Business Incubation by Dr. Achutan and Mr. Shetty

Speakers - Dr. Krishnashree Achutan and Mr. Snehal Shetty

Date - 25/8/2014

Venue - SKH

Amrita Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in partnership with ASB has been encouraging people's dreams and giving incentives to innovate. As the CEO of Amrita TBI, Dr. Krishnashree Achutan pointed out that there have been several ideas that have translated into reality at Amrita TBI. She spoke about wanting to set up more dynamic centres at our Ettimadai and Bangalore campuses as well. She said that Mr. Snehal Shetty, V.P. Operations at Amrita TBI, was instrumental in starting several programs. He started Pitch Fest which is a competition to bring out the best ideas amongst students. He also helped incubate several start ups. 

Mr. Shetty then spoke about the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship at Amrita TBI, which has a partnership with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. They help find, nurture and motivate innovative ideas. They also have a STAR (Social Transformation Achieved through Rural innovations) program. He spoke about the importance of ICE - Innovation, Creativity that leads to Entrepreneurship. He gave examples of many brilliant ideas that students had which were developed into reality because of the motivation and support that TBI provided. Many such ideas were eventually patented. He encouraged the students to participate at the Pitch Fest. Mr. Shetty then signed off by asking the students to be the Purple Cow in a field full of black and white cows to make a mark. Dr Achutan began her talk by telling us the importance of distinguishing ourselves from the crowd. She reiterated that it is easy to be average but what takes courage is to be the purple cow, to stand up and stand out. Having an idea is important but coming up with an innovative idea is what makes one the purple cow. It is necessary to be remarkable in this world.

Once we click upon an idea, we need to breathe life into it, plan and execute it. This is where Amrita TBI helps to nurture and motivate ideas. It is one of the top incubators in the country and is supported by The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The focus areas of ATBI are Business Incubation, STAR@ATBI, Social Entrepreneurship and IdeaLab. 

ATBI’s achievements include:

1.      IEEE student enterprise award, New York

2.      Award: Intel Embedded Challenge 2010 –

3.      Third Prize - for the project titled Gesture-based4.      Wheelchair Control System for Physically Challenged

5.      Gold Medal- Special Intel Employee's Award for the best project

6.      A total of 24 innovative products that span across various fields have been built at Amrita TBI.

7.      Seven patents for products (3 already filed and 4 in process).

Mr. Shetty concluded by saying that the founders of Facebook, Microsoft, DELL and Apple were still at college when they landed upon a million dollar idea……why can’t we???

Arun Preethi

(Team Colloquia member)

Mr.ARUN BABU, HR INFOSYS

Mr.ARUN BABU, HR INFOSYS

Date: 01.08.2014                                               Time : 2.00 to 4.00 pm

Mr. Arun Babu, HR Infosys, shared his insights about HR to the first year students through his interactive session, opening with the slide “CHANGE”: We should be aware of it & open to change.

He also gave valuable suggestions for becoming a successful manager such as:

·        Be aware about the technology around; develop a positive mind set to be oriented to the change in ecosystem.

·        Read newspaper and understand changes. Taste you acquire in business standard is an all-time process. Thus it’s always best to have sustained reading habits.

·        Have a fair level of awareness and intelligence in all managerial specialisation.

The importance of value addition was emphasized through the First mover advantage:

Google was the first to get into social media with its Orkut. Though it did not promote the way it had to, and couldn’t last long in the competitive environment no one can deny the fact that it was the first to open the gateway to social networking.

He stated an example for branding that can be used in any interview:

Brand Machli A Tigress, by the name of machli, is the most photographed tigeress in the world. The promotion of the photograph was so huge that it gave 10 million US $ per annum revenue for the place. The tiger has fish marks above and below its eye.

Mr.Arun said, the way we are brought up is evident in the decisions we make, he explained this by taking Reliance as an example, Mr.Mukesh Ambani dropped the Meat making unit because of his native: Gujarat. He was nurtured a vegetarian.

He stated the importance of relating the information of practical with theory.

Mr. Arun gave important PERSONAL INTERVIEW TIPS such as:

Ø Have mock interviews with friends to know where you stand.

Ø Begin with your personal details.

Ø Move on to academics and be polite.

Ø Talk about your achievements.

Ø Be wise when telling your strengths and weakness don’t beat around the bush.

Ø Tell about your hobbies, be specific and the one which is active.

Ø End with a topic of your choice.

Ø Look to that the points put forth would result in a decision in favour of selection.

Ø Rehearse, Rehearse the mantra for survival …

He said acceptance of HR as a strategic partner is becoming important nowadays. Very few professions enrich lives of people that can be visualised like HR.

When asked about last question, he said the candidate should be genuine and understand the process. But on the other hand he said experienced candidates can negotiate salary.

He closed the session with the motivational lines from Khaled Hosseini’s KITE RUNNER which talks about values and ethics.

Dream Big.

“It is not always the brightest and the most intelligent who excel in life but those who have the conviction that their dreams will come true one day.”

eSWAR by Mr. S. Ramji and Mr. M. K Chandrasekhar

 A new chapter of the music club in Amrita School of Business was inaugurated by Mr. M. K Chandrasekhar and Mr. S. Ramji on 26^thSeptember at Sri Krishna Hall. The session was predominantly about music and the technical aspects of knowing music in a deeper level.

Mr. M.K Chandrasekhar briefed about the session initially by giving an introduction about music and about their joint venture eSWAR. In the beginning of the session, he asked some of us what music meant to us. Different answers came up, followed by which Mr. S. Ramji took over the session and explained as to why music is in its passive level and how we should convert it into an active level. He added that music is to be considered as a language with 7 alphabets.

He explained that Indian classical music is composed of mainly three patterns which are Thaalam, Raagam and Sruthi. He moved on to talk about the famous mathematician Pythagoras and his Pythagorean scale of 12 tone swara system. He also spoke in detail about the keyboard configurations and why the frequency between the adjacent keys will always be a constant.

Mr. Ramji also explained about the two ragas - Melakarta and Janya ragas .Their existence was proved by using probability logic states. All the Melakarta ragas must have all the seven swaras in the regular increasing and decreasing order of frequencies. The swara finding method was also described by which the exact swara could be discovered easily.

He explained a few notes with the help of Katapayadi system, which is the name given for the working of the system of ragas. He gave a few demonstrations with the help of the music loving audience in order to make the topic of discussion clearer. He called on a few who are not musically inclined and demonstrated how the technology which would be soon launched by eSWAR can be used to understand music at the basic level.

The whole talk was thoroughly informative and was enjoyed by both music and non-music lovers. The session ended with the official inauguration of the music club of Amrita School of Business, The Alankaars. They also gave a splendid performance in the end before winding up the show.