Premier B-school Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) today said it has initiated the process of setting up a fund which shall provide support to research on emerging economies.

IIM-A to set up fund for research on emerging economies

Press Trust of India

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) will organise the International Finance Conference on Monday, January 10. The conference will be inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee, Union finance minister. Also present at the event will be Ajit Balakrishnan, founder Rediff and IIM-C alumnus.

IIM-Calcutta to host finance conference

Business Standard

As credit rating agencies get ready to grade business schools, the jury is out on whether the process will be of much use.

Now, rating for B-schools

Anand Sudarshan, CEO, Manipal Education, avoids questions on the institute's planned initial public offering (IPO). But he is ready to discuss the education reforms India needs. Timely reforms, he feels, could have helped inclusivity and enabled the country produce more graduates. Excerpts from an interview with Praveen Bose.

Q&A: Anand Sudarshan, CEO, Manipal Education

Tracking of consumers has helped shape many moves of Shoppers Stop &mdash; from merchandising and increasing the ticket size of purchases to opening of new stores The slowdown that came fast and furious in 2008 drove home the virtues of thrift to the country&rsquo;s retailers. Most renegotiated rents, squeezed the last paisa out of the vendor, shut down stores that were no longer viable and pruned the workforce.

Consumers lead the way

Addressing internal audit and risk management are top-of-mind issues for today's executives. Protiviti Inc, one of the world&rsquo;s largest independent business and risk consulting firms, specialises in internal audit, estimated to be a Rs 1,35,000-crore business globally. The firm competes with the big four &mdash; PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst &amp; Young and KPMG.

Q&A: Gary Peterson, Protiviti Inc

Companies with a continuous product development pipeline have been able to deliver sustained profitability and growth.

Innovate or perish

On June 29 last year, while addressing shareholders at TTK Prestige&rsquo;s 54th annual general meeting in Hosur, Chairman TT Jagannathan made an interesting detour. Not so long, he told the shareholders, the company was in the grips of a crisis. The combination of high excise and sales taxes had punched a hole in its pocket, and exports had taken a hit after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The low point was reached in 2002-03: Sales had slumped to Rs 113 crore, there was an operating loss of Rs 17 crore on the company&rsquo;s books, and the debt burden had mounted to Rs 80 crore. With quiet pride, Jagannathan then read out the numbers for 2009-10: Turnover of Rs 516 crore, operating income of Rs 76 crore and free cash balances of Rs 30 crore, in spite of capital expenditure of Rs 40 crore.

Recipe for growth

In an effort to bring a new set of consumers on board, luxury car maker BMW recently launched its least expensive name-plate &mdash; the BMW X1. The sports utility vehicle (SUV), available in both diesel and petrol variants, will retail in the price range of Rs 22 to Rs 29.9 lakh. With its portfolio of over 10 sedans and SUVs, the company has established a stronghold in the Indian passenger car market. Pinc Research auto analyst Vineet Hetamasaria says: &ldquo;BMW&rsquo;s overall sale has recorded 50 per cent growth in the last year, with premium and luxury car segment witnessing 74 per cent growth&rdquo;.

Affordable luxury

Sustainable healthcare. That&rsquo;s the crux of GE&rsquo;s healthymagination strategy, launched in 2009 globally. Slated to run through 2015, the idea is to enable better healthcare focusing on cost, access and quality and help level the playing field in healthcare. GE Healthcare South Asia President &amp; CEO V Raja says: &ldquo;We believe GE&rsquo;s healthymagination is a script written specifically for India. India faces three challenges in its healthcare system. While 73 per cent of the Indian population lives in small towns or rural areas without access to quality healthcare, over 70 per cent of healthcare professionals live in urban areas, catering to the 27 per cent of urban Indians. The distribution is unfair. We need newer and innovative solutions that are designed specifically for India if we are to enable better healthcare for more people.

Healthcare solutions

India&rsquo;s current annual consumption of design services is estimated at Rs 3,400 crore. This is expected to grow to Rs 12,300 crore in the next five years.

KIT: Design education in India

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The top 10 business bestsellers

&nbsp;

    Which company, known for its innovativeness, inserted chips with an audio message in newspapers and used Heli-banners in Mumbai to attract people?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Which movie has got these linked: Oakley3D glasses, Quorra Platform sandals, Monster&rsquo;s iPod docks and Coke Zero?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    A new-age company has borrowed the direct sales model of Avon Products, supply chain management of Toyota Motors, Dell&rsquo;s customisation techniques and

The Strategist Quiz (#183)

&nbsp;

    Who purchased a Boeing 767 from Qantas Airways for $15 million to make it a company jet?
    The Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    The founder of which company was awarded both the Nobel Prize and a Grammy Award?
    Generation Investment Management&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Link whiz kid at Ford Motors, World Bank president, first seat belts in Ford passenger cars and what do you get?
    Robert McNamara, who was a part of the statistical control

Answers to last week&#39s quiz (#182)

The largest standalone mobile phone retailer is trying to beat margin blues by doing things on a much bigger platform than competition.

Mobilestore's USP: Scale

The year 2010 started with Viacom18's flagship channel Colors grabbing the number one slot amongst Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC). Mid-way through the year, however, it relinquished the position to Star Plus, which went up on the gross rating points (GRP) chart with a new look and feel. Colors has been unable to regain the top slot even with its star-studded reality shows.

Q&A: Rajesh Kamat, COO, Viacom18 Group and CEO, Colors

Nearly everybody fell in love with the Jaago Re campaign of Tata Tea. The campaign showed simple aspects of our daily life, highlighted how we have forgotten our basic duties as citizens of India, and urged the audience to &lsquo;wake up&rsquo;. These set of ads stood out in the crowd and mostly focused on the functional aspect of tea. There have been some attempts by other players to build emotional associations; one that comes to mind is by &lsquo;Bagh Bakri&rsquo; Tea, which soughtto revive family ties. However, they were either farfetched, or too lame to create any major impact. Waking up, in a literal sense is deeply associated with tea. The campaign Jaago Re, very smartly leveraged that connect, and took it to a whole new level of social responsibility.

Wasting the Jaago Re campaign

Rating agency Crisil has launched its pioneering service, grading of educational institutions, beginning with the business school segment. Under this service, Crisil will provide an independent, robust and all round assessment of the ability of an institute to impart quality education and achieve desired student outcomes through the graded programmes. At the launch event, Crisil released grades for 24 management programmes, covering 20 institutes from Bhubaneshwar (1), Chennai (1), Coimbatore (1), Delhi (3), Gurgaon (1), Guwahati (1), Hyderabad (1), Mumbai and Navi Mumbai (5), Noida (1) and Pune (5).

Crisil initiates grading of business schools

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector bank, has signed an agreement with NIIT University to launch a Master of Business Administration (Finance &amp; Banking) programme.

ICICI Bank ties up with NIIT for MBA courses

The Indian School of Business (ISB) and beverage giant Coca-Cola today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up a retail academy on the institute&rsquo;s Hyderabad campus for providing a certificate programme in strategic retail management (CSRM) for senior retail professionals.

ISB, Coke float retail academy

In just three months from now, &lsquo;Hamara Bajaj&rsquo; could become &lsquo;Hamara Pulsar&rsquo; or &lsquo;Hamara Discover&rsquo;. &nbsp;And the man presiding over this mega transition will be none other than a Bajaj himself &ndash; Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj.

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