prayas 2015

8

Upload: christ-university-bengaluru

Post on 22-Jul-2016

223 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

DESCRIPTION

A newsletter prepared by Journalism Honors of Media Studies for Department of Commerce

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Prayas 2015
Page 2: Prayas 2015

Prayas 2015, an inter-collegiatefest organized by the Departmentof Commerce, Christ Universitytook off in a sublime fashion onthe 8th of September 2015. TheMain Auditorium came to lifeduring the grand inaugurationceremony, as the 3 day eventcommenced with a bang.

The fest, which carried the theme‘Faux Economy’, had whetted theappetite of Commerce studentsalready and the inauguration livedup to the hype too. The ChiefGuest of the Inauguration-Mohandas Pai, who currentlyholds the post of the Chairman ofthe Manipal Global Education andis a renowned educationist andphilanthropist too, was present tograce the occasion. Mr. Pai is aformer member of the InfosysBoard of Directors and has playeda role in making Infosys what it istoday. He was accompanied byhonorable dignitaries, whoincluded Vice Chancellor FatherThomas C. Matthew and SeniorProfessor of Commerce Mr.Thomas Joseph and the likes.

The event kick started with the

screening of the Prayas 2015

official promo, which gave a

complete overview of what the fest

would be about and highlighted

the problems and deficiencies the

world economy is currently facing

and set the mood. The fest was to

consist of a variety of events and

competitions such as Best

Manager, Business Quiz, Human

Resource, Mock Stock and many

more. 12 teams, hailing from

colleges from all across the nation

would form a total of as many

conglomerates, and the team with

the highest points would

eventually emerge triumphant.

The dignitaries, along with Mr. Pai

lit the lamp and were requested to

take their respective places on the

dais. A Senior Professor,

Department of Commerce, Mr.

Thomas Joseph was invited onto

the stage to address the audience.

Mr. Joseph warmly welcomed thehonorable Chief Guest andexpressed his deepest pleasure athaving such a distinguished guestgracing the fest. A bouquet waspresented to Mr. Pai, whoaccepted it with immense joy. Mr.Joseph referred to the BComstudents as the ‘heartbeat’ of thefest and commended their ideasand efforts that went into turningthe event into a successful one.

Dr. Father. Thomas C. Matthewwas invited onto the stage toenlighten the crowd with hisinspiring words. He emphasized

the concept of ‘emotionalintelligence’, which is somethingthat countries such as Singaporehave been adhering to and dubbedit as a reason for Singapore’scompact growth. He stressedupon the fact that emotionalintelligence isn’t valued much inIndia but its importance iscertainly on the rise. Hecongratulated the facultymembers, teachers andparticipants on bringing the festinto being.

Mr. Mohandas Pai, was then requested to take overand compel the students into thinking more and toact as a source of inspiration to them. Mr. Paielaborated the fact that the economy is slowingdown and how the rate of interest, is slowing downtoo. He said that the world is a whole new commonmarket, while the financial markets are nothingshort of shaky in the modern day and pointed outthe uncertainty that has crept up in the markets andalso upon the volatility that currently lurks in it. Hereferred to the invention of the Steam Engine as a‘disruption’ in the, then, world market and said thatit broke down the supply chain that once existed inthe economy.He called us, the next generation as the ‘would- bemovers and shakers in the market’ and reflectedupon the fact that the easy days are gone.He received a token of thanks from Dr. Father C.Matthew as the crowd thanked him with a huge

round of applause. The cultural event, whichconsisted of a dance performance by the collegerenowned dance team- YUVA, followed up. Theperformance by the Darpan 2015 Dance Competitionrunners up was energetic and entertaining.Mr. Karthikeya Prakasham, the revered coordinatorof the Bcom Regular students thanked everyonepresent for gracing the occasion. Mr. JacksonMendoza, the coordinator of the cultural programswas given a special thanks by Mr. PrakashamThe spell binding inauguration ceremony providedthe Prayas 2015 fest with the perfect foundation tohopefully make all the other events as good as itturned out to be. After all, hope is the only thing inthis world that plays a pivotal role in overriding thepessimism in us and bringing in a new ray ofoptimism and positivity.

KAUSTUBH PANDEY

Mr.Mohandas PaiPhoto : Ankit Sharma

PRAYAS 2015

Onset of PRAYAS 2015: Inauguration

Page 3: Prayas 2015

The Keynote address for Prayas 2015 wasdelivered by Mrs. Shalini Pillay, Head of PeoplePerformance and Culture of KPMG, India. Sheis, in effect, responsible for all the HR functionsof the company. The event was held in the MainAuditorium, from 3:00-3:30pm.

Mrs. Pillay, largely spoke about the possibleexpectations of the corporate sector from thestudents of Commerce. She reiterated time andagain, the importance of being an activeindividual, and not being passive in theiroutlook – like trying to draw meaning from abalance sheet, without looking at it with acompletely objective attitude. Mrs. Pillaystressed on the aptitude factor, and emphasizedthe importance of being an avid reader, so as tosurvive in this dynamic world.

The question and answer session started on arather hesitant note, but escalated into anenergetic exchange. Extremely pertinentquestions were asked, to which the respectedguest had quick and insightful answers that willno doubt help the students grow. She impartedher knowledge by sharing with the audience, herjourney in life and explaining that curiosity isthe key to success. On being asked about howone makes their way into big companies such asKPMG, Ma’am insisted that soft skills andpersonality play the most important roles.Madam left the audience with the promise thatshe shall clear all further doubts in a separateand more informal session.

The ‘Best Manager’ competition

commenced with the first round on 8th

September in the DMK Conference

Hall with great gusto. This competition

gave a real life experience of the grilling

interview sessions that the commerce

graduates go through.

The event included twenty eightcolleges from all over India with twelvecolleges qualifying for the final round.There were four online rounds makingit convenient for more colleges toparticipate, and eight physical rounds.The judging panel consisted of 5th yearlaw student Aishwarya Madhe for thefirst round, Anisha George andParvati.A, who are Ex-Christites, alongwith RJ Nathan and RJ Michelle, wereinvited to judge the challenging roundof interviews which kept theparticipants on their toes and made an

interesting event for the audience inthe last round.

The judges wanted to check the

capability of the participants in a panic

situation, and how they would take care

of their shareholders as well as the

society. The judges asked the

participants why they wanted to be

managers, and how they would take

care of the stock market during a bomb

blast by creating a real life situation

with sound effects and a company like

setup. The title and associate sponsors

for the event were KPMG, CMA and

MILES. The last round was held in the

Main auditorium on 10th September

from 12 to 1:30 pm which witnessed a

very attentive and enthusiastic

audience

SHREYA V RAMAN

PH

OT

O :

An

kit

Sh

arm

a

Her parting advice to the young crowd was totake the opportunities that they come

across and make the most of them – the biggestmistake is to let good opportunities pass you by.

The vote of thanks for Mrs. Shalini Pillay was

delivered by Subhashree Ma’am, following

which the respected speaker was given a token

of appreciation. The lecture proved to be an

enlightening experience for all present there

SREYA DEB

MRS SHALINI PILLAY – PHOTO : Ankit Sharma

PRAYAS 2015

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Page 4: Prayas 2015

The public relations event consisted of five

rounds. The first round was conducted on 8th

August from 3:15p.m to 5p.m in room 202,

second floor and block four. A total of eight

students in charge were appointed out of which

three were the main heads while five were sub

heads. There were a total of twenty judges

appointed from the alumni and teachers of the

university itself.

The first round was about labor laws in Qatar

where the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held. It

was further divided into three sub rounds

namely the press conference round, LMPs (Last

Minute Productions) and government

discussion.

The participants played the role of PR

representatives of companies and had a question

and answer session with two judges at a time.

This session was known as the grilling session.

The Human Resources Competition was one of themost gripping and engaging events that took place ina span of three days.

The competition consisted of a total of 6 rounds,which was initially contested by 12 teams but thenumber was later zeroed in to 6 teams, as the roundsprogressed. The participants hailed from differentzones across the nation. The teams such asHydrogen, Shamrock, Ortid and Inspirin werecompeting to be crowned the winner of theprestigious Human Resource competition.

The venues varied from ‘SOHO St.’ restaurant to theSeminar Hall of the University and succeeded ingrabbing the attention of the judges such as Mr.Gopal and Mr. Ram Mohan themselves and Mr.Prabhu too, fascinating them and keeping them onthe lookout for something more.

The event had a spread of activities, ranging fromdiscussions involving participants regarding theworking of the company, ‘Housing.com’, to apresentation of the strategies of the individualparticipants when the company ‘Bit Am Com’ is inturmoil.

The event rightly fulfilled the tag of Prayas 2015’s‘Faux Economy’ as the participants deliberatedabout the global issues that prevail around theworld.

KAUSTUBH PANDEY

PHOTO : Ankit Sharma

PHOTO : Monica Sharma

PRAYAS2015

By the last round, six participants were eliminatedand only six remained. The topic of the last roundwas the Syrian Crises. One of the participants,Surendra, explained his role of being a PRrepresentative of a company in Syria. Theparticipant played the role of being a mediatorbetween the government and the ISIS and as astakeholder it was his responsibility to come outwith the best solution that benefitted both thecompany and the groups in conflict. Anotherparticipant Chirag explained the importance ofdiscussing this issue as it is a major determinantin current world politics and thereby spreadingmore awareness about it.

ARPIT KAUR BHATIA

HUMAN RESOURCES COMPETITION REPORT

PUBLIC RELATIONS EVENT

Page 5: Prayas 2015

BullRun- a mock stock tested the participant’s

knowledge and understanding of the financial

markets as a whole, through various rounds of

events.

A team of two from 12 different colleges, each,

participated in the competition. The first round,

which took place on the 8Th Sept , was a

presentation on how PayTM went public and their

competition with Flipkart wallet. External Judges

of this round were Mr. C Subramaniam ,CA and

Ms Kanishka Kabra ,also a CA. Joining them were

Ms Soumya V Iyer and Mr. Naveen Kumar from

the Department of Commerce. The second round

was Integration with Finance on the topic of

Lego’s entry into the Indian Market.

The Entrepreneurial Development

event, undertaken by the Christ

University under the Prayas 2015 fest

kick started on the 8th of September,

2015 in a unique fashion here in the

Assembly Hall

The participants were from St. Joseph’s

College, Bengaluru ,St. Xavier’s College,

Kolkata, I Lead, Kolkata Symbiosis

College, Pune ,Loyola College, Chennai ,

Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru as the

title of the winner was well and truly up

for grabs.

The main focus of the event was to

developing entrepreneurial skills

among participants, help them detect

problems in start-ups and finding

solutions to it. The event consisted of 6

rounds. In the final round the

participants were given a task that USA

has approached them to make a man-

made island for the rehabilitation of

refugees. The panel consisted of

Members of the IMF, Oval Office of

USA and the United States of America.

The student Coordinator, Nishmita said

“The event is set apart from all other

events, as it has a little bit of everything,

where you can develop Business

Management skills. Creativity is most

important.”

NIVRITI RIJHSINGHANI

PHOTO : Ankit Sharma

PHOTO : Shivansh Dhasmana

PRAYAS 2015

The 9th saw the third round, Traditional Outcry,

followed by the fourth round of a very absorbing

card game. The cards had various companies’

names on them and their market predictions.

This round was a favorite, but unfortunately it

had to come to an end owing to time constrains.

The game continued early the next day and there

was active participation from all the teams.

The next round was an integration of the

participants with the Integration team in which

each teams had to pitch their portfolios.

The last round, Pre-Set Price Outcry, focused on

how intensely students followed markets. Teams

were made to trade companies such as Dabur and

HDFC in a trade period of 20 years, 1994-2014.

(In which each year was four minutes long).

K NIRUPAMA CHANDRA

MOCK STOCK – BULL RUN

EN

TR

EP

RE

NE

UR

IAL

DE

VE

LOP

ME

NT

Page 6: Prayas 2015

The Marketing event held at the Conference Hall,

Block II, successfully kicked off at 3:00 pm on the 8th

of September. The event witnessed participants from

St. Joseph’s, Bengaluru, Jain CMS, Bengaluru, St.

Xaviers, Kolkata, Symbiosis, Pune and 8 other

prominent schools and colleges from all over the

country.

The event, judged by Mr. Aditya Mitra commenced

the first of its seven rounds wherein it encouraged it’s

participants to think out of the box and to cope with

the changing dynamics of the economy.

“How can you create the ideal product for your

customers when you’re not even aware of your

potential market?” asked Niharika, a volunteer and

Christite. The next 6 rounds witnessed a sequence of

various aspects on how to handle dictatorship,

marketing strategies, etc. When asked for feedback,

one of the judges, Anto Philip, a B.Com graduate and

alumni of Christ, praised the organising committee

for their efforts and described the event as a “learning

curve”.

With Vinay Mudaliar as the quiz master, on the 9th

of September, the Business Quiz: Enigma witnessed

some nail biting competition.

IIT Madras, St. Xavier’s Kolkata, Symbiosis Pune,

National Management School Mumbai, Jyoti Nivas

College Bengaluru and Christ University Bengaluru

were a few of the institutions participating. Only 6

teams made it through the elimination round which

comprised of questions from every sphere of

business.

There were a total of four rounds, the first being the

elimination round. At the end of each round there

were questions for the audience, and t-shirts were

given out for the correct answers.

The last three rounds comprised of interesting

questions, hilarious answers, lightning fast buzzers

and negative marks which bought a lot of tension

into the room.

The fourth and the final round was coincidentally

named ‘PRAYAS’, with six questions having

answers starting with the letters of ‘PRAYAS’ in

order.

PHOTO : Monica Sharma

PHOTO : Monica Sharma

PRAYAS 2015

Sreya Murali, an EPS graduate and alumni,

emphasised the importance of factual evidence.

She also spoke gloriously about the importance of

conceptual clarity. Overall, the event was

educational, creative and served as a learning

curve for all of its participants.

This event was specially sponsored by DIGJAM

Fine Suitings and Unilet Electronics.

RAMYA SAMBAMURTHY

The tension in the room reached its pinnacle when

the BBM department of Christ and IIT Madras

found themselves tied. The tie breaker was a

buzzer round, after which IIT Madras’, Arshabh

Menon and Kavin Aadithiyan, emerged as the

Enigma winners.

SHIREEN NOUSHAD

MARKETING

ENIGMA-BUSINESS QUIZ

Page 7: Prayas 2015

The Finance Event for Prayas 2015, was a 3 day

event starting from the 8th of September, and

concluded on the 10th of September 2015. The

event had 9 rounds with 12 teams from all over the

country consisting of 2 students each. The event

was headed by a jury of 2 people on all 3 days with

the judges being Mr. Sandeep, Senior Tax Manager

at Ernst and Young, US and Mr. Raghavendra,

Assistant Professor for Commerce Department,

Christ University for the 3rd and the final day of

the event. Loyola College Chennai , St Joseph

College of Commerce Bengaluru , CMS Jain

Bengaluru, St. Xaviers College , Kolkata ,

Department of Professional Studies , Christ

University , Symbiosis , Pune were the 6 teams that

reached the final round of the event. The teams

were given the case and profile of a coal company

in US going through bankruptcy two weeks in

advance, and the event was a debate on whether or

not there should be a case filed for the bankruptcy

of the company, with 3 teams speaking for the

motion and 3 teams speaking against the motion.

Each team was given a total time of 7 minutes for

presentation, 3 minutes was given as common time

for rebuttal from both the teams and 2 minutes was

given for questions from the judges.

The event kept the participants on the edge of their

seats, and left them with a question as to who

would emerge victorious.

SAKSHI SRIVASTAVA

The Integration Competition, held in the span of

three days, consisted of 6 rounds, wherein the 12

teams were slowly cut down as the rounds fleeted

past.

There was a distinct variety in the type of

competitions the event constituted, ranging from

participants representing three world countries

fighting for the right to establish a Disney theme

park in their nation to the trials of economic hit

men at the International Criminal Court. The

competition adhered to an elimination format.

The event allowed the participants to enrich their

economic thinking and played a role in improving

their ability to answer quick fire questions based

on commerce.

A member of the Hydrogen group during the final

round was quoted as saying “It was a big learning

experience and helped us learn things we haven’t

learnt before”. When asked about whether they

were told about the International Criminal court

setting, she replied “Not at all. We were just

informed about the basic premise and setting,

that’s all!”

SHIVANSH DHASAMANA

PRAYAS came to a grand close on the 10th ofSeptember at 2 pm. A large number of colleges hadparticipated in the event and managed to make it asuccess.Father Arun Antony Chully addressed the audienceon how the event had impacted the students as wellas the university at large. He enlightened theaudience on how higher education is about two typesof learning- experience and applied learning.All the activities that took place in Prayas pushed thestudents to think, to brain storm, to work in teamsand enhance their skills.He emphasized that most enterprises agree that it isextremely difficult to do business in India. It is thegeneral thumb rule that business is possibleanywhere if you manage to succeed in India. It isevents like these that enrich experience and impartrequired diligence. Constant learning makessuccessful and sustainable people.Father summed up by thanking all the organizers

and congratulating all the participants andappreciated the effort put in. “It is my firm belief thatwinning is not the end prize but the process ofpractice, patience, organizing and working smart.That makes a real winner.”

K NIRUPAMA CHANDRA

PHOTO : Ankit Sharma

PRAYAS 2015

FINANCE INTEGRATION COMPETITION

VALEDICTORY

Page 8: Prayas 2015

EDITING DEPARTMENT : ELISHIA V, SHIREEN N,ARPIT B, SREYA D, NIVRITI RDESIGN DEPARTMENT : AISHIK P, AAKASH S, RAMYA S, SHIVANSH D

SPECIAL THANKS TO ;

FATHER ARUN ANTONY FATHER BIJU CHAKKO NITHILA VINCENT(HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)NARESH RAO ( HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES)AASITA BALI (PROGRAMME CO-ORDINATOR OF MEDIA STUDIES)

TITLE SPONSORS

PRAYAS 2015

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS