The entire city of Kolkata was decked up with lights and there was the constant resonating boom of crackers on Diwali night. As the city was celebrating the festival of lights, we,  the students of IIFT gathered at one of the hostel’s to take part in celebrating this auspicious day in our own special way.

Transition from monotonous business suits to the traditional attires with a bling and riot of colors, was much needed to embrace Diwali in its full flavour. Gaiety was in the air as we warmly greeted one another and lit lamps in the hostel. As tradition goes, Lakshmi puja was conducted by the students as they prayed that the glow of joy, prosperity and happiness illuminates their days in the years ahead. The buzz of mobile phones announced the arrival of bhajans which were shared on the respective Whatsapp groups so that all the tech savvy students could join in singing them together. Enthusiasm and energy levels were on a high as we had a gala time bursting crackers, of which the rockets had many of us holding our breaths as some closely missed getting into the hostel rooms. Rekindling the spirit of festivity over a sumptuous meal, crackers of laughter could be heard all over the place. As the celebrations were drawing to a close, the students went into a party mode as popular songs were played and both the senior and junior batch students joined together in a few last dances as they left for their respective hostels.

Wiping a tear or two of nostalgia of not being at home on Diwali, IIFT, a second home for us all brought a heartwarming smile and a memory to tuck into our hearts for the years to come by.

After the level of intensity witnessed during Basketball, people thought things would be quieter when the teams gathered for Volleyball and Badminton. Obviously, they underestimated the desire for teams to win at all cost!

The day started with Volleyball where GKG proved to be the strongest team on the show and beat HOM in their first round. GOK beat TNHP easily to set up a thrilling finale. Needless to say, the matches had their moments with one of the team owners getting into an argument and players indulging in harmless 'name-calling'. The 3rd-4th round match between TNHP and HOM was dominated by TNHP which made them wonder what could have been had they got their positioning right in the first match.

The final was a close-knit affair as both GKG and GOK were playing well and not giving away free points. Nikhil Wagle, team owner with his golden arm and Kunal Malhotra, with quick hands at the net, swung the match in GKG's favor. After the win, GKG became table toppers but as the day ended, they were in for a surprise!

Badminton proved to be equally exhilarating as players from all four teams played their hearts out to win points for their team. Players overcame dehydration, fatigue, pressure and an highly vocal audience...;p. Individual brilliance from Tushar Soni, ably supported by Jatin Munjal, meant TNHP took away the honors, but they were given a tough fight by HOM. GOK came back strongly after their close defeat to HOM to pick up a solitary point leaving three teams on the top of the table with 12 points!

The players will be back with Football, Cricket and Tug of War. Till then, keep swearing..oops i mean cheering!

For an activity that takes your heart and soul, involves your mind and body it was a natural progression. Games begin in the mind before you move on to the real act itself. And nothing gets players in the heat of the game more than some mental stimulation. And thus began Titanomachy this year. The play for Titanomachy began with blitz chess. Team TNHP and HOM sounded the battle horn and knights started flirting with queens. Meanwhile GKG and GOK started dueling on the sidelines. Rooks were slaughtered, bishops were sacrificed and when the fog of war cleared, the pawnsters from HOM that emerged the champions of blitz chess, defeating GOK in the final battle of the checkered board.

The battle was won but the war remained, from Space Circle, where Balls of Fury were whizzing around at sonic speeds in the Table Tennis encounters. Solo, doubles or mixed doubles you name it. Table Tennis at Titanomachy had something for everyone’s taste. Nakul Gupta showed deadly table edge precision while Dipanjan Biawas was his usual Bengali self. GOK came out to be the TT Champs at Titanomachy 2013 after Vartika and Nakul won the mixed Doubles match to take an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Basketball is one of the most physically demanding sports there is and it was arguably the most aggressively contested one at Titanomachy.

Gaurav Bajaj (2012-14 batch) writes:

“Thundershowers, lightning, drizzle, beautiful fast rains - we all must have witnessed these weathers through our lifetime. But it's not every day that you get to see these weathers in the same day - something that was adamantly visible on the Basketball Court at Space Circle tonight. For those of you who were not a witness to the basketball chronicles today, well - you really missed something! Especially if you like the typical masala-stuffed Bollywood movies or turbulent TV shows like Bigg Boss (I thought I should begin with a joke but this one actually turns out to be true)

In our first match for the day, TNHP went one-on-one against GOK. The match turned out to be a mauling (with no disrespect to GOK, they just could not match TNHP's swagger). The score line stood at 20-0 at the end. It was like the scene from 3 Idiots - TNHP said Chamatkaar and GOK got Balaatkar! GOK just fell behind in line, caught in their own tails; eventually the misery was contemplated in just one dialogue - "Abey Kutte aage aa!" Everyone present could not help themselves but chuckle upon hearing this frivolous cry of frustration from a player in angst who tried valiantly but just could never get the proper service or the skills from the team! Ah, the moment is unretractable but i firmly believe etched in the minds of all those present. TNHP, on their part, had a strong set of players who contemplated well with each other - a fact aptly displayed by the score line 

And after witty dialogues and hearty laughs, all die-hard Bollywood dramas need some action! And action-was-a-plenty in the second match, between HOM and GKG. Both teams had players with good abilities - it was a good match on paper; on the court, it turned out to be an all-out war. Players crashing on the court, rough fouls, strong backing up and both teams keeping their defenses tight. The score remained 0-0 in the first half. The second half started in the same fashion - same tempo but with a basket scored by GKG. But it was as the third quarter ended that the match took an unprecedented turn - actually for the worse! All hell broke loose with one instance of a punch thrown; within moments sledging turned to physical involvement, heated exchanges, on rush of people from the audience to separate the engaged parties, more sledging, news of the match being abandoned, 40-50 ppl stacked up on the court, Anarchy, Chaos - it was a scene the Joker would have been proud of  Anyways, after more than half an hour of mayhem, Batman saved Gotham (captains and referee sorted it all out together) and the match was back on again with three FTs awarded to HOM for the foul - one was converted and score was brought to 2-1. A rapid last quarter saw both teams firing baskets and finally, GKG prevailed 8-5 to reach the finals. It was in the end our own Hillsborough disaster - only difference being that the competitive spirit and sportsmanship was what died a meager death here. It can be treated as a gossip story but it was essentially against sports etiquettes. In the heat of the spirit, we do regrettable things against our basic morals. Just hoping that it will not repeat in the remainder of this Titanomachy edition and we see rest of the sports played in the right spirit of competitiveness

And after that moral epiphany, back to the remaining games. 3rd Place was taken by HOM in a 6-2 win over GOK. GOK performed immensely better as a unit in this match but HOM ran away with the solitary point with a defining performance, totally reflective of their true caliber

The final between GKG and TNHP was a game between two giants. Although time deficit caused by the earlier debacle led to each quarter being restricted to a 3-minute time frame, both teams stepped up to the plate with strong conviction and a quality set of players. Over the first three quarters, TNHP took a 2-pt lead twice, both times equalized by GKG. The game involved rapid attacks by both teams along with more offensive strategies. A third basket in the 4th quarter of the game seemed to give TNHP the edge but a final needs to have a special moment - this one had its when GKG hit a three pointer in the middle of the last quarter to take a 7-6 lead. And that's how it remained till the end. GKG played catch up during the entire match but just crossed the line a bit better than THNP in a true photo finish. Both teams surely deserve a great round of applause for the enlivening the spirit and enthralling the crowd; in fact, all four teams did that.  And despite the shadows of negativity still present in hunches, it turned to be an extravagant affair - one thoroughly enjoyed by both the audience and the players.

P.S.: A special mention for the 'Jaddu ki Jhappis' one of the players gave to opposition players from behind during the game. I don't believe you are going to witness that again in a basketball if you missed it tonight (then again, I could not have predicted what happened today either).

‘But monument themselves memorials need’: George Crabbe

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata was fortunate to have as a visitor Ms Birgit Dulski on Wednesday, 20^th November thanks to our faculty Dr P.K.Das. Ms Birgit is a senior researcher in sustainable building from the Nyenrode Center for Sustainability in the Netherlands. Since 2001 she has led various projects, initiatives and research surrounding the sustainable preservation of historic and characteristic buildings. She is also involved in other research projects of the Center for Sustainability and in architectural contests where sustainability plays an important role. She combines her position at Nyenrode with a career as senior consultant at the Dutch Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (NIBE).

She gave an interesting presentation on ‘Changing Conditions for Local Architectural Heritage Management’. The presentation started with the changing scenario of the Dutch construction sector due to the European debt crisis, as a result of which all stakeholders are looking at alternative and more effective business models in order to preserve heritage sites and their sustainable renovation. Ms Birgit with the help of her team has set up a ‘Network Sustainable Architectural Heritage Management for Governmental Bodies’  which has resulted in significant changes with both private players and the government coming forward. This also shows the importance of cultural entrepreneurship and is a good lesson for counterparts in India which has a rich history when it comes to monuments.

The presentation was followed by an extensive interactive session with the students with Ms Birgit obliging the students with convincing answers and sharing her views on how she looked at the management of Indian heritage sites. It was a pleasant experience for the students with insights on cultural entrepreneurship and lessons on management and research from an experienced professional from abroad.

The stage is set and emotions are high, as the students of IIFT Kolkata gather for the player auctioning round of the annual sports fest Titanomachy. With colorful team names and high level strategies formed by the team managers that would leave Sir Alex Ferguson to shame, it promises to be a fun ride. The sports to be played this year include Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Chess and everyone's favorite Tug of War.

The teams lined up for the event are Gangs of Keshtopur (GoK), House of Marauders (HOM), Gogo ke Gladiators (GkG) and Tumse na ho Payega (TNHP). Before the bidding, we have seen lot of bickering among the teams, especially on their names, with some tongue-in-cheek comments being made. The overall budget set for each team is Rs. 10,000 (8,000 for guys and 2,000 for girls). Rohit Kumar (2012-14 batch), the Joint Cultural Secretary of IIFT, is conducting the bidding in true IPL fashion. Teams start off cautiously but floodgates soon open as Vishnu Karthik, arguably the best football player in both batches combined is sold for a whooping Rs. 2,000

GkG seems to have a lot of sentimental attachment to some players or a 'player'. They have bid as high as 1,400 for a girl, considering the total budget for girls is 2,000! As an audience member correctly points out, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, to one of the team owners who shall not be named. After few more comments, the Gladiators have justified by stating that the bid was purely due to capability and not personal history!

Gaurav Bajaj (2012-14 batch) is making sure that people who are unfortunately missing out on watching the action unfold live are getting regular updates on Facebook. One of the students from the 2013-15 batch is overly eager to know his bidding price and has vigorously promoted his capabilities to all team owners before the event! Well, the promotion has worked as he is sold for 1,700. As the auction progresses, reputations are made or tarnished, as each player is given a price tag. As the auction ends, each team is going back with a satisfied smile thinking they have the winning combination. Only time will tell who will have the last laugh. Let the war begin!

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.

Please follow this link for this week's edition of the InFINeeti Newsletter.

The newsletter is published weekly by the editors of the InFINeeti Magazine- Akanksha Hajela, Bhushan Kanathe, Kunal Maheshwari, Vaibhav Garg and Md. Umair Ansari.

Link to the Newsletter-
http://issuu.com/infineeti/docs/infineeti_newsletter_july_week_3

‘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.”