Prayaag'06 Concludes Sucessfully at JBIMS, Mumbai
Adds Another Feather in JBIMS' Cap!!!

18th of March 2006 marked the beginning of a new era for Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, when it held its first ever inter B-school festival, Prayaag. In its 40 years of providing quality management education to its students and grooming many a leaders of today, JBIMS had only one thing missing in its ever sparkling portfolio of activities, and that was an event where it could test and prove its supremacy over the other B-schools. This thought gave birth to Prayaag, a dream that The Catalyst Forum at JBIMS saw, and which was realized by its core team of six members.

The dawn of 18th saw a buzz in the air. The college was full of over-enthusiastic members and volunteers waiting with enthusiasm and anxiety for the big day to begin. And surely it did. The event was kick-started with the chief guest of the day, Mr. Bhattacharya, Head, Human Resources, UTI Bank and Mr. Nitin Ghadiyar, Executive Director, Dabur, also a faculty at JBIMS, lighting the traditional lamp.

The brand name of JBIMS was enough to get a huge list of sponsors even in the first year of the event. UTI Bank was the main sponsor and Kingfisher Airlines was the airline partner. ONGC, Cognizant Technology Services, DSCL and Bank of Maharashtra associated themselves as the module sponsors.

As a precursor to the event, the online games held, saw participation from all across the country with more than 250 teams participating in the three online events. On the 18th, the first event of the day was the final of the flagship event, the Case Study Competition, which saw B-school grads emerging as clear winners over their corporate counterparts. This was something that the judges for the finals, Mr. Nitin Ghadiyar, ED, Dabur India Limited and Mr. G. P. Jakotia chuckled about before the start of the finals.

There were two cases and 64 entries were received for the same. It was a really difficult task for the judges to short-list the best 3 synopses for each of the case. The final was a tough fight between JBIMS, IIM-A, XLRI, MDI, Great Lakes and SCMHRD. The judges were impressed by the quality of the presentations and the depth into which all the teams had analyzed the cases.

Subsequently, the day saw the all-exciting on-the-spot events such as the Strategy Simulation Game, Treasure Hunt, Advertising Game, Arbit Presentation, Casino Royale, Debate and the Business Quiz, which was open to corporates as well.

The events checked the budding corporates' creativity, in the form of the Advertising Game and the Arbit Presentation. Both these events had the audience enthralled because of the humour and the creativity involved in them. While the Advertising Game had the privilege of having Mr. Alvin Saldanah, VP, McCann Erickson and Mr. Utkarsh Naithiani, Creative Head, Radio City on the judges' panel, the Arbit Presentation had Mr. Varun Raj and Mr. Saugat, Promoters and Directors, TryAngles Entertainment and Communications Pvt. Ltd. The Debate Competition was keenly fought and was judged by Mr. Sunil Vora, a C.A. and Insurance Consultant and Ms. Sharon Picardo, Accounts Executive, FCB Ulka.

The grand finale for the evening, the Business Quiz, saw entries from a large number of corporates apart from the management students. There were more than 70 corporates from reputed corporate offices like JP Morgan, Sun Microsystems, TCS, Lehman Brothers, M&M, Standard Charterd, and many more who participated in the Kwiz Kraft. The quiz was conducted by the national quiz champion himself, Mr. Dhananjay Shettigar, who in his own style had the audience and the participants yearning for more.

Finally, months of hard work of the entire Team Prayaag bore rich fruits on the 18th of March. This was the day when the foundation was laid for a festival that is different from the others organized in the same genre, and that promises to grow in size and scope in the years to come.