MID-TERM ROUND-UP

We are in the middle of the first term of the current academic year. One and a half months have flown by. A round-up of the various events during the term.

FRESHERS 

The 27th batch of Kalaicom, the literary and cultural committee, signed off in style with the FRESHERS NITE on August 8. The event began with a cutting of the cake to welcome the newly inducted 28th batch of Kalaicom. This was followed by a sign-off keyboard performance by PGP2’s Sanjay Santosh.

The other finalists

Later the finalists of the Mr. and Miss BIM contest exhibited their dancing, acting and crooning skills on stage in the presence of the judges from PGP2, Karthick & Haimanti (ex Mr. and Miss BIM respectively), Akanxa, Balakumaran and Athul. In the end, Amey and Gayathri won the titles of Mr. and Miss BIM28 after successfully cracking a personality testing round.

Mr. and Miss BIM28

FREEKICK’11

The Freshers Nite was soon followed by the football and throwball tournaments, Freekick and Freethrow. After a gruelling league stage in which ten teams divided into two groups competed against other teams from their groups. Tyrantz and Galacticos of PGP2 and Huntos and Samba Boyz of PGP1 ended up in the last four. The former two teams proceeded to the finals which was won comprehensively by the Galacticos.

Galacticos

The Samba Boyz salvaged pride by finishing third. Plenty of awards were given away. New inclusions to the awards list included Best Striker, Best Defender, Best Goalkeeper, Best Team Name, Most Entertaining Team and Man of the Match awards for each match.

Samba Boyz

‘Mangaathaas’ the PGP2 girls’ team won the throwball competition and ‘G-Power’ the PGP1 team emerged runner-up.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

The student welfare committee, Welfarecom, conducted a series of events to mark the 64th anniversary of Independence. The customary flag hoisting was done by the director Shri Bala Baskar and was attended by Prof Abhishek Kumar and Prof Nigama. In his keynote speech, the director shared the independence day wishes he got from various circles.

Director Shri Bala Baskar addressing the gathering

Pot breaking, rangoli, fast-eating, slow cycling, slow biking and musical chairs were the special events conducted.

Pot breaking

Awards were given away for various Welfarecom events such as Guruwar, room with least power consumption etc. Lined up next is MARWAR, the marketing simulation game conducted by Bismarc, the marketing club.

A MUSICAL EVENING

Isai Kaveri lived up to its name, as the entire evening of August 14 comprised of a melodious ambience of music, enriching the minds of both connoisseurs of classical music as well as those unexposed to it thereby establishing the rich heritage of Indian classical music at its best.

Shri Bala Baskar and Shri Vaidhyalingam

The event began around 6 pm, with the traditional Tamil Thaai Vaazthu. This was followed by the lighting of the Kutthu Vilakku, by Vidwans Kalaimamani Shri S. Kasim , Shri S. Babu, Prof. Pyare Lal Arya, founder director of BIM, Shri N. Bala Baskar and the DRM of Southern Railway Shri Vaidhyalingam.The director stressed on the need to create a cultural equivalent to Crescita, the institute’s flagship management event conducted every year. This speech was succeeded by Mangala Isai by the Nadhaswaram duo of Shri S. Kasim and Shri S. Babu. The splendid performance that spanned 45 minutes left all present spellbound. Shri A.V.Krishnan, Executive Director, BHEL Trichy, graced the occasion with his presence.

Mangala Isai

The institute had invited aspiring classical singers to be a part of this event. The screening was done by the in-house judges, who meticulously filtered the best out of the 50 applicants. The winner Miss Sambhavi gave a vocal performance of Varuvaai Kanna, a devotional song and was awarded by Shri Sriram Parasuram and Smt Anoorada Sriram.

Miss Sambhavi's performance (left) and felicitation (right)

The next in line for the audience was a musical treat by the maestros themselves. An amazing team of instrumentalists accompanied and complimented the performances of the musical pair. Shri Sriram Parasuram also gave the relevant information on the ragas and composers, prior to the enthralling classical renditions. The audience wholeheartedly connected with the team onstage. The musical ensemble successfully got the listeners involved in their soulful instrumental feat. There was unanimous appreciation for the song “Kaakkai Siraginiley”, by renowned poet Bharathiyar. This distinctive and stirring evening was concluded by a devotional composition of Sant Tukaram.

Shri Sriram and Smt Anoorada performing

The evening turned out to be a complete success, leaving the audience elated with a sense of satisfaction.

BOOKWORMS UNITE

Old Curiosity Shop, the Book Reading Club rolled out its activities for the current academic year. A formal induction programme was held at the computer centre last night in the presence of the Director Shri Bala Baskar and Prof. Abhishek Kumar.

The Director shared the books that he  enjoyed reading a list that included, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Peter Principle by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, Collected Poems of T S Eliot and Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki. He also read a few excerpts from them such as “What is essential is invisible to the eye” from The Little Prince. He shared his views on what is a classic and why we should also do “what we don’t have to”. He emphasized that we should allow ourselves to stumble upon a book.

MARCH, AN ‘EVENT’FUL MONTH

The month of March, the last in the academic year, is a time for club events. First of these, FOXTROT, the dance competition was held on 7th March by KALAICOM, the cultural committee.

Akila of PGP2 in a solo performance

Twelve dance performances were spread across four solos, three pair dances and five group dances. While solos by Akila and Preethibaalaa of PGP2 received appreciation, the pair dances by Balaji Anand & Angeline Rachel of PGP2 and Sivaranjani.M of PGP2 & Priyadharshini of PGP1 were worth mentioning.

Balaji Anand and Angeline in a pair performance

Stealing the show were the group performances by the Bike Bhaiyyas (of PGP2), Desi Girls and PLACOM26, the PGP2 placement committee. The show was judged by Bharathkumar and Divya B.M of PGP1. The prizes for the respective categories were won by Preethibaalaa, Balaji-Angeline and Desi Girls.

Bike Bhaiyyas doing a jig

FINANCE UTSAV

FINCLUB, the Finance club, organised Fin Utsav over four days from 12th to 15th March. The events began with Equity Research competition where teams were given a company to analyze and project balance sheets and income statements for three years. It was won jointly by the teams of Ashok Kumar, Mohan Rajkumar & Dinesh. R and Saikat Majumder, Priyaranjan Nayak & Anshul Mishra. Perplexus, the financial strategy game was won by the team of Ramkumar, Vijay.J and Aravindhan. On the final day, the Business Quiz was won by the duo of Mohammed Asif & Jaiprabhu Vijay of PGP2. Fin Utsav concluded with the finals of the Online Simulation Game that was won by the team of Parthiban.V, Sudharsan and Imaya.

MARCETHLON

BISMARC, the Marketing club, organised an event that added the element of movies into Marketing. Drucker Punch, a movie review competition, Reel Quiz, a quiz on Marketing in movies, Megamind, the Adzap event and Block n Tackle, the debating event were the events that were conducted. There was healthy participation from teams from PGP1 and PGP2. On the last day, Prof Abhishek Kumar advised the students to watch movies with a perspective towards Marketing. He urged them to look out for cues such as product placements in movies.

(Left) Megamind; (Right) Reel Quiz

Lined up next is the farewell party for the senior students on 25th March. It would be the final event of the academic year before the exams get underway.

PAVING THE WAY FOR MANAGERIAL EXCELLENCE

The 5th edition of ATHENAEUM, International conference on Management Research, was held on 12^th and 13^th February. Conducted by the Centre for Contemporary Management Research (CECMAR), the theme of the conference was “Towards Managerial Excellence: Challenges and Choices”.

The inauguration of this two day conference was held on 12^th February 2011 between 09:00 am and 10:30 am. Shri. A. V. Krishnan, Executive Director, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Tiruchirappalli, India, was the Special Guest and had inaugurated the function. He released the proceedings of the conference and also the edited book titled “Towards managerial Excellence: Challenges and Choices”.

Mr.A.V.Krishnan (centre) releasing the conference proceedings CD

There were several streams under which research papers were presented viz. Marketing, Finance, Human Resource, Operation, Systems and General Management. Apart from this, the participants were further divided into two different categories – PhD scholars and General. The papers were judged by eminent experts and two best papers in each category were awarded a cash prize and a certificate of merit. The event had seen large scale participation from both within and outside India. This year, a total of 120 papers were presented, of which 20 were from foreign authors and the rest from India.  The foreign delegates who had contributed research papers and had participated in the conference were from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, France, Sultanate of Oman, Iran, Mexico, Belgium, Israel and Indonesia.

A special lecture on the topic “Risks in Quantitative Research”, was delivered by Dr. M. S. Narasimhan, Professor (Finance and Control Area) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on 12^th February 2011 and “Trends in Entrepreneurial Research” was delivered by Dr. Manoj Mishra, Centre Director – Micro Enterprises & Country Director (UNIDO New Enterprise Creation), Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad on 13^th February 2011.

The valedictory function of the conference was held on Sunday, 13^th February 2011 at 04:00 pm. Shri. P. R. Somasundaram, MD & CEO, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Tamilnadu was the special guest for the same. He appreciated the apt theme of the conference that has emerged from the research arm of the institute and he said, Excellence in Management can be achieved through challenge, openness, cross pollination of ideas and framing the right questions.

Mr.Somasundaram (left) addressing the audience

The lead sponsors for the event were Lakshmi Vilas Bank, BHEL, Karur Vysya Bank, Cethar Vessels Limited, State Bank of India, Cengage and City Union Bank.

The event intended to showcase scholarly work from academia and industry on the same platform, providing a professional forum of idea interchange. All the papers registered for the conference were released in the form of proceedings in a compact disc (CD) and few select papers were released as conference publication in the form of a book. The book and the CD have unique International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN), for reference and indexing.

The CECMAR team won the praise of Dr.Jawahar for their exemplary effort in making the event a grand success.

WICKETS’11 – THE STAGE IS SET

WICKETS’11, the annual cricket tournament was inaugurated by the Director, Shri N. Bala Baskar, earlier today. He was all praise for SPORTSCOMM, BISMARC and FINCLUB, the three committees that came together for the first time in the history of BIM to conduct not just a simple cricket tournament but one with various exciting off-field events. He expressed that the integrated approach will prove to be a good learning experience for the committees involved.

Shri N.Bala Baskar, Director,inaugurating the tournament

The inauguration was followed by the unveiling of the team logos, videos and jerseys outside the mess. One member from each team walked around the arena, flaunting his jersey after which his team’s video was played and the other team members were called up to pose for photographs.

The Marines

WICKETS’11 will have 10 teams split into two pools. The top two teams from each pool will proceed to the semi-finals from where two will move into the finals.

The teams in Pool A are – Sizzlers, Galacticos, Mighty Lions, Nakamukka Tigers (all PGP1) and 3rd Quadrant (mix of PGP1 and 2).

The teams in Pool B are – Velociraptors, Marines, Arcanes, Den Warriors (all PGP2) and Zeroes (mix of PGP1 and 2).

All league matches will be played for 12 overs per side while the semis and finals will be for 15 per side. A minimum of four bowlers can be used with a cap of 3 overs per bowler. The matches are set to commence tomorrow night with the Marines taking on Arcanes in the opening encounter.

BISMARC will evaluate teams for their marketing activities. Each team has appointed a “brand manager” to take care of the promotional efforts for its side. Cash prizes in store for the best posters, videos and jersey designs.

Events by BISMARC and FINCLUB

FINCLUB, on the other hand, has attempted to replicate the predictor and super selector contests that are typical of international cricket tournaments. “BIM Vegas” is the predictor game in which contestants have to predict the winner of a particular match by voting for it. Voting will close 45 minutes before the start of the game. Till then, participants are free to change their votes any number of times.”Warrior Bazzar” is the super selector game in which contestants have to select 11 players from the six teams that would be playing on a particular day. They will be awarded 1 point for every run, 10 points for a wicket, 3 for a catch and 2 for a runout/stumping which their selected players effect. Both events are designed to test the decision making skills of the contestants.

All that remains now is the first toss tomorrow which will set the ball rolling (pun intended) for 10 days of cricketing action.

SANGAM 2011 – AN EVENING TO REMEMBER

SANGAM 2011, the flagship event of Kalaicom, was conducted in a grand manner on Saturday. Alumni from batches 24 and 25, who stayed on in the campus, could not have asked for more.

While some of the alumni unwound themselves on stage, unofficial student groups from the existing batches treated the audience to a variety of songs, dances and skits. The show began with the musical team of BIM, BIM Beats, consisting of BIM26 students, crooning popular numbers replete with instrumental music. This was followed by a dance show by three members of the same group. After that came the dance show of Velociraptors, another BIM26 group. The highlight of the evening was the Lilliput dance by Nakamukas, a group of BIM27 students, who dressed themselves as midgets and did a puppet dance, expertly synchronised from behind by another set of students. This was followed by a skit by the BIM27 group, Galacticos, and then a dance number on ‘Life @ BIM’ by the Bike Bhaiyyas.

 

In the interim between two events, various videos dedicated to BIM24 and 25 were played on the screen by the side of the stage. The event also provided a platform for Spirited26 and 27, the social responsibility club, to raise funds for their initiatives to which the alumni made generous contributions.

Most of the alumni stayed back on campus the next day and interacted with BIM26 and 27 students, helping them build useful social networks for life. When they left for their respective places, their hearts were heavy with fond memories from their two years of Life @ BIM which they relived the whole of Sunday. It was also a night that the existing batches would not forget for long. Above all, it is KALAICOM which would reflect on an occasion organised meticulously with careful planning.

CONVOCATION

The 22nd Convocation of BIM was conducted yesterday at the MD Hall in BHEL. 240 students from the 2009 and 2010 batches received their degrees from Mr. B.S.Meena, IAS, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry, Government of India. In his convocation address, he expressed that global outlook is the key to managerial excellence in a fluctuating world economy. The convocation programme was presided over by Dr. (Mrs.) K. Meena, Vice-Chancellor, Bharathidasan University in the presence of Mr. T. Kannan, Vice-Chairman of Board of Governors and Mr. N. Bala Baskar, Director of BIM. In her address, she urged students to develop their creative skills and explore new avenues in their careers.

Shri.Meena IAS awarding the degree to a student

It was an occasion to remember for the alumni of BIM 24 and 25 as they came back to campus for a homecoming of sorts. After receiving their degrees, they posed for batch photographs to take home with them memories of a lifetime.

Flying High

CRESCITA 2010 – 7 DAYS TO GO

Just a week left to go before everyone congregates at Chennai for CRESCITA. The organising team with its various committees has been working overtime, amidst academic activities to put in place a management event that promises to be bigger and better than its preceding editions.

The proceedings will kick off on 19th with an inaugural address by Mr.Bobby S. Srinivasan, President, Institute of Financial Management & Research (IFMR). Over the three days, the event will see the likes of Mr.Dinesh Jain, former CEO of Zee Turner Entertainment Ltd, Mr.R. Sridhar, Senior Vice-President, Reliance Industries Ltd, Mr. M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of Dhan Foundation and Mr. Muthukumar Thanu, Senior Vice-President, TAFE in a HR Panel Discussion. All this will culminate in the valedictory address on 21st by Mr. C.B. Bhave, chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Most of the inter B-school events have already had their preliminary rounds conducted online. MarWar (marketing simulation event), Addiction (Ad making competition) and Parakrama (Management simulation game) are presently in their second round. Encrypto, the online treasure hunt game, kept participants glued to the website over three days from November 2 to 4, trying to make their way across multiple levels. BIM Quest, the online quiz series saw participation from quizzers from across the country during the last three days. The first three quizzes–Veni vidi vici (Brands quiz), FINesse (Finance quiz) and Agon (Sports & Entertainment quiz)- happened during the last three days. The fourth and final quiz of the series, Mahabharat, on the theme of Indian business, is scheduled to happen tonight at 10 PM. However the biggest draw of the quizzes is the Corporate Quiz which will be held at the venue on 21st by leading quiz master Barry O’ Brien.

Mr. Jayant K.Singh (far right),MD,Henkel India Ltd presenting the cheque to the Winners of Corporate Quiz,Crescita 2009.At far left is quiz master 'Pickbrain' Giri Balasubramanian.

CRESCITA 2010 promises to be a unique learning experience with something in it for everyone. Visit the website http://www.crescita.in for more details.