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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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Contents I.
From The Chairperson’s Desk..……………………….……………………………………….…………3
II.
Homecoming……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
III.
3rd Mahendra Nath Memorial Lecture……………………………………………………………….5
IV.
84 Helping Hands……….…………………………………………………………………………………………..6
V.
Amphi Night……………………………………………………………………………………………….……………..7
VI.
Campus Buzz a. War of Words………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..8 b. Onam……………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………….9
VII.
Q & Alumnus…………………………………………………………………………………………………….....….10
VIII.
Campus Shots……………………………………………….…………………………….………………………….11
IX.
Suggestions and Feedback……………………………………………………..………………….………..12
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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
From The Chairperson’s Desk While talking about IMT, we all often use a phrase, “it moulds itself with changing times”. And IMT has proved that not once, but many times over its last thirty one glorious years. Time has come to stand by that phrase again. Let me introduce myself as your new touch point with your almamater. I joined this great institution in 2001 as a member of Information Management faculty. I left in 2008, but the gravitational pull of IMT is so great that I had to come back in three years’ time. I sincerely think that all of you must also be feeling that gravitational pull inside you somewhere. Let me appeal to you to kindly respond to that urge and come back to your institution. We are trying to do many new things at IMT, and are constantly trying to take it to an even better position, and this is impossible to achieve unless you come back home. It is your institution, and you must ‘be the change you want to see’. Let me seek your suggestions and guidance to take this relationship forward and make the best of it in the coming months. I will wait for a helping hand of yours. Dr. Nilanjan Chattopadhya Chairperson Alumni Relationship Committee
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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
Homecoming During my recent visit to India in August, I experienced a heartfelt moment that I will cherish for years to come. I had the pleasure to walk the campus grounds of IMT with my wife, recalling some of the best times I had there as a student. I graduated from IMT in 1988 but unfortunately have not had many opportunities to revisit the campus until last month after an almost fifteen year absence. The warm welcome my wife and I received
was
amazing
and
unparalleled. Dr Seeta Gupta, Former Chairperson
Alumni
Relationship
Committee, literally held our hands as we walked together, spending almost two hours graciously introducing us to IMT’s faculty, staff, and students. Dr Jayanthi Ranjan, Chairperson International Relations, with whom we made an instant connection, was so excited to speak with us. From the librarian we learned that the IMT library can now boast of a collection comprised of more than 45,000 books and journals from top rated business schools located around the world. With an annual operating budget of approximately one crore, books, journals, or other literary mediums can now be easily ordered at the request of any student or faculty member. I remember my days at IMT where we used to fight over grabbing a copy of Economic Times! The best and most memorable part of this awesome tour was our visit to the Alumni Relationship Office. The small room was filled with upwards of ten freshmen, all of whom stood up as Dr Seeta Gupta, my wife and I entered the room. Their expressions of greetings were filled with genuine respect, recognition and affection. We were humbled by our reception, after having lived in United States for the last ten years where such salutations are not easily forthcoming. This warm welcome caused me to reflect, wishing I could go back in time and recreate the years working towards my MBA on the IMT campus. A Campus today that is as warm, vibrant, and energized as I remember it to have been. I sincerely hope a chapter of IMT Alumni Association can be established in the United States and equally important, a Mentor-Mentee program can be created that will assist IMT Alumni, students and staff by providing insights and lessons learned from past experiences while keeping members apprised on recent trends in management. I look forward to contributing towards making these ambitious goals become a reality. With fond regards and the best to the students, faculty and staff of IMT, Mukesh Garg, Class of 1988
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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
3rd Mahendra Nath Memorial Lecture IMT organized the 3rd Mahendra Nath Memorial Lecture on the 98th birth anniversary of Late Shri Mahendra Nath- the visionary behind IMT on 7th September. Paying tribute to this great visionary, this year's theme for the lecture "Building a Good Institution" was something that Shri Mahendra Nath firmly believed in, advocated and ultimately realized in the form of IMT. And who could have voiced this belief better than the educational planner and administrator, Dr. Ashok Chandra himself, the Principal Advisor at International Management Institute. Dr. Chandra has also been the Special Secretary (Education) at Ministry of HRD, Government of India, and Director at Institute of Applied Manpower Research. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chandra said, "I am honoured to be present on this auspicious day that commemorates one of the builders of modern India. I say this not as a custom but because my association with this institution dates back a very long time when I was taken on the board of this institution in the mid-eighties ". Sharing his views on the topic, Dr. Chandra said that quality faculty is the most important resource an institution can have, high quality student body is the second and a good infrastructure is another asset. “For me personally, a good institution would have an educational philosophy that, apart from imparting domain-knowledge and related skills to students, emphasizes on pedagogical approaches that focus more on learning rather than instruction; and originality of thinking and critically examining prevailing concepts rather than mere conformance to existing notions and approaches.� He concluded by saying that there are no startling revelations, no magic, no secret recipes to building good institutions. If there is any magic at all it is in actual application. Dr. Bibek Banerjee, the director, gave the Mahendra Nath Scholarship Award of Rs.1 Lakh each to six students. He shared with us how his secondary knowledge about Shri Mahendra Nath inspires him especially to bring simplicity and common sense to the education system. Dr. Banerjee also said that he firmly believes
in
Shri
Nath’s
views
on
the
practical
implementation of the theories studied, and hence would make his best efforts to carry this torch forward.
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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84 Helping Hands Ties that bind. ’84 Helping Hands was a testimony to that. An initiative of the Class of 1984, ’84 Helping Hands was a platform to encourage meritorious children of the class four workers of IMT Ghaziabad through scholarships. In an event hosted by IMT Ghaziabad on the afternoon of September 17, 2011, 5 such deserving students were awarded scholarships in the presence of the chief guest Dr. Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad, faculty members, staff and Alumni from the Class of 1984. The initiative took root during the 1984 batch Reunion held in 2009 in IMT Ghaziabad. Overtime, the idea grew and eventually resulted in the formation of a trust to mobilize funds for the scholarships. Contributions poured in from all quarters as the entire batch responded enthusiastically to the venture, including alumni settled overseas. The session started with a welcome note by Dr. Bibek Banerjee, who lauded the initiative calling it a pioneering effort by the alumni to support those that constitute the backbone of the Institute, but are barely visible or appreciated. Mr. Aseem Arora then took the podium and shared his thoughts on the venture. Mr. Suresh Kumar, one of the drivers of ’84 Helping Hands, then spoke on how the initiative took shape, and encouraged the students selected for scholarships to constantly strive to excel. Mr. Rakesh Suri also shared his views. The afternoon showed the extent of connectedness our alumni still feel for the Institute. It promised that excellence will be rewarded always in ways unanticipated. It was a reminder that helping hands are just a call away. We thank the trustees, Mr. Aseem Arora, Mr. Sushil Baweja, Mr. Rakesh Suri, Mr. Suresh Kumar and Lt. Ms. Madhulika Masi, for facilitating the initiative. We are very grateful to Mr. Aseem Arora, Mr. Sushil Baweja and especially Mr. Suresh Kumar and Mr. Mushtaq, who traveled all the way from Chennai and Hyderabad respectively to come down to campus for the event. We hope this effort is the first of many that bring our alumni and the Institute closer.
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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Amphi Night The Summer Placement week for students of PGDM 2011-13 started on the 26th of September. The students were quite worried about preparation for the week, in the days prior to it. Since there is no better person to help address their queries than somebody who has been in the same shoes, the Alumni Relationship Committee organised an informal interactive session between some of our recent alumni and the students of first year. The 'Amphi Night' was held on the 21st of September at our Amphitheatre.
Alumni who came down to campus for the event were
Mr. Varun Malhotra of the 2007 batch, working with Goldratt Consulting.
Mr. Abhishek Agarwal of the 2008 batch, working with IBM.
Mr. Vikas Pamnani of the 2009 batch, working with Ernst & Young.
Mr. Alekhya Chakrabarty of the 2010 batch, working with Make My Trip.
The
students'
response
to
this
event
was
overwhelmingly positive. This was one of the few events where the students got a chance to interact directly with our alumni and not just through ALCOM. The alumni shared their experiences about the Summer Placement Process and also shared tips on how to crack the GD and Personal Interview rounds. Mr. Alekhya Chakrabarty later forwarded a few blog links for students who had taken Marketing as their major specialization. These were shared with all the sections, and students greatly benefited from the same.
Alum Quotes I missed out on all the IIMs because of my verbal score (91%ile).Within few months of joining IMT, I realized all that happens, happens for good. IMT has taught me how to handle various assignments, projects, extra-curricular activities and much more in a real-time live scenario, which is the primary reason for me taking an edge over many of the IIM guys in my organization. I have learnt a lot from the faculty, staff and or director Dr. B.S.Sahay and will remain indebted to all always. Lastly, wishing all the teachers a very happy Teacher's Day. IMT rocks!!
-Vishesh Chadha (Batch of 2009)
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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CAMPUS BUZZ War of words Cultural Committee of IMT Ghaziabad hosted War of Words – an erudite literary event on September 23, 2011. The event started on the 2nd with “Quizzinga”, a quiz on eclectic topics such as literature, movies, music, business etc. It started with 18 teams in the preliminary rounds from which 6 teams made it to the final round. Conducted in audio-visual format, questions ranged from topics like the origin of the masala dosa to Garfield, Star Wars’ Princess Leia to Dan Brown. After intense competition, Kaustuba K.V and Leo Thomas emerged as the winners by a handsome margin. There were two events the next day. The first was “TransNation”,
a
model
UN
with
each
team
comprising of two students representing a different country. The topic for discussion and debate was “The Financial
Crisis”.
Countries
being
represented
included Germany, China, USA and Greece. The entire discussion was chaired by two faculty members, Prof David Kaliz and Prof Ram Ritwik Sen. The teams brought out several key points like the tradeoff between growth and social welfare, austerities, high interest rate and inflationary measures, merits of the Eurozone and many more. The teams spoke from the point of view of the country they represented keeping in mind its policies. The model UN was won by Kunal Arora and Jayanth S Prasad who were representing Germany. The evening was rounded off with “Zeroth Hour”, a debate on the Jan Lokpal Bill. Each team had to present their draft of the Bill which is evoking such strong sentiments. Then merits and demerits of each were debated upon. Arijit Ray and Abhishek Chatterjee were adjudged the winners of Zeroth Hour. With such an overwhelming response to War of Words in terms of participation and quality of content, IMT Ghaziabad students yet again proved why they are among the best management brains in the country.
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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Onam Onam, Kerala’s biggest festival, falls in the month of Chingam (August-September) and is the celebration of the return of the legendary King Mahabali to see his people. Onam is a welcome laid out to a great king, to assure him that his people are happy and prosperous and wish him well. This year, the 25-strong Malayali population of IMT laid out their own welcome to King Mahabali right here. The celebration started early in the morning with the pookalam (flower carpet) being laid in the Academic Block. Presentations and classes went on with our Malayalis wearing the traditional,
pristine
white
mundu.
The
celebrations culminated in a grand 17-dish Onasadya (Onam lunch), replete with banana leaves and payasam.
Connect your friends to the IMT Ghaziabad Facebook group… http://tinyurl.com/alcomgrp
Click on the link to Connect…
Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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Q and Alumnus Introduction:
through
Q. It is said that more than the MBA degree, it Mr. Anurag Jain is an
is the course that creates an impact, so how
alumnus of the 2006-2008
important has an MBA been for your career?
batch of PGDM HR. He
A. Academically, I have definitely learnt a lot
has
work
from this degree. Beyond academics, the
experience of more than 6
experience of group activities has also been
years. Mr. Jain got placed
highly beneficial. I was the Coordinator of the
in
HRuday club and we organized various events
a
total
Bank
of
campus placements and
America has
been
working there ever since. His areas of expertise
around the year. The learning that I gained from this has been very valuable.
include Compensation & benefits design, HR policies and procedures and Integration and
Q. Being from the newer generation, how do
Harmonization activities. His hobbies and
you think has the scenario changed in the
interests include writing short stories and
corporate?
travelling. He also has a keen interest in
A. Till about 5 years back, HR was mainly
entrepreneurship and intends to launch his own
looked upon as an administrative job. It is now a
start
strategic partner in most organizations. Today,
up
in
the
next
5
years
or
so.
awareness among people has increased. The Interview:
field of Human Resources has evolved a lot and
Q. What were your most cherished moments at
is more stimulating than it was previously.
IMT? What did you love the most in or about IMT?
Q. What was the most important goal for you
A. My most cherished memories at IMT would
while pursuing an MBA?
be those of the conversations that we had in
A. The most important goal for me was to learn
the amphitheatre, walking over to Nescafe to
as much as possible. I used to ask a lot of
buy a coffee at 4 or 5 in the morning and long
questions in class, and tried to explore the
walks around the campus during the night. We
practical aspects of whatever I studied in theory.
were a notorious group of 12-15 friends. The parties at IMT were a lot of fun too.
Q. Any specific advice for the present students?
Q. Something you would have liked to change
A. The first year is very crucial. I would advise
about IMT?
students to make the most of it. You are only as
A. I would like to see more flexibility in terms of
good as what you have gained during the past
the course structure. This would include fewer
two years of your life. Gain a lot of exposure
restrictions in the selection of electives and the
and look for opportunities to build your CV. I
ability to switch courses.
also suggest students to carry a pen drive around, at all times. You might come across interesting information that you would want to keep a copy of.
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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
Campus Shots
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Sampark Volume 5 Issue 3
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Compiled By: The Sampark Team Alumni Relationship Committee IMT Ghaziabad
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