Me and My Solitude...

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

France Calling...

Am off to Southern France for a student exchange this september for 3 months. I'll be studying at IAE, AIx-en Provence from september to December :)

Neways - life's hell here for the time being - had two quizzes yesterday, one today, probably 2 tomorrow & 2 day after :(

prateek2410 | 03:16 pm
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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Mohali Calling...

Called up people @ Ranbaxy today... got a news which made me redo all the planning for the next two months :(

I was told that i'll have to go to Mohali, near Chandigarh & of course Shimla :).... for my summer training @ Ranbaxy's high tech & lavish plant - although i haven't received the formal correspondence till now.

Now all my plans of finalising my room, building up dreams of playing Age of Empires on LAN, partying on Alumni Meet etc. etc. are all in shambles.... but am I complaining - no am not!!! I guess i'll enjoy my summers in the foothills!!

prateek2410 | 11:41 pm
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Monday, March 21, 2005

The life here seems to begetting hectic day by day - specially with the third term nearing its final destination!!! Even if i forget the draconian end terms from next monday - the schedule of this week haunts me like anything!!

We have interviews for student exchange (2nd round) tomorrow!! I have applied for a college in France - lets see if i get selected or not!!! We have presentations by the faculty on electives also tomorrow. Then we have our RMB final presentation also & I havent started preparing the ppt till now :(

The tussle between different subjects is becoming very unpleasant. Every second subject is trying to please me with its utility & is trying to persuade me to opt fot it... but there is a limit to how many credits which i can take in each term & thus making a choice is wuite tough.... specially keeping in mind that i dont want to specialise in anything except Finance (this means i'll take >5 credits of Finance & 2-3 credits each of HR, Marketing & Strategy)

Back to preparations for tomorrow's interview. Will update tomorrow about the hell... oops - my life here :(

prateek2410 | 11:32 pm
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Sunday, March 20, 2005

Procrastination

Many things have become over due now... dunno why but not getting time to finish off even a single one of them!!

Siemens live project - I had set a deadline of 26th March for myself - but it is far from even midway till now... seems i'll have to continue with it even in summers!!
Prayas Accounts - I haven't computerised accounts of Prayas since 1st February!!! Poonam keeps asking that when shoudl we do that - but both of us do not get time & thus pending since long!!
End Term Studies - A distant dream for a not so distant target. End terms start 28th March, no hint of preparations till now!!!
Service Tax - Settlement of Service Tax registration of my firm (which is closed now) is due & seems early April is the right time to do that!
Income Tax - Many issues are to be solved before the end of the year for my & my dad's income tax!!
Graduation Degree - Have to go to north campus (delhi) to collect my graduation degree from my college. Although it doesn't matter as of now - but still need to have it for future!!
Bank Loan - Need to transfer my existinh education loan to SBI - but for that I need to coordinate with my dad & i always forget it when i talk to him!!

I guess there are many other things pending... but then if i cant remember them - they cannot be much important..........

Was not well again when i woke up today. Lavin came to my room in the morning & i woke up with a heavy haed.... soon i realised that again i have a migraine attack & i just cannot even stand. Asked my roomie to ask a helper from mess to get some breakfast for me in room itself. I prepared for a strategy case whole night (and the tubelight of my side was not working today) & kinda strained my eyes (due to my negligence)!!! This was probably 3rd attack of migraine in this month... guess i needto find out some solution soon!! Else i'll keep on missing classes like this only & lose some grades also...

prateek2410 | 02:24 am
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Thursday, March 17, 2005

Convocation 2005

Last week I witnessed the first ever convocation of my life. Although it was not my convocation, rather for the PG03 (my senior batch). The feel, the environment, the enthusiasm, the anxiety, the happiness & the satisfaction levels were unprecedented. Our Director - Dr. Pritam Singh, Chief Guest - Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission), Chairman of MDI, Dean Academics, Dean Research, entire faculty fraternity, graduating fellow student, NMP students, EMP students and of course PGPM students (PG03) were all dressed in the convocation gown, with a ceremonial hat (dunno the technical name for it!!)

The Ceremonial Photograph

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The Procession

Prof. V. Sridhar, Mr. N.K. Singh, Mr. Montek Singh, Dr. Pritam Singh, Dr. D. Sanyal

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The chanting of shlokas, added to the ambiance. Many of the PG03 students, like Ashutosh Dtara, Ankit Gupta, Raja Dutta, Manesh Jain etc. received prizes for excellence in different fields. Every student received their most sought after certificate – the diploma certificate!!!

My Mentor & his colleague– Mayank & Namrata

Then came the time for ritual, which I was very enthusiastic to watch myself – yes the throwing of the hats in the air – and believe me – it was an event which really made me quest for my graduation day.

Quest to Touch the Sky - The Hats Flying

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During the whole event, I realized that very soon I’ll finds myself wearing the same gown & my juniors helping us for the ceremony. The time gap of 1 year will fly away faster than how the last year vanished.

Am surely missing many of my seniors – Saurav Dey, Aarti, Datar, Sai, Mayank – coz they were simply great!!!

prateek2410 | 08:54 pm
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Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Extra Curriculars @ MDI

Wanted to post this entry since long, but didn’t get enough time to write it… so here it goes!!

At MDI we have various clubs & events which are the part & parcel of our lives here, this post will serve as a window to these extra – curricular activities, so that people should now that we live beyond books & classrooms also!! Just for information – all activities & clubs mentioned below are “totally student driven” and thus I won’t be mentioning that again in each case!!

Clubs

Prayas

This one is quite close to my heart – so it comes first!!! This is the convenience store for the students of MDI. It was recently shifted to the ground floor of Boys’ Hostel. It deals in most of the products required by the Student community (stationery, packed food, toiletries etc.). When the fresh batch arrives, it arranges for mattresses, buckets, pillows etc. for the new students. During the onset of winters, even quilts are sold here. The profit of Prayas is utilized for social service, by collaborating with Samaritans (the social service club of MDI) and also by independently donating money for social cause. It provides a platform for the future leaders to have real time experience of implementation and provides an opportunity to apply the acquired skills in different functions of management.

Samaritans

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The social service club of MDI. Takes up various projects such as blood donation camps, Hepatitis-B vaccination camp, joy sharing with mentally challenged at a nearby missionary (Deepashram), Clothes and eatables distribution, work along with GE-elfun (on various occasions), tie-ups with renowned NGOs and adult literacy programmes for workers within MDI. Samaritans generates its own funds by selling old newspapers and junk of students of MDI.

Unnati (Unnati Investment Management & Research Group)

The renowned “mutual fund” of MDI. The first of its kind across India, where students bought units of the mutual fund & the money is invested in actual stocks. Various high quality research reports are generated regularly in this club. Currently two funds, namely Diversified & Mid-cap funds are being managed, where both generated approx. 50% return during last year. Publishes a regular magazine called Finstreet. (Coordinator – Sandeep Pandya)

Monetrix

The finance club of MDI, where both Unnati & Monetrix supplement each other (one working in area of stock markets, while the other towards excellence in finance). Monetrix believes in knowledge sharing by organising various presentations by its members, faculty, corporate interaction, debates, group discussions & also stimulated games. All these are the regular features of Monetrix. Recently a stock game was organised with a cash prize, based on the Out Cry system & real time updation of stock prices, using inbuilt software by the members. (Secretary – Mohit Jain)

Marquity

The marketing club of MDI. Works towards knowledge sharing in field of marketing, using experience sharing presentations, corporate interaction & various games (like ad-mad etc). Also organises a three day fun event called Advent. Has two wings – MARK (Marketing Analysis & Research Klub), Noesis (Advertisisng & Branding club – in coordination with industry) Publishes a regular magazine called Jamm. (Secretary – Amit J. Doiphode)

Iteration

The special interest group in the field of Information Technology. Organises regular meetings, knowledge sharing, presentations, information about various softwares etc. Also organises a one month long online inter b school competition called “E-blast”. (Secretary – Samit Tibrewal)

H.R. Direction

Started last year by batch of 2005. Special attention to H.R. area. Specially for students of PGPM-HR. Organises various discussions & meetings regularly. Publishes a montly magazine called “Human Reflection” (Secretary – Siddartha Srivastava)

Opsession

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Started recently by the students of Batch 2006. Is working towards the area of excellence in Operations. Plans to organise regular visits to various companies, plants, factories etc., conduct presentations etc.

Natyamatics

The Cultural club of MDI – formed by combining Natya (Dance) & Dramatics. It is associated with National School of Drama (NSD). It organises various events such as Rang Manch (Dance & Drama nights), Fully Faaltoo, cultural nights & varios plays (Darpan, Baayan, Dhaakad Party, Dil ki Dukan etc). It organised various other events such as talks with Mr. M.K. Raina (producer/director of Ek Ruka Hua Faisla & Ankur), workshops with NSD etc.

Mandolins

The musical club of MDI. Various musicians & singers are the members of this club. The members showcase their talents on various occasions like Mandolin Night, Alumni Meet etc.

W5H

The quizzing club of MDI. The Five W's and the Solitary H of quizzing - Who, Where, When, What, Why, How which are epitomized in its logo. Organises quizzes on regular intervals based on different interest areas.

Events

Imperium

The Annual Inter B-School Fest of MDI. Organised on a grand level, with participants from all major business schools of India, Pakistan & exchange students from all across the world. Last year bschools like IIMs, XLRI, S.P. Jain, NMIMS, IMI, XIMB, FMS, LUMA (Pakistan) etc. participated in this 3 day event. Professional nights included performance by Hariharan & Euphoria. Various contests (formals & informals) with huge cash prizes were organised. (Secretary – Kedar Patwardhan)

Illumina

The annual marketing fest of MDI. One of the first in its kind across B Schools in India. Marketing research conducted in disguised form from the visitors who take it as a “Diwali Mela”, coz its positioned as such & is organised one week before Diwali. Companies provide with the research problems & huge tents are prepared with well thought games to conduct the survey, without letting the biasness creep into the answers by the respondents. (Secretary – Ankit Mahajan)

Delphique

The Annual National Management Convention. It’s a two day affair & a very serious event. Months of research is done before coming out with a detailed presentation in front of the hand picked panel, who are the best names in Industry, Ministry, Economists etc. and then the house is left open for the panel to discuss the issue. The event is divided into 6 parts – Theme (Strategy), Finance, Marketing, Operations, IT & H.R. (Secretary – Animesh Sinha)

E-Blast

The First of its kind offering from any B-school. e-blast is a month long online B-School festival having three sections. These sections focus on the Managerial effectiveness in the e-Business World and academics, Business research, and a forum for learning and exchanging the ideas on the student activities across various B-schools internationally. E-blast 2004 was a huge success with participation across the nation from all major business schools.

P.S. - The fun doesn't stop here - we have many other events like Arena (Annual Sports Meet), Matka Phod on Janmashtmi, Ganesh Pooja, Diwali Celebrations, Holi Celebrations, Alumni Meets, dinners with Director, experiential learning camps, para sailing trips etc.

prateek2410 | 07:29 pm
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Monday, March 14, 2005

IMI - Kritva 2005

I've been very lazy in posting something here since long!!! Neways the last few days were full of action.... went to IMI, Delhi on 5th March for their annual fest - Kritva

Stayed there for a day. Piyush (Saurabh), Samit, Anandita & Swati (Zingaro) accompanied me (or did I accompanied them!!) The events were quite decently managed & i guess IMI people deserve a pat on their back!!

Neways - my team (Piyush & myself) won the first prize for the Finance Game (Marco Polo) & Samit's team conquered the first slot of Systems Game!!!

Here is one of the pics which I clicked there - the decoration was really good!!

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prateek2410 | 04:12 pm
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Friday, March 04, 2005

Clarification - Chidambaram Ditches Students!!

As it seems now with the current situations (and no clarifications from the CBDT), the upper limit on the deduction (Section 80E - deduction on repayment of education loans) has been removed (it was earlier Rs. 40,000 per month).

So now in case you have a loan of Rs. 7,10,000 (or above), interest @ 10%pa (diminishing balance) & the repayment is done in 7 years (using EMI), then the net deduction will be more than what was allowed earlier.

In this situation (Rs. 7,10,00 loan @ 10%), the total interest deductible over 7 years (max period allowed for deduction) will be Rs. 2,80,088 (as against 2,80,000 earlier) and this deduction will obviously increase with increase in loan amount (coz interest will increase)

However, for loan amounts lower than this (which is the case in majority of the education loans in India), the students will get lower deduction from the earlier one!!!

I guess we'll have to wait from clarifications from the government - specially in regards to the upper limit (as in busget he said that the limit stays)!!!

P.S. - In case of the education loan which I have taken, the deduction will go down to Rs. 1,49,161.00 from Rs. 2,80,000 (marginal tax burden of Rs. 5,600 per annum)

prateek2410 | 06:46 pm
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Thursday, March 03, 2005

Budget Analysis - II - Chidambaram Ditches Students...

Was going through the fineprints of Budget today - but suddenly mention of Section 80E (which deals in deduction on education loans) caught my attention.... in the Finance Bill only those sections are mentioned in which there is any proposed change, but then didn't Chisambaram mentioned in his speech that the deduction on education loan has not been touched....

The earlier version of the deduction allowed to deduct the repayment of principal along with the interest paid thereon from the taxable income of the assessee (of course the pricipal & interest of Education Loan only). This deduction was Rs. 40,000 per year for 7 consecutive years. But now the deduction has been limited to interest component only & the word pricipal has been omitted from the section.

I studied the impact of this change, taking some hypothetical figues - Loan of Rs. 4,00,000 & interest @10%p.a. (reducing balance). So for 7 years repayment, the EMI comes to approx. Rs. 6,640. Using this the deduction earlier would have been Rs. 2,80,000 (spread across seven years) , but now the deduction will be limited to Rs. 1,57,800 only!!!!! This will lead to an additional (marginal) tax burden of approx Rs. 5,300 per year (avegare - @30% - with no surcharge)

What the hell is this supposed to mean??? Mr. Chidambaram very categorically specified in his speech that deduction on education loan stays as is it (though i expected him to raise the amount).... but then when you read the fineprints, you find such gross stupidity & back stabbing from the ministry!!! This clearly potrays the lack of transparency showed by the FM during his speech....

So Mr. Chidambaram - what do we do with our education loans, the effect of which we calculated assuming that the deduction will stay & thus taking loan is more beneficial than shelling out money from other resources???

prateek2410 | 01:28 pm
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Indian Budget 2005 - The Showbiz

Union Budget 2005 - one of the most awaited one was unfolded today... Mr. Chidambaram seemed very confident presenting his dream of "Bharat Nirman"

Many people rate this budget more than average, however i beg to disagree here.... no doubt the budget is a decent one, but not what we expect from the so called "dream team" of Mr. Chidambaram, Dr. Singh & Mr. Aahluwalia. Most of the budget was "incremental" only & had nothing fresh in it. The reform measures of previous years are just carried forward, with some minor changes here & there...

Agreed that the economy is going through a good phase, but that does not warrants a stable & non-controvertial budget. Some might argue that when the economy is on a right path, then whats the need of trying paths to higher growth. But then we forget that we are today at this level, mostly because of the unconventional path used in some of the previous budgets, including the budget of 1991. New methods, although risky, can lead us to a better economy & what gains are made without risks???

The FM talked about reforms in education sector, but then the interest rate subsidy on education loan, announced last year has not reached the borrowers yet. Deduction under section 80E (for payment of education loan) has not been touched, and the deduction is still available at a low level of Rs. 40,000 per year (for 7 years), which should have been raised to atleast Rs. 60,000. Not much was talked about utilisation of funds collected through education cess levied last year. However, proposal to convert a college to the levels of Oxford/ Havard etc was a welcome move.

The FM talked about reforms in Banking sector & also the thrust to enduce public savings. However, the proposal of cash withdrawl tax @ 0.1% (on withdrawls more than Rs. 10,000 on a single day) was a real wash off. This proposal introduced as "Anti tax evasion measure", although seems to be small, can have cascading effects - firstly, it will effect only those people who wish to withdraw money for genuine reasons, as for person who wants to withdrwn cash to convert his money into black money, a sum of Rs. 10 for every Rs. 10,000 is a small price for such conversion & it will hardly stop him from doing so. Secondly, this will certainly stop people from keeping their liquid cash in banks, rather they'll prefer to have hard cash below their beds. Thirdly, this will end up people opening more & more accounts to distribute the cash & thus avoid the tax. This will lead to unnecessary over burdening of the banks, with no additional deposits. And lastly, it will certainly increase the paperwork of the banks, in order to keep track of such transactions & document the same.

During the whole budget, the FM talked about reduction in taxes, duties etc - but he also promised to increase the revenue collection by 50% over the next two years. However, the source of such increase has not been talked in details.

The companies were lured by decreasing the tax rate from 35% to 30%, however the real reduction is far less than it seems to be. The additinal surcharge of 10% will take it to the levels of 33% & add to it the reduced rate of depreciations (which obviously will reduce the levels of capital investments by the companies).

One of my major concern here is the biased budget against the salaried people. The basic logic behind Standard Deduction was to bring salaries at par with the profits of business class people (Businessmen get to deduct expenses, which were incurred to earn the profit, from their profits & pay tax on that, similarly standard deduction was the notional expense incurred by salaried people to earn that salary). However, after raising the slab rates of individual taxation, the FM has done away with standard deductions, but then the deduction of expenses for businessmen still remains the same. On the top of it, many more "fringe benefits" have become taxable in the hand of employers (which were earlier exempt)... so why salaried people should always bear the burder more than others???

P.S. There were many good points in the budget also, but they were very generic to talk about, except for long awaited increase in tax slabs & simplification of tax laws.

prateek2410 | 02:26 am
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