Wednesday, January 31, 2007

XL Celeb Watch : Lehman Brothers appoints Surojit Shome (86BMD) as New MD

Lehman Brothers appoints Surojit Shome (86BMD) as New MD

Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, today announced the appointment of Surojit Shome (86BMD) as managing director and head of Investment Banking, India, based in Mumbai.

Mr. Shome brings to the Firm a depth of experience in the Indian market covering the corporate banking, capital markets and investment banking product range. He is responsible for building the Firm’s investment banking franchise in that market and reports to Kunho Cho, head of Investment Banking, Asia Pacific, at Lehman Brothers, and Tarun Jotwani, chairman and chief executive officer, India, at Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Shome joins Lehman Brothers from Citigroup, where he was most recently a managing director and head of Corporate Banking for the Indian sub-continent overseeing corporate and financial institutions coverage teams for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. He has a bachelors degree in Economics & Statistics from Presidency College, Kolkata and a postgraduate degree in business management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

XL's 1-Yr Full Time Exec-MBA - Candidates' Profile

Folks!

XL's One-Year full-time Executive MBA Program (They stay at campus for one year - actually 4 terms - and undergo 32 courses. ) is perhaps the oldest in the country - started on '96 or so.

However, this is the first year when XL is providing them with placement facilities (earlier a large number of people used to be sponsored by companies, when 2-3 years back the number of self-sponsored candidates started increasing - this year 50/55 in the batch are self-sponsored)

Given the profile of the batch - and their term timings (they finish in end-April, as compared to the day-batch who finish the course-work in end-Feb):

- their CRP is scheduled separately from the day-batch CRP,
- is staggered starting from Feb 20th, and
- will be held at XL, Kolkata and Mumbai over the next two month.

The over-all batch profile is as follows:

WORKEX:
3-4 yrs: 12%
4-5 yrs: 38%
5-6 yrs: 27%
6-8 yrs: 10%
>8 yrs: 13%

SECTORS:
Manufacturing 32%
IT/ITES 29%
Banking 15%
Power 8%
Infrastructure 6%
Telecom 6%
Others 4%

DOMAINS:
Operations: 38%
IT/ITES: 28%
Finance: 15%
Marketing: 15%
Others: 4%

EDUCATION:
Engineering: 77%
Science: 10%
Commerce: 6%
Humanities: 2%
Others: 5%

For those looking for junta with work-ex, hope this will help

ciao
madhukar

Lehman Brothers appoints Surojit Shome (86BMD)

Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, today announced the appointment of Surojit Shome (86BMD) as managing director and head of Investment Banking, India, based in Mumbai.

Mr. Shome brings to the Firm a depth of experience in the Indian market covering the corporate banking, capital markets and investment banking product range. He is responsible for building the Firm’s investment banking franchise in that market and reports to Kunho Cho, head of Investment Banking, Asia Pacific, at Lehman Brothers, and Tarun Jotwani, chairman and chief executive officer, India, at Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Shome joins Lehman Brothers from Citigroup, where he was most recently a managing director and head of Corporate Banking for the Indian sub-continent overseeing corporate and financial institutions coverage teams for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. He has a bachelors degree in Economics Statistics from Presidency College, Kolkata and a postgraduate degree in business management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

--
Posted By Madhukar to XLRI Alumni: Making News at 1/30/2007 01:09:00 PM

Monday, January 29, 2007

Singapore - the experience @ the wine company:)

whale of a time
with choicest of wine
cheese, pasta and fish
at the wine company @ evans, it was.

the exclusive private dining
in an otherwise packed eatery
the entire place just for the nine of us
a special experience indeed!!!

yes! there was no gango quiz
nor the class room setting
but discussions that flowed
were no less easy to follow either

mea culpa, xat, woody allen, business world ranking
use of colors in the departed
beethoven 7th symphony
morning raagas to xl branding

wow! all in just 90 minutes
may be it was the wine
may be it was the company
the experience @ the wine company:)

a memorable evening indeed!

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Rajesh Soundararajan

Friday, January 26, 2007

XL Meet on 30th March in UK???

Hello folks!
I am planning to be in UK end of March
those of you who have been, as some character in PG Wodehouse once put is "watching my career with considerable interest", would have noticed this change in field of interest:
in any case, I will be in UK, Oxford Univ to attend the Social Entrepreneurship Forum during 25-30th... the engagements are during 26th and 29th.
Was wondering if there is a chance for all of us - or as many of us as possible - to meet on the 30th - somewhere, some place??
ciao
madhukar
ps: dont tell me that I did not give you enough warning to plan you outbound travel;0))

Monday, January 22, 2007

A Small B-School Can Be a Big Plus

Small-town schools offer a lot that big-city schools don't, especially a close-knit community and strong attachment between student and institution

The advantages of going to a large business school in an urban area appear obvious to many applicants. After all, the thinking goes, big cities are where big business is done (not to mention the restaurants, the nightlife, the healthy population of old college buddies to ease the transition).

And a bigger school, it stands to reason, often means more of everything—more resources, more elective choices, more classmates with whom to network, and so on. And while you already know bigger isn't always better, isn't it hard enough figuring out the relative merits of New York vs. Chicago and lecture vs. case method without throwing in a slew of schools in towns you couldn't find on a map?

If that line of thinking sounds familiar—and admissions consultants such as Clear Admit's Graham Richmond say it's quite common—you might want to take a step back and consider that the experience of attending B-school in a town like Charlottesville, Va., Hanover, N.H., or Ithaca, N.Y. has its own upside. While many of those advantages are of the more intangible variety (how do you put a value on school spirit?) satisfied alums say the small-town, small-school experience can bring big-time payoffs.

Just ask Desmond Duncker, a Tuck MBA who wears his pride in his alma mater on his sleeve—or more accurately, his arm—in the form of a three-inch tattoo of Tuck's green-and-white seal. His degree landed him a job at investment bank Goldman Sachs, but even more important, he says, were two years of "unforgettable" experiences.

And if alumni giving rates are any measure, Duncker certainly isn't the only happy Tuck graduate out there. A hefty 65.1% of Tuck alumni donated this past year—more than double the giving rate at most top-ranked B-schools (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/2/06, "Great Gifts Come in Small Packages").

Better Ratios

So what, exactly, is the small school advantage? In a word: community. Students say it's easier to form close bonds with classmates at a small school like Tuck or UNC's Kenan-Flagler, where each graduating class is kept to under 300 people, compared with larger ones like Harvard and Wharton, where the graduating class size is roughly triple that.

David Pyke, a Tuck professor and associate dean who has also taught at Wharton, says smaller schools are more conducive to student-faculty interaction, for the same reason. And while big schools aren't necessarily bad at fostering community, it certainly takes a more concerted effort. That's one reason many B-schools opt for some form of cohort system that breaks down a large class of first-year students into groups or learning teams of a more manageable size.

The more remote locations of small schools like Cornell and Darden can also be advantages—and not just because of the lower cost of living. The lack of outside distractions can give students a chance to immerse more fully in the B-school experience.

"Many of our clients tell us that they view the more rural programs as a chance to actually escape the 'buzz' of cities and the daily grind of the professional world," Richmond says, especially for MBAs who realize that B-school might be their only chance before retirement to live outside a major urban center. "Spending two years in a place like Hanover really gives students the chance to unplug and devote themselves entirely to academic study and MBA community events."

All-Important Bonds

It can be difficult for urban schools to instill a sense of community when students don't live on campus and have all the diversions of urban life, including existing social networks. When students have made the commitment to pack up their lives and move to "the middle of nowhere," they're typically more open to forging new bonds with classmates quickly, in part because they have fewer options.

"It's really hard to disappear into the ether when you're a student here," Pyke says of Tuck. And while some students caution that the lack of anonymity isn't for everyone—imagine every bar in town as the bar where everybody knows your name—it's a lot harder to get lost in the crowd.

Forging a strong sense of connection between students and their school is also important when it comes to the alumni network. Small schools can't compete on size—Harvard Business School has 43,674 living alumni, Darden has 8,001—but alums say the strength of their network more than makes up for it.

"There is no alumni network on earth that is as tightly knit and well-integrated into the school as ours," says Bryan Simms, a senior vice-president at Lehman Brothers and chairman of the Darden Alumni Board and a trustee. "The message to first-years is that when you come to Darden, you're not signing up for a two-year program, you've signed up for a 40- to 50-year relationship with the institution."

In the end, it's important for B-school applicants to understand that choosing a full-time MBA program is about more than your future salary, it's about deciding how you'll spend two years of your life.

Miller is a reporter with BusinessWeek.com in New York.



From BusinessWeek

Saturday, January 20, 2007

XLRI / CRY Partnership for Rural Ventures in State

XLRI / CRY Partnership for Rural Ventures in State

Jamshedpur, Jan. 19: At a ceremony to be held on the XLRI campus tomorrow, the management institute will enter into a partnership with the NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), which they hope will help them partner developmental projects in Jharkhand and Orissa.

A formal MoU will be signed between the director of XLRI, Father Casimir Raj and Ingrid Srinath, the CEO of CRY.

Once formalised, students of XLRI would have the sole responsibility of managing and executing all projects undertaken by CRY in Jharkhand and Orissa.

The tie up would be managed by Special Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance (SIGMA), a students body at XLRI. This is the first time that CRY is entering into an alliance with any B-school in India.

“Students would now be responsible for planning projects, framing social strategies and also managing the local level NGOs in these two states,” said Ingrid Srinath at XLRI today.

Notably, it was about a year back that XLRI had decided to venture into rural India by exposing its students to different rural set up, but this move marks a major development as it’s also the first time that any NGO would enter into a formal agreement with XLRI for summer internship programmes.

“The MoU would be executed in two ways. First XLRI would get all the future projects of CRY in the states and second from now on students would go for formal summer internship programme with CRY every year,” said Ravi Shankar Mishra, secretary at SIGMA.

Srinath, who is in the city to inaugurate XLRI flagship marketing far Maxi fair on Sunday, told The Telegraph that this year CRY has approached the leading B-school to do a study.

The other leading agencies who have contacted XLRI with their rural problems are UNICEF and Hindustan Level Limited (HLL).

Friday, January 19, 2007

XLRI To Take Supply Chain Management Overseas

http://www.business-standard.com/strategist/storypage.php?leftnm=6&subLeft=8&chklogin=N&autono=271827&tab=r


January 18, 2007 (Business Standard): With supply chain management becoming increasingly important to companies, business schools are fast catching up with the flow to bridge the gap between demand and supply of trained supply chain managers in the industry.

The Xavier Labour Relations Institute at Jamshedpur has also taken this opportunity to take its supply chain management course overseas.

XLRI is all set to take its 14-month satellite courses in general management, human resource management and supply chain management to Dubai, Muscat, Bahrain and Singapore. In Dubai, it also plans to launch an on-campus course in supply chain management alongside the satellite version.

At present these courses are available to students residing within the Indian territory through 77 centres. Lectures are delivered from the institute's studio on campus at Jamshedpur. Hughes Telecom and Reliance Web World are XLRI's technology partners in this venture.

"We are in the process of finding franchisees in these foreign destinations where we want to launch our satellite programme. The supply chain management programme with also be offered as an on campus course at our Dubai campus a there is a great demand for supply chain managers in Dubai because of the large volume of trade that happens there," said N Casimir Raj, director, XLRI.

He was speaking on the sidelines of Ensemble 2007, the annual festival organised by students of XLRI.

The satellite supply chain management course which was started in the 2006 academic session, already has 120 students in the first batch. The pre-requisites for admission to the course requires two years' work experience and a minimum 50 per cent of total marks in graduation. This means that applicants are necessarily from the industry.

"The response to this course has been very encouraging. Although number of applicants last year were only around 200, we are expecting a considerable leap in number of applications this year. In India, we are already present in metros and tier I towns. We are now looking at expanding our centres in tier II towns as well. There are enquiries that keep pouring in from different corners. In Dubai, we will be taking in 40 students for the on-campus course," Raj said.

--
Posted by Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and latest Updates at 1/19/2007 09:07:00 AM

Retail Boom Blooms on B-school Radar

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070118/asp/jamshedpur/story_7277375.asp]

Jamshedpur, Jan. 17 (The Telegraph): Thanks to the retail boom, XLRI will now offer a course on retail management as an elective from the new academic year.

“We want to provide our students with a strategic and managerial perspective for the retail industry. We will definitely start the course from June, when the new academic year begins, and have already started it in small manner with the present batch,” said Smithu Malhotra, assistant professor, marketing, at XLRI.

At present, a visiting faculty from the industry conducts sessions with the students.

The elective, which would be of a three-month duration, would be offered to all campus students, from general management to those in the management development programme. But the decision if it would be extended to distance learning programmes has not been taken yet.

“The B-school has felt a shortage of managerial manpower in the retail sector and hence we plan to start a course which would concentrate in this area,” said Malhotra.

The course content would include the global scenario of the retail industry, its trends, success stories and experiments in the field. Strategies of the Indian retail industry, its growth areas and managerial role would also be included in the curriculum.

Retail industry stalwarts would be roped in to share their experiences with the students. In addition, students would attend seminars and conferences to get hands on experience.

Very few B-schools in the country have such courses and by offering the course XLRI would be part of the select few, added Malhotra.

Few organised retail companies have tied up with a couple of B-schools for the course. Pantaloon India (Retail) has tied up with two Mumbai-based institutes — Wellingkar Institute of Management, and K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies — for a diploma course on retail management.

XLRI will also be open to such links if they come its way, Malhotra added.

--
Posted by Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and latest Updates at 1/19/2007 08:41:00 AM

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Bangalore Meet at XIME on 4th Feb

Fathers E.H McGrath S.J and E Abraham S.J will be here on 4th February.

As perhaps the senior most XLRI alumni in the city, I am happy to invite all of you and arrange a get-together with them at the XIME Campus on that day. I am expecting a book of mine to be out from the press by that time. If so, Fr. McGrath will release it on that day.

The tentative programme that I thought of is:
i. The XLRI alumni may reach the Campus at about 10 - 10.30 am.
ii. Have tea with the Fathers.
iii. A formal meeting at 11.30-40 for an hour in our auditorium.
iv. Followed by Beer and Lunch.

I will be most happy to host this for the XLRI alumni. We will also have a good number of our XIME alumni joining that day's functions.

Shall write to you again next week with more details.

Thanking you and with regards,

Prof. J Philip
President
X I M E (Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship)
Electronics City Phase II, Hosur Road, Bangalore-560100
WebSite: www.xime.org

Monday, January 15, 2007

An article about Fr Theo Mathias

I discovered this article on an blog...
Some of those, who had known him, would enjoy reading this piece... written by a person, who had never ever met him
madhukar

Fr. Mathias - The Jesuit

Jan 9 2007 10:30AM comments rss:

Some years ago I received an e mail from a person who introduced himself as Fr. Mathias. I neither knew him nor met him, nor did I know any thing about him. He introduced himself as a priest living in Jamshedpur in the XLRI campus and that he had come across some of my writings in a magazine. He was curious to know more about me and wondered if I would spare a little time and write a bit about myself. Some thing in the mail indicated that he was an elderly man and not wanting to ignore his request, I wrote up a page or so about myself, what I did for a living, what my hobbies were and that sort of thing and sent it off. Along the way, I wondered what the old priest wanted as we lived in different worlds, were unlikely to meet and therefore in that sense, the whole thing was a bit of a mystery.

Next week, I as I checked my mail, I was in for a surprise for there was another mail from Fr. Mathias. He had read my write up with interest and a had a few questions and wanted a few clarifications. Would I mind sparing some time again and answer an old man’s queries? The questions weren’t easy or straight forward. They were extremely penetrative and if I had to answer them with any meaning, I need to do a lot of introspection. It seemed that his interest in me and my life wasn’t confined to enquiring about some facts and figures about me. The questions indicated that his curiosity was in not just knowing me or about me but the process through which I became what I was. For this, he would ask probing questions going back to my child hood, trying to establish a pattern here, a trend there. By asking gentle, if intrusive questions, he made me revisit my past and stop by sign posts that I would usually hurry by. His e mails came always on a Sunday because as he explained he was not computer savvy and this was the day he was able to obtain assistance to help him draft and send off his emails.

Father Mathias was a priest, yet he never once mentioned God in his weekly e mails. But his persistent probing, prodding and pleading to share more about myself and his on going questions brought me face to face to God. Through his questions, I learnt to visit and reassess my past and see God’s hand in all that was past and trust Him for all that was to come. He taught me to stop and think of all the people that had invested in my life through the years, be grateful for them and try and revisit those friendships. He taught me to journey with my father and his pain through the partition of 1947 and look at the world through his confused, frightened and hurt filled eyes. He taught me to see people not as I usually did but as God might be seeing them.

Fr. Mathias corresponded with me for close to two years and by the time it faded out …. more because of my inability to keep up than any lack of interest on his part, he had left me with enough diaries and notes to compose a short autobiography of a fair chunk of my life. Last month, on a visit to the ChristianMedicalCollege, Vellore, I noticed on the notice board, an announcement of the Fr. Mathias awards for the excellence in innovation instituted by the All India Association of Christian Higher Education (AIACHE), an umbrella body of all Christian institutions. Sensing that he might have died, I looked him up in Google. Fr. Mathias had indeed died on the 6th of July, 2005. but before dying, in a rich life that he never told me about, he had found the time to found the prestigious AndhraLoyolaCollege in 1954, and AIACHE in 1967 and had additionally been the Director of XLRI and a delegate to the UN General Assembly as part of the Indian delegation.

Fr. Mathias presented himself to me as a doddering old priest with too much time on his hands and nothing much to do but he was any thing but that. I have no idea what kind of a teacher or priest in real life but he was the one who taught me to always revisit the past , look at it through heaven’s eyes and see God’s hand in every twist and turn.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

This years XAT

Analysis by IMS

http://imsindia.com/cat2006/xat_analysis.htm



XAT 2007 - An Overview

The XAT, held on 7th January 2007 differed from that of XAT 2006 in terms of the number and the nature of questions. Instead of 127 questions, this year XAT had 130 questions. A distinctive feature this year was that the questions had 5 options instead of 4.

The highlight of the test was the business judgement component in the reasoning section. There were four business situations [cases], with the options designed in a unique way. One of the cases cleverly combined elements of PS, DI, LR and English. Certainly, those of you who had taken the IMS SimCAT 7, would not have encountered any difficulty in deciding an appropriate attempt strategy.

The three-section format was maintained but Data Interpretation was combined with Quantitative Ability as opposed to a Data Interpretation-Logical Reasoning combination in 2006. The instruction page clearly stated that the questions were not of uniform difficulty and negative marks [1/3 of a mark] may be deducted for the first five incorrect answers in each section and 0.5 [half a mark] for each incorrect answer thereafter.

The test taker had to answer questions from all three sections and was expected to maximise scores in each section, though there was no section-wise time limit.

Overall, the paper was of medium level of difficulty, testing the nuances of language, reasoning, data interpretation and quantitative ability, in an effective way.

Overall Test Structure

Total Duration of the exam

120 minutes + 20 minutes for Essay

Total number of questions

130 + 1 Essay

Number of choices per question

5

Number of Sections

3

Sectional Timings

No sectional Timing

Marks per question

1 Mark (Assumed)

Negative Marking

Differential (as explained above)

Mode of marking the ovals

HB pencil

Section Wise Test Structure

The test had 3 sections.

Section

Section

Number of Questions

A

Reasoning Ability and Decision Making

40

B

Verbal Ability

41

C

Quantitative Ability

49

Total

130

REASONING ABILITY AND DECISION-MAKING

This section had 40 questions. There were 30 questions of Logical Reasoning with sets of 6 and 5 questions. Overall, the sets were simple to interpret but the options were designed in such a way that every option had to be weighed properly before arriving at the correct answer. This made the sets appear tough. At least two options in every question could be eliminated but the remaining options had to be worked out in order to arrive at the correct answer.

Of the 4 business cases, 3 incorporated typical corporate situations like problems in employee selection strategy and personnel policies and had mostly inferential questions, while one case was a combination of problem solving, logical reasoning, Data Interpretation and English and had questions of a higher level of difficulty.

Type of question

Number of Questions

Level of Difficulty

Easy

Medium

Difficult

Matrix Arrangement (2 Sets)

11

2

5

4

Linear Arrangement

5

2

2

1

Case Study (4 Sets)

20

0

7

13

Single Questions

4

4

0

0

Total

40

8

14

18

A reasonable attempt in this section would be 17+ with an estimated cut-off of 12+ marks.


VERBAL ABILITY & READING COMPREHENSION

This section had 23 questions on reading comprehension and 18 questions on verbal ability. Overall this section was moderately difficult primarily because some of the RC passages required intensive reading and strong reasoning ability. The topic-wise beak-up of the reading comprehension passages is given below:

Topic of RC passage

No. of Questions

Level of Difficulty

Easy

Medium

Difficult

Socialism

5

0

5

0

Understanding oneself

4

4

0

0

Communication between two poets

4

4

0

0

British capital in India after 1850

6

0

6

0

Science – Bayesian Theory

4

0

0

4

Total

23

8

11

4

Simple passages were interspersed with abstruse ones. Most of the questions were inferential with very few direct questions.
Out of the five passages, the one on an exchange between two poets and the other on 'understanding oneself as true education’ were comparatively easier and should have been attempted first before moving on to the other passages.

The verbal ability questions were quite easy. The reasoning based questions were somewhat tricky but not very difficult. Most of the grammar and usage-based questions were easy and should have been attempted at the beginning. The construct-wise break-up is given below:

Type of question

No. of Questions

Level of Difficulty

Easy

Medium

Difficult

Jumbled Paragraph (6 sentences)

4

0

2

2

Statement with correct punctuation

1

1

0

0

Identify the incorrect sentences

1

1

0

0

Revision of a wordy sentence

1

1

0

0

Sentence Combination

1

1

0

0

Critical Reasoning

5

4

0

1

Contextual Usage (Synonym/Antonym)

5

5

0

0

Total

18

13

2

3

Jumbled Paragraph
They were of the 6-sentence type. In two questions the links were not easily discernible. The options were also close, which added to the difficulty level.

Statement with correct punctuation
This was a new variety where the elementary knowledge of punctuation was tested. One had to identify the statement that was punctuated correctly. A must – attempt.

Identify the incorrect sentences
This was another easy question, which tested the basic concept of grammar - another question worth an attempt.

Revision of a wordy sentence
Another question that tested the student’s knowledge of usage and grammar. Here the student had to select the option that presented the idea stated in the stem sentence in most concise and grammatically correct way. Since the other option had obvious errors, one could have easily arrived at the correct answer.

Sentence Combination
It was a variation of a typical grammar and usage question where two independent sentences had to be combined effectively without losing the essence.

Critical Reasoning
Four out of five questions were easy and tested the usual constructs like, which of the following it true would seriously weaken the argument, the information strongly supports, etc. Only the passage on “prediction as the hallmark of natural science” was difficult. There was one passage, which was quite different from the others – it had a dialogue between two friends where one had to find how the second speaker challenged the first speaker’s reasoning.

Contextual Usage
All the five questions were easy. The words were quite simple like: juvenile, spurious, assumption, crucible, etc. While solving this set one had to carefully consider the context and read the instructions carefully.

A reasonable attempt in this section would be 20-22 and an estimated cut-off of 13+ marks.

QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

The number of questions on Quantitative Ability has decreased to 36 as compared to last year’s 44, but the difficulty level was slightly higher. The questions based on functions were solvable. The sets based on 3 x 4 grid and the cryptarithm were tricky and could be solved by working with options. There were two questions based on equations of hyperbola.
One of the data sufficiency questions was arrangement based.

In Data Interpretation, the bar chart on “Electronic Commerce Transactions” was simple. The set on “Queen Airlines” was data-intensive but not calculation-intensive and 2 questions were observation based and could have been attempted. The set based on “Aggregate Financial Ratios” and “Export and Import of Commodities” were calculation-intensive

Type of question

No. of Questions

Level of difficulty

Easy

Medium

Difficult

Quantitative Ability

Arithmetic

4

0

1

3

Algebra

5

1

2

2

Modern Maths

12

3

4

5

Geometry

6

1

2

3

Puzzles

5

0

2

3

Data Sufficiency

4

2

2

0

Data Interpretation

Tables (3 Sets)

11

3

4

4

Bar Chart (1 Set)

2

2

0

0

Total

49

12

17

20

The reasonable attempt in this section would be 15+ with an estimated cut-off of 10+ marks.

After the test, students were given the following topic on which they had to write a one-page essay in 20 minutes:

“Economic growth without environmental damage – a mirage or a reality.”

An overall reasonable attempt will be around 53 questions with an estimated cut-off of 35+ marks.

Expected cut-offs of various institutes:

Institute

Cut-off

XLRI BM

35+

XLRI PM & IR

30+

XIMB

30+

GIM

25+

Praxis

20+

Disclaimers: Institutes may use other criteria such as academic background, participation in extra & co curricular activities and work experience apart from score in the test to shortlist students for group discussion & personal interview.

We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.

Monday, January 8, 2007

prof gango was here!

dear xllers

best wishes for the season

Prof Gangopadhyay was here over the weekend and made sure the current xl batch in Singapore will have some sleepless nights.

For those who do not know him or have not had the pleasure of his QT quizzes - he still makes sure the that not more than a few people gets away with A+ in QT 1 and QT 2 courses.

And not to mention he is the chief architect of the entrance exams and the questions - and he swore to me that Xl tests were still the better ( compared to the CAT) integrator and filter of talent. So be proud guys and gals!!

Aside: In XL I am told that before his quizzes there is a general gango Puja held to make sure the wrath of the questions will be mild and that they will survive the jitters. Can someone from 2000+ batch confirm!!

In Singapore XL ( sadly a very small affair) I am told that he was bribed by a trip to Singapore Sentosa Island by the student rep. Hope it works!

I met him and had a great time - his conversations as interesting as ever .I took him to a lovely lunch meeting@ Shubha PMIR 84 and Nans BM 83's beautiful home.... I had last met him in 1992, when I had gone to the campus for recruitment, and after that now....so there was a lot of catch up....I did recognise him immediately - thanks to the greying goatee and typical "bong" specs - but as he mentioned statistically he has increased in girth by 50%. He has a precise way of saying from 62 kg in 1985 to nearly 90.5 kg now!!

At Shubhas place - Georgie was there and so was Narendar. Not to forget Nans....who made sure all of us were wonderfully beered up on a sunny afternoon.

It was a simple lunch meeting with great content and food.

Content ? - What content - oh I forgot to mention we had some documentaries screened ( on Gandhiji and Vinobhaji - courtesy Dr. Amarjit Singh)and Narendar). Those films are great to watch and makes you rethink India and the struggles people have had in a totally different light....

Now here is the best part - just when the local xl Singapore students thought there is only QT1 and lavished on Gango all the benefits Sentosa could offer, in the hope of a mild quiz, there is a tougher QT 2. coming And it is in the same month. imagine going through QT in 10 continuous sessions over a weekend...I think is S&M in another name!!

Prof Gango will be back Jan 27+..... and I was wondering for those who would like to re-live the gruelling times of his quizzes and for those who would love to talk about fractals (Google it and check Prof's site) and wine and cheese -

Shall we get together for our next alumni meet - Jan 28 - 8 pm to late!!

Anyone keen!!

Best Wishes
ramesh@revive