Guest Lecture 1516

Success Story by SDMIMD Alumnus

The students of PGDM batch 2015-17 had an opportunity to hear a ‘Success Story’ from SDMIMD Alumnus of Batch 1999-2001 Mr. Venktesh Charan, Director, Vaswaat Chemicals Limited on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

In his talk, Mr. Charan shared valuable insights from an entrepreneurial point of view, most of which related to his personal experience as Director of Vaswaat Chemicals Limited, a premier chemical company which has been associated with the development, production, and supply of chemicals for pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles, oil and gas, and cosmetic companies, among others.

Mr. Charan also set aside time during his talk to acknowledge the students’ perspectives and ideas regarding entrepreneurship, and also answered several of the students’ questions.

‘Stand up, start up and scale up’ said Mr. M.N. Vidyashankar

If Indians can do well in Silicon Valley, why not in Indus valley? Thus questioned Mr. M.N. Vidyashankar, President, Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and Former Principal and Additional Chief Secretary to Commerce & Industries Department, Govt. of Karnataka & to the budding leaders of SDMIMD and kindled the thought of entrepreneurship among the students, during the invited talk organized on August 24, 2015.

He urged students to become entrepreneurs and not run behind a job after the graduation. Mr. Vidyashankar impressed upon them the fact that there is huge opportunity out there in electronics design and manufacturing space, since the electronics imports bill for the country is almost on the verge of surpassing the import bill of oil which hogs lion's share of imports and foreign exchange of the country. In the light of this he narrated several opportunities for Make in India in the electronics space and how these can benefit everyone in the country. Mr. Vidyashankar encouraged students to convert their passion in to ideas and develop these ideas to enterprises. He urged them to look around for problems in our day to day life and find a viable solution which is scalable by leveraging technology and make it big and create value. His slogan was “Stand up, start up and scale up”, and this is the way to go.

Talk on ‘Forensic Finance’ by Bond University Professor

In his special address to the II year students, Dr. Kuldeep Kumar, Professor, Faculty of Business & Economics, Bond University, Australia, spoke on ‘Analysis of Financial Frauds and Motives for Committing Financial Frauds' on August 22, 2015. Dr. Kuldeep shared his research experience in the field of forensic finance. Dr Kuldeep gave insight into his research on motives of people who commit financial frauds and how to prevent them. The lecture generated an active response from the students in terms of questions, observations and discussion on specific issues related to financial frauds which have happened in the past including Enron, Satyam Computers etc.

Talk on ‘Recent changes in the banking system’

Mr. Uppily Ramabadran, Deputy Vice President – TPP & CFD Operations, IndusInd Bank, Chennai, delivered an invited talk on ‘Recent changes in the banking system’ on August 21, 2015. The talk primarily focused upon recent innovations within the field of banking comprising of both Retail Banking as well as Investment Banking practices. Mr. Uppily shared his real-time experiences in handling diverse roles at IndusInd Bank.

Talk on ‘Corporate Governance’ by Nottingham Faculty

Prof Jayalakshmy Ramachandran, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nottingham University Business School, Malaysia, delivered an invited talk to the I year students on ‘Corporate Governance’ on August 22, 2015. Prof. Jayalakshmy highlighted the significance of corporate governance and how it could impact the business in long run with focus on aviation industry. Prof. Jayalakshmy provided insights about corporate governance by comparing the corporate governance practices and issues in firms like Delta Air, Finnair, Singapore airlines, South African Airways and Kingfisher airlines.

Invited talk by Dr. Gagan Kukreja, Ahlia University, Bahrain

Dr. Gagan Kukreja, Faculty of Accounting at the Ahlia University, Kingdom of Bahrain. delivered an invited talk on “Corporate Governance and role of Accounting Professionals” on August 21, 2015 to the students of SDMIMD. In his talk, Dr Gagan highlighted the role that must be discharged by Auditors – External and Internal, in order to prevent and minimize the cases of fraudulent activities by corporations in their desire to maximize earnings often at the peril of shareholders and others.

Prof. Mazibar Rahman’s talk on Accounting Rules & Conventions

Dr. Mohammad Mazibar Rahman, Lecturer – Dept. of Accounting, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science & Technology University, Bangladesh delivered an invited talk on ‘Accounting Rules & Conventions: a comparison between the accounting standards in India and Bangladesh’ on August 22, 2015 to the students of SDMIMD. Prof. Mohammad discussed the similarities and dissimilarities of the accounting conventions and practices as practiced in Indian and Bangladesh.

Talk on Essential Skills for Young Managers by BUiD Professor

Dr. Elango Rengasamy, Professor-Finance, British University in Dubai, addressed final year PGDM students on the topic of ''Essential Skills to be Possessed by Managers of 21st Century" on August 21, 2015 at MDP Hall. Dr. Elango’s presentation emphasized on decision making skills and inter-personal relations as the two top prioritized skills among others budding managers must to possess. ‘The right attitude is the necessary condition to channelize one's skills towards glory’ thus said Dr. Elango.

Talk by Astha Aravind

Prof. Ashta Aravind, Banque Populaire Chair in Microfinance, Burgundy School of Business, France delivered a talk on various facets of microfinance. He initiated the talk by highlighting his research orientation which initially was in the area of hard core finance, subsequently moving to behavioral finance and CSR. During his visits to various countries, particularly in Africa, he realized that the poor have to be helped to become entrepreneurs to emerge from the poverty trap.

One mechanism of doing this is by providing quality credit. But the poor often face the problem in accessing the same due to their inability to provide collateral coupled with their limitation in repayment of loan in large installments. There are three institutional approaches that provide credit to the poor- Mainstream financial institutions, money lenders and microfinance institutions. Prof. Ashta Aravind highlighted the advantages and constraints in each of these modes. Giving the example of Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh, a noted pioneer in the area of microfinance, he highlighted how microfinance can help the poor. In this context, he also mentioned the SKDRDP initiative. He also spoke on various dimensions of providing quality credit to poor, managerial issues in these institutions and dimensions of micro-lending.

Librarians’ Day Celebration

‘Purpose of education is not the accumulation of information; its ultimate tenacity is to make students autonomous learners. In this process, teachers are expected to facilitate in the knowledge construction process of every learner’ said Dr. C.G. Venkatesha Murthy, Professor of Education, Regional Institute of Education (RIE), NCERT, Mysuru., while delivering a brainstorm session ‘Paradoxical web of Information, Knowledge, Reading and Learning’ to the MBA students of SDMIMD. The session was organized as a part of Librarians’ Day celebration on August 14, 2015.

Speaking about the process of learning Dr. Murthy said learning is the act of acquiring new or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviour, skills, values or preferences. It involves analysing and synthesizing different types of information, which demands critical reading ability. So, learning is more a process than a mere product.

Earlier, Dr. N.R. Parasuraman, Director, SDMIMD addressed the gathering and highlighted the importance of library in teaching-learning and research activities. Dr. Sunil M.V. Librarian welcomed the audience and provided an overview about Librarians’ Day. Faculty members, students and staff were the participants for this brainstorming session.