Business leaders deliberated on a series of topical issues. Here are the highlights from the 3 day extravaganza. MBAUniverse.com was the official Management Portal of this festival.
MastishK
In the virtual yet real world of the Internet the event was kicked off a week earlier under the title MastishK - the Prerana online event. Mastishk tested the business acumen of management students in real life business scenarios through online simulation games. Mastishk had over 1200 participants from over 17 countries the world and across B-schools including the IIM's, S.P. Jain, XLRI, MDI, SIBM, NMIMS.
Prerana Business Meet
The flagship event of Prerana, PBM was the inaugural event. This year's edition of Prerana Business Meet was better than ever as the students got insights from all sectors of modern industry. The esteemed panel consisted of Mr. Chander Mohan Sethi, Chairman, Reckitt Benckiser, Mr. V. Thulasidas, Former Chairman, NACIL, Mr. Dev Bhattacharya, MD, Aditya Birla Minacs and Mr.Tim Utama, Head, Wholesale Banking, Standard Chartered. The situation called for these stalwarts, who have led the economy through tumultuous times to show the way ahead, to spot the light at the end of the tunnel and attain it. Mr.Tim Utama proposed that although the India tiger has a roar, its pitch can vary. Mr Dev Bhattacharya felt the Indian tiger has lots of opportunities ahead to increase its roar as 85% of the market is insular and growth opportunities are there, while Mr Chander Mohan Sethi believed the Indian tiger was roaring hard and India would suffer less as a result and Mr Thulasidas observed that the Indian roar was more of a whimper.
Summer Project Contest
SPC is one of its kind event in the country. It provides a platform for the students to benchmark their summer projects against the best in the nation. Students present their internship presentations to the revered jury with details about the challenges faced, initiatives undertaken and solutions devised over their two month stint in the corporate world. This year, the Summer Project Contest had received over 300 entries. The contest has five modules for Marketing, Finance, IT, HR and SCM thus covering all aspects of management. It is one of the most respected events on the Prerana schedule and is actively sought after by B-School students from top colleges like IIM Ahmadabad, Calcutta, Indore, Lucknow, Bangalore, XLRI, MDI, FMS, JBIMS and the like. The summer projects to be showcased this year were ranging from Exotic Derivatives under New Accounting Standards, HR Compliance Scorecard, HR Reporting Metrics and Resource Projection, Developing Responsive Supply Chain involving Special Economic Zones and Industrial Zones in India with Singapore Transshipments, Integrated MIS and Reporting Factory, to Route to market strategy for Affordable Chocolates. With such a wide array of industries and business verticals coming together under one roof, the audiences were in for a scintillating and enlightening experience.
The event also included deliberations by the judges on topics like
· Internet Marketing & World of Blogosphere: The future or just another bubble?
· Tracing the Retail Trail across Emerging Markets
· Managing the new challenges of Supply Chain created by India's Retail boom
· The HR Imperative: Winning the war of talent
· Credit Crisis - Future of Indian Financial Markets
Ehsaas
The commencement of the "Teach for India " program, which is an extension of the "teach for " programs running successfully in the USA and UK , took place at NITIE Business School, Mumbai, on the October 24, 2008. The event saw many distinguished judges. Mr. Pinaki Bhaduri, Corporate Strategy Head from Thermax, Ms Surjeet Ahluwalia - Executive Director, Operations, Ms. Garima Kapila - City Director, Mumbai, Mr.Taylor Jacobson – Consultant with Oliver Wyman, from the Teach for campaign, judge 5 shortlisted teams from top B schools across the country. The teams put forward their plans covering various aspects of the program , related to recruiting the corps for the Tech for India program such as the Value proposition for , induction and evaluation , and strategies for retention of the graduates / post graduates who would be giving up lucrative job offers , and spending 2 years of their life full time after completion of their course to offer high quality education to underprivileged children in India , starting with Mumbai and Pune and later expanding to other parts of the country.
Also discussed were the threats to the successful implementation of the program, the financial, corporate and other details of the program as a whole. The plans or the teams were judged according to various parameters, after thorough cross questioning of the teams' plans. The jury and members of the Teach for India program were pleased with the efforts and the inputs of the teams. "We have obtained many fresh ideas to be implemented in Teach for India" said Mariam Farooq, a Teach for America alum, who was also present at the event. The teams "Kite runners" from NMIMS and "For India" from NITIE were declared the winners in a closely fought contest. The winners get a cash prize and an opportunity to work with the "Teach for India" campaign, and implement their respective plans.
Decibelz
The festival wasnt just about contest and seminars. The evening of Oct 23, 2008, saw the serene NITIE lawns spring alive to the sound of music. Making that music, were Bollywood maestros, Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. From the charming tunes of "Kal Ho Na Ho" to the positively reverberating beats of "Rock On" along with their impromptu variations and improvisations, the evening witnessed sheer musical brilliance personified. Kicking off at
8PM, the trio proceeded to enthral the 1000 plus strong audience and kept them that way till the last drum beat sounded at around 10:30PM.
