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:

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

2^nd 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)

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.

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.

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