FINANCE SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

The Finance Society at FMS has been organizing various events like round table discussions by luminaries from the finance ministry, workshops by reputed global business information providers like Dun and Bradstreet, online simulation games like Bank-ex, Beat the street, Finance Quizzes, and hosting guest lectures and seminars related to contemporary issues that supplement classroom teaching. These events are conducted round the year to keep students informed of financial happenings and to generate interest in the world of finance.

Our initiatives:
Flagship event- ‘Banker’s Day’
A 3 in 1 event with a Treasury workshop, a heavy weight round table discussion and national level paper presentation competition- ‘Banker’s Day’ was indeed the culmination of concerted efforts by the Finsoc team to showcase the world of finance to the students at large.

The proceedings were flagged off by Calyon Bank, one of Europe’s leading corporate and investment banks,with a Treasury Workshop.

The round table discussion chaired by Dr Ashok Lahiri, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India and Mr. Vinod Rai, the Special Secretary, Banking and Finance Division, Ministry of Finance, was the highlight of the event. The theme of the discussion ‘Indian Banking Scenario: Survival of the Fittest- roadmap to 2009’ was elaborated upon by the illustrious speakers.

Mr. Suresh Sethi, (Country Head, Transaction Banking Group, YES Bank) , Ms. Sonu Bhasin,(Senior Vice President, Wealth Management, UTI Bank), Dr. J.S.Juneja, (Member, Governing Body and Senior Advisor, WASME), Mr. B.M. Mittal, (Chief General Manager – Corporate, Punjab National Bank) , Mr. Krishna Kumar, (Assistant General Manger - Corporate, ICICI Bank) and Dr. Suresh Chandra Nanda, (Regional CEO, North and East, ING Vysya Bank) were the various luminaries who were a part of the event.

The day-long event culminated with a national level paper presentation contest. The contest witnessed overwhelming participation from business schools all over the country, of which IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIMI, SPJIMR and MDI deserve special mention. Of the 50 entries received, 6 teams from IIM-A, IIM-C, IIM-I, MDI and FMS were short listed to make the final presentation. The contest was won by IIM-A and the joint runners-up were FMS and IIM-I. The panel of judges consisted of a mix of faculty from economics, strategy and finance, with Prof. VK Seth, Prof Vivek Suneja and Dr. Madhu Vij giving their insightful perspective on the student’s efforts.


Induction Week:
Split Hairs
This was an event with openended questions, to be addressed by groups of 6 students each in the form of a written submission on the given topic and a further shortlisting based on the same. The final round saw a presentation being made by each of the 6 shortlisted teams, and the team addressing the topic of IPOs: The road ahead , bagged first prize.

Amnesia
This event saw the batch of 2008 fight it out in 6 closely contested rounds. Round 1 was a memory game, Round 2’s theme was crosswords, Round 3 was a Q n A round, Round 4 witnessed a stock simulation, Round 5 brought out the creativity inherent in the freshers with a story telling round, while Round 6 rounded it up with a rapid fire session.

Gyan Sessions
Members of Finsoc decided to share their knowledge with the new incumbents in the form of various gyan sessions convened on a variety of topics like ‘Corporate vs. Consumer Banking’, ‘Derivatives’ , ‘Capital Markets’, ‘Demystifying accounts’ as well as ‘Ratio Analysis’. The endeavor is to cover a wide spectrum of topics, right from the the basic building blocks of accounts to the sophistication of the stock exchange.

Corporate Interactions
Dun and Bradstreet Workshops
FMS students from first and second years participated in finance workshops organized in association with Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India Pvt. Ltd. Dun & Bradstreet is the foremost provider of global business information, tools and insights and has been providing customized financial solutions like Risk Management, Sales and Marketing and Export Marketing solutions as well as Data Consultancy Services and Financial Education Solutions.

The first workshop was convened on the topic of derivatives. It was held across a period of 2 days. Derivatives in the form of futures, forwards, swaps and options, were considered in the course of the workshop to address the students need for financial knowledge and to give them a deeper understanding of the financial instruments on offer.

A 2 day workshop on Structured Products and Derivatives was organized for the 2nd year students as well. Important topics like Credit Derivatives and Securitization were taken up. Exotic products were considered and various combinations of futures and options were put under the microscope to provide an in-depth understanding of the working of the same.

IndiaBulls Guest Lecture
The first guest lecture of the academic year was taken by Mr. Kavi Kumar, International Business Head, IndiaBulls, who spoke on the topic ‘Emergence of Alternate Asse Classes like Real Estate for investment decisions’, sharing his valuable experience with the junior batch.

Alum Speak
Our alum Mr. Rajan Agarwal, a partner in Xanders ( a pvt. equity fund) addressed the first year students. Prior to joining Xanders, Mr. Ranjan Agarwal was associated with SBI Caps. His insights into the opportunities in the banking sector were appreciated by one and all.

Publications:
Finomenon
Finomenon is the mouthpiece of the finance society of FMS and is a quarterly magazine. The magazine publishes articles written by the faculty and students on contemporary topics in the financial world. The magazine also carries latest news snippets, mind games, finance case studies and puzzles.

Bi-monthly Alumni Updates
Finance Society helps the alumni stay in touch with the events on campus by circulating among all, a concise overview of the activities- both undertaken and proposed.

Other initiatives:
Citibank Gold Cards for Students
Students were given lifetime free credit cards via the deal arranged by the FINSOC. Around 80 people availed of the offer. After all, a free lifetime card with a credit limit of 50000 is surely attractive!

Alumni Database Additions and Updations
Detailed updations of the database, especially of people working in the Finance companies were undertaken. After all, it is vital to be in touch with our esteemed alums.

Future Direction of Finance Society:
The future agenda has a plethora of activities lined up. A series of guest lectures from the who’s who of India Inc. are lined up. Workshops have been scheduled to take classroom teaching still further. Thirdly, a ‘Citi Week’ is on the cards. In this Citigroup will hold a week long session with students participating in simulated games, seminars, contests and the like. Fourthly, ‘gyan sessions’ would continue to be held on an as-and-when needed basis to address the knowledge and content concerns of the students.

We would like to conclude by shedding light on some of the major activities planned for the coming months:

I Bankers’ conclave
I-banking being the way ahead, it is Finsoc’s pleasure to present a day long event with a series of guests speaking for an hour each on various issues relate to the Investment Banking Scenario in India.

Policy Makers’ Month
As the banking industry moves towards deregulation, the transition must be planned with caution. This unprecedented event would witness luminaries from the Government as well as industry delivering insightful lectures on India’s current scenario and the way forward.