Environment, Economy, Social issues expected to be key topics for MBA group discussion this year

Mr. Sidharth Balakrishna, IIM-C alumnus and author, shared with MBAUniverse.com a few of the probable topics of GDs which are most likely to be discussed this year. According to Mr. Balakrishna you can expect the following topics during your GD round:

• Issues around the Environment, given the recent summit at Copenhagen

• Division of large states into smaller ones, given the recent Telangana issue

• Greater role for the Government/ monitoring of the economy (given the global economic recession of 2008-09)

• Lessons from the Satyam fraud etc.

Apart from them, Mr. Balakrishna informed MBAUniverse.com about the other topics which are of general importance and have high probability of being listed in the GD topics list of leading MBA schools this year. These are:

• Topics pertaining to the economy: such as Foreign Investment in India, privatization, globalization, subsidies etc

• Social Issues: Such as Reservations for minorities, women or caste-based etc

• Business related topics: Indian companies going global, some major acquisitions etc

• Topics on some ethical issue

How to enhance your knowledge base?

The first and foremost suggestion made by Mr. Balakrishna regarding the preparation for GD is to read newspapers thoroughly everyday. “This means that you cannot only read the headlines, but need to read the important stories or issues of the day in-depth and also, you cannot read the newspaper on only a few days of the week or only on weekends,” says Mr. Balakrishna.

“There should be in-depth study on these topics so that you can strengthen your point by giving examples, facts, etc. Content is vital. Hence, besides the newspaper, I recommend reading a good magazine that discusses issues in-depth-such as ‘Frontline’, for example,” states Mr. Balakrishna. “Various magazines come up with their special year-end issue which discusses about the major issues of last year,” he adds.

Since Indian economy is a pertinent topic of importance every year, it would be wise to know about the present scenario of the Indian economy. “Read the business pages of a newspaper. Listen to important business news and discussions on TV-you could tune in to a Business News Channel at least occasionally,” he advises. “Make notes about the topics you think are important,” he adds.