Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Lessons on Healthcare Marketing

Dr. Balasubramanian is the M.D. of Sankar Eye Hospital, Bangalore. He is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and has 43 years of corporate experience.

Dr. Bala Subramanian talked in depth about healthcare marketing and the challenges such as synchronizing demand with supply and delivering consistent service quality. He explained all the Ps of Service Marketing namely Price, Product, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process with respect to day to day operations and marketing activities of Sankar Netralaya. He elucidated how marketing of services is drastically different from marketing tangible products. In Mr. Subramanian’s words “In healthcare marketing how to make the organization consumer focussed is the key to success”. Every communication, every process and every transaction, right from the time the consumer enters the hospital premises in his vehicle to the time he is billed and discharged, must be carefully planned and designed keeping customer at the centre stage.

He illustrated the five dimensions of Service Quality namely Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness citing the example of Sankar Netralaya. He emphasised that Service Quality, which has three aspects namely Interaction, Physical Evidence and Outcome, does not give customer satisfaction in isolation; it is just one part of customer satisfaction - the other two being situational and personal factors. These lead to certain expectations by the customers. Sankar Netralaya follows a Gap model where the focus is to bridge the provider gaps between the expected service and the perceived service received by the customer. He reiterated “How successful an organization is in bridging this gap between promise and delivery is the measure of its competitive advantage”

He explained that the reason of existence of Sankar Netralaya is to serve the community but since it understands that in order to survive it’s important to raise revenue and be self sustainable hence its business model is a mix of Corporate and Community Service. The hospitals need support in the form of donations only for trainings and equipments, in all other respects they are totally self sustainable.

He signed off with the message that though there was strong scepticism that a charitable hospital can never attract corporate clients and hence its business model will not be successful, but by carefully embedding customer focus in every activity for the chosen target market they were able to dispel the myth and carve a niche for themselves.

It was a great learning experience and gave a bird’s eye view on service marketing and specifically healthcare marketing.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai adresses students on 'Media & Governance'


The students of Institute of Management, Nirma University witnessed an exciting insight into 'Media and Governance' from Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network. Mr. Sardesai focused on the changing media forms, the ethical issues and the government’s role associated with it. "The primary job that journalism was expected to do was of a watchdog which has now turned into story telling". He also suggested as to how ‘journalism’ transformed into ‘media’ over the last decade. "More than 300 news channel are coming up with few of them waiting for licenses and media is becoming larger than life. In short, it can be called McDonaldization of media. Media is becoming clogged", said Mr. Sardesai.

Mr. Sardesai commented on the 3 C's on which the media is based on, namely crime, cricket and cinema. But the main concern echoed by him was the missing nature of the 2 C's which are conscience and creditability. He also spoke about the business models of media which according to him are still in nascent stage in India. He also pointed out that with Facebook and Twitter becoming so powerful, it is also, now a responsibility of the people to help create governance through media. The session concluded with a question answer round where Mr. Sardesai answered some queries of the young students. In all, the session was an exciting and informative way to catch a glimpse of the functioning of media in India.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

xQuiZit conducts Cognizance to test the mettle of Nirmayans

After the long Diwali vacations, the Niramayans got a chance to exercise their grey cells through ‘Cognizance’ conducted by 'xQuiZit' on the 19th November. The theme this time was 'Commonly used Internet sites & Softwares' which tested the participants' observatory skills and acumen. The response to the quiz was fantastic whereby 22 teams participated and competed intensely. The winners of the quiz were:

1st prize: Sonam Tilva and Vandan Kamdar (MBA FB&E), '11 batch

2nd prize: Alok Jaiswal and Ashish Agarwal (MBA FT), '12 batch

The scores and the competition amongst the participating teams was a yardstick of their sharp memory and knowledge, in which most fared pretty well.

(Content Courtesy: Rahul Garg)

Friday, November 26, 2010

IMNU bags Best B-School Leadership Award at the 18th Dewang Mehta Business School Awards




Institute of Management, Nirma University has been honoured with the Best B-School Leadership Award. The award was conferred in the 18th Dewang Mehta Business School Awards held on November 24, 2010 at Hotel Tajlands End, Mumbai. The Institute received the award in recognition of talent and leadership among the Top Business Schools across the country.

The Institute has also been ranked as the 14th Best B-School of the country by a survey conducted by MaRS Monitoring & Research Systems and was published by a leading magazine in October 2010 issue.

The Dewang Mehta Business School Award recognises talent and leadership amongst business schools across India. The Awards are supported by Ms Shaila Mehta-Director, Onward Foundation for Dewang Mehta Awards. The Patron is Mr Harish Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director Onward Technologies Ltd. The Chairman of the Jury was Dr Prasad Medury, Partner, Amrop International.

Set up in the memory of the late Dewang Mehta, the award is in recognition of leadership, development, innovation and industry interface of the business school.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Pragaman'10- The Entrepreneurship Conclave

Pragaman’10- the Annual Entrepreneurship Conclave of Institute of Management, Nirma University was inaugurated on 24th November, 2010. This Conclave was organized by students of MBA (Family Business and Entrepreneurship) Programme of the Institute specially designed for young minds with entrepreneurial zeal. The theme for the conclave was ‘Initiators and Inheritors: Perspectives and Priorities’. It focussed on the challenges facing the initiators and inheritors of businesses.

The Chief Guest Mr. Chintan Parikh founder and CEO of the Ashima group and current President of the GCCI addressed the audience highlighting the difference between Managers and Entrepreneurs. The enlightening speech by Mr. Parikh was followed by an eloquent and informative talk by Mr. Sujeet Bhatt, the Technical Director of NexTenders. He shared with the students the learnings from his journey of entrepreneurship and highlighted the issues he faced while setting up his new business venture. He emphasised on the troubles businesses face during inception and provided guidelines to tide over the difficult phase.

Day 1 of Pragaman also saw the inauguration of “Swayam Business Clinic” which is a part of Swayam- the Entrepreneurship Club. Swayam Business Clinic is a platform for students to offer management consultancy services at no cost to business units and targeted specifically toward micro and small businesses. This will not only help the students apply theoretical knowledge to real business situations but also assist them to develop and fine tune their business skills under close supervision of experienced faculty members.

The second day of the Entrepreneurship Conclave 2010 started with a motivating talk from Mr. Amitabh Shah, the founder of Yuva unstoppable, India movement. Having given up a career in banking with J.P. Morgan, after pursuing MBA at Yale school of business,to begin Yuva Unstoppable he is proud of his venture. He provided guidance and motivation to students to build sustainable businesses and give back to society.

Mr. Manan Pancholi, Chairman of Webvertx who labels himself as a college dropout and a self made entrepreneur delivered the next session. He addressed the importance of planning and provided framework for effective planning.

A father and son duo, Mr. Anand and Anay Mashruwala of the now 99 year old enterprise, Venus Engineering Works addressed the students with their own experiences from a long history of managing inherited family business. Mr. Anay Mashruwala an alumnus of the Institute of Management, Nirma University, addressed the challenges of living in a shadow being a successor and the difficulty associated with proving oneself, he also explained the advantage of vision clarity associated with inheriting as knowledge is easily available in such case.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Ideas That Work

An interactive session “Ideas that work” was conducted by Mr. Uttam Solanki at Institute of Management, Nirma University on November 12th, 2010. Mr. Solanki is the branch head of Lowe Lintas, Gujarat and has over 15 years of experience in advertising of which 9 years in independent capacity. Founded in 1939 as a part of Hindustan Unilever, Lowe Lintas is one of India’s largest and most storied communication groups. It is one of the Top Ten Advertising Firms in India. The whole session was organized by NiCHE, the marketing club of IMNU and attracted a good crowd.


The speaker subtly explained the concept of a high value idea to the students and also focussed on how brand equity is based on a single idea. Videos of leading brands like Idea, Surf excel, Liril and others were shown along with the justification of how a single high value idea is accepted across various cultures as well as countries. The whole event was greatly acknowledged by the students, following which Mr. Solanki gave answers to the questions that arose in the creative minds of students of IMNU.


It was a fantastic knowledge gaining session for all the budding marketing professionals of Nirma University, who are interested in choosing branding and marketing as their career ahead in future.

Content Courtesy: Sidharth Udani

Monday, October 18, 2010

Goalzzz'10 concludes with panache!!!

Goalzzz’10, the annual Inter B-school football tournament of Institute of Management, Nirma University culminated in style with the IIM Ahmedabad beating the defending champions 4-1 in the finals. Stephane Zarhai completed his hat trick of goals for IIM-A on his way to the Golden Boot award. The other goal scorers were Daniel from IIM-A and Saumyajit Chatterjee from K.J. Somaiya.

The first semi final on Sunday was played between IMNU and K.J. Somaiya. The hosts lost the match to a spectacular performance by K.J. Somaiya, with the score being 0-3. IMNU battled out strongly against the opponents but could not keep up with the pace of their opponents. The second semi final between IIM Ahmedabad and MICA ended in a nail-biting finish, IIM Ahmedabad kept their cool in the penalty shootout and emerged victorious. Both K.J. Somaiya and IIM Ahmedabad displayed excellent performances on the field and had been the leaders in their respective pools, extending their undefeated run to the finals.

Goalzzz’10 was played in a round robin format with 6 teams in pools of 3 each battling against each other. The other teams who didn’t make it to the semi finals were NITIE, Mumbai and Sydenham, Mumbai. In a nutshell, Goalzzz’10 was a great success with the best football teams playing up against each other in order to prove their supremacy.

The support from the crowd was spectacular and they turned up in huge numbers for the finals as well. Kudos Sport Comm and Team IMNU and thank you all for coming and making the event such a huge success…

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Goalzzz: Results of Day 2

Second day brought fireworks and many great games to GOALZZZ’10.
The results of the four matches are:

IMNU v/s Sydenham (4-0, IMNU Win)
A great all round game saw the home team play their hearts out to score a memorable win in their first match of the tournament. Although playing against unfancied opponents, IMNU played like a champion team. Holding their lines and playing a flowing football IMNU put 4 goals past Sydenham.
The Goal Scorers were:
Shaikh Ghazi (Two goals)
Nithin Kumaran
Aditya Desai

MICA v/s KjSomaiya (1-1 AET, KjSomaiya win on penalties)
MICA playing their first match of the tournament came all guns blazing but was met with stiff resistance and cool play by KjSomaiya. When the score line could not separate the two teams even after 10 minutes of extra time, the game went to penalty shoot-out where KjSomaiya showed more poise to win the match and enter the semi-finals as the group leaders.

MICA v/s NITIE (1-1 AET, MICA win on penalties)
Third match of the day saw MICA go against NITIE in a virtual quarter final. The team winning would enter the semi-finals as the runners up behind KjSomaiya. Another game where extra time could not separate the two evenly balanced and equally well playing teams saw MICA win the game on penalties.

IMNU v/s IIMA (1-0, IIMA win)
It was a battle, battle for supremacy and a chance to go atop the leader board in the group after both teams played equally dashing football to beat Sydenham. Another excellent game, where IMNU matched IIM in every department and showed why it deserves to be champion. A solitary goal in the dying minutes of the game though, broke Nirmayan hearts and we would have to be settled for being the second team from our group.

Sunday brings us a chance to make amends for Saturday’s heart break and we will rise to the challenge. With a team worthy of all accolades it would be a surprise if we ran rings around opposition teams.
Sunday’s Fixtures are:

8:30 AM – IMNU v/s KjSomaiya
10:00 AM – MICA v/s IIMA
2:00 PM – Playoff for Third Position
4:00 PM – Finals


Be there to cheer our team!!!!!
(Courtesy: Sports Comm)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

IMNU shows quizzing skills!!!


Xquizit organized IMNU quiz contest (IQC) 2010 to test the quizzing quotient of the students. Elimination rounds were held on 4th October,to select the best teams from each of the six sections ( first and second year). A total of 22 teams for a place in the finals as a representative of their sections. The final six teams : Vikings, Samurai, Bohemians, Titans, Pirates and Stallions battled it out for the quizzing crown (in this case, the trophy) on 7th October amongst a huge crowd cheering for their class.


The fight for the trophy turned out to be very intense with Vikings and Stallions stretching the fight till the last question of the last round. The audience gave full support to their teams earning points for the teams and chocolates for themselves. After grueling 5 rounds of quizzing Vikings emerged the IQC champions with Stallions coming second. Mudit and Devang representing Vikings hence became the new quizzing gurus on planet IMNU. Team Xquizit finished this event by distributing goodies to the champions and runner-up teams.

(Content Courtesy: Rahul Garg)

Goalzzz: Be there for Team IMNU today!!!

What a start to GOALZZZ’10!!

Two matches, two champion teams and two games which saw some entertaining football.

The results of the two matches held yesterday were:

KJSOMAIYA, Mumbai v/s NITIE, Mumbai (2-0, KJSOMAIya win)
KjSomaiya, Champions of GOALZZ’09 started their campaign this year on a winning note. They beat first time participants NITIE, Mumbai by a respectable 2-0 margin. A fast paced and good game saw many chances missed by both teams. In the end the team with a better shooting prowess won the match between two evenly playing teams.
The goal scorers were:
KJSOMAIYA
Santosh Kadam (Both Goals)


IIM, AHMEDABAD v/s sYDENHAM, Mumbai (4-0, IIMA win)
IIMA, Last year’s finalists and the dethroned champions were in full force this afternoon. Falling 2-0 behind in the first few minutes to a goalkeeping error and a superb header, Sydenham had lot to fight out for and they played their hearts out, but after an enthralling game of football and few near misses and desperate attempts to fight back by Sydenham, IIMA won the game 4-0.
The goal scorers were:
IIMA
Kunal Khillar
Himanshu Nimje
Abdul Rahiman
Stephany Zahrai

Today's Schedule is :

6:30 A.M IMNU v/s Sydhenam
8:30 A.M MICA v/s NITIE
2:00 P.M MICA v/s KJ Somaiya
4:00 P.M IIM A v/s IMNU

Team IMNU is playing two games today. So let us all cheer our team and give them the home ground advantage. Hope to see you all for the games...

BE THERE...DONT MISS THE FUN !!!

(Courtesy: Sports Comm)

Friday, October 15, 2010

The Mighty Pirates Prove Their Mettle Yet Again...The Football Lords at IMNU

You might associate the word PIRATES with alot of things like movies, ship wrecks etc.But at Planet IMNU,you only associate the PIRATES with one word and that is "FOOTBALL".

Now if you have not been a part of IMNU you may wonder "How can one associate pirates with the beautiful game of football unless FIFA in its efforts to promote the game has become really desperate(which Iam sure they are not) that it does not want to leave any segment untouched...talk of segment target and positioning (STP) in marketing."

So why is it that PIRATES are synonymous with football at IMNU??

Well,you see when the PIRATES(Section-B,batch 2009-11) arrived at IMNU they were written off by the CZARS and BISONS (the sections of 2008-10 batch)as just yet another football team on the block. The CZARS the reigning champions at IMNU for football did not think the PIRATES stood a chance.

So come COPA 2009,the annual intra-IMNU football championship and CZARS got a taste of their own medicine....PIRATES defeated them in the finals,where no one thought they stood a chance.

Then came Nirma Champions League 2009, the story still the same PIRATES v/s CZARS in the finals. The result also the same....PIRATES VICTORIOUS,NCL FOOTBALL CHAMPS.

By now PIRATES had cemented their position as the FOOTBALL LORDS at IMNU.

And so...the 4th term arrived. With the CZARS and BISONS having passed out. The stage was set to crown the new COPA CHAMPIONS. TITANS and STALLIONS(SECTION A & C,BATCH 09-11) along with the BOHEMIANS, VIKINGS & SAMURAIS( sections of batch 10-12) thought they had a very good chance of displacing the PIRATES from the pinnacle of Football glory at IMNU. They thought they had very realistic chances as PIRATES had lost two very special and extremely talented players from their squad.


But then as they say "FORM IS TEMPORARY, CLASS IS PERMANENT",PIRATES played their game to their strength and reached the finals of COPA yet again.


The team to beat this year were the TITANS who had a very sharp attack and quality players too.

Now I won't go into the details of the match because the story is the same again....Yes you guessed it correctly,PIRATES emerged victorious yet again.

PIRATES COPA 2010 CHAMPIONS!!!


Come NCL 2011...and that will be the "nail on the coffin" for all those who think that they can displace the PIRATES....The writing my friends...IS ALREADY ON THE WALL!!

Goalzzz'10 kickstarts today..



Goalzzz’10, the Inter B-school football tournament of IMNU is to be held on 15th-17th October. The event will host teams from various B-schools which are: IIM-Ahmedabad, Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE), National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) and last year’s champions K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR). The event will be played in a round robin format with the 6 participating teams being divided into two pools of 3 each. The top 2 teams from each group will then play the Semi-finals and Finals on Sunday, 17th October. To maintain fair play amongst teams referees from Sports Authority of India (SAI) will be presiding over the event.

Swayam organizes a Guest Lecture

Swayam, the Entrepreneurship club organized a Guest Lecture on 'Why do second generation entrepreneurs fail?' by Prof . Snehal Desai, DGM at Adani Group and a visiting faculty in the institute. The lecture was held on the 5th of October at E3. Prof. Desai related the Maslow 's hierarchy of needs with the current generation by stating that since the Physiological and Safety needs of the second generation are already fulfilled by the first generation, thereby they fail to value these needs and make hasty decisions. The lecture was followed up by a Q&A session where budding entrepreneurs cleared their doubts and got enlightened.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

War between Clubs, Committees and NCNC by Expressions

Planet IMNU is host to many clubs and committees each having its own distinct standing and a distinguished purpose. The members of each of these clubs and committees have been selected after rigorous screening process by seniors to ensure that only the best and most creative brains have the opportunity to be a part of these ‘super brands’. Each of these clubs and committees boasts to be the best but the answer to the question ‘which is the best club/committee of IMNU’ remained elusive even after months of formation of these clubs and committees. So we at Expressions thought that we shall arrange a ‘boxing ring’ and the let these clubs and committees wrestle it out and prove their mettle!!! The ‘War between the Clubs and Committees’ organized by Expressions was held at T4 on Oct 5, 2010. We saw teams from Niche, Finesse, Social Cell, Sports Comm, Media Comm, Rotoract Club, SAC, Place Comm, Entraance Club etc. To give tough competition to them we also saw NCNC (No Club No Committee) determined to prove that ‘No Club No Committee’ does not mean ‘No Creativity No Capacity’!!!

All the rounds were very entertaining and kept the participants on their toes. In the first round ‘Pictionary’, one member from each team had to pictorially depict certain things while the other team members tried to guess the name of the things in the stipulated time. The teams were brimming with energy, the competition was too close and some teams even managed to score ‘ten on ten’ in this round.

The next round ‘Taboo’ was the decisive round as only the top 5 scorers after this round would get a chance to play in the next round and bring home the crown. One member from each team had to explain few words to other team members. But corresponding to each word there were a list of taboo words which cannot be used to describe that particular word. The moment a taboo word is spoken the team would be disqualified from playing further. The pressure to win was full on; as the clock was ticking the teams pushed their grey cells and applied all their creativity and imagination to come out with totally outlandish, hilarious and freakish ways of explaining mundane things in order to avoid the taboo words.

The teams that reached the finals were Sport Comm, Niche, Social Cell, SAC and Place Comm. In the last round each team was shown a still image related to a bollywood movie and the team members had to answer three questions based on the image shown. The penalty for wrong answer went higher and higher as one proceeded to the next question.
After the tough grind SAC team emerged as the winner, closely followed by the Sports Comm. So this year the former winners- Finesse Club passed on the insignia of the ‘best Club/Committee’ to SAC members. The hunt is finally over, hearty congratulations to the SAC members who can now walk flamboyantly with a new feather added to their cap!!! The stage will be set again next year, till then hats off to the winners…

HR Conclave: Pravartan '10

On October 09, 2010 Institute of Management, Nirma University today its annual HR Conclave, Pravartan ’10 with the theme HRM: ‘Next’ Practices for Partnering Business Models 2015.

The inaugural session was addressed by Mr. M. Muthaiah, Sr. VP (HR), Carborundum Universal Limited, Murugappa Group who emphasized on future leadership development through business leadership programmes, encouraging empowerment and creativity. Mr Muthaiah spoke about the Key Performance Indicators in the corporate environment today being: Balanced score card, turnover comparisons, financial indicators, investments, internal customers and society. He also discussed in detail the future oriented HR Practices and change management process in the organization.

In the next session students were addressed by Mr. Shantanu Dasmahapatra, Vice President- Corporate HR and Manufacturing, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company Ltd. He discussed in detail the significance of Balanced Scorecard as a tool to translate strategy into action and aligning the activities of the organization to the strategy. With his deep industry experience he gave insights into the steps to create an effective Balanced Scorecard for an organization. He also explicated the objectives, measurement, targets and initiatives for each of the four perspectives to be analyzed for any strategic decision namely Financial, Internal Business Process, Learning & Growth and Customer.

The last session for the day was by Dr. M. K. Iyer, he has more than 30 years of experience in Gujarat Electricity Board in various leadership capacities such as Senior Chief General Manager, Chief Finance Manager, Chief Information Manager etc. He had successfully handled the restructuring of erstwhile Gujarat Electricity Board and implemented the first ever IT Initiative of end to end ERP implementation across all the unbundled seven companies. He spoke in depth about ‘Taking Organization Forward: Playing Transformational Role’. He explained the transformational roles of HR as Change Agent, Employee Champion, Administrative Expert and Strategic Partner. He also listed out the seven tools for transformation as Listening, Story, Encounter, Celebration, Grieving, Visioning and Journaling.

Each session was followed by an open house where students actively asked questions and clarified their doubts. The sessions will surely go a long way in widening the horizons of all students by improving their understanding of the HR roles for future business models that need to stand tough competition and risk prone dynamic environment.

Monday, October 11, 2010

"A Drop Of Ink - An Annual English Poetry Recitation Program"

"Sumantra" - The book Club from Institute of Management, Nirma University
presents :

"A Drop Of Ink - An Annual English Poetry Recitation Program"

To be held on 17th October, 2010 at 10:00am at the Institute of Management
Auditorium, Nirma University.

The club cordially invites you to grace the occasion with your presence and
share your original English poems with other poetry enthusiasts.

Please send in your poems to
sumantra.imnu@gmail.com by 15th October, 2010.
(Maximum of 2 poems per person)
Do mention your full name, email address, phone numbers and mail address in
the email.
For any further details or clarification, feel free to contact Ankur Maheshwari on +919099986277

Friends "A Drop of Ink is A Platform for one and all, old and young to
demonstrate their poetic talent.. ITS NOT A COMPETITION.......ITS A STAGE
FOR RECOGNITION.

SUMANTRA WARMLY WELCOMES ONE AND ALL FOR THIS PROGRAM!!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Alumni Day Celebrations










The alumni day organised by IMNU on 1st Oct, 2010 was a great success and a number of participants visited their alma mater to reminisce the memorable moments spent here. It was a colourful gathering where old contacts were revived and old memories remembered and relived. The day was marked by a number of events. The function was inaugurated at the auditorium at 6.30 PM where the gathering was addressed by the Director, Prof. Gopalakrishnan. This was followed by a short speech by Prof. V V Nath.

After the formal inauguration a riotous evening succeeded with many entertainment programmes specially arranged for the alumni members. There was an air of nostalgia and smiles and laughter filled the room as the ‘old buddies’ reminisced their hilarious anecdotes and adventures at planet IMNU. For the faculty members too it was a moment of pride to see the people they mentored holding responsible positions in reputed organisations.

The ‘mazaak masti’ was followed by a panel discussion at 7.30 PM on the topic ’name one thing that you want to do here if you could come back to Nirma’ and ‘one thing about Nirma that you would like to change’. Subsequently they were treated with a sumptuous dinner. The participants frankly shared their corporate experiences with the first year and second year students and elucidated the challenges that will be thrown down to the young managers when they enter the corporate world. They also candidly answered all the questions and clarified all the doubts raised by students on various matters of personal and professional relevance.


Sports activities started at 10 PM and included Basketball, Volleyball, Throw ball (female), Lawn Tennis, Badminton and other games. Next was the Jamming session, the music acted as a tonic that rejuvenated the tired bodies of all those who sweated it out in the games.

The day was not over yet. Once back to Hostel the old ‘Nirmayans’ eagerly visited the rooms which once they had inhabited. Various competitions such as Counter Strike, Table Tennis, Caroms and Chess carried on till late in the night or rather early in the morning . The next day was also an eventful one. After breakfast the cricket and football matches started at 10 AM and went on till lunch. As evening drew closer it was time to bid farewell to all those who had taken time off from their busy schedules to remember the institution that gave them the priceless gifts of life-knowledge, opportunity and above all good memories and good friends...

Thank you all for being a part of this event...

Saral celebrates its 1st anniversary on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti

October 2, 2009 saw the inception of Saral - The Social Cell of IMNU. Saral was started with the aim of bettering the life of the kids of the construction workers who work at the Nirma University, and the students of IMNU have made regular efforts to bring about a change in the life of these children. The first anniversary celebrations of Saral was one of the proud moments for the students of the university. The celebrations took place in the “Basti” b­esides the institute and it involved activities like poem recitation and dance performances by the kids. The program chairperson Prof. Nina Muncherji graced the occasion with her presence. She imparted words of wisdom to the parents of these children about the importance of education in their life. She distributed school bags to the children and congratulated the IMNU students for the effort put up by them.

(Content Courtesy: Akshu Thula)