VJTI Alumni Meet

This year's VJTI Alumnni Meet would be the most remembered as I got an opportunity to attend an interactive session of none other than Mr. Narayan Murthy , Cheif Mentor , Infosys.

As Business graduates , we talk about how do we generate money and be profitable. Bot
tom Line is the most important thing for us , As it signifies our progress.

Narayan Murthy started talking with introducing India. He rightly said , there are two India : One with booming economy , high GDP forecast , IIP numbers rising , Explorations on Moon with Chandrayan-1 and other India : With high number of Malnourished children ,High number of children dropping out of Primary school , People deprived of basic needs ,Poor Infrastructure in remote areas.

He talked on Education in India , and the importance given to Examination-oriented study. He rightly said, that most of students learn concepts before exams and after two months they tend to forget the same. He also talked on importance of Mathematics in Engineering and that Examination must be an " Open Book Affair " with high significance given to thought process rather than memorizing. I second this suggestion as this is also goes well to Post-graduate courses in India. Many of the theory subjects demand memorizing of the subject matter which I think is trivial, rather a Case-Study approach must be used which will expose students to real-life examples and help Students start thinking rather than mugging.

With Q & A session , Many core issues were raised , like Companies which come to recruit giving high importance to Examination marks by which students are then tempted to score in exams and avoid learning more about the subject. Politics was also discussed and how one should always stand by one's principles / value system. Mr. Narayan Murthy said that " It is highly disappointing to see decreased number of voting with only. He said that until citizens dont come and vote ,the Political system will not improve and for that system to change we need Better candidates.Ev en after the Mumbai attacks and outrage shown by entire country against the attacks, The same response failed to be seen in Mumbai polling statistics. Voter turnout for Mumbai was 43.3 % from the Eligible voters which was even 1% less than General Elections 2009. Programs such as Jaago-Re campaign associated with Tata-Tea would help in awareness of voting in urban voters.

Gyaan for CFA Level-1 Candidates.

CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) is a course provided by CFA Institute, USA. It consists of three Levels, with Level-1 you can appear in June, December while Level 2 & 3 only in June.
Why CFA?
CFA mainly helps for those who want to work on Equities, Handling Portfolio , Investment Research , Backend of Investment Banking. For Students , It is surely a way to enhance your CV value but only when backed with sufficient amount of Practical Knowledge ( Which you can gain by reading Economic Times daily or doing some Live Corporate Projects based on your area of interests).
CFA Level-1 is the basic level testing in all areas:
1) Ethics
2) Quant
3) Financial Statement Analysis
4) Economics
5) Corporate Finance
6) Derivatives
7) Equity
8) Fixed Income
9) Portfolio Management
10) Alternative Investments
Most of my mates at JBIMS as well as CA friends are planning to take this exam in June'09 so thought of sharing some of my own experiences as well as tips to crack the exam.
How to Start?
Commerce Students can start first with Financial Statement Analysis whereas Engineering grads can start with Quantitative Methods.
Strategy: It is always better to start with comfortable topic than taking a topic which you find difficult to cope with.
Which areas to stress upon more:
Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis , Quant and Economics
Ethics is sort of confusing and you have to prepare well to get cases right. You can do Ethics after completing Quant/ FSA and then regularly practice it. Make sure that you are in touch with Ethics ( All Laws..) till the end of exams else you are bound to get confused in Examination Hall.
Do Not Leave a Single topic:

Make sure that you read up on all 10 areas , Leaving even a small area like Alternative Investments is not advisable.

Mocks:
Make sure that you take as many mocks before the exams.Schweser Book Volume 6 (contains 3 mock papers)and one free mock must be atleast solved before Final Exam provided by CFA Institute, USA.
Work Hard !!!....Work Smart !!!!....All the Best for Exams...!!...Any Queries Please comment.

The Google Story!!

Most of you must have read this book..But for those who haven't read Buy a copy asap..!!
Google Story is the story of two geniuses--Larry Page and Sergey Brin.The story revolves around the creation of Search Engine known as "BackRub" to developing Page Rank Algorithm which finds only Relevant and most popular Links to the initial challenges in expanding the Project.
The main learnings out of this book is the attitude of two founders:
In one of Interviews Sergey Brin was asked : Do you think Google was highlight of your career?
To which he responds

I think it was the smallest of achievements that we hope to make in the next 20 years

The "Don't Give up" and "Don't be Evil" attitude is what Google boys have laid the foundation of one of the best Companies to work for..!
Google Story also portrays the initial struggle for Financing the project.Google boys get support from two Venture Capitalists of 25mn$ .The expansion of Google and it being a Private firm till 2004.The process through which Google IPO is introduced in market alongwith the clashes with SEC and the Patent Infringement fine it had to pay to Yahoo! for Overture's patent violations.
The story also in parallel brings an idea of how the Economy and Technology changed right from 1997-2005, an era where .Com revolution took place.
Learnings from this book :1) Insatiable hunger for Success 2) Don't give up (Preserverance) 3) Think for others, make a Product which is beneficial for all. 4)Have a vision of how things work so that you can execute your ideas into actions. 5) Always think Big 6) Passion for what you are doing 7) Innovation: The work culture envoronment and 20 % policy 8) Continuously transform your products.
So those who have not read , I hope you have got an idea of this book..!!

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