MBA and CAT Gyann

Chasing Monsoon

2010-04-23T19:30:00.003+05:30

Agriculture contributes to around 16-17% of GDP but around 56% of workforce directly or indirectly depends of agriculture. India faced a tough 2009-2010 after recession hit by drought which saw inflation index of primary goods zooming to double digit figures. Summers are searing and as May comes nearer everyone starts gazing at sky to get the slightest hint of rain gods.

THE weather office has predicted normal rainfall in the June-September monsoon period,offering hope to the countrys farm sector that was savaged last year by the worst drought in 37 years. Rainfall is likely to be 98% of the long-term average,the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in its first monsoon forecast for the year.Average rainfall for the 1941-90 period is 89 cms. A good monsoon is vital for crops such as rice,sugar cane,soybeans,sugar,corn,groundnut,pulses and cotton.The drought had resulted in a close to 12% drop in kharif,or summer crop,output in 2009,leading to high food inflation of around 18%.Kharif crops contribute to over 50% of the countrys farm production. A normal monsoon is crucial to the governments hopes of achieving 8% plus economic growth in the current fiscal year,as it has assumed a 4% farm sector growth.Agriculture and allied industries contribute less than a fifth of the countrys gross domestic product,but provides livelihood to around 60% of the population. The monsoon forecast is keenly monitored by the agricommodities sectors and other sectors such as FMCG,fertilisers and energy.

India's Global Ranking

2010-01-15T13:07:00.001+05:30

Area/Scope	India	Best
Corruption	84	New Zealand (1)
Optimism	2	Chile (1)
Employee Confidence	3	Brazil (1)
HDI (Human Development Index)	134	Norway (1)
FSI (Failed State Index)	87	Norway (177)
GDP (PPP)	4	European Union (1)
GDP (Nominal)	12	European Union (1)
Per Capita Income (GDP N)	143	Luxembourg (1)
Global Fire Power	4	US (1)
Number of Airports	16	US (1)
Road Network	2	US (1)
Rail Network	4	US (1)
Global Competitiveness	49	Switzerland (1)
Most Livable Place Index	104	Finland (1)
Environmental Performance	120	Switzerland (1)

Maharashtra CET 2010

2010-01-15T11:53:00.004+05:30

According to CET 2010 notification, the forms will be available in the listed post office given below:

ANDHERI Railway Stn. Post Office, S V Road,Andheri (W), Mumbai-400 058.
BANDRA HO, Near Bhaba Hospital, St. Martin Road, Bandra(West), Mumbai-400 050
BORIVALI (W) Railway Station,.Bhaji Galli, Near Borivali Police Stn, Mumbai-400 092.
CHEMBUR HO, 10th Road, Mumbai-400 071
DOMBIVALI PO, Phadake Road,Dombivali-421201
DOMBIVALI PO, Tilaknagar-421 201
DADAR HO, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road, Dadar T.T., Dadar (E), Mumbai-400 014
DAHISAR Railway Station P.O., Above Dhanraj Hotel, Nr. Railway Station, Dahisar (W), Mumbai-400 068
KALBADEVI HO, Resham Bazar Lane, Mumbai-400 002
KALYAN Railway Stn. Post Office, Near Kalyan Railway Stn., Kalyan.
KURLA PO,New Mill Road,Kurla(West),Mumbai-400 070
MUMBAI GPO,Near V.T. Railway Station,Mumbai-400 001
MUMBAI CENTRAL HO, Dr.Bellasis Road, Opp.S.T. Stand, Mumbai-400 008
PALGHAR H.O., Kamat Bldg.Sagar Nagar, Devisha Road, Palghar-401 404 Dist: Thane
PANVEL HO,Sector 19, New Panvel-410 206
THANE Railway Stn. Post Office, Near Thane Railway Stn. Thane(W) 400 601
VASAI Road PO, Next to Vimal Shopping Center, Vasai Road(W) -401 202
VASHI PO,Plot No. 18 & 19,Sector 16-A, Vashi,Navi Mumbai-400 703
VIRAR PO, Shri Sakti Sadan Bldg., Virar-401 303

The CET exam will be conducted on 21^st of February 2010 and the form will be available in post-offices from 18^th January to 2^nd February 2010. This time CET is only accepting CAT or CET scores for the OMS (Other than Maharashtra Candidates). XAT, JMET, ATMA and MAT scores are taken only for minority seats. One can go through the details about eligibility criteria and important dates in the pdf files given below.

CET 2010 Notification:

CET 2010 Brochure:

Surprise: Bihar second fastest growing state

2010-01-07T00:18:00.003+05:30

According to survey Bihar has shown second highest growth in past five years. Maharashtra still remains as the richest state registering healthy growth rate.

Events of the Week 20-26 December 2009

2009-12-29T17:46:00.002+05:30

20th December

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina appoints Colonel Vital Albert Camille as
the new Prime Minister, days after sacking former Prime Minister Eugene
Mangalaza, who had been appointed as part of a power sharing agreement.
United States Army Major General Anthony Cucolo makes pregnancy a
court-martial offense for both female and male troops under his command in
northern Iraq.
Philippine officials warn an eruption at the Mayon Volcano could happen
within the next few days.
Nitin Gadkari is BJP president.

21st December

North Korea establishes a "peacetime firing zone" on the Northern Limit Line
maritime border with South Korea, threatening to fire shells in South Korean
territorial waters.
Mister Bolivia wins Mister International 2009 at the end of the two-week
event in Taiwan.
Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina abandons the power sharing agreement
after appointing a new military Prime Minister, Colonel Vital Albert
Camille.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Laurence becomes a category 5 and strikes the
Australian coast with winds of 285 km/h (177 mph).
Germany keen on closer defence, civil nuclear ties with India.
Head-count ratio of people below poverty line higher in State: Tendulkar
committee (India)

22nd December

Sudan's parliament approves a law on a possible referendum on Southern
Sudan's independence.
Serbia formally submits its application to join the European Union.
Pradhan committee has severely indicted the former Police Commissioner, Hasan
Gafoor, for his handling of the Mumbai terror attacks.
The Lok Sabha elections this year were hailed as a success by all, including
sections of the national and international press, Chief Election Commissioner
Navin Chawla.
CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award 2009 to music composer A.R. Rehman, Lifetime
Achievement Award was given to sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Mr.Rahul
Gandhi was adjudged the “Politician of the Year”.
Describing Bhutan as “India’s closest friend and neighbour,” Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh presided over the signing of a dozen pacts with Thimphu in the
presence of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk.

23rd December

Soyuz TMA-17, carrying an international crew of one Russian, one American,
and one Japanese astronaut, docks with the International Space Station.
The United Nations imposes sanctions of a ban on arms importation and frozen
bank accounts on Eritrea for supporting Somali rebels.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan orders the government to recognise hijras
(eunuchs and transgender individuals) as a distinct gender.
The outcome of the Conference of Parties at Copenhagen is “good” but not
“adequate,” R.K. Pachauri, chairperson of the Inter-governmental Panel on
Climate Change.
The abrogation or continuance of Article 370 should be left to the people of
the State Jammu and Kashmir.

24th December

The Indian Army kills nine members of the Peoples Revolutionary Party of
Kangleipak and Kanglei Yana Kan Lup during three incidents in Manipur.
Hewlett-Packard admits face detection software on its laptops has trouble
detecting dark-skinned faces, leading to casual claims of racism by some.
2009 Sahitya Akademi Awards, the poets honoured were: Praduman Singh
Jindrahia (Dogri), Kailash Vajpeyi (Hindi), Jess Fernandes (Konkani), Raghu
Leishangthem (Manipuri), Vasant Abaji Dahake (Marathi), Phani Mohanty (Oriya),
Damayanti Beshra (Santhali) and Puviarasu (Tamil).

25th December

China's National Bureau of Statistics revised the growth rate of its gross
domestic product (GDP) for 2008 to 9.6 percent from 9 percent.
Shiva Keshavan announced his readiness for the winter Olympics with a silver
medal in the luge event of the Asian Championship in Nagano.
Information Technology Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy announced his
decision to resign from the Cabinet as well as the MLA post.

26th December

Countries around the Indian Ocean hold commemorations on the fifth
anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed around 250,000 people.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has restrained a television news channel from
telecasting a news story showing visuals of an elderly person, who was alleged
to be Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari, in a compromising position with three women
in the Raj Bhavan.

SNAP 2009

2009-12-27T11:53:00.003+05:30

SNAP 2009 was no different from its previous papers with 40 questions in each section except the reasoning where it had 30 questions. English, quantitative ability and general knowledge section each question carried one mark while in reasoning each question carried 2 mark each with a negative marking of one fourth of the positive marks in each section. Difficulty level wise it was easier than the last year paper except the general knowledge questions. The paper had many errors in it. The biggest error was question paper suggested it as 150min exam while the answer paper suggested 120min exam. Atleast one question in maths and general knowldege didn't had solution present in the options with many questions not being lucid enough. To get further analysis just go through the following file:

Here it begins: Online CAT 2009

2009-11-28T12:17:00.002+05:30

After a much buzz and hype of CAT going online, finally CAT online begun from today. Yes! Today CAT gave birth to its concept of online CAT. But this gestation period has not been immaculate. All started in June when IIM formally disclosed about CAT certainly going online this year and Prometric acting as nanny for the first online CAT. Even the forms this time were online but were full of glitches. A person was able to submit form even after not filling the mandatory details, because of which many student were on the verge of buying another form as our future managers made blunders, all thanks to an esoteric online form. IIM management were quick enough to recognize the problem and soon came up with a solution of editing the form. Everything was again smooth sailing uptil last week when many received messages from TM-CATIIM, asking them to edit some specific details even when their details were fine. And finally today online CAT was born but with some congenial defects which was as predicted. CAT got cancelled in one of the center in Bangalore and Bhopal. Lets see what else is concealed in this pandora's box.

IIFT 2009 analysis

2009-11-25T12:55:00.005+05:30

IIFT 2009 was full of surprises. It had 4 main sections and it was clearly specified that section do have sectional cut-offs. IIFT have very typical way of marking scheme, but this time there was some standardization in the marking scheme as compared with the previous years, where the marks were like 0.78 or 0.86 or 0.68 per question. The QA section, DI section and RC sub-section had straight 1 marks, while the EU sub-section and GK section had 0.6 and 0.4 marks respectively. The negative marking was straight one third. It had the typical IIFT touch having very calculation demanding QA and DI, while the RC, GK and reasoning was on bit easier side. This was just a rough overview of the IIFT paper, to get further insight about the paper just go through the analysis file below.

What to expect on CAT day

2009-11-10T17:40:00.001+05:30

What to expect on CAT day. An overview.

IRMA 2009

2009-11-10T17:38:00.001+05:30

IRMA 2009 Analysis... A must read for all students

Pros and cons of choosing a niche MBA

2009-11-10T17:34:00.002+05:30

An intresting article on the advantages and disadvantages of joining a Niche MBA course

Homophones: List 2

2009-11-01T01:20:00.004+05:30

incite (to provoke action); insight (understanding)
incredible (not believable); incredulous (skeptical)
inequity (lacks fairness); iniquity (sin)
ingenious (clever); ingenuous (naive)
lay (to place, secular); lei (garland)
lea (meadow); lee (shelter)
leak (escape); leek (vegetable)
lean (thin, incline); lien (claim)
llama (animal); lama (monk)
loop (turn); loupe (magnifying glass)
lute (musical instrument); loot (slang for spoils)
mana (supernatural power in an object); manna (divine or spiritual food)
mannequin (model); manikin (dwarf)
mantel (shelf); mantle (cloak)
mask (covering); masque (drama)
material (substance); materiel (equipment)
mean (signify, low, average); mien (demeanor)
mill (1/10 cent; grinder); mil (unit of length or thickness)
moan (groan); mown (mowed)
moat (ditch); mote (speck)
mutton (sheep meat); mouton (sheepskin)
official (authorized); officious (bossy)
oscillate (swing back and forth); osculate (kiss)
ought (should); aught (zero)
pecan (a tall hickory tree); pekan (a fisher)
palette (paint board); pallet (bed)
perquisite (benefit, hence the slang perks); prerequisite (prior requirement)
persecute (harass); prosecute (to try by law)
policy (plan); polity (government)
populace (the people); populous (thickly populated)
prescribe (to order); proscribe (to forbid)
presentment (legal presentation); presentiment (premonition)

Homophones: List 1

2009-11-01T01:03:00.004+05:30

adapt (adjust to); adept (skilled); adopt (take as one's own)
aerie (nest); airy (breezy); eerie (spooky)
aisle (passage); isle (island)
allusion (indirect reference); illusion (misperception)
appraise (to set a value on); apprise (to inform)
assay (to analyze); essay (to attempt)
auger (a tool); augur (to predict)
bail (money; to empty); bale (bundle)
breach (violation); breech (buttocks)
bloc (coalition or common group); block (all other meanings)
born (came to life); borne (carried)
borough (town); burro (donkey)
bouillon (soup); bullion (metal)
braise (to cook); braze (to solder)
broach (to begin); brooch (pin)
cannon (gun); canon (law)
caster (wheel); castor (oil)
censor (examiner); censer (vessel); censure (blame)
deprivation (loss); depravation (corruption)
elicit (draw out); illicit (illegal)
elude (to avoid); allude (indirectly refer to)
epic (long narrative poem); epoch (start of an era)
faint (dim, dizzy, weak); feint (pretense, false movement)
forbear (refrain); forebear (ancestor)
freeze (make cold); frieze (ornament)
friar (priest); fryer (chicken)
gaff (hook); gaffe (error)
gauge (scale, measuring device); gage (pledge)
gild (cover with gold); guild (association)
gilt (gilded); guilt (culpability)
gist (essence); jest (joke)
glacier (ice); glazier (glassworker)
guarantee (to secure); guaranty (a pledge)
handsome (good looking); hansom (carriage)
hanger (one who hangs); hangar ( air plane shed)
harrier (hawk, hound); hairier (more hairy)

Entrance Exams 2008-09 at glance

2009-10-16T10:35:00.004+05:30

The following table can give you an overview about last year exams i.e. CAT 2008, IIFT 2008, IRMA 2008, JMET 2008, SNAP 2008, NMAT 2008, XAT 2009, FMS 2009 and MH-CET 2009. One can understand about importance of sub-sections and the exam pattern to certain extent from the given table.

IIFT: GD-PI & Selection Criteria in 2008-2009

2009-10-12T16:13:00.002+05:30

IIFT (Delhi):

Essay Topics (20min)

Implication of change in the US Presidency for India.
Retail sector in India: performance and major drivers.
India's growing presence in energy's global map.
The Digital Divide in India: reasons and responses.
BPO sector growth story and current downturn.
India tourism brand - opportunities and challenges.
Health is Wealth: Effective and affordable health-care for India.
Global warming:challenges and responses.
Prioritization of Infrastructure in India is needed.
Global Financial Crisis and lessons for India.
Role of stake holders in preservation of National Heritage/Monuments.

[ The group discussion weight-ages were clarity & depth of thought (40%), logical expression (30%) and writing skills (30%) ]

GD Topics

Corporate Financial transparency in India: need for more regulation?
Satyam: Corporate Governance Failure.
Young political leaders in India: A new dawn?
Is the use agriland for industrial purpose appropriate for sustainable development?
Is it right for industrial development to occupy for sustained growth.
Experience or Fame: Should celebrities engage in full time politics?
Should there be controls on private sector media?
Liberalisation has brought about gender equality.
Private Investment in Education improves Quality.
Political mandates in recent elections, is there an emergence of assertive electorate.
Does Indian Cinema showcase negative side of India.
Should Social Responsibility be made mandatory for Corporates.
Need & role of civil society groups as watchdogs.

SIBM: GD Topics 2008 - 2009

2009-10-12T15:43:00.003+05:30

SIBM (Pune), GD Topics:

One billion plus population and one bronze
The state of management education in India should be improved or not?
Satyam is a classic example of greed winning over ethics.
A politician's will can break mega or nano dreams.
BJP or Congress?
Should SEBI control Indian Capital Markets more strongly?
Was Chandrayaan mission affordable to a country like India?
Is India a super power?
According to Einstein E=MC² but in India it translates into Education=Merit *Caste²
Reality shows and its impact on the educational system.
Corruption is the price we pay for democracy.
Success mantra for Mall is location,location and location.
Its a warning to the recruiters if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys.
Ballots stronger than Bullet, is it applicable in India?

SIBM (Pune), Selection Criteria:

Written 50%
GD 10% (leadership skills - 2marks, communication skills - 2 marks, general awareness and content - 2 marks, team skills - 4 marks) [16 member team]
PI 25%
Academics 5%
Work Ex 10% (0-12 months exp = 0 marks, 12-30 months = 5 marks and 30+ months = 10 marks)

GIM: Essay Topics 2008 -2009

2009-10-11T17:24:00.002+05:30

GIM (Goa Institute of Management), Raibandar

Challenges of gloom!
Imagination-a gateway to success in business.
Slumdog Millionaire has portrayed India in real sense.
India, next global sporting hub.
Human cloning should be banned.
Terrorism is product of poverty.
Is India ready for globalisation.
The way to success is humanity.
Liberalisation needs management education.
Bounderyless Nation a dream or reality
"Education and Success : Is there a correlation ?
Terror
Should IPL be postponed or the elections?
What ails Indian sports?
IPL is not just Cricket.
Dollar appreciation is good for India and bad for Indians.
INDIAN VILLAGES: Our Strength or Our Weakness
Is India going away from being a secular state.
DO we need global policemen?

Selection Criteria:
XAT Score - 50%
Essay+PI - 30%
Acads - 10%
Workex- 10%

NIRMA: GD topics 2008 - 2009

2009-10-11T17:02:00.002+05:30

NIRMA

Higher Education should be subsidised
Scientists are not believers of GOD.
Success is all about Human Relations.
Politics is a necessary evil.
Large population is a hindrance to economic growth to gunfire.
Is china a threat to the indian economy?
Coalition government stable
The mushroom growth of B-school in India has decreased the level of quality of management education.
Environmental imbalance can be restored in 5 years
Is mercy killing justified ?
Should India host Olympic games
Globalisation increases the gap between the rich and the poor.
Globalisation has not a good effect on Indian Culture.
Are more SEZ required for increased growth.
Censorship board is no longer relevant in free society.
Privatisation of Education.

XIMB: GD Topics of 2008-2009

2009-10-11T16:35:00.005+05:30

XIMB

How could the sub-prime crisis been avoided ?
How real are the reality shows?
Integrity- A Dying Act
Indian Cinemas - Is the line between commercial and art movies blurring?
Technology a boon or bane:
Is MBA an over-hyped education ?
Countries will die, companies will not.
Free market is a pre-requisite for growth
If u have a hammer with u, u think everything is a nail
SOUND OF SILENCE
Should cricket be banned in India ?
what business schools cant teach.
technology helps reduce corruption
IS INDIA A SOFT COUNTRY
The world is flat?
MEDIOCRE BUT ARROGANT
is peace and non-violence an outdated concepts?
Beauty and brains do not go well together
Industries on moon
Gandhigiri is Fashionable
Faint Heart Never Won Fair Damsel
Does India need a dictator
Should more SEZs be allowed in india
Is it necessary to wear tie.
What if women had third eye?
B-schools fit square nuts into round holes.
how professional are the professional companies today
business is the only business of today's businesses
Reason and Intuition
don’t get a second chance to make a first impression
what would have happened if man had not invented the wheel"
software coolies
Should B School ratings be taken seriously??
A good budget is loved by all
Advertising is something which makes a man buy something which he doesnt know about, something which he doesnt need and with the money tht he doesnt have
Significance of international women's day
Should Business Tycoons be made the PM.I
Impacts of the loan waiver of 60,000 crores for farmers.
INDO US NUCLEAR DEAL
Manager not MBA
Is stock market major indicator of economy
Reservation in pvt. sector
Consumerism is destroying Indian culture;
Something on the role of Indian media;
Left is better than right, war against terrorism;
something on tata-corus deal too;
Equity Vs Efficiency;
something about learning beginning after education is finished;
Internet content should be banned or not;
An industry on moon if possible;
Is war against terrorism justified?;
Its better to have loved and lost than not loved at all;
displacement neccessary or not in the context of industrializtion;
capital punishment;
something related to IPR;
Multiparty n biparty;
Are schools really meant for learning?
Should bush be alowed to go to raj ghat;
It doesn't matter wheter a cat is black or white till it catches mice
Suggestions to stop criminalisation of politics;
Leaders are born not made
Should indian economy be liberalised
Business leaders should join politics
Is pizza base more imp than the topping?
India and china: who is better for trade
Bureuacracy: The steel frame of India perspective of India Vs China;
Trade with Pakistan-yes or no;
Speed vs. accuracy;
Should there be a dress code in colleges;
The future is of innovation and not invention;
Managed time is an indication of managed mind;
Is small beautiful?
Are Indian youths a rotten lot
Should 'Bangalore' be renamed 'Bengaluru'?
Should Business Tycoons be made the PM..
Impacts of the loan waiver of 60,000 crores for farmers.
SHOULD INDIA SIGN THE NUCLEAR DEAL?
Advertising is something which makes a man buy something which he doesn’t know about, something which he doesn’t need and with the money that he doesn’t have.
Manager not MBA
Sting operations.
Ethics in business – a misnomer
Do IAS officers need a MBA degree?
Purani jeans and guitar
'Television has destroyed the cultural fabric in India'
Money - is it the only motivating factor
IPL is a curse for indian sports
GD's in MBA entrance procedure are a farce
Nowadays MBA entrance exams are becoming lenient towards engineering students
Public Private partnership and how it affects the common man
India v/s Bharat. Are we dividing the country?
Rush for MBA is actually a rush for money
emotion has no place in business
Is Education=Literacy?
MBA-mind ,body, attitude
There is no place for integrity in our society.
Love Marriages or Arranged Marriage
The opening of financial sector will destroy the public sector banks
Why the fuss over Ram Setu.
Do we need cheap cars in India?
Its better to be blissfully ignorant than be an educated ignoramus
Is stock market major indicator of economy
Why Human Life?
Every nation gets the leader it deserves
Can technology help reduce corruption ?
Terrorism is part of everyday life.
Is China a threat to the Indian Industry?
Kayani v/s Zardari
Its better to burn out than to fade out.
The business of business is only business.
Political Instability in Pakistan and its implications to India.
Rural management, is the real management.
Black & White
Stay hungry, Stay Foolish.
Do we need a classless society?
Black Box
Dhoti vs Suit

Economic Times award 2009

2009-10-09T18:58:00.006+05:30

The Winners Economic Times awards 2009

Jean Dreze

Development Economist: Academics can have relevance beyond the printed word and Jean Dreze has proved that this is indeed the case. He has deservedly won the Economic Times’ Policy Change Agent of the Year 2009 for his outstanding work in poverty alleviation and rural employment.

Nitish Kumar

Bihar chief minister: Nitish Kumar is the Economic Times Business Reformer of the Year. The jury members were unanimous in their choice, giving Mr Kumar’s performance a higher rating than Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit.

GV Krishna Reddy

Chairman, GVK Group: He's a past master at taking risks and is now nurturing global ambitions for his infrastructure business. Little wonder then that after an intense discussion, the jury chose GVK Reddy, the chairman of the GVK Group, as the Entrepreneur of the Year.

Keshub Mahindra

Founder, Mahindra & Mahindra: Keshub Mahindra has won the Economic Times Lifetime Achievement Award after the jury decided to reward his contribution to building Indian industry.

RK Pachauri

TERI head: In the popular imagination, Teri is identified as the organisation led by RK Pachauri who, as head of the inter-governmental panel on climate change, shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore for their work on climate change.

Vinita Bali

Britannia Managing Director: Vinita Bali is The Economic Times Businesswoman of the Year for taking Britannia where it belongs - a market-leading, innovative and trusted foods company.

Ram Charan

Global Indian: The jury gave high marks to Ram Charan's work for several leading companies, the respect in which he is held by several CEOs including Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric.

Idea Cellular

Far from being a laggard with no clear vision and strategy, Idea Cellular — the name was changed in 2002 — is today a success story in the telecom industry.

Hero Honda

This year’s Company of the Year, Hero Honda, is about as clear a winning candidate as the awards have ever had in their more than a decade-long history.

Anand Mahindra

Mahindra & Mahindra Vice Chairman: The Satyam deal makes Anand Mahindra the man of the moment. ET’s Businessman of the Year who spearheaded the deal of the year.

Some other awards:

The 2009 Frost & Sullivan Award for Indian Clinical Research Company of the Year is presented to Veeda Clinical Research.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India, has been named the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate.

GK/GA for IIFT, SNAP, GD and PI

2009-10-09T16:48:00.005+05:30

Nobel Laureates from India

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan*, Chemistry, 2009
Amartya Sen, Economics, 1998
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar*, Physics, 1983
Mother Teresa, Ottoman Empire, Peace, 1979
Har Gobind Khorana*, Medicine, 1968
C. V. Raman, Physics, 1930
Rabindranath Tagore, Literature, 1913
Rudyard Kipling*, Literature, 1907
Ronald Ross*, Physiology or Medicine, 1902

Booker Prize Winner from India

Salman Rushdie for "Midnight Children", 1981
Arundhati Roy for "God of small things", 1997
Kiran Desai for "The Inheritance loss", 2006
Arivind Adiga for "White Tiger", 2008

The President of India has approved the conferment of Padma Awards-2009 on the following persons:

Padma Vibhushan

Sl.No.	Name	Discipline	State / Domicile
1.	Dr. Chandrika PrasadSrivastava	Civil Service	Maharashtra
2.	Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna	Environment Conservation	Uttarakhand
3.	Prof. D.P.Chattopadhyaya	Literature & Education	West Bengal
4.	Prof. Jasbir Singh Bajaj	Medicine	Punjab
5.	Dr. Purshotam Lal	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
6.	Shri Govind Narain	Public Affairs	Uttar Pradesh
7.	Dr. Anil Kakodkar	Science & Engineering	Maharashtra
8.	Shri G. Madhavan Nair	Science & Engineering	Karnataka
9.	Sister Nirmala	Social Work	West Bengal
10.	Dr. A.S. Ganguly	Trade & Industry	Maharashtra

Padma Bhushan

Sl.No.	Name	Discipline	State / Domicile
1.	Shri G. Sivarama KrishnaMurthy alias Krishna	Art	Andhra Pradesh
2.	Prof. Ramanlal C. Mehta	Art	Gujarat
3.	Smt. Shamshad Begum	Art	Maharashtra
4.	Shri V.P. Dhananjayan & Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan (Duo)	Art	Tamil Nadu
5.	Dr. Vaidyanathan Ganapathi Sthapati	Art	Tamil Nadu
6.	Shri S.K. Misra	Civil Service	Haryana
7.	Shri Shekhar Gupta	Journalism	Delhi
8.	Prof. Alappat SreedharaMenon	Literature & Education	Kerala
9.	Shri C.K. Prahlad	Literature & Education	NRI/ PIO
10.	Shri D. Jayakanthan	Literature & Education	Tamil Nadu
11.	Dr. (Smt.) Isher JudgeAhluwalia	Literature & Education	Delhi
12.	Shri Kunwar Narain	Literature & Education	Delhi
13.	Prof. Minoru Hara	Literature & Education	Foreigner
14.	Shri Ramachandra Guha	Literature & Education	Karnataka
15.	Dr. Brijendra Kumar Rao	Medicine	Delhi
16.	Vaidya Devendra Triguna	Medicine	Delhi
17.	Dr. Khalid Hameed	Medicine	NRI/ PIO
18.	Lt.Gen. (Retd.) SatishNambiar	National Security Affairs	Delhi
19.	Dr. (Smt.) Inderjit KaurBarthakur	Public Affairs	Meghalaya
20.	Dr. Kirit Shantilal Parikh	Public Affairs	Delhi
21.	Dr. Bhakta B. Rath	Science & Engineering	NRI/ PIO
22.	Shri Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadri	Science & Engineering	Tamil Nadu
23.	Dr. Gurdip SinghRandhawa	Science & Engineering	Delhi
24.	Shri Sam Pitroda	Science & Engineering	Delhi
25.	Prof. (Dr.) Sarvagya SinghKatiyar	Science & Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
26.	Prof. Thomas Kailath	Science & Engineering	NRI/ PIO
27.	Dr. Naganath Nayakawadi	Social Work	Maharashtra
28.	Dr. (Smt.) SarojiniVaradappan	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
29.	Shri Abhinav Bindra	Sports	Punjab
30.	Shri Anil Manibhai Naik	Trade & Industry	Maharashtra

Padma Shri

Sl.No.	Name	Discipline	State / Domicile
1.	Shri Thilakan	Art	Kerala
2.	Shri A. Vivekh	Art	Tamil Nadu
3.	Smt. Aishwarya RaiBachchan	Art	Maharashtra
4.	Shri Akshay Kumar	Art	Maharashtra
5.	Dr. (Ms.) Ameena AhmedAhuja	Art	Delhi
6.	Smt. Aruna Sairam	Art	Tamil Nadu
7.	Smt. Devayani Chaymotty	Art	Foreigner
8.	Ms. Geeta Kapur	Art	Delhi
9.	Shri Govind RamNirmalkar	Art	Chhattisgarh
10.	Shri Gurumayum Gourakishor Sharma	Art	Manipur
11.	Shri Hashmat Ullah Khan	Art	Jammu & Kashmir
12.	Smt. Helan Khan	Art	Maharashtra
13.	Smt. Hemi Bawa	Art	Delhi
14.	Pandit HridaynathMangeshkar	Art	Maharashtra
15.	Shri Iravatham Mahadevan	Art	Tamil Nadu
16.	Shri K.P. Udayabhanu	Art	Kerala
17.	Dr. KannegantiBrahmanandam	Art	Andhra Pradesh
18.	Prof. Kiran Seth	Art	Delhi
19.	Shri Kumar SanuBhattacharjee	Art	Maharashtra
20.	Prof. Dr. (Smt.) LeelaOmchery	Art	Delhi
21.	Shri Mattannoor Sankarankutty Marar	Art	Kerala
22.	Shri Niranjan Goswami	Art	West Bengal
23.	Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa	Art	Punjab
24.	Ms. Penaz Masani	Art	Maharashtra
25.	Shri Prakash N. Dubey	Art	Maharashtra
26.	Dr. Pratapaditya Pal	Art	NRI/ PIO
27.	Shri Ram Kishore Chhipa	Art	Rajasthan
28.	Smt. Saoli Mitra	Art	West Bengal
29.	Late Shri SkendrowellSyiemlieh (Posthumous)	Art	Meghalaya
30.	Dr. SubrahmanyamKrishnaswamy	Art	Tamil Nadu
31.	Shri Suresh Dutta	Art	West Bengal
32.	Late Shri Tafazzul Ali(Posthumous)	Art	Assam
33.	Shri Udit Narayan	Art	Maharashtra
34.	Shri Vadakka ManalathGovindan alias Kalamandalam Gopi	Art	Kerala
35.	Shri S.B. Ghosh Dastidar	Civil Service	Haryana
36.	Shri Ameen Sayani	Commentary & Broadcasting	Maharashtra
37.	Shri Abhay Chhajlani	Journalism	Madhya Pradesh
38.	Dr. A. Sankara Reddy	Literature & Education	Delhi
39.	Shri Alok Mehta	Literature & Education	Delhi
40.	Dr. BannanjeGovindacharya	Literature & Education	Karnataka
41.	Dr. Birendranath Datta	Literature & Education	Assam
42.	Prof. Geshe NgawangSamten	Literature & Education	Foreigner
43.	Prof. Jalees Ahmed KhanTareen	Literature & Education	Puducherry
44.	Shri Jayanta Mahapatra	Literature & Education	Orissa
45.	Dr. John Ralston Marr	Literature & Education	Foreigner
46.	Shri Lalthangfala Sailo	Literature & Education	Mizoram
47.	Shri Laxman Bapu Mane	Literature & Education	Maharashtra
48.	Dr. Mathoor Krishnamurty	Literature & Education	Karnataka
49.	Shri Norden Tshering	Literature & Education	Sikkim
50.	Dr. PanchapakesaJayaraman	Literature & Education	NRI/ PIO
51.	Prof. Ram ShankarTripathi	Literature & Education	Uttar Pradesh
52.	Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir ChanderSobti	Literature & Education	Chandigarh
53.	Dr. Ravindra NathSrivastava	Literature & Education	Bihar
54.	Shri Shamsur RahmanFaruqi	Literature & Education	Uttar Pradesh
55.	Smt. Shashi Deshpande	Literature & Education	Karnataka
56.	Shri Sunny Varkey	Literature & Education	NRI/ PIO
57.	Shri Suresh GunduAmonkar	Literature & Education	Goa
58.	Dr. Utpal K. Banerjee	Literature & Education	Delhi
59.	Dr. A.K. Gupta	Medicine	Maharashtra
60.	Dr. Alampur SaibabaGoud	Medicine	Andhra Pradesh
61.	Dr. Arvind Lal	Medicine	Delhi
62.	Dr. Ashok K. Vaid	Medicine	Delhi
63.	Dr. Ashok Kumar Grover	Medicine	Delhi
64.	Dr. Balswarup Choubey	Medicine	Maharashtra
65.	Dr. D. S. Rana	Medicine	Himachal Pradesh
66.	Dr. GovindanVijayaraghavan	Medicine	Kerala
67.	Dr. Kalyan Banerjee	Medicine	Delhi
68.	Shri P.R. Krishna Kumar	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
69.	Dr. R. Sivaraaman	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
70.	Dr. Shaik KhaderNoordeen	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
71.	Prof. (Dr.) ThanikachalamSadagopan	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
72.	Dr. Yash Gulati	Medicine	Delhi
73.	Shri K. Asungba Sangtam	Public Affairs	Nagaland
74.	Dr. (Ms.) ShyamlhaPappu	Public Affairs	Delhi
75.	Prof. Syed Iqbal Hasnain	Research on Himalayan Glaciers	Delhi
76.	Shri Goriparthi Narasimha Raju Yadav	Science & Engineering	Andhra Pradesh
77.	Prof. Pramod Tandon	Science & Engineering	Meghalaya
78.	Shri Bansilal Rathi	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
79.	Begum Bilkees I. Latif	Social Work	Andhra Pradesh
80.	Shri Cheril Krishna Menon	Social Work	NRI/ PIO
81.	Rev. Fr. Joseph H. Pereira	Social Work	Maharashtra
82.	Shri K. Viswanathan	Social Work	Kerala
83.	Ms Keepu TsheringLepcha	Social Work	Sikkim
84.	Prof. Shyam SunderMaheshwari	Social Work	Rajasthan
85.	Shri Sunil Kanti Roy	Social Work	West Bengal
86.	Shri Balbir Singh Khullar	Sports	Punjab
87.	Shri Harbhajan Singh	Sports	Punjab
88.	Shri Mahendra SinghDhoni	Sports	Jharkhand
89.	Shri Pankaj Advani	Sports	Karnataka
90.	Shri Surinder Mehta	Technology Solutions	Delhi
91.	Shri ArunmugamSakthivel	Trade & Industry	Tamil Nadu
92.	Dr. Bavaguthu RaghuramShetty	Trade & Industry	NRI/ PIO
93.	Shri R.K. Krishna Kumar	Trade & Industry	Maharashtra

B-school Notification

2009-10-08T11:08:00.002+05:30

or can click on the following link B-school notification

Following is the list of colleges whose notification is out:

CAT 09 and all IIM's, FMS 2010, IIFT 2009, JMET 2009, NMAT 2010, SNAP 2009, MDI, IMT, TAPMI, IRMA, IIFM, S P Jain, TISS 2009, XIMB, XLRI, XAT 2010, FORE, LBSIM, IIFM.

What comes first - RC or EU?

2009-09-29T16:41:00.004+05:30

Perhaps the most perplexing question for any 'Anglophobe' tackling the Verbal Ability(VA) section in CAT or any other MBA entrance test is which part should be solved or handled first, the reading comprehension(RC) part or the english usage(EU) part. For the uninitiated, the EU part contains all the questions in the world which are not RC.

So, in an attempt to solve this age-old mystery I shall make a suggestion. It is quite simple actually, solve the EU questions first as they are comparatively faster to answer and then move on to the RC section. The fundamental logic being used here is that when you start of f with the passages, you might inadvertently land up spending a major chunk of your time on them and lose out on the EU questions. On the other hand, when you solve the EU questions first whatever time you have managed to save can then be invested in solving the RC passages. The latter method gives you a little bit of much needed structure which was lacking in the former.

To break it down for you, suppose your VA section has 10 EU questions and 15 RC questions all of which need to be solved in at most 45 minutes. Solve the 10 EU questions in around 12 minutes and then devote the remaining time to the RC passages.

@ Article by Salman Sheikh

CAT preparation and strategies

2009-09-13T13:31:00.009+05:30

Its september mid and now CAT preparation of most of the CAT aspirants will be in full swing. The common questions which I face during this time is, "whether CAT preparation is possible in three months? How to improve mock scores? How should I prepare in coming three months? My mock scores are not improving, so should I think of CAT 2010? " My answer to all these questions is that its not your preparation but the pressure of clearing CAT which comes clear from these questions. Lets look at some questions,

1) What to do and what not to do in coming 3 months?
CAT is an aptitude test and not any graduation test. One can excel in CAT and other MBA entrances just by practice. Students who are done with their basic fundamentals should start practicing MCQs very religiously. Try to solve certain fixed number of problems everyday. If you are not working or studying and just preparing for CAT then please devout time to each and every section everyday. Time distribution depends on your comfort level as study should be qualitative rather than being quantitative. If you are working or studying and are finding difficult to find enough time for CAT, try to devout atleast around 1¹/₂ to 2 hours every day taking care of one or two section. In any aptitude test learning comes from problem practicing. Spending time with problems gives deeper insight about application of fundamentals.

2) How to improve mock scores?
Many CAT aspirants are under the impression that if they practice regularly they will be able to score good marks in mock which is wrong. Scoring in mock is collectively because of practice and exam taking strategies. Fundamentals can only enable students understanding about the topic of the problem i.e whether its from algebra or number system etc. Application helps students in solving those problems. One of the major mistake that an CAT aspirant commit is mismanagement of time. People give more time to solve topic of their liking in which they get more mark and then neglect other where they get less mark and are under illusion that topic of their liking is topic of their strength while topic of their dislike is their weak topic. Second type of mistake is that aspirants never analyse their mocks. Just by solving mocks and analysing them aspirants can improve from 20 percentile to 90 percentile provided you are done with basics. One of the very basic kind of mistake which every student neglect is the calculation or silly mistakes. This is because of lack of focus during the exam and these kind of mistakes are supposed to minimized as in any mock these mistakes constitutes the maximum portion of all mistakes.

3) How to analyse mocks?
Analysing mock is very important part of your preparation as this act not only as bridge but also as an indicator of preparation and your exam taking strategies. Key things to analyse is time management, number of questions attempted, accuracy section-wise, accuracy topic-wise, performance in area of your liking and performance in area of your dislike. If you did not miss any of the easy questions, which are basically tagged in analysis, it means your question selection is on right track. Try to spend around 5-6 hours on your mock analysis to learn more about your mistakes. Minimizing mistakes is the first objective while improving is the second objective because if you constantly implement an improper practice on regular basis it is much difficult to unlearn that improper practice as compared with learning a proper practice.

I hope everyone might have filled the CAT form. Earlier there were some problems with CAT forms but CAT administration is going to come with option of editing your personal details by 19th September which is a very good news for all CAT aspirants who goofed up in form filling. Now its the right time to give your preparation further acceleration by shifting gears and once you are on right track you need to go for full throttle. I will further elaborate on mock analysis in coming blogs. Happy preparing.

CAT 2009 online form and chaos

2009-09-10T09:25:00.004+05:30

Yesterday sales of CAT 2009 online form started at various axis banks across the country. Every aspirant has to pay Rs 1400 or 700 for the CAT voucher depending on the person's category. The CAT voucher consists of a code which is to be used while making profile and filling the form. The online form has actually refueled the speculation of many aspirants whether IIMs would be able to efficiently manage the online CAT. The online form is no different from the regular paper CAT form which was present each year previously. The profile takes care of all the details which it used to take last year and year before that the only difference this year is that the form is online. Making the form online was really a great initiative but the new system has many flaws in it. First flaw is that all the details which is compulsory is not already present, eg SSC and HSC marks are compulsory but there are no direct available boxes present to fill the details, one has to select SSC and HSC and then the box appears. Secondly if you miss-out or forget filling important details like SSC marks the browser doesn't show any error. Thirdly re-editing of profile is not allowed but rescheduling is allowed. This one is really idiotic because when rescheduling is allowed so should be re-editing of profile. The reason for not allowing re-editing of profile is really mysterious. Finally CAT has really found its way to earn money during the times of recession by this online form. If you make some mistake you are not allowed to re-edit and hence you are left with no option to buy another form and fill it one more time. I am just wondering what would happen to the slots which are scheduled now. I was reported around 50 such cases, on the first day, who were asked to buy the form again and fill it freshly. This will act as burden on the infrastructure of exam, signs are pointing towards a catastrophe which can be non-availability of slots. So I will urge all student to buy the form as soon as possible and fill it. Be very careful while you are filling the form and please do go through the instructions given by CAT. If we go by last year figures this year CAT would be making around Rs 416,500,000 atleast by sale of form and with many blunders still to come that will only add to CAT's revenue.

CAT 2009 Notification

2009-09-01T15:44:00.015+05:30

Finally CAT 2009 notification is out which marks the beginning of the new CAT online era. As the CAT is going online so even the form filling is going online. Lets look at some important points:

1) CAT 2009 eligibility Criteria
Candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Differently Abled (DA)categories]. Eligibility verification will be done this time during the time of GD/PI.
The following documents will be required during verification:

Mark sheet and degree certificate - Mandatory for all candidates
Reservation or disability certificate - Candidates who applied for reservation
Final year certificate (Sample) - For candidates whose bachelors degree is incomplete or results are awaiting

2) Important dates

Sale of CAT Vouchers :
Wednesday, 9 September 2009 - Thursday, 1 October 2009
Registration for CAT 2009 :
Wednesday, 9 September 2009 - Thursday, 1 October 2009
CAT Test Dates :
Saturday, 28 November 2009 - Monday, 7 December 2009
CAT Result :
Friday, 22 January 2010 onwards
Rescheduling Window :
Wednesday, 9 September 2009 - Thursday, 1 October 2009

3) CAT vouchers @ Mumbai Axis bank

Mumbai Main (Fort)
Universal Insurance Bldg, Ground Floor, Sir. P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001
Mumbai (Borivli -West)
Nand Nandan Bhavan, Sodawalla Lane, Borivali (W), Mumbai 400 092
Mumbai (Andheri-West)
LAXMI THE MALL, BUILDING NO.5, LAXMI INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, NEW LINK ROAD, ANDHERI (W), MUMBAI 400053
Mumbai (Bandra-West)
Mangal Mahal, Turner Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai 400 050
Mumbai (Vashi)
No.1,1A,101 & 101A, Vardhaman Chambers Premises CSL, Plot 84, Sector 17, Vashi 400 705
Mumbai (Mulund-West)
Konark Darshan, Plot No. 53, New Survey No. 1000 (Part), Cts No. 1195, Zaver Road, Next To Jain Temple, Mulund (West), Mumbai 400 080
Mumbai (Powai)
A/G3, "Delphi-A Wing", Hiranandani Business Park, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, Maharashtra
Mumbai (Shivaji Park)
81, Dev Kunj, Veer Savarkar Marg, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai 400 028, Maharashtra
Navi Mumba (Nerul,Sector 44)
Nageshwardham, Sector 44, Nerul (West), Navi Mumbai 400

4) Form details
The form will cost around Rs 1400 for General while Rs700 for SC/ST/PH candidate. You can find the the form instructions at the following link - Form instructions and process.

5) Test duration and pattern
The test duration remains the same, which means 150min while CAT is giving out this time more information than required. The test will consists of 60-70 questions based on the basic three topics, quantitative ability, verbal ability and logical reasoning & data interpretation.

6) How will exam look like?
Many have this question and CAT this time have decided to reduce some anxiety about the CAT going online. One can look at the CAT demo to understand what it will exactly look like.

Now hearts of CAT aspirants will start ticking faster as game is about to begin on 9th September when everyone will be fighting hard to get dates of their liking. General advice is take the CAT form as soon as possible, because most of the time CAT forms get over in end moment and this time taking dates of your choice might give you some edge over other competitors.

Exam notification 2009-2010

2009-09-01T15:38:00.001+05:30

IIM selection Criteria

2009-08-24T14:26:00.004+05:30

IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) selection criteria:

IIM Banglore (IIMB) selection criteria:

Tips for three months

2009-08-15T10:50:00.005+05:30

With around three months remaining for CAT 2009, many of you must be feeling anxious at the same time excited. Three months is not enough for preparing for CAT from scratch, but is more than enough if you stick to a strict timetable and work accordingly. I know people who started their preparation in June-July and still managed more than 98 percentile, and I know people who prepared for 2-3 years and didn’t get even 90 percentile. Though I am not great enough to talk about all the three sections, but I’ll give few golden tips that helped me in my preparation.

1. MOCKs – people generally feel that if they are not prepared they should not take MOCKs. And here they make a mistake. CAT is a surprise test and it should be taken in that format only. Prepare your basics, but take MOCKs with different strategies. One needs to understand that at the end of the day, CAT is an aptitude test.

2. MOCK analysis – take 30 MOCKs and don’t analyze them OR take 15 MOCKs and analyze them properly. You will find that the second option will benefit you. Taking 30-40 tests helps, but one should know that analysis is more important. After each and every test, keep a track of your score. Make an excel sheet and put your sectional scores and percentiles and overall percentile as well. If you are going up, it’s OK. If you are jumping by 2-5 percentiles in every test, it’s great. If you are going down, work hard. And if you are giving a consistent performance, please realize that there is a scope for improvement.

3. Schedule – make a schedule. For e.g. on any given day, you will solve at least 40 quant questions, 20 DI questions (4 sets), 2 RCs and vocabulary/grammar. For this, you should ideally take around 5 hours. Those of you, who are still struggling with basics, please understand that you need to put more efforts. For such people, along with questions, read formulae and do simple sums to increase your speed.

4. Rest – avoid burn out. If you are getting a nice score, and if you drop a bomb in one of the mocks, please take rest. But only for a day. ;-)

5. Percentage – I have written percentage not percentile. In each and every test, try to get more than 30% marks in each section and overall as well. Some statistics, in CAT 2007 which was of 300 marks, score of 100 was more than 98 percentile. CAT 2008, out of 360 score of 120 was 98 percentile again. It clearly shows that no. of questions and total marks might change, but if you get more than 30 percent, you will land up getting a good score.

6. IIMs – try for IIMs, but don’t feel dejected if you don’t get your dream. Keep your faith and do well in other exams. As you prepare for CAT, your probability of cracking other tests increases.

7. Faith in ability – CAT depends on how one uses his/her ability in those 2.5 hours. At the end of the day, what matters is honesty. Be honest, and have faith in your ability. People with or without MBA have done well in life. CAT is not an end, it’s a beginning. Few days back, I read somewhere that, getting into a good B-school, does not indicate your ability or the lack of it. Believe that you can do it and you will do it.

I took CAT twice in my life. First attempt was mediocre 83 percentile and second attempt was 98.2 percentile. The journey in between made a huge difference in my life. Enjoy the journey, stay inspired.

Prasad Sawant
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
Batch of 2011

GRE v. GMAT: Battle of the B-School Gatekeepers

2009-08-14T13:07:00.001+05:30

GRE v. GMAT: Battle of the B-School Gatekeepers: "With Harvard, Wharton, and other top schools planning to accept the GRE for admissions, cracks are beginning to show in the GMAT monopoly"

Visual Proof

2009-08-04T13:42:00.005+05:30

1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2n − 1) = n²

___________________________________________________________________

1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n = n * (n+1) / 2

___________________________________________________________________

1/4 + 1/16 + 1/64 + 1/256 + ... = 1/3

___________________________________________________________________

1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81 + ... = 1/2

___________________________________________________________________

1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ... = 1

Some interesting formula's

2009-08-04T00:36:00.007+05:30

1) Euler's Triangle formula
Let 'O' and 'I' be the circumcenter and incenter triangle with circumradius'R' and inradius 'r'. Let 'd' be the distance between R and r. Then

2) Cross ladders Theorem

Here 'E' is intersection of AD and BC also ABis parallel to EF is parallel to CD, then

Source of Apolloniu's theorem

2009-08-04T00:25:00.007+05:30

Apolloniu's theorem come from Stewart's theorem which can be given as follows,

XAT type reasoning caselets

2009-07-28T11:28:00.004+05:30

XAT paper has three section;1)Verbal section 2)Math + Data interpretation section 3)Reasoning Section. The reasoning section of XAT is very special and grid type logical puzzles have been regular feature of paper. Such kind of puzzles are difficult if you have never practiced but if you how to crack it they are the simplest types of questions. So practice this regularly and I am confident that you will crack XAT reasoning section and similar types of questions in any other exam.

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
Case 5
Case 6
Case 7
Case 8
Case 9
Case 10
Case 11
Case 12
Case 13
Case 14
Case 15
Case 16
Case 17
Case 18
Case 19
Case 20
Case 21

To search for more XAT type of reasoning case just search the following key words...
'Grid type logical puzzles'

CET09 CAP1 cut-off

2009-07-25T00:53:00.004+05:30

CAP round 1 of CET is over and cut-off of colleges are there on DTE website. If you are not able to search there you can even to go to CAP1 cutoff list. Following is extract of the cutoff of few top colleges of Mumbai.

Word Usage

2009-07-24T14:15:00.004+05:30

Antediluvian

Ark of Noah

Antediluvian : ante- Before + dīluvium a flood, deluge

adjective
1.of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gensis 7, 8.
2.very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primitive: antediluvian ideas.

Example: We are still governed by rules that were framed during the last century which contain anachronistic or antediluvian concepts and phraseology relevant to those times but are irrelevant to and totally inconsistent with modern sociological and psychological advancements is well taken.

Kindly note that the visual shown is the Ark of Noah ,a barge-like structure . The ark is a beautiful picture of Salvation by Grace through Faith in the Jesus Christ, the Saviour . There was no other way to be saved from destruction on that day of Great Flood except by coming into the God's ark of refuge.

The actual details of the Flood are given in Chapters 7 and 8 of Genesis.

2009-07-24T14:13:00.000+05:30

Arboreal

Arboreal Monkey

1.Arboreal in Zoology means adapted for living and moving about in trees, as the limbs and skeleton of monkeys and apes.

Work Usage

2009-07-24T14:02:00.002+05:30

Profusely:

Why do people living in coastal areas sweat profusely ?
adjective
1.Made or done freely and abundantly: profuse apologies.
2. Spending or giving freely and in large amount, often to excess; extravagant (often fol. by in): profuse praise.

From an INFOSCION to a POLITICION - Nandan's Chronicles - 2

2009-07-24T10:40:00.004+05:30

Continuing the tryst with capturing the life and times of Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament. The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let’s see what happened thereafter….The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence. Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall. It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable
dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!! I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”. Since there was no doubt about the “Fixational” capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project’s turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!! MY PROJECT”S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.
I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!! The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days’ milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this. The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter. The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy. “You won’t believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!”

Preparing for CAT

2009-07-22T11:36:00.012+05:30

What is the difference between a student who gets and convert all calls as compared to student who gets nothing? I have been able to find only one difference and that is determination. A person without intelligence can make into CAT but a person without determination can never make into college he really wants. I have been observing what special thing do the people who make into one attempt do. The result of observation is pretty strange, they did nothing special. 85-90% of my students who were able to get calls from B-school were very punctual and regular students. They were not only punctual in attending lectures but also in giving mocks. Fundamentals and regular practice are two important pillars of any entrance exam and certainly regular practice plays a far important role as compared with fundamentals. In an aptitude test like CAT if we see in terms of preparation fundamental will constitute around 30%, practicing that means application of fundamental will be around 60% and strategies around 10% (values are based on observation). Mocks play a pivotal role in building application of fundamentals and strategies. If you have average aptitude then more than half of your preparation is simply giving mocks regularly and analysing them for at least 5-6 hours. This ensure to build on strategies, understanding strong and weak section as well as sub-section and finally tests your preparation. There are some indicators in your mock results which you cannot miss and they are as follows:

1) During analysis if you observe that you are missing easy questions shows that there is real problem in your question selection.
2) You score heavily in one section and meagerly in other, most of the time is because of improper time management.
3) Your score has become stagnant even after your regular practice and good concepts, the reason might be you might be solving regularly questions from the area of your weakness which by mistake you have identified as strength.
4) If your accuracy in any section or sub-section is 50% or less than that means you need to rework on your fundamentals as there is high possibility that you might have got a particular concept completely wrong.
5) Missing our more marks in silly mistake means you are not focused when you are solving the paper.

Many of this problem can be solved by giving mocks regularly but at the same time giving mocks without analysis is simply time waste. In an exam as intense as CAT small things matters a lot. One last thing, I know many are busy with CAT preparation but I would also caution you that if you are looking forward to give other exams like XAT, FMS, IIFT, SNAP etc, start working on their speciality as well for eg. GK of IIFT is typical. Happy preparations.

Exam Notification

2009-07-16T14:14:00.012+05:30

CET CAP round

2009-07-14T23:00:00.004+05:30

CET 09 CAP round notifications are out. Fore more details one can visit to DTE website. Following is the notification file and a brief ppt to help you understand the CAP round proceedings.

Notification For Cap Mba Option Form2009 10

View more documents from Career Launcher.

Let me check your division

2009-06-30T10:14:00.004+05:30

Fill up all boxes, let me check have your teacher taught you division rightly or not.

India vs World

2009-06-26T11:40:00.005+05:30

The following rankings will give you some idea about where is India heading.

GDP(nominal)
Best rank - 1(United States of America)
India's rank - 12

GDP(nominal) per capita
Best rank - 1(Luxembourg)
India's rank - 142
** Its worse than Pakistan whose rank is 137

Human Poverty Index(HPI)
Best rank - 1(Sweden)
India's rank - 62

Human Development Index(HDI)
Best rank - 1(Iceland)
India's rank - 115

Corruption Perception index(CPI)
Best rank - 1(Denmark)
India's rank - 85

Literacy rate
Best rank - 1(Cuba 99.8%)
India's rank - 147 (61%)

Technological Achievement Index(TAI)
Best rank - 1(Finland)
India's rank - 63
** Last rank is 72

Manufacturing Value Added(MVA) output rank
Best rank - 1(China)
India's rank - 4

Environment Performance Index(EPI)
Best rank- 1(Switzerland)
India's rank - 120

Maximum crime statistics
Worst rank - 1(United States of America)
India's rank - 10

Agriculture growth
Best rank - 1(United Arab Erimates)
India's rank - 44

References:
http://www.educationforallinindia.com/page143.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics/stats

Divisibility Rule of 3/7/11/13

2009-06-10T12:07:00.003+05:30

I think many of us are aware of divisibility rules but the question is..." why this method?".So let us find out the answer.1) let's take a three digit no.(rule for 3)abc=100a+10b+c= 99a+a+9b+b+c=(99a+9b)+(a+b+c)=9(11a+b)+(a+b+c)now can we say that one part of number is a multiple of 9 and if it is then, number will also be divisible by 3,so we are checking the sum of the digits, which if becomes a multiple of 3 then the complete number also becomes a multiple of 3.2)lets take a four digit no.(rule for 11)abcd=1000a+100b+10c+d=1001a-a+99b+b+11c-c+d=(1001a+99b+11c)+(b+d)-(a+c)=11(91a+9b+c)+(b+d)-(a+c)now can we say that one part of a number is a multiple of 11,so we are checking the difference between the sum of the even and odd places ,if difference comes out to be the multiple of 11 then the entire number is divisible by 11.3)let us check the divisibility of 7 and 13.(method is same for both 7 and 13).Take an eight digit number as abcdefgh,now make the sets of three from right to left and then take the difference between the sum of the alternate sets,if the set is not complete put zero before the number.If difference is zero or multiple of 7 or 13 then the number is divisible by 7/13(fgh+0ab)-(cde)=0 or multiple of 7 or of 13.CONCLUSION:Any six digit no like(111111,222222,333333........)is always divisible by 7/11/13.For 11 also you can use the same method.Now the question for you that why we make the sets of three in case of 7/11/13.

Post by Anurag Sharma (Cl Mentor)

Basics of Management

2009-06-01T19:52:00.003+05:30

Basic functions of management
Management operates through various functions, often classified as planning, organizing, leading/motivating, and controlling.
Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generating plans for action.
Organizing: (Implementation) making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.
Staffing: Job Analyzing, recruitment, and hiring individuals for appropriate jobs.
Leading: Determining what needs to be done in a situation and getting people to do it.
Controlling: Monitoring, checking progress against plans, which may need modification based on feedback.
Motivating: the process of stimulating an individual to take action that will accomplish a desired goal.

The Elections and the road ahead.......

2009-05-28T10:00:00.002+05:30

Congress wins. Singh is King. Even though I do not take sides on the political front, I guess the Congress win is the best historic result. Recession has gripped several parts of the world and India's growth needs to reach new heights. Political stability can supplement and fuel growth. We cannot afford to let religious sentiments and communal violence destabilize the nation. The elections have seen defeat of muscle politicians. People have voted for intellectual and progressive leaders, setting aside caste and religious considerations and corrupt interests. Positively the markets will rise and further collapse is avoidable. A single party win has avoided a big chunk of horse trading thereafter. Also not letting third/fourth front dominate the horse trade was a necessity.

Sweeping changes have been associated with the elections. People in Bihar, U.P., Delhi and Chattisgarh have voted for development and prosperity, keeping national interest above regional interest. The Left and Opportunist spoiler politicians viz. Mayawati, Ram Vilas Paswan are nowhere in the picture. Congress was shown to be the victim (of personal attacks, of Left policies, of defeat by the fourth front NCP in Maharashtra). Performers like Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Shivraj Singh, Sheila Dixit, Man Mohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi (the sincere youth icon who worked at grassroots level and who is not interested in a cabinet berth) have been rewarded. 106 districts where NREGA was implemented have voted Congress candidates to parliament - ministers need to perform in order to retain power in elections. Congress with a huge number of young and knowledgeable candidates has really campaigned hard – going alone in Bihar and UP paid off rich dividends. Strong educational backgrounds for important leadership posts instill a sense of reliability in the minds of the public. In Maharashtra, it was not really a Congress win as a large chunk of Marathi votes went to MNS leading to BJP-SS loss. Disappointing results for BJP in M.P., U.P., Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Varun Gandhi strategy failed. The BJP will need to have a set agenda, seek a second generation of good leaders and prove a good opposition rather than indulge in petty mud-slinging. Self praise and exemplary oratory skills with no real achievement is fallacious. Assertiveness and simple, clear language with due respect for the opponent as shown by Manmohan Singh, the quiet and confident leopard steps taken by Rahul Gandhi and the stellar team work displayed by Congress have led to the victory of the UPA.

There is a lot on the cards for the new government and for the first reformist Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. Some sea changes include 1) Disinvestment in the large govt-owned oil-companies 2) More Foreign Colleges setting up new campuses in Education-sector 3) More activities in telecom with 3Gs and other reforms planned 4) Banking Sector opening up for Foreign Banks 5) Intelligence failure and security lapse leading to terrorist activities need to be contained. Having silenced the DMK’s quest for more berths, the Congress has a challenging task ahead to battle in-house problems of ministerial appointments and portfolio allocations. Hope better sense prevails and capability and loyalty be the sole criteria for this process rather than caste/religion considerations. May the birth of the new government herald in significant economic reform that will make our Tiger more stronger than the Dragon.

When mentees become mentors

2009-05-27T13:29:00.006+05:30

Last week we had surprise visitors for our class. These surprise visitors were none other than our last year students. It was Tejas Dave(converted IIMB, IIML, IIMS, MDI, SIBM, SPJain and IIT Kharaghpur), Hitendra Jogadia(converted IIFT and waitlisted in FMS) and Rohit Nadgiri(converted GIM). It was Hitendra who came in class on 23rd May ie. saturday and for the first time he was not facing the board but facing cat aspirants. I gave a short introduction about him and then he started of with his interaction with students. He shared his views about how to go about CAT preparation with help of how he prepared highlighting both the positives and negatives. He laid stress on giving mock cats regularly and working with some fixed targets. He also discussed various problems he face during preparation and how to go about not just CAT but various other entrance exams. All student were surprised when he told them that his DCAT score was -4 and his first mock score was around 35%. He echoed words of all student mentors of CL, but I think he was more effective than all because now students were able to relate better with real live example rather than listening to examples from the mentors. He shared some of his experiences about GD-PI and also gave a list of must read books to students. It included books like India unbound, A view from outside, White Tiger, Here comes the great depression and Argumentative Indian. It was a nice interactive and motivating session with students.

Tejas came on 24th May and everyone was excited to meet the IIMB student. He came prepared with some important points like controllable events like the CAT score, preparation and GD-PI preformance also some uncontrolable events like past records and extra-curricular activities. He took students back in 2008 to point out a time where he felt like all was lost and then how he tackled it was highly motivating. He also stressed on giving test regularly and how just practicing regularly has helped him a lot. He spoke about his feelings that he didn't faired well in CAT and the ups and downs he faced during preparation. Keeping a target is important and so he requested everyone to keep some fixed college as target in mind and start working towards it, at the same time it stressed over keeping high aims. Luckily when Tejas was going to end Rohit came to CL Dadar center just for meeting everyone. Rohit was not prepared to speak and was taken by surprise when I asked to speak to students. Similar to his preceeding speakers he too had similar history and also laid stress on mock test. This interactive session went nicely and some was able to create some enthusiasm in CAT aspirants.

The lesson to learn here is that CAT is not all about intelligence. A person who shows persevarance and has hunger to learn from his or her mistakes can crack CAT. One important point of Tejas I forgot to tell you is that he has done his engneering in US and never heard about CAT before August. He prepared only for 4-5 hours everyday. This shows that even if a person has three months left and has average aptitude and will to crack CAT can indeed crack CAT and other B-school entrance.

ISB holds on-campus “job-fair” to woo corporates

2009-05-27T09:19:00.002+05:30

After almost eight years of its inception and path-breaking success, Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad’s placements hit a bottleneck this year owing to the global meltdown. The Career Advancement Services (CAS) office at the ISB has therefore come up with a unique idea to wade through the turbulent 2009 placement season. For the first time in history of any top-tier Indian B-school, the ISB-CAS has organised a job fair to facilitate interaction between the students and recruiters.

According to V.K. Menon, Senior Director, CAS, the fair is open to all companies who would like to recruit from the ISB. The ISB has offered assistance in letting the recruiters interview students and make immediate offers. The ISB is also offering all facilities for making the interview process smooth. The ISB planned the fair with a view to complete the placements as soon as possible and it is hoping for positive results. The job of the CAS is to support its students in making the right career choices and enabling employers in taking the right hiring decisions during recruitment.

The job fair has been held on May 22 and May 23, 2009 at ISB Hyderabad. The recruiters have been asked to register for the fair by sending emails expressing their interest to participate in the fair. ISB has also assured that its students would join the organisations at a “short notice”, if selected.

Up until last year, ISB wrapped up its placements by March end due to its rolling placement system and held its convocation ceremony during the first week of April, by which time all of its students were placed. But this year, the story has been different. This year’s convocation ceremonies drew to an end with just 250 of the 440 (around 57 %) students placed. Their placement drive for the class of 2009 began in early January.

Last year the average domestic salary at ISB was Rs 19 lakhs and average international salary was USD 144,812.

Times of acquiring each other

2009-05-26T16:44:00.002+05:30

In the biggest ever deal of around $23-29bn which is double than the $13bn deal of Tata-Corus, Bharti, India's telecom giant and MTN, Africa's Telecom giant acquire each other. In times of recession this idea to expansion seems wonderful. According to plan Bharti is going to buy 36% of current MTN's equity while MTN is going to buy 25% of current Bharti's equity, with the buying process going in parts. After this revolutionary swapping Bharti will hold 48.8% of MTN's expanded equity, while MTN will hold 36.4% of Bharti's expanded equity. Effectively Bharti would have to pay $4.14bn in the end. After this tag team of Bharti-MTN will become world's 4^th largest telecom entity after the three telecom players all from China, with subscriber base of 200mn. By help of this deal Bharti will spread its wing in 21 more countries and will become India's multinational player. The deal also has good future when we see that India is set to have 1bn subscriber by 2014. It is the third largest deal in 2009 but rest all deals were pharma deals. The biggest deal of 2009 was of that of Pfizer and Weyth in January which was of $64bn. This deal of Bharti enables India to firmly imprint the footprints of Indian companies in global market.
I felt like posting this because students never pay attention to current affairs. I think this month was very eventful with significant events like UPA coming back in power, IPL2 concluded, Roger Federrer finally defeated Nadal on clay court, Malvinder Singh resigned from Ranbaxy, North Korea performed nuclear test, Pabhakaran shot which ends the long era of LTTE, Pakistan in action against Taliban and many more. If you are not paying attention to current affairs now, its difficult to collect exact details later. Like if you read todays newspaper, the complete Bharti-MTN deal is nicely explained. As the news become old its difficult to find the exact details of it. Please read newspaper regularly this will ensure your sucess in GD-PI as well as exams like SNAP, IIFT, TISS etc.

Some interesting facts from IIMB new batch profile...

2009-05-25T11:16:00.002+05:30

I came across this interesting page on the IIMB results site. You can access the full document here.
A few observations about the IIMB batch profile:1. 67 females made it as compared to 321 males. That's less than 18%. I guess things are a lot better than having 1 girl in my batch of 42 at IIMK in 1997-99!2. Engineers made a killing at IIMB with 92% seats, up from 89% last year. Out of these Engineers, an astonishing 31% are from IITs, and 22% are from NITs! As I keep saying to any non-Engineer, there are still 30 seats which went to non-Engineers. And you only need one of them!3. A total of 117 freshers reached the institute this year. This counters one of the most disputed myths about IIMs only taking Work-Ex junta!4. Another way of putting the above is that fact that there were 328 out of 388 people who are below 25 years of age. The range is 19-35 years! I am sure the 19 year olds will feel a generation difference;)5. Now, this one is my favourite: The lowest Graduation Percentage in the current batch is 66.20% in the general category, and 54% in the SC category! That does away the myth of only Toppers getting into the IIMs all the time...for the record, I had 52% in my Graduation, and I was not the lowest marks in my IIMK batch :)Hope this will be taken in the right spirit! I will try to get other IIM data as well, and see what do they throw up.

ANGREZI? MARO GOLI!

2009-05-25T11:14:00.005+05:30

Jug Suraiya never fails to delight me. This is exactly what happened when I was planning an activity for my class today. It was a class of Vocabulary and Reading. I randomly picked up an article from today's Times Of India and man it was mind blowing, not only did i enjoy the article but i am sure my students did too. You guys know by now that I tend to do a little more than just the worksheet, just to break the monotony and to develop an interest in reading. Well the delights of reading are many ,however amusement and learning at the same time...that is guaranteed in Jug Sauraiya's articles. That is just what i've done here. So, guys go ahead give it a read and be armed with newer words,whose meanings I 've shared at the end of this amazing piece of write up...ENJOY...
Angrezi? Maro goli!20 May 2009, 0000 hrs IST, Jug Suraiya
During China's Cultural Revolution a commissar toured the country to ascertain if peasants had carried out the diktat of reading aloud Mao's thoughts while sowing seeds, so as to ensure a bumper crop. A farmer, who said he'd read out the Chairman's thoughts while planting, was asked by the commissar if he'd had a good harvest. Oh, yes, said the farmer. My radishes reach from here to Heaven. You fool, said the commissar. Don't you know there's no Heaven? I do, replied the farmer. And there are no radishes, either.
The story aptly sums up the current debate about whether English should or shouldn't be scrapped in India. Like Heaven, or the Chinese farmer's radishes, we're talking about a non-existing entity. When Harold Laski visited India he expressed approval that the welcoming speech made by a local trade union leader was in the vernacular. There was an awkward silence. The union leader's speech had, in fact, been made in what all present (except Laski) believed to be chaste English. That's why they say the British finally left India: they couldn't bear it anymore to hear their language being so mangled every day.
It's not just the pronunciations. Forget the Gujarati 'snakes' (snacks) and 'takes' (tax). Or the Bengali 'brij' (breeze) and 'shit of paper' (sheet of paper). Or the south Indian spelling of banana: bee-yay-yen-yay-yen-yay. Or the Punjabi celebration of 'birdays' (birthdays), especially if they fall on 'Sacherdays' (Saturdays) and the person concerned is of good 'krakter' (character). Punjab is also famous for its 'loins' (lions) and its 'laiyers' (lawyers).
Our orthography is even more inventive. 'Child bear, sold hare' (Chilled beer, sold here) might be an exaggeration, just about. But lots of shops sell 'milk and cureds' (curds). And restaurants serve 'Chinees, Muglai and Conti' (continental) food. Many a political speech is made from a 'dias' (dais) which may or may not be 'miniscule' (minuscule).
Advertisements always proclaim 'Offer open till stocks last', never 'while stocks last'. 'Till' denotes termination (We will love each other till we die); 'while' denotes duration (We will love each other while we live). While, till? Termination, duration? KFP. Ki farak pehenda? (What difference does it make?)
It doesn't. Like the use of the apostrophe 's', which indicates a shortened or contracted form: 'it's' for 'it is'. Technically, in the other use of 'its', as a pronoun (Its price makes the Nano a great buy), the 's' shouldn't take an apostrophe. But who cares a flying fig for technicalities. We apostrophise at will. As in our wont. Or should that be 'won't'?
Fewer and fewer of us can tell the difference between 'fewer' and 'lesser'. What's that you say? 'Fewer' should be used when we are talking in numeric, or countable, terms: Fewer people (not 'lesser' people) attended today's rally. 'Lesser' should be used in describing non-numeric quantity or magnitude: children of a lesser god; theft is a lesser crime than murder. But all of us including the TOI swap our lessers and our fewers with abandon.
We like to 'er', and generously add 'er' to words that don't need it as a suffix. So neighbour becomes a 'neighbourer', preferably a 'next-door neighbourer', to distinguish him from the neighbourer living 50 doors down the road. And forger, as in someone who forges currency notes, becomes a 'forgerer'.
We also tend to be nervous 'the'-ists: we are never quite sure when to use 'the' and when not to. For example, all of us tend to talk on phone (not 'the phone'). On the other hand, when we fly, we prefer to travel by 'the plane', rather than 'by plane', which may or may not be made by 'the Boeing'.
In all, Mulayam and the others of the 'Angrezi-hatao' brigade are only asking for the removal of a long-dead corpse, massacred by us in our daily usage. It's high time we gave English a decent cremation. Harry bol, bolo Harry!
Meanings of the highlighted words:
1. commissar- i)the head of any of the major governmental divisions of the U.S.S.R.: called minister since 1946.the head of any of the major governmental divisions of the U.S.S.R.: called minister since 1946.ii)an official in any communist government whose duties include political indoctrination, detection of political deviation, etc.
2. ascertain:to make certain
3.diktat : any decree or authoritative statement
4.chaste:pure in style
5. mangled:to injure severely, disfigure, or mutilate by cutting, slashing, or crushing
6. orthography:the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.
7.minuscule: very small.
8.magnitude:extent
9. massacred: mass killing.

Article by Rituparna Bagchi (CL Mentor)

CAT Going Online - Luck is when preparation meets opportunity

2009-05-24T14:34:00.002+05:30

The race to the IIM’s has taken a new turn. CAT – the mother of all entrance tests – is in a new avatar. The toughest B-School entrance test for the premier IIM’s and other B schools in the country is taking a giant leap – from a simple Paper pencil mode to the virtual screen.

The IIM’s have declared that CAT09 will be a CBT (Computer Based test). The IIM’s have been contemplating the online mode for quite some time now (since the infamous CAT03 paper leak) and it is for the first time in 2009, that the CAT will be conducted online.

Career Launcher India Limited is one edu-corporate that has been preparing students through the online mode for a decade. This company has technology and innovation running in its veins. CL is the only test prep company which is CAT Online ready. For the past ten years, CL has been conducting a number of tests, doubt sessions and lectures online for all its students. Training and testing has also been conducted online for CL’s other products like LST (Law School Tutorials).

Specific to CAT09, Career Launcher has always been stressing the fact confidently that the CAT will go online from this year. The Academic Phi Lab (the Content Development team of CL) has done excellent research – it has a database of more than a lakh questions which are tagged as easy, moderate and difficult. There have been more than 2 lakh submissions of online tests already. Students will have the freedom to generate their own tests. Even before students enroll with us, they take an online Diagnostic test to see where they stand and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses is given to them by expert counselors and faculty. Students can also avail of online career counseling. As they go further in their CAT preparation, students can take a number of topic tests, review tests, section tests and mock tests online from the comfort of their own homes. Each student has an online SIS (Student Information System) where information regarding B-Schools, tests, complete analysis of tests etcetera is being continuously displayed. Students are encouraged to read e-books, newspapers, books and magazines online. Excellent infrastructure has been put in place – there are fully equipped computer labs at every CL centre. Products like Pegasus On Demand enable students to learn all concepts of entire lectures online. To make a long story short, Career Launcher is the only player that offers unlimited proctored mocks in a simulated environment. The test series package includes a huge battery of unlimited proctored and unproctored Mock CAT’s as well as Non-CAT mocks.

Needless to say, the online test pattern does not discount or belittle classroom teaching. Career Launcher invests heavily in training of faculty. The Company has excellent and dedicated faculty who are experts in their own subject domain. These faculty regularly appear for all the B-School tests year after year and update themselves as well as the study material with changes in the test patterns. Faculty are mentors here – students can approach them and get their doubts solved. The student-faculty interaction is ever so rich and profound that even weak students manage to perform so well at entrance tests. Online practice is integrated in classroom teaching. Also the kind of analysis available post any test is amazing. Students can benchmark their performance with more than 60000 students throughout the country in the Mocks. Detailed analysis and feedback with scope of improvement is available to students. So accurate is CL’s Percentile Predictor that one can say with confidence that a student’s performance in CL’s Mock CAT’s is a mirror to his performance in the actual CAT. Success stories are been told and retold over here. This year one out of every 3 IIM students is a CL student. CL’s students have also grabbed all the top ranks in Maharashtra CET08.

Don’t you want to be a part of the inspiring and winning team? Career launcher with its technological prowess and strong academic base can definitely make your dreams come true. No one else is as worried about your career as Career Launcher is. Leave others far behind in the race to the IIMs.

CAT 2009: Message from Career Launcher Academic Team

2009-05-21T19:51:00.001+05:30

Dear Student,
The CAT is out of the bag. The IIMs have finally come public with their decision on conducting the CAT online from 2009. It is time now to act.
At the outset, we assure you that there is nothing to “fear” about this online CAT. We at CL are well prepared to take it head on and ensure that you have the requisite. We have anticipated this and have been silently working at the backend to create requisite Computer Based Tests to make you comfortable with this format. We have been doing this for a long time now. CL started its first CBTs under the name “Web Sprints” way back in 2000 itself. In 2002, XLRI proposed conducting the test online and at CL we came up with a series of tests, which were considered the best in this Industry.
In terms of the impact of this decision on your preparations, it has been addressed below in a question and answer format.
1) I am not very comfortable working on the computer? Will this affect my performance in the exam?
Absolutely, if you continue to keep yourself off from taking computer based tests. There are two stages of getting used to this. One, getting used to working on the computer. Two, getting used to reading and comprehending from the computers.
The first is still a smaller problem to tackle. Almost all students taking GRE/GMAT have no problems getting used to the interface of the test. You just need to know how to click on the correct answer, submit the answer or skip the answer by clicking on the relevant radio buttons on the screen.
The second is a slightly long drawn process. Reading from the computer and comprehending is slightly different from doing the same from sheet of paper. That is because we have been used to the “paper formats” for such a long time that our eye – mind coordination has got used to it. So you need to practice quite a bit to make yourself as efficient through a computer screen. Practice is the key factor.
2) Where can I practice tests from?
Are you aware that there are batteries of tests that are being updated every week on your SIS. There are a large number of students who are already taking tests regularly on the SIS. If you still have not done it, you better get cracking fast. Please visit your SIS today. Better late than never.
3) If CAT is conducted on different dates, would the students get different papers?
Absolutely. The plan is to conduct it on 10 different days. You may be asked to book your time slots and take the tests at some designated centers which has the “computer Infrastructure” to conduct the tests. You may be aware that BITSAT is computer-based tests conducted for admissions into the Engineering programmes for BITS – Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad campuses. About 1.8 lakh students are taking this test this year. So each of you, in different time slots, could get a different paper. But care would be taken to ensure that all the papers are of “similar” levels of difficulty. You should not be worried about this aspect much.
4) Would the paper pattern change?
Not much. Do not think that the paper would be a lot easier. It may be marginally. The length of RCs is bound to reduce, so also would be the amount of data in DI. Prepare the way you are preparing now. We will take care of these in our online tests.
5) What should we do now?
There are a few things that you must immediately do.
a) Start taking tests on the SIS immediately. Make sure that you have sufficient practice of taking computer-based tests especially in RC and DI.
b) Read e-newspapers, e-books.
c) Make sure that every test that is made available to you by CL is completed. This would be more than sufficient for you to get cracking in CAT.
6) What is CL planning for me?
We have anticipated this for some time now. We have planned it out completely. The ‘appetisers” have been put on the SIS now. There are broadly 2 things that you would see happening
1) More tests on the web – Many more sectional tests will be uploaded onto the SIS across sections.
2) Mocks in the CBT formats – We will conduct the mocks both in the CBT formats as well as in the paper based formats. Please check your SIS in a day or two to see the schedule of these tests. We shall ensure that you get comfortable with all the possible formats that CAT can try out.
7) What should be my preparation strategy?
There are two three stages for your preparation …
a) Learn: You learn as you are doing now. Just because CAT has gone online the conceptual learning is not going to change. Just stick to your Fundabooks and move onto the online tests for practice.
b) Practice: Part of this must be offline and part of it online. We would upload many more tests online in the next few weeks to enable you to get as much practice as possible online. Note that practice on SIS is essentially to get you used to taking a test on the computer.
c) Testing: Testing for a significant part must be online. This is because your strategies would significantly change since it is no longer a paper-based format. You need to experience enough Full duration tests on the comp to make yourself be aware of what is working for you and what is not.
8) Anything else I need to know?
Normally CBTs are of different formats
a) A computer based test that lets you scroll all the questions. So you can access any question randomly.
b) A computer based test that throws question one at a time. You can access questions randomly. This is the most likely format for CAT 2009.
c) A computer based test that is adaptive. This means the test adapts to how you are attempting the paper. The questions thrown at you are based on whether you have got the earlier questions right or wrong. We expect this pattern from 2010 or 2011.

CAT 09 online

2009-05-21T19:01:00.001+05:30

CAT has changed! It's now a computer-based test and this means you will also need to change your preparation technique. Give yourself a clear advantage in this competition and gain from Career Launcher expertise. Visit us at http://www.careerlauncher.com/mba/online_cat/index.html to get a complete feel of CAT 09

Powerpuff Girls Shine in IIM-A's Class of 2011

2009-04-29T13:29:00.001+05:30

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: The temple of excellence’s quest for academic brilliance has opened doors to more women.

The 2009-11 PGP batch at the India’s premier B-school, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), has seen the percentage of women candidates going up from 6% last year to 19% this year.

IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) too saw the number of girls going up from under 10% last year to 13.4% this year for its flagship PGP course. The IIMs declared their first offer lists on Friday. The rise in number of girls at other IIMs could not be ascertained as the institutes are still in the process of compilation.

The 315-strong new batch at IIM-A will see as many as 60 women making it to the top IIM. The rise in the number of women candidates is owing to a change in the selection criteria. The IIM-A this year, tweaked the selection process, wherein a part from the Common Admission Test (CAT) and personal interview scores, the overall academic performance, Class X, XII scores included, were taken into account. The new criteria will see an improvement in the male-female ratio at the IIM-A campus.

“We have seen that girls perform very well in Class X and XII. However, many families prefer to spend more on boys preparing for CAT exams. This expenditure includes buying study material, fees of coaching classes, etc. This could be one of the reasons why girls score lesser than boys in the CAT exam. By making the overall academic performance as the criteria, we could see more girls getting into IIM-A,” said outgoing chairman of the admission committee and IIM-A faculty member Satish Deodhar.

The rationale behind this move is that students with a brilliant academic career can cope better with the strenuous academic requirements of the IIMs’ MBA programme.

Quickies: Why get work experience before enrolling for MBA

2009-04-29T13:00:00.001+05:30

B-Schools are increasingly roping in a number of younger and lesser-experienced MBA aspirants. We deeper into this trend while mentioning that it is still advisable to gain considerable work experience before enrolling for a business programme.

Unlike for most educational courses, for an admission to an MBA course, a minimum of three years of work experience in a managerial role is crucial. This figure can be higher in some cases.

In rare cases will a institute accept recent graduates. This, too, is done for exceptionally talented students.
There are a few reasons why you need to have experience under your belt before enrolling for an MBA. Firstly, without experience, you cannot be sure whether you are cut out for and are genuinely interested in a career in business.
Even if you do then you need to be aware of the field are you best suited for and your long-term goals.

With the time as well as the financial commitment, you will need to be absolutely sure that you are doing the right thing by pursuing an MBA degree.

Additionally, when participating in the case studies and peer group sessions that an MBA course consists of, you will be able to play a constructive and creative part in the discussions amongst people who, most likely, have spent quite some time in a managerial position.

Even if you are an exceptional student, and schools are fighting over themselves to offer you a place in an MBA programme, we advise against this simply because you won’t be able to extract the most from your experience at the school. You won’t be in a strong position to know exactly what you want, and to contribute fully to the programme. Thus, experience is imperative.

B-Schools , like the companies who employ MBAs, are also fighting a ‘war for talent’ and are in fierce competition to recruit the best candidates. In this respect, business schools spend considerable resources tracking down and recruiting the most appropriately talented individuals.

This equals a higher success rate for their MBA graduates into the world’s top companies, greater prestige for the school and, ultimately, a positive cycle of excellence the same as any other business would aspire to, including the opportunity to charge more for the education they offer.

While your academic background is critical - a good first class degree and a good GMAT score - it is your personal qualities and work experience that will increase your prospects of being accepted for an MBA course. During case studies for your marketing module, for instance, you will need to bring your experience to the table and pass on your knowledge and expertise to your peers.

The world’s top B-Sschools believe that diversity of work experience, as well as background and nationality, breeds an atmosphere of international ‘peerlearning’ . You will benefit as much from your peers as from lecturers while pursuing an MBA.

A career in business may not necessarily prelude to pursuing an MBA, though chances are that your application will be unsuccessful if you do not have any work experience.

However, if such is the case and you want to directly gain an admission into graduate business programmes, a master’s is more likely to be the route for you. If you’ve had a few years of work experience and you want to move to the next stage, check then an MBA is definitely what you should be looking at.

Quickies: How to crack CAT '09

2009-04-29T12:55:00.001+05:30

Here is some handy advice for students tackling the CAT.
MBA is a career that is preferred by many engineering students, as the industry requires candidates from technical as well as management . The motive behind the preference for this strategic combination is that a techno-management candidate can implement the best of both fields in his job.
A candidate opting for a career in management has to undergo an aptitude test, followed by a group discussion and a personal interview.
One of the most challenging entrance exams for entering the management stream at an all India level is CAT (Common Admission Test), which is conducted by seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) for admission to their PG programmes in management.
The most common question in the mind of a candidate aspiring to get into the IIMs is: "Why is CAT considered to be one of the toughest exams?"
Probably the IIMs want to absorb only the best of the lot or perhaps the MNCs prefer hiring the most talented candidates. IIMs like to spring surprises to keep the charm and unpredictability of the exam intact.
Let us now take on the big question: How to crack the CAT? Generally, engineering students undertake CAT preparation from their sixth semester onwards. The syllabus of the CAT is based on eighth, ninth and tenth standard mathematics, along with verbal ability and reasoning, which includes reading comprehension, synonyms, antonyms and similar topics.
The methodology for cracking the CAT involves regular study for two to three hours, which includes reading books, problem-solving sessions and answering time-bound mock tests.
I would recommend candidates meticulously deal with each topic in the syllabus and be absolutely clear about the concepts. The CAT always tests your understanding of the basics. Once the candidate believes that his concepts are sound, he should attempt problems from the lowest level and gradually increase the difficulty levels.

CAT takes a cyber leap, to go online from November

2009-04-29T12:32:00.001+05:30

BANGALORE/AHMEDABAD/KOLKATA: Almost three lakh students seeking admission into IIMs in November this year will be able to appear for the Common Admission Test (CAT) online, as India’s premier management institutes seek to transform the over three-decade-old examination system and provide more flexibility to IIM aspirants by adopting an internet-based system.

The new computer-based test (CBT) will be embraced by IIMs across Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong, and will allow students to select a date convenient to them from a specified period of 10 days. “CBT CAT will be a candidate-friendly test in terms of flexibility in the selection of test date, ease of registration process, better physical environment and test experience,” professor Amarnath Krishnaswamy of IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) told ET.

The new system is also expected to help the IIMs cope effectively with the increasing number of candidates every year. While around 95,000 candidates took CAT in 2003, the number rose to about 250,000 last year, reflecting a growth of over 163% and bringing the administrative system under severe pressure.

“It is far more effective, will increase efficiency and improve the examination standards as the number of students giving CAT is increasing dramatically,” said Pankaj Chandra, director IIM-B. The institute has been been discussing upgradation of the examination system for the past two years, on par with other tests such as Graduate Record Examinations and Graduate Management Admission Test.

“Every year, candidates for CAT are increasing by 40,000, which is a large number to manage,” said IIM-A associate professor and admission coordinator Diptesh Ghosh.

CBT will integrate the processes involving programme information, test delivery, receipt of admit cards and score reports apart from ensuring better security through online video monitoring and biometric identification of candidates. A web-based examination system is also expected to help aspirants in remote towns take the test.

“The online CAT ensures that we can reach out in a much bigger way. The exam can be administered in many locations where the internet is available,” said IIM Calcutta dean (programme initiatives) Saibal Chattopadhyay.

However, students such as Arvind Sharma who passed out of IIM-B this year say the new system might not help students accustomed to doing rough calculations on paper. “It would be a bit time consuming to replicate figure-based problems on screen and solve them. In CAT, every second counts, and wasting time means you won’t be able to crack the exam,” Mr Sharma said. He added that the new online system may actually help tech-savvy students who are used to giving web-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exams.

Meanwhile, we at Career launcher (CL) are ready with the new format of Online CAT. Adding on to that we are ready with Online Test series and online modeules for the students to get accustomed to the new format of the CBT CAT preparation. We are focused on helping CAT aspirants through coaching, and thats how we have upgraded our systems accordingly. The preparation for the online platform has been on for quite some time. We already have set up computer labs to prepare students for mock tests.

This is not the first time IIMs have attempted to modernise the examination system. In late 1980, CAT embraced optical machine reading technology for faster evaluation of answer sheets.