Head of Department’s Address

Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune (PUMBA) believes in providing its students various opportunities to display their talents in different forms. We provide our students with an overall skill development program. One must be able to work hard and manage expectations, while building and utilizing their skill set to grow in their careers. Motivating students to take up activities and supporting them in successfully completing them is what we believe in. NEXUS, the New & Excellence u:th sensation magazine is one of such activities.

It is a stage where students exhibit their creativity & thought process, and industry professionals share their insights. The students study and present their reports and articles on various topics through this magazine. It helps them in honing their management skills before entering the industry. Our sole motive is to groom the students in the profession they choose and provide them with guidance in fulfilling their aspirations.

I would like to congratulate Communication cell for yet another successful release of Nexus. I appreciate the efforts of Dr. Prafulla Pawar- the faculty coordinator of Communication Cell

and students of the Communication Cell who have made Nexus successful through their co- ordination, contribution and hard work. I wish the team all the very best for their future endeavors.

Warm Regards, Dr B.V. Sangvikar , Professor & Head, Department of Management Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University.

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Faculty Coordinator’s Address

Welcome to the new issue of NEXUS, the U:th sensation magazine of Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune.

This issue covers a diverse range of subjects and interesting takes on them. The hard work and diligence with which Communication Cell works to bring to us each edition of NEXUS is evident in the quality of every new edition. This Edition owes much to the contributors who have shared their knowledge and comprehensions. One of the aims of NEXUS is to stimulate the interest of readers in different areas of industry. It is great to note the response NEXUS has received through the years. I am proud to notice the improvement in expression and style of writing with each new edition. Excellence requires not only unrelenting commitment and efforts in the professional environment but also a commitment to set in place a system that is updated and adapted to the changing demands of the ever-evolving profession. PUMBA works towards this change.

NEXUS – “New & Excellence u:th sensation” provides students with a lot of freedom in

expression and it is an authentic reflection of the evolution of the institute through the decades. Once again I would like to congratulate team NEXUS for their remarkable effort. Keep it up! Lastly, if you don’t know where you want to go, any bus will take you there. But working with a goal in mind is what will ensure you reach heights. My best wishes to you for the same.

Regards, Dr. Prafulla Pawar, Faculty Coordinator, Communication Cell.

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Cell Coordinator’s Address

Dear Readers,

The Journey of being a Communication Cell coordinator so far has been a memorable one. It has given me great experiences and got to learn a lot.

Hardwork, creativity with innovation has always been the signature of Communication Cell members and the team has proved it, yet again as we complete one more successful year walking in paths of our vision: Create. Connect. Collaborate. It gives me immense pleasure to bring to you yet another edition of PUMBA Nexus. I take this opportunity to thank my team of Communication Cell for making the process not only enjoyable but also unforgettable. I would love to congratulate the PUMBA Nexus editor – Shalav Kumbhar and also would like to thank him for being a great support whenever needed.

I would like to extend sincere gratitude to our Head of Department- Dr. B. V. Sangvikar Sir and would also like to thank our faculty coordinator, Dr. Prafulla Pawar Sir, for supporting and giving us their valuable feedback from time to time. Without their guidance, it would had been difficult to not only present to you yet another PUMBA Nexus but also other initiatives of Communication cell like the podcast and we plan to a blog soon this year.

Finally I would love to thank all the members of the communication cell who have put in efforts and great ideas to make every event a success.

Best Wishes, Saurabh Kango, Coordinator, Communication Cell.

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From the Editor’s Desk

Dear Readers, Nexus- New and Exclusive Youth Sensation, is staying true to its name. We have some

thought provoking articles by the youth as well as interviews that give an insight to the life of a Vice-President, an environmentalist as well as an entrepreneur. Expanding the original horizon of work produced by this magazine, we have tried to take it a step further to include experiences of corporate world which could benefit the readers.

Advertisements occupy a major chunk of activities that we do or see regarding a product or service, the things that are actually visible to the audience. The cover article talks about the seriously crazy world of advertising. This then transcends to a multitude of articles from the Greece crisis to the falling oil prices to the debt management of a country and GST.

The works of this magazine are a result of the hard work put in by the students to contribute and share their thoughts, opinions and views of the world and situations as they see.

Finally I would like to thank our esteemed HOD, Dr. B.V. Sangvikar for his continued support. Also we are grateful to Dr. Prafulla Pawar, faculty Co-ordinator of the Communication Cell, for his valued inputs for the magazine and for guiding the cell to explore and bring new ideas to the table. Also I would like to thank Mr. Saurabh Kango, the cell co-ordinator, for the faith shown and constant support provided to the Nexus team.

We hope you enjoy the contents of the magazine and mail your feedback to us regarding the magazine to help us work and improve on the next edition.

Warm regards, Shalav Kumbhar Editor-Nexus

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1. AD Mad

Index - Shalav Kumbhar …07

2. In Conversation with an Entrepreneur Savyasachin Mittal …10 3. Leagues of Games

4. People’s President

- Saurabh Choudhari …13 - Ankita Kanse …16

5. Debt. Management of Country - Rohan Paranjape …19

6. Deceiving the Taste - Ajay Naik …22

7. Fall in Oil Prices- Its Impact on Global Economy - Atul Dhule …24

8. The Plan of ‘B’ - Kenneth Thomas …27

9. Placing the Product in Bollywood - Jai Jethawa …28

10. GST:in Logistics Prospective - Omey Badakh …30

11. GREXIT 12. Currency War

13. Lending a Hand

- Jewel Tiwari …34

- Sumit Patil …37

- Kiran Narawade …39

14. Sports Shaping My Life Since 11 - Parag Joshi …41

15. Waste Management - Siddharth Badoniya …43

16. Strategic Work-Life Balancing - Husien Siam …45

17. Mumbai Local 18. Food for Thought

- Saurabh Kantha …46

- Tina Thomas …47

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19. Interview with an Environmentalist Mr. Sunil Patil …48 20. The Branded Holidays

21. Leaf of Faith

- Adrijit Sengupta …51 - Shalav Kumbhar …53

22. Interview With Mr. P Srinivasan(VP-Sales, M/s Elantas Beck ) …54 23. As We See It…! …56 24. A Silent Good-Bye …57 25. Guru Mitra

-Kenneth Thomas …58 26. Business Standard Industrial Visit …59 27. Cells at PUMBA …61 28. Through My Lens..! …67 29. Achievements …71 30. #LifeatPUMBA …72

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in NEXUS are personal of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of team NEXUS, Communication Cell or Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA), Savitribai Phule Pune University. Few of the images in this magazine are taken from the internet and are purely for academic purpose without any intention of copyright infringement.

For any suggestions please write us on nexus@pumba.in

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AD Mad

We studied a subject in the third trimester which dealt with advertising. I had always been fascinated by advertisements wherein a few seconds of audio or visuals could convey a message in a manner that your need of having it would turn into a want. Print ads reflected brilliance at times, all this for selling a product or a service. But it is the creative genius of all these that makes one wonder what might have led this guy to come up with something so good.

When studying for ad analysis, I came across multiple ads to find that one ad that had almost everything in it. But was there something like this in store? We were in search of AV ads. The Zoozoo popped up on the side of the screen. And I was like, hey we have got Vodafone!! But wait, they have got multiple ads. A string of advertisements were promoting that single brand in multiple ways. So what I had now was a campaign. It all started with a concept, they put it to practice and they had an advertisement which was loved by the people. And so they decided to have another, well this one worked to too. And another, and another and they had successfully run an impressive campaign of advertisements which definitely boosted their sales and popularity. But there was one problem with the Vodafone ads; the ads did become popular but Vodafone wasn’t getting their sales numbers up, rather ZooZoos got better of the brand! During this course I came across such wonderful campaigns, which became popular, boosted sales or viewership; the question is what made them click?

We can start with the most recent one of ‘Mauka Mauka’ fame. This ad took the ad- world by storm. What different did they do? Nothing as such, but it was just the hype, emotions and stats they built on. In a country so deeply in love with the sport, after the dismal performance of the team in the earlier series against England and Australia, India winning the World Cup was written off by most cricketing fans and sports critics .But then was World Cup a chance to revive the drowned glory? What bigger a festival than the World Cup especially if your opening match showcases India play their traditional, most favourite rival, Pakistan! Star Sports collaborated with Bubblewrap Films and they did deliver, and how! The tune which didn’t have any cricketing terms but yet was enough to tease in whichever tempo it was sung. Pakistan had never beat India in World Cup

on the previous five occasions and now it was a ‘Mauka’ for them to beat India. Seeing your opponent lose made the home team ecstatic.

Emotions played a big part and so did

the strong message. This was followed up by ‘sentiment analysis’ which could be used by them for further ads. What started out as a

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simple television commercial turned into a national sensation overnight .The response it received made them go for a string of ads later for scenarios, a win or a loss. The team that was counted out even before the World Cup started made it to the Semi-Finals. The result for Star Sports; the charges skyrocketed from 4Lakhs to Rs.20Lakhs for 10 seconds of airtime after the campaign went viral.

Nowadays, we see Milind Soman, the model-actor; advertise for Old Spice, one of the favourite brands among the masses these days because they come up with some remarkable ads. I was reminded of the American Football player Isaiah Mustafa, in ‘The Man your Man could smell like’ fame. Their ad team comes up with something splendid every time. In 2010, in The USA, Wieden and Kennedy came up with “The man your man could smell like” when Old Spice sales were plummeting and men had started using women body wash, as per the research that was conducted. This ad broke the normal advertising shackles with ‘the old spice guy’ having a humorous monologue with both the men and the women.

The advertisement was a success on TV, YouTube and other social media kicking off a response campaign. The idea was simple: the Old Spice Guy would personally respond to fans’ messages and comments posted across a variety of social media,

including Facebook and Twitter, through a series of video messages accessed via YouTube. They had the attention and now they needed to keep them engaged. The Response campaign was a challenge that was managed by W+K exceptionally. The trust on which Old Spice and W+K worked made things possible. In the end, 186 personal video messages responding to fans’ comments on social sites Facebook, Twitter and others were scripted, filmed and then posted online in just over two and a half days of production, with many of the videos churned out from start to finish in just 10 to 15 minutes. The work went on to record more than 65 million views, making it one of the fastest-growing and most popular online interactive advertising campaigns in history. What made the Response Campaign a success was the fact that it felt like a campaign for everyone. It wasn’t an exclusive idea but a wholly inclusive one. It was about moving from mass media TV, print and digital to engagement—still targeting the same audience, but deepening the communication and similarly the relationship.

You need to see the ads to believe what a miracle W+K pulled off!! Apart from followers on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube increasing manifold, what had increased were their sales. As they managed to increase sales by 125 % Y-o-Y and became the number one brand for body wash for men in the USA.

In one of the scenes in the Old Spice

ad, Isaiah has diamonds in an oyster. Diamonds I believe are every girl’s fantasy. Those lovely diamond rings that you might have seen at the store, thinking that you would want to give it to your girlfriend while proposing her. Wouldn’t that piece of rock look lovely and wouldn’t you want her to

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have it? Sure, you would. What wouldn’t you do for that relationship that you value so much and get to a point where you want to make it last forever and make it eternal. You would gift that diamond. How happy she would be!! Exactly what DeBeers did to boost up their sale of diamonds after monopolizing them! N. W. Ayer, a Philadelphia based ad- agency helped them after extensive research

to link diamonds with marriages, post the 2nd

World War. Even though the economy was bad, you would be surprised to know that DeBeers managed to convince young men that diamonds are the ultimate gift of love, and young women that they're an essential part of romantic relationships. High school lectures saying the same and then celebrities started flaunting the rock. That’s It. Job Done! With posters and word out on the radio, it didn’t take time to catch up with the trend.

Best part, we still follow it. Surprising part, your diamond are worth at least 50% less than you paid for it the moment you left the jewellery store. What a lovely fool DeBeers made out of us for all these years with their sagacious marketing strategy.

Although DeBeers doesn’t have the monopoly today, they immortalized “A diamond is forever”. A message that objects never exhaust themselves in the function they serve…they take on their signification of prestige. You sure will be reminded of this next time you see a diamond.

And I was left spellbound by all these

campaigns. Thinking about these advertisements, I noticed few things in the room I was sitting in and couldn’t help but

wonder; do I really need these things? We talk about consumer sovereignty, the situation in an economy where the desires and need of consumers control the output of producers; I really began to question it after watching these ads. Are we really sovereign or are the producers making us buy what they want us to buy?

-Shalav Kumbhar MBA++ (2nd Year)

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An Entrepreneur, Chef, Consultant, Social

Worker and All That Jazz

An Engineering dropout who couldn’t understand what could he benefit from it and chose to pursue a correspondence Bachelor of Arts course from Delhi University, worked his way up from BPO’s to becoming a trainer, teacher for coaching institutes to a lecturer at recognized management college and was a deputy director at one of them. If this wasn’t enough he pursued his passion of cooking to start Café Joshua, completed his M.A in English Literature and heads 'Sounds Good Consulting’ his entrepreneurial venture, is active in social work and is contemplating to open a men’s boutique now. Savyasachin Mittal is his name and we had an opportunity to interact with him at his Café in Aundh.

Q. Entrepreneur, Chef, Consultant how do you manage such various roles?

If you are talking about me managing my time, let me tell you that you will always find time for the things you love. Time is never a crunch when you plan well. Management and execution is everything. You should know when to exit at the right time. You don’t have to stay for the entire picture; you do your role and exit. Learn to manage and respect people. At my café I have delegated tasks to my team and have trained them on things. I am very particular about certain things but then delegation doesn’t mean perfection. When I am around I cook, when not, the guys here are capable of doing what the Café is known for. You don’t do everything for a life time. You don’t have to be everywhere so make a system independent of itself. Being a trainer I believe that your previous performance is your best

practice. I take on things I haven’t done or tried before and then put my soul to it to see that they are through.

Q. How did the idea of the Café come up? I am a big day dreamer and often keep

talking to myself. (laughs). If I know I have to do something I do it. The café is a story about friendship, my ever supportive siblings, love for my dog, Joshua, and my passion for cooking. I frequent to a lot of cafes and what only hits me is the service; food to an extent, not much. We go outside not just to eat but for a lot of factors. While I was working at Syntel, I had something in mind for quite sometime which kept me awake at nights. I had sleepless nights and it felt as if I was missing something in my life, sort of a vacuum. My house would be a pad for all my friends where we would get together and I would cook for them, be it for breakfast or at 1am at night. I just love the kitchen. My best buddies, Dr. Harshal, Nikhil, Amit and Sonam

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and my siblings were all cool and supportive of me starting a cafe. That was it. I wanted a quaint place so we went property hunting, saw this place and just knew that this is the place I wanted to have my Café at, even though I had better options in terms of price, footfalls and available space at other places. It was that connect I had with the place when I saw it. I did the place right from scratch. From the architecture, to choosing the furniture to painting of the walls, to deciding the menu was done by us. During the same time, I got my dog Joshua and hence the name of the Café. And one fine morning, we started the café.

Q. Your motto for life? Don’t complain. If there is no

challenge, what is the fun? It is always easy to like something that is good. But love weakness, true fun lies there. You plan for tomorrow, but you don’t know what’s in for tomorrow. I live in today. Today is very important and we tend to forget this always. You plan for tomorrow, save for tomorrow, good, but live for today. That’s very critical. There is a sholka in The Bhagwad Gita which you can swear by at any time in your life.

adhishtanamtatha karta

karanam ca pruthakvidham |

vividhascaprutakceshta

daivamcaivatrapancamam ||

It means that if you have a right job, you have a purpose of doing it methodologically and if you are determined and are ready to give your 100 percent, these four things you put from your pocket and the fifth that is your success or destiny or luck or

God that comes to you. The way you have to

do this is slog, there is no short cut and hence that determination and perseverance is very critical.

You need a guide or mentor which can be a live mentor or be referring to a book or a 100 Harvard Business reviews or you need some driving force. You need some guidance and then you need the right application in conjugation to the guidance. You need to have some convergence there. This and the shloka you put together, life is sorted. That’s the way it works for me.

Q. Having been in the teaching profession for so long, what advice would you have for the students pursuing a post graduation degree in management?

Learning mostly happens under pressure and is very important. The key lies in execution. Maximum of your learning happens on a job, when you take responsibility for something. You need to invest in yourselves and nurture it. Let failures take place. You will learn through it. Train and re-train yourself to eliminate those mistakes and adapt to changes that take place over time. You have to be familiar with the environment you work/ study in. Go out and work on live projects. Take things practically. This is a better way to learn. For example when I used to teach at a management institute in the outskirts, I asked students to go and visit the dhabas along the

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road, structure them, reorganize them, develop a strategy for them in marketing, increasing sales or designing the menu to suit the potential customers or come up with something different. The main thing here was to GO LIVE!! This makes students think practically and that’s what is important apart from your books and case studies. If you are given a job to do in 20 hours, be ready to do it in 19 hours and do them by 18. The two hours should be your contingency buffer because you never know what might go wrong and all your hard work could go down the drain.

Q. “Management is not about taking credit but ownership” says a quote on your website could you please elaborate. Say the moment you’re a mother or a father, you only take ownership. Any fallout, every fallout is yours. Manager is a very thankless job. You are always going to be sandwiched between your boss and your subordinates. Your boss will not be happy with you ever and your subordinates will never ever like you. So, if you fancy a manager’s job, you like being credited, you like being applauded probably not a good idea. You have to get in there if you like to take responsibility and do it with heart.

-Shalav Kumbhar MBA++ (2nd Year) -Tina Thomas MBA++ (2nd Year)

-Nikita Tavkar MBA++ (2nd Year)

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Leagues of Games

Shaun Marsh was a name unknown until the flashy Australian Southpaw punished the bowlers all across the park during the inaugural edition of the IPL. Marsh got an offer to play for Kings XI Punjab in 2008 after proving to be the best in the Australian Domestic T20 Competitions. Son of Geoff Marsh (a former Australian opening batsman) and brother of Mitchell Marsh, Shaun was consistent throughout the first season and became the leading run-scorer in that edition, despite missing the first four games. That made him the first man to receive the 'Orange Cap'. This accreditation earned him the Australian colors.

Like Shaun Marsh there are many more

cricketers who would attribute the making and revival of their careers to the IPL.

IPL, a brainchild of Lalit Modi kicked off

in the year 2008 and brought with it a myriad amount of glamour and money in the Indian Cricket, escalating its popularity. The big business houses in India attended the auction for buying the franchisees. In the end, the franchises were all sold for a whopping USD 723.59 million. Soon after the success of IPL, the cricket authorities in India, Australia and South Africa

entered into discussions to create a new international club competition and capitalize on this success. The plans for the creation of the Champions League Twenty20 were first announced on 13 September 2007. The inaugural edition was to be held in October 2008, run by the cricket boards of India, England, Australia and South Africa, and featuring two teams from each country. Owing to poor viewership, lack of audience interest, unstable sponsorships and lack of other necessary factors, the three founding cricket boards announced on 15 July, 2015 that the tournament would be scrapped, thus the 2014 Champions League Twenty20 was the last series of the tournament.

Leagues like IPL have their own Pros

and Cons. One fact that would not go unnoticed is the soaring number of leagues after the success of IPL.

The Indian Volley League (IVL) is a

professional volleyball league in India. It was launched by the Volleyball Federation of India in 2011. The inaugural edition featured six

teams and the top players in the country. Due to lack of support, popularity and viewership only two editions of the IVL were conducted. Premier Badminton League is a franchise

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league, managed and commercially owned by the Badminton Association of India. It was named Indian Badminton League (IBL) when founded in 2013 then later rechristened to Premier Badminton League before the start of 2nd Season in 2016. The inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League was held in India from 14 August 2013 to 31 August 2013. The second season starts from 2nd January to 17th January 2016. This is the highest prize money badminton tournament in the world.

Next to follow the suit of Leagues was

Soccer, with Indian Super League commencing in the year 2013. The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional football league in India. The league is one of the top-tier football leagues in India, the other being the I-League. The league features eight franchise teams from all around India. The ISL runs from September to December, with a finals series determining the champion.

The Indian Super League was founded

in 2013 in an effort to make football a top sport in India and to make Indian football a major player worldwide. The league operates along the lines of the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League, and Major League Soccer of the United States. Unlike the majority of football leagues around the world, the ISL does not use the promotion and relegation system but instead franchise system, in which eight teams were created to participate in the league. Owing to Star-

studded ownership of the franchises and tremendous marketing of the League, The ISL was a big hit.

In certain sports we see players in just awards and one such sport is Kabbadi. Pro Kabaddi is a professional kabaddi league founded in 2014. It is formulated as an eight- city league played in a "Caravan format," traveling together to all 8 venues to play a total of 60 Matches. It is an initiative of Mashal Sports, a company which was co- founded by Mr. Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group and Mr. Charu Sharma, who is also a director of Mashal Sports. Star India acquired a 74% stake in Mashal Sports, and will now have control over the entire league as a majority owner of Mashal Sports. Mashal Sports has acquired the rights to organize the league for a period of 10 years from International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) with an option to renew it further. As per the available data of the opening 2 weeks, Star Sports Pro Kabaddi viewership on TV increased by nearly 56% from the 2014 year’s viewership. During the inaugural season tournament viewership was 435 million viewers, which was the second in India after the 560 million of IPL viewership. The online viewership also increased with 13 million unique visitors, which is 18.5 times than of last year’s 7 lakh unique visitors. The Pro Kabaddi League is one such example how privatization of sport can rocket its popularity.

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Lastly, let’s talk about Hockey India

League, is a professional league for field hockey competition in India. It is organized by Hockey India. The tournament was originally contested in the first season among five franchisee-based teams (originally planned as six) consisting of players from India and around the world. In 2014, Kalinga Lancers joined as the sixth franchise, based in Bhubaneswar. The plan is to have 8 teams by 2016 and 10 by 2018, with a possibility of having a team from south India. The entire event takes place on home and away basis culminating into multi-header playoffs. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has sanctioned the event and also provides a 30- day window at the beginning of a year so that

all top players can participate. It was sponsored by two-wheeler manufacturer Hero Moto Corp., and was therefore known as Hero Hockey India League or HHIL until 2015 season. From 2016 onwards, Coal India Limited bagged the title sponsorship rights for Rs. 14 crores and is there officially known as Coal India Hockey India League or CIL-HIL. There were various other leagues in various other sports but they were not that successful due to various reasons. The above said leagues were very successful and had excellent promotional campaigns for the respective games. The future of sports in India seems bright if Leagues like these prosper and are conducted in the right spirit.

Saurabh Chaudhari MBA++ (1st year)

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People’s President

Date- 27th July 2015. Time – Around 9 pm.

My sister called me. She was all in tears and could only speak one sentence,

Kalam Sir has passed away. It was a big shock for me. Tears rolled down unknowingly. While it seemed like, an era has ended, I was pretty

sure this visionary will keep inspiring many generations from now. A man of honour,

respect and sheer brilliance. A statesman, a scientist, a poet and a lover of classical music.

Like many other successful personalities, Dr. Kalam has an extraordinary story. H was born 0n 15th October 2015 in a

humble family in Rameshwaram, Tamilnadu. His father used to transport pilgrims from Rameshwaram to Dhanushodi in his small ferry. Though the financial conditions were harsh, Kalam sir’s mother knew the importance of education; she used to save kerosene so that Kalam could study at night. Kalam himself understood the reality and used to distribute newspapers to support his parents. Despite the hard conditions and challenges, he entered into Madras Institute of Technology and became Aeronautics Engineer, later proved his brilliance in DRDO and ISRO, being the mastermind behind India’s Missile Project.

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A big share in the development of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV – III) belongs to Dr. Kalam. He also played a pivotal role in India’s second but very crucial nuclear test, Pokhran-II, in 1998. It was a complete secret that India is planning to have a nuclear test. That was the country's two top scientists, Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) chief A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Indian Atomic Energy Commission head D. R. Chidambaram, were always in character as army generals whenever they visited Pokhran. Interestingly, Dr. Kalam had a codename – Major General Prithviraj. In a sweltering heat in the desert, Kalam brought the mission to success and

India became one of the few countries possessing nuclear power.

He had a childhood dream of being a pilot, but was rejected by the academy in 1958. Later he took a sweet revenge by becoming the Supreme Commander of all three forces, The 12th President of India. He also fulfilled his wish to fly a plane by flying a supersonic fighter plane – Sukhoi 30 MKI.

Being a president, he used all the opportunities he could to connect with people, especially children. He made us ask questions and before asking them, think thoroughly.

Tomorrow if I address a group of youngsters and talk about the flag flying in my heart and how I will uphold the dignity of the nation, I can get them to dream. But if I talk to people who are 40, 50 or 70 plus, it will not go down that well. Also, the youth have fewer biases about their society as compared to the grown-ups,” said Kalam.

President Kalam has given up all his life savings and salaries to a trust he founded named PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas)

This is a small incidence which shows how he is fit into every Indian’s heart. ‘In 2010, during Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, when every special guest took their seats including then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Prince Charles etc. As the guests arrived everyone was introduced which followed a huge cheer welcoming them and their video was being flashed in giant screen. When Dr. Kalam arrived the sound systems stopped working or probably people behind microphones weren't prepared for his arrival (he used to reach venues much ahead of schedule) but the giant screen flashed his arrival visuals for a fraction of second and the crowd went berserk with thunderous applause and whistles.

Few minutes later after introduction of few other guests, Dr. Kalam was introduced this time they showed him while taking seat. The crowd stood with respect honoring him and the thunderous clap and whistles went on for 10 minutes. The claps & cheer was the loudest that night.’

Away from the limelight, press, controversies and self-praise, Dr. Kalam believed in working hard and let the work speak for itself. In this selfish world, this man

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chose to work in peace, solitude and desolation. May be this was the reason we loved him so much. He believed in the youth like no other. He had so much faith in our generation, the kind that no one else has shown in a long time.

May we all learn from his work, attitude and show the same passion towards our nation as he did. He, who remains in our hearts, hopes, health and happiness shall never die. He passed a legacy, which we must carry on.

Ankita Kanse

MBA++ (1st Year)

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Debt Management of a Country

Effective public debt management can reduce financial vulnerabilities, contribute to macroeconomic stability, preserve debt sustainability, and protect a government’s reputation among investors. Volatility of interest rates, exchange rates, and debt flows require debt managers to properly assess risks and to mitigate them by relying on a diverse range of financing sources, while maintaining borrowing costs at low levels. The recent financial crisis has made the tasks of debt managers even more complex by increasing financing needs. Moreover, cost and risk characteristics of many financing options have changed, requiring a re- evaluation of existing debt management strategies.

The World Bank Group offers services and products, provides global expertise, and supports countries in strengthening their debt management capacity and institutions. A main function of the institution is to assist developing countries in strengthening their debt management performance through a range of diagnostic assessments designed to bolster governance and institutional frameworks. World Bank experts also provide assistance in formulating country-specific strategies for borrowing and repaying debt. These include the activities described below,

as well as training and other outreach activities. The assistance is delivered upon country request and often in coordination with a select list of “implementing partners” – international and regionally-based institutions that have debt management expertise, including the Centre for Latin American Monetary Studies, the Debt Management Section (DMS) of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the United Nation’s Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) Programme.

In the cases of low-income countries that are eligible for financing under the criteria of the International Development Association (IDA), these activities are financed through the Debt Management Facility (DMF), a World Bank Group trust fund dedicated to strengthening debt- management capacity in developing countries.

Debt Management Performance Assessment (DeMPA)

The DeMPA evaluates strengths and weaknesses in public debt management in a “snapshot” of existing policies, practices, and capacity. It does this through a comprehensive set of 15 performance indicators covering six core areas of public debt management:

Core areas

1. Governance and strategy development; 2. Coordination with macroeconomic

policies; 3. Borrowing and related financing activities;

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4. Cash flow forecasting and cash balance management;

5. Operational risk management; and 6. Debt records and reporting.

Its scope is central government public debt management and closely related functions such as issuance of guarantees, on loan –lending and cash flow forecasting and cash balance management. While this process does not make policy recommendations, it can help countries identify priorities, monitor performance, and design reform programs. The implementation of DeMPAs and training on DeMPAs is driven by country demand. If financed under the DMF, these activities are undertaken jointly with the DMF’s Implementing Partners.

Medium-Term Debt

Management Strategy (MTDS)

The Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) provides a framework for formulating and implementing a debt management strategy for the medium term (approximately 3 to 5 years). It is primarily focused on determining the appropriate composition of the debt portfolio, taking into account macroeconomic indicators and the

market environment. MTDS is useful for illustrating a government’s cost and risk tradeoffs associated with different debt portfolios and for managing the risk exposure embedded in each, in particular the potential variation in debt servicing costs and its budgetary impact. It helps countries explore the following questions: At what cost should our government borrow? How much risk should we take in borrowing? How should we structure our repayment to meet budget and development needs?

The MTDS was developed in partnership with the World Bank’s Treasury Department and the International Monetary Fund. Technical assistance on the MTDS is driven by country demand and is generally implemented through a baseline and a follow-up mission, as well as a wide range of training activities. If financed under the DMF, MTDS mission are undertaken jointly with the IMF and, in general, with one of the DMFs implementing partners.

Debt Management Reform Plans

A Debt Management Reform Plan lays out a detailed, country-owned, capacity- building plan for policy and institutional reform, based on a comprehensive analysis of public debt management operations. The goal of the plan is to alleviate the weaknesses

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identified and analyzed by the DeMPA or through other assessments. It details expected outputs and outcomes, actions, sequencing and milestones. It also provides an estimate of budget and resources required to implement the plan.

Technical assistance on the Debt Management Reform Plan is driven by country demand. If financed under the DMF,

Debt Management Reform Plan missions are in general implemented with the DMF’s implementing partners. Although Debt Management Reform Plans are country- specific and vary considerably depending on the prevailing circumstances of the country, various guidelines have been developed that foster a consistent approach and process for working with different countries.

Rohan Paranjape

MBA++(2nd Year)

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Deceiving the Taste

Is it possible to eat salty dishes

without adding salt? Can we eat sweets

without sugar? Well, I’ll say “yes” it is

absolutely possible with Taste Bud Hackers.

Industries, culinary scientists and

psychologists are trying to trick our mouths

and minds and are trying to make us change

the contents of our kitchen cupboards into

enjoying foods that are better for us. As we

know the life of people is constant battle

between their love of food and not wanting

to get fat. But it is very difficult to synergize

health and desired food since people don’t

derive much pleasure from salads, low

calorie, low sodium &low fat foods. These

foods don’t give desired flavor, thus they are

not the perfect combination of both taste &

health. Drugs are also used for weight loss

but they have severed side-effects. “Taste

Bud Hacker” is the answer to all these

questions, so the basic question that arises

here is what is a Taste Bud Hacker?

Taste Bud Hackers are the molecules

that trigger taste buds and give the sensation

of particular taste for which it is made. Taste

buds which exist on our tongue are the

sensory organs that enable us to experience

basic tastes like sweet, salty, sour, bitter and

umami(savories) along with astringent and

pungent. Our tongue has about 10,000 taste

buds on it. These work with the olfactory

receptors in our nose. Our taste buds and

olfactory receptors, together, provide our

brain taste information about the food in our

mouth. Our taste buds have separate

receptors for different tastes, at least for the

basic five tastes.

Some of the molecules like CALCIUM, L-

HISTIDINE, GLUTATHIONE, STEVIOSIDE,

CAPSAICIN, PROTAMINE, HUMULONE can be

used as Taste Bud Hackers. These Taste Bud

Hackers can be directly added to food

products to get sensation of desired taste

without adding traditional ingredients like salt

sugar etc. and deceives our taste buds as if

we are eating normal food. The unique

combination of chilly, pepper &Szechuan

peppercorn creates an alternating

combination of heating & cooling effect

allows us to reduce the salt content of food.

Some of the examples of Taste Bud Hackers

are:-

In 1879 SACCHARINE is discovered by

accident by researchers at Johns Hopkins

University in Maryland, which is 400 times

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sweeter than sugar.

In 1965 ASPARTAME was discovered

by a chemist at Searle laboratories in Illinois.

Controversy over its safety and allergenicity

means it is one of the most studied food

additives, is 600 times sweeter than sugar.

In 1976 SUCRALOSE discovered by

scientists from sugar manufacturer Tate &

Lyle and at Queen Elizabeth College in

London. SUCRALOSE is derived from sugar: 3

chlorine atoms replace 3 hydroxyl groups, is

600 times sweeter than sugar.

In1996 NEOTAME discovered by researchers

at Monsanto in France who were looking for

molecules similar to aspartame but without

the allergenicity. This one is 8000 times

sweeter than sugar!!

– Ajay A. Naik

PBT (1st Year)

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Fall In Oil Prices – Its Impact on Global Economy

Falling oil prices is one of the biggest

event in the world influencing the global

economy in both ways, positive and negative.

The more prominent cause for the fall in the

oil prices is excess supply of oil which in

addition is fuelled by weaker demand.

Lower demand from Europe, China

and Japan due to slowing down and the start

of the shale oil production in North America

resulted in lower oil prices. The falling oil

prices could have been controlled to some

extent if supply had been reduced. OPEC

countries which contribute about 40% of the

world oil production having influencing power

on oil prices by cutting or boosting the

production also decided not to reduce oil

production even though the prices are falling,

due to fear of losing market share to players

in North America. OPEC countries, specifically

Saudi Arabia, hope that, if oil prices remain

low for longer time, these new players will

not be able to sustain as their returns will not

be sufficient to meet break-even and they will

stop production. This will result in regaining

the oil prices. Saudi Arabia can bear less

revenue as they have huge foreign exchange

reserves (approximately $750 billion in

Jan’15, $685 billion in June’15) to finance

deficits, but other OPEC members will not

prefer low oil prices for longer time as they

don't have deep pockets and they may think

of cutting the production. Russia, which has

around 12% of total revenues from oil

exports, also not cut the production.

The surprises have gone other way - in

January, Russia and Iraq announced that they

were exporting more oil than ever. This

further reduced the prices to record low of

$49 per barrel.

These falling oil prices impacted most

of the economies. Biggest gainers are the

emerging markets like India and China. These

countries import major portion of their oil

requirement. Because of the lowered prices,

import bills are reduced, CAD is narrowed

down and foreign exchange reserves are

increased due to less spending on import

bills. Inflation is also reduced as prices of

most of the commodities and wages are

directly or indirectly dependent on oil prices.

So, central banks also eased the monetary

policy and reduced interest rates to some

extent which will help in boosting the

investments and hence the growth.

Government has also taken benefit by cutting

the oil subsidies and increasing the oil taxes

to improve public finance.

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Negative impact for India, if these low

oil prices continued for significantly longer

duration can be lower revenues from export

of refined oil products.

Another economy which benefited

from lowered oil prices is the US. Because of

low oil prices, people will have more money

to spend on other things which will boost the

growth. US may have negative impact, if this

fall in prices continued. The oil producing

states in US will stop producing, which may

result in loss of revenue and economic

activity.

The economies which are greatly

impacted in negative way are the oil

exporting countries like OPEC countries

(Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq etc) and

Russia. The impact is more significant as

compared to that for oil importing countries.

This is because; all these countries are more

dependent on oil revenues. For example,

Saudi Arabia has 90% of their revenues from

oil. Russia has 45% of their revenues from oil.

Russia lost its revenues through oil

exports. According to some estimates, its GDP

will shrink at 4% in 2015 if oil prices continue

at $60 per barrel. Also, falling oil prices

caused the value of Ruble to collapse, imports

to become expensive, inflation to rise. So,

central bank intervened and interest rates are

raised to 17% from 10.5%. This again created

volatility in the stock markets all over the

world. The interest rate hike may slow down

the Russia's growth even further because

higher cost of capital will reduce investments.

Other economies which are negatively

impacted are the Euro countries and Japan.

These economies are already facing problem

of deflation. And low oil prices will further

aggravate the situation. Interest rates in

EURO area and Japan are already zero, so the

capability of this tool (interest rate) is limited.

So, rise in oil price will help to create

inflation. So, rise in oil prices will be helpful to

improve the situation in these economies.

Taking holistic view of the impact of

falling oil prices on world economy, central

banks and governments will have to make

cautious policies which will be beneficial for

achieving global economic stability. While

doing so, one of the most volatile factor or

one of the greatest risk i.e. geopolitical

happenings in Gulf region needs to taken into

account.

–Atul Dhule

MBA++ (2nd Year)

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The Plan of ‘B’

Usually when it comes to presentations, I consider myself to be decent enough to be able to present the appropriate content to the audience and be appreciated by everyone. But I’ll always remember my time in Trimester 3 when I had to present a Business Plan.

Our seniors advised us to not only create a crystal clear, viable business plan, but to also be prepared to answer any challenging questions posed by the respective faculty. Armed with this information, I started working on mine and selected a dairy farm as my choice of business. No doubt, I would be reckoned as a “Doodhwaalah” by everyone, but egged on by the memories of my industrial training at the Katraj Dairy Plant where I learnt so much, I sought out a déjà-vu session. The poem below will probably give you an insight to my experience while creating my business plan.

Not long after I wrote this poem, I stood in front of everyone and presented the best I ever could.

I first took it as a good challenge, A task that seemed easy to understand. And so, several weeks ago, I started gathering data, albeit digital or hand. “Sweet raw milk I will sell!”

My mission, which I exclaimed with sheer love. But now I slowly start thinking, That I should be slapped by the old man above. T’was morn’, and Alas! I saw, Few comrades of mine being skewed. And later while I rectified my errors, To my dismay, they terribly grew. It's not criticism nor a guru's rage that I fear. For slaved have I, shed tears and sweat. But in my life, I truly believe: Whatever I may do, I should do it perfect.

Yet, this task of mine is Herculean, which can be done by only a logical man, And yes! I'll strive, all my life; for a flawless Business Plan!

The acceptance of my business plan by my teacher and his claim that it was a "workable one" made me feel like a 6 year old boy getting an ice-cream flavor of his choice.

Maybe what I'm trying to bring to the table with this article is; sometimes things like a Business Plan are meant to be tough, whether we like it or not. At the end of the day, all of us have the power to make it easy. What we lack is the will. And the willingness to do something is more important than knowing what is to be done.

-Kenneth Thomas (MBA++, 2nd Year)

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Placing the product in Bollywood

You know what SRK is doing when one

of his dialogue is ‘I’m loving it’. 18th

December, 2015 witnessed two contrasting

movies fighting it out in the box office. While

one movie does have wide range of scope for

product placement, other one doesn’t. When

I was watching Dilwale, on numerous

occasions it seemed that the movie is not at

all about the script these days; it’s about how

many brands you can promote in a single

movie.

McDonalds is one such brand which is

quite famous but exceedingly promoted in

the entire movie. In one of the chasing scene,

buildings in Bulgaria are with McDonalds

banners. SRK’s one of the dialogue is ‘I’m

loving it’. Sanjay Mishra, who has been

assigned the job of promoting brand, uses

McDonalds in his one of the rhyme (“Paanch

minute wait be, hoga on the way, McDonalds

and Subway”).

Let’s keep Dilwale aside otherwise I

will have to become the Bajirao to fight

against all SRK fans. Talking about Product

Placement, it’s been years since this strategy

of advertising is adopted in Bollywood

movies. Product placement is the advertising

strategy used for indirect marketing of the

products in which a movie or television is

used for promoting the product by means of

appearance, verbal reference or actual use.

Many brands have to pay to be in movies

while few find another bypass to enter into

the movies. Some firms get product

placement at no cost by supplying their

product to the movie like Apple, Adidas, etc.

Product Placement can be classified into

three types viz. active, passive and

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hyperactive.

When you see Paresh Rawal taking

out insurance papers in ‘Oh My God!’ movie

from Godrej Safe, he is using it without

mentioning its features. This is an example of

active product placement. In ‘Baghban’

movie, Amitabh Bachchan works for ICICI

Bank, this is nothing but the passive product

placement, in which the product or brand is

integrated in the background. Rajpal Yadav

uses Tide for washing clothes in ‘Chup Chup

ke’ by saying “ye sasta aur accha saabun hai

isliye itni majdoori karwa rahe ho”. He is not

only using the product but also telling its

benefits. This is hyperactive product

placement.

In 2015, we have seen various brands

in different movies. But I think R. Balki

directed Shamitabh was the one which was

the best example of Product Placement. R.

Balki, Chairman and CEO of Lowe Lintas

(Marketing communication company) who

has been responsible for the creation of some

iconic as campaigns for HUL, Idea Cellular,

Tata Tea, etc. approached the HUL with the

idea of integration. And you can see Lifebuoy

(HUL’s soap brand name) all over the film.

Shamitabh opens with the premiere of

another movie where Dhanush plays the lead

role of Lifebuoy, who fights against the ills of

society. In fact the movie has a song based

on the tagline of Lifebuoy (“Tandurusti ki

raksha karta hai Lifebuoy”).

There are also the limitations of

product placements in movies like the

marketers have little control over how their

product is portrayed in the storyline. As per

the Wikipedia page of Bollywood, it is

estimated that nearly 1041 films are

produced every year making it the biggest

movie industry in the words in terms of

number of films produced. So it creates huge

opportunity for Product Placement. If cashed

on this opportunity, product placement will

be effective medium to have a long lasting

impact on the audience. But it also depends

upon whether the movie is hit or not. If the

movie is hit only, the products which are the

parts of the movie are noticed. A flop can

make product invisible creating a burden of

expense on firms.

Jai Jethawa

MBA++ (1st Year)

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GST: In Logistics’ Perspective

Indian Logistics Market Size and Segmentation

The Indian logistics market recorded revenues of about US $180-220 billion in 2015. Indian logistics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.17% by 2020 driven by the growth in the manufacturing, retail, FMCG and e-commerce sectors. India spends around 14.4% of its GDP on logistics and transportation as compared to less than 8% spent by the other developing countries. Current estimates by various agencies say that the warehouse market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% whereas freight forwarding market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% till 2020.

Segmentation of Indian Logistics Market 2015:

Market Segment Market Share

Transportation 58-60%

Warehousing 23-25% Freight Forwarding 10-11%

Value Added Logistics 5-6%

Goods and Service Tax (GST) The trade tax system that prevailed in

India until 2005, was described in an expert

committee report as “archaic, irrational, and complex – according to knowledgeable experts, the most complex in the world”, thus needing a major overhaul. Over the past several years, significant progress has been made to improve the trade tax structure in India. To address the issues with existing tax structures, several initiatives have been taken by the Government, with the first major initiative being the introduction of a Value Added Tax (VAT) System. Burden of multiple taxation existed at the Center and states prior to introduction of VAT in 2005. Subsequent to the success of the VAT regime, the Government embarked on efforts for implementation of a much more refined and globally preferred tax system known as Good sand Services Tax (GST) in 2007.

GST is defined as a ‘nationwide

uniform taxation system’ which replaces multiple taxations by central and state governments in a country. The concept is that a specific product or service would have the same level of taxation across the entire country irrespective of being manufactured and sold in different states. Across the world, GST is the most popular trade tax regime practiced by over 150 countries. Two models of GST are prevalent – one with a single level national tax system and another with two component tax structures, with one component being levied by the central government and another by state governments, but both being taxed together simultaneously as a single transaction. The single level tax system is the most prevalent system across the world. However, it is considered suitable for countries where the central government holds absolute unilateral power of administration and taxation and

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state governments depend on the central government for all resources.

Since India is a sovereign nation where both Central and State Governments have

distinct administration and taxation powers awarded by the Constitution, the single level taxation system is not considered suitable, and hence the dual model of GST is being adopted by the country.

Major Features of India’s GST Model

The proposed GST model for India is expected to subsume (absorb or replace) most of the existing direct and indirect taxes levied by the Central and State Governments on all products and services Currently, power to levy service tax lies only with the Central Government, however, with GST, even State governments will be privy, so necessary constitutional amendments are being worked out to provide States with appropriate power. The GST system works on the basis of taxing only the component of value addition at each level of goods or services supply by off-setting the tax paid already at the previous level of the value chain. Thus, it automatically incorporates a mechanism that compels every level of the value chain to ensure that the appropriate tax has already been paid in the previous level. Certain products such as petroleum and gas, alcoholic products, and farm produce are exempted from GST’s purview.

The uniform GST regime in India is likely to be implemented in all likelihood by early 2016.The new Government has progressed from the efforts initiated by the previous Government and has been able to address most concerns of various states whose incomes are likely to be affected due to this regime. Given that the onset of GST would require transformation of distribution (and therefore logistics) practices of most industries, both logistics service providers and users need to prepare for the change. Such a nation-wide uniform tax regime is expected

to have a profound and permanent impact on most manufacturing industries in the country and their logistics operations. As a result of this new tax model, the individual state administrative borders are expected to become nullified / irrelevant for most industries, thereby driving them towards rationalization of their logistics operations and infrastructure. This would eventually require the logistics service providers to restructure their operations and infrastructure.

Impact on Manufacturing Industries

In case of a majority of consumer goods industries, manufacturing plants are placed in locations or states which offer tax rebates or lowest tax structures, even though the locations are non-optimal from a geographic distribution perspective. For example, several companies have put up their production units in states such as Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. In the post GST scenario, no tax rebates or varying tax structures would be allowed across states and there would be uniform taxation across the country. As a result, manufacturing plants are likely to be placed in locations which have close proximity to raw material production hubs, and multiple transportation networks. In the current scenario, raw materials are transported from various source hubs to manufacturing plants in select locations and finished goods are transported from these plants again to individual state warehouses spread across the country. State level

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distribution involves transporting goods from these warehouses to distributors/dealers and finally to retailers. In the post GST scenario, raw material transportation might become minimal and finished goods transportation is likely to be in the form of large consignments between the manufacturing plant and regional warehouses. Secondary transportation is likely to be done directly from regional warehouses to distributors or dealers and is expected to comprise smaller consignments with an optimized frequency. At present, all manufactured goods are first transported to a company’s own warehouse in each geographic region and deliveries to clients done from there with the specific region’s tax applicable for the transaction. Since the tax applicable would be same irrespective of where billing and deliveries are done, large orders are likely to be delivered directly from manufacturing plants to client locations (plants/warehouses).

Currently, companies need to have specific warehouses for each state because selling stock stored in one state to another attracts sales tax from both states. This means significantly high level of investments in assets and inventory holding costs than

ideally needed. State level warehouses are likely to be replaced with regional hub level large integrated warehousing facilities, thus significantly bringing down the number of warehouses for a company. Various value added logistics functions such as packing, kitting, labeling, etc. are also likely to be performed at these warehouses. After GST implementation, about 6-8 major regional hubs and 3-4 smaller hubs are expected to be formed as part of reorganization of overall distribution infrastructure for majority of the manufacturing industries. Each of these hubs is likely to be structured in the form of a Hub- and-Spoke model with a city closest to the central point of the regional hub emerging as the primary distribution center for that respective hub.

Most of the consumer goods industries (including FMCG, Pharma, electronics, etc.) are expected to follow these new regional hubs for their distribution. However, industries that are highly concentrated in select locations (including automotive, minerals, metals) due to source material proximity are likely to continue their current operational model.

Impact on Logistics Service Providers (LSPs)

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In general, LSPs are likely to need

restructuring of their assets and operations to create an optimal network and infrastructure for fulfilling changed operations of customers in the new scenario. LSPs serving any specific industry would have to realign their operations to match the restructuring of those respective industries. At present, LSPs have warehouses located closer to the major distribution centers or manufacturing plants of key clients, even if the locations are logistically unviable. In post GST scenario, LSPs are expected to build large integrated warehouses in specific well connected ‘central geographic locations in each region’ which can be termed as logistically suitable locations.

Currently the transportation volumes are not uniformly distributed across the country for any LSP due to regulatory controls on goods transfer and usage of different LSPs for each region by the clients. The scenario of free-flowing movement of goods across the country due to GST would result in LSPs gaining larger volumes and nationwide contracts from clients. In addition, currently most LSPs have a large share of medium sized trucks (8-16 ton carriers)in their fleet and a very low share of large truck-trailers or small trucks. To fulfill the large and long-distance

consignments in the new scenario, LSPs would need a significantly larger share of heavy trucks (above 20 ton carriers), and also mini-trucks to fulfill last mile delivery efficiently.

Expected Major Benefits and Challenges Due to GST

Based on the potential impact of GST, a few major benefits and challenges for the logistics sector as a whole has been listed below: Benefits:

Primary and secondary distribution activities might get streamlined

Interstate movement will get simplified

Rationalization and revamp of transportation fleets

Immense scope for optimization of costs

Challenges: Establishing regional distribution hub

infrastructure involves high capital investment

Need to revamp fleets, new mix of transportation vehicles.

Will lead to national level competition for

small players, earlier protected by regional

constraints

Omey Bedakh

MBA++ (2nd Year)

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GREXIT

Over the past few years a lot has been said and written about Greece and the European Union, from the articles in the economists contemplating that a large part of financial world will remain more or less neutral about what happens to Greece while editorials in those pink newspapers are asking the world to brace itself. There are also those who do not look at this issue merely an issue of bad accounting but rather an example of how the strong treats the weak (in this case it was Germany and Greece). I have tried to follow the entire events unfold as much as I possibly could and I did not have much trouble in finding it, the challenge was that there was so much to read and watch that anyone could easily get lost in the maze of opinions and facts and eventually lose interest. My objective in writing this article will be two fold. Firstly I will mention the most worthy of the views and opinions on this issue, secondly I will attach to it my personal opinion based on the facts available and historical inferences. I would advise the readers to go and read whatever material they can find on the above and come to a conclusion, it will be a treat to gain different perspectives on the matter.

Context

Imagine a poor kid who joined a club of rich friends to run away from his aggressive next door neighbor. The poor kid hoped to get rich with his new connections. Instead, he was forced to overspend to keep up the appearance. Eventually the days of living beyond his means caught up to him. He borrowed a lot. His friends acted as the guarantor to his debts.

At some point, the poor kid was unable to repay the debt and the rich friends are now on the hook. The debt is quite enormous, but the wives of the rich friends don't want to risk their money to clear the debt of their poor friend. The debt is now due and no one is ready to pay. This has now strained a wide range of relationships and there is a huge risk of very messy breakups and divorces due to the financial problem.

Once Upon a Time…

Europe has a history of frequent clashes; they have been fighting over land resources for 1000s of years, fast forward to World War 2 when Europe was in ruins. It was realized that the power of guns will benefit no one and there has to be other means to ensure prosperity in their lands thus giving way to the power of currency. European nations with the help from the United States of America worked on creating an integrated economic nation working together for the common good of all. The first move was initiated in 1951 by 5 nations France, Luxemburg, West Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.

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Come 1981 Greece too was admitted to the EU which in purely economic terms was a gross mismatch as the country was way behind in development compared with other nations. So in order to make the right of passage a success Greece cooked it books while other EU members looked the other way.

Trouble

Balaji Vishwanathan puts it best in his Quora blogs;

“Free trade areas and economic integration often makes sense among comparable economies. However, Greece and rest of EU were quite dissimilar. Greek companies could not withstand the competition, while the wages of Greek employees were rapidly rising to level with rest of EU. The result was that unlike every other EU power that enjoyed economic gains by being a part of the EU, Greece receded. Its economy declined.”

There is a saying in the financial world

that “when the tide is down then you can who has been skinny dipping” And so it was with Greece. An already heavily indebted Greece couldn't afford to refinance its banks after the losses they suffered in the market meltdown, and it couldn't borrow any more funds on international markets due to

excruciating interest rates. The EU, led by Germany, the European Central Bank and the IMF all chipped in to bail out Greece, and keep it in the Eurozone. But Greece's problem remained. It may have a new set of creditors now, but it didn't have the cash to repay them. So, a long term payment plan was agreed upon. However, it came with strings attached, one of which was austerity measures for Greece. Fast forward to mid- 2015, and Greece was in a stalemate with its creditors. After several rounds of elections and negotiations certain terms were agreed upon. The creditors wanted an agreement with the new government on paying back the loans, and they were holding back more funding from Greece until they get it. The irony though is the Greek debt isn't massive by global standards (Italy's is bigger for example). The problem Greece has is in generating GDP and collecting the taxes on it to pay its debts.

So after a lot of negotiations, a third

bailout was agreed with Eurozone ministers, and the Greek prime minister executed the difficult task of getting his parliament to agree to it. Unfortunately for him though, it will probably cost him his job, for going against everything he said he'd do, and it will also cost Greece dearly in both austerity measures and having to sell off public assets to pay its debts. But the alternative of a "Grexit" (Greece exiting the Euro) was even more fraught with difficulties, and so almost unthinkable.

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nothing short of a nightmare for its citizens. In conclusion, Greece is wielding a double edged sword without any requisite skills. They are saved for now but the measures so imposed are going to pose serious challenges for its people and its economy.

The Future…

Greece although reluctantly has agreed upon the austerity measures imposed upon them which include cut in pensions, rise in taxes and reducing the government expenditure mainly towards areas such as infrastructure and healthcare which are

References:

https://www.quora.com/Balaji-Viswanathan-2 http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist- explains/2015/01/economist-explains-1 Alan Clement Answer the Grexit Crisis

-Jewel Tiwari

MBA++(2nd Year)

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Currency War

Currency war is the term in news on

daily basis these days. What exactly the Term

“Currency War” is? For obvious reasons this

war is not a conventional or a traditional war

wherein the weapons of mass destruction are

used or the issue of Human rights remains in

question. But for equally obvious reasons this

kind of war is equally destructive for the

Economic system of the world and regions

involved at large.

Recently the act of devaluation of its

own currency by People’s Republic China

under the justification of reviving growth of

its export sector which is facing low growth

rate is the reason for the initiation of so

called CURRENCY WAR in the Asia and Asia-

Pacific region. To minimize the impact of

China’s currency devaluation on their

respective economies and to decrease the

chance of Capital outflow for their respective

countries, most of the countries of the region

are also planning to devaluate their

respective currencies. This is giving way to the

warfare of different currencies in the region

and the term evolved as “currency war”.

China experienced double digit growth

rate in past two decades but on account of

low international demand since the subprime

crises followed by uncertainties in European

Union over Greece being caught in debt trap,

terrorism of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the overall

demand has lowered and has hit hard to all

the exporting countries and China is no

exception. But in such international

circumstances also growth rate of China is

decent in comparison to other Exporting

economies of West.

Devaluation at a time when most of

the nations are struggling to recover from the

low demand will do no good to the world

community. This is because devaluation of

currency by China will lower the prices of

Chinese finished goods and will impact the

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efforts taken by most of the other countries

to revive their economies by increasing

domestic production to increase

Employment. And if these efforts to increase

employment by countries are affected, the

purchasing power of people will not be

increased. Thereby the demand could not be

raised and low demand globally will persist

which in long run will impact China herself as

it is the biggest exporting economy.

Devaluation doesn’t work in the situation

where growth rate is low because of low

international demand. In contrast China

would have been applauded for its

devaluation if the reason for the low growth

rate was inflation (factor cost).

China being the second largest

economy should come forward to solve this

problem of low demand globally and hence

should not behave selfish. United States of

America is doing its job correctly in this

aspect by not increasing Fed reserve rates for

the good of developing countries( As increase

in FED rates will result in outflow of capital

from developing countries) thus, in this sense

USA is acting like a good and responsible

global player.

Message to the developing countries

from this situation can be incurred as follows:

Support entry of Yuan in the SDR of

IMF so that China will be bound to act in

responsible way and thereby making China’s

currency fluctuations difficult and hence

bringing stability in the region by ending any

possible prospect of such currency wars.

India’s opportunity here is that it can improve

its diplomatic relations with China by

supporting China’s desire to make Yuan a

global currency and in return India can seek

China’s support in its desire of permanent

seat in United Nation Security Council.

Improving relations with China by this way is

much easier than any other methods being

implemented currently.

-Sumit Patil

MBA++ (1st Year)

38

Lending a Hand

Once, I was wandering on JM road,

eating bhel, having fun with friends. Suddenly

one small kid, age around 7-8 years, short

hair, white t shirt and half torn pant touched

my hand and said “dada”, I turned back and

saw a lady holding his hand, age of around

35-40 years, black hair, shawl around her

shoulder. She was blind, wearing black

glasses. He said further, “Majhya aandhalya

Aai la madat kara”(Please help my blind

mother). I got Goosebumps and without

thinking, I ordered two “bhel” for them. The

smile that child had on his face when he got

the plate in his hands was priceless. It has

been three years now but that picture doesn't

fade away from my memory.

We all are very fortunate that we have

got everything that we need. God doesn't

allow us to choose our parents, family and

circumstances, he just sends us to live our

lives. We all got our beautiful lives. But what

about those little children begging on the

signal, begging on chapatis, sleeping on

streets? Do they deserve such life at the age

of 3-4? I don’t know. Many people possess a

view that they don’t want to work, they don’t

want to uplift their status, they find begging is

the easiest way to earn money. I agree with

them but only upto some extent. They don’t

have vision for their life; they just want to fill

their empty stomachs at least once a day.

When I see those innocent faces it makes me

sad. They don’t deserve such life at this

tender age. They don’t play, they don’t laugh,

they don’t find our world beautiful. They live

in their own worlds in which they have to

sleep empty stomach at night. When we

compare our lives with them then we will find

that how unfair the fate is.

Out of such similar experiences and

urge to do something for the society, me and

some of my friends from PUMBA formed a

group, PUMBA's Helping Hands.

When I took this initiative, I had a

clear thought in my mind that we have to do

something for those underprivileged children

so that they might enjoy few moments with

us.

We are working in this direction. So

far we have successfully done three activities.

The first one was a water awareness

campaign during Ganpati festival. It was

appreciated by many people. It was followed

by Salam to Kalam, on the anniversary of late

Dr. Kalam sir. We sorted three schools in

Pune and had interaction with students, had

some unforgettable moments with them. We

felt it was a true tribute to Dr. Kalam.

Latest activity we undertook was One

Plate Happiness. A small idea of collecting

39

around 650+ packets to children living by

roadside.

and distributing homemade diwali snacks, has

got huge success and appreciated by many.

We appealed for homemade Diwali snacks

from people and around 180 households

joined our hands and we could distribute

We intend to do much more for

people and wish to succeed in small

endeavors of ours. Uplifting at least 0.1%

underprivileged by means of education will

have a huge impact in coming two - three

generations. We live our life to the fullest but

if we live few minutes of our lives with them,

if we share happiness with them then it will

give us an eternal peace when we will see

precious smiles on those little faces.

Kiran Narwade MBA++ (2nd Year)

40

Sports: Shaping My Life Since 11

I believe that our childhood dreams

end up shaping a major part of our existence

and that our childhood liking can turn into a

lifelong passion for us, if we care to pursue it.

Roller skating was my passion at the

age of 11 and I used to spend hours enjoying

the sport, just for the joy I derived out of it.

Naturally, all my 'so-called' relatives nagged

me saying that neither achievement nor

knowledge could be gained out of play. My

skating would have ended there itself if my

mother wouldn't have supported me. Only

she understood the joy that sport brought to

me; no wonder since she herself was a

champion athlete in her school days. I

continued skating.

So it was that within a month of

joining, I started winning interschool

matches. This renewed my spirit and I began

practicing with even more fervor. Within a

year I had won state level championship and

in 2006, represented Maharashtra state for

National level Championship.

Consecutively, for the next two years,

I won state level championship. I kept

pursuing skating for 4 years. Not only was I

having the best time of my life, but I also

achieved good grades in my SSC and HSC. At

least I had proved this to my relatives, that

one can handle both curricular as well as

extra-curricular activities, if one has the

passion and perseverance to do so.

I started mountain biking one year

ago. Initially it was just a means for me to

stay in shape but I soon fell in love with it and

in August 2015 reached Khardungla on my

bicycle; it being the highest point that can be

reached by motor in the world with an

altitude of 18380 feet. This has been my

biggest achievement till date. I won the

'Rugged Sahyadri'; a mountain biking and

trekking event, in October 2015.

41

I went for night trekking and wildlife

exploring as well. I have trekked the Sahyadris

a lot and have found that there is no teacher

who equals Mother Nature and the things she

teaches us. Being with nature teaches us

things that are delightful and unique; most

important among them being contentment.

No joy in the city can equal the elation

that one achieves in quiet meditation on a

mountain top, neither is any silence so rich as

the silence in the depths of a forest. I have

experienced the nectar in these places and

thus wish to share. Sharing is what nature

teaches best.

My experience with hills and

mountains is of a totally different flavor. I

prefer staying overnight on a mountain at a

local resident's place, listening to his tales. I

now pursue a dream to reach the Everest

before I turn 30 and my inspiration has been

Arunima Sinha, the first amputee from India

to climb the Everest.

No doubt, academics are vital for

leading a prosperous life, however; extra-

curricular activities ensure that we lead

healthy and joyous lives.

Parag Joshi MBA++ (2nd year)

42

Waste Management

Managing waste is one of the major

issues that most developed and developing

countries are facing. Majority of waste in

most developed and developing countries are

still not being disposed properly, as a result of

which waste is growing immensely. Waste

can be segmented into two parts: industrial

and household waste. Waste Management

involves waste collection, processing,

recovery, and disposal of the waste in the

most efficient and effective manner.

Management of waste focuses on

recycle, reduce and reuse. Government

norms and Industries are focusing more on

those raw materials that can be either easily

disposed or recycled or reused. Different

sectors like pharmaceutical and healthcare

sector, manufacturing sector, nuclear, and

agriculture sector release hazardous waste in

the environment. Some of these wastes are

either organic waste or non-organic waste.

These household and industrial waste are

further categorized into solid, E-waste, liquid,

plastic metal, debris and nuclear waste. All

these different types of waste are causing

major environmental issues related to land,

air and water which directly or indirectly

affect flora, fauna and our daily life. Different

kinds of industrial waste are recycled through

different techniques- like pharmaceutical

wastes are treated through thermal

processes, but they all focus on either

disposing it or making it reusable in the most

efficient manner.

Waste management is expected to

show rapid growth and give high revenues.

Industries are focusing more on waste

management in-order to reduce cost and

increase their profitability. Electronic goods

are manufactured in such a way that they can

be recycled, and reused in the future. E-waste

is different from municipal or industrial

waste. E-waste consists of all types of electric

and electronic equipments. These

equipments contain lead, arsenic, selenium,

cadmium, chromium, cobalt, mercury which

are harmful for the environment.

Government and global organizations

have placed stringent norms for the

management of waste. Huge investments

were made by the global organizations for

waste management. According to the UN,

global waste volume will increase in next few

43

years. Economically backward and developing

countries in Asia and Africa are offered

enormous financial benefits for accepting

waste originating from developed countries

such as the U.S. and UK.

Various well renowned companies like

Dell started using recycled plastics in other

desktops, laptops and monitors. Dell has

started selling their computer “The Optiplex

3030” which is made by recycling the waste.

IT asset Disposal (ITAD) certification is

introduced for easy recycle and disposal of E-

waste for various E-goods manufacturing

industries.

India is also taking measures for the

management of waste. In metropolitan cities

like Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai, it

is quite difficult to manage the waste these

days. There are various new upcoming waste

management based ventures in many parts of

India and there is huge scope in this field

irrespective of teir-1, tier-2 and tier 3 cities.

Some of the well known ventures are

Vermigold, Synergy Waste Management

Limited, Shivalik Solid Waste Management,

Timarpur-Okhla Waste Management Pvt.

Limited, Attero Electronics Asset

Management Company and many more. This

sector is expected to show huge growth in

the upcoming years and can be one of the

most profit generating sectors in the

upcoming years.

-Siddhartha Badoniya MBA++ (2nd Year)

44

Strategic Work-Life Balancing

Living life by choice, writing about this in a management school magazine might not catch a lot of attention because for most professionals in the corporate this phrase of “work-life balance” is just an oxymoron; hence the title.

So is it really possible? With this raging competition is there an opening to actually have a personal life? Astonishing to a few, the answer is yes! You just have to follow those who have successfully been able to do it.

Get your family to back you up; then you can be a married doctor, mother of a baby girl and still make masters in business administration look like a doable task. It’s the support you get from your family that helps you pull off the greatest of such juggling acts. Do what you love; this means you have to start believing in your capabilities. Easier said than done, it is one big step you have to take and quit that mind-numbing job and get out of that structured life. It might sound ridiculous to disturb your routine to just to live your dream *sarcasm*. The only

difference between crazy and genius is success.

Enjoy your free time; you will have to maintain the competitive edge, you will have to work 70 hours a week....but yet if you are a passionate vocal artist, have your gigs now and then. Schedule your week, and give yourself the luxury of having those stress busting sessions.

Believe in miracles, they happen every day. This is the part where I will emphasize on giving back the society. If you want those miracles to happen to you, you need to bear them on someone else, something else. That one deed is sometimes all what it takes to spin the magical wand.

Find love; you can own multiple

businesses, you might have to work 7 days a week, more than 5 hours of sleep might sound lavish to you, but at the end of the day, make sure you reconnect to whom you love the most, after all, you aren’t just living to pay your bills.

-Husein Siam MBA++ (2nd Year)

45

Mumbai Local

I try to work alone ashore, with my hands and heart, weak at core. I gaze past the blue sky, in the monsoons of July.

Rains dropping like a bliss, that takes me back to the memories I miss. Thinking about the present I flee, in the packed local -locomotives.

I try myself to keep away, not brush with the people and shy away. Among the masses I am lost, I fight to stand wherever I go.

It’s not the people that worries me but the animals inside, you can’t see. I try and break all the chains, and live my life away from trains.

But no matter where I go, it follows me until the end of the road, whistling loudly as it comes, I get numb and my heart starts to pump.

The feel is true, that I know. But what can I do, I have nowhere else to go!!!

-Saurabh Kantha MBA++ (2nd Year)

46

Food For Thought

It is a common belief in India,

especially among the Hindus that the holy dip

in the river Ganga absolves one of all sins and

it offers one liberation from all sins or as one

may call it" Papmoksha."

Also in Christianity, water is poured on

the head of a new born child when his/ her

parents take him / her to the church for the

Baptism ceremony. The priest sprinkles holy

water on the faithfuls to purify them.

The use of water before praying so as

to cleanse oneself stands true even for Islam.

We use water for bathing & to cleanse our

bodies.

Why do we use water in all

purifications? Water remains as the biggest

leveler. Pour water anywhere & we see that it

always maintains the level on top irrespective

of the depths it is covering.

Same evolution of thought applies to

mankind as well. Take an Abraham Lincoln, a

Martin Luther King, and a Mahatma, to name

a few. They were the biggest levellers of our

mankind, people who sacrificed their lives to

straighten those differences of caste, creed,

religion or race in our society. Their names

live forever

This also goes well with governments

as well. Those governments which can act as

levelers of our society, which can nullify

differences originating from caste, creed,

religion, language & economic disparities will

draw the same effect as that of the water- by

always maintaining its upper level, by always

offering its leveling strength to purify a

nation.

-Tina Thomas

MBA++ (2nd Year)

47

Don’t Just Plant a Tree, Nurture It

“If you really think the Environment is

less important than the economy, try holding

your breath while you count your money.”

Dr. Guy McPherson

With the rapid growth on

technological and infrastructural front, the

one thing that is being degraded is the

environment. Ignorance is not that we don’t

know about it, it is when we know but choose

not do anything about it. In a free flowing

interview with a Mr. Sunil Patil of

Swantantrya Veer Savarkar Mandal, Nigdi-

Pradhikaran, he talks about the work that the

volunteers are doing in their own way to

protect the environment. Below are some

excerpts from the interview.

How did it all start?

We organize Fort Building competition

for students at a nearby school every year

during Diwali. Around 300 students

participate in this competition. The students

are provided with stones, clay and mud for

the same. We realised that though students

built forts, most of them had never visited

one. All the information was downloaded and

then worked upon. So we started organizing

treks for students who wished to see forts.

Over a period of time by involving students in

environment related activities, providing

information about the natural resources and

how they need to be preserved. Nisarg Mitra

was formed in the year 2010, a group in the

organization that specially dealt with

environment. We started our own activity on

the Ghoradeshwar hill near Talegaon.

Why was Ghoradeshwar chosen and what

activities did the organization undertake?

During the treks we came across many

trekkers in the PCMC area who frequented

this hill and also most of the volunteers and

members reside in PCMC. In 2010,

Nisarg Mitra planted around 35

saplings on the hill, out of which hardly 10

managed to survive. The following year with a

couple more volunteers around 400 trees

were planted. As we had no idea about the

terrain, or how such kind of plantations

should be done on a hill, we lost many plants.

Most of them were lost in the wildfire. But we

didn’t stop

there. In 2012, Mr. Vasant Takalkar

(Retd. Forest Officer) guided us by

introducing us to a technique RCCT (Refill

Continuous Contour Trenches) which ensured

48

months of January-February so that the wild

fire doesn’t affect it.

How do they survive the heat of the winter

and summer months without rains?

there was less water loss, it stopped soil

erosion, the amount of water required for a

plant could be reduced and it also helped

curb the wildfire menace. This involved a lot

of work and the volunteers did well to finally

dig about 6000 feet of trenches all around the

hill. More than 360 trees survived that year.

What challenges one has to face after the

plantations?

There are many people who organize

tree plantation programs and plant lots of

trees, but then that is just for the day. It is

equally important to see that the plant

survives after it has been planted or it will

wither away and your planted tree might not

make a difference. Plantations are usually

done I June as the water problem is taken

care of by the rains in the initial months. The

reason we plant a limited number of plants is

that we make sure that they survive. The

plants may get eaten bygrazing animals, get

washed down in torrential rains or turn to

ashes in wild fires or simply wither away. So

precautions need to be taken to see they

survive .One precaution is to cut all the dried

grass about 10 feet on each sides during the

We have installed two 1000 litre

water tanks in the hill and also have two

natural tanks at the top of the hill. During the

months of February to May, on every

Saturday, volunteers fill about 250 cans, of 5

litre capacity from the Amardevi Temple at

base of the hill. On Sunday the visitors who

want to volunteer can take these cans up and

fill the tanks or water the plants on the hills

with volunteers helping them. On these days,

these nature lovers also contribute in various

activities like removing the grass, correcting

the trenches, cleaning the hill of plastics and

the water tanks. These visitor volunteers

range from a 5 year old kid to an 84 year old

gentleman. Apart from this a few members

work daily for an hour early morning after

which each one goes to office.

What is the current situation of the plants

that you have planted?

We have planted around 400 trees

every year since and now the count is upto to

a healthy 1500 plants not just surviving but

some are almost ten feet tall and have

started flowering too. We have planted

Peepal, Neem, Arjuna Tree, Orchids and also

plants that are favourable for birds which

bear fruits.

What is your takeaway from all this?

It is the satisfaction more than the

success of this little campaign that we are

49

doing for the nature. During all these years

we have acknowledged that perseverance

and team work is important to carry out your

projects successfully which can be applied in

your managing industrial projects too. It

pleases us to see that the regular visitors

have a changed attitude towards

environment and are doing their bit for it in

whichever way possible.

What message would you like to pass on to

fellow readers?

More than monetary donations, if you

come forward and work for the environment,

put in efforts, it will make a difference. In this

case Shraamdan works better. With the

Ganesh Festival approaching, we request you

to kindly refrain from using Ganesh Idols

made from Plaster of Paris for Pooja. PoP

contains lead and it is harmful to aquatic life.

Also the PoP blocks water routes results in

clogging and idols get washed up on the

shore. Instead, use an idol made from metal

and perform rituals on it. On Ananth

Chaturthi use a Supari to perform the final

rituals and you can use the metal idol of

Ganesh for years to come. This will be your

contribution to nature.

50

The Branded Holidays

Year after year the meaning of holiday

season seems to get lost amongst pushing

and shoving of extreme holiday shoppers.

A family celebrates Diwali around the

dining table filled with Diwali delicacies.

Instead of wishing the family usually discusses

why they need to find a new I phone or big

screen TV the next day.

As early as November, I can walk

through the local malls in Trivandrum and see

crying children seated on Santa’s lap, hear the

overplayed Christmas music, watch the

puzzled boyfriend or husband searching for

the perfect gift and notice the blinding slew

of bright garlands and bows. I’m shocked that

some stores are open on Christmas, a day

that should be spent with our families

reflecting on our blessings.

This is especially hard for retail

workers scheduled during holidays and are

unable to enjoy the festival with their

families. I asked a retail worker who

expressed his displeasure over the long hours

that are forced upon them during the season.

He added that there were crazy long lines and

that he was being questioned a million times

where the exact same merchandise was. In

fact some of them take it too seriously.

People were fighting each other over items

they want and camping outside the store

from 7:00 pm the night before.

Are consumers so greedy that they are

willing to fight to death in order to get just

the right item that they want? It sounds like

the ‘The Hunger games’ than it does Diwali.

Recently this new concept of ‘The

Branded Holidays’ has come into prominence.

The retailer explained that when there is a

consumerised holiday there’s a retail

opportunity. For Diwali, Id, Christmas,

vendors sell elaborate gift baskets, often

sponsored by retail corporations, to lure the

customer’s attention. Cadbury for example

realized this market trend quite early and

came out with their new line of product

named as Cadbury Celebrations especially for

the festive seasons. The various Holiday

51

activities such as Dussehra raves, Diwali poker

parties, Easter egg hunts, only vaguely

resemble their roots in tradition and religious

symbolism, but they have become

widespread, popular and lucrative& often

have much more of a consumer vibe to them.

In fact, some of these activities have grown so

consumerized as to have garnered harsh

criticism from the various social corners. It

seems like everything is about making money

and not about making memories.

So if you are brave enough to venture

out during the festive season, just remind

yourself that the true meaning of holiday is

kindness compassion and giving thanks. Let’s

turn off the greed and turn on the tradition

for once!

Adrijit Sengupta MBA++(1st Year)

52

Leap of Faith

Afraid you were to take decisions, Made your dreams to stay in a prison

Left your dreams to follow the crowd, To their whims and fancies you had bowed

Happened once, it happened twice, It happened every time you tried to be nice

Every fine night you became what you wanted Woke up to know you were vicariously jaunted

The dream you’d see looked so real, Until you convinced yourself they were surreal

Success stories and motivational films would get you pumped, But at the first sight of change you would slump

Wanted you to scream out loud But complete I will this time you had vowed

Passed the quarter mark in your life you had,

Realized you how the path you wanted to

cross had now gone bad

First step is the hardest you had heard,

But now it seemed impossible as your vision

was blurred

Won’t you know how capable you are until

you’ve tried!

To yourself so many times you’ve lied.

How long will you wait to rise to the

occasion?

When will you realize that pursuing your goal

is better than evasion!

Better to live the life you want,

Than live in the shadows of regrets that

haunt!

So do away with that wretched wraith,

Wake up and take that Leap of Faith!

- Shalav Kumbhar

MBA++ (2nd Year)

53

Look Global and Keep Adding Value to Yourself

1. How would you describe your

journey from PUMBA to being the Vice-

President-Sales at Elantas Beck today?

I started my career in Industrial

Market Research. This gave a sound basis for

understanding the fundamentals of the

market and how business is done. The MBA

and the market research outlook gave me an

opening in Thermax Ltd. in a Business

Development role in the Boiler Division for a

couple of years. Then I moved to Marketing &

Product Management Role in Chemical

Division. An MBA gives you a flexibility to look

at a diversity of products and domains in a

given functional arena. Hands-on experience

in product management with strong

customer interfaces gave me a good platform

to be a Sales Manager for my division in

Southern India, wherein I moved to the

classic Sales role, pushing numbers, meeting

customers and strengthening our competitive

positions. Success in this role enables one to

get “noticed” which benefitted me as I was

elevated as a National Sales Head for the

Resin Business. More diligence and

perseverance on this role brought success

which enabled me to quickly reach the top as

Global Business Head for Thermax Ion

Exchange Resin Business. Five successful

years on this very demanding role gave me an

itch to try my skills in a new domain and I am

delighted to be donning a new avatar in yet

another interesting and challenging role at

Elantas Beck India Ltd which is an

acknowledged leader in the field of Electrical

Insulation.

2. A typical work day in the life of a

sales guy to being the manager, how does it

change?

It is a steady shift from looking at the

micro level transactions to the macros. It is

very essential for you as a person to make

this change yourself. It is very tempting to go

back to your previous role to do what you are

comfortable with, but that is not what is

expected from you. I was very inclined to

spend time with my customers at Chennai

even after I became a National Sales Head

in Thermax Chemical Division, but I knew my

priorities had to be looking across regions &

industries. Similarly as a Global Business Head

of Resin Business in Thermax I had to shift my

attention from looking only at Sales to

focusing time on Marketing, Product

Management and R&D in geographies across

the world. My comfort with India could not

prevent me from spending quality time with

my customers in Korea, China, Middle East or

my group company in the US.

My new role in Elantas requires me to

focus on entirely new domain of customers

and technology. So it is critical for you make

this shift and get into the demands of the role

with speed and ease.

However, even as one grows and

climbs the ladder, it is very important not to

54

often choose from the limited space & that’s

where one’s can experience and knowledge

of dealing with various situation come in

handy.

lose your connect with the granular data and

a successful manager is the one who can

quickly move in from the macros to the

specifics and the even the nitty gritty details

of an issue, understand all dimensions fully

and then give a decision.

3. What attributes does someone need

to have in order to be really successful in this

position?

Always look at the larger picture, look

at what the organization needs and how the

organization would benefit, move away

whether a narrow thought if it suits your

department or not.

Only collaborative efforts beget

success. It’s more about managing the people

and the processes.

4. What are the biggest challenges that

someone in your position would face?

It is to make decisions based on

available information. Things are never in

Black or white, they are always in shades of

grey and often not complete. So one has to

5. After being with Thermax Ltd for so

long, how does it feel to be leading an

entirely different team with a different

product? How is the transition taking place?

Variety brings in challenges and

positive challenges give you excitement. As

there is considerable similarity in the

processes in my earlier and present

organizations and hence I am coping with

well with it.

6. An advice or message that you would

have for the current batch of Pumbaites?

Always focus strongly on the here &

now actions. Always think on what could be

important but not urgent & complete

important actions when not urgent. Quality of

output is always good when not in pressure.

Look beyond, your ecosystem, look

global and keep adding value to yourself.

-Shalav Kumbhar

-Ankush Baniat

55

As We See It…

Most budget proposals come back

with more slashes in them than the guy who

first told Zorro he dressed like a sissy.

• The Dollar sign is the corporate

version of the happy face emoticon.

• A good employee will try to reduce

costs so he can ask for a raise.

• Payday is the only day of the month

when you leave office without the company

owing you something.

• The money seems to go from the

company to the bank to your debtors. You

put in 8 hours of hard work, six days a week

just to act as the middle man.

• It is discouraging to pick up your pay

check to find out it’s been pre-spent.

• Asking for a raise is easy. Proving that

you are worth it is the hard part.

• A well written business report doesn’t

allow facts to get in the way of progress.

• No one will respect the first business

person who meets a promised schedule. It

will throw everybody else’s schedule off.

• Usually a committee is a group of

people separated by a common goal.

• A meeting is when executives are

behind closed doors keeping minutes while

the employees are outside wasting hours.

• Quality control doesn’t eliminate

errors. It just gives you a department to

blame them on.

• Always tell the truth on your expense

account. The money you save could be your

job.

• An accountant is a person who tells

you exactly how much money you have and

how much it you owe to him.

• A banker is a person who is willing to

make a loan if you present sufficient evidence

to show you don’t need it. – Herbert V

Prochnow

• A promotion is a sign that either

you’ve been doing something right or your

boss just did something wrong.

• The corporate ladder is the only

ladder in the world which you climb with your

head and not your feet.

• Retirement is when you can sit back

leisurely and think of all those things you

could’ve said to your boss.

• There are two times when a person

can be a hero- in daydreams and in the

resume.

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A Silent Goodbye

As silence clothes me tonight

A subtle cry buried within.

As wind of change blow amidst our storms

As eagles we’ll soar above them all.

Words so few

Yet a heavy breath to give them life.

As time has relinquished us in surrender

Memories now linger as they fade our sight.

As shadows grow short and tall

As summers now fade into fall,

It’s the silence that reminds me

When hopes almost fade, dreams are only

then born.

For all those who lit our paths in the dark

A speechless smile to bid goodbye

It’s those times of silence that always drew us

nigh

It’s Silence around us after all tonight.

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“Guru Mitra”

What makes a teacher?

I wonder. I always think.

Is it the wisdom that he gives?

Or the way in our minds his speeches

sink?

Who is a teacher?

It could be anyone, it’s true.

But amongst them who do we remember?

Those who made differences in the lives;

the lives of me and you.

There was a teacher who once taught us,

He still remains in our hearts.

He was a light to all of us;

Us, who were blinded by the dark.

We perceived Him as a nightmare,

Yet he was always there by our side;

Friends like ships come and go away,

But He was our lighthouse, through time,

through tide.

He’d never stop talking,

And we’d never cease to listen;

Like Him or Hate Him, that’s to each one’s

own.

But for all, he was more than a friend.

We all think we’re born businessmen,

But He was there to prove us wrong;

And through our mistakes which he

pointed,

We became less careless and strong;

Days have passed ever since he left us,

And injustice have we earned.

Because knowledge may prevail anyhow;

But from Him we still had to learn.

It’s hard to accept that He’s there no more

For we are still kids, we should be caned,

And as I write while as you read;

Our cheeks become tear-stained.

Scriptures say a guru is the Supreme

Trinity,

Whom we honour with love and fear.

When Anil Sir came into our lives,

The verse prolonged; “Guru Mitra”

The utmost honor for such a man would

be,

Work hard and shed your sweat,

Thank you, Prof. Agashe, for everything.

May God grant you Eternal Rest!!!

(We will always miss you.)

- Kenneth Thomas

MBA++(2nd year)

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Business Standard Industrial Visit

On 13th of January 2016,

Communication Cell of Department of

Management Sciences (PUMBA) had

organized an industrial Visit at the famous

print media house of Business Standard.

The entire media team had visited the

place in two shifts. First shift was

conducted at the Business Standard office

on FC road while second shift happened at

their printing house.

The team had an opportunity to

interact with two eminent individuals Mr.

Sumeet Gupte Branch Manager of

Business Standard Pune and Mr.

Hrishikesh Joshi, Special Correspondent.

Mr. Sumeet Gupte gave us a detailed

insight into the day-to-day business of

Business Standard. He threw light on how

a newspaper earns revenue. Typically, to

print a single newspaper it costs Rs. 14 but

the selling price is Rs. 6. He explained how

the cost gap is filled with revenues coming

from advertisements. He was passionately

talking about the current trends in print

media, including the competition they

face from other national business

newspapers. He gave us the detailed

information about the strategy they use

to cope up with this competition.

Mr. Hrishikesh Joshi, talked about

the nitty-gritty involved in news reporting.

He gave us detailed hierarchy involved in

reporting. He mentioned how reporting

and editing can be hectic being a 24x7 job

and stressed upon how gathering the

reliable sources is crucial for reporting.

Mr. Joshi also emphasized on the critical

role of sub-editor and editor. He

mentioned how a newspaper should

maintain proper equilibrium between

advertisements and news reports.

Competition is fierce in every sector, print

media is no exception, according to him.

He elaborated how online sources and

blogs pose a fierce competition to

newspapers and how newspapers must

face them.

Both of them highlighted the

importance of ethics in print media

business. The media team had an

interactive session with both of them

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which involved extensive sharing of

thoughts and ideas.

At night the team visited their

printing press. Mr.Prafful H. Raut, Senior

Officer and Mr. Chandrahas M. Mhaskar,

Group Officer At the Production Dept.

gave a detailed explanation of the entire

paper printing process starting from the

making of paper plate till the dispatch

process.

He gave a detailed demonstration

of the well structure assembly line in

working and and also listed out the

various types of papers qualities in use.

In the end the entire team thanked

Business standard for such worthwhile

learning sessions especially for giving

them a valuable exposure to the print

media industry.

Ankita Kanse & Adrijit Sengupta

MBA++ (1st Year)

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Cells at PUMBA

Placement Cell

This is the cell that connects the comfort zone of the college and the corporate world which

students aspire to be a part of. The constant interactions with the industry help understand

their needs and the training team delivers on them. Where breaking the stereotypes and

keeping up with the corporate world is an everyday need, Placement Cell manages this

under the effective guidance of Dr. Praful Pawar.

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Alumni Cell

Success isn’t about what you accomplish in your life; it is about what you inspire others to

do.

Alumni cell helps the elite alumni of the institute to reconnect, network and catch up with

old buddies of yesteryear. The alumni provide invaluable feedback, insights and memories

while relieving those moments in college. The cell keeps them updated on the current

happenings of their Alma Mater by events and interactions with current students.

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Seminar Cell

Seminar Cell organizes and conducts workshops, guest lectures and day-seminars. Its efforts

ensure that each step taken by the students with the help of the corporate world assists in

imparting knowledge, foresight and wisdom. The cell fills in for the intricate details by

having panel discussions and expert opinions of industry stalwarts of various fields. The

lively Q&A sessions surely clear thoughts firsthand information.

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Entrepreneurship Development Cell

‘Think Different’ is their mantra. Buzzing with different ideas and the passion to drive them,

believe in them, and accomplish them. The cell helps to nurture this drive and encourage

entrepreneurship among peers who share this vision. Entrepreneurial events and

interactions with entrepreneurs are a couple of things the cell is into, apart from the ‘make

the world a better place’ conversations.

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Cultural Cell

‘The Spirit of PUMBA.’ The cultural cell is entailed with the responsibility of cultivating a

sense of belongingness and pride. It upkeeps the visionary ideas of social responsibility

among the students and exhorts them to imbibe and exhibit the qualities of leadership,

sportsmanship, virtue of tolerance and the never-ending quest for more by organizing

national level Socio-Cultural and Business events.

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Communication Cell

Create. Best communications start with good planning, agenda and a way to deliver the

message.

Connect. Connect by providing information, solutions, entertain ideas and spread the word.

Collaborate. Bring all together, network and provide a platform to express and impress.

Communication Cell communicates internally as well as externally by means of website,

mails, magazines and social media all while promoting the brand PUMBA.

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Through My Lens…

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Aditya Tarange

Rahul Bodake

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Achievements

Event: Bizooka 2.0 (National level

B-plan competition)

Venue: SIIB, PUNE

Participants - Anand Karwa, Veda

Kulkarni, Vinaya Kasture.

Position - Finalist

Event : Amaethon 2016 (Strategia 2016 Case Study Competition)

Venue: IIM- Ahmadabad Participants : Sumit Choudhari,

Shantanu Joshi, Sandeep Achary. Position: 2nd

Event - Footloose 15 Venue - Nirma university , Ahmedabad Position - 2nd

Solo Runner Up- Sayli Damse

Event - Parakram 15 (Sports) Venue - Nirma university ,

Ahmedabad Position - 2nd

Event: Model United Nations (Represented Qatar) Venue: SIIB, Pune Participants: Harshada Thorat, Swarnim Chaudhary

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