- Gaston Bachelard

With its September issue, Team AG happily introduces the Junior AG team to its readers. It’s a moment of great pleasure for us to pass on the legacy with a belief that Junior team would shoulder the responsibility to take up the AG to greater heights, through even more vigor and enthusiasm. New team always brings with them the wider horizons, perspectives and ideas. We wish the Junior AG team all the success.

Junior AG team has right away introduced a column on B-Quiz, named as ‘Quizomania‘ in their first edition of Avant Garde. This column will try to capture the happenings in the business world and much more. Let’s see what more do they have in store for us in the upcoming editions.

With the Mid semester fever getting off, the temperament of IITK has risen with the commencement of the annual sports meet “Udhgosh’12”. With the hot air balloon, adventure sports and live screening of T20 matches the stage is setting up for most awaited events of the year, the cult-fests Antragini’12 and Impressions’12.

August and September saw many ups and downs as the parliament debated over the ‘mother of all scams the coal-block hitting India on face. Even before this debate could settle down, the announcement of 100% FDI on retail turned out to be the biggest news-maker stealing the show.

The untimely demise of the engineer for the White Revolution Dr. Kurien, the nation had another big blow. With controversial anti-Islamic movie reaching to masses and the case of threatening of north east people over MMS, SMS and social media, again resumed the debate over implementing the mechanism to check the content on communication channels. It can be fatal tool if got into wrong hands.

On the lighter side India’s official entry to Oscars, Barfi was able to generate hopes that Cinema in India is marching towards the much awaited overhaul. As we release this edition most us are eyeing on the India combating Pakistan in T20 super eight which irrespective of its result would be a pleasure to watch.

Articles covered in this edition are:

Team AG feels pleasure in sharing the achievement of our Alumni, as Siddhartha Gupta and Aditi Makol, MBA batch of 2010 have made their Alma mater proud by coming up as winners of the Capgemini Super Techie Show. Capgemini Super Techies show aired on ETNow is India’s first reality TV series for IT professionals where they get a platform to showcase their tech talent to the world.

With the 100% recent FDI roll-out in parliament, the stage is set for the foreign investors to boost the organized retail sector in India. Mukul Joshi of MBA 2013 batch tries to evaluate how already the organized sector has impacted the way people shop in India. He brings out a case analysis on a traditional market cluster (bazaar) for Jaggery in Punjab, as a miniature.

India is a land of diversity. This calls for responsible behavior by the citizens of the country. Nishu Navneet of MBA 2014 batch brings out the recent incidents of mass exodus of Northeastern communities, having to leave their workplaces to return back to their hometowns. He talks about the prejudice and racial discrimination committed on the people coming from other states which have been occurring quite frequently over the years.

Whole nation is mourning over the sad demise of Dr. Verghese Kurien. As a tribute to this maestro, Chintan of MBA 2014 batch brings out an article discussing his contributions to the nation. In the first part of this two article series he discusses about the inception of Amul and formation of co-operative societies for villages. He also talks about the famous Operation Flood that brought about the White Revolution in our country.

Tarun Goel of MBA 2013 batch shares his internship insights and experiences in operations domain at BEHR India, Pune. Hailing from mechanical engineering background he talks about his two months stint working in a Core Company and on the project of his interest.

We hope that you like this edition of Avant Garde.

For the motivation of Junior AG Team, do post your comments on the articles in the “Add Comment” section. Awaiting your comments, criticism and appreciation.

Till the next issue, wish you a Happy Reading!

Team AG.

Experiences play a pivoting role for us, to understand the present and try to understand the world through it. While it is an interesting activity in itself, it also gives a chance to go beyond that. A world of imagination has its foundation in the world we experience. And that is how society moves forward. This edition of Avant Garde is dedicated to such experiences we have in our lives. A small attempt to share our own experiences we had with the country, its people and the changing scenarios.

The environment at IITK is electrifying as it reopens for a new academic year. The even more green campus of IITK amidst the rains is a delight as well as contrast to the hot and swindling arena as it was when we left it in the first week of May. A complete new lot of enthusiastic juniors from organizations as diverse as Facebook, Deloitte to Coal India have become the part of the vibrant atmosphere of the IITK MBA program. With sparks in their eyes and the zeal to learn they are on track after a four day aggressive work out with the seniors.
Meanwhile, the senior batch is also on its toes, geared up for another year of roller coaster ride on concepts, readings, analysis and projects. Back from their respective summer internships, they have had seen the organizations from naïve perspectives. For few it was a direct application of the classroom concepts, while for others it was an unlearning and re-learning experience. Working in organizations as diverse as Mitsui in Japan, to the government of Madhya Pradesh, they are all sharing and narrating the anecdotes of their learning.

As India gets its 13th President, Sandeep Sharma (Batch 2013) comes up with a brief analysis of roles and responsibilities that the president of India has.

Samreen Jamal (Batch 2013) shares her experiences with the twitter during her summer internship. She tries to figure out how twitter is shaping the business scenario these days, and why it is being viewed as the next powerful feedback and communication channel.

Taruna (Batch 2013) takes a close look at the Indian Administrative services as a career. She shares some real-time analysis of the job, through her experience as a summer intern in the Government of Madhya Pradesh. This edition brings out the first part of this series.

Mukul Joshi (Batch 2013) writes a case on the lines of freakonomics. He is portraying in a light manner, the subtler impact of the rain deficiency that often goes unnoticed.

We hope that you like this edition of Avant Garde.

Do post your comments on the articles in the “Add Comment” section. Awaiting your comments, criticism and appreciation.

Till the next issue, wish you a Happy Reading!
Team AG.

This timeless quotation has inspired several generations to realize and appreciate the importance of all the teachings, values, learnings and resources from the past. It’s often the case that these factors congregate into one unifying force for the progress of a particular society. For our nation, the linchpin of this progress lies in the strength of our foundation, our resilience in adversity and our belief in the wisdom of elders. Our progress as a country has been evident throughout the globe with a string of significant events that took place last year. Along the same line the year 2012 promises to provide us with a number of more such exciting moments. The ongoing state elections have already gathered the attention of the nation. Results are being closely monitored by the experts and masses and the whole process is being viewed as a pre-cursor to the next Lok Sabha elections. The month of January also witnessed some scintillating Republic Day celebrations. The whole of India applauded and cheered the awe-inspiring show on the majestic roads of Rajpath with an utter sense of pride which re-emphasized the blend of our military might and an incredibly diverse cultural heritage.

We, amidst a very cold and chilly IIT Kanpur, have entered the year looking forward to different set of challenges and opportunities. The current issue of Avant Garde is going to be a reader’s delight with an eclectic set of articles it has brought with it.

To set the ball rolling, we have launched a new initiative in the form of “Industry Speak” section from this time around. This section would have professionals working across various industries sharing their vast repertoire of experiences and knowledge. As a first in this series, we have Mr. Ratish Mukhoti (Deputy General Manager, Planning and Inventory Control, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals) giving us an insight in supply chain management by sharing his experience in pharmacy industry. He analyses how the processes of manufacturing, purchase and planning need to seamlessly work for more effective market catering as the overall company objective.

We also have an excellent read in form of an article by our alumni Mr. Dhiraj Kumar (Batch 2011). He has made all of us proud by publishing his first book as an author named – “The Asocial Networking”. In the article, he discusses the basic theme of the book and also presents a different take on the social networking today. The article also contains some of the selected excerpts from the book.

Nabarun Sengupta (Batch 2012) writes an informative article on his special studies course done as a part of the curriculum. He discusses the 2 global protocols used for Scope 3 carbon mapping with a brief primer to sustainability, climate change and the need for organizations to start focussing on determining their carbon footprint.

Himanshu Joshi (Batch 2013) comes up with a detailed analysis of the fall of rupee as a currency, especially in the last one year. He discusses the causes of this drop and also the several impacts it has inflicted on our economy. The article also discusses the critical role of RBI in recovering from the situation and also what the future holds for us.

Samreen Jamal (Batch 2013) comes up with an analysis of Government’s decision to bring FDI in multi-brand retail in India. She discusses the effects of allowing foreign investors in our country and its direct and indirect consequences on various sectors and segments of our industry.

Alok Jain (Batch 2013) discusses a topic that has caused a wide debate pertaining to the online media.  He analyses the issues regarding the objectionable content present on internet and the pros and cons of blocking popular websites like Google and Facebook. The article deals with the options we have at present and their respective feasibilities.

We hope that you like this edition of Avant Garde.

Do post your comments on the articles in the “Add Comment” section.  Awaiting your comments, criticism and appreciation.

Till the next issue, wish you a Happy Reading!

Team AG.