actively participate in the organization of events like Antaragini and Techkriti. In addition to this, he also discussed placement related opportunities. He also shared his views on how the programme can be improved. He provided us with quite a few examples from his own life which made the session more interesting in all respects.

His take on life can be expressed in his own words:

“You must have ‘passion’ for at least one thing in your life; it could be anything, but more importantly follow that passion aggressively. That will make you different from others.”

He instilled a lot of positive energy and enlightened us about the path ahead. Mr. Kohli promised to meet us again next year, around same time of the year. After a two hour interactive and energetic session it was time to bid him farewell with the promise to meet again soon.
We wish him good luck for his future endeavours and hope that he continues to inspire people around him.

Contributed by:

Deepak Gaur
PR and Media Cell,
MBA 2013

Seminar: Innovative ways in Project execution (IOCL)

2011-11-27T12:47:00.001+05:30

A seminar on “Innovative ways in Project execution- IOCL” was organized by the IME department. The speaker was Mr. Vineet Singhal, who is the Chief Project Manager at IOCL. Mr. Singhal has worked in diverse roles in the industry ranging from handling of EPCM consultants,plant maintenance management to estate management. The talk kicked off with an overview of the company i.e. how IOCL came into existence, location of its various refineries and its Supply Chain Management process. Then Mr. Singhal mentioned the various drivers for diversification into Petrochemicals ranging from renewable energy to Nuclear Power.

The discussion highlighted the project attributes, constraints and project management framework in general and its implementation in various projects of IOCL in particular. Mr. Singhal gave an insight of the project management system in refineries division. He mentioned that fixed price contracts transfer the risk to the seller. The students were enlightened about an extensively used project management practice called Front end loading, which is robust planning and design early in a project's lifecycle time when the ability to influence changes is relatively high and the cost to make those changes is relatively low. The focus of the talk later shifted to Project Management systems in Indian Oil for mega Projects in context to recently completed Panipat Naphtha Cracker Project with outlay of nearly Rupees 14000 crores and the ongoing Paradip Refinery project with outlay of nearly Rs. 27000 crores. The speaker shed some light on the innovations done at Indian Oil in project implementation strategies and management of risks, concerns and challenges faced during theserecent implementations.

The talk was wrapped up by interesting questions and free-wheeling discussion between the audience and the speaker.

Report prepared by:

Alok Jain
MBA Batch of 2013
PR & Media Cell

Prabandhan 2011: The annual management conclave

2011-11-04T17:31:00.001+05:30

Prabandhan 2011, the annual management conclave of IME, IIT Kanpur was organized on 29th and 30th October 2011. This year’s ‘Prabandhan’ was based on the theme: Innovation. The conclave encompassed a wide range of events and activities such as guest lectures, online contests and a workshop based on Innovation.

The event flagged off with the opening address by Prof. N.K Sharma, who talked about various facets of Innovation based on his experience, and wished Prabandhan 2011 a great success. Mr. Vishal Sharma, Director, Deloitte Consulting started the guest lecture series by delivering a talk on“Innovations in IT to achieve business results”. He enlightened the audience about the way in whicha CIO’s role has evolved in the organizations over the years. He further discussed the various drivers of Innovation in Information technology. The lecture series next had a session with Prof. Jayanta Chatterjee and Prof. Satyaki Roy. This session invited application oriented participation from the audience whereby the participants were given various scenarios involving some present issues or concerns, and they had to come up with innovative solutions.

The first day had the preliminary round for the online B-Quiz also. It attracted participation from various B-schools across the country including IIMs, IITs, MDI, NITIE, IIFT etc. The B-Quiz also included mind-crunching questions based on pictures and videos, which were thoroughly enjoyed by the participants. The conclave also included a Case building Contest, whereby the participants had toformulate their own case, instead of analyzing one the traditional way. This was held in two rounds: Round 1 for abstract submission and Round 2 for the submission of the final case.

Day 2 began with a 5 hour long Innovation workshop. This workshop was organized by IME department in association with SIIC (SIDBI innovation and incubation center). Dr. Ahustosh Khanna, from IMI Delhi had been invited to conduct the interactive workshop for students. He holds a PhD in Innovation and Information Systems from the Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, U.K. and has over 14 years of rich experience in consulting, academia and entrepreneurship in U.K. The students were introduced to the key fundamentals of Innovation such as linking innovation with economic activity, the innovation life cycle - the S curve and the Bell curve, and the wealth creation triad. The students were asked to come up with their own innovative ideas, which were then examined in lieu of the discussed concepts.

Prabandhan 2011, in nutshell, was a huge success and got word of commendation for its events from the participants.

Report prepared by:
Alok Jain
MBA Batch of 2013
PR & Media Cell

The News: In Retrospection.

2011-10-22T19:46:00.001+05:30

It’s a bit late this time around ...but I have a number of good news to share ... all are etched in everyone’s memory and can be recited without any hiatus... such was the charisma of events and so was our euphoria...

The IME party...the scintillating IME party ... conspicuous presence of all IME students, professors and their spouses mixed with flamboyant performance by students made it one of the memorable events in our premature IIT Kanpur life... It helped the students and the professors come closer. The excellent mimicry, poem citing and dialogue delivery by students left everyone mesmerized and took every professor back to their own student life (well, I guess so ;))... The party ended with few other-than-academic words by the professors.

The party was followed by small (sic!) Dussehra break which was first opportunity before us to head for home leaving all books and assignments locked in our hostel.

We came back and as if people knew that the break was not enough to re-energize us... so Antragini was organized ... Antragini as usual was at its top scale. The theme this time around was superhero. This four days long event changed the aura of IIT Kanpur... roads were made dance floor and thousands of people danced on the beats of DJ... A number of enthralling events ranging from rock show to fashion show kept us deprived of sleep... The icing on the cake was Sunidhi Chauhan’s performance which gave a perfect end to the event.

A party may end ... an event may wait for next year, but there is no dearth of parties here... we have celebrated many of our classmates’ birthday and the party is still on...

Last but not the least, our classmate Alok Jain, MBA 1st year, recently won Best speaker’s award at the Times of India Debate contest organized in Lucknow. Heartiest Congratulations to Alok.

Hope you too are living your life to the fullest and celebrating each small and big happiness.

Keep the party on!

See you soon !

Contributed by:

Hitendra Kumar
MBA, 1st year
PR and Media Cell

A seminar on “Cultural intelligence and communication for global effectiveness” at IME, IIT Kanpur

2011-09-25T15:29:00.000+05:30

A seminar on “Cultural Intelligence and Communication for Global Effectiveness” was organized by the IME department, IIT Kanpur. The speaker was Ms. Shoma Mukherjee, who is a well-known consultant for MNCs and practices in the field of Business Communications, HR and Finance. She introduced the topic by mentioning that people from different cultures differ in a variety of ways. This means that there are several challenges in cross cultural communication in terms of communication style, attitudes towards conflicts, and approaches to completing tasks etc. And thus, in this globalized world, it becomes highly imperative to have an insight of these issues and make a conscious effort to overcome them

She went on to explain the Iceberg model of culture, which identifies a visible area consisting of behavior or clothing or symbols and a level of values that is invisible. Also she discussed Hofstede dimensions to distinguish between cultures which comprise of Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance and Long term/Short term orientation. The participants were given an activity to categorize various statements with respect to these dimensions. Ms. Mukherjee further talked about Cultural intelligence (CQ) in terms of cognition, motivation and behavior. She told that CQ is rooted in four different, yet interrelated set of capabilities: metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ. She also delved into Edward Hall’s dimensions of culture: High context and Low context, which are used to describe cultural differences between societies. All these concepts were illustrated in light of real world situations.

She concluded the discussion by highlighting the keys to effective cross cultural communication, like understanding cultural diversity, developing awareness of individual cultures, welcoming change and so on. Since the cultures vary largely, it is quite significant to be culturally intelligent, so as to work effectively in the multicultural environment. The participants found the seminar to be very interactive and informative, addressing cultural challenges that exist in today’s business environment.

Report prepared by:
Alok Jain
PR & Media Cell
MBA Class of 2013

A guest lecture on "Role of absorptive capacity in new high-tech product development" at IME, IIT Kanpur

2011-09-22T21:26:00.000+05:30

A guest lecture was organized by IME department on 8th September on “Role of Absorptive Capacity in New High-tech Product Development”. The speaker was Mr Shashi Shekhar Mishra, who is a doctoral candidate in marketing area at Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, and his doctoral research is in new high-tech product development process.

The seminar began with an introduction to technological innovations and their transformation into successful new products, which is indispensable for high-tech firms. Mr. Mishra said that the researchers and practioners have well recognized the importance of firm-level technology acquisition intent (TAI) for successful realization of new products across various high-tech industries. Extant literature suggests the role of firm’s dynamic capabilities on new high-tech product development (NPD) process. Higher firm-level absorptive capacity is prescribed to stimulate firm’s external knowledge acquisition and overall performance. However, he also said that hardly has any research ever been attempted to explain the effects of absorptive capacity on TAI in the NPD process. His study tries to address this research gap in the extant literature by first developing a theoretical framework through a focused literature survey that explains the relationships between absorptive capacity and TAI, and subsequent consequence of TAI on NPD process. This is followed by empirical validation of the theoretical framework by conducting a survey on 215 high-tech product marketing firms across the globe.

The results of the path analysis indicate that while absorptive capacity and organizational learning directly influences the firm’s TAI, there is no evidence from the results supporting the direct influence of firm size on the same. Furthermore, TAI positively affects readiness-to-design and found to mediate the relationship between its organizational antecedents and readiness-to-deign. In addition, the results of hierarchical regression analysis reveal that, contrary to prevailing wisdom, absorptive capacity reduces the perception of organizational learning from the acquisition of a new know-how. However absorptive capacity is found not to affect the firm size-TAI relationship in any way. The study results clearly established that the TAI by the firm leads to smooth readiness-to-design in new high-tech product development processes.

In all, the present research contributes significantly to the existing marketing literature by explaining the role of absorptive capacity on NPD process, and provided useful insights to the managers who are involved in the development of new high-tech products. The seminar ended with a vote of thanks from Prof S.C Mishra.

Contributed by:

Saurabh Awasthi,
MBA 1st Year,IIT Kanpur

A seminar on "Market Basket Rules as Input to Improve Inventory Performance" at IME, IIT Kanpur

2011-09-19T01:04:00.000+05:30

IME department organized a seminar on “Market Basket Rules as Input to Improve Inventory Performance” and invited Dr. Pradip Kumar Bala to deliver his valuable lecture on it. Dr. Bala is associate professor at IIT Roorkee in Department of Management studies. Dr. Bala introduced the association rules, also known as market basket rules, in the context of retail items.

Market basket rules have been widely used in marketing, shelf allocation in retail stores, web designing in commerce etc; however, according to him, the works on applications of these rules in the area of operations management have been limited so far. He mentioned that recently a few works with applications of market basket rules in inventory management have been applied. According to him, the knowledge of correlated items in the form of association rules can be of tremendous importance in designing inventory replenishment policies and hence, it must be accounted for.The research incorporated in his current work makes an attempt to account for demand correlation at transaction level in retail inventory management. The cost of joint replenishment for correlated items is often found to be much less than the total cost of individual item replenishment. However, just the knowledge of the names of items with correlated demand, and a type of relationship are not always sufficient. We need to know the probabilities or probability distribution of joint demand. When the number of items increases, the complexity of the demand relationship among the items increases dramatically, making it infeasible to calculate all probabilities of joint demand in advance.

To overcome this, he suggested to make use of the association rules which are mined from the past transaction data. The impact of association rules can be used to compute the profitability measure which forms the basis of grouping items with high probability of purchase in the same group. Replenishment policy can be designed for each group separately with higher profitability of inventory operation. The research suggests a measure for profitability index and an algorithm for grouping the items based on the profitability index.

Finally the seminar was wrapped up with queries from faculty and students of the department, which churned out some interesting perspectives and left the attendees with many issues to mull over.

Contributed by:

Vivek Agarwal
MBA, 2011-13
IIT Kanpur

Latest edition of monthly IIT Kanpur e-Newsletter: Avant Garde is out!!!

2011-09-01T20:36:00.003+05:30

Well, the wait is over... The “team” is out there with a fantastic September edition of IIT Kanpur e-Newsletter: Avant Garde

The world has been witnessing change of late in the form of Jasmine revolution, Wiki-leaks, Japan’s crisis and several other events of big and small scales... India also saw, and continues to see, a “change” in mindset against corruption... and so “the change” has not been elusive to Avant Garde as well.

Avant Garde, with few new enthusiastic and energetic editors and equally ecstatic contributors, looks at its new level in this edition. The articles on Hero-Honda split, technological revolution of tablet-pc, and change in attitude of people toward corruption by MBA 1st year students; insight into Strategic Process Improvements in Internal Operations‘ (Apollo Health Street) by Nabarun Sengupta (MBA 2nd year) truly exemplify the theme of this edition: “Change: the eternal constant”.

I, personally as well as on behalf of PR and media cell, congratulate the Avant Garde team for bringing forth such a fantastic issue and hope that all of you enjoy reading this edition.

Avant Garde can be reached at:
http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/avantgarde/

Happy reading :)

Hitendra Kumar
PR and Media Cell
MBA 1st year, IIT Kanpur

Alumni Interaction @IITK - Visit by Shamim Akhtar (MBA 2007)

2011-08-29T22:39:00.001+05:30

It was a dull, humid Sunday evening and despite the dullness in air, there was a buzz of excitement among the students of MBA2013 and 2012, who had gathered in front of canteen of Hall 8. We were all very eager to meet Mr. Shamim Akhtar, an alumnus of MBA, batch of 2007, from IIT Kanpur. He has worked in SBI Caps for 3 years after his MBA and is currently working in Arab National Bank in Saudi Arabia.

After a wait of around 15 minutes, Mr. Shamim – a very young looking, smartly dressed person - reached the canteen. He was quickly introduced to us by a student from our senior batch after which we all settled in a circle in the open air and the much awaited informal session with him began. After a self intro, he was bombarded with questions from everybody who had gathered. He patiently explained to us the career path he chose and how he had crafted it through the MBA course and means of various certifications. He discussed with us the importance of various certifications highlighting mainly the Finance related certifications. He also enlightened us about the kind of job and works that MBA graduates are offered in banks. He explained this to us through means of various examples quoted from his own job experience in the 2 banks that he had worked with. We also cleared our doubts about the impact of down rating the US on India and how this would impact our job opportunity, especially in Finance sector.

His focus then shifted to the existing course structure offered in MBA at IIT Kanpur and discussed pros and cons of it with us. During our conversation, he reminisced his days in our campus. He vividly remembers all faculties who had taught him and every detail of his college days.

He instilled in us a lot of positive energy and enlightened us about the path ahead. Shamim had set an exemplary behavior before us by showing an active involvement with his Alma-mater ever since he passed out in 2007. After one and a half hours of a very fruitful interactive session, it was finally time to bid him ‘goodbye’.

Contributed by :

Nimisha Raveendran
Lead - Alumni Relations
Alumni Relations, PR & Media Cell
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Rocking Freshers Nite '11

2011-08-27T22:23:00.004+05:30

After a month long storm of unending cases, presentations and surprise quizzes, MBA freshers got their first opportunity to party at IIT Kanpur. The much awaited fresher’s party was thrown by seniors on 20th August at the old Students Activity Centre of IIT-K. The welcome party was marked by mile wide grins and high spirits with Rubal and Arpita being the comperes of the night.

Each of the juniors had to take the stage one by one but the catch was to ‘Strictly come Dancing’. Everyone got to see the widest range of dance forms at a single place ranging from salsa, bhangra to someone barely shaking a leg.

The seniors pitched in to break the ice and convince even the most resolute. Then, everyone had to introduce themselves, where juniors were asked about their relationship status, interests etc. People came up with amusing responses for status ranging from “Complicated” to “Confused”. Each of the junior was given interesting tasks to perform and showcase his/her talent as a means to judge for Mr. And Miss Fresher 2011. The juniors got to see the other side of the seniors as there was healthy ribbing and teasing as proposals flew to some of the ‘eligible’ bachelors and bachelorettes of the senior batch.
This was followed by two brilliant performances presented by the junior batch. One of them was ‘Choreography’ that weaved a story through silent acting and songs, which really fascinated the audience.

Another performance was a skit which had mimes of Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachan, DevAnand etc. Finally, ten people were shortlisted for Mr. Fresher and Miss Fresher title. The next round began with Question & Answer which tested impromptu response and novelty of ideas. Finally, Himanshu and Vijayta bagged the crown. Also, Vivek, truly deserving, walked away with the title of the best entertainer of the night.

Music at DJ enticed all to shake their legs and what not. The MBA batch let their hair down and raised the temperature.

Along with it, people headed for the delightful food. The party manifested exuberance and zeal at its full flow. It marked the beginning of both celebrations & hard work that students would be encountering for the coming crucial two years at IIT Kanpur. The medley of song, dance, light hearted banter and feverish dancing highlighted the true spirit of MBA@IITK where everyone dances to the music but on his own tune, where the world comes to a standstill as you take the stage and show your hidden talent. The junior batch discovered many a hidden talent as well as a deeper connection to the senior batch through Fresher’s Nite 2011.

Contributed by:
Alok Jain
PR & Media Cell
MBA, IME, IIT Kanpur

Seminar: Some aspects of liquidity of stocks in the Indian stock market

2011-04-21T00:08:00.001+05:30

Speaker :Dr.Devlina Chatterjee
Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Background of the Speaker:

Devlina Chatterjee got her BTech in Agricultural Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1989. She subsequently got a PGDM (Agribusiness) from IIM Ahmedabad, MS degrees from Penn State University (Agricultural Engineering and Agricultural Economics), and her PhD in Management Studies from IISc Bangalore in 2010. She also worked in industry for a total of eight years at organizations like IFCI, New Delhi; GE Capital, Bangalore; and Antrix Corporation, Department of Space, Bangalore. Her work experience in these organizations has included evaluation of project proposals, statistical analyses of credit card business data, and contractual negotiations in the space image marketing business.

The seminar:
Dr. Chatterjee began by stating the focus of her study, the liquidity of individual stocks traded in electronic market. She went on to quote Black and Kyle to elaborate on liquidity. According to Black, a market is said to be liquid if it is continuous and efficient. Kyle gave the transactional properties of such a liquid market as tightness, depth and resilience.
As Dr. Chatterjee told, it is difficult to quantify the multidimensional nature of liquidity and a solution to this, forms the focus of her paper. Her paper delves into this by finding the relation between the various proxies which can be used to quantitatively describe liquidity.

She utilised factor analysis and survival analysis to test two models, one which measures the various macro and micro proxies to find the factors which would help quantify liquidity and second, which finds how long it takes for given order to be executed.
The data for this analysis was taken from NSE in two time intervals and covered 124 and 127 stocks in the two intervals respectively.

In the first model, the multi-dimensional nature of liquidity was studied first through factor analysis of eleven commonly used liquidity proxies – trading volume, turnover, frequency of trading, turnover ratio, price range, liquidity ratio, relative bid ask spread, order depth, market depth, immediacy, price elasticity of buy/sell. The study revealed that across two different market conditions, five factors emerged consistently: depth, spread, volume, price elasticity and relative activity. Thus the 3 transactional properties as stated by Kyle are verified.

In the second model, execution probabilities of limit orders were studied using logistic models and survival analysis. The covariates used in the analysis were price premium, volatility, relative bid-ask spread, order imbalance, trading activity, depth, relative activity in script, last traded price of stock, short term changes in trading activity, time of day and day of week.
In related prior studies, the history of the entire limit order book had been reconstructed using high-frequency data and heavy computation. Here, using much less data, the idea of hypothetical orders, and interval censoring, most appropriate distribution of survival times were obtained. The covariates which were found to determine these were price premium, closing price, log of depth, volatility, relative activity and firm order size.
Finally Dr.Chatterjee closed the presentation by observing that, both the models developed in this study made good out-of-sample predictions as well.
The seminar was wrapped up with a free-wheeling discussion between Dr. Chaterjee and the esteemed faculty of IME Dept., which churned out some interesting perspectives and left the attendees with many issues to mull over.

Contributed by:
ArpitaPandey
PR & Media Cell,
MBA, IME Dept
IIT Kanpur

Finatics Lecture Series – Sustainability Strategy and Triple Bottom Line Reporting

2011-04-14T16:38:00.004+05:30

Speaker Details: Mr. Anindya Sengupta, Manager-Sustainability & Climate Change, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Sengupta has been Assistant Manager in IOCL and is currently working on Greenhouse Gases credit programs, GRI-G3 Sustainability reporting.

After immensely informative sessions by Mr. Alok Sheel, Ms. Shivani Datta, and Mr. Manu Maudgal, Finatics Lecture Series came to the last lecture of the day, and one on an important emergent phenomenon of Sustainability Strategy, which is being taken up very seriously by the corporations and brands globally.
The lecture was organized into three sections: Sustainability and Triple Bottom Line basics, Sustainability Reporting and Global Reporting Initiative, and discussion of some of the related recent issues. Mr. Sengupta began with the introduction of Sustainability Strategy and explained the importance of the same in the current industry scenario. He explained how various brands are taking up this issue and utilizing it to their advantage by including it in their marketing strategies. The example given was of ‘Aquafina’ brand of bottled water and inclusion of the tagline ‘Giving back more water than we take’ on its label. He defined triple bottom line as a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. He explained the key steps of the management approach towards corporate sustainability and told how CEOs rank these issues high these days on their agendas.

In the next section, he talked about steps involved in corporate sustainability reporting (refer to the image below) which are as: Global Reporting Initiative, Sustainability Data Management, and Assurance of Sustainability Reports; and shared the sector-wise reporting standards and the broad content of such reports. He briefly discussed GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) G3 Guidelines related to the same and again the managerial issues dealing with the reporting of sustainability initiatives. He further described the key challenges faced while developing these reports, which broadly are: Sustainability awareness and capacity building, Sustainability data collating and recording system, and Strategic stakeholder consultation.

The last section of the lecture involved general discussion on the issues related to the topic. The entire session was very interactive with questions and doubts posed from the sides of both: students and faculty. What made the last section even more interactive was the discussion of some real-life scenarios and issues currently being faced by corporations in various industries. Such cases gave a good understanding of the issues to the students, and helped them realize the intricacies involved in sustainability reporting and the formulation of such strategies.
The session was closed with the concluding remarks about these issues and with the inception of the thought of how one should align himself/herself with the future needs of the environment and our responsibilities related to the same as upcoming managers.

Contributed by:
Rubal Mehta
PR & Media Cell
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Finatics Lecture Series - Carbon Markets and Clean Development Mechanism

2011-04-14T10:58:00.004+05:30

Speaker Details: Ms. Shivani Datta, Manager, Climate Change & Sustainability Services from Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd.

Ms. Shivani Datta presided over the talk about CARBON MARKETS and CDM among an eager and enthusiastic student crowd. She started off her talk by reiterating the present Global concern about over-consumption of resources, contribution by industry on climate change, how the roadmap was laid particularly in the last two decades to tackle Climate Change internationally through various summits organized by UN starting off with the RIO Earth Summit and birth of UNFCCC in 1992 and how the KYOTO Protocol got its acceptance worldwide in 1997 till the end of its first commitment period in 2012. The green house gases and its global warming potential over the last century was also enumerated thereby giving a brief summary of the articles to be followed and the roles of both the developed and developing countries according to Kyoto Protocol. This is where the speaker started highlighting what CDM is, its features, specificity and the challenges faced by it.
Clean Development Mechanism which is one of the mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol allows a country with an emission reduction commitment and to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries. Such projects allow a company to earn Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits which is saleable in future thereby meeting the Kyoto targets.
The twin purposes of CDM are
1. To assist developing country parties in achieving sustainable development.
2. To assist developed country parties in achieving compliance with part of their quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments under Article 3.
The features of CDM were broadly CERs, Market driven, Eligibility timeline, sustainable development and GHG reduction. Another concept of Additionality was introduced which is a fundamental issue in the carbon offset market. In order to determine additionality a project should have been started after January 2000 with due consideration of CDM at the start of the project. Several questions were raised doubting whether ‘financial additionality’ exists, how it would benefit other projects and how it would help in alleviating the barriers.

The various steps involved in Additionality are
 Identification of alternatives to the project activity
 Investment analysis
 Barriers analysis
 Common practice analysis
An investment analysis is basically done considering the factors like project returns with CDM revenue and without CDM revenue, Internal Rate of Return Hurdle rate and the CDM cash flow after which the CDM Project Cycle is implemented. According to IPCC’s 4th assessment report (2007), the Global Sectoral Emissions constitutes for about 45 % by Energy Supply and Industrial emissions. A few generic CDM Possibilities are in Energy Efficient Projects, Infrastructure Projects, Renewable energy & Fuel Switch Projects, Plantation Projects. According to current statistics there are 2950 projects which are registered for CDM implementation till date and more than 5600 projects are in the pipeline.
In the final part of the talk the speaker highlighted about CER Trading and its value accretion curve and finally wound up with the challenges faced by CDM like uncertainty, evolving procedures at each Executive board meeting, stricter validation, and unclear framework after 2012 and the pricing of CER.
Finally the curtains came down with her last words quoted by Mr. Paul Kelly that “Carbon is the currency of a new world order”.

Contributed by:
Arvind Rajendran
PR & Media Cell
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Finatics Lecture Series - Harnessing Markets for Climate Change Mitigation

2011-04-14T03:01:00.001+05:30

Speaker : Manu Maudgal, Indo German Energy Programme, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, NewDelhi

Climate change is a burning topic, which deserves the attention of both activists and Governments together. Governments nowadays understand the challenges of climate change and they are ready to include it in their growth plans. The speaker, who holds a key position in German Society for International Cooperation (GIC), has experience in multiple roles and gave the audience an introduction to the current scenario of the crisis in the world, energy crisis, water shortage and global warming; all three occurring at the same time.

He explained the need for becoming a ‘low carbon economy’ and how it can be achieved by in three steps; neutralizing things which can be neutralized, reducing those which can be reduced and finally replacing them with which we can’t do the above two. He also raised the concern, “Is producing more and consuming more” a real growth or is it just an increase in national GDP. IPCC’s prescription of restricting the increase in global temperature to 2°C by 2050 and what all is being done were also brought about in the talk.

The speaker then showed the available options to deal with the above concern by scaling up National programmes, Sectoral mechanisms and by initiating more and more Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM). Reduction in the Transaction costs by using publically accessible credible databases and internationally accepted simple monitoring and verification methodologies is also a way we can think upon. He said that this is a global concern and its high time when each and every sector of the economy should come forward and work in tandem.

In response to this concern, what exactly is already being done by the government? To answer this, he started with the Eight National Programmes as the national plan for climate change and then explained the two government schemes the REC mechanism and the PAT scheme in detail. Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) also known as a green tag is a tradeable non-tangible energy commodity which certifies that 1 megawatt-hour of electricity is generated by renewable sources. He also explicated how these REC’s can bring about more competition in the renewable energy sector and at the same time make individual states overcome geographical barriers in harnessing renewable energy. Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is about enhancing cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy-intensive large industries and facilities, through certification of energy savings that can be traded. This particular scheme covers eight industrial sectors like iron & steel, railways, thermal power plants etc.
The lecture was very impressive for all the audience and throughout his speech the speaker emphasized on need to shift from “Consumption Driven Growth to Sustainable Growth”. The faculty present also added vibrancy to the lecture by raising pertinent questions which helped the audience grasp the nuances of the talk.

Contributed by:
Vishal Vivek Jacob
PR & Media Cell
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Finatics Lecture Series - The Global Financial Crisis, Sustainable Growth and rise of G20

2011-04-13T11:15:00.004+05:30

Speaker Details: Mr. Alok Sheel, Joint Secretary, Dept of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Govt of India.
Mr. Sheel has been handling Govt of India's relations with the G20, the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions.

Mr. Sheel discussed the various aspects of global financial crisis, its causes, structural changes through the world economy and the rise of G20. Besides this, some key takeaways or lessons learn in terms of policies implemented during crisis and its significance for India, the ways in which this recession has affected the globe and how can G20 help world back on its pre-crisis growth curve were discussed.

The major incidents which preceded this crisis were low cost of capital, increasing risk tolerance, low interest rate which discourage savings and encouraged leverage and finally, lax financial regulation from US government. But, the major event which triggered of this domino effect was US subprime housing crisis. Although, subprime housing loans form a very small part of US housing market, which in turn is a small part of US financial sector, it caused a crisis which US has never witnessed since the great depression of 1929. The major reason for that is most of the things were inter-related in this globalized world. The fact that most of the subprime mortgages were mixed with various other securities to launch Collateralized Debt Obligations or CDOs which were frequently traded among the various wall street bankers is well illustrated by the below picture. The problem with these loans were that they were distributed to many of the people who were incapable of paying them. They bought houses using these loans thinking the prices can only go in one direction, northwards. But, they suddenly found themselves in a soup when the interest rates of their floating rate loans increased. Suddenly, their housing equity became negative which forced them to leave the house as it was worth less than what they had to pay for. Also, during the short boom when their housing equity was positive, Wall Street firms left no stone unturned in saddling these guys with debt.

Another reason given for this crisis has been globalization. The capital which aids globalization is highly mobile and keeps on shifting to search for low cost raw material, cheap labor. This has lead to China becoming a manufacturing hub with more than 40% of US companies profit coming from that region. But, the problem with this kind of growth is immobility of labor because of which their employment suffers. The corporations and their few owners earn lot of profits from outsourcing, but, the local employees are left behind without jobs and sources of income. They are forced to lead their lives on borrowed money. This has been one of the reasons why US debt has increased to the highest ever peace time level i.e. more than 80% of the GDP in late 2000s.

Another reason for this great crisis is the runaway increase in size of largely unregulated US “credit default swaps market” and the repeal of “Glass Steagall Act”. The credit default swaps market grew to more than the size of US stock market, US mortgage security market US treasuries market combined together as demonstrated in the picture below.

Apart from this, the Glass Steagall Act which was introduced in 1933 to stop speculation in market after the great depression was withdrawn in 1980.

This recession was tackled by using various fiscal and monetary stimulus as per Keynesian economics. These included various quantitative easing measures like reducing interest rates to effective zero and purchasing short term government bonds. The problem with such policies are most of the tools have been blunted by rampant globalization and lack of market levers which are still controlled by the government. But, the coordinated efforts at the G20 levels ensured a coherent policy response at the world level has definitely stymied this crisis.

The aftermath of this crisis has been increased leverage across all the countries and cyclical debt traps may extend beyond the PIGS. According to Ken Rogoff, “the current debt levels in developed countries are unsustainable and are impairing growth. The most part of US debt is financed by countries like China and India, by maintaining sufficient foreign reserve of globally accepted currency. This is a kind of paradox as in classical economics funds are supposed to flow downhill, but, in this they are flowing uphill from developing to developed economics who are trying to fuel their consumption driven growth through high levels of public debt.

According to most of the experts, India can become a biggest economy of the world. As per William Buiter, “India can surpass China as largest economy by 2050”. This can happen due to India’s younger population and Indian government emphasis on developing knowledge based economy. According to the Economist, “India will add 136 million new workers as compared to 23 million expected from China”. To achieve this, India must use G20 forum to its advantage by ensuring greater roles and responsibility for itself at the world level.

The audience was really appreciative of the depth and breadth of knowledge and the ease with which Mr. Sheel conveyed complex financial situations and brought a fresh perspective to it. Finatics lecture series started off with a flourish thanks to him.

Covered by - Neeraj Agarwal
PR & Media Cell
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Finatics - MBA Annual Financial Conclave

2011-04-06T22:28:00.000+05:30

MBA, IME Department, IIT Kanpur presents

APRIL 9 , 2011
http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/finatics/

Marketed By: Dare2compete.com

Prizes worth 45000 to be won !!

ON-CAMPUS LECTURE SERIES

 CDM Project Consulting, Sustainability, and Project Viability
By Ms. Shivani Datta – Manager, Climate Change & Sustainability Services, Ernst&Young

 Policy Analysis & Development for CDM, Sustainability Initiatives in Industry, and the role of regulators in carbon markets
By Mr. Manu Maudgal – Technical Expert, Indo German Energy Program, GIZ GmbH

 Environmental Finance and Green Accounting
By Mr. Anindya Sengupta – Manager, Climate Change & Sustainability Services, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

 Global perspective of macro-economic policy initiatives, challenges related to sustainability and Indian policy in G20
Mr. Alok Sheel – Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, GoI

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Official Management Portal: MBA Universe

Seminar: Financial Risk Management: A Brief Overview

2011-01-22T12:51:00.001+05:30

Date: 14th January, 2011

Speaker: Dr. Puneet Prakash

About the speaker:

Dr. Puneet Prakash is an Assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2005. He holds a Ph.D in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University, an MBA from IIFT, Delhi, PG Diploma in Development Policy (IGIDR), and M.Sc. (5-year Integrated) from IIT, Kanpur. He is also a visiting faculty to IIT Kanpur, Fall 2009.

Abstract of the talk:
The seminar started with a brief discussion on market and the categorization of market participants into risk averse, risk neutral and risk seeking behaviors. Dr. Prakash then proceeded to discuss the Modigliani – Miller theorem that Corporations are risk neutral and that if investors want to manage risk they could do it as an individual rather than through the company. The underlying assumption is that a company and a individual have the same capability to manage risk. As this assumption is not a universal truth, not all corporations are risk neutral. Any discussion on risk management invariably involves Jensen’s inequality and this seminar was no exception to this. Dr. Prakash explained in brief Jensen’s inequality for the benefit of the audience which had some undergraduates apart from the usual MBA students.

The concepts of hedging the risk, risk premium and insurance were then dealt with. Dr. Prakash then proceeded to answer when corporations manage risk and their value functions. He also touched upon locating the expected bankruptcy point and expected bankruptcy costs. To ensure that the mixed audience carried his point home he interspersed theory with real life experiences, examples and analogies. Dr. Prakash then explained what is known as integrated risk management. He then mentioned the categorization of risk into operational (business) and financial. The fundamental generic risk management matrix was next on his agenda. This was followed by a small brief on how to practice ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) and what are the origins of financial risk.

The process of financial risk management was then taken up. Dr. Prakash then described various properties of risk viz. coherence, monotonicity positive homogeneity and sub-additivity. He then went on to elaborate on how to compute value at risk given the distribution of return. What followed this macro level discussion was a micro level mathematical model for financial risk management. Financial risk was broken down into market risk, default/credit risk, interest rate risk and liquidity risk. He then discussed generalized extreme value distribution (Fetcher Distribution) which is also known as limit theorem for extreme values) an then he explained how short selling could take a firm from inefficient to efficient part of risk return curve. The informative two hour talk concluded with capital asset pricing model.

Prepared By:
Atul Mishra(matul@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Seminar: Dynamic Credit Rating Standards- Why do they vary over time?

2011-01-14T20:36:00.002+05:30

Date : 7th January, 2011

Speaker: Dr. Puneet Prakash

Biography of the speaker:

Dr. Puneet Prakash is an Assistant professor, 2005 – current, at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has done his Ph.D in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University. He completed MBA from IIFT, Delhi, PG Diploma in Development Policy (IGIDR), and M.Sc. (5-year Integrated) from IIT, Kanpur. He is also a visiting faculty to IIT Kanpur, Fall 2009.

Abstract of the talk:
In the paper mentioned, it is examined as to why credit rating standards change over time. Drawing upon the literature on certification intermediaries, it is argued that rating standards are related to the economy-wide credit quality distribution, and as the distribution changes, so do the standards. Empirical tests verify this predicted relationship. In particular, with a rise in economy–wide dispersion of the distribution of credit quality, rating standards become more stringent. However, an increase in mean probability of economy wide default risk has the opposite effect. These findings are robust to not only alternative specifications of measures of location and dispersion of the economy-wide credit quality distribution, but also to the stickiness in ratings.

Dr. Puneet started the discussion by explaining the motivation of the CRAs (Credit Rating Agencies). He explained that the topic has a keen association with the long-term debts. When a firm seeks for some investors, investing companies want to know the credit-worthiness of these issue companies. He then explained the role of CRAs in the society in this context. He explained that a Credit Rating Agency acts as:
a) An information intermediary to come in and analyze Balance Sheet of the issuer. It removes information asymmetry between the issuer (firm seeking for debt) and the investors
b) A monitoring unit: It charges a fee for the service it offers in this respect
c) A Certificate intermediary: It provides an assurance of quality for the issuer.

He next moved on to mention that a credit rating agency takes into account, how much money of its own the issuer is putting into a debt. CRAs have a role of increasing social welfare, collecting information and disseminating it.

The next major topic that he discussed was CRAs and the current crisis they are facing. He explained that in the current scenario, many companies are frequently changing their standards to maintain their market shares. He indicated that these companies have started ignoring interest rate changes in the economy. And as a result, CRAs also ignored interest rate risks. As of now, though, CRAs are regulated much strictly.

Next he came to the main Research Question. He explained a few concepts with the help of three research papers, as enlisted below:
• Blume M., F. Lim and A C MacKinlay (BLM), 1998, “The declining credit quality of U.S. Corporate Debt: myth or reality?”, Journal of Finance, 4, 1389-1413
o Rating Standards become stricter over 1975-1995
• Zhou, 2001, “Credit Rating and Corporate Defaults”, The Journal of Fixed Income , Vol. 11, No. 3: pp. 30-40
o Rating Standards become lag over 1981-1998
• Gordy and Heitfield, “Estimating Default Correlations from Short Panels of Credit Rating Performance Data”, 2002
o Rating standards are time-varying, to explain rating through the cycle

Dr. Puneet followed Gordy and Heitfield (as highlighted above), as the base paper to next explain as to why do CRAs vary their standards over time? He explained that standards are dynamic because they are tied to the underlying economy wide credit risk distribution. So, one should not expect any trend over time. He mentioned that when the average quality of companies as a whole declines, standards are lowered (market share argument). In this case, the CRAs believe that if they do not lower their standards, they will lose their market share. This is due to the fact that the client may get a good rating for more defaults from another CRA in this case. He also argued that as the dispersion of the distribution of credit quality rises, standards are tightened (reputation argument). As its implication, it becomes evident that rating standards have no trends. Instead, these are tied to the underlying risk distribution.

Dr. Prakash then went into the theoretical underpinnings of the model used and developed in the research paper. He stated that a Rating agency is a profit maximizing firm. It is also assumed that a market is characterized by information asymmetry. Ultimately, the problem reduces to a Seller’s problem:
Max (θ – c (θ, t) – P); where θ: debt
C: Cost of obtaining θ
t: Efficiency parameter
P: Price a seller pays to the CRA

On the basis of these theoretical Implications, certain Empirical predictions can be stated as:
• t is time varying:
• P is:
o Directly proportional to the mean value of the underlying quality E(t)
o Inversely proportional to the dispersion

Hence, the dispersion of the distribution of credit quality is taken as a scaling parameter.

He further introduced the issues of measurement where certain mathematical models were explained, based on the Merton model. A ‘Rating Agency model’ was introduced as an econometric model. It was mentioned that the rating thresholds represent the standard different CRAs have. For example, a rating of AAA may mean 10 default points for one CRA while 8 for the other.

The last part of the seminar was the Q/A round, where Dr. Puneet addressed to the students’ and faculties’ queries. The seminar closed with a vote of thanks by Dr. Subhash C. Misra, Faculty, IIT Kanpur. The session proved to be very informative for the students, as they become aware of the major forces affecting the functioning of the rating agencies in a free economy.

Prepared By:
Rubal Mehta(rubalm@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Seminar: Integrating Global Marketing and R&D Management at Novartis

2011-01-04T00:51:00.002+05:30

On 29th Dec. 2010, Dr. Subhanu Saxena, the Global Head of Marketing and Sales, General Medicine of Novartis visited the department and provided insights into pharmaceutical industry. During his long career at Novartis, he has handled many challenging roles, dealt with diverse business conditions and travelled to various parts of the globe. His commitment to the field of healthcare is supplemented by his passion towards ancient Indian literature and philosophy.

The seminar was aimed at sharing the speaker's insights in the healthcare industry and share with the audience the various challenges, innovations, technological initiatives and management practices prevalent at Novartis.

Dr. Saxena began by sharing with the audience some information on the healthcare industry in general, and Novartis in particular. The high financial margins of Novartis are indicative of the robustness of business along with diversification of interests to strengthen revenue flows of the company. The amount invested in R&D is very substantial and points out the high priority given to innovation and new drug development over generics. To foster this spirit and ensure high success rates in research, the focus has been on the value proposition of a drug to justify its business case as well as the health economic cost modelling to justify further investments.

Dr. Saxena then proceeded to breif the audience the internal workings of Novartis in the drug testing and clinical trials stage of drug development, called Integrated Product Strategies (IPS). The various stages of drug testing were thoroughly explained emphasising the various checks and procedures prior to human trials. This point was in response to a students query regarding the clinical trials and their thoroughness in detecting side effects during human trials.

Dr. Saxena also shared with the audience the inherent costs associated with new drug development. Since statistically, the discovery of a drug without side effects and having potency is very small, hence the drug discovered needs to be having sufficient revenue generating capability to offset the losses incurred during R&D. This is done by Novartis through the Pathway based R&D approach. By this method, diseases are researched to determine the common pathway of the disease as well as the drug used to treat it. By this, a drug discovered for a rare strain of disease can be used to treat a more widespread ailment, thus expanding the target segment and improving the business case for drug development.

The structure of the company was also explained in depth to show the working of a geographically spread, technology focussed and globally integrated organization. The structure illustrated numerous key aspects of the organization such as preference for in-bred talent pools, diversity in higher management, re-shuffling of verticals to increase exposure and integration of functions for improved synergies.

The audience also were engaged in interactive discussions with the speaker as they looked to gain first hand information about the healthcare sector from his extensive experience. In response to a faculty's query, Dr. Saxena elaborated on how interpreting and acting on consumer behaviour analysis was a vital cog of the product marketing and sales functions to increase their acceptance and boost market shares. In response to a student's query on the cannabalization of sales by generic drug companies limiting the revenue stream from developed drugs, Dr. Saxena shared with him that Novartis has a generic company which is 2nd largest in the world. In this way, the revenue lost is still benefitting Novartis's generic arm.

In conclusion, all the present faculty and students from various students were treated to a highly interactive and informative session by an industry stalwart. The interaction helped all the students understand operations of large firms in competitive environments and got a glimpse into the thought processes of higher management dealing with diverse challenging scenarios while balancing social responsibilities.

IME Day 2010 - IIT Kanpur

2010-12-12T15:59:00.005+05:30

IME day celebration marked the completion of 35 years of establishment of the IME department in IIT Kanpur.

This day was made special by the presence of our prestigious faculty members like Prof. Sadagopan, Prof. Kripa Shanker, the alumni of IME department, the long term staff members and students accompanied by a lot of other folks. This event coincided with the informal inauguration of IME Building, a dedicated building with the state of art facilities for the IME department.

The mood became nostalgic as Prof. A.K. Mittal, who has been associated with IME department since its inception, shared his journey with the department since 1975 with 3-4 students to the current size of approximately 120 students pursuing diverse courses like M.B.A., M.Tech and Ph.D.

Prof. Mittal shared how the department was branched off from the Mechanical engineering department and prospered under the visionary leadership of Prof. Batra and Prof. Mittal himself. Initially, the department offered only M. Tech and Ph. D. courses, till the MBA program was introduced in 2001. As the department grew, new faculties were hired starting with Prof Kripa Shanker, who is currently the Vice Chancellor of UPTU along with being a faculty in IME department. A little later, Prof. Sadagopan joined the department. Further down the line, faculty members from IIMs and other diverse backgrounds were recruited with the inception of Prof. RRK Sharma (who’s ranked among the top intellectuals of the 21st century) and Prof. Rahul Varman. Soon after industry experience was inducted with Prof. Jayanta Chatterjee, former CEO of Allen Bradley joining the ranks. Prof. Sadagoppan and Prof. Kripa Shanker also shared their association with the department through anecdotes of their life in the IME Department.

This was followed by the alumni sharing their cherished memories with the department. Mr. Madhav Negi, one such alumnus of the 1998 batch, shared his moments of closeness with the members of faculty. He recalled how the IME department promoted the feeling of belongingness within him. Also, he shared his happiness as most of the initiatives which he took, way back in those days, have materialized in to pride of IIT, like the magazine started by him and the student mail initiative. Other alumni also shared the role of the pedagogy imparted by the department and its role in the success they have achieved in the corporate sector.

Audience was enthused by the interaction with faculty and alumni. Post lunch, the action shifted to the new IME building where the Poster competition was held. Insightful posters prepared by various students of the department showcased many methodologies adopted to deal with industrial and management challenges in the current scenario.

==================================

The poster competition was followed by a panel discussion on "Role of IITs in Management Education". The panelists included Dr. Jayanta Chatterjee, Prof. Sadagopan, Prof. AP Sinha, Prof. AK Mittal and Mr. Mohan.

Dr. Chatterjee moderated the discussion.The discussion began by understanding the basis on which management education was introduced in IITs.
Differentiation of IIT wrt Mgmt schools - Research oriented thrust vs curriculum based thrust

Prof. Sadagopan pointed out that management is more technology driven,more technically challenging and hence needs to have a technical thrust which is ably provided by IITs.

Prof. AP Sinha added that IITs are univ which are liberal to pursue management with a mix of technology, management and liberal arts.Management in IITs is more action driven vis a vis the engineering depts.

The focus then shifted to the approach of teaching and learning that should be followed. The question was whether to look at the structure/pedagogy of the management discipline in IIT as lecture oriented and course oriented and will the present structure be valid over the next 10-15 yrs or should we relook at the structure to more action oriented.

Mr. Madan brought in the industry perspective by saying that Companies now promote both vertical and horizontal differentiation. Learning is more by experience but built on foundation of technology and learning. Specialization needs to be cultivated on job but can be promoted through the internship programs and with an action oriented course structure.

Adding to above Prof. AK Mittal said, Management is more related to enterprises and organizations. Education has broader perspective as compared to experience due to its ability to analyze, observe and apply the acquired principles. Education can be used to hone and train in a niche discipline. Management requires environmental knowledge, contextual application of the knowledge and ability to deal with multi-contingency situations. IITs should concentrate on those areas where technology is a major resource. However, education cannot be truly classified and distinguished into diverse fields like technology,arts,science.

The audience on their turn asked the elite panelists that whether it is right to restrict entry into the MBA program of IITs to only engineers. They felt that a batch with diverse background is better than an all engineers batch for an MBA class.

Prof. AK Mittal in his response conceded that diverse thoughts and diverse disciplines would contribute better to the thought process of management students in IIT. However, the restriction is due to the courses which are more engineering intensive and thus a heterogenous batch may become more of a liability. In principle, it had been agreed that the batch should be diversified in the future. But as of now, homogeneity has been promoted by the senate ensure quality.

Prof. Sadagopan pointed out that the number of engineering graduates in the country is very high. In his prompt response he said, "Whatever we do, engineers will be in large percentage anyway. To a larger extent, the quality of the students also is greater in engineers." He said, the other disciplines are largely populated with those students whose first choice was to become engineers but couldn't become one. Even IIMs find it very tough to develope heterogeneity.

Prof. AP Sinha in his response to the diversity question noted that the Academic Senate was not the only reason for this lack of heterogeneity. Liberal arts and open action oriented management need less structured approach and bit more creative and unstructured approach. The faculty and the course structure were perhaps unable to deal with students of liberal arts. Hence, IITs select students who have developed a more structured learning approach.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Madan said, "Learning is not only restricted to our batch. We can learn from the other departments here as well. We can easily get a diverse perspective in the campus itself."

Dr. Chatterjee concluded the discusion by appealing to the comparatively younger audience to ask compelling questions and to approach every situation, every contingency with a positive frame of mind.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Prabandhan 2010 -Pragyaan Lecture Series, Day 2

2010-12-12T15:56:00.002+05:30

Topic : Energy Conservation

Background of Speaker : Mr. Srinu Babu Matta, Divisional Manager (Engg. Services), Tata Motors.

The topic of Energy conservation is very crucial to the current and future aspirations of our nation. The speaker, who holds a key position in Tata Motors and has experience in multiple roles, introduced the audience to the various facets of energy conservation through a comprehensive presentation.

The speaker highlighted the current dire circumstances faced by the Indian consumers. Roughly 12% shortage of energy is always seen in the nation leading to frequent power cuts as well as constraining the ability to electrify the villages present in the interior parts of the country. As of date, there are more than 1 Lakh villages which are un-electrified. Quoting several official sources, the speaker elaborated that the chasm is only expected to widen due to growing population, expanding industry, large scale consumption. The need of the hour is to pursue energy conservation and energy efficiency. Alongside, the speaker pointed out that non-renewable sources of energy are very limited in nature and may last only for 40-45 years at the current rate of growth worldwide. Hence, renewable energy sources are highly essential towards bridging the gap and helping in overall energy conservation.

The Renewable energy sources in India are led by Wind power at 69% and then followed by other renewable forms of energy. India stands at 5th position in the use of renewable sources. However, these statistics point to the highly limited penetration of these sources of energy worldwide. The speaker elaborated on numerous government interventions necessary to encourage this nascent form of energy generation.

Solar based power has huge potential in a country like India which is located so close to the equator and has a lot of direct sunlight availability. The speaker showed his depth of knowledge through explanations provided on the basic concepts of energy generation through wind and solar sources. Tata companies also follow green initiatives where each of their offices have construction which favours direct sunlight lighting, air condition efficiency, support for solar power etc. Alternative sources such as hydro power or tidal power, biomass power were also covered by the speaker as he showed his depth of understanding on the subject of alternate sources of renewable energy.

The speaker then elaborated on the essential considerations for energy conservation. Small efforts taken for energy conservation at the domestic and at the industrial level can prove to be highly effective in reducing consumption and hence reducing the needs for power cuts and load shedding. The speaker urged all to follow the simple guidelines of daily life to improve energy efficiency through a very engaging discussion spanning the technical aspects as well as the social considerations involved in day to day energy related decision making.

The speaker shed some light on the innovations done by Tata Motors Ltd in the energy conservation field by sharing some highlights of the journey towards excellence in energy conservation by Tata Motors in many small progressive steps. Using many instances, the speaker gave excellent insights into supply chain excellence which focussed on efficiency through energy conservation and implementation of scientific solutions to manufacturing and production processes. The tangible savings at minimal cost highlighted the benefits of conservative thinking and set the audience thinking on the application of such knowledge in their daily lives as well as in work place.

The lecture was wound up with the speaker driving home the point of implementing these learnings and synergising with other bodies of knowledge to create knowledge pool which can be reusable by all to enrich lives and improve the worsening energy scenario of the world.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Prabandhan 2010 - Day 2 Highlights

2010-12-12T15:50:00.003+05:30

Day 2 of Prabandhan had the same infectious dose of enthusiasm in all the students and participants of the events to be held on the final day of the Annual Management Conclave. The students and participants were all set to get their creative juices flowing as the final round of Saudagar : The Marketing Extravaganza got underway. The final 5 contestants were presented with a challenging marketing assignment which required them to make a marketing presentation for a varied product range. The product range sprung quite a few surprises on the contestants and left them gasping for breath as the clock ticked by.
The teams had to present their marketing strategy to the elite panel of judges comprising IIT Kanpur faculty. The audience were regaled with some entertaining and innovative marketing by the participants who then had to face some grilling by the judges. The competition was tough but the deserving winners were Dextrous Dou from SIMSR and runners-up were IITK’s very own PSR team.

Before the dust could settle at the end of Saudagar, the audience and participants were treated to a brain numbing Word Jumble on a variety of subjects such as marketing, finance, economics. Finding the right word in a jumble proved to be as tough as finding the right answer to a question in the exam. The winner for this event was Aayush Jain closely followed by Paridhi Mutreja at second place.
The afternoon session had a very informative and indepth lecture on Energy Conservation by Mr. Srinu Babu Matta, Divisional Manager (Engg. Services), Tata Motors. More details on that will be soon provided in the subsequent post.

The interactive and extremely informative session was concluded with a few interactive questions and Dr. S.C Misra gave the vote of thanks to signal the conclusion of the event. His concluding words summed up the endeavour of Prabandhan of raising questions about inclusive growth and sustainability issues and attempting to answer these tough questions through open debate with industry stalwarts. The vote of thanks signalled the end of Prabandhan though the actual finale was the online Treasure Hunt : Talaash which kept many avid enthusiasts from all over the country up till late at night searching for clues and exercising their grey matter.

Until the next year, Prabandhan is signing off with many memories, many long nights of toil mixed with many wonderful moments and many poignant questions to leave an indelible mark on all those who were involved in this Annual Management Conclave of IIT Kanpur.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Prabandhan 2010 -Pragyaan Lecture Series, Day 1

2010-12-12T15:34:00.006+05:30

Pragyaan : The Lecture Series

Day 1 of Prabandhan 2010, Annual Management Conclave of IIT Kanpur

Topic of Lecture : PPP in Waste Management : Opportunities, Barriers and Way ahead

Speaker : Mr. S N Mukhpadhyay, COO IL & FS.

The Day 1 of Pragyaan, the Lecture Series in Prabandhan 2010 kicked off with a discourse on the globally emerging field of Waste Management.

Mr. Mukherjee began the discourse by pointing out the two aspects by which we look at management. We have one view which focuses on revenue, income generation and consumption led growth. However, the second view of management is the focus on the impact of this consumption driven growth process on the environment. The world as we see it is driven by the former view leading to sustainability issues faced in the present as well as in the future.

Mr. Mukherjee focussed the attention of the budding managers in the audience to the emerging field of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM). He explained that this field is an important area due to the current proliferation of indiscriminate dumping and no conformance to scientific waste management. These methods followed in many countries globally lead to the generation of green house gases (GHG) along with many other harmful toxics which harm the environment. In this backdrop, the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules (2000) was setup to govern municipal solid waste management and direct the responsibility of waste management to the municipalities in a well defined framework where the state government plays an enforcing role.

IL & FS played a pioneering role in this area in India. Within a few years, the rampup of waste collection has reached over 3000 tonnes of MSW. The 3 areas of operation of IL & FS in India which were covered by the speaker were the Okhla Compost Plant, Construction and Demolition Project and Gorai Dumping Ground closure. Each of these diverse projects were explained in depth with focus on the initial challenges, the operating issues, the revenue realization, the long term benefits to all parties involved.

The speaker gave an insight into the fertilizer market which was dominated by the chemical fertilizer companies until government intervention created a market for the sale of organic compost to these markets. IL & FS followed a path of tie-ups with major firms to ensure that the synergy will reduce the distribution costs and stabilize the output channels for the compost generated in the MSW site. Mr. Mukherjee enlightened the audience on the improvements in quality standards, management capabilities in waste disposal and revenue realizing opportunities done by IL & FS on entry into this field. The bottomline for this field lies in the revenues from compost sales but relies heavily on the revenues from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) i.e. carbon credit sales, governed by the Kyoto Protocol. The major players include Asian Development Bank and World Bank which have created carbon funds acting as intermediaries or traders of carbon credits between the polluting parties and the efficient parties. Utilizing this structure, futures trading of carbon credits help in realizing a revenue stream for 10-15 years. This acts as a major incentive to the municipalities which generate revenue by adopting clean technologies as well as to companies like IL & FS which get a share in the carbon credit revenue generated.

The second type of activity covered by the speaker was Construction and Demolition projects.The rampant dumping of construction material currently destroys the ecology as well as results in health hazards. This kind of indiscriminate is especially seen in metropolises and fast growing cities resulting in a blot in their ecology. Mr. Mukherjee shared with the audience the activities done by IL & FS in this area by the collection and processing of these wastes to produce paver blocks, side kerbs etc which are used by government during road constructions. The latest development in this area was the finalizing of IL & FS by the Delhi government to clean up the entire Delhi area of construction waste as well as MSW prior to the commencement of the Commonwealth Games.

The third area which the speaker provided insight into was the scientific closure of the Gorai dumping site near Mumbai. This dump site was in use since 1972 and was an ecological disaster causing pollution, bio degradation and health hazards. IL & FS came in and undertook the scientific closure as well as the operation-maintenance of this site for 15 years post closure. The revenue realized for this project was through the sale of the futures of carbon credits on top of the government funding for this project. The government also realized futures funds from the Asian Development Bank for this project along with many indirect benefits such as appreciation in the land rates in the surrounding areas.

Mr. Mukherjee elaborated the business case for this venture was first undertaken by IL & FS and only after the success of this model, other companies have adopted similar MSW projects. The benefits are seen for all parties involved as governments get futures funding, debt funding from entities focussed on sustainability funding, land appreciations and fulfilling international sustainability obligations. The companies undertaking such activities also get access to funds from various investment vehicles which focus on sustainability projects and realize revenues through the carbon trading linked to the project. The timelines are longer and the investment in such projects require patience since returns can only be seen after 4-5 years with break-even achieved late. However, such endeavours are perfect examples of the growing importance of sustainability projects which are essential for the balanced progress of mankind as well as the preservation of ecology. Such efforts not only reward from the philanthropic and humanitarian perspective, but also provide revenue generation opportunities through the fast growing carbon credit market.

The speaker wound up by taking many interesting questions from the enthusiastic audience who were treated to a freewheeling discussion on a range of topics which brought out the many facets involved in business feasibility planning, revenue realization, interconnectedness of social issues and government interventionist policies with overall growth of the economy as a whole.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Prabandhan 2010 - Day 1 Highlights

2010-12-12T13:55:00.009+05:30

Prabandhan, the Annual Management Conclave of Deparment of Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur got off to an enthusiastic start on 11th September, 2010.

Students from various departments of IIT Kanpur were joined by participants coming from numerous prestigious B- schools. The event was flagged off by dignitaries including present and former luminaries of IME department along with the chief guest of the occasion, Mr.Jayant Krishna, principal consultant, TCS. The event was off to an auspicious start with the lighting of the diya to the strains of Saraswati Vandana by the dignitaries.

In his opening address to the gathering, Dr. S.C Mishra spoke about the history of the IME Department of IIT Kanpur and outlined the guiding principles which were carried forward by each new batch of MBA students. He expressed the institute’s belief that Prabandhan’10, much like its predecessor last year, would be a resounding success and would focus on some of the core issues which the society is facing.

Mr. Krishna, who was the chief guest of the occasion, enlightened the students present about the prospects of social entrepreneurship and the need for sustainable inclusive growth. While he expressed his happiness over India’s blossoming GDP and growing importance on the world stage, he also expressed concern over the growing chasm between the haves and have-nots and highlighted areas where much more needs to be done. Literacy rate, public distribution system, infrastructure development are just few of the areas with ample scope. His vibrant and enthusiastic discourse was very well received by the attending students and dignitaries alike. He also answered queries and clarified various issues the students raised after his address.

Prof. Kripa Shanker, Vice chancellor, Gautam Buddha University and professor at IIT Kanpur, thanked Mr. Krishna for his gracious presence and expressed hope that the MBA department grows from strength to strength and continues to organize such meetings with more vigor, enthusiasm and energy. He shared with the audience the starting days of the IME Department and urged the students to always set a high bar and constantly try to push the boundaries of potential further with greater drive and enthusiasm.

The opening ceremony and address by speakers was followed by a brain-teasing business crossword which proved to be a appetizer to the challenging Neeti – The Operations Event.

The Lecture Series - Pragyaan also was very informative. Further feeds on that in the next few posts.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

Seminar on "From Free zones to Clusters : The Policy Initiative in the Dubai Model"

2010-12-12T13:45:00.005+05:30

Speaker : Dr. Sumit Mitra

Background on Speaker :
Dr. Sumit Mitra holds a PhD in Business Policy from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has a number of years of teaching experience in premier management institutes in India handling MBA level teaching and administrative responsibility.Currently, he is a part of the University of Wollongong, Dubai.

Background on Topic :
A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally. In urban study, the term agglomeration is used.
"Free zones" are designated areas which are provided by countries for economic activity. The companies present in a free zone is generally given tax sops or complete tax waiver to encourage participation, build economic activities and many other reasons.

The seminar held was based on the Research paper "Industry Clusters in Freezones" and the work of Micheal Porter called "The competitive advantage of nations".

As Dr. Mitra proceeded to explain, the geographical concentration of interconnected companies provides many benefits such as knowledge spillover, creation of a regional brand, promotion of innovation, pooling of labour markets & minimization of fixed costs for the companies. The benefits to participating companies are in the economic as well as social realm. However, there are also a few counter-balancing threats to companies such as loss of competence when faced with companies having larger scale of operations and knowledge drain.

As Dr. Mitra pointed out, the move from being just a free zone to being a cluster requires the presence of network brokers. These network brokers are external entities whose primary activity is to promote trust, coordination and cooperation among companies involved. Here he emphasized that Porter's definition of the Diamond Model put government as a minor player in this entire activity. In most cases, the companies synergize among themselves and develop the infrastructure and logistics of clusters to together form a stronger entity. However, Dr. Mitra added that SMEs would require some form of hand-holding with the government in the form of policy definitions as well as certain initiatives.

He further elaborated that clusters are governed mainly through Markets or Policy. Markets can have certain disadvantages since the big players can create a monopoly thus preventing SMEs and smaller players from gaining any advantage of associating with a cluster. Consequently, Policy seems to be a better approach towards a unified and mutually beneficial partnership.

Dr. Mitra next moved on to highlight a few facts regarding Dubai which helped us understand the economic, political and social environment in which these free zones are developing. Due to the limited nature of its resources, Dubai has had to chart its own course towards becoming a knowledge hub of the future. In line with its 2015 plan of venturing towards R&D and other such core knowledge driven industries, it has established multiple free zones which are aligned towards specific activities. The free zones studied by Dr. Mitra are Dubai Media City and Dubai Logistics City.

Dubai Media City (DMC) is a tax-free zone within Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It has been built by the Dubai government to boost UAE's media foothold, and has become a regional hub for media organizations ranging from: news agencies, publishing, online media, advertising, production, and broadcast facilities. The ground work for infrastructure (Such as fiber optic cables) was already laid for firms to setup easily and its visa and operational procedures were relaxed for firms operating within DMC.

Being a part of DMC provides many tangible and intangible benefits such as publicity through presence of frequent events, conferences, well planned infrastructure as well as many value added services. Dr. Mitra shared with the attendees some information on the unique consulting support provided by TECOM (an arm of the Dubai Economic Council) with the help of Deloitte to the SMEs who cannot afford such consulting.

Some of the problems faced by the free zones operating in Dubai were brough out by Dr. Mitra. He elucidated that the main bottleneck faced is the sharing of the airport and seaport among all the free zones. However, since all the free zones come under the Royal Family of UAE, the differences are ironed out fast without much bureaucratic delays.

Through his own observations, he conveyed the positive attitude of the Dubai government in giving excellent infrastructure backed by friendly policies and fostering a growth in free zone participation which may one day become a cluster in its own right.

The seminar was wrapped up with a free-wheeling discussion between Dr. Mitra and the esteemed faculty of IME Dept., IIT Kanpur where many aspects of Dubai's involvement in free zones were analyzed. The impact of government participation and policies, the effect on the population of Dubai, analysis on few other clusters which had indifferent growth to determine the true reason for impetus to cluster formation were a few of the open ended questions which churned out some interesting perspectives and left the attendees with many issues to mull over.

Report Prepared By:
Nabarun Sengupta(nabarun@iitk.ac.in)

Published By:
PR & Media Cell, MBA-IIT Kanpur (prmba@iitk.ac.in)

FINATICS 2010, Annual Finance Conclave – 10th-11th April

2010-04-19T00:40:00.014+05:30

Department of Industrial & Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur
FINATICS 2010 - Annual Finance Conclave(10th-11th April)

Finatics is the annual financial conclave of the Industrial & Management Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Into its third year, this conclave aims at bringing about industry experts, eminent professors and students together to discuss Finance – the science of managing funds. The event was held over a period of 2 days, and comprised of guest lectures, simulation workshops, and a host of competitions.

Finatics 2010 was organized on the 10th and 11th of April’10. Based on the theme,

“Dealing with change – in the aftermath of the global financial turmoil”

We tried to look at organizations which survived the financial crisis, and the processes that were followed to retain profitability and competence.
The event kicked off on 10th morning with an opening speech by Dr B V Phani. The faculty coordinator for the event, Dr Phani welcomed the speakers, and exhorted the students to make intelligent use of the wisdom that was going to be shared over the weekend

The first session was conducted by Mr Aditya Kaul Dullo, who is an alumnus of the IIT Kanpur MBA programme (2004 batch). Aditya handles sales & marketing for a leading multinational bank's credit cards division. He talked at length about the credit card industry, its workings, and how it obtains its profits.

The session then focussed on the effect of the recession on the credit cards industry, which is based on wafer thin margins. With dwindling profits, it was time for the industry to pull up its socks, and take some drastic measures to regain profitability.
The lecture invited a barrage of questions, from students and faculty alike, due to the very lucid and engaging discourse by the speaker. It was heartening to see a former alumnus inviting queries from students & faculty members alike, some of whom had tutored him half a decade before.

In the end, due to paucity of time, the audience was gently requested to carry on the discussions offline! Dr Phani, while thanking the speaker, lightly commented, “Whatever way we look at it, recession is good for the industry – the banks started performing better, and the customers started spending prudently!”

The next session was taken by Mr Dipankar Ganguli, an adjunct faculty and a practising Chartered Accountant of repute in the city.
Mr Ganguli talked about the intricacies of the 2010 Budget, what were key points, and how it is going to affect businesses nationwide. This lecture made us appreciate the budget in its entirety, compared to how we look at it based on newspaper reports. There are subtle nuances which affect the decisions made by the country’s top politicians, and Mr Ganguli tried to analyze most of these.

Post lunch, the next session was taken by Mr. Avik Bhandari. Avik is a passout of the batch of 2006 from IIT Kanpur, and has worked in the likes of erstwhile Lehmann Brothers and Royal Bank of Scotland.
He develops business simulation games which aid in the sound understanding of the fundamentals of finance, while entertaining the user. Talking at length about the financial crisis using basic fundamentals of finance, Avik also displayed a comical take on the entire scenario. Listening to him was a refreshing and motivating experience, as he has achieved considerable success at a very early age.
The evenings were reserved for Online competitions. As soon as the clock struck 10, IITK servers were literally bombarded with requests, as B-school students and professionals logged in all over the country to play Finsense, the online financial quiz. The 1-hour quiz marked the end of the first day of the conclave. The quiz was won by Abhidan and Vishnu (Team Abhi).

Sunday morning brought us face to face with Mr. Ajay Pal Singh, another alumnus of the IIT Kanpur MBA programme, from the pioneer batch (2003).
Ajay works in an international bank, and spoke about the subprime crisis and the changed world order. Hearing it from an industry veteran, who was there in the thick of things when the entire scenario was unfolding, was an experience in itself and some of the facts revealed were truly eye-opening. Ajay spoke about how it happened, the reasons behind it, and how it has affected banking institutions worldwide.

The final guest lecture was delivered by Mr. Saurabh Sood, CEO of MarketTopper, a company engaged in Financial Instrument research and the development of advance – featured Trading Systems.Mr Sood spoke about algorithmic trading, which is an innovation in the financial domain and comparatively a new phenomenon. Algorithmic trading is the use of computer algorithms for entering trading orders without human intervention. Mr Sood predicted that algorithmic trading would change the way the world trades in a few years, and the correct and prudent use of algorithms might have resulted in a different scenario in 2008. However, he also warned that any algorithm or program is only as good as the inputs given to it, and the authenticity of the inputs was essential to come up with the best decisions.

The post lunch session on Sunday was reserved for a business simulation workshop, again by Mr. Avik Bhandari, who organized DealStreet, a financial strategy board game, which combined fighting for oil resources, speculating on changing stock market indices and the fun of fighting drug lords and gambling in Las Vegas. Needless to say, this game was immensely enjoyed by all the participants.

The event concluded with the online crossword Fintuition, which was won by 1st year IIT Kanpur MBA students Siddharth and Nitin (Team FinWiz).

Finatics 2010 proved to be a learning experience for all the participants – be it due to the knowledge shared during the guest lectures, the informal night sessions with the speakers, the simulation workshops or the highly competitive quizzes. The event surely will now be considered a benchmark when planning further flavors of the same, or of Prabandhan, the annual management conclave from the IME Department, due to be tentatively held in September !

The IME department thanks all the participants and speakers for making this event a resounding success.

For any enquiries, contact Student Coordinators:
K V Gopa Kumar(kgopa@iitk.ac.in)
Gyan Vikas(gyan@iitk.ac.in)

Report Prepared By:
Manu Agrawal(manuag@iitk.ac.in)

Official Website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/finatics

On supply chain issues - Mr. Harsh Manglik, MD, Accenture

2009-09-14T12:23:00.001+05:30

A guest lecture was conducted by the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering on Supply chain issues in specific and Accenture in general. The dignitaries present to deliver the talk were
• Mr. Harsh Manglik, MD
• Mr. Sanjay Dawar, Managing partner-Supply chain
• Mr. Prithvi Shergill, Senior Executive-HR
The discussion highlighted the business processes at Accenture in general and how its end to end solution implementation helps it live up to its tag line- “High Performance. Delivered.” While Mr. Harsh Manglik stressed on the client relationship management and how Accenture ensures that the solutions are implemented successfully at the client’s end, Mr. Prithvi Shergill talked about the career opportunities and measures that Accenture has taken to reduce employee attrition and increase employee motivation in the current slowdown. Mr. Sanjay Dawar talked about the supply chain issues prevalent in India and how they are different from the issues in the rest of the world. He specifically highlighted the complexity of the Indian Retail supply chain given the vast expanse of the distribution network unlike in western countries where a large chunk of the distribution network is taken care of by large retailers like Wal mart. This in itself presented huge challenges in managing Indian supply chains. Upon being questioned about the different supply chain performance metrics that are applicable in different industries, he mentioned about the broad framework which is common to all supply chains across all industries apart from the metrics that vary in each industry per se. He also stressed on the fact that in the current scenario of attempts towards a never ending optimisation of the supply chain, it is imperative to try and implement cross industry effective supply chain measures in other industries. This was substantiated by the fact that an increasing number of mining & exploration companies are using 3PL for accessing capital goods and equipment which is a long standing successful inherent feature of the supply chain of the automobile industry. On the whole, it was an excellent interface for the students with the current supply chain industry practices.

A talk on “Right to Information Act: Path to Swaraj”

2009-09-14T12:16:00.005+05:30

Swaraj, or self-rule, a concept propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, is integral to our idea of a democracy. The freedom struggle was, in effect, meant to realize the same. But did Independence actually bring about a sense of self-governance?
What kind of democracy are we living in? Does the concept of individual sovereignty still hold any value for us?
In the talk on the “Right To Information Act: Path to Swaraj”, a lot of such burning questions were raised, and some of them were answered.
IIT Kanpur organized the talk by the Information Commissioner - CIC, Mr Shailesh Gandhi on the 7th of September 2009.
Mr Gandhi presented an eye-opening view of the current state of democracy in India: talking about the differences in a participatory and an elective democracy, and created awareness about the RTI act amongst the audience.
The RTI act empowers the Indian citizen to monitor the Government individually in large numbers. Some of the salient features of the act are:
1) It makes a public servant accountable. All the citizens have to do is pay Rs 10/- to get information on the Government’s actions and decisions.
2) The RTI act can be used to obtain information from all government bodies, bodies controlled by the government or having substantial investment by the government, or any institution established by an act of Parliament.
3) The law mandates that the information has to be given in 30 days.

This simple act wields enormous powers. If each one of us files even one RTI application every month, the sheer volume of these questions will be enough to ensure that all government servants do justice to their roles and responsibilities. After all, lack of accountability breeds complacence and corruption.
Mr Gandhi explained the procedures of using the Act to force the concerned organization to act, using a lot of real life examples in which the RTI act has been used to bring people/agencies to book. In the end, the problems faced by several members of the audience while exercising the Act were discussed and an attempt was made to answer all the questions posed.
The lecture was informative and inspiring, and it left the audience enabled and empowered to use the Act to bring about much needed change in the governance of the country!
About the speaker –
Mr Shailesh Gandhi is a B.Tech from IIT Bombay, following which he setup a plastics packaging small-scale unit in 1972. Mr. Gandhi established Clear Plastics Limited in 1980 employing 500 people and using only indigenous machinery. Known as an innovative entrepreneur, he designed and supplied plastic bottles and caps to some of the best Companies in India. In 2003, Mr Gandhi sold his business to work for Right to Information. He has been the Chairman of the IIT Bombay Alumni Association for 3 years. With a number of accolades and awards under his belt (described below), he is an inspiration for one and all, working for the betterment of life and reducing corruption everywhere.
Awards –
i) Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay
ii) The Nani Palkhiwala Civil Liberties Award in 2008.
Furthermore, Mr Gandhi was in the forefront in the Satyendra Dubey case and is a prolific user of the RTI act to uncover a lot of social corruption issues, such as:
i) Inform citizens about the details of the Maharastra CM's Relief fund
ii) Stop giveaway of Public money of over 1000 crores in redevelopment of Crawford market
iii) Curb political interference in Police transfers.

Ideaz - The Business Idea Challenge

2009-08-13T21:20:00.002+05:30

Ideaz - 09 is a pan IIT Business idea challenge in serach of the most
innovative IITian. Students at IIT are expected to start their
entrepreneural journey from the college itself and in pursuit of this
excellence they are trained for this.

Yesterday, E-cell of IIT Kanpur organized a workshop for mentoring of the
students who want to transform their dreams into reality. The objective of
the workshop was to guide students towards idea generation and improve it
with proper guidance and mentorship. Workshop was taken by Ankur Agarwal,
a consultant at Boston Consulting Group.

Ankur, an IIT Delhi alumnus, is intersted in Business startegy, Technology
and social entrepreneurship. His area of expertise involves broad
spectrums of management consulting.

Ankur discussed the process of generating a feasible and economically
viable idea. Ideas may not sound realistic at first go but, if groomed
properly these can turn out to be successful business ventures. Looking out
for a problem is the first step towards it. Once the problem is found,
then, try to find out the possible solutions through brainstorming.
Brainstorming is an activity, that respects all the ideas irrespective of
its feasibility. Collect all the ideas and then try to come to a solution
of the problem. Discuss the various aspects of it so that the practicality
of the idea comes alive. One is inspired to find the answers of below
questions:

- What is the idea, motive and business venture? Can it be explained in
simple terms?

- Who are the customers? Are they going to prefer this product or service
over existing ones?

- How is the idea going to be implemented? Is it economically profitable?
Will you be able to sell it?

- Why is your idea better than other existing solutions to the problem?

Ankur presented this process in a very concise manner. It was his efforts
that an abstract topic like this became interesting. The session ended
with a group activity. The activity focused on imparting necessary
practical skills to the students so that they can start thinking on their
own.

Ideaz - 09 is going to see huge participation from IIT community. Some
more IndiaBulls, Lakshyas etc are probably in the minds of students at IIT Kanpur.

Ultimately, what an Idea SirJee !!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gyan

Class of 2011
MBA,IIT Kanpur

Experience at IIT Kanpur

2009-08-10T19:28:00.000+05:30

The past few months have been eventful – oh yes they have and how! The techie in me was finally willing to die owing to my growing interests in the ever-challenging arena of business management. Change was round the corner – I had decided to pursue an MBA.

Destiny, for a change, did its bit, and I found myself with an offer letter from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. The IITs have always fascinated me – the brand spells quality and success. I had my thinking to do though. After four years of quality experience in a challenging industry, was I settling for something below par? After all, weren’t the IITs schools for technology? [The first thing that comes to your mind when one says IIT Kanpur is aeronautics].

It isn’t surprising how misleading perceptions can be.

As I debated with myself, I laid down the facts before me. The IIT Kanpur boasts of an unimaginable infrastructure, quality faculty, a well designed MBA course, established (over-established really) industry interface and recognition, a buoyant student and alumni community and an amazing culture. These really are the very factors that form the framework for a great MBA program.

I convinced the skeptic in me to take the plunge.

For those who believe in the adage “Perception is reality” – I have just two words of advice – ‘Wake up!’ For over the course of my stay at this Institution, I am, simply put, blown away!

The infrastructure is one-of-a-kind. The institution’s academic establishment is exemplary. Great accommodation and 24*7 availability of basic amenities are a given. What makes for luxury are the add-ons: basketball, badminton and tennis courts, cricket and football fields, swimming pool and its shopping centre. To me it reflects the administration’s serious efforts towards ensuring a student’s comfortable stay as well as an all-round development – the latter specifically being a rarity in the Indian education system. The faculty is way above impressive – with its roots in some of the best management institutions within and outside the country. With tremendous industrial experience and network the academia is definitely at par with the best in the country.

The MBA course is a well-defined mix of practical and class-room learning. The pedagogy is essentially the same as that which is practiced in institutions world over – experiential learning, case studies, research, summers … you name it. But what really sets the program above the competition is its practical approach to academics which can be summed up in our faculty’s beliefs – “our program does not put up a pretense of a high-pressure curriculum”. It really is a struggle to not find time for yourself in the day. This is in keeping with the institute’s belief of ensuring a student’s all-round development. And yet there is no compromise in academic deliverables of the program.

IIT Kanpur being an academic hub has another unfair advantage over the rest – it is has a buoyant industry interface. Illustrious speakers and academicians, presentations, seminars – these are commonplace here. These are certain essentials that are always beneficial for the growth of a student outside of the normal academic curriculum. It also helps build an essential network across industries. This of course is the add-on advantage that program boasts of, over and above the regular run-of-the-mill ‘placement’ banter.

The student community is the real ace up IIT Kanpur’s sleeve. If you think this is an exaggeration, picture this: insofar as I have seen, an MBA program boasts of a few hundred students managing various communities and initiatives in close cohesion with academic faculty or administrative members. Here is where IIT Kanpur makes an aberration – a small batch of around fifty students manages the entire show with no intervention from faculty or administration– placements, public relations. This to me implies greater responsibility per head and greater risks. And yet the deliverables are astounding. To me this is a reflective of the potential my peers and seniors possess. The average work experience of the batch is above thirty months in industries of various engineering disciplines thereby bringing in a diverse thought process and perspective. The fact that the institution has various academic programs from BTech to MSC to PHD and MBA isn’t the disadvantage that many traditionalists make it out to be. In fact, it has given me the opportunity to interact with some of the finest brains in the country. Networking is considered to be one of the most important aspects of an MBA – well, here too this institute goes one-up on my ratings.

This fifty year old institution is a constantly evolving phenomenon. Its legacy, stature and prominence in the industrial, managerial and academic spheres is what makes this institution and its programs at par with the best the country has to offer.

All in all the experience has been extremely gratifying, to say the least.

The skeptic in me rests in peace.

Tejas Patel

Class of 2011

MBA, IIT Kanpur

2nd Capacity Building Programme for Officers of Electricity Regulatory Commissions 3–8 August, 2009

2009-08-05T23:02:00.002+05:30

The Industrial and management engineering department organized 2nd Capacity Building Programme for Officers of Electricity Regulatory Commissions on the 3–8 August, 2009. This event would feature a number of talks by eminent personalities on a variety of topics dealing with electricity regulations.

For further details on the conference visit : http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/anoops/for09/

Finatics '09

2009-04-09T13:00:00.016+05:30

The annual finance conclave of IIT Kanpur – ‘Finatics’ was organized on the 4^th and 5^th of this month. The event sponsored by IDFC, drew huge participation from various b schools across the country. The conclave comprised of a gamut of events ranging from case studies to debates etc. A number of online events such as quizzes and crosswords were also organized and garnered in a lot of enthusiasm and participation from students.

An NCDEX workshop was held for the benefit of students interested in commodity trading. The workshop was more relevant in the current financial turmoil as it aimed to apprise the students of the industry trends and practices in such a scenario.

Industry veterans such as Mr Ashish Sethia, who heads New Carbon Finance’s Research & Business development in India, Mr Prashant Reddy, business development manager at NCDEXwere the guest speakers who gave enlightening talks pertaining to their field of expertise.

Hall Day !!

2009-04-07T14:52:00.007+05:30

Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award 2008-2009

2009-03-01T11:49:00.001+05:30

The Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) taking a note of the tragic death of Shri Satyendra K Dubey, an alumnus of IITK who died fighting against corruption, had instituted the Satyendra K Dubey Memorial (SKDM) Award for honoring outstanding alumni of the IIT system i.e. all existing Indian Institutes of Technology, who have shown professional integrity and have been upholding human values
The presentation ceremony of the Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award was held on the occasion of the Alumni Day (Annual Alumni Convention) of the Alumni Association of IITK i.e on the forenoon of Saturday, February 28, 2009.

The dignitaries present at the occasion were :

1. Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of IndiaDr.
2. Udai P Sing, Vice President, CH2M HILL, CA USA and President-Elect, Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers
3. Mr. Manoj Pratap Singh, Global Managing Partner, Operations Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu
4. Prof. Arun P Shukla Simon Ostrach ! Professor and Chairman, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, University of Rhode Island
5. Mr. Shantanu Srivastava Managing Director & CEO, Ishan International Pvt. Ltd., Managing Director, Norvis Holdings (Singapore) Pvt. Ltd.
6. Dr. Shreesh Jadhav Swami, Rama Krishna Mission
7. Dr. Devendra Shukla, Founder President and CEO, Innovative Technical Solutions

The presence of such luminaries in our midst was an inspiring experience. All of them had stories to tell related to the campus and their journey since then. More than anything else, it gave a glimpse to the students present of where they should be heading and what they could possibly achieve.

Global Financial Management

2009-02-19T00:57:00.006+05:30

Dept of HSS, IIT Kanpur conducted a short term course on Global Financial Management from 4th to 13th February 2009. The course was taken by Prof. Dr. Michaela M. Kiermeier, Professor Financial Management, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Dr. Michaela, an expert in portfolio management, have visited many universities around the world and conducted short term courses in Finance.

First and second year MBA students who wanted to specialize in finance were also invited to attend the course. The main objective of the course was to make the students understand and adapt to changing and challenging global environment. The course also enabled the students to acquire and apply knowledge and tools in various financial areas to solve business problems in global context. The course helped students to get introduced to global financial management. It also assisted the future managers to get acquainted with concepts, activities and management techniques related to the planning and coordination of international aspects of finance, portfolio management, and risk management.

Lectures, discussions and case analyses formed the course pedagogy. Students took presentations as part of the performance evaluation and participated in the discussions. At the end of the course Dr. Michaela was happy to see a group of young and dynamic professionals who were keen to know each and every nuance in the field of finance.

THE IML BIDDING

2009-02-12T18:45:00.004+05:30

The Glitz , The Glamour and The Zing

2009-02-06T01:51:00.003+05:30

Pave way for IML - IIT MBA League! An initiative to encourage the sporting culture among the students.

To- be - managers sweating it out on the field?? doesn't sound exactly B-schoolish? IML is not just sports.... infact sports is just an iota of what IML actually is. Its about money, strategy, betting, music and the hoopla. From team owners to bidders to speculators to star players - all are in the race for the big prize.. its cut throat competition and only the fittest shall survive !

Kick starting the very first season of IML... watch out this space for more!

Sports meet at IIT Roorkee

2009-01-21T20:26:00.017+05:30

Work hard.. play harder !!

Satyam or ASatyam

2009-01-11T02:19:00.003+05:30

E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year (2007), Asia Business Leader Award (2002), Dataquest IT Man of the Year Award (2000) are a few of the awards this man received.

His journey began from a small town called Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh. Byrraju Ramalinga Raju born in an agricultural family and a management graduate from Ohio University, tried out a lot of ventures like construction and textile. He finally found Satyam in 1987, which grew leaps and bounds; it bagged its first fortune 500 customer John Deere & Co. in as early as 1991. By year 1999 it had presence in 30 countries across the globe and next year the employee head count crossed 10,000. It crossed the revenue mark of US$ 1 billion in 2006. By the end of 2008 it had about 53,000 employees, 690 clients of which 185 fortune 500 clients, spanning in 20 industries and 65 countries, development centers in 12 countries and revenue in excess of US$ 2 billion. Or is it?

On 7th of January 2009 came a confession from him that shook the nation. He confessed to Rs 7,136 crore fraud, Raju said Satyam's books had been cooked for years to inflate profit and revenue figures. In September 2008, they showed a non-existent cash and bank balance of Rs 5,040 crore and hundreds of crores of fictitious accrued interest and debtors' position. Liabilities worth Rs 1,230 crore were kept hidden. These huge figures made it the biggest accounting fraud in the Indian history. The first warnings signals came in as early as Sept’08, in the form of a report from DMRC chief Sreedharan hinting a big scandal in Maytas, controlled by Raju’s son, but these allegations were disposed of by Planning Commission on the basis of not backing with evidence on his suspicion. Also in mid December when Satyam announced its intensions on buying Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties, serious questions and protests were raised against Satyam’s top management.

The fraud that is also termed as Indian version of Enron had enormous impact on the Indian markets; with Satyam Computers own stocks getting a beating at the sensex with value of its stock falling by as much as 78%. It also triggered the fall in both Nifty and Sensex, as people became cautious of stocks in family run businesses ranging from RIL, ADAG, DLF to Bharti Airtel. Stocks of the sectors that were not known for best of corporate governance practices also went southwards, thus totally negating the positive market sentiment that was build after the second stimulus package.

The more important question is about the future of those 53,000 employees that the company has. With this news of fraud coming in there is a low probability of Satyam getting new clients and even the existing clients will start parting away from it. FIFA already said that it is monitoring the situation related to Satyam. More of its clients are expected to follow and there is a bigger risk of clients even moving out of their existing deals. If this happens, then the staff working on those projects will be out of service. So they are facing a risk of getting laid in future along with the employees who are already on bench. There is one more issue that might be crossing the minds of Satyam’s employees that with minimum out-go of salary being estimated to Rs 500 crore but according to Raju’s confession mail, company had cash of only about Rs 320 crore in cash and its bank accounts, that too in the month of September. They somehow managed to pay salaries till now but possibility of paying full salaries to its employees in months to come looks impossible to say the least.

Within minutes of Raju’s confession, news of strong actions that are initiated against Satyam has made a lot of noise. With law suits filed against the company in US, SEBI ordering probe into Satyam operations. Major brokerage firms degrading its credit rating and slashing its target price. NYSE halted the trade of its stock. BSE and NSE removed Satyam from their benchmark indexes, Nifty and Sensex respectively. Government also started a probe into corporate lapses and financial misdemeanor in Satyam.

Even with all this happening and an own it all confession of Raju there are a lot of questions that are left unanswered. Or to say this whole issue gave birth to a lot of questions like the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as per Mr. Raju’s confession this financial gap was accumulated over the years, then what was this auditing firm doing during those years? It is interesting to note that PwC had been the associated to accounting irregularities in the now-defunct Global Trust Bank in 2007 and in DSQ software also. Another interesting fact is that Raju stated that the operating margins of Satyam were unusually low at Rs. 61 crore or 3% which looks weird as traditionally software industry boosts of high operating margins with industry leader Infosys having about 33% and other IT companies have this figure in the range of 20-30%.

Sources for this article
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articlelist/40657581.cms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.Ramalinga_Raju
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyam_Computer_Services_Ltd.
http://satyam.com

Shashank Saini
MBA Class of 2010

Milestones of the year gone by…

2008-12-29T16:42:00.004+05:30

Fuelled by ambition and driven by initiative, the year gone by has been truly eventful to say the least. This year was marked by a series of “firsts” – competitions, seminars as well as full fledged festivals. Though each day at IITK has something new to offer in terms of education and experience we bring to you a brief snapshot of the more prominent events which have shaped the past year:

1. " Consilium 08" – a consulting conclave was organized for the first time with a view to provide a sneak peek into what it takes to take up consulting as a career. With industry veterans gracing the stage with a number of talks covering a whole range of topics related to consulting, this two day conclave was a huge success among students.

2) " Finatics 08" was another first of its kind, designed to give the finance enthusiasts of MBA, IIT Kanpur a stage to test their mettle.

3) " Al meet 08" , was organized with a view to bridge the gap between the alumni and the current students and to forge a mutually beneficial relationship between them.

4) An IITK MBA blog was started to give a running account of what makes us tick and what makes us stand apart!

5) Megabucks which has been a regular feature of our academic calendar was again a resounding success.

6) The IME department which offers the MBA course is all set to move into a state of the art building funded by alumni of the college. The construction is already under way and moving at a fast pace.

This is just a miniscule of the activities that take place in the campus, activities which constantly educate as well as motivate the students of MBA, IITK. It is the dedicated hardwork and effort of the vibrant student community that has helped the MBA program offered by IITK to scale unprecedented heights and in the relatively short span of its existence attain an independent standing as well as recognition. A testimony to the position of IITK MBA is the latest pagalguy ranking which has ranked us 3^rd among all the IITs.

Anamika
MBA Class of 2010

iDeas – The international business plan competition.

2008-09-11T22:33:00.004+05:30

iDeas – The international business plan competition.

Stalwarts from IITs, IIMs, XLRI, Stanford, Purdue, National University Singapore to name a few, more than 400 teams vying for the one coveted spot ,industry representatives sharing the wealth of their experience, cash prizes exceeding 3 lakhs up for grabs! A heady mix of all this and much more makes up iDeas – the international business plan competition. The motivating factor behind the event is the belief that entrepreneurship is something that cannot be inculcated through formal education or training, it’s something that is driven by the passion to succeed and the mental ability to risk it all for the sake of a belief. The future belongs to the entrepreneurs and iDeas was conceptualized with a view to foster that very entrepreneurial streak in students, and it has come a long way to become the single largest platform for budding entrepreneurs to test their mettle against the best in the country.

The event takes place in three phases, wherein firstly the executive summary is submitted by the teams, following which they are screened and mentors assigned to the selected teams. After fine tuning of the business plan with the help of the mentors the final Business plan presentation is done and the winner team is declared. The rigorous screening at every level ensures that only the best of the best get to the topmost level and the combined team effort cumulates into a final thrilling presentation session to finally decide upon the one idea that will be turned into a real business venture.

This year the event was kick started with the Launching ceremony held on the 7th of September. The guest speakers for the occasion were Rohit Nalwade - CEO and co-founder of Consumer Vision
Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bhavin Turakhia - CEO and chairman of Directi and Shashank Dixit - founder of DeskEra, Inc., and co-founder and CEO of Krawler Networks.

The signature energy and zeal of a successful entrepreneur was evident in their interaction with the audience.The one on one interaction with people who actually had the will in them to go out in the field and play hard was an enriching experience for the jam packed hall. Other than renouncing the commonly held belief that entrepreneurship is all about making money, the speakers elucidated the qualities required to be successful in one. The budding entrepreneurs were treated to a generous helping of real life experiences and stories of the speakers.

The event is truly a melting pot of ideas - ideas that are encouraged and nurtured by industry bigwigs, ideas that are simple yet are nothing short of pure genius, ideas that exemplify the out of the box thinking process and most importantly Ideas that have the potential to make it big. The stage is set – let the onslaught of ideas begin!

Anamika Tiwari
MBA Class of 2010
IIT Kanpur, India.

Consilium'08: The Consulting Conclave

2008-07-30T16:40:00.002+05:30

MBA batch under the aegis of Department of IME is going to organize the annual consulting conclave of IIT Kanpur, Consilium’08. The objective of this event is to create a platform where confluence of leading professionals from consultancy and vast student community can take place. As consultancy has become one of the most preferred career choice for IITians , Consilium'08 will provide them the opportunity to learn about the nunaces of consultancy in various domains. From a humble start, it has been envisaged that Consilium will become the platform in coming years where representatives from across the spectrum of consultancy will share their knowledge, experience and insight with students.

The event has generated enthusiasm among all sections of IITK students and students from other major B-Schools who are also expected to participate. Case solving competition is one of the attraction of Consilium '08 in which winners shall get certificates and attractive cash prizes. Apart from case study contest, lecture series on current hot topics in consulting and panel discussion form part of Consilium ’08.

The event will be held on 9th and 10th August 2008. The conclave would feature the following events:

Lecture Series from Industry and Academia on ‘Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Consulting’.
Panel discussion: ‘Merger & Acquisition’.Consulting
Case Presentation.
Consulting Case Competition for Students

Some of the companies to have confirmed participation in the event include TCS, Satyam, IDFC, IL & FS, Bristlecone etc. A couple more companies are likely to confirm their participation in the conclave. Finer details are available on the website. The topics of the lecture series encompass several issues ranging from role of consulting in manufacturing to consulting for retailing and rural marketing. Especially with sectors like retail beginning to grow at a rapid pace in our country, the lecture promises to provide interesting insights into these issues.

Consilium ’08 is poised to provide its audience a rich learning experience.

Further details on the conclave are available on Consiliun'08 Website

Discuss about the conclave by joining Consilium'08 community on Orkut

Ground Breaking Ceremony of SOM at IITK

2008-04-20T13:11:00.001+05:30

Ground Breaking Ceremony of School of Management at IITK (Photo Album)

Al-Meet 2008 'Lamhe'

2008-04-14T11:32:00.004+05:30

Let's share some experience......

'
'Prof.' and 'Alumni' sharing their experiences

Informal Interaction..................

'Guests' in their own 'home'.............

Some Light moments at MT....Local Chai Shop

See, I can make it better.....

And the Party Begins..................

Dinner Party in Progress...........

MBA Class with a difference............

We Are Back.............

And the College Journey begins again .........

On air strip....

Smile Please.....

When Experience Speaks.............

Oh Yaar, those old days, I miss them ........

When "Guru" Meets................

The Champs..........

When "Experience" meets the "Pinnacle of success"
Our Professor.....Ex CEO.

Finatics 2008........Moments Captured

2008-04-13T22:59:00.004+05:30

When Big Shots Talk !!!!

Lecture in progress................

Invitation to you all ...........

Panel Discussion is in Progress......

Let's listen what industry has to say.......

Sh!!! Mind in progress..................

Some Informal lamhe......

FINATICS'08, THE FINANCE CONCLAVE AT IITK

2008-04-03T23:54:00.003+05:30

Team MBA, IIT Kanpur is organising ‘Finatics 2008’, the annual finance conclave during 5^th and 6^th April’08. The event is expected to reach 10,000 students across the country through direct participation and webcast viewing. This would give the event unparalleled reach and all the lecture series and panel discussions can be easily accessible from anywhere through the Finatics’08 website http://students.iitk.ac.in/finatics. The Team has made necessary arrangements for the webcast which is expected to be available from 06^th April to 11^th April. The information is being sent to the other Business schools through several mediums.

The vision behind the conclave is to provide the student fraternity with the intricacies of the finance world through distinguished speakers who have proven their mettle in their respective fields. This would be a wonderful opportunity for the students to get a practical understanding of the concepts in the finance world.

The event has three attractions – HawkEye (Lecture series), Finnoisseur (Panel Discussion) and Nutikas (Online Quiz) covering the two days of the event. We have confirmed participation from the following speakers

Deepak Jain, Director, DSP Merill Lynch
Dwarika Mishra, AVP-Analytics, HSBC
Roy, Director & Co-Founder, Paymate
Saxena, MD 7avenues, CEO 7to9 Retail

The topics of the lecture series encompass burning issues from the finance world. It includes topics from the areas of Investment Banking, Private Equity & Infrastructure Financing, Subprime Crisis, Mobile Commerce and Domain Consulting in Banking, Finance & Insurance. The main emphasis for this event is on capturing the Indian perspective on these issues which is the need of the hour.

The event is being partnered by financial institutions such as SBI, PNB and Reliance Money and companies such as HP and McGraw Hill

I cease to live when I cease to think….

2008-01-23T18:48:00.002+05:30

This is a story about me, JMET, MBA, Rankings, IIT Kanpur and our life thereafter. It all began with my team lead (the software guys will know who this creature is) asking me to stop using my creativity and start working according to the standards (alias best practices) of the industry. Now that’s something that said “The end is important and not the means”. And how true. All of us, yes all of us, spend our lives trying to achieve a good END but what about the means; the process; the journey one undergoes to achieve that end. And that’s when I decided I need to get into a place where I am taught to think, to have a mind of my own and to live my life with my MEANS.

MBA, masters in business administration… the most coveted degree। The translation of which has become M-Money… B- Bucks… A- Almighty Dollars… Yeah, the only thing that can get you a life and a wife (and for the girls… the best credential on your resume to help you become a wife).

Exams, followed results, application process, GD/ PIs, Calls…। A hurricane came and left me with choices which apparently could make my life (and according to some waste it too). I had final converts from IIT Kanpur and four other colleges. And of these four, three were ‘ranked’ higher than Kanpur…. ….and to the wonder of many mortals who surround me “I chose IITK!!!!!” … Yeah append that with a hundred more exclamations and you will be a little close to what expression I saw on their face when I told them this. So who cares for the rankings? Anyone who has studied management subjects during bachelors or does serious reading for getting into a b-school would know what kind of ‘research’ goes into these rankings. The sample is too small or too skewed, too opinionated or too biased. And I make this statement not only for B-School rankings but in general for all rankings that happen on and off. What one fails to realize is that one has to put in her/his own research into deciding the place one wants to spend the most crucial two years of her/his life. Can a few questions, some biases, some parameters decide where and how ‘you’ will be happy, where and how ‘you’ will learn, where and how you will ‘think’.

It’s been over 22-23 years people thought for us and decided। My parents decided my school, my teachers decided my marks, my friends decided my congeniality, my seniors decided my rating. When do I think and decide for myself. I think and decide here, each and every day of my life… in IIT Kanpur.

My faculty are not teachers… they are partners, motivators, peers, mentors, propellers; into the phenomenon called learning and learning on my own। I feel privileged to be in a place where independence, merit, smart work and initiative are given respect… and whoever said I made a wrong decision… you can take a ride! (We all have beautiful bicycles here at IIT K and I will be glad to offer you mine for it)

So no gyaan, no bakwaas… like sprite I keep it enough to quench your pyaas…decide on the college you want to go to on your own. Let no rankings, no experts, no pundits decide what you do for the best 2 years of your life. IIT Kanpur gave me a blank canvas to paint my thoughts (am reminded of Ishaan Awasthi, TZP), and, I am sure it will, to all who are related to this institute.
My story is to continue for another year and half and I will be delighted to share one of the best moments of my journey called ‘life’.

Neha Bhardwaj
Class of 2009
IIT K MBA.

Quantitative Finance Workshop

2008-01-18T02:09:00.001+05:30

“Those who have knowledge don’t predict and those who predict don’t have knowledge”

A group of Professors from Lally Business School, New York was in the campus for ‘Quantitative Finance Workshop’ and for students it was an experience of its own kind. Prof. John Teall from New York University, Prof. Iftekhar Hasan form LBS, Prof Gupta were the distinguished speakers in the workshop. The Interaction was highly informative and as expected ‘Sub-Prime’ was the hot issue of the program. Prof. John, being a former member of American Stock Exchange guided all budging investors and discussed the pertinent issues of the world economy.

During the course of the interaction, interest was shown by both the institutes for students exchange program in the near future and a draft was prepared to make it feasible in the short term. It will certainly help in enhancing the exposure of both the countries. ‘Finance’ being a buzz word in these days, the program was a big success especially in this era where the debate between ‘Globalization’ and ‘De-Coupling’ is in full swing.

More programs of such kind should be conducted in the near future so that the interaction between all the major Business school get stronger with the each passing day.

Quantitative Finance Workshop

2008-01-18T01:32:00.001+05:30

Prof.John Teall from LBS.

Prof. Hasan, Prof. Gupta and Prof. Teall Addressing the students.

The Team from RPI, LBS,New York.

‘IT Mahatma’ Mr Narayana Murthy at IITK

2008-01-18T01:24:00.000+05:30

This was one of those moments that no-one could afford to miss. As the time for Mr N R Narayana Murthy arrival at IITK drew near, everyone here was anxious to meet one of the most charismatic personalities that India has ever witnessed. So, despite the tight schedule of Mr. N R Narayana Murthy he took time to address the students and we made the fullest use of this wonderful opportunity.

As our chief guest arrived, he received a thunderous applause from the jam-packed auditorium. He was accompanied with Member of Parliament Mr Arun Shourie who initiated the address to the students. He urged students to excel in their fields and even ‘outdo people like Narayana Murthy’. He also laid stress for creating a lobby of excellence in India. He advised students to take up at least one social issue in the future and strive hard to make a meaningful contribution to the society.

Now it was the time for the ‘IT Mahatma’ Mr N R Narayana Murthy to deliver his precious ‘gyan’ . He begun his speech on an optimistic note “ We live in extra-ordinary times. Never before in last 300 years did an Indian get such recognition in the world as in present times. Never before an Indian could look up to be one of the richest persons in the world.....” But this is severely contrasted by the other side of the picture “It is an irony that still 250 million people in India do not have access to safe drinking water. 50% of the schools in rural India have only one teacher for every 2 classes...”. So in spite of all the hustle and bustle of the Indian economy on a rapid growth trajectory, the ground realities need to be looked at. He urged students from prestigious institutes like IITs to come forward to innovate and help India to develop in a ‘true’ sense.

He told about his experiences at IITK when he was a student here,” When I was on the other side of this podium, where you all are right now, I got the opportunity to hear to Dr C.V. Raman ,one of the greatest scientists of India. He demostrated how technology could make a difference to the future of India and that had motivated me a lot” It was now time to instil strong motivation in us “Each one of you could make a difference to the society. I believe that you would make India one of the most developed nations in the world in the coming future. I am sure that you would be there and you would be proud to say... ‘Yes, we made it happen!!!’ ... You would bring back the glory of the ‘golden bird’ and give India its rightful position”

While answering the queries he told us the ‘matras’ that help to realise the potential of one’s ideas “When you get an idea, think if you can translate it into a simple one. If you could visualise it and have a clear objective, you could do it for sure” To a query he told us the vision which guided his company to scale unparallel heights “We had a lot of discussion regarding what our vision should be and then we decided to make Infosys the most respected company”

These words would reverberate in our minds and would trigger some 'ignited minds' to conquer the unthinkable.

"IT Mahatma" Delivering "Gyan" on 'Leadership'

The Two Powers on the same Platform

Mr. Arun Shourie, Addressing students.

" Together we can make it possible" - Mr. Murthy Mentor Infosys.

School of Management at IIT Kanpur

2008-01-04T22:43:00.001+05:30

IIT Kanpur will soon have a world class business management school with financial assistance from an alumni couple. This gives a huge boost to the MBA program currently offered by IME department. The program , which started in 2001, has itself generated great interest and has achieved unparallel growth in a very short time. Perhaps it’s the testimony to the success of the program which has attracted the attention of IITK alumni.

Raj Singh and his wife Neera Singh (US based alumni) have given Rs. 9 crore for setting up the business school. “We want that IIT-K should have a world class school of business management so that students passing from this institute can compete with others,” Mr. Singh told news agencies during their visit at IIT Kanpur.

The School of management would definitely bring some welcome changes enhancing the value of MBA program. The number of seats will definitely increase with due course of time and this would be a good news for the MBA aspirants at IITK. The timings for the SOM is excellent. Already the MBA program by IIT K has been proved a success and the demand for MBAs is increasing with each passing day. The whole world looks for MBAs from Indian top notch institutes and now the latest School Of Management in IIT Kanpur will put this program on an elevated platform that will be highly acclaimed by Global MNCs.

IIT K has a track record of giving one of the best placements among the top institutes and the growth rate in the quality of placements are self evident ( this year also the whole batch has been placed with record placements in just a few hours). The effect of Kanpur city being a non Metro has also been nullified with the starting of regular flights between Kanpur and Delhi and is being highly acclaimed by corporate people.

Recognising the tremendous growth potential, this move is sure to register as a milestone for making the management education at IIT Kanpur comparable to the best in the world. The institute has already been synonymous with the epitome of technical education. Now, it is taking quantum leaps in the field of management education.

For news items related to SOM click here

Marty Shivley, Director IP Operations, Microsoft shares his experience with IIT K MBA students

2007-09-28T23:28:00.000+05:30

IME Department and SIDBI at IIT Kanpur organised a seminar on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on 25th September’07. The topic of the seminar was “Managing IP Portfolio in large Organizations & IP practices in US”. The seminar was presented by Marty Shivley, Director, Worldwide Intellectual Property Operations for Microsoft Corporation. Other speakers included Jim Patterson, US Patent Attorney and Mukundan Seshadari, CEO Blue-File IP Services. The whole department including professors turned up to listen to the experiences of eminent speakers.

The seminar started with an introduction to IPR and its indispensible need in the present business world. In fact according to Jim Patterson “Constant Innovation has been the key determinant for the success of an organisation. IPR then becomes an effective tool to safeguard the strategic knowledge that a company uses to reinvent itself”. He delved into various strategies like trade-secrets, patents, copyrights and trademarks used to protect intellectual property. He emphasised that “Intellectual property (IP) has become an asset just like property.”

The seminar was an interactive one with discussion on various cases. One of such was the purchase of production capabilities of Rolls-Royce Motors by Volkswagen in 1998 and the subsequent strategic purchase of Rolls-Royce trademark by BMW. The case highlighted how BMW used IP to its strategic advantage. Other cases included the tussle between Qualcomm and Nokia over IP.

Marty Shivley explained how IPR creates revenue for an organisation from which a part again goes in funding R&D for development of IP. He shared his experiences of various IP operations in Microsoft and the way in which the company tackled various IPR issues. He narrated his briefings regarding IP with Bill Gates and the seriousness with which the Microsoft chairman listened to these briefings. “He would often go in the minute details as he has a very good understanding of these issues”, Shivley added.

The seminar ended with a flurry of questions from the budding entrepreneurs and a few inquisitive ones got a chance to meet them personally and gain some deeper insights.

Annual Get-together.......And the Bond Continues!!!!

2007-09-16T19:46:00.000+05:30

“Enough of presentations, case studies and the lectures........wanna break??”. “YeAh” was the call and the party delivered just that or shall I say anything more than that. The annual get-together of management department added spice to the monotonous academic life and it was a welcome change for the students as well as for the faculty. The party gave a perfect platform for our budding MBAs to showcase some of their hidden talents (yeah, they mastered the art of entertaining too!!). And believe me, they left the audience spell bound with shouts of “Once more!!!!”

The mood of the party was set by the light background music and the chit-chat of the students, faculty and their family members. So, we had a chance to see our profs in a light mood enjoying the party. The show began with a movie clip prepared by MBA first year. The sweet tunes of “Choti si asha” followed by “Aashayien..” which were coupled with some of the most memorable snaps of our life here brought the audience to a standstill. The captions running through the video were spot on and captivating. It left the audiences asking for more and they were not disappointed either. The best was yet to come.

The next program on the cards was a skit prepared by the students of MBA titled “Main bhi manager banuga..”. So, this was the story of “Chiraungilal” who never got or did what he wanted. His story started from his engineering college days when he dreamt of becoming a scientist but as most other people he too got in a software job. Then came the frustration of the job and finally like others he also takes admission in an MBA college. But, he soon realises that life here was not easy. And finally he learns how to live life and the important lesson that management first starts with oneself.

The best part of the skit was its well written script and the one-liners or dialogues which created a laugh riot among the audiences. So, be his “rata-rataya” answers in the interviews to questions (like Why MBA??) or his “tensed” interactions with the boss or girlfriend, he scores full marks in making the people enjoy his journey. So, he calls his girlfriends a ‘liability’ and even discusses of making an LP model for his happiness (but unfortunately, the constraints were too many). His life takes a complete turn when he encounters the voice of God as his inner voice. Even God talks in his language and gives an update of the P/L account maintained for him. He gets to know of the biggest constraint of his life and the show ended with an intriguing question for the audiences “Kahi aap main to Chiraungi nahi.....?”

Mesmerised by such performances the audiences now got some other flavours too. So, we had some songs lined up and it was now the time for audiences to sway to the tunes of “Yaaron,dosti badi hi haseen hai..” and “Hotel California”.

The show ended with the speech of our HOD who was elated at the performances and then came the golden words "It emboldens belief in our selection process that we have got one of the best talents in the country”. Then came a big round off applause and a general feeling among us that we would give our best to match our professors’ expectations.The occasion was graced by the presence of our special guest Prof. E. Lenver from Israel. We had a talk with him regarding the performances and to our surprise he really enjoyed them in spite of the language barrier.

It was now time for dinner. The dinner was delicious and a perfect end to a memorable evening. So, we had a sumptuous meal (and lots of ice creams too.. yummy!!!!). On the dinner table one thing was in common: The performances had made a deep impression and everyone was discussing just that. In fact it is difficult to come out from the party hangover even now. This party is sure to go in our memory lanes as one of the best moments of our lives!!!!!!!

Arpit Garg

Class of 2009

MBA IIT Kanpur.

Annual Get-Together Moments!!!!!!

2007-09-16T19:25:00.000+05:30

The Soup for MBA souls...

Yummy Yummy Ice-cream.....

A pose with our Seniors....

Seniors with our Professor...sharing some light moments

Discussions in full swing.......

Future managers......under one roof.

Our Professor with his cute baby.....

Yaad aayage ye pal........

Chinese Delegates in IIT Kanpur

2007-08-24T16:15:00.000+05:30

“Hindi Chine bhai bhai”, the feelings associated with this slogan were once again revived here at IIT Kanpur, when Chinese delegates from Chinese embassy introduced themselves and greeted us with “Namaskar”. Recently, a group of three Chinese delegates visited IIT Kanpur and interacted with faculty and students of the institutes. It is considered as a forward step in strengthening the relations between two countries in technical and business areas. They had a small talk with the students and gave a presentation about the various economics policies of their country.

The comparisons between India and China in various fields were the main attraction of the talk. They also discussed in broad sense about their vision and various steps taken by their government to increase their GDP four times by 2020. The talk on the issues of inflation control, problem and challenges of the fourth largest economy of the world caught the attention of every one present in the auditorium. When it came to the cultural differences in both the countries, the auditorium filled with light environment and burst of laughter. ZEE news team was also there to cover the whole event.

At the end of the talk, a plethora of questions were asked and people were appreciated for showing a keen interest of their neighbour country. Some beautiful pictures of top Chinese universities were also shown in between. The talk concluded with the feelings that each country has its own core competency and it’s the right time to work in tandem with each other, learn from each other and cooperate each other in all the possible areas of development of both the countries. Below are some of the moments captured during the discussion.

Vikram Agrawal

Class of 2009

IIT K MBA.

Chinese Delegates in IIT Kanpur-Pics.

2007-08-24T16:00:00.000+05:30

.....and the presentation begins.

Speaker- Dr. Wang Qiming

.........The strategy

Strategies (cont....)

Delegates and our faculty member Prof. Jayanta

Audience

Zee news Team.

A Salute to our ‘Seniors’

2007-08-19T11:35:00.000+05:30

A ‘senior’ to most of us in the engineering studies was the one whom we called ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ and respected them for being the big boss (much of that came due to the training during our ragging period there). But our seniors (MBA batch 0f 2008) here at IIT K are a different lot. So, what if we call them by their names (this truly reflects a healthy culture here) and madden them with numerous questions. So be it giving us guidelines for the various committees or sharing their personal experiences or even giving lectures to clear our doubts in various courses(now that’s what a real senior is all about) the best part is that they rise to every occasion and deliver.

So, today was one such day when we were coached by our seniors. The course was accounting: A completely new domain of knowledge (especially for us coming from an engineering background) and an interesting one. Apart from the usual lectures which we get from our Prof. Phani (he being the real king of this subject), our seniors gave us the opportunity to clear our doubts. The best part was that they shared their experiences and the difficulties they faced in this subject. And then came some useful tips to overcome them and a polite submission of them being in the same state last year (surely giving us a confidence that we could overcome it as well). This was not one of the usual classes that we generally had. It was more of a discussion forum with seniors pitching in whenever we had any query. And believe me, we asked tons of questions but thanks to our seniors who patiently answered them all.

And if you think that was enough, it’s time to rethink. The session ended with the promise of coming up with more of similar events. And not only in accounting, but in other courses as well. Surely, they deserve a thunderous applause and a promise that we won’t let their efforts in vain.

Learning is an ever going process here at IIT K that holds no bars. There is a treasure of knowledge and we are right amidst it. With one of the best faculty and such co-operative seniors, we are destined to absorb most of this valuable treasure. We hope these two years would be the most valuable years of our lives.

Arpit Garg
MBA Batch of 2009
IIT Kanpur

Moments Called Life

2007-08-18T19:16:00.001+05:30

Many Many happy returns of the day!!!!!

B club lecture in progress........

Aashiyana !!!!

Aashiyana !!!!

Aashiyana !!!!

Football Match in Progress

Football match winning team.

Lecture on " Stock Market"

....and the orators.......

Some Unforgetable Moments

2007-08-18T19:02:00.000+05:30

The class of 2009, MBA batch
( Friendship day celebration )

The class of 2008, MBA Batch
( New Batch Welcome Party)

Dinner Party ( Friendship Day)

The Joy of winning ( Cricket match winning team )

Some relaxed moments of life.

My First week at IIT Kanpur

2007-08-18T18:27:00.000+05:30

In today’s fast growing business scenario, getting an admission into a good B-school is almost everybody’s dream. The importance of that dream increases further when the MBA program happens to be the one offered by one of the most prestigious brands in the world in the educational sector.

MBA 2007-2009 batch of IIT Kanpur had one such dream and they proved that if passion and enthusiasm are the building blocks of your dream, you are destined to taste success. July 22nd was the day when the entire batch met for the first time. The moment we got our admission letters, the interaction among the members started on a social networking site. When we met, one feeling was common to all members; we all felt as if we already knew each other. Nobody was a stranger in the group which was meeting for the first time in the campus. Having only seen our batch mates on the website, the guessing game of pointing out everyone was great fun in itself. At one point of time it seemed that we all were part of IIT Kanpur and were meeting after a vacation break. That evening we all shared our experiences and life in different companies and our expectations from this college. Our feelings about the campus were also similar. Most of the people came for the first time in the campus for their GD and PI sessions and at that time there was an uncertain feeling whether they will be given a chance to be a part of this campus. We could easily identify the administrative buildings, hall of residences and canteen and we all felt pride in associating ourselves with the campus and its people. No doubt, the infrastructure spoke for itself.

The first week of the session was scheduled for counseling and registration processes and this provided us with ample opportunities and a good platform for interaction amongst us and with people from different courses and different programs. People got busy in matters of bicycle, mobile connection and laptop issues. “Bulk deal” was the buzzword all around. It fostered a strong bond in the group and many people got a chance to showcase their market knowledge. During the whole counseling session all male eyes were searching for the beauties all around and they were not disappointed!

On the third day of the registration process, we all decided to explore the world outside IIT. We went to “Rave Moti” a newly constructed shopping mall near IIT, famous Moti Jheel, J.K. temple, “Rave 3”, “Parade shopping area”. Although a little crowded, we all were fascinated with the city and its beauty in every sense. The monsoon was also in full mood. It rained heavily for two day and the beauty of the campus was rejuvenated. Many times, we picked up our cycles and camera and went outside the hostel to capture the beautiful moments of the campus.

By Saturday, all seniors came back after completing their summer internship and the same night our whole group interacted with them. The meeting coincided with the birthday celebration of four of our batch mates and the interaction started with the cake cutting ceremony. It was a kind of gesture of love and respect from our batch to our seniors for their continuous support and guidance which started even before we wrote JMET exam.

The whole week passed and we enjoyed each and every moment. The moments which were like a dream for everyone came true and will have a big contribution towards the learning we will be receiving in this campus. Our classes are scheduled to start from tomorrow and we pray to God that we perform our best and may the name of IIT Kanpur and our batch shine forever. Amen.

Vikram Agrawal

Class of 2009

IIT Kanpur MBA.

2007-08-15T12:26:00.000+05:30

Report on lecture by Prof. A. K. Gupta (IIM Ahmedabad) at IIT Kanpur.

‘I’ for Innovation with an ‘eye’ for innovation

Origin of the phrase “bottom of the pyramid” -U.S. president F. D. Roosevelt in a radio address

“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power...that build from the bottom up and not from the top down that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

On 3rd August, Friday, IIT Kanpur played host to Prof. Anil K.Gupta from IIM Ahmedabad who was here to share his experience of grassroots innovations under the title- "Inverting the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid: Building upon Grass Roots Innovations"
Dr. Gupta earned his Ph.D. degree in management from KurukshetraUniversity (India).He is currently a Professor in the Centre for Management in Agriculture. Prof. Gupta is a recipient of Padma Shri and President, SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) and Editor, Honey Bee (a newsletter on indigenous innovations).He was adjudged as one of the Star Personalities of Asia among the fifty leaders at the forefront of change by Business Week, New York, and received Asian Innovation Award Gold from Far Eastern Economic Review for coordinating SRISTI and Honey Bee Network.

We observe that there is significant convergence in the global agenda for economic reforms at macro level. A similar level of interest and sensitivity is lacking in support of local communities conserving resources or grassroots innovators solving problems without external aid at a very micro level. In this talk, the speaker shared his experience of grassroots innovations and building institutions to harness them through Honey Bee network. Prof. Gupta gave numerous examples like that of an old man who invented a cycle boat for less than Rs.3000/- which could help him cross the river. And why did he do so- just because he did not want to wait for the boat that delayed his meeting his beloved.Remya, a 16 year old girl from Kerala faced lot of trouble washing the entire family’s clothes. The process was time consuming and left her exhausted. What she did was invent a cycle run washing machine which made washing clothes a matter of few minutes and in this process she also invented an exerciser for people like us who want to get rid of that extra flab.

The IIT s and IIMs are institutes of excellence delivering path-breaking matter year after year. But to what extent have we been successful in finding, funding and maintaining the innovations of the people at the bottom of the pyramid. The innovations that these people make are raw materials for the students of the IITs and IIMs. The future is in IT, IT not as in Information Technology, but IT as in Indian Talent. We students have access to world-class infrastructure and state-of-art laboratories. Every year if some of these innovations are taken up by students for refinement and enhancement, the day is not far when we can truly call ourselves a knowledge economy built by the real IT (Indian talent). Interaction with the so-called poor innovators teaches one beyond technology, beyond class room theory. These innovators have immense respect for nature as they derive most of their products from her. They teach us the responsibility for future generations, the ethics one should maintain regarding ecosystem and the principles one should hold on to when dealing with these precious resources that nature offers.

Neha Bhardwaj
MBA 2007-2009, IIT Kanpur.

Welcome to IIT Kanpur MBA

2007-08-15T12:22:00.000+05:30

The MBA programme at IIT Kanpur was initiated with the guiding principle that a sound technical expertise coupled with right management acumen, is the key to survival in a contemporary competitive environment. This inherent dynamism is expressed through path-breaking innovations in both its programs and its research to keep abreast with the latest.

Globally accepted as a vibrant seat of academic and professional excellence, IIT Kanpur is known for its innovative approach, participative culture and academic rigour. The special efforts to recruit talented faculty on a global basis and stringent admission procedures to select brilliant students across the country, ensures a pool of formidable intellectual capital at any given time in the campus. This helps in a healthy and dynamic exchange of ideas which incubates leaders for the corporate world. No wonder that IIT is perhaps India's most recognized brand the world over. Needless to say that the MBA students of IIT Kanpur have been exhibiting leadership qualities and passion to serve the society as responsible managers of the corporate world, true to the IIT tradition. Students of the earlier batches have carved out a niche for themselves as assets to the organizations. This fact is reinforced by enthusiastic response from the corporate world in the form of placements and unbound intraction with the corporate world with each passing day. The Vision of MBA here is to transform today's professionals in technology into tomorrow's world class leaders. The emphasis of MBA at IIT Kanpur is to nurture leaders who dare to unlearn and relearn in the dynamic world of business