Proud to be an IIFTian!

IIFT to Launch Foreign Trade Institute in Kampala

A totally different experience!!!

Author of the post: Rohit Mittal
MBA(IB)2010-12

When a very dear friend of mine told me that he has started a new manpower training & staffing outfit in a city on Haryana-Rajasthan border and invited me to conduct interviews at the job fair they were organising, I was not very excited. One reason for was the hectic schedule I have now a days, with all the classes, preparations for international round of Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition & other projects. Others were the poor road conditions, cold & patchy connectivity.

However on Friday, when last class got over, I thought about it and decided, What the heck! lets do it. So I quickly packed my bag and hopped on a bus to the place. The journey was uneventful and quiet. I reached around 1 AM and almost immediately went to sleep. After getting ready, we reached the venue of job fair which was a government degree college. A lot of people had come to the fair because of some really wonderful advertising.

After gathering understanding of the complete process, I got the brief about the qualities to look for in the candidates and got down to the work. We were basically doing the preliminary interviews for retail & call center companies who had come for recruitment.

Interviews were an eye opener to say the least. It also helped in breaking a lot of myths about shining India and quality of life for Indians. Although people had graduation degrees, still they found it difficult to express themselves well. Lot of the candidates had pursued year long computer diplomas from private institutes in the hope of improving their lives but majority were duped and were given sub standard education. Some people wrote English as a language in their CVs but were unable to frame even 5 simple, correct sentences.

Though I also found some gems who were working hard to gain knowledge and improve their status in society. One fellow had lost his father long back and had worked alongside education to support his family from a young age. Another was a topper and was also trying to complete his studies. In fact, this quality was displayed by most of the candidates who were willing to work hard to achieve something.

This kind of experience was very new for the people as they had not had any such exposure earlier. Thus they had talent & the determination but were raw. This is what my friend’s outfit is working: to bridge the gap between the available talent & needs of the industry. This is something unique which will provide people with the opportunity they have been looking for and help them improve the quality of their life.

For me, as I said, this was an eye opening experience and gave me a lot of insights into the mind of “still developing” India. I gained a lot personally by interacting with so many people which is going to be useful for me during MBA and beyond.


P.S. Needless to say, hospitality was superb and I really had a great time at the friend’s place

Gurcharan Das @IIFT in NDTV Mega Show ‘B-School Budget’

The Union Finance Budget 2011 is presently one of the most talked about issues with India growing at phenomenal rates accompanied with the evils of inflation and high fiscal deficit. To discuss, suggest and improve upon the measures that can be taken by the finance minister, some of India’s brightest minds from the top B-Schools and the stalwarts from the corporate and economy descended on the campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi, India’s premier B-School in International Business in a B-School Budget show organized in association with NDTV. The Guests included Mr. Gurcharan Das, noted author, economist and a public intellectual and Mr. Sunil Godhwani, Chairman and MD, Religare Enterprises Ltd, who aired their opinions about the Budget.

NDTV, in its special series of shows on the Budget, came down to the IIFT campus to conduct the B-school Budget show. Manisha Natarajan and Siddharth Patankar were the anchors for the show and students from IIFT, MDI Gurgaon and other premier B-schools participated in an interactive discussion on what to expect from the budget. The show was broadcasted on both NDTV Profit and NDTV 24x7 on the weekend before the budget.

The first agenda to set the ball rolling was black money and corruption, one of the hot political potatoes in current times. They deliberated on the huge impact that it would have if corruption were to be completely wiped off the economy. In response to one of the questions asked on the corruption front, the speakers held the opinion that corruption was indeed a huge menace. “India grows when the government sleeps at night”, quoted Mr Gurcharan Das, depicting the potential that the parallel economy possesses.

The discussion then shifted to the other big concerns facing the economy i.e. inflation and fiscal deficit. The views of the student community to this end were amply reciprocated by the guest speakers who also felt that the measures were long overdue to tame the present rates of inflation and improve the efficiency in the distribution of the proposed benefits to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Measures like UID and direct cash transfers were discussed so as to ensure that the intended benefits reach the target population.

Finally, the show came to an end with a wrap-up on what the students and the speakers felt was the one biggest expectation from Pranab Babu. While one of the students outlined his top priority to be the creation of ‘infrastructure of opportunity’ involving the 3E’s of education, employment and employability, another wished for better reforms for the real estate sector. Some wished for a reformist budget rather than a political budget while some wished for a more encouraging environment for retail and FDI investments.

All in all, the show was a grand success and both IIFT Delhi and NDTV look forward to many more such positive associations in the future.

You can watch the video here

Grand Alumni Reunion- reliving the good old days

The day 11/13/2010 became one of those memorable days when one gets back to reliving, re-cherishing and rekindling with not just the friends, the faculty members but the places like the dhabas, the top of the world, the classrooms, the hostels, the mess and every inch and bit of the times one considers as the best moments ever lived in life.
The day was the Grand Alumni Reunion of IIFT, a momentous occasion for people spread across different parts of the world to take time out from their highly busy & successful careers to come back to their alma mater and feel the sense of belongingness that they could only get being an inseparable part of IIFT.

The day included cultural programs from not just the IIFT students but a special cultural program by SHIVOHAM Institute of Performing Arts- Natya Dhwani, a fusion of classical and contemporary dance.
Then as per the tradition, there was Citation for Alumnus of the year - 2010 followed by presentation of the Award.

The Alumnus of the year went to Mr. D. P. Singh – Managing Director (Sara International Limited). In his address, he shared his anecdotes of the times he lived at IIFT and the kind of foundation it laid ahead for his career. Listening and connecting to his thoughts was an awe-inspiring experience for most of us. He also talked about the need for people at such pinnacle of the careers to give back to the society and to connect to their alma mater.

From the current students perspective, it was really inspiring and the best platform that they could get to interact freely at a one to one level and share ideas and gain insights about not just the careers but light-hearted chit-chats to connect being a part of the IIFT family. For an institution with such a long and glorious span of 47 years, the alumni is one of the strongest and the most fundamental institution to look up to and motivate oneself and feel the pride of being an IIFTian and say aloud with all the enthusiasm in the world GO IIFT GO !!!

Truly, it was a night to remember.

National Consulting Symposium-2010

National IT Symposium

Inaugural Session: “The Consumer Retention Route to Enhanced ROMI”

Keynote Speaker - Mr. Santosh Desai, MD & CEO of Future Brands


Session I: “Spoil for Choice – The Retention of Indian Youth”

Speakers:

1. Mr. Ashok Bajpai, General Manager - Taco Bell at Yum Restaurants International
2. Ms. Simeran Bhasin, Marketing Head - Fastrack & New Brands at Titan Industries
3. Mr. S Srinivas, GM Marketing - TVS Motor Company
4. Mr. Rahul Shanker, Senior Marketing Manager - Wrigley India


Session II: “Retaining the Exclusive Tag: The World of Luxury Brands”

Moderator for the Panel Discussion:

Ivan Coste-Maniere
Director - Marketing Department, Skema Business School, France
Director - MSc Luxury & Fashion Management, Skema Business School, France

Panellists:

1. Mr. Devasish Dutta, CEO - Gitanjali Lifestyle Limited & MD at MGPL Private Ltd.
2. Mr. Amit Dutta, CEO - Luxury Marketing Council India and MD & Founder at Luxury
Hues Consultancy Limited & Quintessentially Concierge India
3. Mr. Sandeep Vij, CEO - DDB Mudra Group at Mudra Communicatio
4. Ms. Ruchita Sharma, Head of Luxury Retail at the Bird Group & Head of Strategic
Planning at Globaluxia
5. Mr. Sudeep Chhabra, Head of Marketing at DLF Emporio
6. Ms. Roasie Ahluwalia, GM - Marketing Communications at Genesis Luxury Fashion
Pvt. Ltd.


Session III: “Charming their way to Consumer Loyalty – Th e Services Industry”

Speakers:

1. Abhinav Rahul, VP Corporate Communication at Max New York Life Insurance
2. Mr. Mouli Venkataraman, Head - Portfolio Planning and Insights at Nokia*
3. Mr. B Hariharan, VP Sales & Marketing at ITC Hotels*


* Confirmation Awaited

NATIONAL MARKETING SYMPOSIUM 2010

“THE CONSUMER RETENTION ROUTE TO ENHANCING ROMI”

“Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart – the centre of self respect and human dignity. It is a force that will leap into being only when conditions are exactly right for it – and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal.” ~ Maurice Franks

Let us begin with a simple question: Who gives a bigger return on marketing investment – an existing consumer of your brand who must be retained for the possibility of a future repurchase; or an uninitiated user who expands your consumer base and gives you volumes?



THE THEME – NATIONAL MARKETING SYMPOSIUM 2010


“T he c onsumer ret ent ion rout e t o enhanc in g RO M I” – Understanding Brand Loyalty, Efficient Measurement of Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and Strategies for Consumer Retention; including low cost IMC techniques aimed at consumer retention to facilitate a greater ROMI. A brief description of the various sub-themes mentioned above is presented in the following paragraphs.

UNDERSTANDING BRAND LOYALTY


As advertising spends break records after records, rivals are leaving no stone unturned to pull your consumer away from you. Besides this, post the deregulation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, the entry of some of the biggest international players in the market has presented Consumer India with a plethora of options to choose from. As clichéd as it may sound, an understanding of the underlying factors that drive consumer loyalty is becoming increasingly important for organizations facing a competition which is stiffer than ever before.

MEASURING ROMI

ROMI – Return on Marketing Investments; is a metric used to measure the overall effectiveness of a marketing campaign to help marketers make better decisions about allocating future investments. ROMI precisely signifies profitability generated for every rupee spent on marketing activities. Some of the parameters that it takes into account are: product positioning (market share), profitability (contribution/
EBIDTA margin) and marketing philosophy and aggression (Selling & distribution).


STRATEGIES FOR CONSUMER RETENTION


A growing top line for an organisation today is not a function of an increasing consumer base alone. Consumer involvement of existing users through engagement, feedback, variants, extensions, upgrades, value addition and a unique experience has become a critical aspect for a year on year sales growth of all successful organisations. The word of mouth publicity which results from all these activities often helps in transforming brands from the ordinary to the iconic.




On August 12, 2010 at The National Marketing Symposium at IIFT; some of the best minds from the corporate world and some of the brightest students in the country will unravel the mind of the consumer who is already connected to a brand.

We welcome you to join us in this discovery.

New Dawn: Launch of Africa Business Cell

July 21, 2010 became a historic day for IIFT as it became the first B-School in India to have an exclusive Africa Business Cell. An entirely a student initiative, it aims at promoting Africa which is beyond war, genocide and famine. It primarily aims at

• Increasing awareness about the vast business opportunities in Africa among the student community of IIFT
• Enhanced interaction among IIFT faculty & students, and leading African & Indian businesses and government officials

The inauguration ceremony was followed by a panel discussion on the theme, ‘India as partner of Africa in growth.’ The panelists included The High Commissioner Designate of Rwanda, The Charge d’affaires, The Embassy of Ethiopia, The High Commissioner of Gambia, The Ambassador of Tunisia, The High Commissioner of Eritrea and The General Manager, The Triton Group.

According World Economic Forum Report (2009), between 2001 and 2008, growth in Gross Domestic Product of the continent of Africa pegged an average of 5.9% annually. This was accompanied by substantial inflows of FDI (foreign direct investment), leading to almost doubling of FDI stock between 2003 and 2007. The McKinsey Quarterly Report 2010 also speaks of how macroeconomic reforms have reduced inflation, improved regulatory environment and opened economies to international business and trade. In this context, Africa offers immense business opportunities in agricultural commodities sourcing and trading, consumer goods, oil & natural gas, automobiles, education, health care, etc.


No wonder such an initiative focusing on Africa is going to bring immense learning and growth opportunities.Kudos to the Africa Business Cell Team and IIFT. ..

A Marketable Budget!

2^nd March 2010- The Kolkata wing of ‘Cash-O-Nova’, the Finance club at IIFT, organized a panel discussion on Union Budget 2010-11. The distinguished panel comprised of Dr. Ajitava RayChaudhari, former Head of Economics Department at Jadhavpur University, Mr. Gopal Aggarwal, Indirect Tax Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Mr. Chetan Panchamia, Head, Equity Research Division, Eastern Financial Ltd. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Ranajay Bhattacharya, an Economics graduate and Fulbright scholar and also a popular professor at IIFT.

Dr. Bhattacharya stated that like every year the current budget too reflected the tussle between economics and politics. He set the tone by stating that this budget was “less popular” than the previous one. However this view was opposed by Dr. RayChaudhary who stated the dual problem of growth and inflation that India faces and said that only innovative budgets would be the way out. He explained how strong social programmes and the rise of the Indian middle class had helped fuel demand but due to poor monsoons we had short supply. This was causing the inflation and he thought only long term measure such as projects under Bharat Nirman like building roads and in general agriculture infrastructure would be the way out. He stressed that budget being basically a one year plan could not cure the problem of inflation; rather what it could do is set the road map for the future. He also emphasized the need to remove the subsidies unless it was absolutely ensured that it benefitted the intended persons. He welcomed the idea of Unique Identification number (UID) programme as a solution to this problem. He did criticize the hike in indirect taxes as this would hit the poorer people more than the middle class and rich.

Mr. Aggarwal voiced a similar opinion on the increase in indirect tax. He reiterated that while the change in slabs made the budget a good one for the middle and high income families, the poor were not incentivized enough. However, he lauded the fact that the honourable finance minister had set a specific date (April 2011) for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He saw this as a step which will remove the cascading effect of the various excise tax, customs tax etc. He also spotted a trend of a fall in the excise tax and increase in service tax. He said that this was an indicator that India was slowly but steadily moving towards service taxes. He rated the budget a modest 7 on a scale of 10.

Stock market’s reaction is an important indicator of the marketability of a budget and according to Mr. Panchamia the budget was a very marketable one. It not only addressed the question of fiscal consolidation but also stated that the aim was to get the fiscal deficit down to 5.5% of GDP. This was in fact what the market was looking forward to hear as this would mean a better rating from credit agencies, thereby ensuring more inflow of FII. However he did mention that the oil subsidy had caused the debt market to give thumbs down to the budget. He was of the view that markets would be bullish as long as we avoided global pitfalls.

We also witnessed a very good discussion at the end of the session with the floor been thrown open to the students. Prof. RayChaudhari pacified the concerns raised by the students regarding overheating of economy by emphasizing on the importance of technological development. He favoured more focus on developing infrastructure over doling out subsidies. Mr. Chetan was optimistic regarding the disinvestment of the PSUs and Mr. Aggarwal felt that there was a high probability of IT tax cuts being extended by the turn of the year. The session was closed on a positive note with the speakers reasserting that there were definite benefits from this budget such as the bringing of the GST. The final assessment termed it a budget on expected lines and definitely not a path breaking one.

By: Sayani Ghosh

MBA(IB)

2009-11, IIFT

Long Night of Quizzing

Hi all,

Quintessential conducted a Long Night of Quizzing on 21st from 8 PM to 6 AM on 22nd.
We would like to thank all the participants who made the Long Night of Quizzing a big success by staying on till 6AM(for the food & drinks maybe) and there was never a dull moment in the entire time. We had good fun and hope it was the same for the junta as well.

The consolidated list of winners are as follows:-

General Quiz:-

Chaitanya V
Harihar Adarsh

Bollywood Quiz:-

Chaitanya V
Geetanjali Keerti

Cricket Quiz:-

Anushil
Shantanu Munshi

Finance Quiz:-

Dr Vijay Malik
Vamsi Krishna

Trade Quiz:-

Abhijith B
Amit Kumar

IT Quiz:-

Chaitanya V
Harihar Adarsh
Rehber Nazir

Literature Quiz:-

Praveen P
Amandeep

We congratulate all the winners and once again thank everyone else for being there and making the night long event a success.


-
Quintessential
_________________________
Abhijith B +91-9650840301
Dhruv Jain +91-9910070268
_________________________

Telecom Panel Discussion @IIFT

ET in the classroom

SOME TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN THE FM PRESENTS THE BUDGET ON FEBRUARY 26


Minimum Alternate Tax (Mat)
Indian companies pay 30% tax on its profits as per the Income-Tax Act. But, tax holidays announced from time to time may result in much lower tax outgo for India Inc. If a company’s tax liability is less than 10% of its profits, the company has to pay a minimum alternate tax of 15% of the book profit. This provision is expected to change when the proposals of the direct taxes code (read the entry below) are accepted. Instead of levying tax on its book profit, the code proposes a MAT on gross assets of a company.


Value-Added Tax
State governments levy this on goods at point of sale, based on the difference between the value of the output and the value of inputs used to produce it. The aim here is to tax a firm only for the value it adds to the manufacturing inputs, and not the entire input cost. Thus, VAT helps avoid a cascading of taxes as a product passes through different stages of production/value addition.


GST
The GST, or goods and services tax, contains all the indirect taxes levied on goods — including central and a state-level taxes. This tax is expected to simplify and streamline the indirect tax regime. It will be an improvement on the value-added tax system as it will incorporate central excise duty and service tax along with state taxes. A uniform GST across the country is expected to create a seamless national market. For the taxpayer, it will mean less paperwork and could actually translate into a lower tax burden, as it would remove distortions from the system.


Direct Tax Code
The Income Tax Act came into effect nearly half a century ago. Since then, the economy has undergone a complete transformation with new kinds of business and activities coming up. To make the tax laws reflect these changes, the government has now come up with the Direct Taxes Code. It proposes to simplify the tax laws, includes a new way to calculate taxes on income, has fixed tax rates and also lays out comprehensive guidelines on international taxation. The Code is scheduled to replace the existing Act from April 1, 2011.

Ref: Economic Times, Delhi ,10th February 2010

Telecom Panel Discussion @IIFT Delhi :: Opportunities and Challenges of the Future

From the heavily regulated and the infamous waiting lists era of the 70’s to emerging as the most dynamic mobile telephony market in the world in the current decade, India’s trailblazing telecom leap has left the world gasping in awe. The transformation of the sector has been in close sync with India’s economic transformation into a confident young nation aiming high on the world table.


With millions of additions per year and close to 20% CAGR over the past few years, the sector has been truly the sunshine sector of post 1995 Indian economy booming with the highest growth rates in the world, unmatched by any country of comparable scale. As the regulatory climate improves and private players invest aggressively in nationwide network deployments, the growth is only expected to keep rising. The expansion of India's telecom industry has led to an "all-inclusive growth" of the Indian economy in terms of GDP growth, employment and government revenues.


Apart from the rapid increase in subscribers and the mind boggling array of tariff plans directed at every segment of the massive consumer base, the telecom industry has provided ‘communication independence’ to every Indian, especially in rural India, by providing means to keep in touch at affordable rates, something which five decades of regulated fixed line telephony could not achieve. While subscriber growth is predicted to gradually slow down as the market saturates, a phenomenon already being seen in some metros of the country, a combination of factors such as acceleration of fixed-to-mobile substitution, expansion of rural market coverage, increasing competition resulting in the introduction of innovative cellular service packages, new path breaking VAS models, and cheaper entry-level handsets can stimulate future growth.



While the growth of the sector envisions good for the economy and the country, on the flip side, with an ever increasing number of operators fighting for the same telecom pie, costly price wars exacerbated by the recent pay per second tariff plans, painfully slow progress on new spectrum allocations and delays in technology rollouts can play spoilsport to some extent. Another striking feature of the India telecom space is the lack of major domestic integrated hardware players catering to the sector, unlike China for example.


Going forward, as the country demands more developed, mature and integrated data and communication needs, the demand for unified communication need on par with the latest technologies and value added services is only bound to increase. With the technology world seeing a greater than before integration in Communications, IT, Enterprise Management and other services to provide always-on and always available applications, opportunities for telecom firms to integrate with businesses and emerge as integrators shall increase. Investing in other emerging telecom markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America is also a strategic option to keep the revenues growing.


Against this dynamic backdrop accentuated by the fast changing telecom and IT landscape, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is organizing a panel discussion to set a platform for exchange of knowledge and ideas among leaders from the major telecom companies and subject matter experts on the industry to deliberate on the topic “Indian Telecom Sector: Opportunities and Challenges of the Future”.

Welcome

Why this blog !!!
This is share anything/everything we want to.
Following are the few things which can be shared:

Any random thoughts

Collection of good links related to

Marketing, Trade, Finance, IT, Technology,Quizzing

News ( not necessarily related to IIFT )

Achievements of IIFTians

Job/Summers experiences

Pictures you have recently taken on a trip

Any of the articles which you wrote for some magazine

Presentations presented in any competitions - using slideshare etc

Birthday wishes :)

Any article you wish to write

• 
  

There can be many more

What we need writers just send in your gmail-ids all will be added as authors.
Lets interact and share !!!!