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[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

Padma Shri Dr. Vijay Bhatkar visits SIOM, Nashik

Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nashik, students got an opportunity to meet and interact with Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, best known as an architect of the PARAM series of Supercomputers, GIST multilingual technology and Education-to-Home mission. He is also credited with the creation of several national institutions like the CDAC, ER&DC; Trivandrum, ETH Research Laboratory, Pune and IIIT, Pune. For his contributions to IT in India, he was conferred with the Padma Shri award in 2000, one of the highest civilian recognitions by the Government of India, the Maharashtra Bhushan Award 1999-2000, the highest recognition of Government of Maharashtra.

Dr. Vandana Sonwaney, Director SIOM, thanked Bhatkar for sparing his to share his experience with the SIOM students. Bhatkar enlightened the students on their further career path. He said that today's engineers equipped with operations management knowledge can work effectively in given set of constraints in any industry. He appealed to the students to play an active part in shaping tomorrow's India. He concluded the session with his inspiring words by mentioning that no one can deter us from becoming the superpower if we all take the oath for a corruption free India.

IIT Kanpur 's Prabandhan 09: Phoenix Rising from the ashes of the global economic turmoil

Prabandhan 2009, the annual flagship management conclave of IIT Kanpur started off on September 18 and concluded successfully on September 20. The event was centered around the theme Phoenix "Rising from the ashes of the global economic turmoil" which focused on how prospective managers can work towards making their organizations immune to such crisis and beat it by using recessions as an opportunity rather than a threat. It also emphasized the need to understand the mechanism that govern the current economic and financial systems which led to the crisis so that they can be countered. Several industrial bigwigs, academicians and government officials came over to IIT Kanpur to conduct lectures and interact over these three days that also included several inter-school events and panel discussions.

Day1: 18th September

Friday started with a session from Rajan Kumar who is the Director of India Operations at Rocsearch, a UK based Research Analytics and Knowledge services firm supporting a variety of fortune 500 companies and market leaders throughout the globe.

Rajan's session on the Global Financial and Economic Crisis gave a clear understanding of the financial crisis. He argued that the financial institutions and world governments have not learnt their lesson and there is still no fundamental change in the way these organizations are run. Greed and bonus incentives still drive the reckless risk taking which is the Prima facie of modern financial institutions. His advice to the common man was, "Conserve cash and do not indulge in reckless spending. Secondly, make sure you have savings enough to ensure your survival for another six to nine months were you to lose or give up your job".

Based on his experience in consulting and knowledge services industry, he gave valuable insights on how corporate managers can work towards beating the crisis and take competitors by a surprise during such a time. According to him, recession is the best opportunity for visionary organizations to acquire strategic resources, woo customers and develop distinct competitive advantages. He laid emphasis on the need to improve operational efficiencies, enhancing the capabilities to create future opportunities, need for innovation and the positive disruptions in organization's leadership.

Day 2: 19th September

The second day of Prabandhan 09 was marked with a gamut of events with participation of students from colleges such as IIM's, IIT's, XLRI, MDI, SIBM battling it out in a host of presentations and case studies. From formulating Marketing strategies for launching a new product to designing employee engagement programs in times of a recession, insightful discussions and arguments on all of the above were the order of the day. The Ad making competition offered the students a challenging task of designing an Ad on the spot to market the product - Low cost affordable Housing. These everyday events received entries from all the top management colleges of India.

This was followed by an informal session with McKinsey representatives with the students attended by students eager to learn more about the consulting industry and its work culture.

DAY 3: 20th September

L Venkateswaralu, commissioner,Kanpur city, graced the occasion as he walked in along Prof. Sanjay Dhande, Director IITK, deputy director RK Thareja and Ashok Bhagat - Vice President at Societe Generale, a French Corporate and investment Bank. Bhagat is also an associate member of the Executive Committee-International Chamber Of Commerce, ICC India nominee for ICC Banking Commission Paris.

Prof Dhande expressed his thoughts on true management education which views production of goods and services as a tool to develop human welfare rather than the rush for quarterly profits and bonuses. Venkateswaralu emphasized the requirement for a long term sustainable strategy for use in business corporations and government bodies. He argued that Managerial capabilities are as crucial for educating people about using hygienic sanitation, as they are to attract them towards a particular brand of soap. The Commissioner expressed his desire to interact on such forums and thus initiated an exchange of ideas between administrators of society, administrators of private corporations and academicians.

Bhagat then conducted an interactive session on "Risk Management in International Business", explaining the various types of risk, namely Credit, Performance, Country, Currency, Transportation, Transaction structure, Fraud risk and educated the audience about the methods available to evade them. He gave real life examples using several real life cases to depict how various forms of cheating and fraud have occurred in businesses and what steps could have been taken to mitigate such kind of risks. He also talked about the necessities of regulations and strong institutions to minimize such risks in an economy.

FMS hosts Annual Banker's summit

The Finance Society of Faculty of Management Studies, FMS, Delhi, conducted its Annual Bankers' Summit at the Habitat Center on 20th September, 2009. The event saw a variety of eminent speakers from across the industry.

The Summit was divided into two sessions. The topic of the first session being 'Banking after the Bubble', which aimed to highlight the changing dynamics of the Banking industry in response to the financial crisis. The distinguished speakers for the session included S.C. Sinha, ED, Oriental Bank of Commerce,T.M Bhasin, ED, United Bank of India, Anirbam Lahiri, CEO, Deutsche GMC,Sanjeev Bhasin, Managing Director, DBS Bank, Hugh Sandeman, MD, Langham Capital and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

The session started with an address from Dr Madhu Vij, Professor of Finance at FMS. She began with describing the present crisis as one of over-lending and over-leveraging. Thakurta emphasized on the importance of living within one's own mean by bringing about the differentiation of the present crisis from other crises.

Bhasin added to the discussion by looking at the hallmarks of success of banking, namely trust, technology, knowledge and growth. He was of the opinion that the Indian banking system was strong as well as backed by a sound regulatory system and spoke of the way the RBI handled the sub-prime crisis by infusing liquidity into the system. Sinha talked of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and claimed greed to be the reason for the downfall. He further focused on the need for innovation and for young minds to take care of the government and society.

Sanjiv Bhasin spoke of the crisis being a result of absence of commitment towards corporate governance, citing the example of the Enron debacle. In the olden days, the monetary policies used to be simple as money simply depended on interest rates. However, with the expansion of economies, interest rate manipulation alone cannot help. He also spoke of the futility of growth strategies based on historical data and emphasized on a move towards risk management.

The second session was on the 'Evolution of the Private Equity Ecosystem'. The panel consisted of Ajay Garg, MD, Equirius Capital, Munish Dayal, MD, Barings Private Equity Partners, Udai Dhawan, CEO, Standard Chartered PE, Jayasankar, CEO, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Muneesh Chawla, MD, Blue River Capital and Paresh Thakkar, MD, Religare Advisory Services with Avinash Gupta, Head, Transaction Advisory Services, Deloitte who was the moderator for the session. The discussion revolved around the current state and challenges faced by Private Equity. Sector attractiveness, reputed management team or promoters, return ratio and exit opportunity were claimed to be the factors that PE investors look for while making an investment. Chawla spoke of the period between 2001 and 2008 as the golden period of private equity (PE). This period saw the creation of large size firms as well as the PE industry becoming an organized industry. Garg however claimed 2011-12 to 2014-15 to be the next big phase for PE With the consolidation in the industry and number of players going up.

PGDM Autumn Placements conclude successfully at SPJMIR

The Autumn placement process at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJMIR), Mumbai, concluded on August 27 with 175 students being placed in over 60 companies in sectors like Consultancy, Banking, IT, Investment Banking, FMCG, Private Equity, Manufacturing, Health care & Pharmaceuticals, Telecom and Media.

In contrast to other business schools sending the management students for Summer Internships, the students at SPJIMR go for an internship process called as 'Autumns' wherein the two year full time PGDM participants go for their compulsory corporate internship during the months of September and October in the second year of the program. The summers at SPJIMR are marked with social projects with NGOs.

The companies that visited the campus for the 'Autumns' Placement process included organizations such as Tata Administrative Services (TAS), Microsoft, Citibank GSK, ING, Tata Capital, Reckitt Benckiser, P&G;, HUL, L'Oreal , Marico, Nestle, Intel, J&J; Consumer, Wipro, SAP, GE, Edelweiss, SBI Capital, Axis Bank, HT Media, Dabur, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, , Barclays, HSBC, Development Bank of Singapore, Frost & Sullivan.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

Adding to the already eventful CAT 2009 registration drill (remember the furore over the absence of an 'Edit' button?), Prometric today extended the deadline for online registration by ten days to October 11, 2009. The sale of registration vouchers at Axis Bank branches however, will end on October 8, 2009. Prometric's press release issued today also informed that applicants could edit wrongly entered information in their online form until October 11, now officially the last day of CAT registration.

Before this update, the CAT 2009 voucher sale was to end on October 1.

Prof Satish Deodhar, Convener for CAT 2009 claims that the reason for extending the deadline is the large number of bank holidays and the festive season disruption which made it difficult for candidates to buy and register for CAT. According to him, since the IIMs started the registration a month later than in previous years (they started in September this year as opposed to in August before 2009), they could not estimate the total number of days the banks would be closed across India and the scale of regional festivals. Hence, so that the candidates for CAT 2009 got enough time to buy the voucher and register online, the dates have been extended.

As many as 2.76 lakh students registered for CAT 2008. However this year, according to Prometric, only "over 2 lakh students have registered" for CAT 2009 till now. Had they closed the registrations by October 1 as planned earlier, the number of CAT takers would have stood at just a little above 2 lakh. This could have been a reason for the deadline extension.

Candidates should take advantage of this opportunity and register themselves for CAT if they haven't already done so. And if you are one of those last minute people who are hyperventilating because they still have not bought their voucher, relax, time is on your side now. The dates have been extended so there is no need to worry.

The rules remain the same, so do read the instructions and fill the form carefully, although you can always edit if you have missed something (except your name).

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

The refund for a second CAT voucher, bought in hurried panic on not being able to edit information in the online registration should not worry you any more. Promteric is refunding candidates who bought the second voucher and they have come up with the following criteria for a candidate to be eligible for a refund. If any of them applies to you, you can request Prometric for your money-back on that extra voucher

a) You purchased another voucher due to your inability to edit the information in your profile or the data regarding the application (missed HSC, SSC marks and the like). OR,

b) You purchased another voucher due to incorrect spelling of your name, middle name not entered, name entered as initials, and first / last name entered in the wrong order.

You are also eligible if you bought the second voucher but did not scratch it. To obtain the refund, send an email to [email protected] with your a) full name, b) date of birth, c) email address, d) phone number, e) admit card number*, f) scanned copies of both vouchers and pay-in slips. Please mark the subject of the email as "Voucher Refund". The last date of receiving all such emails is October 16, 2009. As any request for refunds will not be entertained post October 16, send the email as soon as possible.

Also, in the past few days, some of the candidates for the CAT have received emails from Prometric regarding rescheduling of their allotted seats for CAT 2009, resulting in a lot of confusion and perhaps anger from the candidate junta. However, according to Prometric, these are minor alterations to ensure the best testing atmosphere for the students and there is no need for the candidates to worry. This is what Ramesh Nava, Vice-President and General Manager, Asia-Pacific, Japan and Africa, Prometric has to say:

"Throughout the scheduling period, Prometric continually monitors the demand across our network of testing venues as part of our effort to offer the best testing experience and provide the greatest degree of availability possible in the regions with the highest demand. To achieve this, we might occasionally make adjustments in the number of workstations in each location and this could have resulted in the need to reschedule a small number of candidates. In such situations, every reasonable effort will be made for these rescheduled candidates to remain at their chosen location".

Hence, I would reiterate that there is no need for panic; CAT is taken by lakhs of students every year and although Prometric and the IIMs might have some teething troubles conducting it online for the first time, it will surely not come underway of a smooth exam experience for you.

According to the update received by Prometric, the 'admit card number' as previously mentioned in the above post is the CAT registration number. Please include that in your request for a refund.

PS: If any of you have already applied for a refund, let us know about your experiences!

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

Sometime back I wrote a post regarding the mushrooming of engineering and management colleges in India and how reforms in education (which are making setting up of such colleges easier everyday) are not helping the students in the long run. Most of the students of such tier II and III MBA colleges remain unemployed or get jobs which are not suited to their degree. Unemployability of MBAs has become a trend, a trend so obvious and so common that it now makes business sense to invest in making them employable and courses, commonly called the Bridge courses have come up in the market for just this purpose. While many restrict themselves to teaching communication skills to MBA students, some recognize other missing factors in the MBA education and try to fix them up. Almost all of them aim to make the MBA student 'job ready'.

What exactly is 'job ready'? and what are the missing elements in the MBA education that restrains the students from finding a job? is a matter of great deliberation. 'Elements Akademia' , a finishing school in Gurgaon researched and found out eight areas where students lack, namely Attitude, Business Communication, Grooming/Personality/Confidence, Corporate Exposure, Domain Knowledge, Sales and Customer Service, Basic Managerial Skills and Ethics.

As communication skills is the most evident problem and one that requires least infrastructure set up for training , grooming centers are also run by coaching centers along with their CAT preparatory classes. The focus of all such classes being personality development of the candidate so that he can be recruited by corporate organizations and is able to work in a corporate environment. The T.I.M.E center in Hyderabad provides training in resume making, presentation skills and also in computers above their communication and personality development course. Career Launcher in Bombay runs a program known as 'Speak Easy' which is for the students enrolled for the CAT preparatory classes and focuses on oral and written communication skills and group discussion and interview skills.

The course at T.I.M.E is designed for a duration of anything between 20 hours to 100 hours which is customized according to the needs of the students. The duration might also change depending on where the classes are being imparted (in the campus of the MBA college or in T.I.M.E center).

Elements Akademia has designed a 240 hour curriculum to train the students on the various qualities listed above which is imparted over a period of six months. The content for the training , according to them has been developed by industry experts in a particular domain. For example, the module for grooming has been designed by Lo'real and for selling and customer service skills by Max New York Life Insurance. They also provide industry interaction or live industry projects for some selected students. According to the CEO, Nishant Saxena, most of the students in the institute are from the belt of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Orissa.

How much do these courses help the students is yet to be known. While the finishing school institutions make tall claims about their students' development, the reality is not all that rosy. While most of the students agree that the bridge courses helped them "gain some confidence and improved their communication skills", they believe they still have a long way to go. Ana Rizvi, a student of Business School Of Delhi, Greater Noida and a student of Elements Akademia is "satisfied" with the course, although she thinks that it could have been better if the promised interview classes and industry interactions would have also taken place. However, she says,"it did help me and my classmates in many ways".

The industry for finishing schools or personality development courses is growing (at around 20 percent annually). It might be good news to find one more area to provide jobs, however, it is a direct indication to a glaring hole in the MBA education system in the country and one that shouldn't be ignored. As Vidya, a student of Badruka School of Management, Hyderabad and a student of the T.I.M.E personality development course says, "It would have been the best thing if we had such courses as part of the curriculum at our MBA school as a continuous learning program. How much does a 30 or a 40 day class help?"

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

Hi Puys! This is a new section on PaGaLGuY.com to bring to the fore all that happens in the forums or our PG community. With over three lakh of you in this space, we are taking up the cause to keep you posted HERE!

We will be posting all that happens in the forums in this space and there is a decent possibility that we might just miss something. Don't feel bad, just write to us at [email protected] and we shall put the story here in no time! Also don't wait for us to find out your stories, if you think something about PG social or community services, dream and underdogs teams, flaws in admission or registration process of a b-school and the likes ought to be here, mail us at the same address again. All your ideas are welcome, however, the decision of the Editor will reign supreme.

So here we go!

Aviator1 or Rakinder Randhawa needs volunteers for teaching computers to kids at an NGO in sector 55 in Gurgaon. The volunteers will need to teach for atleast two to three days a week. Teaching should not be difficult as the children are from standard third and fourth; so the curriculum and handling them shouldn't worry you. All those who think they can manage this with their hectic study or work schedule can send aviator1 a private message (PM). You can also write your details in the comments in case you can't send a PM. And yes, this is a 'volunteer' position so you will not be paid for your work, however, the personal satisfaction should any day mean more than the monetary compensation.

Check the thread on the forums here.

We have talked about 'Old men Pagalguy Association' or OMPA dinner before (Take a CAT veteran out for dinner!) and now the Bangalore puys are taking one out on October 11 2009. The esteemed OMPA here is our very own 'Rajat Sir' or rmbt on the forums. The dinner is being arranged at The Imperial Hotel, Koramangla, Karnataka by PG Madcapz Parul or paruu, Gagan or acumen, Rohit Gupta or R11 and Varun or mathuvarun. They are just the hosts; all Bangalore puys are invited to this dinner where Rajat Sir, one of the oldest and the most helpful puys on PaGaLGuY.com will talk about his MBA journey and his life before and after DoMS-IIT Chennai. He will focus on the areas where MBA aspirants for 2009, who will be taking CAT too should focus on. Also, he will talk about the levels at which the aspirants should focus on these areas. Though these are just some of the topics he will give advice on; puys are free to ask him any relevant question regarding MBA or CAT and satiate their hunger for information on management education.

It's a great step by Bangalore; there is a whole mine of information and learning in these dinners so plan one out soon!

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

So here's a comedy of errors begging clarity. The October 18, 2009 issue of Business Today ranks "Symbiosis, Pune" on all-India number 4. "Symbiosis, Pune" is specifically defined by the magazine as SCMHRD, Pune. But guess what! SIBM, Pune too is claiming to be ranked 4th in the same survey on its website and Director Arun Mudbidri has sent an email to alumni congratulating them on this 'success'. What's up? (Update: See SIBM Pune's version on the matter in the end)

Here's the entire story, in pictures. Business Today in its latest b-school rankings, has placed Symbiosis, Pune at number 4 across India.

The magazine scan below shows that by "Symbiosis, Pune", it means Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune.

However, on their website, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune claims that they have been given the 4th ranking. See screenshot below.

Further, the Alumni of SIBM, Pune have received an email signed by Director Arun Mudbidri, who congratulates his institute over getting the 4th rank. See screenshot of email below.

As an MBA aspirant, what am I supposed to make of all this? Do I end up more enlightened or more confused in my search for a suitable MBA program when I try to use these rankings and make sense of them in the background of SIBM's claims?

Who has really put their foot in the mouth here? Is this a misprint on part of Business Today, or jumping the gun on part of SIBM, Pune?

I have always wondered what Business Today and Nielsen really mean by "Symbiosis, Pune", the mysterious name they've been ranking at number 4 since 2006. Is it supposed to be an umbrella name meant to denote all the Symbiosis b-schools? If yes, do they mean to say that Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management or Symbiosis Center for Information Technology are better business schools than Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and XLRI, Jamshedpur, ranked at 6 and 7 respectively?

And if "Symbiosis, Pune" really refers to all Symbiosis institutes, why is the SIBM Director singling out SIBM Pune for the credit?

Furthermore, if they are generally putting all Symbiosis b-schools under one rank, what explains the dichotomous act of separate rankings for each IIM, or separate rankings for IIPM Delhi and IIPM Mumbai?

What are we missing here?

Added later: The Corporate Communication Cell of SIBM, Pune in a communication to us has claimed that "The printing of the wrong address is an error on the part of the editor and the publishing house (Business Today). We have already received a personal apology regarding the same. A correction will be issued in the forthcoming edition."

It further adds, "Already, the India Today article in the issue dated 12th October 2009 clearly mentions SIBM Pune as the 4th best institute in the country as per the Business Today rankings. It is the same survey in a magazine by the same publishing house. The name SIBM Pune has been explicitly mentioned."

Our comments: Whether this was a printing error or not shall hopefully be clarified by Business Today in the next edition. If it is a printing error, it throws up even more interesting questions. How does Business Today end up getting the names of all participating institutes correctly except that of SIBM Pune for four consecutive years? If "Symbiosis, Pune" indeed refers SIBM, Pune, then why haven't other Symbiosis b-schools (SCMHRD Pune, SIMS Pune, SCIT Pune) been given a separate ranking? What is an MBA aspirant supposed to make of this confusion and why haven't either of SIBM Pune or Business Today cleared the air on such an important matter?

Added on Oct 16: The new issue of Business Today does mention that "Symbiosis, Pune" is meant to be SIBM, Pune. As we mentioned earlier, this only raises more interesting questions into what seems to be 'choreographed inaccuracy'.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

If you are a student at Institute of Management-Nirma University (IM-NU), thank your parents again if you have a name that starts from a letter in the later set of the alphabets. Why? Because at IM-NU you have to sit in the classroom according to your roll numbers; for the entire session. So those with names starting with 'A', 'B', 'C' and the likes, forget that you will ever become backbenchers here.

IM-NU is situated in the very green campus of Nirma University at the S.G Highway in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The campus building greets you with an idol of Goddess Saraswati and it was interesting to see some students take her blessing before proceeding to class. The construction of all the buildings in the campus follows a circular shaped architecture and thus the buildings are full of circles and arches. It can get a little confusing though, as proceeding blocks in the institute building are exact replicas of the preceding ones. All the students swear being lost one or the other time here.

Following the tradition of all b-schools, the management at IM-NU is also run by the students with the faculty as the supervisory head. Also, the various clubs and committees take care of the students' queries after the classroom studies are over; the finance club is known as 'finesse' is the most active club run by students, some of whom are well versed with the finance industry. For example, Pratish Nair, an active member of 'finesse' and a a student of PGP second year was a chartered accountant before joining the MBA program at IM-NU. The club members have a meeting every Monday to discuss various finance related issues and happenings. Though primarily for members, the club is open for all students interested in understanding the nuances of finance. The marketing club called 'niche' and other clubs too work on the same principle and students find themselves filling each other on information regarding the various happenings in the business domain. 'Chehre' is the theater and dramatics club of the institute where students bring out their latent talent for performing. They showcase their talents in various ways to the outside world; this year they made short videos on topics such as 'life at Nirma' and the best ones were screened at the institute auditorium. The social initiative of the institute is called 'sankalp' under which the students teach the mess workers, construction workers and their children to read and write. Apart from the conventional methods of teaching, they play various games to reinforce the learning.

The institute shares its faculty with some of the top management institutes in Ahmedabad and thus gets a good mix of permanent as well as visiting faculty. There is a great stress on discipline, for example, students cannot enter class even a second late. Also, they have to be inside the campus before 11 pm and the hostels by 11:30. However, their day is far from over at 11:30. The hostel lights are on till wee hours of the morning when the students are busy working on their assignments.

To relax or to have a quick meal, students go to the many cafeterias that the institute has to offer, their favorite being the 'pharmacy' canteen which is the canteen primarily for the students of Institute of Pharmacy at the Nirma University. The food counter closes at 6:00 in the evening but many students can be seen lounging around till way later. Another hangout that is worth going to at IM-NU is the 'green benches' near the boys' hostel. The 'Green benches' are couple of benches under an umbrella of tree leaves. The placement of street lights and the trees with the benches makes for a picturesque setting. The place comes alive at night where students can be seen giving guitar lessons to each other while many others just chit chat about their daily schedules. It's a great place to work too; between the din of fun, students can be seen deep in discussion in committee meetings. However, it becomes empty as soon as the guard blows his whistle for the hostel in-time at 11:30 pm.

The IM-NU campus emphasizes on the equality between girls and boys. Hence the in-time for hostels, rules for venturing in restricted areas and the likes are same for all the students, irrespective of their gender. After the rise in ethics, this is another good thing going in today's MBA colleges.

[guest_writer (Guest)]

With the attacks on Indian students in Australia still a burning issue, we decided to find out how the business of educational consultants has been affected and their role in instilling faith in Indians aspiring to study in Australia. If you're wondering who educational consultants are - they are the people who manage majority of the admissions and counseling for Australian Universities from India and manage Visa requirements. Guest Writer Nainy Sahani did a quick interview with Gulshan Kumar, the president of the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI) to understand violence on Indians in Australia from the perspective of educational consultants.

Whats your take on the recent uproar involving several Indian students being assaulted in Australia? Have the number of Indian students going to Australia reduced as a result?

The actual numbers so far havent gone down, which is confirmed by both the (Indian and Australian) governments. None of our students who had a Visa for July, withdrew due to this, they are all off to Australia. But what weve noticed recently is that new inquiries have dropped. But that has varied region to region as well. The areas of Gujarat and Punjab have been most affected. For Punjab alone, the inquiry rates have dropped 50 to 60 %.

The extensive media coverage has largely centered on Racism as the cause of violence, but are there other reasons to the reported assaults?

I would not call it racism. The Indian community is very highly placed in Australia. On my trip to Australia recently, we met with the Indian communities living there, the Indian students, the Indian High Commissioner, University people, and we gathered that it can't be given a racism label, as has been portrayed in the Indian media. Its not true because Australians are very well connected to the Indians; most Australians are very disturbed with such news themselves. Calling it Racism is absolutely wrong. There are over 200,000 Indians in Australia and they are doing very well, occupying senior positions in Universities and government sectors. And every Australian community and office has condemned these attacks in one way or other.

What according to you is the truth about the attacks?

The attacks are a very small occurrence and have been hyped by the media. There are other factors as well. Indian students comprise 20% of the total international students in Australia. So every fifth international student in Australia is an Indian. And in some cities, Indians are in big numbers, Melbourne being one such city with the maximum Indian students. I extended my visit and lived in Melbourne for three weeks, and I noticed most taxi drivers were Indian students, most petrol pump employees were Indian students and 24 hour stores like 7-11 too were being managed by Indian students so they tended to be soft targets. And anyone could be attacked at late hours at such places. We also found out through the government bodies that many times the attackers were not white themselves.

What is AAERI's role in ensuring safety for Indian students in Australia?

We recently took a 8 member delegation to Australia. It was headed by me and we went in the month of July. When we had first received news such as these in India we were hurt and we wanted first hand information. Some of the students even commented to me in Australia that they received this news from the Indian media and despite living in Australia they had no idea.

We are trying to bridge the gap and keep the best of both parties at bay. We are going to the Indian governments and are ready to cooperate with any policy (changes) and at the same time, we are telling Australian government to tighten up on the Visa process to not allow students who cannot cope academically or financially (in Australia). We dont want that sort of name for Indian students. We want to send our deserving students outside, so that we may provide them the best and they benefit the most.

[guest_writer (Guest)]

According to one report, there are between 250,000 to 500,000 management consultancies in the world. Yet, as soon as we mention Management Consulting, immediately the 'Big Four' comes to mind. But what about the other consulting firms in the world? What kind of work do they do? What type of careers do they offer? What are their growth prospects? What do they look for in new hires? Guest Writer Saibal Sen dissects.

Before we get into any comparisons, lets define some categories. The big four are not necessarily big nor are there just four of them. For the sake of this discussion, lets say they are so called because of their reputation and type of high pr ofile work they do. Examples McKinsey, BCG, Bain & Co, Mercer, Monitor Group etc.

So who are the others? They can be boutique consultancies ranging from a sole practitioner to around a dozen consultants. Then there are small consultancies that have between 10 to 50 consultants. Next are the medium consultancies employing between 50 and 500, and finally, the large consultancies that have 500+ consultants.

The table below gives you some comparative answers if you are thinking of a consulting career.

Comparison Between Consultancy Firm Types

	Big Four	Large & Medium	Boutique & Small
Type of projects?	High profile strategy projects: Mergers & Acquisitions Transformation Cost Reduction Interim Management Restructuring Performance Improvements Product development Market entry strategies Brand building Audits	Domain specific projects: Information Technology Needs assessment Systems Integration Information System Architecture Product or system selection Outsourcing Remote Operations Customizations Custom Software Development Industries such as Manufacturing, Telecom, Energy etc. and horizontals such as HR, Legal, Accountancy etc.: Functional Outsourcing Needs Assessment Infrastructure building Process Improvements Quality Improvements Certifications Contract R&D; KPO Contract Operations (BPO) Operational assistance New product development Staff augmentation	Niche specialties: Advisory in very specific areas such as bid management Project Management Training Interim management Conflict Management Market Studies Staff augmentation KPO
Industry Specialization?	No but they focus more on growth sectors	Yes	Yes and No
Source of business?	Direct contact with clients. All relationship based. Almost never any advertising	Starts with formal request for proposals or tenders. Follow on work from existing clients. Advertising.	Relationship based. Participation in conferences, blogs, and media.
Mode of delivery?	Mostly onsite with back office research work being done in offshore locations (with limited success).	The current trend is 10 to 30% onsite and remaining offsite/offshore. Highly successful off shoring model.	Almost all onsite. Emerging in online work.
Challenges?	Rising salaries and costs. Finding good employees. They look for highly intelligent and hard working talent with open minds. Its a rare combination!	Ability to respond to changing client needs. Culture needs to adapt to changing technology and ways of working.	Making the jump to the next level (growth).
Strengths?	Strong brand image. Business comes to them.	Scalability (but not necessarily efficiency).	Adaptability.
Work Environment?	High pressure, stimulating, near 100% travel,	Between 30 to 60% travel. Stimulating, more flexible compared to other jobs.	Highly unstructured, flexible, everyone is expected to sell.
Qualifications and attributes employers look for?	Top tier MBA. Outstanding capability for creativity and hard work. Very strong interpersonal skills for handling clients.	Masters level expected but can be substituted by industry experience. Creative, presentable and logical minded.	Graduate in any discipline. Self-starter, high degree of perseverance and an all rounder.
Intake Category?	80% fresher.	80% laterals. Either home grown or externals.	Either fresher or very senior.
Career growth prospects?	Partner at the firm. Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, or ends up as top management at a former client.	Senior managers, business unit or country heads, entrepreneurs or educators. Some can transition over to Big Four business development roles.	Possible to move to Big Four class at an early stage in your career. Start your own consultancy or become a senior manager at a former client.
Compensation?	High	Medium	Low or High
Profit Sharing?	Not usually	Stock Options	Ownership stake
Industry outlook?	Moderate growth after the economy improves. Medium firms are fast encroaching their space.	Fastest growth anticipated as client turn to vendors for end-to-end solutions. Around 30 to 50% growth anticipated.	Intense competition amongst small players. Ones with a unique model likely to do well.
Example firms?	McKinsey, BCG, AT Kearney, Bain & Co. Monitor Group, Booz Allen, Mercer, Arthur D. Little and several more. I suspect there are at least 50 reputed strategy firms.	IT IBM, Accenture, CSC, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Sapient and hundreds more. Non IT Bechtel, Mott McDonald, Babcock International, PA Consulting, L&T;, Tata Engineers and hundreds more.	Cannot name them for privacy reasons but you can find them in several business directories. There are thousands of these.

So in conclusion, just the big four should not be your be all and end all in terms of career choice. Depending on your background, your aspirations and your competencies, you may well want to consider working for the other 250,000+ consultancies around the globe.

While Big Four offers high salaries and glamour, their hiring criterion is very stringent. But dont dishearten yourself as a variety of interesting consulting projects are done by other thousands of consulting firms around the globe. In addition to that, more jobs will be created in small to medium consulting segment post recession.

If you feel that you have the potential to be creative and not afraid of high-pressure work, consider a consulting career. The salaries are high and your growth potential will be even higher.

Saibal Sen is the founder of ZENESYS, a professional services training organization. ZENESYS has trained hundreds of engineers in consulting skills at leading consulting organizations in India and abroad. ZENESYS also runs distance workshops for consulting certification. Saibal was formerly a management consultant at Arthur D. Little and founder of KUBER consulting in Boston MA. He can be reached at [email protected]

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

The voucher sale and the registration for CAT 2009 is over and the final figure of the registrations is here. Contrary to the popular belief of the number of CAT applicants crossing the 3 lakh mark this year, the total number of applicants who registered for CAT till October 11, 2009 (also the last date for registration) is 2,41,582. The total number of vouchers sold were 2,46,912, which means that around five thousand people chose not to register for CAT after buying the voucher which also includes people who bought multiple vouchers due to their confusion with the 'edit' option. The number of people taking the CAT has decreased this year. Although we will not know the final number of candidates who eventually take CAT 2009 till after December 7, it will be lower than the 2,46,000 applicants who took it in 2008.

The decrease in numbers can be attributed to CAT 2009 going online. According to Prof Satish Deodhar, convener for CAT 2009, the candidates made an informed decision of taking the CAT due to the whole procedure going online. He says, "we went paperless and requested candidates to visit IIM websites, check eligibilities, decide which programs they are interested in, and then choose to buy CAT vouchers". The hassle of online registration and an online test might have also kept many first time test takers away. However, the number of applications 'rejected' this year due to wrong or incomplete information was zero due to the online registration and the 'edit' option (which was introduced later).

As for the profile of the candidates who registered, engineers still remain the most devoted to CAT. This year too 65 percent of the total registrants belong to the engineering, architecture and technology category. Next highest, but not quite as much are the commerce, economy and management graduates at 23 percent. Female candidates stand at 26 percent and there are 71 percent candidates with more than six months of work experience. Category wise, 82 percent of the candidates are from the General and 11 percent from the OBC (non creamy layer) category.

Update: Of the total number of candidates who have registered, 763 of them belong to the Differentially Able or the DA category. This makes for approximately 0.30 percent of the total number of registrants.

Errata: It was incorrectly stated that 71 percent candidates had more than 6 months or more work experience. The correct figure is that 71 percent candidates had less than or equal to 6 months of work experience.

The voucher sale and the registration for CAT 2009 is over and the final figure of the registrations is here. Contrary to the popular belief of the number of CAT applicants crossing the 3 lakh mark this year, the total number of applicants who registered for CAT till October 11, 2009 (Also the last date for registration) is 2,41,582.A Around 2.5 lakhs that is. The total number of vouchers sold were 2,46,912, which means that around five thousand people chose not to register for CAT after buying the voucher which also includes people who bought multiple vouchers due to their confusion with the 'edit' option. The number of people taking the CAT has decreased this year. Although we will not know the final number of candidates who eventually take CAT 2009 till after December 7, it will be lower than the 2,46,000 applicants who took it in 2008.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

An obscure turning with a small board saying 'Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad' leads you to a narrow road leading to MICA. The institute is so far removed from the humdrum of the city that students often call living there more of a 'social experiment' than a study course.

MICA is a specialized institute for 'communication management'. This may be confusing to many aspirants who do not realize what communication management might entail. For many years, MICA has been considered as an advertising and media school. The name, Mudra Institute of Communications also makes it look more of a communication school than a business one. The news is, it is pretty much a business school with its flagship course in Communications Management. With that I mean at MICA you are taught the business side of communication and media. This is mainly media strategy, media planning, media buying, media selling, overall media management, brand and advertising management and market research. What connects everything is excellent marketing education and thus marketing is the foundation of mostly all courses here. Courses on finance and the likes are limited to what you might need, say for the pricing of your product or its delivery, which are thus, very basic.

If essentially a course for the 'business' side of communication, why is there so much stress on 'creativity' in an applicant? And doesn't a graduate in marketing from other business schools become a brand manager too? "The stress on creativity is not so much on drawing and sketching as it is on 'out of the box' thinking", says Deval Kartik, Professor at MICA. She gives a standard example to demonstrate the kind of 'out of the box' thinking or creativity expected from a MICA applicant through a problem of the placement of a heart oil advertisement on different TV channels. Ideally, the advertisement should be placed in a medical channel, because it is an oil to keep the heart healthy, however that will be a bad choice because not many women, who buy most of the household grocery would not watching it. Another place would be the family channels, but all the other competitors would also be putting their advertisements there. Reality shows should be a good place, because women are watching them. But again, which show and which channel. answer: 'Sach Ka Samna' on Star Plus. Why? because with the amount of stress you are under everyday, you are prone to a heart attack any time. Is it not a truth you should face?

To ensure the right student enter the institute (with of course the above mentioned creativity), MICA has an elaborate admission procedure spread across levels. The MICAT is the first of such levels. MICAT is held in the third week of February and is taken by candidates who clear the CAT cut off. It includes five sections, namely quantitative aptitude, awareness about advertising and brands, word association, a psychometric section and an essay writing section to check a candidate's lateral thinking as well as writing skills. All five sections are compulsory and there is no negative marking in the test. After qualifying in MICAT, the candidate is invited to the MICA campus for a group exercise and an interview. The group excercise need not be a group discussion. The personal interview at MICA is taken by a panel of three people, who are all MICA faculty and they evaluate the candidate on the basis of a set of points. If the candidate secures high points on the scale of all the three faculty then he or she is given a spot offer. On the same time there are spot rejects as well. The spot offer means "we love you, we want you and we want to block you" according to Chandan Chatterjee, Dean, MICA. The interview is not a stress interview; the idea is not to reject but bring out the best in the candidate. In addition to the profile, attitude, learning and intent of the candidate also should match with that of MICA.

Students at MICA follow the cafeteria approach to the courses that they choose. Thus they are fully aware of every aspect of communication management and are also specialists in a single one. Due to the distribution of the number of credits, Chatterjee calls it "super specialty". Hence, although, marketing majors from any good business school can become brand managers, students at MICA claim to have a better and deeper understanding of the brands, media and consumers due to their two year long focus on marketing and the design of their curriculum.

According to Chatterjee, the students "spend a lot of time inside the classes". With approximately four to five lectures in a day, this might be true too. However, the academic rigor is not at its boiling point in MICA and the students do find their time to relax. The most popular hangout in the campus seems to be the 'chota', which looks like a village chaupal. The setting reminds one of the 'Ganga Dhaba' at JNU, with students chatting in small pockets and eating out of a small red brick canteen. There are other many places for the students to hang out and relax, the benches outside the hostels and the 'recreation room' for starters. The auto services outside the campus, available on phone allow easy commute to the city and thus students frequently visit the city for watching movies and eating out. Students exercise whatever options that deem fit to them, everything essentially being their decision.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

When the CAT (and subsequently MAT and NMAT) went computer-based earlier this year, we at PaGaLGuY obviously got excited about the IIMs embracing technology and started working on our effort in helping you to be a better test taker. PaGaLGuY Prep is the first cut of our revolutionary new service designed to make you sharpen your skills at each of Quant, Verbal, Data and Logic skills collaboratively with the PaGaLGuY community.

Many of you already post questions on the PaGaLGuY Forums and seek help from others in the community in finding better ways of solving them. PaGaLGuY Prep is a refined and improved way of doing the same, in a manner that is custom-made for Quant, Verbal, Data and Logic question.

Launch PaGaLGuY Prep (you will need a PaGaLGuY login-ID (get one) to view it).

PaGaLGuY Prep is in beta and will remain a work-in-progress for some time to come. We shall use this time to use your suggestions and feedback to build it into the most awesome and human-friendly platform for learning to solve questions.

Here's a little screen walk-through of PaGaLGuY Prep.

We know how important it is for you to build your strength in the CAT topic-by-topic. So we have categorized questions down to topics in each of the main sections so that you can quickly access and start solving questions in any topic, on-demand.

Any question is worth as much as the difficulty it poses to you. So we created an interface that allows you to sift through questions by viewing how many people have been able to solve it. So if you're looking to improve your concepts, choose a tough one to crack. If you're just looking to speedily practice simple questions for MAT or CET type exam, take the easier ones.

Take a crack at solving questions before you see how others solved them.

Behind PaGaLGuY Prep is the belief that being better at a test boils down to being better at solving questions faster and smarter. After you solve a question, see how successful others were at solving it and contribute your solution if you think it is better. Rate others' solutions and let the best solution stand out.

As you can see, many of you were already doing this on the PaGaLGuY Forums, but we just made a better approach with Prep.

As you use PaGaLGuY Prep and join us in the dialogue to make it better, we shall constantly post updates on this blog each time we add a new feature or request. Start using it now!

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

With the CAT just a little more than a month away, obviously the preparations are in full swing. Something that the members of our Dream Team (DT) and UnderDog Team (UDT) will agree. For people who are still unaware of the DT and UDT concept, this is a little headstart; every year at PG we form a team on the lines of a cricket team of 11 members, two reserve players and a coach. DT is made of people who have shown consistent rocking performance in their mock tests and are sure to continue it in the CAT. UDT, as the name suggests, may not be consistent with their performance in the mocks but are backed by a strong will to score a high percentile in CAT. Every year both the DT and UDT produce high CAT scorers who join the leagues of the best b-schools in India.

The Dream Team right now is in a comfortable position and most of the people are taking mocks to fine tune their already super scores. The average score in the DT is around 99 percentile and are inspiring each other through their regular conference chat sessions on G-Talk. The DT is all excited and looking forward to CAT 2009. According to Shashank, member, DT, "' 'nervous' is not an emotion here".

The UDT is also back in full form after a short dull phase where the members were not very active with the preparation. However, after this week's conference on GTalk and motivation and inspiration from previous UDT members and the cheerleaders, the team is looking up. The members have prepared a road map for this week, that is, till October 27 and they plan to squash Data Interpretation or DI (which was becoming the nemesis for many) by solving all AIMCAT DI sets this week. The newly launched PaGaLGuY Prep also features in their schedule primarily to prepare for the verbal section. With all of this in place the UDT is set to crack the CAT with panache. "The great part about UDT is that apart from the members, there are a lot of other people posting on the threads and motivating us", says Milind Agarwal

And yes, another one of our community members is going down the wedding lane. Rani known as rani_das on PaGaLGuY is tying the knot on November 15, 2009 with Capt. Phillips Thomas at St. Antoney's Forane Church Kizhakkambalam, Kochi. Congratulations to her, and puys, don't forget to attend the party. Wedding food is great! Login to the forum to join others in wishing the couple a wonderful life ahead.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

Dr. C. Gopalkrishnan, Director Institute of Management-NIRMA University wants to stabilize the current expansion in the institute before starting the institute's very own Management Development Center. He also wants to start MBA programs in sectors such as health care and tourism as he believes that growth in niche sectors need a management backing. In the interview he talks about the salient features of IM-NU

What is the unique principle followed by Institute of Management-Nirma University?

IM-NU is an institute for social responsibility and is thus a not for profit establishment. The fees charged for a particular course only covers costs and there is no surplus. All the institutes in Nirma University strive to provide quality education rather than make profit. We also strive to make the students aware of their surroundings so that they become decision makers and managers.

What are the steps taken to make the students socially aware?

In the MBA program, the students have to necessarily work with a non-government organization (NGO) and make real contribution there. This is arranged by the institute. They teach the workers in the canteen,the construction laborers and their children to read and write on a daily basis even though they have their own hectic schedule to follow. They also keep conducting blood donations camps, art of living courses to develop an understanding of India.

IM-NU has recently increased the number of seats from 120 to 180. Do we see a decrease in the percentile cut off in CAT too?

The seats have been increased by 60 but the percentile cut off in CAT will remain the same that is at 90 percentile and above.

What do you look for in a candidate at the GD-PI stage of the admission process?

When a candidate is invited for a GD-PI session at IM-NU we look for qualities such as good communication skills, his knowledge of his own domain, general awareness and most importantly his leadership qualities.

Are existing students from NIRMA university preferred over candidates from other universities?

Our aim is to get the best candidates in the institute from across the country, thus there is no preference given to any student or university. We want the MBA class to have good diversity so that students can learn more about their country as a whole.

Please tell us more about the Family Business and Entrepreneurship MBA Program. How is it different from the regular MBA program?

The Family Business MBA program is for candidates who already have a business running in the family. In the first year of this program, the students are taught the general principles of management and in the next year they are supposed to prepare a workable, bankable business plan. This program essentially helps students to either expand their current businesses or start new ones. It is different from the regular MBA because a) We do not let the students from the Family Business and Entrepreneurship MBA program to sit for placements, thus they have to necessarily return to their existing set ups and b) The curriculum of this program stresses more on small scale business management, entrepreneurship and other such courses. The curriculum has been designed by talking to existing entrepreneurs and from the curriculum followed by schools (mainly in the west) who have the same programs.

What is the strength of the faculty at IM-NU? How do you make sure that the students get the best of the teachers?

We have currently 31 faculty members on board with us. Counting all internal and visiting faculty, the student to faculty ratio in the institute is around 1:10. 65 percent of the faculty have completed their PhDs and we are looking over a period of a year and a half for 100 percent of them to complete their PhDs. There is an elaborate performance management system for the faculty and we rate them according to the feedback given by the students, their research work and publications. We also do not burden the faculty with a large number of courses so that they may deliver their best.

How often is the curriculum revised in the institute? Have you added or deleted any courses due to the recession?

We have a system in place for totally revamping the curriculum every two years; however we do not bring in changes in it due to an incident. Minor changes though are initiated by the faculty and it follows a process of being discussed by alumni, industry experts before finding its way into the classrooms. To keep the students updated of the recent happenings in the business world we keep organizing regular conclaves and lectures by experts.

What about placements? In comparison to the past year, what are you expecting the situation to be this year?

In Placements 2008, although eventually we placed 100 percent of the students, we could only place 70 percent of the batch during the scheduled 'placement week'. However things are looking up in 2009 with many companies agreeing to come to campus for placements. Last year, 25 percent of the batch was placed in PSUs and we are hoping the trend will continue this year too. Placement 2009 will surely be easier than 2008.

There is a general perception amongst the people that IM-NU does not favor candidates with work experience. Is this true?

With over 60 percent of the batch made of students with work experience, I can safely say that this is not the case. However, we do have an upper limit of three years of work experience of a candidate. This, due to the belief that a candidate with more years of work experience does not necessarily add value to his work.

Update: A candidate with more than three years of work experience can apply to IM-NU, however, the more number of years of work experience does not put him at an advantage. This can also be inferred by the fact that the average work experience in the present class of IM-NU stands at two years.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

IIM Lucknow students organize workshop for career guidance Pragyaan-The business quiz of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management Western Classical Music Concert at IIM K Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida organized 'Enlightened Manager' MDI Gurgaon hosts Padamshree Guru Kalamandalam Gopi VGSOM, IIT KGP Hosts Awdhesh Krishna, MD, Nomura 'Retail Week' organized in VGSOM IIM Bangalore confers its Distinguished Alumni Awards 2009

IIM Lucknow students organize workshop for career guidance for underprivileged students

Disha is an initiative of Bhavishya, IIM Lucknow's Social Initiatives Committee towards providing career guidance to the underprivileged pre-university students. The objective of this initiative is to identify bright students having little opportunity and exposure to the outside world, counsel them about the various career paths available to them and prepare them for the same. To meet this objective, Bhavishya has partnered with Jaipuria Institute of Management (JIM), Lucknow to provide career guidance and personality development to students of Prakash Bal Vidya Mandir (PBVM), Lucknow.

Disha has a vision 'A smile on every face'. An attempt to realize this was the workshop designed for PBVM students of standard 11 and 12 on October 23, 2009 at Jaipuria Institute of Management to help them out with their careers in this critical juncture of their lives.The first step towards this was the computer awareness program especially 'Googling' on the internet, as this will help them get details of the career of their choice intricate. Also the basics of writing CV in Microsoft Word and marksheet in Microsoft Excel were introduced.

Secondly, various career paths that is, Engineering, Medicine, Accountancy and other opportunities was discussed in detail which included the deadline dates of each forms, making them aware of the various options providing them deeper insights on getting through the competition.

Finally, the program ended with motivational insights for the budding future representatives of emerging India. It also included creativity activities like 'Newspaper Dressing' and Quizzes.

The best part of the workshop was the enthusiasm shown by each and every individual involved in the same. JIM students, Administration of JIM, Students of IIM and above all, students of PBVM School showed tremendous interest and made the workshop a complete success.

The success of the workshop gave us the deeper insights and motivation altogether to further take up the noble cause to greater heights. It has strengthened our commitment to make a difference in the society at large.

Pragyaan-The business quiz of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management

There were around 100 teams which participated in the preliminary round of the Pragyaan Business Quiz in the Annual Business Festival of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Mumbai held on October 31, 2009 . Teams were represented from both the corporate such as IBM, Sun, Deutsche Bank, TCS and others as well as colleges like IIMs, SP Jain, NITIE, NMIMS etc.

Avinash Mudaliar, CEO of 3XUS, was the quiz master for the day. Without much delay, the prelims consisting of 31 questions started one after one, on the big screen.

The top six teams progressed to the final round after the result to the prelims round were declared.

The finals were an extensive affair with as many as six rounds in total. The level of the questions made it clear that this event meant business'. There were some innovative rounds like the ABC type of questions (where one had to deduce an entire set of personalities/entities from a case).

Rajiv Rai (from Deutsche Bank) and Nitesh Agarwal (from Sun Microsystems) were crowned the winner.

Western Classical Music Concert at IIM K

October 30, 2009 saw the students and faculty members of IIM Kozhikode being treated to a Western Classical Music performance at the campus organized by the IIMK Chapter of the SpicMacay. Norwegian artists Caroline Dahl (Flute), Ida Bryhn (Viola), Anders Nilsson (Violin) and Fredrik Sjolin (Cello) regaled the audiences with their rendition of Musical geniuses like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Vivaldi. The theme of the evening was 'European Music through the Ages' where the artists illustrated the morphing of Western Classical music by the events of each century.

Starting off with an 800 year old Italian composition, the artists not only played the music with great passion and skill but also gave the audience a glimpse into the background of the great composers. They also gave an insight into the instruments they were playing with individual renditions on the stringed instruments. The Baroque period was the start of the Golden Age of music. Starting with a 'fugue' by Bach in Germany played by Bryhn, Nilsson and Sjolin, Caroline moved over to Poland, playing a composition called 'Nightingale' by the blind composer Jacob Van Eyck.

The Classical era was heralded by the arrival of Beethoven. Bryhn, Nilsson and Sjolin played 'Forte' or the strong music used by Beethoven in his compositions, with the notes being much sharper and less fluid. Sjolin illustrated dissonance, which was once a composer's nightmare, and how it went on to be used in creating popular compositions. One such piece, made of two compositions, was played by Nilsson and Sjolin. Moving on to the Modern Era, Nilsson played a composition by Penderecki, where the music had been molded by the changing political divisions after the World Wars. A befitting finish by going back to the Baroque Era with a composition by Vivaldi ensured that the audiences were left spellbound by the evening's performance.

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida organized management quiz titled 'Enlightened Manager'

Jaipuria Institute of Management got first and JAYPEE B-School got second position; more than 11 B-schools of Delhi and NCR participated in Enlightened Manager 2009

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida,conducted a quiz show-Enlightened Manager for B-School students. The event was open only to students from management background that is,BBA and MBA, and was conducted at its Noida campus. The event started on October 28, 2009 and concluded on October 30, 2009

Sanjay Gaur, Vice President of HSIL, Rajeev Ahuja, Founder of Anthem Academy and Arvind Singh, Principal of Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad were the judges of the event.

B-School students from Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad participated in this event. The main objective behind this quiz was to encourage students to look beyond text-books and establish the connection between what they learn at school and the application of these concepts.

The quiz was conducted in four phases including Pre- round, Quarter final, Semi Final, and Grand Finale. Every participating team comprised of four students and the college sent a maximum of two teams. All finalists had to appear in MCQ Round (based on business and current affairs), Direct Questions from Opposition round, Punch Line round, Audio Visual Round, and Buzzer Round.

All the finalists were awarded with merit certificates and all students were given participation certificates.

MDI Gurgaon hosts Padamshree Guru Kalamandalam Gopi

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon hosted a Kathakali demonstration by the legendary Kathakali dancer, Padamshree Guru Kalamandalam Gopi under SPIC MACAY on 29th October, 2009. Guru Ji and his troupe flew down from Kerala for a lecture-cum-demonstration of the dance form. It was an ideal exhibition of India's rich cultural heritage through one of its most majestic art forms.

The MDI chapter of SPIC MACAY had recently been revived with a western classical instrumental performance in September. The performance held on Thursday evening followed closely, as within a span of two months, the campus had the privilege of hosting two programs.

The evening began on an auspicious note, with the lighting of the lamp by the director of the institute, Prof B S Sahay, and other senior faculty members. Shri P Apukuttan , then, took over the mike and proceeded to explain the nuances of the art form, ably supported by the accompanying artists.

The first part of the program was aimed at showcasing to the audience how a pupil begins his long and arduous journey to attaining mastery in the art form. The very first step, the pranayam, is taught to the pupil for over three months. Once he masters the first stage, he moves on to learning the Kathakali alphabet. Kathakali, being a dance-drama, uses this primary alphabet to tell the stories. After Shri Apukuttan had given an elaborate explanation of the alphabet, a copy of the hand formations was handed over to the MDI community by the artists.

Guru ji, then, took to the stage explaining the nine mudras which form the basic building blocks of the art. The evening looked magnanimous as learning transcended from the legend himself.

Lastly, the audience was treated to a live Kathakali performance wherein the artists brought alive the characters from Mahabharata on the stage. The program ended with an interactive session of the artists with the audience. It was wonderful to note the depth to which the audience was willing to understand the art form. In his message to the students of MDI, Guru Kalamandalam Gopi urged the student community to preserve the culture of the nation.

VGSOM, IIT KGP Hosts Awdhesh Krishna, MD, Nomura

The students of VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur were honoured to have the Managing Director of Nomura, India, Awdhesh Krishna on its campus for a guest lecture on October 23, 2009. Keeping up with the challenging times that lie ahead, he chose to speak on the topic 'Positioning yourself for the future'. Interspersed with interesting examples, witty comments and inspiring one-liners, the lecture was truly refreshing and motivating. He was accompanied by Sanjeev Duggal who is currently the Vice-President of Recruitment at Nomura.

Krishna pointed out five traits that an individual or an organization must imbibe in order to emerge as a winner in the coming years. An organization has got to be innovative beyond imagination and realize the potential of rapidly developing countries. Secondly, global integration through partnering with industries across borders resulting in cross-fertilization of ideas would give an organization an edge over others. Thirdly, he encouraged the students to be disruptive by nature and never settle for the second best. To make his point clear he said, "Nobody 'wins' a Silver medal, he loses the Gold". Speaking on Corporate Social Responsibility measures taken up by organizations, he emphasized the need to be genuine and not just generous. Lastly, he emphasized that one has got to be hungry for change if one aims to be a cut above the rest and has to anticipate turbulence and plan bold responses, thereby developing core competence in change management.

'Retail Week' organized in VGSOM

Corporate and Media Interaction Group of VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur organized a Retail week from October 22 to 29, 2009. This included Guest lecturers from two highly knowledgeable personalities from the Retail sector and was supplemented by lectures from faculty.

The event started with a Guest Lecture by Samresh Shah, Sales and Business Development, Capegemini India. Shah had addressed the issue of 'Succeeding in a Volatile market'. He discussed in length about the trends that are expected in the coming years, the growth prospects involved and the future of the Retail industry in India.

This was followed by enthusiastic participation from the students who participated in various learning activities which included presentations on hot topics like 'The future of Retail Market in India' and The emergence of Youth as the prominent target for Retail Industry and a case study presentation. To cap it off a Retail Quiz was organized by the Quiz Committee of VGSOM.

The week culminated with an interaction session with Anshul Asawa, East India Head, HUL. Asawa talked about the changing orientation of retail Marketers with the focus shifting on Shoppers. He also talked about numerous techniques involved in retailing like Identification of Key Value Items and different strategies involved in Retailing and communication with the customers.

IIM Bangalore Alumni Association confers its Distinguished Alumni Awards 2009

IIM Bangalore Alumni Association presented the highly honored annual Distinguished Alumni Awards to its former students who have exceptionally excelled in their careers and have made significant contributions to the society on October 28, 2009 at the IIM B Campus. The winners of the awards for the year 2009 are M.S Zahed, Ramesh Venkateswaran and N Ravi. Each of them have the distinction of being outstanding in their education at IIMB and have achieved great heights of success in variety of arenas.

Zahed is an alumnus from the 1976 batch who retired as CMD from HMT and is now advisor to American Cancer Society, TCS, SBI and founded a technology company in Bangalore, Zeemantech. Venkateswaran is the Director of SDM Institute for Management Development and gold medalist of the 1980 batch. He has served as the Headmaster of Lawrence School, Ooty, and was a board member of Patni Computers. N Ravi, currently the Secretary East with the Ministry of External Affairs in India is an IFS and a PGDM from the 1982 batch at IIM B. He has served as the Indian Ambassador to Vietnam and represented the country in various international forums.

Since its inaugural presentation in 2007, the Distinguished Alumni Awards are regarded with much prestige and pride. The winners to this hall of fame are chosen through a process of nominations by the alumni members and a committee selection of final winners by a team of senior faculty at IIM B.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

For people who joined a two-year program at an MBA coaching institute and are wondering why they are still miles away from their choicest b-schools, here are some revelations. In a survey conducted by PaGaLGuY.com amongst 366 students from the top b-schools in India on 'which preparatory program helped them get through a b-school', only 5.74 percent of the students attribute their success to the two-year program. Of the people who had taken MBA entrance tests for the first time, only 9 percent give credit to the two-year program and amongst the retakers (students who had taken the CAT one or more times before finally achieving success), only 3 percent think that they were successful because of the two year preparatory course. The institutes that were a part of the survey were: Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kozhikode, Calcutta and Shillong, Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi, NITIE Mumbai, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi.

Amongst all the students surveyed, a whopping 47 percent of the them credit the Test series for their admission-worthy scores. Dig deeper into the survey and we come to know that freshers assign most credit to the 1 year program and the retakers to test series.

Test Series: The winning edge

As you can see in the above graphs, the one-year program and the Test-series have paid highest dividends among admitted students in top b-schools. MBA entrance examinations. Such a high percentage of students attributing their success to the Test Series bargains a little thought. A Test Series course is a set of compiled past ten-year question papers of the CAT amounting to about 20 to 40 mock tests. The ten year question papers help a candidate identify a test-taking pattern and formulate strategies. The mock tests are held every weekend and the student spends the subsequent week analyzing the mocks. This helps him to formulate a) section wise strategy and b) Question wise strategy. Anyone who closely takes and analyzes the mocks realizes the important areas to concentrate on for a good score in the examination (for example Number system, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry for quantitative and reading skills and grammar for verbal). More retakers than freshers assign their b-school admission to test series because a retaker is better able to analyze his mistakes in the mock tests due to his experience of actually taking the exams.

Also, it is believed that preparing for the CAT is more about being a better test-taker than it is about being strong at math, English or DI concepts. A test-series is designed to allow an aspirant to optimize his test-taking skills, while longer drawn-out preparatory courses concentrate on concepts, which is a less pivotal area in the process of acing MBA entrance exams.

Why do two-year courses exist?

It is intriguing why students join a preparatory course that is statistically doomed (read: the two year program). One reason could be the large amount of money spent in marketing this program by coaching institutes which control an appreciable share in the market. Another reason can be the kind of counseling provided to students at the coaching centers. They are made to believe that they lack in a crucial area or areas of the CAT and lack it to such an extent that they would need a longer time to master them. For example, a humanities students might be told that his quantitative skills do not match up to the engineers. He is assured that a two year program will mend this lacuna, thus influencing his psychology for an admission.

The two-year and one-year program - is the difference only in the duration?

If one checks the curriculum and the number of contact hours of a two-year and one-year program, it is easily inferable that both are essentially the same. The coaching institutes charge the same fee for both the courses too. The only difference is the amount of time. To fill this gap, the students are sent on long 'study breaks' in two-year programs. The batch strength is halved when the students return from the break, with their morale and enthusiasm down by the same degree. These students are then clubbed with other batches (whose classes were not discontinued); the mismatch in the levels of the batches further affects the students resulting in very few of them making it to the top b-schools.

Why is the two-year program offered by coaching institutes at all?

At this point one might wonder why the coaching institutes have such a program on their list altogether. According to eminent sources from the coaching industry, it is 'to capture the market before it matures'. The two year courses are meant for students in their penultimate year of graduation. If they are left to themselves, they will join a coaching program in the last year of graduation, thus increasing the competition between coaching institutes. With the two year program the coaching institutes finish this market preemptively so that they can concentrate on the serious aspirants who do not want to wait for a long time before taking their entrance examinations.

It is really YOUR decision

The decision for joining a preparatory program should be a personal one and should be determined by one's own strengths and weaknesses. An informed choice does play a significant role in determining ones success.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

I just discovered that PaGaLGuY is among the 10 sites listed on Google Reader's official recommendations list for those interested in MBA, so a heads up is in order for the readers of this blog. So here is another way to follow posts from PaGaLGuY and 9 other great sources of MBA perspectives, especially if you are preparing for an MBA in US or Europe.

Inside the 'Browse for stuff' section of Google Reader, you can get updates from 10 top sources of MBA perspectives at once by subscribing to the MBA bundle, listed inside the 'Bundles from Google'.

(What is Google Reader?)

Hope this helps!

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

• Barkha Dutt addresses the students on leadership at IIM Kozhikode

• Utsaha: Marketing event at IIM Indore

• Avenues: The annual festival of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

• JBIMS: Strategym'09 concluded and Guest lecture organized with Manish Jain
  
  

Barkha Dutt addresses the students on leadership at IIM Kozhikode

As part of the Leadership Series organized by IIM Kozhikode, Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor of NDTV was on campus and interacted with the students, faculty members of IIMK on November 4, 2009.

Prof Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIMK welcomed the guest and recollected how she has redefined television journalism in India. Further, Prof Chatterjee recounted that over the years many students, especially girls, have named Dutt as their role model.

The session, an engaging discussion, ranged from issues like 26/11, naxalism, discrimination in India, challenges and opportunities from new technologies et al. When asked how she would like herself to be remembered, Dutt replied that as a person who would not take no for an answer and one who pushed existing boundaries. On talking about challenges faced by conventional media in the wake of technological changes she opined that newspapers should reinvent themselves and that TV reporting would benefit from internet/IP TV. She spoke about the growing acceptance of online communities like Facebook, Twitter, blogosphere etc. "With mobile phones every man today is a journalist", said Dutt and quoted instances where actual TV reporting was entirely based on information from ordinary people on the ground.

Dutt was critical about the condemning of TV reporting during 26/11 Mumbai attacks. She said that looking back it is clear that TV coverage should have been more responsible but added that it was total chaos then. "No one knew what to do. Not the government, nor the police, not the army nor the media", said Dutt. On questioned if there should be regulations on TV reporting, she strongly disapproved it but was of the opinion that media should have self-imposed guidelines when reporting such traumatic events. When asked why TV media highlight trivial issues at the cost of important news she agreed that it does happen and more by Hindi news channels, attracting good TRP numbers. She added that it is indeed a challenge of her profession to provide important news content in a relevant way to the masses and achieve a balance between good journalism and interest factor. She also appealed that as consumers we should completely reject such irrelevant programming.

The discussion touched many issues like Gujarat 2001/ Sikh 1984 riots, naxal threat, Kashmir, Northeast, challenges to the younger generation etc. The audience also questioned Ms.Dutt on her personal motivations and what does fear mean to her. As a word of advice to future managers she said that in her career she has met people of high integrity from different walks of life. She urged the aspiring mangers to never lose track of self and said that it is possible to be fiercely competitive while never compromising on integrity.

Utsaha: Marketing event at IIM Indore

Utsaha has come to be known as a premier marketing event in the Indian B-School circuit. It provides a platform for companies to obtain key consumer insights on their products and brands. With projects being executed by dedicated IIM Indore student teams under the guidance of senior marketing faculty and experts, Utsaha adds value to partner companies while simultaneously offering students a practical exposure to multiple facets of consumer marketing. This year, Utsaha stepped into new territory, with an aim to unravel and decipher the rural consumer's mind for companies.

Dr. Manmohan Singh has said that My vision of rural India is of a modern agrarian, industrial and services economy co-existing side by side, where people can live in well-equipped villages and commute easily to work, be it on the farm or in the non-farm economy. As envisioned by him, Rural India offers the best opportunities for growth in the future. Accordingly, "Go rural" is the slogan of today's marketing gurus. 790 million Indians reside in 600,000 villages scattered all over the sprawling country. With such a vast consumer base, the success story of Rural India is on its way to reaching its pinnacle. This is resulting in higher discretionary income and consumption levels, thereby providing great opportunities for new products and brands to make their mark.

Utsaha thus merged with the quintessential rural mela - The Kartik Purnima Mela. The mela takes place in the villages of Janapaw Kuti and Badgonda in the Malwa belt at a short distance from IIM Indore from November 1st to 3rd. Utsaha had all the components of a mela; be it food, shopping, games, events, fun and that little bit extra, as it doubles up as a carnival milieu to conduct comprehensive consumer market research.

The Kimberly Clark project team researching diaper usage held a free health check up clinic for all the children and women at the venue. Armed with a doctor, scales, measuring tape, etc they were handing out prescriptions to the people and educating them about the importance of good health and hygiene. The key was to make consumers feel involved, thus enabling enthusiastic participation which helped them to gauge their response towards the products of the companies.

The data collected during these events will be woven together to form marketing research reports for the sponsoring companies. A large number of projects have been offered by big names like Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Cavinkare, Cadburys, Shakti Pumps and Kimberly Clark. This corroborates the fact that Utsaha, is in fact a win-win collaboration between the students and the industry.

Avenues: The annual festival of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

AVENUES 2009 organized by Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay from October 31 to November 1, 2009 was an exciting bouquet of events, games, seminars, and much more. The event was graced by luminaries like Ness Wadia, Rahul Bose, Prahlad Kakkar, Ajit Balakrishnan, M.Damodaran, Pramod Chaudhari and others. The event also saw participation from students of more than 150 B-Schools across India as well as leading corporate houses and working professionals.

Avenues 2009, annual business festival of Shailesh J Mehta, School Of Management, IIT Bombay, started on Oct 31, 2009, with an inauguration ceremony, where Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO, rediff.com addressed the audience on the digital revolution and the threats and opportunities it represents for India.

Next Pramod Chaudhuri spoke on the theme of AVENUES, people, planet and profits. He spoke about the triple bottom line principle which considers that besides economic aspects, businesses should look toward the environmental and social aspects to ensure true sustainability.

Prahlad Kakkar, the Ad-Guru, addressed the audience on October 31, 2009. Kakkar used various incidents in his life to explain the principles by which he lived. He said that for most people, the greatest motivation in their lives is fear and that fears have to be confronted, not shelved away. He illustrated this by describing his first diving experience, when the great fear of the open ocean forced him to confront all his other, smaller fears.

AVENUES 2009 saw the launch of an HR event 'HRiday'. The event witnessed a participation of more than 100 teams across the best B-schools in India. OPERA, the operations club of SJMSOM conducted YOJNA-is a case study based operations event.

After being immensely successful at Stanford, MIT and AVENUES 08, Imagine it! Project was back at Avenues 2009- bigger and stronger in a bid to cultivate imagination. It featured global creativity challenges and multi-platform media content, including the Imagine It! Documentary Film Series. The event was held at IIT Bombay which saw participation from institutes all across India like IIFT Delhi, NMIMS Mumbai, IIT Bombay and many more. The event also saw heavy corporate participation from industry giants like GE India. In the prelims participants were given some scrap materials like candles, straws and matchbox. There were lot of innovative ideas and products presented in this event like- solution for electricity scarcity in Mumbai, Multi-utility organizer and many more.

Ness Wadia was the distinguished judge at the flagship consulting event SAMVAAD, held at the SJMSOM. Wadia, interacted with the students and enthralled everyone with his very real take on Corporate Social Responsibility and the lack of it in the Indian Corporate domain. He also addressed current issues of social development and the need for public private partnership in various fields..

The evening saw two truly great speakers and an overflowing auditorium. M. Damodaran, former SEBI chief, gave an insightful talk about regulation and his views on this.

Damodaran was followed by Rahul Bose, the well known actor and social activist. Bose conducted a very interactive and though provoking session which was truly very enriching for the students. He spoke about how to be 100 percent happy. First, we should find out who we are, by finding out the values that we hold dear. Next one should determine what it is that we are born to do and then find a way to do it. Then, we should take away or reduce the things that make us unhappy by giving our time, skill or money but not to such an extent that it hurts.

STRATEGYM '09 concluded at JBIMS with an attempt to bring reforms

Providing a whole new approach to the age old problem faced by the industry and bring about a paradigm shift in the way various business situations are perceived in a fast changing business arena was the ideology at display when research papers were presented at 'Strategym '09', the 14th Annual Business Convention of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies organised at ITC Grand Maratha, Mumbai.

The event was inaugurated by Keki Mistry, Vice President and MD, HDFC. A total of 8 research papers of varied topics and fields that are relevant in the current scenario were presented in front of experts and high profile panelists from the relevant and corresponding fields. Various aspects were minutely taken into consideration and feasible solutions were presented to each of the problems through these research papers. The panelists gave their recommendations and suggestions for the paper and guided the students to develop on their proposals.

Most papers that were presented were of social relevance. The paper on 'Energy, Environment and Society' focused on tackling the problems of power shortage in India and development of renewable sources of energy. The growing problems faced by the farmers and agriculture in India prompted the students to work on a model of 'Agri-Insurance'. The research paper on 'Bollywood Blockbusters' was aimed at generating a model to reduce the subjectivity involved in the success of a film. The trends in the past were studied with respect to various parameters such as actors. Music director, time of release, etc. and a model was derived at to judge whether a film is probable to be a hit or a failure.

Disposition or commercial utilization of waste is a big problem in India. The solution and recommendations to the problem formed the crux of the paper on 'Waste Management'. Small and Medium scale companies play an important role in development and growth in India. The research paper on 'Indian SMEs: A roadmap to Global Competitiveness' analyzed the major growth drivers for SMEs in various sectors and presented key growth areas for the SMEs to grow and be globally competent.

The 3rd prize winner at Strategym '09 was the paper on 'Revamping the Indian Postal System'. Postal system being the primary means of communication for large part of Indian population, the paper presented a model to revamp the business of Indian post by exploring initiatives that Indian Post needs to take to serve the emerging needs of a growing economy.

The paper on Buyback of Securities, which was awarded the 2nd prize at Strategym, analyzed the problems face various Stakeholders when a company buys back its securities, whether the current regulations are sufficient and gave their recommendations to make the process friendlier to the stake holders.

The winning paper at Strategym this year, 'Mitigating traffic Congestion in Mumbai', analyzed various major issues affecting the severe traffic problems in the city and evaluated the feasibility of waterways as an alternate means of transport.

JBIMS hosts Manish Jain

Continuing with the tradition of hosting knowledge leaders on campus, the students at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies had an interactive session with Manish Jain, Managing Director, Axis Holdings. Having completed an MMS course from the Mumbai University, Jain was a Senior Vice - President at Merrill Lynch, Canada. Currently he heads Axis Holdings, an investment management company that he founded with an associate. He also holds a degree in Cost Accounting from the ICWAI.

The session titled 'Insights into the PE world', the session was intended to give the students a ring side view of the field of private equity and facilitate a deeper understanding of the same. Jain started by dispelling some commonly believed myths regarding private equity. He followed that by discussing the various parameters on which target companies were evaluated, the most important one being the business model. High entry barriers, the ability of the company to reinvest money to keep achieving earnings growth and a competent management team were some of the other factors that made a company attractive.

With regards to valuation, Jain went on to highlight how herd mentality and the macro-economic situation often led to valuations that were often unrealistic. Due importance is to be given to how close a firm is to an inflexion point with respect to earnings. The need for a well defined exit strategy keeping in mind the life of the fund was also stressed upon.

The various steps involved in a PE deal were dealt with next. Jain walked the students through the stages of a deal right from the first meeting to the signing of the deal, drawing from his experience of having handheld various deals to their conclusion. The students also got a chance to apply their knowledge, tackling the case studies that Jain discussed and thus gaining a real - time perspective of how the entire process worked.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Sometimes, age-old advice expressed in a new and interesting manner makes implementing it easier. IIM Bangalore alumnus Abhishek Thakore, who we wrote about in August, has written a small ebook on what you should be doing and thinking in the final run to CAT 2009.

In 20-odd pages of 'The CAT Chronicles', Thakore captures the mindset of a typical CAT aspirant a month before the D-day and suggests what the aspirant could still do to display a graceful show on the CAT day.

Download 'The CAT Chronicles' ebook and feel free to share it around to the needy.

And while you're at it, may we also point you to the All I Wanted to Speak About CAT ebook, of which you can download a personalized copy.

[wengi (Shivangi Narayan)]

We know we can't expect you to be late for CAT, however, a reminder is still necessary. Prometric and IIMs have come up with a practical guide to CAT. Below, we have presented it in a more lucid format.

Arrival:

You have to arrive at the center 2 hours before the allotted time. Thus

For the morning 10:oo am slot, arrive by 8:00 am and NOT LATER than 8:30 am

Testing timing: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm

For the afternoon 3:30 pm slot, arrive by 1:30 am and NOT LATER than 2:00 pm

Testing timings: 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Note that if you fail to arrive by the said timings, you will be barred from testing.

Directions to the testing center will be provided on the website: www.catiim.in few days prior to the testing window. Staff wearing 'CAT 2009' jackets will be present to assist the candidates on the testing site.

Things to bring along with you:

CAT 2009 admit card: The one sent to you via email after online registration.

One acceptable form of photo identification, namely:

a) Driver's license

b) Passport

c) PAN Card

d) Voter ID

e) College ID

f) Employee identification card

g) A notarized Affidavit with Photo, Signature, Date of Birth and Residential Address.

Note that if you fail to bring one of the above identity proofs, you will be barred from testing

In case the name has been changed due to reasons such as marriage, the candidate will have to carry a proof such as marriage certificate, divorce decree or legal name change. Carry a photocopy of one such proof with you. You will have to submit a copy at the time of testing, at the interview and at the time of joining the institutes.

Your pen, wrist watch, calculators, cell phones and other such items will be stored in a plastic bag away from the testing area.

Do not bring:

a) Large bags

b) valuables

c) Any other bulky item as there is no provision to store such items.

DA candidates will only be provided magnifying glasses. Other requirements such as wheel chair or hearing aid should be brought by the candidates.

Security at the center

Your identity proof will be checked at the center to make sure there is no impersonation. Await your turn in the line patiently. Only the candidates will be allowed in the secured area hence you can ask your parents or guardians to leave immediately after dropping you off at the center.

Once your identity has been verified, you will be led to your designated testing seat. You will then be called up to a biometric check-in station for fingerprinting. At an adjacent station, your photograph will be taken and ID checked again before being led back to you seat.

During the test, a proctor will patrol the room and all testing sessions will be audio and video recorded.

Test duration and pattern

Actual duration of the test: 2 hours 15 minutes. Candidates with scribe requirements will be given an extra hour.

There will be 15 minutes tutorial to familiarize you with the layout of the screen and functionality available during the test. Watch this tutorial carefully as it will tell you how to use a mouse, select, change or deselect your response, mark a question for review, move from one question from the other, highlight text within a passage and end the test.

No breaks will be given during the test so prepare yourself accordingly.

Scratch paper will be provided for rough work which will have to be returned to the administrator at the end of the test.

The test center administrators will not be able to answer any query regarding the questions in the test; thus do not waste your time asking them. Answer the questions to the best of your ability.

Facilities:

The centers will be equipped with the right computer hardware and software, generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS), Internet connectivity and security. They will be air-conditioned and provide individual testing seats with partitions on either side as well as the front.The test center administrator will be present for assistance

A peek into the 15 minute tutorial:

Highlighting text:

This is a useful feature for RC. You will be able to highlight the text by dragging the mouse (after holding the left button) over the text. This shall be lost once you change the screen.

Mark a question for review:

Mark a question for review if you are unable to answer it the first time. The mark button will turn red once clicked. Click it again to 'unmark'.

Reviewing screen:

You can go to the review screen to check which questions you have completed, not answered or marked for review. You can either double click on the questions to go back to them or click on the buttons "review all", "review incomplete" or "review marked" on the bottom of the screen.

Time management:

The on-screen timer will be present on the top right corner of every screen. This will count down from the stipulated 2 hours 15 minutes, showing at any given moment, the time remaining to complete the test.

Results

The results to CAT 2009 will be announced on January 22, 2010 on catiim.in. You must retain the print out the score card.

Contingency Plan:

The testing centers are fully equipped to face situations such as power outage, natural calamities, medical outbreaks and terrorist attacks.

In case of power failure or a computer crash, all your responses will be safe in the server's hard drive which is powered by an uninterrupted power supply. You will then be shifted to a new computer where you will be able to resume the test exactly where you left, without any loss of time on the test.

You will be contacted by Prometric for rescheduling the test in case the it cannot be taken on the scheduled day.

Following are some important links:

What to expect on the test day?

Request for resend: CAT admit card and/or application

www.catiim.in

Candidate Care

The Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and phone support will be available from 9am a 6pm, Mondays to Saturdays, until the end of the CAT 2009 testing window (7 December 2009).

FAQs are available on the CAT website at www.catiim.in.

Phone: 1800 103 9293.

Webmail support is also available until candidates receive their score reports.

Queries received by webmail will be responded to within 48 hours.

Visit:

">http://www.prometric.com/IIM-CAT/contactus.