Mr. Anil Dhanker, VP HR, Bajaj Finance

If one wants to know, importance of the HR department? One should attend the session by Mr. Anil Dhanker. During his visit to our campus, he shared his views on what HR people seek while selecting an individual. He also spoke to us on Finance Industry and gave an insight over how companies are moving towards consumer durable financial schemes. His session showed us the vital importance of HR and Finance departments for an organization.

Mr. Pradipto Mohapatra, Director RPG

Mr. Pradipto Mohapatra is the personality behind the success of retail business of RPG. He understands retail business from its core, he taught us retailing concepts by giving example of different retailers like Mark and Spencer’s, Body-shop, Tesco to name a few. We all got involved listening to his research work on different retail stores present across the globe. He brought to light many aspects of retail business and the way how companies plan for their marketing.

Ehsaas "The Introspection" (social initiative by ZCBI)

Sub Prime Crisis

It came into light in August, 2007 and created a snowballing effect in Global Markets and shook the entire financial world. Yes I am talking about Sub-Prime Crisis and its ripple effects not only on US Economy but Economies world over.
What is Sub-Prime Lending:
Sub-Prime Lending means lending to people having a little or no creditworthiness or to the people who have a poor credit history. In context of US housing markets, such lending was possible because of manic house buying, fraudulent lending practices and a very little oversight by regulator.
How it all started:
It all started with dot com burst of 2000-2001. The US stock markets were down and languishing. The then prevalent benign interest rate ensured lot of liquidity in the hands of US investors and institutions. The only attractive investment avenue available then was housing. The demand for housing started increasing due to two reasons one being that rising prices led to speculation and second being the fear among the masses that they won’t be able to buy houses if the prices kept on increasing in secular trend. Under the pressure to maintain margins US Financial Institutions started lending to borrowers with poor credit history overlooking the regulatory and prudential norms. The incentive was to earn higher mark-up in term of interest rates. They shifted the entire such loan portfolio by selling them off in secondary market through the mechanism of Securitization. So nothing was kept on books and the capital was freed instantly. As housing prices were rising relentlessly the Financial Institutions were confident that even though the Sub-prime borrowers defaults they will be able to service the securitized issue by recovering the defaulted amount and losses by foreclosures and selling the properties at much higher prices in ever rising market. They fail to understand the basic rationale that whatever goes up frantically comes down with double the pace. The size of US mortgage industry in late 2007 was approximately of $10.74 trillion out of which the Sub-prime mortgage were of the size $1.30 trillion and in 2006 alone $600 billion of Sub-prime mortgages were originated.
How it resulted in Crisis:
The housing demand led to construction boom and helped US economy to remain afloat. But due to rising trade deficit and China’s (US had a huge trade deficit with China) reluctance to abandon its fixed band exchange regime, as it could have dampened its export oriented growth put pressure on Fed Reserve to start raising the interest rate. From 2004, there was a steady increase of interest rate which affected the housing demand. The housing supply side reacted but with a lag thus creating a pile up housing inventory. Also because of rising interest rate the adjustable rate mortgages started getting resets at higher level which the Sub-Prime borrowers ill-afford to pay. Suddenly, such borrowers realized they that the cost of their Mortgages has increased substantially. Reset at higher rates and stagnant housing prices led to increase in defaults leading to massive foreclosures.
Effects of Crisis:
1) The Credit norms were suddenly tightened which lead to severe liquidity crisis. The liquidity from the market vanished so rapidly that it has put US on the brink of recession.
2To avoid liquidity problems and thus falling consumption levels Fed first announced the rate freeze and then started cutting interest rates.
3Many big financial institutions and banks like Citibank, UBS have to write down losses because of heavy exposures to Sub-Prime lending. Bear Stearns one of the active players in the space became virtually bankrupt and was taken over by JP Morgan Chase and Co. at substantial discount to value which it commanded before the crisis broke out.
4Investors in MBS and CDO’s market saw there investment value depreciating rapidly. A lot of them were institutional investors aboard and they also burnt fingers in the crisis.
5There was sudden emphasis on cost cutting and many financial institutions started resorting to job cuts. These also has severe impact on traditionally consumption led US Economy.
6The falling value of houses led to negative equity which means that houses value dropped below the mortgage amounts. So even Prime Borrowers started defaulting as they did not see any incentive to service mortgage which was more than what the actual prevailing value of house was.
There were many other adverse effects like global slowdown, reverse flight of capital invested in emerging economies and depreciation of dollar against major currencies etc.
Conclusion
It is said that the crisis seen so far is only a tip of ice-berg. There are many more skeletons to fall. The Fed has no other option but to provide succor through rate cuts. But these will provide only temporary relief. It also needs to tighten the credit norms and see that they are followed in letters and spirit. The Fed need to go deep, find and punish the actual culprits who held the entire system to ransom. Apart from cutting rates Fed should also encourage refinancing and repackaging of Sub-Prime Mortgages. By cutting rates only Fed will do nothing but follow the vicious interest rate trap in which it find itself whenever such crisis breaks up. The rate cuts have already put more money in the hands of Speculators who are now chasing commodities especially crude. Hope the Fed is alert enough to avoid another asset bubble being created this time in commodities.
By Ajaykumar Shaha
Student - ZCBI

Mr. Vijay Deshpande, VP-HR, Greaves Cotton Ltd.

Date: 19th July, 2008
Topic: Staying ahead in fast changing time.
In today’s dynamic business environment nothing is constant. The only thing permanent is change. This was the essence of guest lecture given by Mr. Vijay Deshpande, VP-HR, Greaves Cotton Ltd., on 19th July 2008. The Zcbians are privileged lot having this timely piece of knowledge and experience being shared by one of the top HR professional on whom the award titled “India’s Greatest HR Professionals” was conferred upon in year 2004 in an event organized by ITM Business School.

Mr. Deshpande started with comparison between the way the business was being done some 12-15 years back in India and the way it is being done now. He came up with specific examples such as monopolies being crashed, Business becoming more global to explain the changes which has occurred in the business models in recent times. All the changes can be attributed to LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) initiated by the policy makers and technological development happening all round. This has resulted in the shift from life time employment to employability and has made succession planning difficult for the HR professional.

In such dynamic environment to stay ahead Mr. Deshpande suggest that organization should adopt Proactive Strategy Implementation and Market Driven Management. The sustenance in fast changing time depends upon the ability of organization to create Customer Centric Monopoly. In the end, organization should either try to be no.1 or no.2 in the market it serve but not less. Indeed a master piece of advice for the budding Managers.
We thank Mr. Vijay Deshpande for sharing the great insights coming from his long industry experience and expertise. By:- Ajay Kumar Shah

Guest Lecture by Zensar CISCO team

It was yet another day full of knowledge and enlightenment that was focussed specially on the industry orientation.

We were expecting Mr. P Mohan, Head, CISCO ODC, to deliver the lecture but he was accompanied by 7 other great minds of CISCO who were the Practice Heads of various departments in CISCO. They all were associated with CISCO for the past 8 years. Mr. P Mohan started the lecture with the history of CISCO and its growth from a 20 member team to more than 800 members at present to become the largest account of Zensar. He then gave an overview of various departments of CISCO and the operations carried out there. Then he introduced us to all the Heads of CISCO and invited them to give some more insghts on the operations and processes followed in their respective teams. All those who were from technical background were trying to capture the details as they knew the opportunities for them in CISCO. When the presentation was going on and slides were changing quickly came the much awaited slide for all of us which was giving an overview of plethora of opportunities we can have in CISCO. They opened the gate for us and we wasted no time in interacting with them personally to gain more information on the opportunities we have.

It was a great learning for all of us and we Thank the whole CISCO team for extending their help and co-operation towards us.

Spjain Nimitt, 08

On 11th July 2008, the entire B school fraternity and the corporate world could feel the strong essence of a blooming flower, an entity so bright that soon it shall give its light to others, an epitome of innovation in this dynamic business world, Zensar Center for Business Innovation. On this day ZCBI's tryst with success took off with its first win in SPJAIN annual b school fest called NIMITT.NIMITT 08 acted as a platform for the SMEs to come out with their issues and seek invaluable inputs from the stalwarts of the industry and the academia on how to tackle these and ensure long term sustainability. ZCBI’ans along with students from IIM -k, IIM c, ISB, SIES, and NMIMS participated in the annual event which comprised of panel Discussion Meet and on the spot-Elevator Pitch. It was an opportunity to be a part of the knowledge festival, exchanging ideas with the leading business minds. Along with it we got a chance to interact with students from different other leading b schools which was absolute wisdom enrichment. In this unique contest of acumen and business presentation skills we clinched the first and second prizes in the Elevator pitch contest collaborating with other students. The first exposure of this kind was blessed by perfection and one could well imagine what this new face of Business Innovation will bring out in the future, a perfect perfection.

Mr. Raj Dhillon, Sr VP, Zensar,(14th-July-2008)

Mr. Rajor Dhillon shared his recipe of success to us 'Hungry Students'. He told us the four ingrediants according to Hindu philosophy - Yogyata - competence, Karma- action,Bhagya- outcomes of choices we make,Ishwarya Krupa - factors not under our control.

Through his example of Aji's cake he made us understand the whole process requirement to set up a venture, the importance of quality and the continuous improveent.

The main thing is to get it right the first time. It saves both time and efforts and any sort of agony of failure.His recipe for shall surely pave our way to succees.

Mr. Zubin Kabraji (07-july-08)

Zubin Kabraji, Regional Director, Indo-German Chamber Of Commerce-Pune, was her at zcbi to share his experience on working with German's and GERMANY. He shared his knowledge on the culture and reasons on why the companies from germanies are there in PUNE since so long. Its the ability of indians as follows:

* They expect us to think different
* To be technologically savvy
* To have an open mind – a mind for effective alternatives
* To be ready for new challenges
* To think well outside the box
* To be more quality conscious
* To be punctual
* To adhere to our committments and delivery schedules
* To be better team players

In all its been a pleasure for all students to have an insight of what people from other end of the world expect from us, in their organization and how they like us to be different from rest of the world.

We highly appreciate Mr Zubin Kabraji's effort to make us understand the insights better.

Singhad @ Adventure Club (19-june-08)

It was a cloudy day in the midst of the week, and the ZCBI adventure club was all geared up to trek the inviting slopes of Sinhgad. The huge fort perched on top of the mountain looked more formidable when we approached it early morning. The strenuous trek up the mountainside took close to 90 minutes and we were exhausted by the time we reached the entrance, but a nimbu-paani was all it took to get us refreshed again. We toured the echo point, the wind point and the kalyan darwaaja with a light drizzle and the thin mountain air for company. The experience provided a welcome break in our schedule, and we were thoroughly refreshed after the trek. The adventure club plans to have such treks once a fortnight.

ZCBI @ Second Life

Second Life, a free virtual environment on the Internet where users create avatars, move around, interact with other users’ avatars. 3D virtual environment gives a very interactive platform to learn and share knowledge.
Moving with the new trend of online education Zensar Center for Business Innovation is the first and the only Indian institute to have presence on Second Life.
Currently the group of students working for Second life project are in process of building Zensar Innovation Land.

Please check the following link to visit ZCBI campus

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Krypto/141/199/39

Visit to Akansha Education center at Chandan Nagar locality (24-june-08)

Ehsaas - An introspection organised a visit to Akansha Education center at Chandan Nagar locality.

The visit was organised with the aim of giving a first hand experiance to the students at ZCBI to understand the social initiative at Zensar Technologies.Akansha education Center at Chandan Nagar is run by Zensar Technologies to provide an opportunity to underpriveliged kids to learn computer and nuances of english along with value eduaction.Around 20 students went with the aim of imparting some knowledege to the kids but returned themselves enriched with lot of knowledge from the kids.

Zcbi'ans began their interaction by singing few songs with the kids. The kids were really happy to see the ZCBI'ans singing song. This was followed by an introduction of the kids. It was really great to see the kids being so eloquent and focused about their goals in life.

Once the introduction was over we conducted a small quiz related to India. The kids showcased a deep understanding of the Indian facts. They not only showed their vast knowledge base, but also a deep interest to learn and inculcate. Some of the students who were studying for their last term, had studied for a project on the Netherlands. The amount of knowledge they had about the subject astounded us, and at the end of the session we ended up learning a lot about the scandinavian country. The students' conduct showed a great deal of discipline and they were genuinely happy at the end of the session.

Overall, it was a very good experience and we intend to continue with this initiative in larger numbers in future. As part of EHSAAS the student plan to visit the center regularly on a monthly basis.

Exit option for US in Iraq

War has been the most the terrible thing to have happened to mankind and has been its scourge since it realized self and identities.

What makes it much more grievous than even diseases or natural disaster, is perhaps a realization of its, futility, preventability, a sense of injustice and over all the guilt of being a party to this pogrom of fratricide.

Iraq today presents, yet another glaring example of a nation, and a civilization torn apart by greed of parochialism. As an antithesis to Arab nationality, enriched by the natural bounty of oil, juxtaposed to the origins of human civilization and an area central to all the three Abrahamic faith.

The backdrop of the crisis is:

With the breakdown of Ottoman Empire, the British divided the Arabian Peninsula, and popped up rulers, under their protection, and in a similar way, created Kuwait in a manner such as to squeeze Iraq’s entry into the Persian Gulf. The cold war heightened the tension, with Iraq joining the Russian bloc and signing the Baghdad pact. As a fall out of it, the baathist came to power and saddam Hussein established a firm, and tyrannical to his tribe of origin, the tikritians, and then his sect of Sunni Arabs, a discriminatory and reprehension regime was formed and the decade long Iran Iraq war was an ominous extension. During the war as Iraq got buried under debt, it attacked Kuwait, eyeing its oil fields as well as to increase its control over the Persian Gulf and it prompted, an US led international retaliation under Operation Desert Storm, which stopped short of dethroning saddam and imposed crippling sanction on his regime. In abid to enable rebellion , many measure like , no flying zone and mass demilitarization , which reached its peak during the operation Desert Fox(1998) , the final phase was against the backdrop of 9/11 bombing and has resulted in overthrowing of saddam’s regime and the US led forces trying to maintain a country plunged deep into civil war.

All said and done, Iraq has proved to be too complex for such simplistic analysis and the US, along with its war machine finds itself enmeshed into this treacherous polity of middle east, trying to fight, its plummeting moral authority, hatred of Muslim world, almost bringing the world into the brink of a clash of civilization, rising causality by a day, almost 4000 and counting. A falling currency and impending recession, and a condition where oil prices have crossed $100 a barrel and the already fragile world order and international institution has been run down.

The US and the saver world now grapple for a way out. A way which is

• Honorable for the US
• Assuaging the hurt Islamic feeling
• Capable of establishing peace and order in Iraq
• Acceptance to the divergent groups in Iraq
• Maintains regional balance of powers
• Reinforce energy security for the world
• Creates a situation favorable to the international drive against terrorism.

The first option is a long term investment by the US in taking over a gradual rebuilding of Iraq and its institution. Bringing over a force much larger, at least around 200,000. Disarmament of the sectarian forces, building up of a credible army and police forces, governing and judicial institution, reestablishing the oil sector in a public- private partnership model and then a gradual democratization of its polity.

This calls for a commitment and involvement, not available with the US polity. A war costing 200 billion $ a year, is not acceptable to the US public and there is no acceptance of further responsibilities.

Second available option , is a US retreat and UN takeover, facilitated by security council resolution , and a Un peace keeping force, with mainly forces from , Arabic and Islamic nations, and a gradual democratization, with world assistance following , similar to Afghanistan . But we see the results are not very encouraging and the biggest drawback would be an army large enough

Third option would be to trifurcate Iraq into Shia, Sunni and Kurd majority areas, but it would disturb regional balance with Shia regions, joining bloc with Iran and turkey opposing Kurd nation.

As we see options are many but they call for a statesmanship, not in view at present, and what can be best hoped is some intrinsic leadership to emerge and some internal consensus evolving around it.

By:- Komal Singhal