“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises” These words by Demosthenes are relevant even today. To promote the same entrepreneurial outlook among the students of IIFT, Sprit, the Entrepreneurship Club at IIFT Kolkata organized an 'Ideation and Venture Designing' workshop-cum-certification course designed by Yash Saxena, IIFT alumnus (2008-10 Delhi batch) and founder of Openfuel - a consulting firm for Start-ups. It was a matter of great pride for the students to interact with the alumnus of their college who has helped to propel the spirit of innovation among the students of various leading engineering and management colleges like IIM A, SPJIMR , MICA and NIT Surat etc. 

The modules offered by Openfuel are on the same lines as those offered by Centre for Design Research, Stanford University and therefore offered a great opportunity to the students to be exposed to the limitless realms of innovation.

The workshop started with a presentation on the ideas of innovation. Yash explained how “Ideas are always copied” and almost every innovation starts with inspiration. Giving examples from life like how a book and computer led to the birth of Encarta and eventually it made way to Wikipedia. “Not accepting what is old” and the belief that the world is going to change is the basis of innovation. Great ideas are horrible at beginning and we should embrace the random stuff because the more random the connection, the greater probability of it not being seen by others.

                

Ideas galore !!

Mr Yash then enlightened us regarding the various startups that have furthered the cause of innovation in the world and upped the ante when it comes to ideation and entrepreneurship. Giving examples of Naukri.com, Zomato, Alibaba etc, he said that the idea of innovation is not new and has been the norm of life since earliest times. 
                              

The participants were divided into 16 groups of five each. He asked each group to choose a company and prepare an ‘Ideation canvas’ on it. Ideation canvas had various elements like the People, Activities, Situation/Context/Location and Props/Possible Solutions. We had to brainstorm as a group and deduce how we could innovate and 'ideate' regarding the company. We were expected to come up with experimental ideas to devise feasible avenues for innovation in the company and also provide our rationale behind the deduction. This was a very engaging discussion as we deliberated as to how to tweak an existing product to bring about a modification in the properties of the product and hence improve its functionality. 

   

The groups then had to present their ideas. All the groups gave lucid and interesting presentations focusing on the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem associated with the particular company. Mr Yash was very impressed by all the teams and said that we all have pushed the envelope when it comes to innovation. He chose the top three teams based on their conception of idea, the level of innovation, out of the box thinking and feasibility of the innovation. The winning team had suggested innovations regarding Netflix and its concept of ‘Jessica’, an interface which would provide customized suggestions regarding the entertainment options according to the preference of the users, was applauded by all.                                    

   It was a very lively, dynamic and engaging workshop that led to a healthy exchange of ideas among the students. It also enabled us to gel as a unit and to think on our feet. It helped to propel the innovative spirit and initiative taking abilities among the students and promoted ingenuity and out-of-the box thinking. The event was hugely successful and we look forward to more of such events.

The credit for the successful workshop goes to all students at IIFT and the event coordinator Mr Rahul Sharma from the MBA 2013-15 batch. 

By Mohd Zeeshan

14th July, 2014, Kolkata: The third edition of the annual post-budget analysis session, Budget Plus 3.0, was organized at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Kolkata. The esteemed discussion panel included Dr. Ranajoy Bhattacharyya, Professor of Economics, IIFT; Dr. Saikat Sinha Roy, Associate Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University; Mr. Akash Mansinka, Manager-Tax and Regulatory Services, EY and Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, Manager-Indirect Tax, EY. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Bibek Ray Chaudhuri, Assistant Professor of Economics, IIFT. 

Dr. K. Rangarajan, Professor of Strategy and Centre Head, IIFT Kolkata welcomed all dignitaries and stated how the budget is indicative of the direction of the Indian economy. He added that IIFT has invited academicians, faculty and industry experts to have a diverse discussion on the budget. 

Members of InFINeeti, the quarterly finance and business magazine, IIFT gave an enlightening presentation on the key highlights of the budget. It was a succinct overview, throwing light on the various schemes and initiatives taken by the Government. Dr. Chaudhuri started the proceedings and spoke on how he looked forward to the economy getting back on track with “higher growth, stable inflation and prudent policy system”, although the double-digit Consumer Price Index was still a major concern. 

Dr. Saikat Sinha Roy stated the economy has not been performing well for the past few years. The trust of the investors in the economy needs to be restored. According to him, the budget “is a document of intent”. The current government manifesto included the need for an overhaul of infrastructure. Conception of ‘100 smart cities’ is a step in this direction. According to him, the implementation of the flagship scheme of the previous government, MNREGA, needs to be relooked. 

Mr. Akash Mansinka discussed about direct tax and said that subsidies should be phased out “for the Indian economy to compete with other economies”. Although the current government is perceived to be industry friendly, yet retrospective taxes have not been removed. Mr. Pankaj Agarwal spoke on indirect taxes and enlightened the gathering on how Service Tax, though introduced only in 1994, garners the highest tax revenues for the Government. He also pointed out the initiatives taken to incentivize the use of renewable energy resources. 

Dr. Ranajoy Bhattacharyya took a different stance from the other panelists and remarked the Government had missed the huge opportunity. Having been elected with an overwhelming mandate, it was time to take few hard measures. According to him, the budget was “pure eyewash”. He questioned the transparency of the Government and its attempt to “surreptitiously reduce expenditure behind the scenes”, referring to the reduction in the expenditure in Agriculture, Rural Development and Social Sector. 

Dr. Chaudhari succinctly summarized key points of each speaker and connected them in context of the entire discussion. After all speakers had spoken, the floor was thrown open to the audience which comprised of students from IIFT. 

The soon-to-be-managers proved to be able listeners and had various questions ranging from the duration of the long term capital gains to increase in FDI in the defence sector. Panelists stated that such an increase would not have a significant impact due to the highly capital intensive nature of the industry. 

The discussion was concluded with the consensus that the budget did fall short of certain expectations but it presents an optimistic state of the economy. The impact of the budget can be fully gauged when we meet next year for Budget Plus 4.0!

By Mohd Zeeshan

Taj Bengal, Kolkata

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade has been a pioneer institute in the field of management education In India over the last fifty years. One reason for that has been successful national conclaves and symposia organized by the institute. After the hugely popular National Trade Symposium in 2012, IIFT Kolkata organized the National IT Conclave on 7th September, 2013 in association with the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. The theme of the event was ‘Paradigm shift in the Global IT industry’ and eminent speakers ranging from government officials to honored academicians to senior corporate managers graced the occasion with their presence. The chief guest for the day was Dr. Chandan Chowdhury (MD India, Dassault Systemes).

The conclave was divided into four sessions, broadly - consulting, operations, e-commerce and HR apart from an inaugural session where the topic was introduced. Proceedings were started by the Centre Head – Dr. K. Rangarajan – who welcomed the guests and spoke about the growing importance of IT in today’s world while stressing on its importance to the MSME sector and subsequently India’s global growth. Dr. Chandan Chowdhury then spoke at length about the changing face of IT and its innovation driving capabilities. From the perspective of Dassault Systemes, he showcased how IT has transformed the workings and processes of sectors as diverse as automobile manufacturing, urban planning, life sciences and homeland security to name a few. The effect of advent of technologies like augmented reality, virtual modeling, fuzzy logic etc. in increasing profitability and efficiency by streamlining the prototype development processes was highlighted. Mr. Sanjeev Nandwani – Development Commissioner, FALTA SEZ, provided a government perspective. He gave an overview about the shift in IT from being a support industry initially to a solutions and consulting approach while underlining the fact that IT is today the prime employer –directly or indirectly in the urban sector while also being India’s biggest and most valued exports to the US/European markets. The session was rounded off by Mr. S. Radhakrishnan , CMD, Descon delivered a thought provoking speech on how the power sector was leveraging IT and also outlined the challenges faced by the IT industry going forward, such as employee attrition, business process transformation, how best to utilize and adapt to SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud stacking technology.

Session 1: Consulting

The session on Consulting was thought provoking as it gave a perspective on how India, a traditional IT hub can be a consulting destination. Mr. Samrat Sen, Director, Cognizant Business Consulting enlightened the audience on the current challenges and trends facing the consulting industry. Mr. Arijit Chakraborty, Director, PwC, began with a heartening topic: “The Decade That Belonged to India”. He mentioned the current progression of IT will lead to the future of “Ubiquitous Consulting: A concept where computers are made to appear anywhere and everywhere”. Mr. Kaustav Ghosh, Advisor, KPMG, provided an informative session and drove the point on thought leadership and how it can transform the IT landscape. After the engaging session, there was a Q&A round which provided a platform for students to interact with these stalwarts from the consulting industry.

Session 2: Manufacturing

The sector which forms the backbone of any economy, Manufacturing was the next topic of deliberation. Mr. Barun Lala, Director, HP mesmerized the audience with his knowledge and spoke on integration of IT across various other industries. He spoke on IT being underutilized in retail by quoting an example of Walmart where all items are RFID tagged. Mr. Akhil Agrawal, COO, Interglobe Technologies gave insightful examples to relate IT to manufacturing and services industry. He brought a new perspective by speaking on SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud) enabling innovation in manufacturing. Mr. Dharmendra Kapoor, VP, HCL Technologies gave a brilliant example of thinking out of the box in the Indian context. He succinctly drove the need for differentiation in the manufacturing policy of companies. Mr. Kapoor’s quote “Put Technology to Lead Business Innovation” formed the essence of the session. Mr. P.K. Biswas, an industry veteran of 30 years and Chief (IT), NHPC spoke on his personal experience of how IT had transformed the power sector. He provided key insights on ground-level realities and opportunities in the IT sector. The session followed a deluge of questions from students which were answered wonderfully by all panelists.

Session 3: E-Commerce

Another major topic of discussion was E-Commerce, a sector which has seen powerful growth in the last few years and promises to be an exciting domain in the future. Given the rapidly increasing rates of internet penetration and a largely untapped rural population, E-Commerce holds a promising future in India. Speakers for the session represented prominent names from the industry. Mr. Amit Sharma from Amazon Web Services discussed how Cloud Computing and Big Data would change the future of this domain. Technologies like Hadoop hold the key to better tracking of customers. He also discussed the importance of Fraud Management in an effort to increase the trust level of buyers. Another important topic discussed in this session was the stark difference in advertising levels in Indian and international companies. While a global player like Amazon spends 3% of its revenues on advertising the corresponding figure for an Indian company like Flipkart is around 20%. Mr. Rishen Kumar Mukherjee, Consultant and advisor to select organizations including CESC brought about a different perspective to the discussion. He raised widely shared concerns about the lack of internet penetration, high cost of customer acquisition and the small e–tailing market. He also questioned the absence of big players from this segment given its supposed growing popularity. IIFT alumnus Mr. Soumya Upadhyay, CEO, Workshop9 discussed his plans to launch a virtual incubator for better collaboration with customers for E-Commerce companies.

Session 4: Human Resources

Last, but not the least was the session on Human Resources. Mr. Dependra Mathur, C&B Head, Infosys BPO, inspired the students to consider careers in HR, by bringing out the importance that an HR professional plays in IT and the role transformation from being a ‘people manager’ to a ‘change manager’. The relevance of the same was further developed by Mr. Rohit Kapoor, HR Head, Dassault Systemes in his impassionate speech that, while advocating technology, also reinforced the importance of a human touch. It certainly cleared many misconceptions that people may have held about HR professionals. Ms. Atreyi Banerjee of Tech Mahindra highlighted the challenges that IT faces in integrating itself with changing technology- in particular the blurring of lines between the workplace and personal life and the resulting flexibility an organization must incorporate to smoothly manage the transition. Mr. Ayan Pal of IBM finally concluded the session with an entertaining and interactive presentation that showcased how social platforms could be leveraged to formulate innovative HR policies that empowered employees to unlock their creativity and potential.

Interaction among students and industry honchos didn’t end after the sessions and continued with informal discussion. The National IT Conclave was a grand success and the presence of eminent personalities from the industry showcased the brand appeal enjoyed by IIFT in the corporate sector. The event was a great success both in terms of the quality of knowledge shared with the budding managers and in terms of the participation by dignitaries from the corporate sector. The conclave also bears testimony to the rising popularity of the institute and it bodes well for the students who will be joining different sectors of corporate India in the years to come.

I KEEP six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who

                                              - Rudyard Kipling

Business Strategy formulation needs these honest serving men to reach a clear cut plan. Socrates, the consulting club of IIFT organized guest lecture by Mr. Subhajit Mazumder on 16th August,2013 in Kolkata campus for second year students. Mr. Subhajit is currently associated with Infosys consulting division and has previously worked with Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC. The topic of discussion revolved around formulation of Business Strategy and how to approach business case study.

He gave industry insights and practical approach on business strategy. Having attended courses in Strategic Management and International Business Strategy, students were able to relate to the session better and could apply frameworks to real case study.

He walked through the right approach for a business problem; starting from internal company assessment, mapping firm in industry scenario to competitor analysis, potential market identification, and feasible road map for future, sustainable financial projections. Live industrial experience sharing helped students to build upon their academic knowledge. Students were given a real case study to brainstorm and come up with a clear cut thought process to approach a problem.

Session summed up with Q&A around consulting profiles in industry and getting more insights from Mr.Mazumder. Such sessions along with academics help students to get the best of both and make learning more meaningful.

‘Hey, I just donated blood for the first time in life’, squeaked the proud me, as I sipped on refreshments. While tweeting the same ,a nice feeling sank in of donating blood for a good cause which may safe a precious life someday and I smiled to myself.

Such noble opportunity came my way in the blood donation camp which was organized in IIFT, Kolkata by Koshish : The social club.  It was organized in coordination with Association of Voluntary Blood Donors West Bengal. This coincided with the golden year celebration of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade as well as marked the foundation day of its Kolkata Center , 16th July.

Blood donation drive was embarked with IIFT Professor Dr. R.P. Dutta as the first donor. 

Doctors did the preliminary tests and fit candidates were taken forward for donation. In case someone was identified as unfit doctors went ahead to give appropriate advice to him/her. Enthusiasm among the students continued as the donors poured in till the end of drive. Happy faces can be seen all around and such infectious optimism got extended to those who were initially apprehensive about donation. 

Around 60 people comprising of students from both the batches 2012-14 and 2013-15 as well as professors, administrative staff successfully donated blood with a promise of coming back again next year with the same zeal.

 “Blood Donation will cost you nothing but it will save a life!”
“Share a little, care a little – Donate Blood.”

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata organized the second edition of Post-Budget Analysis - ‘Budget Plus 2.0’. The panelists of the discussion were Mr. Rajib Basu, Associate Director- PricewaterhouseCoopers, Prof. Ranajoy Bhattacharya, Professor of economics at IIFT, Dr. Ajitava Ray Chaudhuri, Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University, Mr. Anjan Kumar Roy, Member ICSI, Anjan Kumar Roy & Co. Company Secretaries, Mr. Basant Kumar Maheshwari, Founder-TheEquityDesk Dot com. The discussion was presided over by Mr. Sanjeev Nandwani, Development Commissioner, FALTA SEZ.

Mr. Nandwani threw the discussion open emphasizing that budgets are a continuous process and who the Finance Minister is, plays a very little role on what the government’s policies are going to be. He pointed out that a major part of the budget’s every year focus is on meeting the 5 year plan targets.

Then, Mr. Nandwani asked the esteemed panel members to offer their opening remarks. Prof. Ranajoy analyzed the budget from an economic perspective. He observed that contrary to the belief that there would be a growth oriented approach by inclusion of economists such as Dr. Raghuram Rajan and the Finance Minister Mr. Chidambram would bring to the table has not occurred and the budget is oxymoronic to the approach paper of the 5 year plan. He deemed the budget to be neither pro-growth nor pro-social reform. Dr. Ajitava, in his analysis, divided the budget into 4 segments. The first, he said, was that the budget has been a continuation of old stories, but cited that there has been a 46 percent increase in the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Rural Development. Another important point he touched upon was regarding the women banks. In his opinion, empowering the women by leveraging on the existing systems would have been better rather than the new provision for women banks. In his words, the govt. is “for the people, by the people and whoever for…” and this budget has proved to be a signaling mechanism to the masses. Mr. Rajib Basu took a different stance from the two economists and praised the Finance Minister for the work he has done given the constraints of the upcoming elections. In his words, “the budget is a statement and the money is being put into the right sectors” but raised questions on the amount of money allocated to these sectors. He also questioned the implementation of the policies which are announced in the budget and called for setting up of institutions for efficient implementation. Mr. Anjan Kumar Roy said that the budget has something for everyone and was a balance of reform and social sector measures. He said that the problem lay in implementation of such policies and has been so for the past 30 years. Mr. Maheshwari argued that “budgets have a shelf life of 72 hours”. He said that the investors in the stock market pay very little heed to the provisions in the Budget and exclaimed “good companies get around bad budgets and make money for their shareholders, while bad companies do not make money even in good budgets” pointing out that the stock market runs its course irrespective of the budget.

After the opening remarks, the floor was thrown open for discussion and Mr. Nandwani asked the panelists for their remarks on whether the budget was a populist measure or a policy measure and enquired their views regarding particular sectors. The issue of the declining savings rate in India from 36 percent to 30 percent was discussed at length and Mr. Ajitava remarked that the rent-seekers needed to have a leash and India cannot depend on foreign investors all the time. Various other issues such as the Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) following the FIIs in the primary markets and the buoyancy of the capital markets were pondered upon. When it came to the issue of disinvestment, Mr. Basant proposed the idea of giving away 200 stocks to every PAN card holder at a discount rather than to LIC as a measure of keeping the investor’s money with them only.

The audience constituting the students of IIFT, Kolkata campus asked pertinent questions regarding liquidity issues arising out of disinvestment, the overshooting of the target of 10000 crores due to the Food Subsidy Bill and the introduction of CTT to discourage people for investing in gold and silver.

The Panel concluded the discussion citing that although the budget touched everybody, it did not focus on any particular sector. 

The word Advait essentially stands for oneness, non-duality or integrity. It holds a lot of relevance because our aim here at IIFT is not just to limit ourselves to acquiring knowledge or skill sets. We aspire to evolve into wholesome, responsible, contributing individuals of the society providing solutions that can be “integrated” with the world, to meet its needs, and promote a sense of “oneness” or Advait.

Keeping that in mind, a series of events and competitions that are practical, relevant and are perfect simulations of what is “out there” were conducted at the IIFT Kolkata campus which saw participation from business schools all over the country.

Rannbhoomi, a unique strategy event, offered the participants an opportunity to get into the shoes of the ultimate decision making authority of a company, namely the CXO officers and take decisions in order to steer their company through tough times.

Winners of Rannbhoomi accepting the prize from the judges

Vivarann – the Stock Pitch competition organized by Cashonova, the Finance club of IIFT, tested the equity analysis skills of some of the best brains in India.

Vichaar Vimarsh organized by BLASH, the Trade Club of IIFT, is a conceptual simulation of WTO, which aimed at providing a platform to budding managerial students to showcase their understandings of international business and trade.

Since its inception Advait has been growing and with the efforts of the students fueled by their enthusiasm it will be nurtured further to greater heights.

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, in association with the National Entrepreneurship Network, organized the E-Summit- an annual event for aspiring entrepreneurs. The event was organized by Spirit, the entrepreneurship cell of IIFT. The theme of the event was ‘Entrepreneurship in today’s world’.



The event witnessed several corporate leaders and entrepreneurs from different fields of work share their experiences and provide insight into the world of entrepreneurship.

The event kick-started with an opening speech by Mr. Bharat Baid, a chartered accountant by profession and a financial consultant. He threw light upon the various facets of entrepreneurship, in particular the legal aspects to it and highlighted upon the need for entrepreneurship in today’s world. He also spoke about Institutional Entrepreneurship where a basic infrastructure is provided which acts as the stepping stone for future success. He asked the students to “unbrand themselves” as MBAs and do some value creation for the society.

The second speaker for the evening was Mr. Hari Balasubramanian, chairman of Ontrack Systems Ltd. and an entrepreneur since the past 25 years. He spoke about how he expected the socio-economic environment to be few years from now. He also shared his views about some of the hot trending career paths for the next decade. His in depth knowledge combined with his amicable nature kept the audience enthralled for 45 minutes. In his own words, “don’t look for money, look for satisfaction”.

The event also had Mr. Abhishek Rungta, an alumnus of the University of Bath UK, who has been practicing entrepreneurship in more than one field of work. From setting up of an internet consulting firm (Indus Net Technologies) to providing new age education through the Indus Net Academy to co-founding a venture capitalist firm called Seeders Venture Capital Pvt Ltd, Mr. Rungta had accomplished a lot at a very early stage of his life. The core aspects of his speech were pertaining to the financial issues that a start-up firm faces and what is it that a venture capitalist looks for before funding a start-up business.

The final speaker of the evening was Prof Arup Choudhuri, founder president of Acasia Consulting. He primarily shared his personal experiences in the field of entrepreneurship. Prof Arup, very evidently a man of wit, humored his speech with some several funny incidents of his life pertaining to entrepreneurship and thus kept the audience’s attention till the very end.

All in all, the students found the event to be very enriching. The event was not only stimulating but also provided the students with invaluable insights into a myriad of aspects associated with entrepreneurship.

By: Sruti Chatterjee

Today’s children will be the one who will be shaping the bright future of our country. Keeping this theme in mind , ‘Koshish’ – social responsibility club of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata along with college’s student body IMF ,has recently organized ‘Samanvaya’ marking the 6^th Foundation Day of IIFT ,Kolkata which falls on 16th July. Underprivileged children of all age groups associated with Calcutta Samaritans adorned ‘Samanvaya’ with their cheerful presence.

Calcutta Samaritans is one of the prominent NGOs based in Kolkata and has been working for the upliftment of street children since 1971.It addresses various issues ranging from de-addiction to AIDS and is active in the rehabilitation of such children for their better future. The event was attended by Mr. Timothy Barito, director of pavement club along with other teachers, who have been working self lessly for enriching the life of these children.

Mr.Timothy addressed the students to sensitize them to the needs and problems of society. His words encouraged them to take up the opportunities to give it back to the society as IIFT mandates two week internship in an NGO as part of its curriculum. The special attraction of the event was the joyful dance performance by the colorfully dressed enthusiastic little children. Talent has no boundaries and this was evident in the Bengali play based on Rabindranath Tagore which was also performed. Eminence talent with such simplicity touched everyone’s heart.

A small painting competition-‘Taare Zameen Par’ was also organized which saw active participation from all children and best paintings out of all were awarded .The event ended amid chuckles and memories captured to be relived later.

‘Samanvaya’ – true to its name has led to the interaction of students of IIFT with the children sensitizing them to the various issues of society. A few smiles shared will have a positive impact on both sides of the society.

By: Akanksha Garg