Five post-graduate programme (PGP) students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have set up a Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) club to help students get hands-on experience by involving PE/VC players from India and abroad. Unlike finance clubs run by most B-schools in the country, this club exclusively focuses on PE and VC funding.

The lack of opportunities and experience in the PE and VC space led five students to set up the club called ‘Leverage’. With around 50 students interested in being members, the club will be a forum for students interested in all aspects of private equity and venture capital.

“We came up with an initial skeletal structure of the PE club by looking at institutes like Harvard and others from the Ivy League. But the end product has been entirely our idea of how a PE club should be. Although we prefer to call it an interest group for the time being, we plan to run a full-fledged club with more activities soon,” says Anirudh Singh, a member of the club.

“PE as an industry has boomed in India and we plan to invite speakers to the campus, hold conclaves, workshops and other events to provide a platform for the students and corporates to interact. Also, we are looking forward to hold intra-institute events, where the students can write an investment proposal and a panel of faculty members can judge them.

We have no restrictions when it comes to corporates as we would be involving both top- and middle-level players to encourage more and more activities in the field of PE and VC,” says Gagandeep Singh, another member of the club.

As part of formalising the club, the students are holding the first intra-institute event called the ‘Zen of Investing’, where the club plans to invite alumni working in the area of private equity, besides involving the faculty and students for the activity.

The club also has plans to tie-up with Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) students to getter a better perspective of private equity. “The PGPX students would be able to share their experiences about private equity and with their support, we plan to involve ourselves with the corporates in a deeper way through various activities, including projects and case workshops,” adds Anirudh Singh.

The club is in talks with a few corporates, who have shown interest in sponsoring the club.

“We are considering more options for funding besides the institute and the corporates we are in talks with. Currently, we are in the stage of gauging the responses from the people about the club,” says Anirudh Singh, before adding, “Although we have started out PE and VC, we may consider branching out to other areas like micro finance later.”

More : business-standard.com

Shortly after Kartik Kaushik had settled in London, his son five years Smaran, returned home with a request harmless, “Papa, we still have the white house?”

A girl in her class in the school, has proved that the child had a “brownie” and he knows himself wanted to paint.

When his family is exposed to such insensitive behaviour, Kaushik sometimes misunderstood his posting abroad as a director (Western Europe), Polaris Software Lab. But when he comes by example on the view that any part of the culture, a global citizen.

“Exposure abroad, it is very important for all professionals in India,” says Kaushik, “but I do not have long-term plans to live abroad. Let me again in a few years and my children India. ”

Brash, aggressive and extremely articulate 34 years, Kaushik has always been a man willing to high risks.

A graduate of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Bombays, he left a cushy job as director of sales and marketing, new business models, Hindustan Lever, Polaris, as Head of Corporate Marketing, three years ago .

“There was no basis for sale charged in the IT sector, and then on,” said Kaushik, “The Indian IT industry has done nothing, it would be in the next league and has been harping only at the expense of arbitration. ”

Even more important, Kaushik had to overcome his lack of experience in technology and its frame resentment against “the type of leverage.

This never stopped Kaushik, his own brand within Polaris. He soon joined the Administrative Committee of the company and was part of the six team members completed the acquisition, the purchase of Orbitech, a subsidiary of Citibank.

A few months later, Kaushik was invited by his zeal relocation to London and to develop products and services of the acquired company.

He heads a team of 200 employees spread over Western Europe and was able to evict well-established competitors in the United Kingdom for clients such as bags of Citibank. His division is now almost a quarter the Topline.

“The turnover is not, if you sell a product, but if your client decides to buy. Dont you need, a need for the product and then they sell,” says Kaushik with characteristic aplomb.

He learned his lessons on marketing mentors Bharat Puri (now MD, Cadbury India), while the two were Asian colours and Harish Manwani, Unilever, which is now head of the home and personal care of business in North America.

Kaushik father worked with the British Embassy in New Delhi and the High Commission was honored with the title of Member of British Empire (MBE). But Kaushik freeze is not very good with the British.

“You can talk nice people, but they are also aggressive than any other community, when it comes to shopping. The cycle time to conclude an agreement is still much longer in Britain than anywhere else in the world, “he said.

Some time back, Kaushik negotiating position has been crucial at a British bank, where the IOC has suddenly started referring to the colonial era, sarcastic and said he regrets that, for all events in India .

Keeping its own expense, Kaushik gave him an appropriate response to say that the British have had colonized India, but soon the Indians go to the rule of business in Britannia. “It is just over a racist country, and it is difficult for them to accept the Indians on the same intellectual level,” said Kaushik.

An old-Cricket buff, Kaushik believes that the distinction of being the youngest referee cricket in India at Delhi State organ, when he 17 years and UNRWA has more than 400 games. He likes to observe the game, the Lord’s and has recently made a habit of reading and the drama of Shakespeare studies Roman history.

He loves driving his Volkswagen Passat its two storied apartment in Harrow at his office in Canary Wharf. He believes it is intellectually stimulating to test its experience in selling new environments.

But he is sure that this is not the country in which he wishes his two son, eight and five years to develop in “The English language in Great Britain, dogs. The quality of English is spoken and it is difficult language in a way, and there is too much exposure vis-à-vis sex and violence in everyday life, “he says.