One of the most significant trends sweeping the Indian management education domain is the significant importance being attached to prior work-experience of MBA candidates.

Overwhelming percentage of students at IIMs and other top-schools are candidates with some prior work experience.

In the fresh data shared by IIM-L with MBAUniverse.com, a whopping 89% of candidates admitted to the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) have some prior work experience. Significantly, just a year ago, only 50% of the batch admitted to PGP 2007-2009 were candidates with work-experience.

Informs IIM-L, “The total number of experienced students in 2007-2009 batch were 122 (50.41%) which has increased to 274 (89.25%) for 2008-2010 batch. This is an increase of around 49% in the total number of experienced students.”

As per the IIM-L batch-profile of PGP 2008-10, of the 307 students, there are only 30 female students. Last year the number stood at 14 female students. There are 24 NRI students as well. As much as 93% of the batch at IIM-L is made of students with engineering degree.

IIM-L has also admitted 5 students who have some physical disability, thereby become a more inclusive institution.

Sources : mbauniverse.com

The world renowned Cranfield School of Management in the UK will present a scholarship to any member of the three leading IFAC accountancy bodies in Sri Lanka, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants Sri Lanka (ICASL) or the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Sri Lanka Branch (CIMA). Full Time MBA Programme Director Sean Rickard who informed Sri Lanka of the scholarship said, “We hope the scholarship attracts candidates who will benefit from this initiative and that, with the help of the accounting bodies in Sri Lanka, it will raise Cranfield’s profile. We are extremely grateful for the support of the institutes in this. We will be reviewing the success of the programme after two years.”

ACCA Sri Lanka’s Immediate Past President, Dilshan Rodrigo, himself an alumni of the Cranfield School of Management extends his best wishes to all candidates and says, “I hope most sincerely that this initiative will signal the birth of a new generation of professional skilled managers who will add value to the corporate boardrooms of Sri Lanka.” Stating that this is truly a world class MBA ranked consistently as one of the top MBAs in Europe, he adds, “This one year full time programme is ideally suited for members in middle and senior management positions with ambitious career goals.” Rodrigo, who has continued to maintain ties with Cranfield, further reinforced the relationship once he became President of ACCA Sri Lanka, sourcing resource speakers for the ACCA National Conferences in the last two years. “Two people who played significant roles in mooting this scholarship from the Cranfield end are the former Director of the MBA Programme Professor Leo Murray who was the Keynote Speaker at our conference in 2006 and has a soft spot for Sri Lankans and Sri Sriskanthan, a Sri Lankan faculty member on the MBA programme.”

Cranfield has produced a distinguished honour roll of MBA alumni from Sri Lanka over the last two decades including Managing Director of Hatton National Bank Rajendra Theagarajah, Senior Vice President of WNS Arul Sivagananathan and Group Financial Controller of Stretchline Hasantha de Silva. Members of ICASL, ACCA and CIMA must apply directly to Cranfield School of Management, for which instructions are available on the Cranfield website ww.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/, marking the application ‘Sri Lanka Scholarship’.

More : dailymirror.lk

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

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow today announced its fourth six months General Management Programme for Defence officers. This 24 weeks General Management Programme is the fourth in a series of such programmes being organized for Defence officers, and the first at NOIDA campus. The programme is open to both short service commission officers and others. The programme was inaugurated today at the NOIDA campus by the Major General, SG Chatterji, VSM, Director General, Resettlement.

The response to the first three programmes conducted by IIML was a huge success with all 49 officers of the first programme and 60 of the second getting good job offers. The third batch, which is undergoing placements right now, is also witnessing a slew of great offers. This year after applying the selection criteria 59 Defence Officers from all three branches of the Armed forces have been selected for the programme. Out of the 59 Officers, 7 candidates are Lady Officers.

“Management education to defence personnel contributes to providing defence officers a second career choice after retirement. But the larger role in the national interest is to prepare a disciplined and responsible citizen to play important roles in today’s competitive business scenario” say Prof. NK Gupta & Prof. SC Bansal, Program Directors.

The Indian Armed Forces carefully selects Officers and continuously trains them in the art, science and craft of WINNING. Every year, hundreds of these Officers retire, with rich experience in learning, critical reasoning, objective decision making, creative thinking, leading and motivating people, running organisations and managing projects. The aim of the programme is to capitalize on these skills of the officers and optimize them to suit the corporate world’s requirements.

As in the past, the fourth programme is also expected to generate an enthusiastic response from the corporate world and given the intense nature of the programme it is sure to equip the participants with the necessary skill set so very essential to conquer the corporate world.

The objective of the GMP is to provide the participants with a basic understanding of the managerial systems and processes. The programme has been designed to provide the defence officers with basic functional inputs in subjects such as accounting and finance, decision sciences, organizational behavior, human resources management, communication skills, marketing, strategy, information technology and business environment.

The idea is to familiarize the officers with the requisite analytical tools and techniques; and develop a holistic perspective and global mindset to understand issues of an enterprise.

Source : prurgent.com

AS A PhD student at Oxford University, Cleo Choong spent most of her waking hours at the lab, researching ways to help heal damaged bones with biodegradable material.

When she returned to Singapore, the bioengineering graduate wanted to market her work, but didn’t know where to start.

‘I was lacking skills in areas like finance and management,’ said Dr Choong, 29.

So, she enrolled in the executive MBA programme at at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in July 2007.

Dr Choong represents a new breed of student that the university’s Nanyang Business School is trying to attract.

Spring Singapore chairman Philip Yeo, who helms the school’s advisory board, said that many fresh graduates in science and engineering had a strong technical grounding.

However, they lacked equally important skills in other areas, such as training, managing and retaining staff, for example.

‘We want future technical people to become CEOs of start-ups,’ he said, calling MBA training a necessity, not a luxury.

More : straitstimes.com

Bangalore, March 16. COGNIZANT Technologies has been the biggest recruiter in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore’s (IIM-B) campus recruitment programme this year, notching up 24 of 180 students.

“They made 30 offers, but were accepted by 24 people and this is the first time that an IT company has made so many offers,” said sources in the institute. This year’s batch was snapped up in record time, according to the institute. In just two days, all the offers were made and accepted.

At the IIMs, ’slot one’ companies (chosen by the students) are given the first two days to conduct their placement process. This year, there were 14 companies that made 100 plus offers on day zero. These include Dresdner KW, Capital One, McKinsey Consultants, AT Kearney and British Petroleum. The ’slot two’ companies were P&G, HLL, ICICI, ABN Amro and Cognizant Technologies.

Officials, however, refused to reveal the average salary, as the details “are yet to be computed.”

Taking the inter-regional integration efforts (for more trade and industry) on exporters’ level is the most important pillar of the new launched “Focus ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and 2 (Australia and New Zealand) “Programme of Ministry of Commerce, Government of India.

The new programme has been chalked out along the lines of programmes such as “Focus-LAC” and “Focus Africa ‘, which has proved fruitful.

India is the traditional export basket in the countries of ASEAN is composed of elements such as gems and jewellery, grain, chemicals, electronic goods and iron and steel, with no evil the demand on the route of a certain category of products. Events trade in this region of Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPCs) are in financial assistance from the government under the Market Development Assistance (MDA) Scheme.

India-exports to ASEAN countries reached $ 4.62 billion during the period 2002-03, from $ 1.63 billion in 1998-99. Currently, ASEAN is a dominant trading partner of India, for example accounting for 9 percent of total trade. Two avenues of trade is now $ 9.8 million, with a trade deficit of 0.5 billion dollars.

The main markets are India, Singapore (export refunds from India was $ 1.4 billion over the period 2002-03), Indonesia ($ 0.8 billion), Malaysia ( $ 0.75 billion), Thai country ($ 0, 7 billion) and Philippines ($ 0.5 billion).

During a recent workshop on the theme “Doing Business in South East Asia”, organised jointly by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Capexil, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Mr. Samir Ghosh, Senior Vice - - Chairman of Capexil, there is an urgent need to improve economic cooperation between India and ASEAN countries by the work quickly on the path of an India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

ASEAN countries, Mr. Ghosh, it may be regarded as one of the main destinations for Indian exports, reaching $ 30 billion by 2008, according to a recent study.

The ADB says Ghosh has forecast economic growth of 5.4 per cent by the year 2005 for the ASEAN region. While high growth is expected to Vietnam and Thai country, for the rest, it is likely to hover in the range of 4.5-5.5 percent.

Mr. Ghosh told Business Line that some ASEAN countries have made enormous progress on industrial and technological development, particularly in areas such as ceramics, glass and glassware, plywood and wood and rubber . The main products Capexil region of ASEAN are minerals, rocks, tires, glass, paper, electrodes, books and rubber products.

Requested the Council support programmes in the region, “said Ghosh including participation in trade fairs in Vietnam and Australia (Design Build in Melbourne, Australia), next to the buyer-seller meets in India and the ASEAN countries.

Oil and Gas Corporation (ONGC) has submitted a government proposal to increase paid up capital by ONGC Videsh of Rs 300 crore according to RS 500 crore.

ONGC Videsh is a subsidiary of ONGC, is investing in oil ventures abroad.

“The registered capital of ONGC Videsh is relatively low compared to debt on its balance sheet. The issue of debt-equity compared sometimes the way of smooth running of our business abroad. We also proposed that the authorized capital of ONGC Videsh, up to Rs 5000 crore, “Mr. Subir Raha, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC, said the edge of the newspersons launch of the “super-Unnati Prayas programme for ONGC employees.

Under this programme, ONGC sends his career in the mid-leaders of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) for an MBA 18-month residential program.

The program, under the direction of IIFT for ONGC workers should pay special attention on trade and international affairs.

For the first part, twenty leaders were selected from about 340 nominations received from ONGC employees.

Mr. Raha said ONGC and spend over Rs 25 crore per annum for the training of its leaders in management and engineering programs.

The company will also soon in a tie-up Management Development Institute to offer a general programme management of his career in the mid-leaders.

It is that time of the year again when thousands of students across the country appear for a slew of entrance examinations conducted by various business schools in the country.

This year, the examinations begin on November 11 and end on January 6. Unfortunately, Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) and ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test (IBSAT) are scheduled on the same day (December 16).

Speaking to The Hindu, Ajay Arora, Director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education, Bangalore centre, said that the clash in the dates of a few management aptitude tests is not uncommon. “I do not know what the fuss is all about. Every year, something similar happens,” he said.

Last year, the entrance exam for Faculty of Management Studies and Narsee Monjee Aptitude Test were held on the same day. “One cannot blame the institutions for the clash in dates. The best time to conduct the entrance tests is between November and January, as the students will not be over-burdened with mid-term examinations,” Mr. Arora said.

The admission cycle is such that for a programme to commence in June, the entrance test must be conducted between November and January, so that the results may be announced in April. Mr. Arora said that around 20,000 students of the country appear for the IBSAT and 18,000 to 20,000 appear for SNAP. “The question is how many of those students will appear for both the entrance tests. That group is not very big. The number of students ‘affected’ is minimal,” he said.

Purious debt market was the denial of benefits of e-business and India, the difficulties of catching up with Global Supply Chain Management, in the conclusion of a faculty of God for development programmes “e-business and Supply Chain Management (SCM), organized by the Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, there are few.

The dominance of market fundamentals is reflected in the personal nature of market participants and labelling factor that blocks the emergence of new products, regardless of their quality and cost competitiveness, bode well for ‘evacuation optimum benefits of e-business, the Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, C. Thangamuthu, said the management of participants in the 11-day session, sponsored by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

In the field of education on the concept of SCM is not functioning properly because of congestion institutional consideration of strategies as a terminal at the end of each stage and not as an ongoing process, “he said in reference on the functioning of the Indian Institute of Management in the country’s islands of excellence. Redundancy was the biggest chore of higher education, quality upgradation a matter of time.

Management experts, he insisted, it took courage to constraints in order to enhance the symmetry of information through integration with the market and improve the dissemination of information.

P.C. Narayan, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, worked, a meeting on “E-Banking”, noted that art “naturally” half-management experts to facilitate the transition to the next generation of Students `E-life.”

The usefulness of these programs, he said, should be optimized for a mesh “knowledge” essential to strengthen the forces and transmit them with the value of salvation for students, and they prepare for a digital life.

Given the primacy of technology management of the successful projects, the Director (In-Charge) NITT, S. Subramanian, spoke about the importance of taking good decisions at the right time. Mr. Puniamoorthy, Head, Department of Management Studies, NITT, invited the participants to specialists in areas such as marketing, finance and operations.

Provide feedback from participants indicated that the programme, provided that give them an overview of the practical aspects of risk management and optimization of resources.

The Programme Coordinator, G. Kannabiran, said the participants visited BHEL, Tiruchi to understand the functioning of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and E-business systems. Furthermore, have a interaction with managers BHEL, Titan Industries, i2 Technologies and IBM.

The topics included in the programme, IT and competitive advantage, Business-to-Consumer e-Business, Business to Business E-Business, e-banking, e-procurement, security in e-commerce , Questions of social law E-Business, ERP - concepts, technologies and implementation, SCM - Concepts, technology and implementation, and Business Process Reengineering.