ONAM CELEBRATIONS !!!!!

Onam- a celebration of homecoming of the legendary Emperor Mahabali and in today’s era represented as the harvest festival borne in God’s own country, Kerala. But at IFMR, Chennai it spelt much more than that. It displayed the rich blend of cultures, the true essence of sharing and the joy of team work. The fest started with the hard work of current batches in making Pookalam, bringing forth the true sense of Festival of Rain flowers,as Onam is called, and adorning the college entrance with a majestic creation of flowers. As the onam zeal started flowing through the dusky day, students got ready to welcome the festival with full vigour and warmth. While girls personified beauty in sarees and traditional dresses, boys matched up too. Traditional “munds” were a common sight among them,encasing rich cultural attachment. Each student helped the other in looking his/her best and in contributing in whichever way possible to the celebrations. Classes started with a warm wish from faculty members which received a loud response simply echoing the ecstasy people felt. The sweetness of Keralites  was well reflected by the distribution of sweets throughout the batch which not only added to the fervor but spread congeniality too. Onam may be the festival of Malayalis but it surely saw a huge enthusiasm from people from all states and religions. To find happiness in small things,to share warmth and to look beyond ourselves,beyond realms of cultural differences is what Onam taught us. It taught us to care for others and to put in the best effort for things which matter in our lives; one of the many lessons of Life at IFMR.

Strides 12

The two day entrepreneurship fest of IFMR, STRIDES’12 was a huge success among the corporate and the students. The theme of this year’s STRIDES is “Comenzio – Transforming Dreams into Reality!” The event partner was “TiE Chennai” and the print partner was “The Hindu”. The event was aired live in the strides website by Purple Streams.

February 3rd 2012, Day-1, at GRT Grand Convention Center, commenced with an inauguration ceremony. The Chief Guest for the morning session included Mr.K.R.Bhaskar, Consul of Education Affairs, Mr.Srinivasan Vishwanathan, Director - TiE Chennai and Dr.Bobby Srinvasan, President - Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR).

IFMR, for the very first time, introduced “Launch Pad” wherein 12 start-up companies from different sectors were invited to pitch in about their venture or product, in a time span of 5 minutes to a panel of venture capitalists, investors and incubators. The audience who witnessed consisted of corporate, entrepreneurs and students. The start-ups were interrogated by these panel members by interesting and thought provoking questions.

Post Lunch, there were two panel discussions. The first panel comprised of well settled and established entrepreneurs, who shared their experience of starting a firm, the risks they faced during their journey and how they were able to convert them to opportunities. The topic under discussion for the first panel was, “Transit Risks to Opportunities – Entrepreneurial Journey so Far!!! “.

The second panel had Venture Capitalists, Incubators and Investors, who dwelled upon the constraints involved in evaluating the start ups before they decided to fund them, their success stories and their expectations from the future entrepreneurs. The topic under discussion for the second panel was, “Funding – the other side of the table!!! “.

Day-1 ended with a closing ceremony. The Chief Guest for the closing ceremony included Dr.P.Senthilkumar, Special Secretary to Government – Finance Department, Mr.N.S.Shankar, Former District governor - Lions Club and Professor G.Balasubramanian, Dean - Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).

Day-2 saw participants from other B-Schools in India who took part in two events. The first event was a case based business plan - Build Ur Impressa. The second event was a debate - Dwandwa. The total cash prizes for both the events were worth Rs.70000.

It was a great pleasure in having the above mentioned guests who served as an instrument for the success of the event.

For more info visit :
Strides Facebook page
Strides12 Website

Article written by Bala Srinivasan

THE ERA OF BUSSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING

27^th January, 2012:

            Mr. P S Easwaran, Director - Strategy & Operations, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India (P) Ltd delivered a lecture on “Business Process Re-Engineering” which was organized by the colloquium committee of IFMR. He has immense experience in the field of consulting. He started the lecture by giving a brief description about his experience with the IFMRians whom he had encountered in the industry. He shared his insight and knowledge in the BPR process which involves transformation of an organization in ways that directly affects performance.

Mr. Easwaran stressed that the key to BPR is the elimination of redundancies in processes involved in the organizations. He explained the BPR process in simple terms involving audit to cash, procure to pay and concept launch techniques. Several waste reduction items involving inventory, weighting, transporting, rework and motion were also elaborated by him. He delivered an impromptu lecture pointing out various ways in which BPR has been utilized in the sectors such as banking, manufacturing and information technology. He quoted several examples in which these industries greatly benefited from the BPR approach.

His lecture was based on practical approach which is practiced by the consultants on job. He advised to question everything and revisit every single line item in BPR, as trivial things might be the key changers for an organization and he laid down several examples indicating the same. The lecture was attended by both 1^st and 2^nd year students who participated in the lecture enthusiastically. Several queries related to BPR and Deloitte were also addressed by him. The audience was enlightened from his humorous yet informative speech about the BPR process. On behalf of IFMR a memento was presented to Mr.Easwaran.

Deloitte is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services to selected clients. These firms are members of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), a UK private company limited by guarantee. In India, Deloitte offers a range of Audit & Enterprise risk, Tax, Consulting and Financial advisory services across thirteen cities.

IFMR ranked among top 10 finance B schools

You guys will be happy to know that CNBC TV18's India's Best B School 2012 rankings are out and IFMR is ranked 9th best B school for Finance (Overall Rank : 23).


CLICK HERE to see area wise Rankings.

CLICK HERE to see overall Rankings



Area wise Rankings

Overall Rankings

DUNES

Seventh Sense- the Creativity Club at IFMR organized a fun-filled and exciting afternoon at the Besant Nagar beach on Saturday, 24th December called “DUNES”. The event was planned to relieve the second-years from placement stress, and to give the first-years a well deserved break from the monotony of college routine. The events organized included the relay race, obstacle race, tug-of-war, sand sculpture competition and a photography competition.
 Several students from both batches participated with great fervor and enthusiasm in teams of 6 including 4 boys and 2 girls as per the rule. The relay race took place at the very outset of the afternoon, and it was a great starting point as this race enjoys maximum popularity amongst participants. The excitement was palpable as students screamed to cheer on their favorite teams, and energy levels picked up as the baton was passed from runner to runner. All participating teams gave each other a tough fight, and the winning team was declared by way of elimination. 
The obstacle race involved a few obstacles in the form of a few tasks that participants had to complete before or while running their lap. These tasks involved holding a glass full of water between their teeth while running, blowing powder out of the cup, wearing a mask and trying to balance a balloon between their knees while running, and a three-legged lap. This race was fun to watch, and ended up attracting the attention of other visitors to the beach who also stopped by to look.
The tug-of-war was the highlight of the afternoon. It garnered great passion and zeal from both the batches because they were pitted against each other in this event. After minutes (but what seemed like ages) of struggle, the first years emerged as winners despite being given a tough fight by their seniors. The evening culminated with the signature creativity club event- the sand sculpture competition which allowed minds to run wild in terms of imagination. Participants used sand, water and their bare hands to create original but imaginative sculptures and images on the beach. The interesting ones included a voodoo doll, a mermaid, and a cricket stadium. The best part of this competition was the judgment process and the judges, who we randomly picked from a bunch of visitors to the beach that evening.
The afternoon was long and tiring, but at the same time it was enjoyable and memorable. The following lines will summarize the experience of all of us who were a part of DUNES:
Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone………

Article written by: Vatsal Johri