20/07/2015

20/07/2015; 03:51:

It’s the middle of the night and I can hear the rain relentlessly pounding against the ground, outside, just like it’s been, all day long. It has been over 2 weeks since I got back to Indore and only now do we finally have rain! And, it’s beautiful- the smell, the sounds, the sights, the sensation!

Let’s pick up right where we left off- the intro session for the JPC applicants at 6 p.m. was held in the Old Auditorium. The main purpose of this meet was to encourage all the applicants to give the selection process their 100% since it is optimal to have the best people of the batch working on the Placement team.
At around 8 p.m., Task 2 for the selection of the JPC was thrown open- each applicant was allotted a sector ranging from IT & Construction to Consumer Durables & Consulting. One had to scour (mostly online) resources for details of & likely contacts in companies that fell under his allocated sector.
At 9:45 p.m., Quriosity, The Freshers’ Quiz was held in the Old Audi, courtesy the Quiz Club- the participants were quizzed on TV Series, movies, current affairs, sports and more, all until one team emerged victorious. Right after, a batch meet had been called for by the I5 Summit coordinator- to serve the dual purpose of getting the PGP-I Batch in the know about the details of the event (and the details of Hack-a-thon- the event promising a shot at a wild card entry to Venture-I) and getting us all enthused enough to sign up to be on the organizing team for the event that’s set to happen on the 22nd & 23rd of August. Preparations are in full swing- a bunch of big names, including Mr.Ronnie Screwala of UTV are on board, as are a sizeable number of well-known angel investors/venture capitalists. Venture-I is to be the ‘pitch you idea event’- it’s open to start-ups that are less than 2 years old; a total of 15 teams from across the country will be shortlisted and will get 15 minutes to pitch their idea to a host of venture capitalists/ angel investors- $25000 of funding is on offer! Another interesting event is the ‘Walk with the Entrepreneurs’ where participants get an opportunity to interact informally, one-on-one with successful, young entrepreneurs. A host of Key Note speeches, a discussion on ‘The 360° view on funding’ and an ‘I5 Summit Prize’ that’s up for grabs for the audience members all promise to make this the hub of entrepreneurial thought & action.

On 18th July, the Raymond outlet continued to remain open for a second day, allowing those who dared to brave the rain and make their way to the FPM block to select themselves fabric for a suit that’ll be stitched to order. By late morning on Saturday morning (i.e. 18th), the last task for the JPC selection had been sent in. Close to 3p.m., the next task was sent out- this was to be a group task- we were to identify news relevant to placements. For this, we could scour whatever resources we wished to and find & identify news pieces published in the two weeks gone by. We had until 11:30 p.m. the same evening to get this done. At 11:00 p.m., Currenc-I, the economics club, held the online round of Clued- The Treasure Hunt. Results and further rounds shall follow soon.
A little after mid-night, we headed to the night mess to get ourselves some tea – I think I drink a little too much tea- the night mess guys spot me from a mile away and begin to pour out a cup of tea, smiling, even before I’ve actually asked for some. This was followed by us attending an interaction session for all JPC applicants in the Old Audi, at half-past might-night. They warned us that the details of our next task would find their way to our inboxes in the next two hours. And sure enough, a little before 5 a.m., we received an e-mail that had a list of groups and an industrial sector assigned to each group. We were to prepare an Industry Analysis Presentation on our allotted sector, which again ranged from FMCG to Automobiles & Logistics. Seeing as this was to be sent in by 8 p.m. of 19th July, most of us fell into a fitful sleep, promising to be up soon & get working. And, that we did.
At 1:15 p.m., an interaction session was scheduled with some IIM-Indore alums who’ve been actively working in the areas of sales & marketing- they spent over an hour sharing their experiences and fielding questions from an enthusiastic bunch of new people.
By 2:30 p.m., all the JPC applicants had received e-mails that contained details for a Group Discussion that was to be held early in the evening. Group Discussions done, the final presentation for the Industry Analysis was compiled and sent in by the stipulated deadline.
At 9:30 p.m., all the groups assembled in NLT-7 in order to actually present the presentations they’d prepared- to an eager audience in the senior team & a slew of questions.
Our presentation was rather well-received and we headed back to our rooms via the night mess, stopping for over an hour to savour lots of tea.
The Media Committee has meanwhile announced a writing competition- all of PGP-I has been invited to document their 1st week, here at IIM-Indore. The best write-up gets to feature on insideiim and of course, he/she gets bragging rights!

A rather interesting case is to be read for the Critical Thinking Skills session, tomorrow- here’s looking forward to an exciting class discussion!