Aug 10, 2011
GDS Member Selections
Mar 22, 2011
Winning a rigged game - An interesting puzzle
He gave the peasant a chance. He said he will let the peasant draw from 2 slips of paper, one of which has the word MARRIAGE written and the word DEATH on the other. The peasant agreed. On the way to the castle, the peasant over-heard the king and his knight talking.
Mar 12, 2011
The How What and Why of Indian Growth
THE HOW WHAT AND WHY OF INDIAN GROWTH
Have you ever wondered why all the fuss is created around India as a major super power .As India keeps on the persistent pursuit for a permanent seat in the UN security council while the countries of Germany , Japan looks on. The aura that brand “India” has created over the years has been backed by phenomenal and unprecedented growth rates and industrial development .Lets see what the facts have to say .
India is the best place for budding entrepreneurs, as stated by the global services location index by AT Kearney. India has been the best place to start a business for some years now and the experts belief that it will continue to be the same for the years to come .India’s foreign reserves stands at US $300 billions. This crude cash helped to survive the bitter recession that brought down major company to the blink of a bankruptcy. This crude cash helped India still put on 9% growth rate when countries and their shares where falling like dominos. India has also of late displaced USA as the second most favoured nation for (FDI) Foreign Direct Investment after China. If you still don’t find statistics staggering check this out, poised at a phenomenal growth of 500 per cent, the Indian insurance industry is expected to reach US$ 80 billion in the next four years. India adds about 10 million phone subscriber every month and the total subscriber stands at 755 millions, making it the second largest user of cellular service and the third largest user of Internet.
India has one of the largest road networks in the world, aggregating 3.34 million kilometersIndian ports handled cargo of around 570 million tonnes, the passenger traffic rose by 25-30 per cent and is expected to grow by 25 per cent year-on-year over the next five years. While international and domestic air traffic grew by 35 per cent, cargo witnessed a 12 per cent growth. India is the Sixth largest crude consumer in the world it is also the Ninth largest crude importer in the world. India has the sixth largest refining capacity - 2.56 million barrels per day representing 2.99 per cent of world capacity .Estimated to be a US$ 350 billion industry, the Indian retail sector is growing at a growth rate of 47%.The travel and tourism sector in India is generated a total demand of US$ 55,544.5 million of economic activity accounting for nearly 5.3 per cent of GDP and 5.4 per cent of total employment. International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) has ranked India as the seventh largest steel producer in the world with an overall production of about 40 million tonnes in 2006.India exports US$ 6 billion worth of garments. India is the largest consumer of gold jewellery in the world and accounts for about 20 per cent of world consumption. India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world. India is the second largest producer of rice and wheat in the world; one of the largest producers of sugar, sugarcane, peanuts, jute, tea and an assortment of spices. The Indian pharmaceutical industry, consistently growing at 9.5 per cent in the last 5 years, a zip at 13.6 per cent between 2007 and 2010 has made the market size of US$ 9.48 billion in 2010 from its present level of about US$ 6.2 billion. Healthcare delivery is one of the largest service-sector industries in India. The country will spend US$ 45.76 billion on healthcare in the next five years.
Astonishing! WOW! These were only some of the underlined facts that have made India a pioneer of world economy as it slowly and steadily climbs the ladder for world supremacy .But the way ahead is not as simple as it seems. With the “Dragon” as hot as never before India’s first major challenge is perhaps the toughest. However we should never forget the might of the US, the current state of India is same as that of USA during 1960. India will have to rise at the same rate for 50 more years and US has to remain static, for India to be at par with the USA.
:-ABHINAV YASHKAR
Mar 6, 2011
The King's test of intelligence
- The advisors have no way of seeing the number written on their own back.
- They can see the numbers written on the other advisors' backs.
- No communication is allowed between the advisors.
- All the three numbers are integers and are greater than or equal to 40
- AD1, AD2, AD3 have integers which are in strictly increasing order.
Feb 25, 2011
ACING THE CASE
You’ll be surprised by what you hear when I say that “anyone can ace a business case competition”. Its no wonder why business case competitions are becoming popular by the day. Apart from the monetary motive amassing $50000 to $100,000 per competition, participants gain experience and a chance to meet successful entrepreneurs.
When you talk about “acing” a case competition, you’re not talking about the winner’s business acumen, you’re talking about their ability to grasp the core of the problem and present a viable solution to it while being creative. The one thing you need to know about running a successful business or presenting an idea is the selfish nature of human beings. People won’t come to you or spend money on your business unless you provide them with value for their money. This value can either be in the form of intangible or tangible articles. Keeping this idea in mind, whenever you are presented with a case problem, write the problem on a piece of paper and brainstorm ten different solutions (no matter how they crazy seem at first). It doesn’t matter if you found the optimum solution in the first try. Then list the merits and demerits of each solution and you might be surprised of the outcome. Suddenly an answer might seem more appealing which at first sounded crazy. This is one of the many mistakes students make during these competitions.
Whenever you are stuck with an idea that you can’t grasp for a case, stop thinking of yourself as a vendor and start thinking as a customer. This technique would be sure to bring you a LOT of ideas keeping in mind the selfish nature of human beings. When you are done with your idea and have finalized it, its time to elaborate each part of the plan in the initial report so as to make a clean first impression. The last stage is presenting the idea. It has to be presented in such a way that the audience may feel acquainted with the idea before the presentation is over.
In a business case, much time and effort is often spent on designing a sustainable business model. From my experience, the most crucial catch in a case competition is the value of return on capital. This figure is there for you to know the level of competition that you’re up against. Generally there is an easy solution for all cases like this, called the “linkage” model. It states that ideas in case competitions are more effective if you link them between various projects in a single case. Quite simply put, different entrepreneurial projects in a case may be started by using the profits from a single venture simultaneously e.g. a chain of small restaurants which only require capital from the revenue generated by the first restaurant. This practice entails a prosperous trade environment as there is never a shortage for capital or investment for the projects.
I hope these tips help you to ace case competitions as they have helped me.