Sunday 15 September 2013

JUBILATE 2013

“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.“

With Jubilate 2013 just around the corner, it is time to welcome our fellow brethren at FORE and bask in the glory of their success. Jubilate – the annual alumni meet of FORE School of Management aims to keep the former students of FORE connected to their roots. It gives them a day to reflect over the years gone by, the hardships faced, the accolades earned, opportunities lost, dreams fulfilled and above all to celebrate themselves. 

FORE has always taken pride in its esteemed alumni and an event like this to welcome them again strengthens the bond and bridges the gap between the past and present of the college. It is an overwhelming sight to see the alumni recollecting their stories of college classrooms, cafeteria and auditorium like it was a thing of yesterday. The warm welcome by the junior batch, the sensational band performance, the amazing skit, the alumni recognition awards and nostalgic recollections of the past followed by food and cocktail were the highlights of Jubilate 2012. The event which is primarily organized by the FAN (FORE Alumni Network) committee has proved to be a huge success over the years and promises a lot more this year as well.
So, let’s gear up for Jubilate 2013 – a mesmerizing experience where the wisdom of past meets the enthusiasm of present.

Saturday 14 September 2013

SUPER 8

Super 8 is the annual cricket intra-college tournament held at FORE.
Like previous years, the contest drew participation from cricket buffs from the the 1st and 2nd years. The tournament kicked off on the 8th of August, and drew participation from 12 teams of eight players each. The teams were divided into 4 groups of three teams , with the top two teams from each group advancing to compete in the quarter-finals. Teams put their best foot forward to grab the 4 semi-final berths.
After two weeks of non-stopping cricket action, four teams finally made it. In order to up the ante, team FSD increased the number of overs from 8 to 10 for the semi-finals and the finals.  The final match saw Mental Warriors and Underdogs fight it out on the cricket pitch to take the top prize. The Underdogs started the game and set a competitive target of 75 runs for their opponents. Anuj was the standout player for the Underdogs and contributed 37 runs to his team’s total, hitting five 4s in the process. Sarthak (Mental Warriors) posted impressive bowling figures for his team (3overs, 3 wickets and 16 runs conceded).

The chasing team however, held their own and chased the target in 31 balls only, losing two wickets in the process. Calm and composed knocks by Amit and Sarthak (34 and 30 respectively) took their team across the finish line. Sarthak Vij took the Man of the Match prize for his all round performance.
Team Mental Warriors with the trophy
All matches in the tournament were played with exemplary sportsmanship. Since this was the first sports event for the new batch of 2013-15, team FSD can pat themselves on the back for conducting another successful tournament. Yet another feather in their cap !

CONFLUENCE 2013

The Corporate Interaction Division, which is the official student-driven interface between the students of FORE School of Management and the corporate world, organized a seminar on 29th of August, 2013, aptly named “Confluence 2013”, where four highly esteemed experts from diverse backgrounds and organisations spoke and enlightened us on the topic of “Challenges and opportunities in catering to the bottom of the pyramid”.
The event was chaired by Prof. Freda Joseph Swaminathan , a senior member of the faculty at FSM. She began the proceedings by introducing the guest speakers to us. Then she gave us a brief overview of the topic under discussion and in the process made references to Mr C.K. Prahalad, whose book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” was a seminal work on the subject. She also looked back on her days at IIM Ahmedabad, when she was a student of Mr C.K. Prahalad. She lamented the fact that very few people nowadays want to cater to the bottom of the pyramid.
The first speaker invited to the lectern was Mr Ajay Chowdhury, who is the Vice President & Head HR at SRF Ltd. His speech was centred on harnessing the power of the people. He opined that all pyramids are contextual, which is why an economy class traveller is at the bottom of the pyramid in one context and at the top of the pyramid in another. He talked about the role he plays in catering to the bottom of the pyramid as member of his organization. As Mr Ajay Chowdhury has been in HRM all his life, he likes to get involved directly in the various rural development programmes that his company undertakes. He personally trains people in two or three sports in the rural areas. His company also organizes a Nature Resource Management Programme, whose function is to convert non-arable land into arable land.
The next person to speak was Mr Joginder Bajaj.  He has work experience of over 36 years in Punjab National Bank and is presently the General Manager there. He too advocated the idea of “eradicating poverty through profit” as propounded by Mr C.K. Prahalad. He outlined the major obstacles lying in the way of eradicating poverty through profit, such as the lack of awareness in the business community of the potential of the hitherto untapped market at the bottom of the pyramid, lack of money, lack of infrastructure and most importantly the lack of willingness across the business community to engage in developmental work in rural areas.
Mr Sanjay Kumar Nigam, Head, SCM and Procurement, Mara-ison Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was the next to take the lectern. He spoke at length about the present economic scenario, the depreciation of the rupee and the implications of the same for the people at the bottom of the pyramid.
The final speaker for the day was Mr. Samik Dasgupta, Deputy General Manger, IFCI. He gave a fiery speech on the need for a complete overhaul of the approach of the business community towards the bottom of the pyramid. He stressed on the need for a bottom-up approach and declared that a top-down model will never work.
Next we had a Q & A session, which gave the students an opportunity to interact freely with the experts.
And finally, Prof Swaminathan brought the event to a close by summing up the discourse, thanking the guests for their invaluable inputs, and gifting mementos to the guests.