PaGaLGuY meet in Manipal

The first ever PaGaLGuY meet in Manipal, was a resounding success! The PG meet was conducted in TAPMI’s campus. The meet saw participation from students of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) who are interested in pursuing a career in management. What made the meet unique was the attendance of PaGaLGuY executives,. Mr. Rohit Awasthi, Audience Head and Mr. Soumik Ganguly, Head Marketing & Sales, from PaGaLGuY, were on campus as part of Consonance ’09 held at TAPMI. Members of the TAPMI faculty v.i.z., Professor Chowdari Prasad and Professor Sudeep Kumar, were also present for the meet, giving it a faculty perspective and sharing with the students what B-schools expect from candidates.

To make it more holistic, current MBA students of TAPMI were also present to talk about their experiences first-hand. The enthusiastic audience raised a range of questions from Why mba? to how to prepare for entrance exams? to B-school rankings. The two hour meet ended with an informal interaction between the aspirants and TAPMIans. The students left the campus with a clearer picture and more focused approach towards the CAT. Hopefully this meet would enable them to formulate better strategies to “bell the CAT”

NGO Posting during MIP-3

The NGO project which is a part of the PGDM curriculum at TAPMI was one of the most learning experiences for me. It was not surprising to hear similar responses from many of my friends who visited NGOs all over the country for a fortnight.

My 14 days with Mineral Foundation of Goa, an NGO which works for the social and economic development of the people in the mining belt of Goa was a great learning experience. The time spent in the rural parts of Goa during the market survey gave an entirely new picture of Goa, something I had missed even though I have lived there for the past 22 years!!!

I must mention the wonderful work done by Mineral Foundation of Goa for the past few years in Goa. Their dedication for the mission and vision of the Foundation and the reach of their activities are exemplary. But then it was unfortunate to feel the lack of awareness among the urban Goa about the great work done by the NGO.

The NGO experience has made me realise that there is still a long way to go till we achieve the goal of "India Shining" and until and unless we, the youth, the future of India doesn’t sensitize itself to the needs of the Indians ... "India Shining" will continue to be a distant dream.

Onam - The TAPMI way

Onam – the biggest and most cherished festival of Kerala was celebrated amidst much fanfare at TAPMI on September 2^nd 2009. Students of TAPMI created a ‘Pookkalam’ – a floral decoration laid out in elaborate patterns. The formal Onam celebrations at TAPMI started out with the crowd favorite – ‘The Idly Eating Competition’. But this year, the game came with a twist – instead of ‘Idly’, ‘Puttu’ - a traditional dish from Kerala was used, which added to the challenge! The legendary King Mahabali (enacted by Mohit) served the faculty members and the students delicious ‘Payasam’.

No Onam celebration is complete without the Onam Tug of War, marking the end of the Onam festivities as the sun set on another eventful day at TAPMI.

Experience of Junie @ TAPMI in First Month

TAPMI never sleeps. This I believe captures the essence of life at TAPMI. Every second, since we have set foot on 80, Badagabettu, has been full of activity. Be it assignments and seminars or “introduction sessions”, we have never quite had the time to look back at our stay here so far. And now when I do, I realize that TAPMI has enveloped us all without us realizing it.

A typical day at TAPMI begins with breakfast being munched down as we run to our lectures. It ebbs and flows through lectures and lunch and in the evening, the FORA and Committees keep us occupied. At night, the assignments keep us up, and if they didn’t, having fun with friends is a perfectly valid excuse for not sleeping.

It used to irk us in the beginning when every practice was attributed to the “legacy of the seniors” and the “TAPMI Culture.” Now, being punctual has turned into a habit. Handling pressure has become second nature – so much so, that productivity suffers if there is no pressure. Organizing, planning and managing have become conditioned reflexes. Adapting to change has become an everyday chore. It is perhaps this wonderful environment created by TAPMI (its students, faculty, staff and even the buildings included) that has transformed every second into an exciting journey.

It would be unfair to talk about life at TAPMI and exclude EPISODE. Looking back, the only way one can possibly qualify such an event is “a week-long fresher’s party.” Within a week, we found out as much about each other as we did about ourselves. Every talent, every skill found a way of expressing itself as we found how seamlessly TAPMI works.

It has been only two months at TAPMI & I have loved every moment of it.

Ganesha Visits TAPMI

On Sunday, the 23^rd August, Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated by the students and faculty of Tapmi for the first time since they have shifted to the sprawling new campus in Bedagabattu,Manipal. The event assumes a lot of importance because it has a history of being celebrated in Tapmi for several years. The first day had students and faculty coming together and offering their prayers to Lord Ganesha. This was followed by the immersion of the idol on the next day evening in the Manipal lake.

Aarti was held in the morning, evening and night on the first day. Sweets were distributed to one and all at the end of the puja. Here, it is worth mentioning that the arrangements that were made for the event were praiseworthy. The credit goes to the Welfare Committee of Tapmi. It had arranged for the idol, flowers, diyas and every item required for the puja. It was raining heavily that morning and everyone was wondering how to get the Pujari to the campus. But the Welfare Committee took immense pains in arranging for the same. Kudos to it!

Tapmi has a lot of cultural diversity among its students. They are from almost all parts of India. There is religious diversity as well. Events such as this go beyond the boundaries of religion and foster a sense of unity among the students. We hope that such trends continue in Tapmi for the years to come.

Changes @ TAPMI

Well last couple of months many things got added to the list of changes taking place at TAPMI. Last year we had change of campus, change in director, change in management and list has grown to change in faculty and change in PGP structure and PGP chairman.

1. The first and quite refreshing change is that TAPMI has allowed 90% attendance.
-Yes all these years students at TAPMI suffered from 100% attendance problem but now rules are being relaxed and we were being "treated as adults" in words of the new Director.

2. Prof. R C Natarajan is back at TAPMI
- After a years' stint at IIM I, Prof. Natty is back in TAPMI as full time faculty. So also is Prof. Chowdari Prasad who had moved to Alliance Business School some years back. So the trio of CP, RCN and Guru are back in TAPMI taking various steps at take TAPMI to greater heights.

3. Prof. Rudran is PGP Chairman and hence lots structural changes happening as we would expect
- As you would expect with Prof. Rudran comes lots of changes in the structure in the PGP course and rigor is on its way up for the new batch.

Look at this space for more changes in TAPMI. Dynamic environment needs constant flow of information and we will provide that.

Annual Convocation 2009

The 23rd Convocation at TAPMI was held on April 8th,2009 at its sprawling new campus at Manipal. the Chief Guest at the event was Mr. V K Vishwanath, Managaing Director Bosch Limited, Bangalore. 107 PGP 2 student were awarded their Post graduate Diplomas in Management. The chief guest in his address to the congregation extolled the virtues of honesty, reliability, longevity, and quick decision as sin quo non for the graduating students to succeed in their Corporate life.

Pankaj Saria won many medals for his academic achievements. Others medal winners were Kathik, Dr Vandana Garg, Avani Vyas, Sarika Iyer, Mangala Subramaniam.

The Graduating Batch of 2009

Dr. Saji Gopinath, Director TAPMI addressin the gathering