April 10, 2012: Researchers at ISB, who have qualified for PhD programmes in top-ranking schools, were recently felicitated by the Faculty and Research department at the Hyderabad campus. These Research Associates (RAs) and Academic Associates (AAs), who have worked in the School in the last few years, deserve special recognition.

Researchers who have recently been accepted to PhD programmes include:

• Rahul Chhabra, (advisor Professor Sankar De) has received offers from Kellogg, Ross (Michigan), and Iowa, all in finance area. He is waitlisted at UCLA.
   
• Siddharth Vij (advisor Professor Sankar De) has offers from Stern, NYU (finance) and Anderson, UCLA (Econ/Public Policy). A number of other finance programs had shortlisted Siddharth, but decided to withdraw after his NYU offer. Some of them offered to meet him in the job market four to five years down the road.
   
• Debapriya Chakraborty (Economics, advisor Professor Reuben Abraham) has offers from UC-Irvine and Rutgers.
   
• Urvashi Jain (Economics, advisor Professor Tarun Jain) has offers from Arizona State, Iowa State, and USC.
   
• Pranay Jinna (Information Systems, Academic Associate) has offers from CMU, Emory, and Maryland.
   
• Probal Mojumdar (Information Systems, advisor Professor Amit Mehra) has offers from CMU, U. Connecticut, and U. Minnesota.
   
• Arun Patro (Strategy, advisor Professor Raveendra Chittoor) has offers from Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, U. Illinois, U. Oregon, and U. Washington. He deserves special recognition for generating the most offers.
   
• Neeraj Prasad (Public Policy, advisors Professor V Chandrasekar and Professor Sudip Gupta) has an offer from Fletcher, Tufts.
  Malladi Vishwakant (Finance, advisor Professor Sudip Gupta) has offers from Arizona State, Iowa, USC, and UT-Austin.
   
• Ajay Yadav (Finance, advisor Professor Krishnamurthy Subramanian) has offers from Duke and UNC.
  

Researchers expressed their gratitude to their advisors in the ceremony. “It has been exactly one year since I joined ISB. I had applied to 15 schools the previous year and was rejected by all. I attribute my success to my advisors, Professor Anand Nandkumar and Professor Raveendra Chittoor in the Strategy area. Once you are in ISB, you have access to all the resources you need to make it to a PhD program of your choice,” shared Arun Patro, a jubilant researcher with eight offers in hand.

April 15, 2012: The Indian School of Business (ISB) today announced the commencement of the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) at its campus in Mohali. A welcome ceremony was organized at the campus marking the commencement of the programme. The occasion was graced by the Chief Secretary of Punjab, Rakesh Singh, the founding board members of the ISB campus at Mohali : Analjit Singh (Chairman Max India group), Sunil Kant Munjal (Chairman Hero Corporate Service Ltd), Rakesh Bharti Mittal (Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises), Atul Punj (Chairman Punj Lloyd Group), Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, (Founding Dean, Indian School of Business), Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business and Savita Mahajan, Deputy Dean and CEO, Mohali Campus.

The inaugural ceremony started with the unfurling of the National Flag and a multi-faith prayer ceremony followed by the address of the Dean Ajit Rangnekar and the Board members.

Welcoming the 200 students of the Class of 2013, Dean Ajit Rangnekar said, “This is a momentous occasion for all of us at ISB today. As a School, we are excited to be here in Mohali and look forward to working with the various stakeholders in the region to create a positive impact. I wish the Class of 2013 all the best.”

The students will undergo a week -long orientation programme aimed at inducting the new students into the ISB way. Over 50 ISB alumni from across classes will conduct several activities to help the students get to know each other, induct them into the ISB culture, and offer advice on how to make the most out of their year at the ISB. The classes will commence on April 23, 2012.

February 24, 2012: Entrepreneurs find it daunting to raise capital. Finding and securing start-up and growth-stage capital takes careful research, good negotiating skills, and an unflagging commitment to launch and grow the business. Against the backdrop of these issues, the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) at the ISB launched “Propero,” an initiative that aims to connect entrepreneurs with bankers, venture capitalists and angel investors. Entrepreneurs across India are given the opportunity to raise equity or debt financing.

The inaugural Propero event, held in 2010, was a resounding success. This year, in an attempt to increase its reach – 350 business proposals were received and screened. After intense scrutiny, finally 20 participants were chosen for debt financing and 35 for equity financing. Of the 55 shortlisted ventures, 10 were started by ISB alumni.

To provide the entrepreneurs with hands-on experience on how to present their funding proposals, two mentoring sessions were conducted jointly by Intellecap, Hyderabad Angels and Mumbai Angels (the knowledge partners for the event) in Mumbai and Hyderabad on 18th and 19th of February 2012 respectively. The sessions were well attended with representations from around 100 entrepreneurs

The final event was held on 24th and 25th of February 2012 at ISB, Hyderabad. IDBI Bank and Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) were the sponsors for the event. On 24th February, which was earmarked for debt financing, the shortlisted 20 ventures presented to the gathered bankers from the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Bank, UCO Bank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank and HSBC Bank. The bankers were optimistic about most of the ventures and felt that 15 of the ventures would eventually get funded.

In the following day dedicated to equity financing, partners from 13 angel investors and venture capitalists (namely Mainstream Capital Fund, Epiphany Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kae Capital, India Innovation Fund, Inventis Capital Partners, Canaan Partners, Intellecap Impact Investment Network, Ojas Venture Partners, Hyderabad Angels, India Angels Network, Bessemer Venture Partners and Song) held one-on-one discussions with the 35 shortlisted ventures. The investors echoed the optimism felt by the bankers. Details on the progression of the ventures will be available soon.