NMIMS	organises
PARAGANA	2003
in association	with
STRATEGIC	MARKETING

Paragana 2003, the annual seminar of NMIMS was
organised in Mumbai in association with STRATEGIC
MARKETING. The theme of the seminar was
“India Inc. - The Road Ahead” and the event was held in
The Grand Sangam Ballroom at Hotel J. W. Marriott,
Juhu, Mumbai on November 29 and 30, 2003

Paragana in Sanskrit means Pollination. The seminar epitomised raison d’etre of both NMIMS and Strategic Marketing - spreading knowledge. The objective of the seminar was to blend academic relevance and social sensitivity with Indian reality. The focus of Paragana 2003 was the need for fresh perspectives and vision for the road ahead in the context of the changing industrial environment the world over. The theme was therefore, ‘India Inc. - The Road Ahead’. This theme was carefully chosen to encompass the challenges and opportunities that face Indian Industry today, and possible solutions that it could employ on its way to becoming the economic superpower of tomorrow.
The seminar was thrown open by Dr J J Irani, Director of Tata Sons who also gave keynote address. The Guest of Honour for the day was Subir Raha, Chairman of ONGC, while Arvind Mahajan, of IBM Business Consulting Services gave the Valedictory address. The valedictory session entitled the ‘Big Picture’ synthesized the four dimensions of business.
Several industry stalwarts participated in the various panel discussions on the four M’s of business and shared their rich experience and knowledge with the audience. While Jagdeep Kapoor spoke on “Markets, Mahesh Murthy discussed “Methods,” Dr Anita Madhok lectured on “Manpower” and Nandan Maluste dealt with “Money.”
An Inter-Business-School Competition was also organised. The theme of the competition was the same as the seminar and at stake was the Paragana Rolling Trophy. Only final year management students were eligible to participate in the competition, with maximum of three teams from each Business School and two students in each team.
In Round One of the competition, the participating teams were asked to submit an abstract of 500 words on the Paragana 2003 theme. This formed the basis for qualification of the selection of ten teams for the next round. Since there was a tie between two teams, in all 11 teams were selected in this round. In Round Two, the 11 teams selected in the earlier round were asked to submit a 3000-word dissertation. However only eight entries arrived in time, from which the best three teams were short listed for the final round.

Winners

First Prize and the trophy went to Deepesh Jain and Jose John

from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

The first runners-up were Shubhra Bhandari and Asim Satpathy

from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

he second runners-up were Sachin Abrol and Gagan Malhotra

from K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai

Other Participating Schools

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai (2 entries)

National Institute of Industrial engineering, Mumbai

S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai