BizTalk!@AIMK

Happy Independence Day

There is a television program that’s come up in the aftermath of the Blasts in Mumbai, ‘Corporate India: Ideas for change’. The who’s who of corporate India was there debating, analyzing and recommending on how to prevent terror strikes. Some of the interesting suggestions that were made included creating a department for Homeland Security, NSG Commando forces stationed at all the major cities, electronic surveillance, empowering police with semi automatics instead of lathis(batons) and fiscal independence to cities like Mumbai (the argument in favor of this was that too much money was being siphoned by the ministers for rural welfare)

Here, in Kolkata, a day after the blasts increased security measures could be seen all over. Specially so in areas of Mominpur and Khidderpore(Muslim dominated areas), close to where I stay. There was also news of some arrests being made. Nevertheless, past midnight we went for our staple ‘pyanj ke paranthe’ and on the way back a cop stopped us.

‘Sir, We’re from the Army’
‘kahan gaye the?’
‘bhuk lagi thi, khana khane gaye the!’
‘mess main khana nahi banta?’
Rohitash, ‘banta hai, lekin raat ko bhuk lagti hai.’
The cop pointing to Rohitash (he is over 100 kilos) ‘is ke baad bhi bhuk lagti hai’
‘kya karein sir is ke liye hi to bhuk lagti hai!’

So, coming back to the TV show, corporate India wants a US styled security system and surveillance in place. As if we already did not have enough of American influence now we start American style frisking and hear to ‘FBI…Put your hands over your head’ and if your surname happens to be a Ahmed, Ali, Husain or Khan get ready to be always selected at random and face discrimination whether its getting a job or a place to stay. Whatever happened to the resilient Indian who talked about ‘unity in diversity’? Don’t these Ivy league guys understand that when you ask for fiscal independence you are yielding to what all enemies of the nation have kept on using against us for ages ‘divide and rule.’ When you frisk them at ‘random’, you check recheck and crosscheck credentials: you sow the seeds of animosity, making it easier for the anti-socials to mould young minds.

In the last few months, I have seen a student with exceptional academic merit having a hard time first finding a scholarship to the US (because of the war on terror) and then when he did secure admission, having a hard time to find a place to stay, just because of his surname. Most of us (his school friends) believe him to be the jewel of our batch. And we don’t exaggerate when we call him our contender for the ‘Nobel.’

I also saw an aspiring managers’ job application being discriminated by corporates who call themselves ‘equal opportunity employers’. Well if you ask them they would definitely have a PR answer ready!

One of my friends had come up with a line in reaction to the frequent strip searches that he and all of us have to endure whenever we go to ‘the land of the free home of the brave’ –
‘We have been facing terrorism decades before, but we don’t strip search you when you come to our airports.’ I guess that’s going to change now! And I am going to miss the Indian ‘pee anywhere freedom’!

As for empowering the police: there’s a good old saying ‘You reap what you sow’. First you bribe and corrupt public servants destroying the very façade of public services, and systematically eliminate the pride which came with donning the national emblem. Now that each chair comes with a price tag that has nothing to do with ability, you complain about incompetence! Yes, that call’s for a revolution and we have the ballot as a first step towards a bloodless revolution. Please vote and vote for the right candidate. Neither new departments, nor policemen touting semi-automatics will stop the ‘jihadi’. Good old espionage and restored pride in the existing machinery would be enough ammunition to fight these soulless individuals.

Lets remind us what the Mahatma said, ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’.

This is a wonderful mail circulating in favorof RAJ Thackeray have a look…

We all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by
doing more…

1. We should teach our kids that if he is second in class,
don’t study harder… Just beat up the student coming first and throw
him out of the school .

2. Parliament should have only Delhiites as it is located in Delhi .

3. Prime-minister, president and all other leaders should only
be from Delhi .

4. No Hindi movie should be made in Bombay. Only Marathi.

5. At every state border, buses, trains, flights should be
stopped and staff must be changed to local staff.

6. All Maharashtrians working abroad or in other states should
be sent back as they are SNATCHING employment from Locals in that
country.

7. Lord Shiv, Ganesha and Parvati should not be worshiped in
Maharashtra as they belong to north (Himalayas).

8. Visits to Taj Mahal should be restricted to people from UP only.

9. Relief for farmers in Maharashtra should not come from
centre because that is the money collected as Tax from whole of India,
so why should it be given to some one in Maharashtra?

10. Let’s support Kashmiri Militants because they are right to
killing and injuring innocent people for benefit of their state and
community……

11. Let’s throw all MNCs out of Maharashtra, why should they earn
from us? We will open our own Maharashtra Microsoft, MH Pepsi and MH
Marutis of the world.

12. Let’s stop using cell phones, emails, TV, foreign Movies and
dramas. James Bond should speak Marathi ……….

13. We should be ready to die hungry or buy food at 10 times higher
price but should not accept imports from other states.

14. We should not allow any industry to be set-up in Maharashtra
because all machinery comes from outside.

15. We should STOP using local trains… Trains are not manufactured
by Marathi manoos and Railway Minister is a Bihari .

16. Ensure that all our children are born, grow, live and die
without ever stepping out of Maharashtra, then only they will become
true Marathis………

This mail should somehow reach Raj Thackeray.

JAI MAHARASHTRA!

Though its already late but its never too late, so here AIMKBlogger presents some of the SNAPS from the Grand Fest.

Once upon a time in India NIMC aka AIMK, Abhinav Dasgupta as Bhuvan in AIMK’s farewell to MBA 10

Continue Reading »

Like every other campus, people at NIMC aka AIMK are no different when it comes to cyber combat. I have been knowing finest snipers, few of the toughest assault team (Hellboy, DT, Rage to name a few)

Counter Strike

Counter Strike, the power puff game which rocks whole night all across the campus through the LAN. The latest version of this game is Counter-Strike: Source – It blends Counter-Strike’s award-winning team play action with the advanced technology of Source™ technology. Featuring state of the art graphics, all new sounds, and introducing physics, Counter-Strike: Source is a must-have for every action gamer. The popularity is still rising and even students have started arranging tournament in college fests with AIMK always as winners, after all practice pays.

Counter-Strike was developed first as a Half-Life modification. Therefore named “Half-Life: Counter-Strike.” The original version was a 3rd-party Half-Life modification, but since then it has grown into a commercial mod and later advertised as separate game in itself. It still uses and runs on the Half-Life game engine and is based on its unchanged structure. The game provide ultimate dynamically streamlined multi-player experience activated via Steam, and is currently the most played PC shooter in terms of players.

Continue Reading »

Economic Times and National Council of Applied Economic Research jointly conduct a survey to measure confidence index whether business or political. This survey is done periodically and for the quarter ending December 2007 is out.

The BCI (Business Confidence Index)

BCI of India is at 154 points, 8 points more from last quarter (with a growth of 8%). This shows that Indian Industry is brimming with confidence, though there are indications of a slowdown in industrial growth and corporate earnings. If the positive sentiment persists despite the turmoil in the capital market, corporate earnings may be back on track in the coming quarters.

Deloitte created the “Business Confidence Index” in 1997 with the aim of making available accurate and timely information on the country’s economy and economic situation”

The YarnandFibers Textile Business Confidence Index has become a barometer of the textile industry. It is the only kind of index in India which provides quick assessment of the performance of Indian textile companies and also the prospect in immediate future. The index, based on the perceptions of CEO/leader, is valuable for corporate strategy and business planning.

The political confidence index

This is also increasing for the third consecutive quarter to its highest level (127.7, 5.2 points higher).

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world’s largest custom research company. You can know more about it here.

[_{Global Business Confidence Index}]

[_{BCI - Indian Textile Perspective}]

Every year, Army Institute of Management Kolkata, celebrates it’s annual B-School Meet in the form of an event called Inferno. It comprises of not one, not two, but a whole lot of exhilarating, spine-tingling, nail-biting episodes, games and contests. To win prizes there is not an easy task. One needs to display his creative instincts, his vigor, his liveliness, his passion for participating and winning a fortune at INFERNO! In a thriller of a quest, one locks horns with the best students from around the region for conquest of the booty – bags full of exciting prizes.

This absolute event took place this year on 23^rd February at Volleyball ground of AIMK. The various events that were organized include:

• ·         LaunchPad: The team has to launch a new product. The launch must cover all the aspects of a real life launch. Basically, sell your idea.
• ·         Counter Strike: Just Win by defeating your opponents in the world-famous PC game.
• ·         HR Arthashastra: Case Studies.
• ·         Quiz Wiz: Show your knowledge.
• ·         Dress Your Thoughts: Advertisement Special.
• ·         Wealth Guru: How well can you solve your financial issues?
• ·         Trade Master: The virtual(on line) stock trading game.
• ·         Fashion Furore: How fashion-forward are you? (This is the first time such an event has been organized @ Inferno)

Following are some of the colleges which had participated in this Mega Event:

• ·         IIM Calcutta
• ·         NIT Durgapur
• ·         Calcutta University
• ·         IISWBM
• ·         Heritage
• ·         Globsyn Business School
• ·         Techno India
• ·         Indian School of Business
• ·         Bhawanipur College
• ·         IIFT
• ·         IAM
• ·         EIILM
• ·         EIM

Also, this year has seen a whole lot of sponsors, pitching in to have a chance at providing support to the 3^rd Best B-School of Eastern India. The Times of India had been given exclusive coverage rights.

Following are some of the sponsors for the event:

• ·         The Times of India
• ·         Aditya Birla Nuvo
• ·         Red FM
• ·         Lakme
• ·         Loreal
• ·         Amway
• ·         INOX
• ·         Veeyu
• ·         C3
• ·         Kaya Skin Clinic
• ·         ADA
• ·         Trendz

I personally congratulate all the participants, prize winners, and, of course, the brains and the brawns behind this Mega Successful Event.

For more details, visit The Ultimate Renaissance or Armageddon Meets Renaissance

This is my favorite subject to write about just because this is my work sector. This article published in Economic Times (21 Jan, 2008, 0504 hrs IST,KG Narendranath, TN) is of great significance for anybody interested in contemporary situation in one of the India’s basic sector – Textile.

Exporters from most sectors seem to have shown the resilience to withstand the rupee’s appreciation against the US dollar over the last 10-11 months, but not the exporters of textiles and garments. When expressed in dollar terms, non-petroleum products exports had grown 17% in April-August and overall exports 22% in April-Nov. But the textile and garment exports continue to de-grow and no reverse swing appears in sight.

The reason is not far to find. The Indian textile industry continues to have a major structural weakness (poor and inadequate weaving and processing capacities) which restricts its not easily destructible exporting ability to a few areas—yarn and casual/fashion wear garments.

In fabrics, the Indian industry has hardly any comparative advantage in export markets and due to this, its competence in mass consumption (regular wear) garments, which need to be made of good quality fabrics, is also very restricted. So India’s ability to compete in the export market in times like this is limited to some 40% of the markets (of relatively less value-added items) where it has reasonable presence.

India’s poor fabric production base can be best understood by the fact that the 30 largest garment exporters import fabrics to meet 60% of their requirement. This is because of the meagre domestic supply of good quality fabrics (dense and shade-consistent fabrics).

No dramatic increase in India’s fabric-making capacity was expected in a matter of a two-to-three years. Blame the strong rupee, whatever new capacities that have been built in recent years are now frozen.

Till July 2004, a discriminatory tax regime had discouraged the setting up of new weaving units in the organised sector. The small weavers using power (powerlooms) were not required to pay the excise duty, while the organised industry had to pay the tax.

The powerloom-friendly tax regime was established in 1985, and prior to that, weaving capacities were simply not allowed in the organised industry. Since large weaving units were a taboo, naturally, large fabric processing units also did not come up.

China, which has almost swamped the western markets for mass consumption garments, has hundreds of big capacity fabric units equipped with modern shuttleless looms and proportionate level of processing capacity. So, China’s domestic raw material base is very robust. In contrast, India’s poor quality, grey (unbleached) fabrics are not fit for making regular wear garments, which form a large chunk of export markets.

Now that the fiscal problems have been resolved, the government ought to give special incentives for new investments to build large weaving and processing units. These incentives could be routed through the TUFS itself, in the form of, say, a higher rate of interest subsidy or even upfront capital subsidy. Also, the rigid labour regulations need to be urgently recast for ease of production operations.

The scheme for high tech weaving parks announced by the Centre is yet to gather steam. And plans for large processing units —like the one at Kadallur in Tamil Nadu—are stuck for want of environmental clerance. The government would do well to clear these hurdles.

[Source: Economic Times]

Discover Happiness. This was the name of the b-school meet event. one of the part of it was Battle Royale – A competitive duel between different colleges, where new products and services are churned out and showcased through corporate presentations.

Various rounds

Round 1- HR. A critical situation was given to the teams and they had to apply their HR knowledge to analyze the situation and present the solution, teams were asked to enact the case on stage. In the AIMK team participants and their respective roles were Pardeep kumar(CEO), Bhavini Singh (Director HR), Navendu Sharma (GM HR).

Round 2- Finance . A fund raising game was introduced and teams were asked to manage fund and to raise your money by applying you finance concept. AIMK participants with their respective roles were Amrita Talukdar (Director Finance), Riya Mondal (GM Finance).

Round 3- Marketing. Have to give a presentation on INNOVATIVE BANKING SERVICES covering what kind of new services a bank can offer. Participant were Pardeep Kumar (CEO), Abhinav Das Gupta (Director Marketing), Anand Dodrajka (GM Marketing)

Round 4- Business Quiz. Participant were Pardeep Kumar, Abhinav Das Gupta and Amrita Talukdar.

Under the sponsorship of TIMES OF INDIA, with big prize amount, AIMK people have again proved that they can win such battle on any ground.