Walk through the halls of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business during the school year, and along with students cramming facts for macroeconomics and operating strategy you may encounter some students stretching their bodies and doing something really unusual for business school students: relaxing.

They’re members of Chicago’s yoga club, a student group founded earlier this year by two GSB students and which last term attracted 15 to 35 regular attendees to classes in the school’s Harper Center. The classes are “time to shut your brain off,” says Jody Kirchner, one of the group’s founders.

The Chicago GSB yoga classes reflect a growing popularity of yoga in the U.S., with about 16 million Americans engaging in the practice, according to statistics released by Yoga Journal. The publication said $5.7 billion is spent annually on yoga classes and products, nearly twice as much as four years ago.
Indian Odyssey

During a school-sponsored trip to India last year, Kirchner and fellow student Doug Neal bonded over a mutual interest in yoga. Kirchner and Neal, who both had been practicing yoga for years before they met, eventually decided to start a group dedicated to the practice on campus—after Kirchner noticed that other business schools had yoga groups, but Chicago didn’t.

In midyear, Neal, a 2008 MBA graduate, and Kirchner, a rising second-year student and co-chair of the club, conducted an interest survey for the group. Of the 1,100 students attending the school, about 200 expressed interest.

Kirchner said she was surprised at the large response the survey garnered, finding that a sizable portion of the student population already practiced yoga, at least to some extent. “People I know outside of school say the same thing,” she said. “After a stressful day, it’s time they can do something easily to take their mind off their stress.”

Neal says yoga isn’t just for stress relief. “Yoga is very multifaceted, and the benefits of yoga are different for each person,” he said. “Some use it for exercise, for meditation poses, some for relaxation, some for injuries.”

Columbia Business School, an American graduate-level studies-business and the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A), today announced a partnership, first of all students on the programmes’ exchange. This partnership is a further step toward the Columbia Business School’s goal of deepening its relations with India.

Columbia Business School and IIM-A design and an international program for students of both institutions. This partnership is beyond the academic experience into practice first-hand knowledge of the global economy by the executive presentations and field trips up the two companies in India and the USA

“The partnership between Columbia Business School and IIM - Ahmedabad reflects our mutual interest in entrepreneurship, a common world view and a common quest for innovation in a rapidly changing world,” said R. Glenn Hubbard, Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School. “Top Business Schools, heads play the role is an integral part of the world economy of tomorrow, leaders, the data can quickly assimilate and to understand and manage risk and, most importantly, identify and seize an opportunity. ”

Both institutions believe that the partnership is also sharing corporate case studies and the possibility of developing cooperation on the development of new cases through exchanges and research costs.

“The proposal for exchanges of students, teachers and ideas are still implementing our interests and offer a broad understanding of the global nature of the operation for students from both renowned institutions,” said Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM-A. “We welcome Columbia Business School in India and we look forward to developing this partnership in the future.”

The partnership is one of many efforts by Columbia Business School in deepening its relations with India in the coming years. In collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the school is hosting a discussion with the economy and state and government leaders in New Delhi tomorrow. The discussion with the title prospects for the global economy after the recent U.S. elections, the Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Minister of Commerce, Kamal Nath, and heads of companies such as Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati by Columbia University.