This is a blog by the students at the S P Jain Center of Management, Dubai, Singapore. The site is designed to play a common ground for the students and alumni of SPJCM to blog about their lives at the campus, industry exposure, events, current happenings, and everything else. The views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of S P Jain Center of Management. For more information on S P Jain Center of Management and the courses offered, visit the official SPJCM website

Geeky Pickup Lines

Thursday, February 11, 2010

• The Physics PHD (Pura hogaya Deewana): Light travels only in a straight line. Can u make sure u’re sitting right in front of me?
• Can I take you out for an educational movie organized by finance club?
• With you so far away, the demand and supply can never be self-regulating
• Let’s sit next to each other in the guest lecture by TIE.

I’m feeling lucky @ Tiananmen Square

Friday, January 15, 2010


Pavan Shinde
Global Human Resources Management
GMBA - April'09


A tale of misadventure in a strange marriage



Change of heart : google.cn

Google was mesmerised by China’s rapidly expanding internet market. This was well over 4 years ago. But China, till then, had kept Google at arm’s length by intermittently blocking Google.com and making even that intermittent access snail slow. Baidu wooed and dominated the Chinese market, laughing (at Google) on its way to the bank. Google courted China with a pruned and ‘more decent’ version of its search engine. Apparently, it must have thought to itself that better something than nothing at all. Throwing caution to the wind, it set forth to milk the Chinese cow.

The elders met, the horoscopes were matched and the marriage was fixed. Was it meant to last? Or was it just mAdSense? Google penetrated the Chinese search engine market with a view of being the leading search engine in China in the long haul. Now, it announces its threat to review the future of the relationship and possibly pull out of the Chinese search engine market. It has cited infection by the plague of hackers and woes of the ‘finger-on-the-lip’ policy to have agonised it. Even Uncle (Sam) Obama had obliquely deplored the Comstockery, when he toured the country in November. But China wouldn’t listen. Eventually pushing Google to separate the master bed, or maybe even, leave the bedroom for good.

China is no cow; it’s a fire breathing dragon. Google risks scathing its private parts.


China: being the nasty in-law

Why? Check this out :
  • China blocked Youtube when it hosted some videos of Chinese law-enforcers brutally beating Tibetan monks.
  • China banned access to Picassa shortly after.
  • China wouldn’t let anyone access Blogger from its communist land
  • China made a huge hue and cry about violations of copyrights in its Google Books venture
  • China is also said to have made “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on its corporate computer systems “originating from China” in December.

But Google isn’t the only one in the sorrow-ship
  • China pretended to open its arms to these sites in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 as it tried to project a more open and liberal image to foreign delegates and visitors. But no sooner did the lights go off at the stadium, that restrictions have been amplified to unprecedented levels
  • China has prevented the masses from any access to the world wide web, forget any access to uncensored news, in the regions afflicted by ethnic disturbances.
  • China met Twitter and Facebook with the same cold hostility.
  • China wouldn’t hear a word against itself and proceeded to block leading international newspapers such as the Guardian, the New York Times, even the Economist, for days at length.

Google would perhaps be among the first of the big brands and heavy weights to openly attribute its withdrawal to the lack of freedom of expression. While Silicon valley praises Google for taking some guts to make such bold statements, the White House pats Google’s back assuring its (Washington’s) support. Even if standing up against China is part of its long-term interests, there is no discounting the fact that Google has ‘the balls’ to walk away from the world’s largest potential market.


A broken family?

We must remember, though, that such direct finger-pointing isn’t going to do down very well with China. Even while it buries news articles about Google’s threat, it seeks to portray the entire event as a hollow gimmick and a narrow commercial dispute rather than a pressing political one. It even shies away from taking Google’s name directly reminiscent of rural Indian women refusing to take their husband’s name.

  • What about the future?
  • Will about the 700 or so people whose families earn their daily bread because of Google?
  • Will the backlash lead China to impose a Great Wall on all Google services and block it in its entirety?
  • What about the sale of Google’s merchandise?
  • What about the Google android and its younger sibling that is still in the womb?
  • Will they do well in the renminbi markets?

In all probability, the Beijing may not vent the fire of their anger directly on Google because of increasing public sentiment of sympathy among the Chinese netizens for Google’s spasm on censorship, among other reasons. Beinjing may instead choose to turn the fire elsewhere by stirring up a little nationalist and (the suppressed) anti-American sentiment on another front (Taiwan?).

Kaleidoscope - First Decade of the Millennium

Friday, January 8, 2010


The first decade of the 21st century has just passed and we’re entering into a new decade with lots of hopes in our heart. We, at SPJCM often wonder at how quickly the past 8 months in this course have just cruised by. But when we come to think of it, it is even more amazing to see how quickly the past decade has flown by. For many of us, at a personal level, this has been a decade of change. At the dawn of this millennium, most of us were either in our prime or late teens. How far have we travelled from there?! We’ve finished our Undergraduate studies and found ourselves a job; some travelled to various countries; some got married; and at the end of the decade, here we are, back at school :)

The world has also witnessed a lot of new things – some good and some bad. In some cases, the pace of change has been dramatic and changed millions of lives forever. We, at the blogger’s club entered into a discussion about the important events that marked the previous decade. In this post, we present a set of events that flashed in our minds.

Life

Saturday, January 2, 2010


Harit Bhasin
Banking Management
GMBA - April 09

Its break of dawn, world gets going
All’s on the move, why are you slowing
Just open your eyes, feel the golden gaze
Just feel my song and recall the phrase

Happy New Year 2010


Wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, 2010 !

A real life MBA case study - Dubai World

Friday, December 25, 2009


Pavan Shinde
Global Human Resources Management
GMBA - April'09


The fall of Dubai World



With the Sheikhs of Abu Dhabhi allowing Dubai to slip and Emirates Airlines on the line, one can only guesstimate what the repercussions will be on the GCC. To some extent, I think the property debacle was imminent. Not only because Dubai’s property market has been built on sand and dry oil wells, but also because of the sentiments in the world markets. While Dubai was looking up at the 200 storeys of Burj Dubai (the tallest man-made structure ever built ), the man-made wonders of the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai Waterfront; the world was looking at Dubai in silent speculation. I think sentiments are like self-fulfilling prophecies; if you think that the market will collapse, it most certainly does! Personally, it’s untimely as it might affect my prospects of finding myself a suitable job opportunity when I graduate in March. Nonetheless, I’m staying optimistic, hoping that sentiments can indeed turn the world around!

Strategic Philanthropy: The new mantra

Friday, December 18, 2009


Arun Sharma
Investment Banking and Wealth Management
GMBA - April 09


On one side where strategy is usually understood as a plan of action to achieve specific goals, philanthropy essentially is a symbol of giving, possibly to charity. But these days, there is a buzz in the corporate world, besides Copenhagen. And the new buzzword is Strategic Philanthropy. While Milton Friedman insisted decades ago that the only purpose of existence of the companies is to generate profits for its shareholders, the socially conscious global citizens of 21st century are ready to turn that statement up on its head. In the present times, the shareholders are considered nothing but gamblers in the market whose expectations, if turned into corporate strategy, will translate into Only Profit, Full Stop. But it is good to see that the social awareness is increasingly becoming popular in the corporate sector.

Confessions of a wandering mind


Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09


The wall clock in our class displays 7:10 pm. I look around the classroom and notice at least 10 hands popping up in the air – students eagerly trying to put forth their points of view or ask questions on the topic being discussed in class. Today we are discussing the online strategies of Skype and SPH – South East Asia’s leading media brand. This was supposed to be a 3-hour session and should have come to an end by 5:30 pm. The class has been going on for almost 5 hours now!!!

Is this the same class where students often complain having to sit through just the stipulated duration of the classes? No one in the class (including me) seems to be in a mood to end the session. I’m amazed at the interest and the enthusiasm displayed by the students today.


iCradle - Connecting the Dots




'iCradle' - is a business plan presented by us, in the e-Business course of our GMBA program. The idea came from what we see around and from our own experiences. In a country like India, there are a huge number of aspiring entrepreuners who do not have the opportunity to implement their innovative ideas and build new business ventures. Our idea of 'iCradle' aims to address this problem by bringing entrepreuners closer to venture capitalists and corporates who can fund their ideas.

Blood Donation Camp @ SPJCM, Singapore

Monday, December 7, 2009


Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09




The Leadership club of SPJCM has done it once again – organized a very successful blood donation camp in our Singapore campus on 02 Dec, 2009. The Leadership club under the guidance of Mr. Thaneer Lakshmanan, our academic manager has done an excellent job of canvassing for the event among the students. They sent repeated mailers, put up posters in prominent places, conducted explanatory sessions on blood donations encouraging people to come forward and donate blood. The students responded by turning out in great numbers. The target for the day was to collect 40 units of blood. We ended up collecting 56 units of blood despite many people being rejected due to failure to meet criteria like expected hemoglobin count etc.


We thank Mr. Thanneer and the leadership club for taking the initiative to organize such an event and help us take part in a noble cause. We are looking forward to many more events like this in future.

Videos by:
Vijay Vaidyanathan & Manu Iyer
GMBA - April 09

Photos by
Hrishikesh Keskar
GMBA - Nov 09

Every Drop of Blood...

Friday, December 4, 2009

Gopal Rathnam
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09


At SP Jain, life is always on the fast track. You could find us on the wash room brushing our teeth rigorously ten minutes before the start of the first session at 9 O’clock in the morning, or you could find us running in the lobby thirty seconds before the start of the class. At the end of the session, we would take a quick lunch and get ready in time for the next two sessions of the day.
At the end of seemingly endless lectures, it was time to prepare for the next day. On any given day, or night, you could find all of us hanging out together, in the library, to complete the assignments, or prepare for the ‘surprise quiz’ or complete the pre-reading exercise. This would go on and on until sunrays hit the peak of the small hill on the Kent ridge park, near our campus. So, in short, SP Jain never sleeps!

Even though, our lives are always on the fast track day after day after day, today was special. We were still brushing in a hurry and were still running on the lobby in a hurry. But, this time, it was not to attend the classes on time. But, this time, we were up early for a noble cause. Donating blood!

Dream Jobs… Here we come

Wednesday, December 2, 2009


Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09


This is a cartoon by the famous cartoonist R.K.Laxman. There was once a time this was almost true. The years after the Dot Com bubble were a boom time across the world when economies and organizations were growing at a rapid pace. Companies went on huge recruitment sprees to satisfy the seemingly ever growing demand for talent. Any student entering college was virtually assured of a job and students from top colleges bagged mind boggling offers from employers.

But sometime last year, everything came crashing down. The real estate bubble in the US burst triggering a disastrous chain reaction, plunging the world economy into a deep recession. The honeymoon in the job market came to an end. Millions were laid off. The campus recruitment dreams of students vanished into thin air.

Maple Leaves V1.0

Tuesday, December 1, 2009


Chetan Shetty
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09


My friend Vijay has been asking me to write about my experiences in Toronto. I guess that’s because there is a smile on the face of every “Maple Leaf” (a term coined by Dr. Barnes for everyone going to Toronto) when he/she is asked the question – “How was Toronto?” This article is my answer to that question.

Farewell to the Mavericks - Oct 19, 2009

Saturday, November 21, 2009

GoodBye, Mavericks (Dec 2008 batch)

Wrong Person, Wrong Place...

Friday, November 20, 2009

 Naveen Kumar Jaganathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09

Neatly dressed in business formals, I was furiously running in the middle of the road at 8:15 AM .This was in response to a frantically waving hand at a distance.“Innaikum bus vitutengala saar!” (“You missed your bus today too!” ) asked Suresh smiling at me.

Suresh works in the Tea stall next to the bus stop where I board my company bus. He is a bubbly character and has opinions or suggestions for every topic on earth. To know him better, all you have to do is to get a glass of tea from the stall and throw a topic in the air. Suresh will promptly air his ‘expert opinions’. Nobody can miss his demeanor. His day typically begins with washing used plates and glasses from the previous day, cut vegetables for sambar and poriyal and prepare idlis for breakfast. All this before he ensures that I catch the bus on time.

The Journey of GIMBA!!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Ten months ago we set our foot steps to a Journey,
Filled with enthusiasm, anxiousness, and a story,
We entered a world with dreams untouched,
Looking for a new discovery and an exciting ride.

The first day was the day of introductions,
Met some new faces and some with moving reactions,
Things in no time turned interesting,
And the journey appeared to be long and exciting.

Innovation-Productivity-Change: A measured approach

Saturday, August 22, 2009

With the ever changing global business landscape, carved by technological advances and the ongoing challenging times of recession companies are struggling to keep their heads above the water to breathe and survive. There has been a shift in the philosophy of productivity, a shift which has the potential to render the big ones helpless and the small ones with all the power. The shift is that of Innovation.

Innovation has become a buzz word with every new kid on the block, challenging the big and established ones on the grounds of innovation. Responding to the change and threat associated with innovation, firms today have become more experimental than ever with huge involvements in terms of resource and capital commitment.

Mystery

Empty roads, Closed Coffee shops pooled with the sound of music speak a thousand words for many. The clandestine beauty of life might have blown away many and yet there are cynics who don’t understand it. The cherry will be ripped apart if the mystique nature of it is not enjoyed in its totality.

Life is made up with so many moments and stories. Some are complete and there are some which last for few moments and are incomplete, yet they are the ones which remain afresh in ones mind with its surreal and mystique nature. There are times when your heart cries remembering them and at times it brings with it hope and an irresistible desire to do something extraordinary.

The enigma for many is to how to rekindle that one small magic moment into eternity.

This is my world

Sunday, August 16, 2009

This is my world
This is how it is

The six year old in Darfur fighting with an AK-47
The sixty year old obese in the US waiting for his ticket to heaven

The four year old in remote Sudan hopes food will reach his parched lip
The forty old mother in China remembers her second child, offloaded to Hong Kong in a ship

Quantum Computing – The wavy world.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Playing with waves and particles is the game of future world. These days we follow up waves in the fields of Mobile Computing, GSM, GPS, Listening radio, Bluetooth for transferring Data, RFID Tags, Infra red in TV remote and many more numerable examples in day today life. These are some of the basic usage of transferring Information through waves. If transfer is possible, then why not processing of information in waves? Quantum, wave Computing comes and play a major role in developent of  wave processors.

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