Friday, October 30, 2009

Entrepreneurship Conclave 2009

The students of the Family and Entrepreneurship course at IMNU will organize a two day entrepreneurship conclave from 30th to 31st October.The theme of the conclave this year is-"ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY - The First 1000 Days".The conclave will cover the following sessions:

MyStory Sessions:
• My Story: Manufacturing - It’s All About Monotony And Money. Or, Is It?!
• My Story: Services Is All About Smiles! Or, Is It?!
• My Story: Where’s The Business In Agri-business?

AlumniSpeak Sessions:
• Our own shall reveal the secrets of his/her success.

ExpertSpeak Sessions:
• Consultants, Institutional Investors & Trainers shall unravel their side of the story.

Panel discussions:
• Leaders from different fields to enlighten us on the challenges faced by small
and medium enterprises.

The conclave promises to be an informative and enriching one as people from the industry will share their insights with the students and give a better picture about the entrepreneurial journey.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

IMNU on Pagalguy :)

A little information is always dangerous. There is an article on Institute of Management, Nirma University on Pagalguy here. Please read it. Oddly, it appears that we are in some school. Nice article though. Very informative. Witty and funny. Seriously.

I just feel like posting this as a rejoinder to allay fears that students are treated like school kids who get lollipops as rewards and raps on the knuckles as punishment for not doing their homework on time. Trust me, its not that bad a place.

If you are called Abhijeet or Abhishek or Abhik, you need not worry. Till date, there have been no casualties related to these unfortunate ones who had to sit on the first bench because their parents did not foresee their admission into IMNU. On a serious note, the alphabetical order of sitting arrangement is prevalent only in the first year and mostly in the first trimester. The purpose is to develop a degree of camaraderie between students and not to get all the Patels discussing Navratri bashes in Surat and the Singhs sitting together and missing the lassi from Ludhiana. Being the only Jason, I got to sit between a medical doctor from Alwar called Hitesh Gaur and an engineer from Nagpur called Kapil. Advantages - you talk, you make friends, you learn, you have fun, you love some things and you hate some but overall you have a blast. Suits me. By the way, I havent quite sat on the same seat after the 2nd trimester. I am a regular backbencher now. Reason - they dont kill you if you dont sit in the same seat after you have had your share of sitting with strangers. Because now strangers are friends. Disadvantages - You envy the guy who gets to chat up the hot babes just because he sits near them (it can be a bad thing sometimes), the teachers know where to find you, and its not possible to be absent and go unnoticed.

There is no PGP at IMNU, but there is a Pratish Nair (not the only CA around though) and he spends a lot of time playing FIFA and is a die-hard Chelsea fan.

It is not possible to keep track of all the activities of all the clubs. This blog has time and again failed to keep up with all that is happening at IMNU. For example, the week before we left for the Diwali break, we had movie screenings by the movie club, Showtime 2009 - a video making competition by Chehre, Goalzz 2009 - an inter B-school football tournament by Sports Committee, a talk on Business Plans by the entrepreneurship club, the HR Conclave, the finesse meet, a talk on internal marketing organised by the Marketing club, the book review meet by the book club, the formation of a new club for music and dance afficionados and I think that is all (Sorry if I have missed out any activity). Sometimes it becomes tough to report everything but there sure is something for each and every student.

There is no campus building. There are many institutes in the campus (pharmacy, technology, diploma studies, etc) and each institute has its set of buildings. The IMNU main building has an idol of Goddess Saraswati and trust me, things have not been a major turn off because of its presence. I have never seen students bow to it till today (in my 16 months of being here) but there are a few new comers who do. And yeah, if you are one of those who likes to bow to idols day in and day out, you will not be socially outcasted at IMNU. You can take my word for it.

The construction of all the buildings in the campus have a polygonal structure and the buildings have lots of arches (Someone show me some circles and circular structured buildings please, no water tanks please). It does get confusing but only if you have not stayed long enough to get used to the place. It takes about 3 days to figure out the structure and the locations unless you have some serious issue with directions and memory. Blocks in the institute building are exact replicas and yes, most of the students have been lost in the building, including yours truly. I invite you to come over and get lost (We will find you and its a promise).

We have a campus entry deadline of 11.00 pm and a hostel entry deadline of 11.30 pm. Its true. Its not the end of the world though. The day begins at 11.30 pm. The scope of activities that start at 11.30 pm is too large to be covered in this amount of space so we will let it pass. We will have a seperate article on Life after hostel entry sometime in the future.

Equality of girls and boys and ethics sounds cool (and slightly like the ideals aspired for in India's freedom struggle). Whatever. Guilty of being too busy having fun to have noticed. We must investigate more on this front.

Much of what has been said of the canteens in the article is true. The pharmacy canteen is the most popular. A lot of the popular hangouts (Tapri, RD) get no mention. Green benches are popular but then there are other places in the campus where folks meet up (the D-Block, the Main Stage, the Fountain). The committees have designated places to meet within the campus. Green benches is the unofficial hangout where impromptu meets take place, birthdays are celebrated, and water fights

To set a few things straight, here are a few facts for those curious about IMNU. Started in 1996, IMNU has its inherent strengths. And weaknesses. The best way to know how good a college is not to go by rankings but to come and see the campus and the things on offer yourself. Talk to the students, the faculty members, and in the case of IMNU maybe the security guards as well. There are rankings that rate private business schools in NCR higher than ISB, Hyderabad. I'm not too sure how much you can go by such rankings. IMNU does not take part in most ranking surveys. Also, IMNU is also not much into advertising. I havent ever seen an advertisement from IMNU. The students take initiatives to promote IMNU but these are few and far between and cannot compete with the visibility that most other B-schools get because of superior promotion.

Having said that, at the end of the day, if you really wanna know how good IMNU is - come and see, talk and feel, check things out yourself. If you cant come over, send some spies. There is nothing to hide. If we suck at some things, we do. If we rock at some, we do. Recruiter or aspirant or just plain curious mind, come on over. Its a whole new world.

Friday, October 9, 2009

FIESTA-Adding new dimensions

Its time for some serious music people.
FIESTA organized its first meet,a session on FUNDAMENTALS OF GUITAR PLAYING.It was conducted by IMNU's very own rockstar, Vishal Acharya.

ACHARYA N FIESTA CLUB

All the mysteries of guitaring were revealed with inputs from all those who had a passion for the instrument.All our patrons of music attended the session with huge enthusiasm and it also included the amateur guitarists too.


FIESTA COORDINATORS AT WORK
There were also some questions regarding GUITAR PLAYING.
And fun games and chocolates followed.

GUITARISTS IN THE MAKING

Thus the first FIESTA meet was a success.FIESTA is IMNU's very own Dance and Music club.
Kudos to the coordinators!!

Play with Colors n express

Expressions organized 'A Poster Making Contest' in the campus.It was a platform for all the people who love to play with ideas and colors.The team had to comprise of a maximum of four people.The theme of the poster was any social issue in a funny manner.

THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE US EXPRESS
It was really a fun activity and people had put in all their creativity to make their posters different from the others.Art is something that relieves you from all kinds of tensions and revitalizes your spirit.And it was just what this meet did.

STUDENTS TRYING THEIR HANDS OUT

The winners for the contest were:-
1st - Team Name Dhuandar (Rujuta , Pooja , Esha , Tushveen and Shiwani)

2nd - Palak , Neha Upadhaya and Richa Gupta

Apart from the contest,the prizes for the last contest of EXPRESSIONS were also distributed.

So IMNU is really expressing it out with EXPRESSIONS!!

GOALZZZ '09


The most awaited inter B-School football tournament GOALZZZ'09 started today here at planet IMNU.
This time around the event is bigger and better...with teams like KJ Somaiya,NarseeMonjee coming all the way from Mumbai along with teams like IIM-A,ICFAI,BK School Of Management and ofcourse IMNU...it promises to be a cracker of an event!!!

So as per pretty much the expectations,the event started with a fantastic first match.
Team IMNU clashed against BK School Of Management... The match started with a fast pace with IMNU on a strong attack. The first goal of the match was scored by Anand Agrawal of IMNU in the 14th Minute by a splendid header on an excellent cross by Ghazi Shaikh. Another goal by IMNU was scored by Ghazi in the 30th Minute. IMNU won the match with a score of 2-0 at full time.

It was such a great feeling to win the first match of the tournament and that too so convincingly...the crowd erupted with joy as the final whistle blew...The hard work of the team is paying off although the final frontier is yet to be acheived..but none the less...IMNU rules!!!!



The second match of the day was between the title defenders IIM-A and ICFAI,the defending champions proved their mettle by winning the match comfortably... The match began with a promising goal from IIMA scored in the very first minute of the match.The first half of the match was dominated by IIMA by the excellent moves. At the end of first half the score was 1-0.

The second half of the match started with the same trend: IIMA scoring a goal in the first minute of it. Then in the 57th Minute of IIMA scored another goal taking the score to 3-0.


With stronger teams like KJ and NM yet to hit the ground..the tournament is wide open and there are no clear favourites yet.There is lots more coming up from GOALZZZ'09...stay tuned!!!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

DERIVATIVES-A TAKE BY FINESSE


THE SESSION IN PROGRESS

Come Monday and Finesse Club takes off with its knowledge enhancing activities.
This time it was a session on a very important part of finance ,i.e DERIVATIVES.

The concepts pertaining to the topic were very well explained by Sourabh Bhandari,MBA Full Time Programme.He did full justice to the issue and the presentation was highly interactive and easy to understand.

At the end of the session it was turn for the favorite rewards of the students,chocolates.
Everyone enjoyed and had a great value addition as regard the subject matter.

THE CLUB WITH SOURABH

KEEP THE GOOD WORK ON!!

GETTING INTO INTERNAL MARKETING


THE INTERNAL MARKETING SAGA

NICHE organized a guest lecture today on internal marketing and Integrated Marketing Communication.The main guest of the day was Ms.Vibhuti Bhatt,CEO,One Advertising Ltd.It is a leading firm in Gujarat in the sector.
The session was interactive and full of illustrations and videos too for the audience to explore and expand their horizons.
A bouquet and a souvenir was also presented to Ms.Vibhuti as a token of thanks.
Towards the end of the session,the prizes for the NICHE MYSTIC INDIA contest were given.
A small quiz was there for the listeners and chocolates were distributed.

IT WAS A GREAT LEARNING EXERCISE!!

GOOD WORK NICHE


THE CLUB

Sunday, October 4, 2009

FROM THE BOOK SHELVES


Sumantra organized another meet for it s book lovers yesterday.

There was a book review on Freakonomics and an author introduction on Arthur Canon Doyle.
Apart from this there were also a quiz on books and authors and word games.

This initiative of SUMANTRA is one of a kind which brings together all the people with passion for books under one roof.And also the quiz and the games provide a wonderful mind exercise which is much needed for the future managers.
Keep up the good spirit guys!!

TURN FOR SOME CRICKET

After all the games in the campus it was the turn of the TASTE OF INDIA,the beloved game of all of us,cricket.

The Final of the Inaugural Spartan Cup Cricket tournament was played today between Stallions and Titans today. It was a very good match in which both the sides played very good Cricket.Stallions won the toss and elected to bat first scoring 118 runs in their 15 overs. Kartik Baldwa and Karan Goyal were the two top scorers from the Stallions. There was some good bowling display by Sarang and Aditya.

The Titans had a bad start losing the wicket of Sarang in the very first over. Also they lsot the top scorer of their last match Preet early in the innings. But after this, Titans dominated the game with some splendind batting display by Aditya and Munish Mor. In the end 27 runs were required from last 4 overs, which Titans chased successfully with 1 over remaining.

Congratulations to the TITANS for being the Champions of the Inaugural Spartan Cup.

Congratulations to Stallions for playing good cricket.
Congratulations to the organizers of the events . It was a great event.

Kudos to Stallions, Titans and Pirates for playing in the spirit of the game and putting up a splendid show of cricket through out the tournament.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

MARKET YOUR TEAM

With the results for the COPA NIRMA out today,the winners for the unique initiative by NICHE and SPORTSCOMM,THE COPA MARKETING CUP were also announced.



THE COPA MARKETING CUP AND THE TITANS

TITANS turned out to be the winners for the trophy with their great enthusiastic cheerleading and passion for their team that showed up during the tournament.
All the teams promoted their respective teams as a brand and used all their creativity to market the same.The efforts were laudatory and the energy levels high both on the field and off the field during COPA.

Congratulations to the TITANS and Kudos to all the teams for being a part of the exciting exercise.

THE WORKING OF WCM BY FINESSE

After the vacations,its serious stuff with a lot of fun that has started up in the campus.FINESSE CLUB came up with a meet on Tuesday with the topic "Working Capital Management".

PRATISH TAKING OVER

Pratish Nair took over the topic explaining all the intricacies of the arena to the best of his capabilities.He also answered the queries that were put up in the session.It was an important part because most of the first years are quite naive about the subject and have a lot of doubts.and the answers coming from someone of their age is highly interactive as well as beneficial.



CROSSWORD MANIA

Prizes for the previous FINESSE contests were also distributed.Towards the end of the session a crossword was also cracked by the audience and chocolates were given in large numbers to the finance enthusiasts.