Mr.Prosenjit Kundu talks on FOREX

14^th Febuary 2007: Mr.Prosenjit Kundu, head of Foreign Exchange Operations at UTI Bank Ltd. addressed the MBA (IB) 2006-08 batch at Kolkata on the invitation of the Corporate Relations Committee of the institute. He has worked in the Banking sector for the last 25 years and has had exposure to all areas of Banking, including Credit, General Banking Operations & Branch Management, Trade Finance (Export/ Import), Dealing Room Operations, Trade Credits, Overseas Investments, JV, Foreign Currency Loans, Non- trade Remittances (Inward/ Outward) & Non Resident Deposits and Advances.

Foreign Exchange though is Mr.Kundu’s area of expertise and he has handled Foreign Exchange Business at various levels over the last 15 years.

The day’s discussion was on “Nuances of the Forex Market and Macroeconomic Factors affecting the Forward Premium”.The speaker talked about the basic structure of the Forex Market and the way in which it was organized. He spoke about the various rates involved in the Forex scenario and mathematical ways to forecast the exchange rates. He discussed the Macroeconomic Factors influencing the Forward Premia. With knowledge culled from his extensive experience in this field, he shared his views about the status of the Forex market in India and the world and improvements that could be made.

A few topics raised by the students and duly answered by Mr.Kundu included:

• The Singapore Model: Whether India needed a agency on the lines of Temasek Holdings of Singapore, which would work with minimum intervention from the government, in order to invest the country’s foreign reserves in projects that were relatively quite safe but had a reasonably high rate of return too, in order to increase its reserves and what the implications of the existence of such a entity would be.
• Forward Cover as a measure to attract more FII’s and how exchange rate risk could be managed.
• Fundamental Analysis: The identification and measurement of factors, such as the general economic and political scenario, that determine the intrinsic value of a financial instrument.
• The chances of Arbitrage occurring in the Forex market and how this could be made use of.
• The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the Forex market.

The Question and Answer session marked the end of a lively and satisfying interaction.

Mr. Aditya Sharma interacts with IIFT Kolkata

12^th January’2007: Mr.Aditya Sharma visited the Kolkata campus and interacted with the students of the MBA(IB) program there on the invitation of the Corporate Relations Committee(CRC). Mr.Sharma is a Company Secretary of Price WaterHouse Coopers and has 15 years of experience in dealing with the application of economic laws in resolving complex business issues.

The topic of the day’s discussion was the rather controversial one of Capital account convertability (CAC). Mr.Sharma enlightened the students on the basics of CAC and the role of globalisation in its evolution.He then went on to explain the Opportunities and threats facing CAC in India today and how a fuller CAC could be achieved.

The interaction was made truly interactive by the students who chipped in with their questions throughout the interaction. Some of the pertinent issues raised by the students included

1.The Order of occurrence of current account convertibility and CAC

2.The changes which are bound to happen in the fiscal, Monetary and Trade policy while moving towards fuller convertibility

3.The role of inflation in the future of CAC

4.Whether CAC is a natural process and if yes, then what the cost of tinkering with nature would be.

Mr. Sharma’s first hand experience in dealing with economic and corporate laws during the reform period where pre-1991 India went from a sluggish economy to become a dominant global player by 2006 ensured that he was the right person to speak about the topic chosen. He was impressed by the knowledge of the subject that the students exhibited during the interaction, which turned out to be mutually enriching for both, the students as well as for the speaker.

Mr. Rohit Agarwal on Entrepreneurship

25th January, 2007: Mr.Rohit Agarwal, Chairman and CEO of techTribe Networks, visited IIFT Delhi to interact with the students of the MBA (IB) program, on the invitation of the Entrepreneurship Club of the institute. techTribe Networks, is a software company that enables professionals to express their identity online and connect with others to enhance their professional careers.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Rohit has been a founding member of successful startups, led marketing, sales and business development functions at established software companies throughout his 17-year career in enterprise software. Prior to techTribe, he has held the positions of Vice President, Strategic Marketing at Baan Company (NASDAQ : BAANF), Founding VP of Marketing and Business Development at Webify Solutions (acquired by IBM in August 2006), Founding VP, Marketing at Commercial Ware (acquired by MICROS / Datavantage), and VP, Product Strategy at newScale. He has also held Sales and Marketing Management Positions at Remedy Corporation (NASDAQ : RMDY, acquired by BMC), and FileNet (NASDAQ : FILE, acquired by IBM).

This lecture provided a real life insight into how innovators connect in Silicon Valley

-CONNECT to discuss Ideas
-CONNECT to build Founding Teams
-CONNECT to raise Capital
-CONNECT with the Customers
-CONNECT with the Environment
-CONNECT to bring Companies to Market.

The following topics were touched upon in the interaction:

-What experiences / demands led to the ideas & how does one finally settle in on one?
-What attitudes and skills are necessary to prepare for success?
-How does one embrace and learn from the surroundings – the eco-innovation system?
-What roles do failure and mistakes play in eventual success?
-How does one collaborate with others to build on the idea and deliver results?
-What role does capital play in innovation and how to leverage it best?

Mr. Agarwal also addressed the batch on how he started tech tribe and the vision he has for the firm. How the team at tech tribe was built and the challenges they faced.

In the Q&A session that followed Mr. Agarwal addressed questions from both the batches and dealt with several very important issues, viz.

-How to ensure that you don’t lose your passion for your prime pursuit even as you are busy doing a job or other things that may be different?
-The benefits of constantly striving for innovations and looking out for ideas?
-Inviting ideas on a problem you want to solve, getting “consultants” (friends, boss, family) to give you ideas for free by requesting their advice and guidance?
-Spread the word about what you want to do in your “net” so that when the opportunity arises you get to know of it?
-What to do to build a right team--- hire people you’d like to work for?

Many other Questions were dealt with by Mr.Agarwal, in a session that was mutually appreciated by him as well as the students.

Special Thanks to: Arka Bhattachrya