International DreaMerger 2012 at St. Stephen's

 On Thursday, 30^th August 2012, The Finance and Investment Cell of St. Stephen’s College organized the preliminary round of ‘International DreaMerger – 2012’. In its 6^th edition this year, the mergers-related case study competition continued to show tremendous growth. For the 6^th year running, the competition managed to double its participation. The 2012 co-ordinators for the event were Anoothi Kumar and Urmi Uppal, both from Economics Hons. IInd Year. The participation this year tripled from 500 participants last year to over 1200 participants this year (1000+ on the spot, and 250 nationals). The case study this year was themed around Bollywood, and elicited quite a few chuckles for its funny style of narration. The teams, after the delayed registration (due to the unexpected number of participants) were presented with the case study and given two hours to solve it. The competition’s objective was to test the student’s creativity and logical thinking. There were many confused faces in the crowd who were unaware of what a case study competition involved. However, frowns turned to smile when it was announced that the event had been won by first year students in the previous two editions. Over 320 teams participated from colleges across Delhi University including 250 students from SRCC, 250 students from CBS and 100 students from Hansraj. The event now claims to be Delhi University’s largest stand-alone event. The infrastructure crunch was visible when the college’s large auditorium was filled to capacity and the organizers had to think on their feet. However, rooms were quickly arranged for and all participants were made comfortable. The results of the preliminary round are expected to be released within 2 weeks. The organizers promise full transparency and fairness in the checking of the transcripts. In a system which is reminiscent of the Class 12^th boards, registration slips were handed over with unique roll numbers. As Souvik Mandal of Motilal Nehru aptly summed up the contestant’s feelings, “Totally a brain straining experience, but not a bit of it went in vain.”   Arnav Das [email protected]]]>