on  “Corporate Governance: Issues & Challenges”  by  Dr. Sandeep Goel, Associate Professor, Finance at MDI Gurgaon on  5th November, 2019 for the students of PGDM (2019-21) batch. The session started with the formal welcome of the Guest by Dr. Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) followed by her opening thoughts on the subject.  

During his discussion with students Dr Goel covered all possible dimensions of corporate governance, particularly from the perspectives of the corporate board and stakeholders – the two pillars of corporate governance. He also covered the inter-related aspects of different functional areas of management from the financial perspective; along with allied areas of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Further, he highlighted the concepts and practices of corporate governance from an Indian business environment viewpoint; but with an international focus.

Dr. Goel said that Good Corporate Governance standards are not only important but essential to ensure significant value gain to all the stakeholders of a company, including the minority shareholders, the government and the economy at a large. India has always been at the top in protecting the interests of minority shareholders which can be attributed largely to positive corporate governance norms that have been put in place by the Government and SEBI. He shared the examples of many companies including Satyam, Enron, Reliance, Tata, Infosys etc to discuss the various faces of Corporate Governance.

At last many questions on the topic were raised by the students. The session was very much appreciated by the learners.

Prominent industry leader Mr. Kapil Kalra (National Head at L&T Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd) took up the workshop and introduced the basic concepts of Financial Modeling relevant to the current scenario to the Finance Specialization students of PGDM (2018-20) batch.

Students got the opportunity to know the concept of hard cost and soft cost, IDC (Interest during construction), project cost and DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) along with their practical application. Students also got chance to interact with the guest and cleared their relevant doubts and queries regarding the practical problems faced during equity valuation and others.

Dr. Anusha Aggarwal (Head of Finance Department) concluded the session with vote of thanks.

The workshop started with introduction of basic fundamentals of statistical tools widely used in Marketing Research. The Participants were also deliberated with the importance of Marketing Research and its future implication in Analytics.

First Day of the workshop started with the conceptual framework of EFA and CFA and its difference. The use and importance of SEM through AMOS was also highlighted. Exploratory Factor Analysis was explained by reviewing research papers from Emerald and SSCI/SCOPUS/ABDC Journals. Various technical terms like KMO Statics, PCA, Extract, Rotation method, Display, Maximum Iterations for Convergence, Save scores as variables, Display factor score coefficient matrix, Missing Values, Coefficient Display Format used in EFA were discussed in detailed.

A practice case study and Excel Sheet was provided to the all the participants wherein they were given the questionnaire based on various attributes of perception, they were also rationalized to code and Feed the data in the datasheet of SPSS. Thereafter, analysing the objective of the case they were instructed to apply the EFA and Allocate Names to the factors obtained from the reduced data. The detailed analysis and interpretation was further discussed with the Participants.

On the Second Day of Workshop, the use of Paired Sample T Test, ANOVA were explained with the help of various cases/Excel Sheet and Practice Question. Varied Assumptions were also discussed in detail. Quality Published Research Paper were taken as a Reference. Taking these research papers under consideration and evaluating their objectives and hypothesis, Participants were also explained the need and application of these research tools.

Hand-outs of major SPSS Commands were also handed over to the participants. During the series of discourse, the positive suggestions and feedbacks were also shared by Participants. In the end, All the Participants were felicitated with participation certificates.

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director-Management, I.T.S Mohan Nagar Campus inaugurated the program and emphasized upon the relevance of time management as a skill, which is essential to improve workplace productivity, in the dynamic competitive environment. Dr Charu focused on relationship between time management and self-management for professional excellence. With experiential exercises, she sensitized the participants that they can always improve productivity even if they are performing well. She also shared time management tools and techniques that can add value while prioritizing and scheduling the tasks. Various exercises helped participants to identify specific tools they need to use, to gain control of their time and become more efficient in near future. Session was highly interactive and faculty members participated in the program with full enthusiasm and energy. Presence of Director-Management and Dr. V N Bajpai encouraged all the participants.

The objective of the program was to develop the understanding about importance of Research in business. Program has covered the concept of Marketing information System, Scaling Techniques and Developing Questionnaire. Various techniques of data collection were discussed. Participants have discussed the challenges in data collection for the business. Alternatives were developed for such challenges. All participants had great enthusiasm for learning. It was a great learning experience to all participants.

The modules covered were Team Building, Time Management and Stress Management. The session was full of interactions and activities based on Change management, Problem solving, Flexible thinking, Morale building, Trust & Vision, etc. Participants were sensitized for team work, time matrix and proper utilization of time. Also, the session focussed on the causes of stress and how to control the same.
It was a great learning experience for all participants with several fun activities.

The basic purpose of FDP was to demonstrate application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools based on data analytics for increasing faculty efficiency, students' engagement and expediting accreditation work with a common goal to improve learning and teaching experiences more effective, time saving, efficient and universal manner for higher education institution. 

All faculty members of Management Department actively participated with zeal and enthusiasm in order to explore and enrich their data driven decisions for students, courses and institution.

In this 6 hours workshop for one group every day, students learnt about financial planning by playing an ONLINE simulation game and attending some classroom sessions. In Finance GYM game which is an online interactive game, students created and managed a virtual portfolio with real investment products to achieve the financial goals they had been given. By playing this game, they learnt the basics of financial planning, including basic financial terminology, setting financial goals, asset allocation strategy, pros and cons of different financial products, and tax planning.

The classroom activities and sessions covered Goal-based financial planning, Asset allocation and diversification, Purpose of different types of financial products – stocks, bonds, mutual funds, insurance, etc. in an investment portfolio, Analyzing a mutual fund factsheet and evaluating Debt and Equity Mutual Funds, Practical aspects of buying life insurance, Tax planning. All winners were declared at the end of program and felicitated. Event was coordinated by Dr Lalit Kumar Sharma.

It was a great learning experience to all participants.