Friday 10 February 2017

Budget 2017 Snapshot for PI preparations

By Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director Calcutta Business School (former Director IIMCalcutta)

The Finance Minister has been able to achieve a difficult balance between growth-oriented expenditure and fiscal prudence. The thrust on infrastructure development expenditure is expected to fuel growth. Lowering tax rate to 25 % for SMEs would also help business growth. The stock market has given thumbs up to the budget proposals by the Sensex increasing by 486 points.  

The Agricultural and Rural Development sector has also been given a thrust. With the proposed plan to harness digital technology a larger part of rural India would be brought into the formal economy.

A very important point that needs to be noted is that for the first time there is an attempt in the budget document to make the government accountable for the promises it has made. The document gives detailed targets for all the ministries and departments. An example is the allocation of Rs. 9000.00 crores for the PM Fasal Bima Yojana which states that the target is to provide insurance cover to 40% of gross cropped area which would minimize risk by 60%.

Another significant aspect of the budget is the proposal that legislative reforms would be undertaken to simplify, rationalize, and merge the existing labour laws into 4 codes. This is going to help in reducing the perceived barriers to doing business as mentioned by foreign investors.

The FM presented some interesting and potentially useful proposals in the area of education:

1. Introduction of a system of measuring annual learning outcomes in schools and an emphasis on science education and flexibility in curriculum to promote creativity which is woefully lacking in our highly bureaucratic educational system. There are many reports on school education that show the abysmally low levels of learning outcomes in our schools in arithmetic and language ability. These lacunae get translated into un-employability of our youth when they are old enough to look for jobs in the organized sector.

2. Creation of an Innovation Fund for Secondary Education to encourage local innovations to ensure universal access, gender parity, and quality improvement.

3. Proposal to undertake reforms in the UGC to encourage greater administrative and academic autonomy based on outcome based accreditation and ranking. This is in line with the recommendations made by the Group of Secretaries who had suggested that the top universities in the country be unshackled from the UGC's stringent regulations to give full expression to their ambitious dreams. It is hoped that autonomy based on accreditation and ranking and funding linked to performance would enable the dream of our country to be in the forefront of research and teaching at the world level.

4. Creation of a National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions that would free the CBSE and AICTE of conducting routine examinations and enable them to concentrate on academics.

5. Launch of the next phase of STRIVE (Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement) at a cost of Rs. 2,200.00 crores. Its very important for the country to lay stress on high quality vocational education that would enable the vast majority of our youth who do not have interest in academics per se or are unable to pursue the same due to a variety of reasons to get gainful employment opportunities. I would; however, recommend that the education system in our country should be so designed that people who are left out of higher education at the time of leaving school can re-enter higher education when they develop the interest or are able to finance their higher education.

About Author


Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, Calcutta Business School is a respected name in the Indian B School circles. Dr. Chaudhuri served as the director in IIM Calcutta for two consecutive terms where he was responsible for launching new academic programs and significant thrust in research activities, accreditations many academic initiatives

Sunday 22 January 2017

Former IIM Calcutta Director joins Calcutta Business School

Former director of IIM Calcutta, Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri joins Calcutta Business School, Bishnupur as Director. A respected name in the Indian B School circles, Dr. Chaudhuri served as the director in IIM C for two consecutive terms where he was responsible for launching new academic programs and significant thrust in research activities,accreditations many academic initiatives.  
Calcutta Business School is an autonomous institute offers Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programs and is approved by AICTE. The college is promoted by
Shikshayatan Foundation (formerly MBV Society) with Mr. S. K. Birla as the Chairman.
Commenting on the development, Mr. S. K. Birla said, “We aim to create a ‘Centre of Excellence in Management Education’ where we nurture and develop future business leaders who contributes to their organizations and beyond.Business across the globe over past few years has forced the management education system to relook. The guiding principle for the industry is now to find potential managers with a blend of academic excellence and business acumen which is relevant to the industry for the present and future business scenario. Under the leadership of notable academician like Dr. Chaudhuri and with his institution building capabilities, Calcutta Business School will cater to the demands of the stake holders.”
“A transformational change process has been initiated that would encompass multi-dimensional growth covering academic programmes and research, faculty enhancement and development that are designed to create new age business leaders. One has to cope with the dynamism of the VUCA situations, adjust to turbulence of business environment, execute and meet the organizational objectives year-on-year” mentioned Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri.
Professor Chaudhuri has earlier held faculty and administrative positions in various institutions and business houses. He was in IIM Ahmedabad for 27 years, College of Business and Administration, Southern Illinois University, ESCP, Paris School of Management, Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIT Kharagpur, Shiv Nadar University been a consultant to the World Bank.

Calcutta Business School’s sprawling 15-acres eco-friendly campus at Bishnupur at the outskirts of Kolkata offers state-of-the-art facilities to enable a 24x7 continuous learning environment. Applications are open for the current PGDM 2017-19 batch. 

Calcutta Business School, seeks applications from diverse set of students

The Calcutta Business School encourages students to apply from non-engineering background too for its PGDM program. Candidates may apply at the official website. Calcutta Business School is an autonomous
institute offering an AICTE approved two-year fully residential Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) program and several Executive Education Programs. The school, modelled on some of the top ranking Business Schools in the country with Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, former IIM Calcutta director, at it’s helm of affairs, is located on a sprawling 15 acre fully residential, eco-friendly and 'intelligent' campus on the outskirts of Kolkata.  The college is promoted by Shikshayatan Foundation with Mr. S. K. Birla as the Chairman. Recently one of the student from the B School was offered a package of INR 14 lacs was offered by Amazon.

Fact file:
Tuition Fees
6.85 Lacs   (Hostel Fees : Approx INR 0.60 lacs )      
Full time Faculty
16
Faculty with PhD
10
Average CTC last year
N.A
Highest CTC last year
N.A
Faculty with Industry Exposure
N.A
Exam Accepted
CAT/MAT/XAT/CMAT/JEMAT
Seat
120
Placement:
Some of the leading recruiters include: HDB Financial Services, Xpro India Limited, Techshu, Future Group, Universal Sompoo General Insurance Co limited, Eveready, MRF Tyres, RS Software, Nestle, Asian Paints, Berger, AVIVA, Reliance General Insurance, 98.3 Radio Mirchi, SASVAT, Birla Sunlife, NIIT Technologies, Alembic, Janlaxmi , McLeod Russel, Emami, Tractors India Ltd., Danieli India, IFB, ITC Infotech, GE Healthcare, Titagarh Wagons, HSBC, VXL, McNally Bharat, Goodricke Group, IMRB, SREI Infrastructure, Tata Metaliks, Rediffusion, HDFC Bank, PwC, Videocon, mjunction, and others.
Specializations:Banking and Finance Management, Marketing, Operation and supply chain management, Healthcare management HRM, Business analytics, Information system and Information technology
Eligibility
The minimum requirement for admission to the programme is 3-year bachelor’s degree or equivalent in any discipline form a recognised Indian or foreign university with a minimum of 50% marks. Candidates appearing for final year bachelor’s degree examinations (or an equivalent examination) can also apply
Selection Procedure
Candidates will be shortlisted for group discussion and personal interview based on their academic record, CAT/MAT/XAT/CMAT/JEMAT scores. Shortlisted candidates will be called for a group discussion, personal interview and other procedure in Kolkata. The final selection will be based on the candidate’s past academic record, overall performance in the group discussion, personal interview, work experience and other procedure.
Application Form: INR 1500. 
Applicants have to apply online by visiting website http://www.calcuttabusinessschool.org/

 Contacts: 9007823472, 9330453325, 09831173476 Monday to Saturday