Academic Year 2010 – 11

Academic Events

1) Guest Lecture Series

• July 17, 2010 – Workshop on decision making and problem solving. This workshop by Dr. Nishant Kolgaonkar was organised to hone students’ lateral thinking skills and reasoning abilities.

• September 8, 2010 – Guest Lecture on ‘Economic Drivers & Challenges Facing the Indian Banking Industry’ by Mr K Ramkumar, Executive Director-HR, ICICI. The session was followed by a Q & A session with students. This lecture gave students an opportunity to interact with the industry.

• November 13, 2010 – Guest lecture by Mr. Dharmakirti Joshi, Director and Principal Economist, CRISIL, on “India’s Growth Story”. The basic objectives of the lecture were to understand the constraints and challenges facing India in the pursuit of its growth story. The learning objectives were to help students understand the drivers of world economic growth and India’s role therein, the drivers of India’s economic growth and economic policies that have facilitated such growth, and the possible impediments to growth. The session was followed by a class discussion.

Co-Curricular Activities

The Fest consisted of several Economics-based as well as informal events such as:

• Plijjh Le Lo

• Aao Gao Jao

• Life – Size Monopoly

• Flipside

• Hodge Podge

• Mad Ads

• You Go

• Rock n Moolah

• The chief draw of the Fest was the first event “Economic Parley” consisting of a talk by Dr. Abhay Pethe, focusing on the economic issues facing India.

• Several reputed colleges from Mumbai participated in the Fest including St. Xavier’s, L.S.Raheja, ASMSOC, SNDT, Mithibai, SM Shetty’s, Sophia & D.J. Sanghvi.

• The winner of the best college trophy was awarded to Mithibai College.

Other Activities

Students of SOE coordinated with the Lions Club to do a beach-cleaning exercise after Ganpati Visarjan on September 23rd 2010. This was part of the activities of the Social Service Club with an objective to create an awareness of social and civic responsibility and dignity of labour among students.

The Social Welfare Club conducted classes for underprivileged children in conjunction with the NGO, Sneha Sadan. They also conducted computer training classes for some of the older children from October 2010 onwards.

Trek to Lohagad- On September 21, 2010 students of SOE accompanied by faculty and members of ‘Break Free Journey’ (professional trekkers) went to Lohagad for a trek as an extension of outdoor classroom activity.

Academic Year 2011 – 12

Academic Events

Industry Exposure

SAMSOE has pioneered a unique model of having 5% of the lectures of all core subjects conducted by industry experts in the subject. Thus we saw a number of renowned professionals conduct lectures, giving students a chance to interact with them and see for themselves the wider ramifications of what they are taught in class. Students are also taken on trips to varied places, from banks to farms, to allow them to merge the theoretical with the practical.

February 2012-

On February 9, 2012 Dr. K. Narayanan, Prof and Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Mumbai addressed the B.Sc. Economics students on ‘Industrial Organization, Trade and Competition Policy’. Citing examples, he spoke on misdirected policies, which paradoxically have resulted in a reduction rather than an increase in competition.

December 2011 –

1. On December 2, 2011, Dr. M. H. Suryanarayana, Professor of Economics at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, conducted a session on ‘Applications of Econometrics’ for the second-year students.

2. On December 9, 2012, Mr. T. Sonna, Assistant Advisor Agricultural Desk RBI conducted a session on “Agricultural Pricing Policy” for the S.Y.B.sc students. It was followed by an interaction.

3. The second-year students went to Kamshet to visit Mr. Balsavar’s organic farm as a part of the Agricultural Economics course. Mr. Balsavar is a member of the Maharashtra Federation of Organic Farmers. He has been practicing organic farming since the last 20 years. He is also helping 20 small farmers in the region practice organic farming and market their produce. The visit to the farm was followed by a talk by Mr. Balsavar on “Economics of organic farming and its sustainability‘. It was followed by an interactive session with the students.

November 2011 –

1. These sessions resumed on the 14th of November with Mr. Yajuvendra Chauhan, Cluster Manager, ICICI Bank (Juhu Branch) delivering a lecture on “The Banking system and Bank Branch Profitability” to students of the second year. The informative lecture included details of how a bank branch functions, how it earns income, what norms it follows and how each desk in a branch acts as a profit-making entity. The next day, students were taken to visit various ICICI Bank branches to better understand this very concept.

2. On November 22, 2011 Prof. C.D. Sreedharan, adjunct faculty, NMIMS and ex-RBI Professor at the RBI Training College, addressed the second year students of the School of Economics on the topic ‘Balance Sheet of a Commercial bank’. The discussion was like a journey back in time, starting from the establishment of the Bank Nationalization Act, 1969 to the present scenario of banking in India. Mr. Sreedharan spoke about the various norms followed by banks across the globe and enlightened the students about how the banking system influences everyone, from an individual to an economy as a whole.

3. On November 28 & 29, 2011, a Guest Lecture was conducted by Mr. K. Gothandraman, Deputy General Manager- ICICI Bank. He dealt with the topic “Risk Assessment by Commercial Banks” in two 2-hour sessions.

August 2011

1. The first guest lecture of the year was conducted by Dr. Vidya Mahambare, Senior Economist, CRISIL, as a part of the subject of International Economics on the 4th and 5th of August. These sessions allowed students to delve deeper into the global financial crisis of 2008.

2. A session on Financial Economics was conducted on August 20, 2011 by Dr. Rajkamal Iyer, Assistant Professor at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He discussed an HBS case study with the students ‘Cost of Capital at Ameritrade’. This case study gave students an insight into the practical aspects of the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

3. Mr. Akshit Shah, Project Manager, Boston Consultancy Group conducted a lecture on the topic “Pricing” as a part of the aforementioned 5% component for Industrial Economics.

Guest Lecture Series

The aforementioned exposure to industry is a course component for the second-year students. However, in a bid to ensure that our first-year students are also acquainted with experts from industry and otherwise, SAMSOE conducted a number of guest lectures for them as well. These were not part of the curriculum, but were held to give students an idea of what to expect when they move up next year.

February 2012 –

A Workshop on Leadership Training was conducted by Mr. Dhaval Doshi & Namrata from Youthapreneurs on February 4, 2012 for the S.Y. B.Sc. Economics Students.

December 2011 –

On December 7, 2011 Ms. Harini Calamur, a media professional and Visiting faculty at top Mumbai colleges , conducted a session on ‘Interrelation between Economics and other Social Science Subjects’ for the first and second year students.

October 2011 –

1. On October 14, 2011, Mr. Rashmin Sanghvi, C.A, delivered a lecture on the topic “Currency Wars”. Speaking on the topic, he emphasized on the need for a different outlook in the conduct of the foreign exchange policy of the RBI and the need for the rupee to be allowed to appreciate.

2. Mr. R. Raghuraman, Vice-President (Supply Chain), Hindustan Unilever Ltd., delivered a lecture on the topic “Economics of Supply Chain” to the first and second year students on October 18, 2011. The informative lecture consisted of details regarding the various types of supply chains based on industry type, as also the relevance of supply chain in future business strategies.

3. Dr. Abhay Pethe, Director, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai visited the School on October 19, 2011. He engaged in an interactive session with the first and second year students on various aspects of economics. He also reviewed the students’ understanding of various topics in economics.

Co-Curricular Activities

Debates/MUN/Games/Other Pedagogy

• “Shastrarth” 2012
The first year students of B.Sc. Economics organised a National Inter-collegiate debate, “Shastrarth” on the 1st of February 2012. With topics ranging from “Are social networking sites bringing people closer” to “Governments of the world, Rise! Limit economic freedom to limit economic inequality”, the debate witnessed keen participation from 16 top Mumbai colleges including St. Xaviers, Sophia, KC, RA Podar, National, Thadomal, among others. Outstation teams included the Symbiosis School of Economics. The home team was among the top performers, making it to the finals. However, as had been decided earlier, the finals were contested between the visiting teams only. A keenly contested final round saw RA Podar College of Commerce and Economics trump Thadomal Shahani Engineering College to emerge victorious. Pranav Advani from RA Podar was adjudged the “Best Speaker”.

The event was judged by leading academicians such as Dr. G. Kalyanaram, an alumnus of MIT and a leading scholar in the area of Marketing, and Dr. Anupam Rastogi, Senior Professor, SBM, NMIMS and also industry experts such as Mr. Jagdish Acharya, CEO, Asian Paints PPG, who was also the Chief Guest at the ceremony.

• The first year students of the School of Economics organized an intra-School Model United Nations (MUN), an academic simulation of the United Nations, on November 11, 2011. The students of both years, representing delegates of various countries, actively spoke on the topic ‘The territorial and political issue of Kashmir’. The simulation turned out to be educative as well as entertaining, with competitive arguments from 14 countries and a false bomb scare in the midst of a UN Veto session.

• Students of SAMSOE participated in ‘Kartavya’- the debate organized under the aegis of the University of Mumbai, together with the NGO, ‘India Against Corruption’. A keenly debated first round, comprising of a Team ‘For’ and ‘Against’ the motion, culminated in the selection of 3 students to represent the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics in the First round.

• A student of Second Year B.Sc. Economics, Sanjana Govindarajan was selected to be a panel member on the ‘Times Now’ debate “Politics Encourages Terrorism”. The debate was held at the Times Now studio on Saturday July 30, 2011. Sanjana Govindarajan spoke for the motion. The debate was moderated by Arnab Goswami and the other panel members included Mahesh Jethmalani, Anupam Kher and Prasoon Joshi. The programme was telecast on August 6, 2011 on the ‘Times Now’ TV channel.

• As part of the innovative pedagogy aimed at making the teaching-learning process more interactive and fun, the following tools were used in the course of teaching the core Economics papers-

• Games

• Role-play

• Rap

• Shooting of video films

• Industrial and field visits

Film Screenings

We at SAMSOE believe that simply studying from textbooks is not enough. In today’s world, a holistic and well-rounded education is required. To that end, students are often shown films of various kinds; some aid the learning process while others allow them to relax after a long day.

• The Movie Club screened the Academy Award-winning film ‘The Fighter’ on December 8, 2011.The film looks at the early years of boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.

• The Movie Club screened the National Award-winning film ‘Parzania’ on November 24, 2011. The film is inspired by the true story of a ten-year-old Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, essayed in the film as Parzaan Pithawala in the film, who disappeared after the Gulbarg Society massacre on 28 February 2002. As part of the screening, Mr. Rahul Dholakia, director of the movie, interacted with the students the next day. He talked about the difficulties he faced during filming and the issues he had hoped to address through the film.

• The Academy Award-winning film “The Dark Knight” was screened for the first year students on November 19, 2011 as part of their Micro Economics course. Prof. Amita Vaidya used the movie in a unique manner, as an introduction to Game Theory. She discussed how Game Theory was used in the movie & related it to the game theory used by firms in Oligopoly.

• The Movie Club screened the film ‘La vie en Rose’- a French film- on November 17, 2011.

• A film “21” was screened for the First Year B.Sc Economics students on October 12, 2011 as part of their Mathematics & Statistics course. This was to emphasize real life applications of statistical methods.
• On August 9, 2011 a film “Nero’s Guests” was shown by Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar for the First Year B.Sc. Economics students. The basic objective of the movie was to study the issue of corporatization of India’s agriculture & the consequent fallout in the form of farmers’ suicides.The learning objectives were (1) To highlight the problems faced by the farmers in Vidharba. (2) To sensitize the students to the plight of farmers in India. The screening was followed by a class discussion.

• On August 3, 2011 a film “Wall street” was screened by Dr. Rama Pal for First Year B. Sc. Economics students. The film, deals with the inside story of stock brokers and how they play games to reach to the top. This movie was a part of the “Economic Times” course.

Conferences/Seminar/Workshop attended & Research Papers Presented

• Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar attended the Platinum Jubilee National conference held at TISS Mumbai during 17th-19th February 2012 and presented a paper titled “Globalisation and the role of the State in Emerging Economy Conflict Zones: Regulatory Repressive vs. Participatory Active.”

• On February 15, 2012, a workshop on, “Why this Kolaveri…?” a mental health session held for all the students of NMIMS University and the BNCP on all kinds of addictions, smoking, alcohol, drug dependency, substance abuse to social networking at Bhaidas Hall from 10.00am – 12.30pm. Students of both F.Y. & S.Y. B.Sc. Economics attended. The program was emceed by two students of F.Y. B.Sc. Economics.

• A work shop was conducted by Dr. Brindley on the topic ‘Opportunities (academics/ scholarships etc) offered by USF to students interested in pursuing higher education in the U.S.’ on February 6, 2012. The F.Y. & S.Y. B.Sc. Economics students attended the same.

• Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar attended the “International Symposium on a Sustainable Future – 2012”, in IGIDR during 19th – 21st January 2012.

• Karishma Tiwari, a second-year student won the Third Prize at Manshodhan -I on26th November, 2011 for her research paper titled ‘Global Food Inflation: Trend, Causes and Implications’ written under the guidance of Dr. Rama Pal.

• Dr. Rama Pal, a faculty member of the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics presented a research paper titled ‘Inequalities in Child Health in India: Implications for Inclusive Educational Development’ at the Symposium of Ninth Conference of the Indian Association for Social Sciences and Health (IASSH), on November 24 & 25, 2011.

ORIENTATION PROGRAM 2011-12

The orientation programme for the First Year B.Sc. Economics batch (2011 – 2012) was organized on July 15 & 16, 2011. Refreshments were followed by an Orientation into Library Usage & Black Board ICT Technology by Mr. Shivanand S. (Librarian) and Mr. Sujeet Chowdhary respectively. Ms. Alka Shukla (Deputy Registrar) briefed the students about the examination system of the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics, rules and regulations pertaining to the examination system as also the grading system followed at NMIMS.

The afternoon session consisted of an Ice-breaker session conducted by the Second Year B. Sc. Economics students in the presence of the faculty members.

A workshop on “Enhancement of Emotional Quotient” was conducted for the First Year B. Sc. Economics students on July 16, 2011 by Ms. Leonie D’Mello, a freelance trainer for the past two decades. The workshop lasted from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

A Workshop on “Lateral Thinking” was conducted on July 23, 2011 by Mr. Suhail Gupta, a consultant with Ideas Management Consultants- a firm which holds the patent to conduct Lateral Thinking workshops from Edward De Bono, the famous Lateral Thinking expert. This workshop was conducted for First Year B.Sc. Economics students.

Extra-Curricular Activities

SAMSOE isn’t all work and no play. Our students have a variety of interests and pursue them to the fullest, be it on the field or behind the podium.

• The Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics had its 2nd Annual Intercollegiate fest “Ka-Ching” on February 21 & 22, 2012. The inaugural function was held on February 21, 2012. Mr. Praveen Kutty, Head, Retail and SME Banking, Development of Credit Bank was the Chief Guest.

‘Ka-Ching’ had four core Economic events which saw enthusiastic participation by more than 20 colleges. The events were: – Mock UN – where the Euro crisis was discussed in the ECOSOC; Blue Screen – based on Game Theory; Mock Stock Exchange & Treasure Hunt. Other events like Maths Quiz, Movie Quiz, Literary Events, Chess, Tug of War & the Band Event also witnessed enthusiastic participation. The best contingent prize went to the Anil Surendra Modi School of Commerce, closely followed by Mithibai College.

Participation in Inter collegiate Festivals

Students of SAMSOE have been participating in various inter-collegiate festivals across the city.

• The students of F.Y. & S.Y. B.Sc. Economics participated in the intercollegiate Fest Vaayu organized by Anil Surendra Modi School of Commerce in February 2012. The Following students won the prizes in different events

• Garima Sinha & Aishwarya Ketkar – 1st prize in ‘BOB the Builder’.
• Shradha Kochhar – 1st prize in ‘Grab the Headline’ a journalism event.
• Dhruv Sengar, Abhay Gopalani, Nishant Bhagya & Omkar Pandharkame – 1st Prize in ‘Business Chase’.
• Jigar Shah – 2nd prize in ‘MOCKSTOCK’
• Abhishek Ghosh – 2nd Prize in Mock Parliament

Following students participated in the group dance competition and won the 2nd Prize.

• Apurva Kaushik, Avni Raghuwansi, Kashis Dua, Alakeshendra Gehlot, Vrinda Agarwal, Sejal Bansal, Anusha Poddar, Mahek Chhaya, Shweta Kulkarni, Shweta Varma & Shree Patel.

Top Honors at the Xaviers Economics Fest- ECONUNDRUM