IIM-A not to roll back fee hike

AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Board of Governors on Saturday ruled out roll back of fee hike amidst voice of dissent from within.

“Fee hike issue did come up for discussion in the Board meeting. The graded system for fees that we have put into effect from this year was presented to the Board members,” IIM-A Director Sameer Barua told reporters here, adding there was “no question of roll back of fee hike”.

“You have to understand that we have implemented a graded system. Our maximum fee is Rs 5.5 lakh per year in post- graduate programme but it is also zero for students whose family income is very low,” Barua said.

“The average fee which we will earn from the batch will be around Rs 4.2 lakhs per students considering the massive financial assistance given by the institute to students coming from lower income group,” he further said.

“All the students coming from the OBC quota will get the benefits of the financial subsidy as they come from income group of below Rs 2.5 lakh due to the exclusion of creamy layer’ as per the judgement of the Supreme Court,” Barua said.

Source: Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/IIM-A_not_to_roll_back_fee_hike/articleshow/2985626.cms

CAT to go on-line from 2009: confirmed

AHMEDABAD: The Common Admission Test (CAT) for the management courses is likely to go on-line from the next year.

“We were planning to make CAT on-line from 2008, but since we have only eight months left for the test, it might not be possible this year. But it will be on-line from 2009,” IIM-A Director Sameer Barua said

Source: Economic times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/CAT_to_go_on-line_from_2009_/articleshow/2985297.cms

IIM admission lists likely in first week of May

BANGALORE: For thousands of students awaiting a call from the coveted Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs), the wait will most likely end in the first week of May.

All six institutes will unveil their lists of selected candidates on the same day, nearly a month behind schedule, a senior IIM official said. The release of the lists was delayed due to lack of clarity over what comprises the ‘creamy layer’ after the SC allowed a 27% quota in higher education for other backward classes (OBCs). The court had said that the creamy layer of relatively affluent and well-educated individuals should be excluded from the quota.

“The directors are supposed to meet on April 29 to work out the details. While the final date will be fixed then, we expect to release the final admissions list by the first week of May. Since the creamy layer issue is yet to be sorted out, it is still not sure whether we will also be releasing the list of OBC candidates on that day, though we will try to do so. All IIMs are looking to release the list of general and SC/ST candidates at the same time,” said IIM Calcutta chairperson of admissions Subrata Mitra.

An IIMB official said their list would include students who will be admitted under the quota.

“The notification we have received from the ministry is reasonably clear,” he said. To speed up the process so that the academic year starting in July does not get delayed, the IIMs have decided not to hold fresh interviews for OBC students; they will dip into the waiting lists instead.

It is expected that there will not be any major difference in the profiles of students making it to the IIMs this year. Despite making an attempt at greater diversity in classrooms, a majority of the students are expected to have an engineering background.

Source: Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Services/Education/IIM_admission_lists_likely_in_first_week_of_May/articleshow/2976697.cms

From 2009, you can bell the CAT online

MUMBAI: The common admission test (CAT) will finally go online from 2009. The Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs), including the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, issued a pre-qualification bid on Monday inviting service providers, IT firms specialising in assessment and testing services, for computerisation of the CAT exam. ET reported this first on October 24, 2007.

The decision will benefit thousands of students who take CAT each year. Last year 2,30,000 students appeared for CAT and the numbers are expected to increase to more than 3,00,000 in 2008. According to sources, the IIMs are contemplating conducting CAT online for almost 15 days, during which students can choose when to take the exam. Initially the IIMs were contemplating a time period of 30 days.

“The initiative will be rolled out in 2009. The idea is to provide a time window, whereby students can take the examination within the stipulated period,” said IIM Lucknow director Dr Devi Singh. The last forum of IIM directors’ was held at IIM Lucknow on February 21. An additional reason to take the CAT online is to reduce the time spent on administration and evaluation process. When ET contacted IIM-Ahmedabad director Prof Samir Barua he said he had “no comments to offer on the recent development”.

Source: Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2915041.cms

GD/Extempore and PI @ FMS-DELHI

The process consisted of a G.D followed by extempore and P.I. The G.D topic was “Vandalism is the flipside of democracy”. The panel gave us clear instructions about the objectives of the G.D and asked us not to be loud, repetitive and relentless. We were group of 10 people with almost the general mix-a couple of loudspeakers and a couple of dumbers. I interrupted at least 5 times and made some useful contributions- I talked about the political machine using vandalism to gain political mileage. I also talked about the character of democracy w.r.t red -tapism and the procedure oriented ness which lets go off the miscreants easily.

I, being the last man in the group, had to wait for a good 5 hours for my shot at the interview panel after completing my G.D. and quite rightly I was asked to speak on the topic “the pleasure of being the last man in the queue” for my extempore which lasted for almost 3 minutes. I used a little bit of philosophy and stuff like- “No pain no gain” and “Pain leads to pleasure” and also that such pleasure would be very sweet after having endured so much pain…..

Then the interview begins. It was one of the weirdest I have even encountered. In my extempore I said I was a little tensed also while I was waiting for my turn. The panelists asked me the reason for my nervousness.

The interview panel consisted of three people including Dean, FMS. This is how the interview went.

Dean: So, Pavan, you are an engineer with 18 months work ex.

I: exactly sir.

Dean: In your extempore you said you were nervous. What made you feel nervous?

I: Sir, I have a flight to catch in an hour’s time from now. So I was a bit nervous.

Dean: Ohhh. I see. But you should have told the facilitators.

I: Sir, I have requested them to advance my slot, but they insisted that it would be OK for me to wait.

Dean: you are an engineer you said. So you must be able to answer this question. What was the order you followed as you entered the GD room and exited?

I: LIFO-last in first out.

Smiles all around. I too did.

Dean: Okay Pavan, we are going to strike some truce- no point fighting.

He asked me to leave at once and catch the flight.

I: sir, it would be my pleasure to spend some more time with you and I would like to undergo a fair process of selection.

Dean: We have a lot of parameters other than interview. Please don’t bother.

Panelist 3: Pavan what all calls do you have and percentiles?

I: I gave the whole list.

Dean: Thank you for being with us

I said my pleasure and left.

Why Should You Worry About GD/PI now?

Its just the beginning (or maybe the middle, depending on when you started!) of the CAT prep season for the 2008 year. And you are probably concentrating on the Big Daddy of all subjects…Math/ Quant. For some strange and unknown reason, most of us tend to take English as the Small Cuddly Bear that “We will tackle anyways“.

So, the point is: Is this really any time to think about the GD/PIs? I have been interacting with students since many years now and invariably, I found the one quality lacking in most students at all places (and I have seen students in Delhi, Bangalore and Pune)- Public Speaking Confidence. And I am not referring to a stage fright here! Its plain and simple “Standing in front of the class and saying a few words…”!

I must say this one time…Wake Up! Get Ready for the next phase NOW! Assuming your best dreams coming true, you will get about 2 months’ time to get ready for a GD and PI call. At that time, if you are at the current communication levels of not knowing what to say about yourself, or where to get that economic “current” data from, I can promise you that it will a really uphill task.

I have a concise bulleted list to help you start:

1. “Think in English”– If you are in the habit of first thinking in Hindi/ Marathi etc. and then translating into English, you are wasting time. And more importantly, you are not “feeling” the language.
2. Reading Practice– I know I am violating the golden rule of RC by asking you to read aloud. But you need to read aloud in front of a mirror, though the RC reading still has to “mann mein”!
3. Read the Editorial of a newspaper from the first to last word- Its really hard, but its inevitable. And do this practice also for one business magazine. Slowly, you will start understanding it too:)
4. Understand both sides of the coin- Try and understand all aspects of a statement. The quality of your participation in a GD is guaged by the way you respond to other people’s viewpoints. Can you think of points going against the conventional standpoints? For instance, think of points in favour of Dowry, Child Marriage or Reservations. Once you understand the other person’s views, you can present better counter-arguments!

There is a lot of work to do, and the time is not too much, considering you have grown up doing things the easier way. The good news is…there is enough time to make amends :)

All the best!