IIMC all set to STEP out, 46 grads get scholarships

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KOLKATA: IIM Calcutta (IIMC) students have never had it so good as they gear up to head abroad for the international student exchange programme (STEP) in September. Of the 80 students who are off to the world’s leading B-schools, as opposed to 45 last year, 46 have been offered scholarships.

That’s a nearly 284% jump from the 12 scholarships that were awarded last year. In all, scholarships in excess of Rs 60 lakh have been given to the students this year, with several universities and foreign embassies offering scholarships to attract IIMCians.

The French Embassy and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Programme) have already offered 32 scholarships to IIMC students, each worth $3000. Among US universities, University of Colorado and City University of New York (CUNY) are also providing scholarships to participating students.

The Diamond Management & Consultancy Group has also offered a ‘Diamond Scholarship’, awarded to Prabhat Chandra, the only student in India to get this $3000 scholarship. Besides these, IIMC itself supplements STEP with contributions from its coffers, ensuring that no students miss out on this opportunity due to lack of funds. “IIMC helps its students in all possible ways - bulk airfare discounts, visa assistance, travel insurance and even arranging for French and German classes.

In addition, representatives from Thomas Cook, ICICI Lombard and STIC specially visited the campus to make arrangements for the exchange program participants at discounted rates,” said the STEP representative Gaurav Goyal. IIM Calcutta’s partner universities include Simmons School (Boston), Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), UCLA Andersen School of Management (Los Angeles), Universit Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Milano), NUS (Singapore), ESCP-EAP (Paris) and 31 other well-known institutes.

The four gaps in B-school teaching

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There are many good things that business schools teach and develop in future managers. They are certainly important for the development of any economy. However, there are things that B-schools do not teach.

They can be explained as the Four ‘R’s:

Risk taking: Risk-taking is not taught. It can be inculcated, cultivated and accentuated. It is important that when you come out of a B-school you do not only look at becoming a manager; you should also be encouraged to look at becoming an entrepreneur. Risk-taking ability is some-thing that helps create path-breaking ideas come to life. B-schools must not only develop managers but also develop entrepreneurs.

Ridicule facing: Many a times when you start something afresh or come up with a new concept in your company, as a manager or as an entrepreneur, many people may laugh at you. They may ridicule you. However, you need to believe in yourself and follow your passion and creativity with tremendous resilience. It is not important who laughs first. According to me, what is important is who has the last laugh, who laughs all the way to the bank.

Revolutionary thought leadership: This is important in any business venture, whether as a manager or an entrepreneur: you need to understand the needs of the consumers, meet those needs and improve the quality of life of the consumers.

This will help both the topline and bottomline. Unfortunately, B-schools propogate an evolutionary approach when they should be encouraging revolutionary thought leadership.

Relationship building: Hardly any attention is paid to this ‘R’. Ethical, honest and sustainable relationships with customers are critical in today’s competitive world. My brand mantra for relationship building is Sambandh nahin toh sab-bandh.

If these four gaps — the Four ‘R’s — are taught, developed, encouraged, inculcated, cultivated or guided, the boom would be faster not only in the economy, but also in the self-confidence and progressive development of every management graduate.

IT training and education market grows at 64%

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BANGALORE: The Indian IT Training and Education market, which is currently $656 million, is growing at a CAGR of 64 per cent. However, the Indian IT e-learning market, which is currently $122 million, is growing at a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 73 per cent, said Navug Mohnot, CEO of India QAI, while announcing education ventures in this space under the name - Edista.

QAI, the leading process consulting organisation, has decided to foray into this space in order to meet the growing need for IT training and education in the country. Quoting interesting trends in IT education, he said 29 per cent of all IT training is on demand: e-learning, as it meets just-in-time training requirements, has maximum reach and no geographical boundaries, offers homogeneity and consistency in content which can be easily upgraded.

Forseeing a huge potential in this space, QAI has launched The Edista learning, an on-demand, web enabled curriculum that offers learner centric online curriculum with real time collaboration, Singh said.

The Edista Testing Institute,which is launched in India, is aimed at addressing the fast growing software testing segment, he said. The Indian software testing segment market was two billion dollars and expected to grow at eight billion by 2008 while the size of the testing training market here was $6.6 million and expected to grow at a CAGR of 50 per cent.

Management Entrance Test for IIT B-schools on Dec 9

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The gateway to the prestigious six IIT B-schools and IISc Bangalore’s Department of Management Studies — the Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) 2008 — will be conducted on Sunday, December 9.

This written management entrance exam is conducted by IIT Kharagpur.
According to IIT Kharagpur, JMET 2008 will be of 2 hours duration. The test will consist of 150 questions (objective / multiple choice type) in Verbal Communication, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation areas.

The Schools/ Departments that use JMET scores are:

IIT Bombay: Shailesh J Mehta School of Management
IIT Delhi: Department of Management Studies
IIT Kanpur: Department of industrial & Management Engineering
IIT Kharagpur: Vinod Gupta School of Management
IIT Madras: Department of Management Studies
IIT Roorkee: Department of Management Studies
IISc Bangalore: Department of Management Studies

Clarifying that JMET is only a short-listing test, IIT Kharagpur says, “The results of JMET 2008 provide a basis to each participating institute to shortlist potential candidates for conducting its own selection process, like, Group Discussion/Interview etc. However, calling the candidates for the later process of selection is the prerogative of the admitting institute.”

While the application criteria for IIT B-schools varies somewhat, a Bachelor’s degree in any branch of Engineering or a Master’s degree in Sciences, Agriculture, Commerce or Economics is acceptable.

Management Entrance Test for IIT B-schools on Dec 9

View Source

The gateway to the prestigious six IIT B-schools and IISc Bangalore’s Department of Management Studies — the Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) 2008 — will be conducted on Sunday, December 9.

This written management entrance exam is conducted by IIT Kharagpur.
According to IIT Kharagpur, JMET 2008 will be of 2 hours duration. The test will consist of 150 questions (objective / multiple choice type) in Verbal Communication, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation areas.

The Schools/ Departments that use JMET scores are:

IIT Bombay: Shailesh J Mehta School of Management
IIT Delhi: Department of Management Studies
IIT Kanpur: Department of industrial & Management Engineering
IIT Kharagpur: Vinod Gupta School of Management
IIT Madras: Department of Management Studies
IIT Roorkee: Department of Management Studies
IISc Bangalore: Department of Management Studies

Clarifying that JMET is only a short-listing test, IIT Kharagpur says, “The results of JMET 2008 provide a basis to each participating institute to shortlist potential candidates for conducting its own selection process, like, Group Discussion/Interview etc. However, calling the candidates for the later process of selection is the prerogative of the admitting institute.”

While the application criteria for IIT B-schools varies somewhat, a Bachelor’s degree in any branch of Engineering or a Master’s degree in Sciences, Agriculture, Commerce or Economics is acceptable.