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ISB YLP opens applications for pre-final year students

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The Young Leader’s Programme (YLP) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) is a coveted programme which makes its students eligible for guaranteed admission to the much sought-after one year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) at ISB, contingent upon completion of 21 months of work experience. To be considered for admission, you must be in the penultimate (pre-final year) year of graduation.

At YLP, students are exposed to technical workshops and stimulating sessions which form part of a structured learning programme that will equip them with technical and soft skills. This helps them make the transition from a student life to a competitive professional environment smoothly.

The students are thoroughly prepared for the ISB PGP programme two years later. During the two years of YLP, students need to have worked for at least 21 months to move on to the ISB PGP. The programme requires students to do the job-hunting on their own. On completion of the work experience, the students join the ISB PGP and become a regular part of it.

Students of YLP are also granted a waiver of Rs.1 lakh in addition to the existing need and merit waivers. The institute also makes available corporate scholarships which all students can contest for.

The admission process is a rigorous one. “Only 70 odd students from all over the world make it to the Indian School of Business through its Young Leader’s Programme,” says Mayank Arora, an offer holder. The entire process lasts for roughly six months. As part of the screening process, the aspirants have to submit an essay and a video presentation.

Shreya Juneja, a student from the Cluster Innovation Centre who got her acceptance letter, explains, “The second stage includes submitting your GMAT scores, letters of recommendation and other documents which effectively demonstrate your academic and extracurricular achievements.”

This is followed by on-campus selection at ISB and a case study round. By October, students have their admission offers in hand. So, even as they are in the final year of graduation, the selected applicants have an admission offer waiting.

To set one’s application apart, an applicant should have a stellar academic record and should also exhibit excellence beyond academics. It provides an excellent platform for those who wish to pursue an MBA after graduation.

The application deadline for Stage 1 is March 15, 2015. You can take a look at all the details here.

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DU Dhaba

1UP Food Review- Why you should try their waffles right away!

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1UP is a small café located within walking distance from the Civil Lines Metro Station. Built where a Mocha’s branch used to exist, it is a café with a comforting and relaxing ambience. It has plenty of space to accommodate large groups of people. The café cannot be termed economical, but it attracts students nevertheless. We explore the reason!

The menu is made of a wide range of salads, burgers and pizzas, of which the Baked Penne Pasta, Fried Chicken (both costing Rs.315) and Peri Peri Chicken Skewers (Rs.275) are the most popular orders. We ordered the Chicken Penne Arrabiata, Green Apple Mojito and Chocolate Fantasy from their Waffle Stand. The food was fresh and served as per instructions, though we feel they could work more on the quality and the preparation.

The staff is amiable and very helpful – our choice of waffles was their recommendation. The appetizing waffles made up for the slightly disappointing pasta. Of the large variety of dishes they offer, the waffles are the most delicious. They offer apple, cinnamon, banana, toffee and the classic Belgian flavour of waffles amongst others, all within the price range of Rs.225-300.

Considering the place opened in December, the café has garnered a lot of praise. However, speaking strictly as a college student on a fixed budget, the place might come across as unreasonably expensive. With only a few dishes below the mark of Rs. 200, the place can be heavy on the pocket. Nonetheless, we recommend the Waffle Stand for it made the bill slightly more bearable.

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Campus Central

CIC students present projects at the Undergraduate Research Fair

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  “I’m totally impressed. This is all fabulous work. I wish I were a student all over again. Each participant is lucky to have this opportunity to present his/her ideas and innovate. -Dinesh Singh, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi   From robots to new mobile applications to finance models, the fair had something for everybody. While some some students had devised a questionnaire to rank entrepreneurs effectively, Nikita Garg, a final year student explained how corporate bankruptcy could be predicted using genetic algorithm. Another project titled ‘Real-Time Video Capturing’ claimed to minimize manual intervention in captioning or subtitling a video. Add to it a language translator, and the project enables you to view subtitles in any language without actually compromising on caption translation time. With such diverse research projects, the Fair truly captured ideas from a variety of fields and subjects.   Surbhi Arora [email protected]  ]]>

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Events

The Harvard-US India Initiative Conference 2015

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The Harvard-US India Initiative, an undergraduate organisation at Harvard University, hosted its  largest youth conference at Shangri La, New Delhi on the 9th and 10th January 2015.

The conference observed keynotes by Mr. Piyush Goyal, Mr. Jayant Sinha, Mr. Jairam Ramesh and Dr. Mirai Chatterjee. From public intellectuals to economists to artists, the panelists offered constructive ideas on how the Indian youth might construct the narrative of our country. The aim was to churn out people who are constantly challenging established patterns of thinking. The Organization Committee selected 375 delegates from college students to high school students to corporate professionals from all across the country and invited panelists who are visionaries and leaders in their respective fields.

The conference was inaugurated by the lighting of lamp by Shri Jairam Ramesh followed by a keynote by him where he called upon the students to recommit to the democratic principles of India’s founding. The delegates were to attend 6 panels out of the 25 panels offered. The themes of these panels were Education, Politics, Culture, Society, Economics and Going Ahead. The sub panels under all these panels were held simultaneously.

Under Education, the speakers were the likes of Amit Ranjan (Founder, Slideshare) and Pramarth Sinha (Founder, Ashoka University, Founding Dean, ISB). Where on one hand, the students were engaged in deliberations on the scope and importance of liberal arts in the holistic development of a student, on the other hand the delegates and panellists exchanged views and ideas to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in colleges.

In Politics, Manish Sisodia discussed the viability of a non-BJP, non-Congress Indian government. In the discussion on “Talking Politics”, MP Scindia said, “The problem with India is that politicians over-commit and under-perform. We need to start under-committing and over-performing.”

IMG_0016

In Culture, the delegates got to interact with esteemed panellists like Nandita Das, Mark Tully (Former Bureau Chief, BBC), Chiki Sarkar and Tarun Tahiliani who discussed a multitude of topics including the viability of arts as a career choice in India and ways in which India can preserve its unique cultural heritage. The delegates also consulted with the speakers on Section 377 and on the challenges faced by the professional women in India under the Society panel. The panel on Economics hosted esteemed economists who conducted simulating discussions on India’s economic policies. The conference also invited Vikram Dutt and Professor HC Verma as panellists for Going Ahead.

The organizing team, a group of undergraduates at Harvard, also hosted Career fairs in between the panels where they shared their experience as international students and answered all related queries.

Apart from all these discussions, the conference also invited essays and photographs. However, the most interesting and challenging of the competitions was the “Social Impact Challenge” where the delegates were called upon to contribute to the society and create a tangible social impact in a span of two weeks. From campaigns like ‘Donors are Heroes’ to other projects aimed at uplifting the under privileged, the best project was selected. Harry Kapoor, a fresher at SRCC was part of the group who won this challenge.

Speaking for all the delegates, I can safely say that we had the most inspiring, exciting and encouraging two days and we all are passionate to take these lessons forward. The conference ended on a beautiful note when each of the delegates present, were given #PayItForward bands. Disha Verma, a senior at Harvard and the President of the conference explained, that when any of the delegates, took an initiative for the betterment of the society and were successful in creating an ‘impact’, she/he was to pass on the band to someone else,making the others realize the true essence of the band. Thus, giving birth to a legacy.

 

HUII

 

Surbhi Arora
[email protected]

Image credits: Abhijeet Vyas, Keshav Padia

 

 

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Offbeat

Offbeat: Science Journalism

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Are you a science student but don’t want to be scientist or a teacher? Do you want to try your hand at something totally different and yet stay connected to your science roots? Science journalism may be the thing for you.

Science journalism is about reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public. Science journalism, like the Science and Tech page in The Hindu, simplifies the very detailed, specific, and often jargon-laden information produced by scientists into a form that non-scientists can understand and appreciate, while still communicating the information accurately.

The National Association of Science Writers fights for the free flow of science news. The Indian Journal of Science and Technology accepts research based articles from students studying at various levels. Various other publications like Indian Journal of Scientific Research and Indian Journal of Science by Discovery prove helpful to those who look to broaden their perspectives about their respective research fields.

It’s not just about research though. Science journalism, or science media if we broaden it, is vast. From interviewing various smart heads to being a brainy radio jockey, the opportunities are endless for those who want to continue with science and yet don’t want to become Einstein. Maybe we could be looking at the next David Saltzberg, the science advisor to The Big Bang Theory. After all, it takes smart people to actually understand the depths of Sheldon’s jokes. And it takes even smarter people to actually use all the scientific knowledge in the world to sit and crack jokes on such matters.

Penny: So what do you say Sheldon, are we your X-men?

Sheldon: No, the X-men were named for the X in Charles Xavier. Since I am Sheldon Cooper, you will be, my C-men.

Yes, it’s a nerd joke. And yes, it’s definitely funny.

Interested people, do check out:

http://www.indjst.org/

Boingboing.net

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Offbeat

Offbeat careers: Get Published! It’s Easy!

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People say getting published is a long frustrating dream. Maybe it was once, but in today’s world, with all the new technologies and innovations, it isn’t as scary as it used to be. If one goes step by step and climbs the ladder gradually, it is actually very simple. The foremost point is of course, writing a best seller.

One can start with a simple blog or keep a journal. That way, writing prose or poetry becomes a habit which eventually leads up to the desire of getting published. Bloggers have an edge over the diary writers for they can get opinions from others too. Now days, microblogging on social media sites like Twitter has become a trend too.

Moving on from free expression and no bars, getting published is quite a different scene. Impressing a certain publisher seems quite a task. Freelancing for various online magazines like 21 Fools or Campus Diaries can help one earn some decent amount of money and also get an idea of what the audience today likes to read. These sites are different from news sites or content writing sites which do not give any freedom of expression to the writer.

Apart from these today-written-tomorrow-published techniques, actual writers dream of making it big in the world. They dream of the Man Booker Prize or the like. Even for well-written manuscripts there is a world of struggle out there. One can again start from smaller avenues like approaching magazines like Readers’ Digest or Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Short stories generally find  place here.

Certain publishers like Power or Zorba present packages as low as Rs 8000 for self-publishing. They print 20 copies of your book but without any editing. Editing and more sophisticated layouts require more investment by the writer. It may be a risk but then 50 Shades was a self-publication. And it turned out to be a best seller so the investment does pay off at times. Or if one likes the feel of having his or her name on a book cover in the bookstore nearby, it’s a good idea to go for such deals.

Other budding publishers like Rupa or Srishti publish selected works and sell your book for as low as Rs 100. Many Indian authors have established their names through these previously unknown publishers. Ravinder Singh, author of I Too Had a Love Story is one such example. Even though it is difficult to make a living out of self-publishing, there is no limit to the marketing creativity. One can ask bloggers to review the book or set up YouTube or Facebook pages.

“Usually when authors approach us with their books, we want to read a synopsis and a few chapters. Every publishing house has a few pet subjects on which they publish books.”

One of the world’s leading publishers is Penguin and they accept sample chapters by mail. If they like your work, they talk business. They respond within their concerted three months limit. Pothi.com prints even one book at a reasonable cost thus reducing or eliminating the need to invest in bulk printing and storage of copies.

So just sit down, get that pen and paper (laptop) ready and begin writing! Once the manuscript seems good to you, it can easily find a place in the wide world of books out there.

Email your work to:

Penguin: [email protected]

Srishti: [email protected]

Grapevine: [email protected]

Power: [email protected]

Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net

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