Ours is the only tree where leaves are

added, and none fall.

 CONTENT 02
ALUM SPEAKS
Excerpts from some of the renowned
alumni of MDI as they share their wisdom
from the business world and their love for
their alma mater

03
ALUM IN NEWS
A quick journey through the lives of our
most illustrious alumni and their recent
achievements across various fields

04
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Glimpses into some of the achievements
of ManDevIans as they strive to keep the
flag of MDI flying higher

01
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Addresses of the Director, Dean of Alumni
Relations, Dean of Graduate Programs
and Coordinator of Alumni Relations
Committee
05
FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS
Updates on the achievements of our
eminent faculty members who have carved
their niche in the arena of education by
making contributions in the field of research
and publishing
06
SUMMER PLACEMENT REPORT
A brief on MDI Gurgaon’s Summer
10
PHOTO GALLERY
A tiny glimpse into the alumni engagement
Placement Process. A glimpse at the activities conducted by Alcom in 2018-19
student profile and companies that visited
the campus

07
BOOKSHELF
New initiative taken by Alcom to create
11
SECRETARY’S ADDRESS
Message from the Secretary’s desk
a bookshelf, where in personally signed
copies of our alumni would be showcased
to display their ideas and display their
creative angle

08
CREATIVE ARTICLES
Good reads to immerse yourself in the
12
THE TEAM
Members of the Alumni Relations
beauty of words as the students of the Committee
current batch bring to life their ideas and
creativity

09
CLUBS AND COMMITTEES
Highlights from the happenings in the clubs
and committees that keep MDI alive and
maintain student engagement on various
fronts from cultural to business and
beyond
 DIRECTOR
mdi gurgaon

Dear all,

We feel very happy welcoming our alumni to their own campus!

Our alumni of various batches and programmes have witnessed growth of the institute in its different phases.
Institute has helped Alumni to grow and in turn alumni have played their responsible roles helping the institute
to grow. Today, the institute is standing tall due to continuous efforts of all the stakeholders and well wishers.
Our Alumni may be finding physical infrastructure in the campus growing. Yes, we are growing not only in
terms of physical infrastructure but also in terms of intangible infrastructure i.e. organisational bonding and
climate as well as intellectual capabilities.

We are taking further steps towards establishing process of international standards. In order to promote
creativity and innovation, we have established centre to help building entrepreneurial culture among students.
We are growing in terms of quantity of intake and quality of inputs. Our efforts are getting respect in terms of
gainful placement of our students. The industry is responsive and our students are getting responsible positions
to explore their potential in their professional life.

We all are happy to receive our alumni along with their families to this beautiful campus where our alumni
grew. The campus must have put permanent nostalgic stamp on everyone’s heart.

Your past and present have been marvelous. We wish brighter and meaningful future to all!

Prof. (Dr.) Pawan Kumar Singh

Director
 DEAN
alumni relations

MDI is truly a leader in management education. Every year we are delivering on

the promise to provide our students with the best educational and industrial experience possible
and are constantly looking towards improving upon it. As the Dean of the Alumni Relations Committee, I
would like to utilize this platform to convey my heartfelt words of gratitude to our ManDevIan family for
helping us achieve this objective.

I would also like to take this opportunity to laud the spectacular work the Alumni Relations Committee has
been doing towards strengthening the relations with our cherished alumni base. The successful Regional
Alumni Meets at Mumbai and Bangalore this year were a testament to this. Besides, trying to increase the
continuous and eager participation of our alumni in events like the National Alumni Meet, Guftagu, Vartalaap
and mentoring activities, we promise to brighten the spirit of this bond among all the stakeholders.

MDI continually strives for excellence, which leaves no room for complacency. It is this combination of
excellence and openness to change that is most appealing about our institution and is inculcated in our MDI
DNA. And I truly believe that our alumni, being the torchbearers of MDI, are relentlessly working towards
upping the ante with each passing year.

Having said that, I implore you to seek new ways to engage with one another, and be thankful for what we have.
I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events and wish you and your family the best and hope that you
keep on achieving greater heights in your personal as well as professional life.

Prof. Kanwal Kapil

Dean - Placements, Alumni Relations
Consulting and Continuing Education
MDI Gurgaon
 DEAN
graduate programmes

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams! At MDI,
with our dynamic pedagogy, we continuously overhaul our curriculum to fulfil every dream
and drive innovation.

Here at MDI, we don’t believe in confining our students to the classrooms, we recognize the need for pragmatic
learning and development for which we have partnered with the best global management institutes and have
strong corporate ties. MDI, owing to its continuous strive to achieve academic excellence and with its vast
alumni base, is one of the leading B Schools of the country.

Every Mandevian has time and again made us proud with impeccable achievements. These achievements are
what accounts as motivation for the upcoming batches year after year. To celebrate all our alumni and their
success stories, the students’ Alumni Relations Committee, all year round, organizes engagement events.

Rooted in excellence and integrity, MDI continues to match up to the zenith it has always aspired to achieve
and with the ever-expanding alumni network we hope to keep the flag flying up and high.

Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar

Dean, Graduate Programmes
MDI Gurgaon
 COORDINATOR
Alumni relations

Every year a batch moves out of the MDI realm to test its calibre in the rough waters
of the corporate world. While it is always sad to let them go, it’s one of the most cherishing
experiences to hear back from them their anecdotes, their achievements and the life lessons they imbibed. This
culture of reciprocal learning and growth is what we want to stimulate through every event we conduct.

This gives me immense pleasure to share with you the huge success and unprecedented numbers, this year’s
Regional Alumni Meet garnered. The participation of alumni, the level and extent of interactions we had, and
the joyful reminiscence of memories, were all just unparalleled. These gathering events strengthen the Alumni
bond with their Alma Mater in all aspects. Besides, there are many other events for the maximum exposure of
our alumni base.

MDI Chronicles is a seamless blend of diverse facets of life at MDI. It features various events that happened in
the campus, personal write-ups by the students, our alumni and students’ achievements.

With this, I would like to extend my gratitude to our gracious alumni community, the dignitaries who
contributed in every event we conducted, and congratulate the students for the success of the events they
orchestrated. Hoping to foster even deeper bonds with our alumni and nurture this culture of mutual growth.

Prof. Rupamanjari Sinha Ray

Coordinator, Alumni Relations Committee
MDI Gurgaon
alum
speaks

ANNURAG BATRA
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld Media Group
PGPM, Batch of 1994-1996

Annurag Batra is a serial entrepreneur, media mogul, a journalist and an eternal optimist
rolled into one. He is a B.Tech in Computer Sciences, a degree which he acquired before
joining MDI Gurgaon. He is a first generation entrepreneur who acquired the iconic
business media and magazine brand BW Businessworld, a 38 year strong media brand
as well as most respected business publication in the country.
Sir, you are a proponent of the
digital and a mentor to startups and
entrepreneurs. Since the way start-
ups operate have changed as they are
moving towards the digital, what
should they do to leverage this change
and do something differently?
Entrepreneurs and start-ups are about
solving problems of the world. When you
create a product or service, you are trying
to solve a problem. Digital is just a route
to achieve this solution.
You are a mentor to startups and
entrepreneurs, who feel that reverse
mentoring is also important. Can you
What are your views on media
communication and the entertainment
sector?
I think its an area that is evolving.
The lines between media, content,
advertising, entertainment and
“ Entrepreneurs
are about
technology are blurring. The next 30
years is about services delivery, with
multidisciplinary
artificial intelligence, machine learning skill, problem
and technology making sure that content solving, risk taking,
creation and distribution impacts every
industry. The definition of media is confidence and
expanding as influencers are becoming exposure to real
new media and social media the new
distribution platform. So the media life.
promises an exciting career since every

”
elucidate on this thought? business is now in some way a content
Young people are not conditioned to business.
think in a particular way and hence
have different ideas. They do things in a
creative way where their thinking is not
bound by the past. You can learn from
this freshness about doing things.

What can MDI do to build a culture of

“ The next 30 years is
about services delivery,
entrepreneurship among its students?
First of all, MDI is everything that an with artificial intelligence,
institution needs to build leaders. It has a machine learning and
rich legacy, diverse programmes, locational
advantage, exceptional faculty, great
technology making sure
infrastructure and international linkages. that content creation and
MDI is already doing a lot to bring forth distribution impacts every
new entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are
about multidisciplinary skill, problem industry.
solving, risk taking, confidence and
exposure to real life. I think that is what
you get at MDI.
”
alum
speaks

AMIT BONI
Board Member, Ice Insurance
PGPM, Batch of 2002-2004

Amit Boni is a Tech & Telecom Business leader with significant industry changing
credits. He has led scale global businesses for Honeywell, Motorola & Smartron in
various capacities. Previously, Mr. Boni was Country Head/ Managing Director for
Motorola India. He is credited with starting and scaling up Motorola Mobility’s business
in India from scratch to a billion dollar business.
Hello sir! Speaking of fond memories,
what has been your fondest memory of
this place?
There are two very fond memories I still
cherish. One goes back to the induction
time; those days, we had just 4 days of
induction, and they kept us sleep deprived.
Before the waterfall, all you wanted to do
was sleep! But after that, your sleep just
vanishes. Isn’t it so surprising?
As for the other, it was 14th Feb, day 1 of
the placements. A couple of friends came
to console me but I was okay. It was my
way of handling things. I was assured
getting a job won’t be an issue. And at our
times, some of the most kickass parties
happened at MDI. The whole batch would
party in front of the mess. I’m sorry for
you guys but such amazing parties used
to happen at our times.
Sir, if you’re a student today at MDI,
what would you do differently?
I’ll definitely choose one or more core
subjects and focus more on ‘research’
work. Generalizations aren’t very
useful, specializations are gaining more
prominence. If I were to go back, I’d focus
more on subjects I chose to specialize in.
Also, work with a professor in a particular
field, let’s say AI, and that would be a
huge learning outcome.
Sir, in MDI, there aren’t many
companies that recruit you for AI.
People are more inclined towards sales
and marketing (interviewee replied
instantly)
See, one doesn’t get AI job this way.
Because jobs are difficult to get, people
aren’t inclined to choose it. Firstly, people
don’t really know what AI is. AI is data
input, dealing with terabytes of data
in a database. When you Google how
far something is from your place, how
does it know? It knows only because
the information is already fed into it.
Enormous quantity of data is fed to make
it work effectively. When you inquire how
to use AI for business modeling, is when
disciplines like Data Science emerge.
Getting an MBA doesn’t correlate you
with that field. But you can definitely get
into it.
Sir, you’ve also been an alumnus of
Stanford. What differences do you find
between the two institutes?
“
To answer it succinctly, the professor who
took my ‘Strategic Decision and Risk
Management’ classes was phenomenal. Teacher is akin
He knew his subject inside out. His ability
to communicate and deliver a message
to being a doctor. If
was unmatched. Teacher is akin to being you studied medicine
a doctor. If you studied medicine 20 years 20 years back
back and haven’t been updating yourself
on newer findings and ways to treat, and haven’t been
you’d be outmoded soon. Same, teachers updating yourself
must keep themselves abreast of industry
trends. Then only they stay ‘relevant’. on newer findings
and ways to treat,
How soon do you think IoT and AI
will become integral part of our lives you’d be outmoded
and we can learn more about them? soon. Same,
It’s already there, just needs to be
recognized. Do you think Google Maps
teachers must keep
can work without AI? It tells you there themselves abreast
is congestion ahead and scales your time
up or down. How is that possible without
of industry trends.
AI? If you use two different devices to Then only they stay
know a fare for the same route, let’s say ‘relevant’.
one of them being an iPhone, the iPhone
would show more fare because the device
”
already knows you’re rich enough to hold
an iPhone! As more data gets added, it’ll
penetrate deeper in our lives.
My strong belief is, in the next 2-3 or at
most 4 years, every insurance policy will
be sold with an IoT model. IoT reduces
the occurrence of a mishap. It warns you
beforehand of a fire, and so the company
doesn’t have to pay you as much.
Sir, you led Invios. What are the
challenges a young CEO faces?
Actually I wasn’t taken very seriously
initially. So I adopted a hack. I used to
come to every meeting 10 minutes late.
By the time people settled down, they’d
be asking my whereabouts and focus
attention on me. Life is much simpler
than we make it. The next thing is, I
stayed consistent with my traits. I was
very informal and people understood
Amit wouldn’t do formal conversations.
So I created my own niche, my own
identity. It’s all about staying consistent
with your traits.
alum
speaks

RAJ RISHI SINGH

Chief Business Officer, Make My Trip
PGPM, Batch of 2000-2002

Raj Rishi Singh has extensive experience across varying industries and sectors and
has worked with big names such as PepsiCo, GE Money and Samsung Electronics
before joining Make My Trip. He pursued B. Tech from NIT Jalandhar before joining
MDI Gurgaon. He specializes in Distribution- Channel & Key Account Management,
Product Management, and Project Management.
Mr. Singh, having worked across a
plethora of geographies and product
portfolios in foods and beverages what
persuaded you to join MMT?
Working at various places with
different products helped me prepare
for a leadership role because working in
consumer sector in India gives exposure to
diversity. As far as MMT goes I liked the
idea of choosing a technological company
for new learning. The company has an
entrepreneurial vibe and I get to make
independent choices plus I personally like
travelling which is another factor. So, I
love what I do now.
MMT platform MyBiz targets small
and medium sector enterprises
excluding large corporates. Where do
you see the growth coming from?
People in SME travel via small agents with
poor service, leaving the market under
penetrated for us. MyBiz ensures luxury
travel experience, more transparency,
easy access to hotels and flights even in
small cities like Raipur. For big companies
as well like Tata, we have a product for
their travel experience.
You have managed products in
different companies, how do you adapt
to various situations?
The first principles of business do not
change. All are consumer business so only
the proposition created for the customer
varies, the key fundamentals remaining
same. Eagerness to learn and applying
the learnings of the old category and the
new category to get the results, is exciting.
How has MDI helped you in your
career? What are your suggestions to
improve its brand equity?
“
I would thank MDI for helping me
start the corporate life by giving the
opportunity of working in Samsung. MDI I miss Jhaji a lot!
definitely played a pivotal role. I feel we
are the only legit campus in NCR and
As I sit here after
have proximities to some of the biggest sixteen years, it
companies. However, we need to improve seems I was here
our industrial relationships and dial back
to alumni base. We would be happy to only yesterday.
contribute. Entering the gate
Can you recount any specific fun made me nostalgic.
memory at MDI?
”
Absolutely! I miss Jhaji a lot. As I sit here
after sixteen years, it seems I was here
only yesterday. Entering the gate made
me nostalgic.
Any suggestions to improve alumni
relations?
A committee comprising of five people
from current batch, around fifteen from
previous batches and a professor for
diverse representation can hold formal
meeting every month for engaging
everyone. A bigger meeting can be
conducted to discuss an agenda.
MDI needs to revisit its batch composition
and bring more diversity.
 alum
in news
Chhavi Nath Singh has assumed the position of Chief Executive
Officer at Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda from August 2019.

He is a 2006 graduate of MDI’s NMP programme. Prior to his current

role, Mr. Singh was the Chief Operating Officer of Talwandi Sabo
Power Limited , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vedanta Limited. He
has a vast and rich experience of nearly four decades in the power
sector with a stint of 26 years at NTPC.

CHHAVI NATH SINGH

NMP (2005-06)

Smriti Handa, an alumnus of MDI PGPM (HR) batch

of 2002-04, has been appointed as Regional HR Director,
South Asia, Reckitt Benckiser.

Ms. Handa emphasizes on impactful business partnering with a

dash of passion and entrepreneurship. Prior to this, she has been
creating value working with industry giants like Philips and Airtel.

SMRITI HANDA
PGPM(HR) (2002-04)

Neeraj Biyani, an alumnus of PGDBM batch of 2001-2003 at MDI

Gurgaon, is amongst India’s Business Leaders 40 Under Forty by the
Economic Times.

He defines success as “the unique feeling of happiness of

working for a cause that resonates the most with oneself ”.
The co-founder of Hector Beverages, the company that brings
us the beloved brand Paper Boat, Mr. Biyani is an experienced
entrepreneur and an excellent leader in managing various
functions of the company.
NEERAJ BIYANI
PGPDBM (2001-03)
 Pawan Kumar, an alumnus of MDI Armed Forces
Programme batch of 2019, has been awarded Shaurya
Chakra, 3rd Highest Gallantry Award, by the President of
India.

Mr. Kumar worked for Indian Army in various roles and
designations. He has served as Chief Operations Officer at a
forward area for about 3 years. Currently, he is the Chief Security
and Operations Officer, wherein he also carried out station events
with huge footfall, to train soldiers to become commissioned officers.
PAWAN KUMAR
AFP (2018-19)

Harshil Sethi, an alumnus of MDI PGPHR batch of 2012-2014, has been

chosen as the winner of the NHRDN 5th Prof. Ram Charan Young HR
Icons Awards, under Professional Category.

The award aims to recognize and reward emerging talent in the

human capital space. Mr. Sethi earned the award after 3 rigorous
rounds, where he was identified as a pacesetter in the HR industry.
Mr. Sethi is a senior HRBP with over 5 years of diverse HR
experience in technology-based logistics startup and the FMCG
industry.
HARSHIL SETHI
PGPHR (2012-14)

Amit Otwani, an alumnus of MDI PGPHR batch of

2008-10, was appointed as the Head Performance and
Rewards South Asia and Indonesia, Signify.

Mr. Otwani has a rich experience in the field of business

development, account management, consulting, delivery
and thought leadership in the HR Consulting industry.
Prior to joining Signify, he has been associated with KornFerry and
Aon Hewitt.

AMIT OTWANI
PGPHR (2008-10)

Tapan Mukherjee, an alumnus of MDI PGPM batch of 2010-

2012, is now the Vice President of Chefs Guild of India.

The guild believes in living up to the general interest of the

profession and to knit a closer link between the professionals,
culinary institutes, allied food service industry professionals
and to develop a high ethical standard of the culinary art.
Mr. Tapan helps individuals and organisations to set up new food
and beverage ventures and also existing ventures to overcome
their business problems.
TAPAN MUKHERJEE
PGPM (2010-12)
 GODREJ LOUD
GOKUL CHHABRA
Godrej LOUD (Live Out Ur Dream) is Godrej’s exclusive platform to engage with
young and talented first year B-school students to help them realize their personal
and non-entrepreneurial dreams, the one that they are most passionate about,
and have not been able to fulfil because of time or sponsorship constraint.
Winners get monetary assistance to fulfil their dreams and an offer into
Godrej’s internship program- ‘Gurukul’.

Gokul Chhabra, a student of PGHR presented his long due dream of

opening a chain of beauty salons across India, run by the LGBTQ
community. He went on to become the National Winner along with
4 others, from 2000+ applicants from 13 premier B-schools, who got
the Godrej association for realizing their dreams.

Gokul dedicates this achievement to the ManDevIans who are known for
possessing the adventurous spirit of fulfilling their dreams and bringing
change to the society through their actions.

Student
Achievements
hul CARPE DIEM
Atisha Singh, Krishna Bhardwaj and Rishabh Agrawal
Carpe Diem, a case study competition of Hindustan Unilever Limited, provides a
unique opportunity for bright minds to work on live projects and a chance to get
a summer internship at the sought after Unilever Internship Program (ULIP).
Winners get a chance to work with Brand Managers from HUL on a live
marketing project and take away rich learning and insights.

Atisha Singh, Krishna Bhardwaj and Rishabh Agrawal represented

MDI Gurgaon as Team Bolt Heads and presented their solution
to the case which was about designing a to-do campaign for the
upliftment of transgenders in society. They were adjudged as the
National Runners-up from a pool of 1800+ registrations from 7
premier Business Schools. Their marketing campaign was lauded by
the jury who found it to be complete in all its elements. They received
commendation from the Brand Managers for the emotional appeal that
their campaign exhibited. Overall it was an enriching experience for them.

MDI is proud of them for showcasing the mettle of the college on such a large
platform and by adding another feather to MDI’s cap of laurels.
L’Oréal Brandstorm
Baruni Goel, Kaushal Dhanuka and Shreya Gupta
L’Oréal Brandstorm is a unique competition which brings
out the entrepreneurial side of the participants in parallel
with their marketing genius through a problem statement.
A celebrated brand, L’Oréal, conducts it every year across
countries allowing teams to innovate and brainstorm freely
such that the winners can incubate their idea at Station F-
the biggest start-up campus in the world.

MDI Gurgaon showcased their talent at the international

level in Paris, where the Team ManDevIan Stormtroopers
reached the world finals and was in top 6 teams among
the 65 countries that participated. Baruni Goel, Kaushal
Dhanuka and Shreya Gupta were a power team as
they proved themselves in the regional, national and
international rounds by presenting an innovative product
in the active cosmetics division. The concept of the product
was a post acne clinical procedure maintenance device with
a connected app that would send a progress report to the
user’s dermatologist. They creatively pitched the product
through a role play that easily engaged the audience.

Their genuine hard work and determination added a

glorious chapter in MDI’s book of laurels inspiring many
juniors who are wholeheartedly revving up for Brandstorm
2020.

Student
Achievements
citi leader award Prashant Mishra
Citi Leader Award 2019 is a prestigious leadership
competition that tests crisis management skills of
young aspiring leaders. It was conducted across top
B-schools of India and out of 1200 shortlisted MBA
aspirants, 11 were adjudged as national finalists.

Prashant Mishra was adjudged the National Winner of

Citi Leader Award 2019 in the finale that was conducted in
Mumbai. We congratulate Prashant for tirelessly hustling
through 9 rounds of gruelling evaluation sessions and
emerging as well rounded future leader and bringing
laurel to his alma mater.
FACULTY
ACHIEVEMENTS

Prof. Ajay K. Jain

Published a research paper titled, “Employee silence and burnout in India: the
mediating role of emotional intelligence” in Personnel Review

Prof. Anupama prashar

Published a research paper titled, “A bibliometric and content analysis of sustainable
development in small and medium sized enterprises“ in Journal of Cleaner Production.

Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar

Case titled, “Amazon as an Employer” co-authored by Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar, secured
6th position in the global best-seller list.

Prof. Kirti Sharma

Published a case titled, “Air France: The Load Factor Puzzle in Business Class” in Ivey
Publishing

Prof. Leena Ajit Kaushal

Published a book titled,”Foreign Direct Investment-The Indian Experience” by Business
Expert Press (BEP).
 Prof. Parul Gupta
Published a case titled, “Starbucks - Battling the Racism Allegations” in Ivey Publishing.

Prof. Radha R. Sharma

Published a research paper titled, “Enhancing Women’s Well-being: The Role of
Psychological Capital and Perceived Gender Equity, With Social Support as a Moderator
and Commitment as a Mediator” in Frontiers in Psychology.

Prof. Rajesh K. Singh

Published a research paper titled, “Manufacturing conversion cost reduction
using quality control tools and digitization of real-time data” in Journal of Cleaner
Production.

Prof. Sandeep Goel

Published a book titled, “Corporate Governance: Principles and Practices” by McGraw
Hill.

Prof. Shiv S. Tripathi

Published a case titled, “Air France: The Load Factor Puzzle in Business Class” in Ivey
Publishing

Prof. Vishal Narain

Published a paper titled, “Bonds, Battles and Social Capital: Power and the Mediation of
Water Insecurity in Peri-Urban Gurgaon, India” in Journal Water
 summer
placement report

Every dreamer, achiever, doer, comes here with an year’s victory march too was a feeling, a true victory
aspiration, a desire which they wish to fulfill. And for and homage to MDI’s continuous and tremendous
this they spend each waking hour of their day trying success in the summers.
to outdo and be a better version of themselves. It
would be most befitting to say that meticulousness, MDI Gurgaon completed its Summer Placement
tenacity, and patience are the three words every Process for the batch of 2019-21 with 85 companies,
student lives and breathes during their first three including 30 new recruiters, offering coveted roles
months at MDI. And when the incessant efforts and in umpteen domains to a batch of 299 students from
unshaken determination of each and every visionary PGPM, and PGP-HRM. Even more remarkable is the
are reciprocated in the form of a phenomenal summer fact that this feat was achieved within record time. The
placements, it is a sight which leaves every onlooker average stipend for two months was INR 2.31 lakh,
astounded. with a rise of 10 % over the last year, while the highest
stipend for two months was INR 3.20 lakh. This was
It is said that the harder you work for somethi possible due to the distinct demographic student
ng, the more you revel in the feeling of your triumph. population with the right mix of diversity in terms of
And as all ManDevIans are aware, nothing symbolizes work experience and gender.
the sheer joy of that feat as does the victory march. This
Leading companies and groups belonging
to diverse sectors and domains like
Automobile, BFSI, Conglomerate,
Consulting, E-commerce, Energy, FMCG,
Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Logistics,
Media, Technology and Telecommunications
were contributors as top recruiters this year.
These recruiters included Amazon, Avendus
Capital, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte
USI, Flipkart, Godrej Industries Limited,
Goldman Sachs, Google, Hindustan
Unilever Limited, Johnson & Johnson,
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Langham Capital,
L’Oréal, MARS India, Nestlé, PhonePe,
PwC US Advisory, Reckitt Benckiser, Uber,
UnitedHealth Group and many more. From
the total offers made, 37% were from Sales
and Marketing domain, 16% from Finance,
17% from Strategy and Operations, 20%
were from Human Resources and 10% were
from other domains.
At MDI, students are not only trained and
educated in the field of management, but
also are made to live management. Since
the time of its inception in 1973, MDI has
been providing the industry with talented
managers who are experts in the field of
marketing, finance, consulting, strategy and
human resources, and that is the reason why
MDI continues to enjoy a massive confidence
from the corporate world, which has time
and again been corroborated by astounding
placement seasons for the batches. And while
MDI does celebrate that, at the same time,
we set our targets higher and higher and
reinforce our commitment to keep pushing
the bar of success.
“ The average stipend for
two months was INR 2.31
lakh, with a rise of 10 %
over the last year, while
the highest stipend for two
months was INR 3.20 lakh.
”
 The
ManDevIan
BookShelf
Is it uncommon to find MBA graduates who produce The bookshelf is adorned with writings from across
fantastic and jaw dropping pieces of literature, the spectrum. It has books to quench every sort of
sweeping from bone chilling fiction to nuances of the reader. From books that offer advice to the broken
business world? Of course not! Writers come from all hearts, to those that cherry-pick entrepreneurs whose
walks of life and the corpus of literature penned by visions have created startups that thrive, unaffected by
MBA graduates is rapidly growing and gaining huge the mercurial fluctuations in the economic cycle; all
traction. nicely fit together.

Our alumni have left The genre, the style of

their footprints in writing, use of words,
this space as well. The the degree of jargons etc.
numbers are constantly differ widely across the
evolving. As a pioneering collection. This brings
effort to ensure that us to the fact that writers
MDI recognizes the write not just to educate
contributions its alumni us and impart nuanced
have made and are managerial insights,
constantly making in but also to pen down
the field of writing, we their emotions and seek
have taken an initiative respite in words after the
to create a bookshelf, deadening fatigue caused
wherein personally in a typical manager’s life.
signed books by our
alumni are stacked. A We hope to make this
copy of the same is kept bookshelf even bigger and
in the library so that the amass many more coveted
students can appreciate works that connect the
the intellectual depth students with their alumni.
of their alumni base.
We have received a
colossal response and
wholeheartedly thank
our alumni, without
whose participation our
initiative could not have
materialized.
 you, mdi and me
A special article for our alumni by our beloved
Prof. (DR.) Daisy Chauhan

As a teacher it feels great when I remember what Aristotle said

about our community which is “Those who know do, those who
understand teach”. At the same time Peter Drucker reminds us
that being a teacher gives us an opportunity to continue to learn
through his quote where he says “No one learns as much about a
subject as one who is forced to teach it”.

It is said that “Learning is a never ending process”. What better way to

keep learning than by teaching. Teaching ensures that you can be a success story, if not of your own, at least that
of your students, where you would have contributed at least a wee bit. Teaching is a profession which enables a
person to relive his/her past memories – some sweet, some not so pleasant, by constantly remaining connected
with our alumni

I remember the time I spent trying to get my students interested in a subject like OB when most of them
were more interested in hard core subjects where they would like to specialize in and find their dream job.
I keep telling my students that while the technical subjects are hard to understand but easy to apply, OB is
easy to understand but difficult to apply. No wonder many of the students who have become executives in
the corporate sector are back to get trained in the softer elements of management once they have spent some
time in an organization. Soft skills include personal attributes which enhances an individual’s interactions, job
performance and career prospects.

A few words to our alumni: You would have moved up your career path, shouldering higher responsibilities
since you left MDI, pursuing your dreams, but it is heartening that you still find time to meet the expectations
of your alma mater and provide your support to MDI. I am sure guiding and helping the students is a source
of immense satisfaction. Investing your time and effort in remaining connected with your alma mater provides
opportunities for re-union and reminiscence. At the same time it provides opportunities for networking and
establishing new contacts widening your professional and personal connect. You have contributed in the
institutional growth of your alma mater as our brand ambassadors and have been a source of guidance to the
students. We look forward to your continued support.

Prof. (Dr.) Daisy Chauhan

Associate Professor (OB) &
Chairperson (NMP & PGPM-EMP)
 NOT
ANOTHER
“Like a small boat, in the ocean. Sending big waves
into motion.” The same tune. The same hum. Every
morning she wakes up, the same routine. Rachel Plat-
en had become her favorite songwriter for the past
few months. Hair tied up in a donut, eyes puffy yet so
full of life, she would quietly slide into her black and
orange tracks and head out of her room. Tiptoeing
to the door, singing to herself, twisting and twirling
through the way, she reaches her favorite destination.
Right in front of her, next to the door lay her ticket to
freedom. A humble pair of white sneakers with For-
ever Glam etched in golden at the back lies there on
the shoe rack exposing a worn out sole. She bought
them from the first competition she won and since
then, they have given wings to her dreams. The soles
give life to her soul. Every move of her ankle, every
break and pop of her bones, every flip of her hair
makes an explosion. She believes in herself. She is me.
A small girl from a small town, I had a dream to per-
form. I resonated with the HipHop culture from a
very early age, listening to Pitbull and Snoop Dogg.
However, the world around me was still shaking
heads to “Bole Chudiyaan” and I never got the chance
to learn from a professional. But, I believed in myself.
Like any other 12 year old Indian kid, dance shows
were my gateway to the pop culture. I absorbed as
much as I could, but at 18 years of age when I got
eliminated in the first 5 minutes of my first dance bat-
tle, I hit rock bottom. My belief was fading away and
that’s when I met my guru who taught me the power
of self love. He trained me in Old School HipHop and
DANCE
STORY
House. We practiced mornings and evenings togeth-
er. I felt my power turning on. I started believing in
myself yet again. The next time I stepped on to the
stage, the thoughts wrecking my brain seemed to dis-
appear. Those few years of training changed the way
I thought. Now, the journey mattered, the transition
mattered.
It’s been more than a year now since I last won a solo
street battle challenge. It’s 2019. I am an MBA student
now. My battlefield stays the same but my weapons
have changed. My armor is no more my favorite or-
ange track suit from Forever 21. Looking back, my
inhibitions about painting my closet with grays and
blues had always stopped me from stepping into the
world of business. I had always believed in transitions
but after long, I had found a perfect fit for myself. As
I stepped into the world of professionalism, I discov-
ered drops of every color to match my element. Ex-
perimental patterns and bright colors, I was finally
finding a reflection of my personality in each attire
I was wearing. Today, as I suit up, I see a young and
confident woman, who believes in her journey, who
believes in herself.
Choudhury Smita Dash
Sameer Tiwari
 The Falling
Leaves Of
Autumn

It is the season of autumn yet again

The leaves have started falling
He stands there looking out of the window
The lane is still empty

He turns over and begins to write

Today the fallen leaves shall talk
and dead trees shall cry
Today he turned over and began to write

Once upon a time the eyes couldn’t get off the

way
The wait, though long, made him stay
For once flowers did bloom and trees did rejoice
Once upon a time winters were never far behind

Then the winters had come

Then winters had a long to stay
The leaves crumbled against the snow
The trees gave lives away

The never ending winter had set its foot

the stillness, the quietness prevailed
It too had a story to tell
But only for those who listened

The winter told the stories of dark

the stories of a forgotten silent past
and the narrative of hopeless solitude
The winters recited with tears in eyes

These winters were the longest one had seen

But can the change be stopped?
The summer did come again
with whatever spell it brought

The short lived summers let the leaves grow

again
The riot of flowers filled the lane again
The grass was green and the sky was blue
He waited on the window, the hope anew
No one came on the lane and the flowers died
and the greens turned brown and the trees yel-
low
He turned away from window with a sigh
The autumn has come

Now come to present come to now

the autumn has started playing its games
the lands are turning barren and the leaves fall
the colors are fading the colors are fading fast

The lane now seems to have been forgotten

He doesn’t go to the window anymore
He found his calling in the house itself
in it he found the beauty the lights and the land-
scapes

And this is the lesson he learnt

The way forward, the new way he found
that spring is not something to look out
It is always there but on the inside

Then even if the autumn was outside

he brought spring inside
He planted the seeds
he watered the soils

The flowers grew and so did the leaves

grey turned blue and the yellows green
What did it take he asked himself?
Looking outside was never the answer he
guessed

It always was inside

It always has been
the lane to sunshine
the leaves and trees

Be happy in today
be happy in now
create your happiness
Create your lane now

Vishal Sharma
Whisper
The Sound Of Silence
Long before the humans formulated different lan-
guages for communication, I think they learned to
communicate through silence. As several ages went
by, a simple and not so significant gesture evolved to
encompass several emotions.
“PLEASE MAINTAIN SILENCE”
How often does one come across these three words?
In a library, at the doctor’s clinic, the hospital?
The Oxford dictionary defines silence as the complete
lack of sound or speech. Lack of any kind of sound
is easily comprehended as non-communicative. But
is it really? When a baby is born and he/she doesn’t
cry, the doctors conclude something isn’t right. No
words are spoken. No memos are circulated. No no-
tices pinned. The silence is enough to get everyone
into a tizzy.
“The most profound statements are often said in
silence.”
-Lynn Johnston
A silent person is conveniently labeled rude, arrogant
and stubborn. A reserved student is branded a loner.
Silence can be interpreted in several ways. It could be
used to show respect while at the same time silence
can be a sign of defiance and stubbornness. The as-
tounding number of emotions that can be expressed
by silence and a couple of other gestures are unbeliev-
Renuka Singh
able. Among a host of others are shame, guilt, trauma,
hostility, respect, anxiety, anger, disinterest etc. The
most positive and widely used silence is commemo-
rative silence. Ranging from a few moments to a few
minutes, silence is observed in honour of victims and
casualties of a tragic incident.
“In silence we hear our soul speak.”
The significance of the power of silence is more over-
whelming in spirituality. Silence is a widely used met-
aphor in spirituality for inner stillness and peace. In
Hinduism, the teachings of Vedas emphasize on the
potential of ‘Mauna’, giving rise to ‘Mauna vrat’ or ’the
vow of silence’. Buddhism professes that a silent mind
is the means by which one attains spiritual enlighten-
ment. Silence is the base of meditation, now touted as
an exercise for one’s mental well-being.
“Think before you speak”
Often we reflect our thoughts and weigh the opinions
in silence. ‘Thinking’ is just another term to describe
this process. Ergo, every form of verbal communi-
cation starts with the non-verbal communication:
silence. And that makes silence the loudest form of
communication.
And here I share my favourite lines from the
1965 Simon and Garfunkel hit ‘The sound of silence’:
 “And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.
“Fools,” said I, “You do not know –
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you.
Take my arms that I might reach you.”
But my words like silent raindrops fell”
And echoed in the wells of silence.”
T hree Musketeers
For Your Sour Mood
Sour mood. As we grow older this becomes as ha-
bitual and routinely as a morning tea. However op-
timistic a person might be, this abstract noun finds a
way to be served in your platter and alas! Desolation
creeps in stealthily and it is time to find your mus-
keteer. Find the one totally apt for your mood and
harbinger of your dream solution!
When sad, everything cloaks itself in gloominess.
Happiness is not our thing for the moment and life
stops appearing as fairytale and unicorns. I wonder
why is it that when you are running like a guinea pig
in circles, in the never-ending track of your own de-
spair, the chirpiest of people, stop by to say all the
positive and sweetest things possible to make even a
proton shy away?
The lecture to be happy and bright is as void as the
space between my sister’s teeth. Once I was having a
hard time with my best friend. While I was trying to
figure out a way to clear the misunderstandings, an-
other friend of mine told me everything was going to
be alright. The happy words floated in the air, rafting
the through the ear canal just to jump off the cliff on
the other side. Instead of taking a whole dose on true
friendship and positivity, I cleared the mishap. Being
positive is not always the correct option but pragma-
tism is. Overcoming the fear of correcting the fault,
leads to a more satisfying smile. Sugar coated clichés
should be dodged.
These self-acclaiming philanthropists who like to
bring “cheer” in everyone’s life, like a clown in a
birthday party, are not particularly the best musket-
eer for your sour mood.
So, let us meet our next musketeers- the Spartans.
Those who really care about doing this unpaid psy-
che-mending would be happy to be nothing but lend-
ers of a good pair of ears and discretion. They will
come to listen to the verbal portrayal of your trou-
ble, with the occasional “okays” and “I understand”
layered with friendly comforting. Talking is still a
healthier way to lighten up the mood than by gulp-
ing pizzas in frustration. Since your vocal cords are at
work, you bask under the limelight while the others
work out their brains to get the answer algorithm.

This comes with a prerequisite- that they do not bask

under the limelight after you have poured your se-
crets and weaknesses. You would be vulnerable if
these musketeers are not trustworthy. They will be-
come more worrisome than the current problem.

Also there are times when we want to be left alone.

Introspection is the best way we heal ourselves chat-
ting to the one imaginary friend we all have. But
that imaginary friend gets shadowed by people with
I-know-it-all syndrome. Is it not irksome to hear
someone tell how one and their better half comple-
ment each other like salt and pepper in a salt cellar,
so if you are jilting with your beau, either he is not
the pepper or you are in the pickle holder.

Or maybe, how their grades are touching the sky like

the Burj Khalifa because they spend their time with
Wren & Martin instead of on laptop, checking every
type of pet available one can manage to keep at home
and not bring the house down.You will be served
with a plethora of experiences as you try to weave it
along with your problem. Dealing with mood spoil
becomes secondary.

Their solution is unique to a particular problem in

that particular situation. We need to remember it is
not necessary to follow their guidebook. The deci-
“
sions taken by them may not be favourable to our sit- Overcoming the
uation. Even though we may draw experience from
their solution, we may just not be able to apply the fear of correcting
same. They will pour in you everything they want to
tell.
the fault, leads to
The lovely “fill”anthropists.
a more satisfying
smile.
Which one would you pick?

Arunima Agarwal
”
R
andom

Musings
Rishika Agrawal
I t struck me on an odd morning- with the sight of
beams of sunlight, falling haphazardly through the
meshed leaves of the tree above me- our need for pat-
terns.

From the moment we enter this world, we are expect-

ed to follow patterns- consistent breathing, timely
contractions, etc. Then we start growing up with ex-
pectations of consistent grades, predictable behav-
iors, and a ‘type’ for everything. Point is, in our en-
deavor to retain our position as the smartest animals
on the planet, we tend to forget that is all we are- An-
imals. Somehow solely possessing the ability to use
our imagination gives us the illusion that we are in
control. Therefore, to justify things that might not be
in our control, we try to connect the dots, form pat-
terns, establish coincidences.

Surely, these beams of light will emerge in some pat-

tern if I observe well enough.
We refuse to even consider the possibility that our
lives might be a culmination of random events that
we are supposed to live out. Where we don’t find a pat-
tern, we form one. And we demand it. In everything
that is happening to us. How people behave with us,
how certain things should be done, how one event in
our life is connected to the other. There is no scope
in our lives for the arbitrary. Even the thought of it
makes us insecure and anxious. I wonder how easy
life would be if we, just for a moment, contain our
proclivity for the search of these patterns and con-
nections and appreciate things for what they are.

“The beauty of the sunlight falling haphazardly on my table,

the overwhelm on suddenly being transferred to new soil,

the anxiety while going through arbitrary situations.”

Oblivion
Do you feel we can unravel the perpetual mysteries
of the world with our intellect? If yes, you’ve already
lost it! In fact, just a few puzzles are enough to shack-
le this superficial confidence and ridicule it.
Consider- after your death you totally cease to exist.
There is not a single remnant of you, your memory
or consciousness. Not a shred of you survives your
death. Are you comfortable with this reality? We
lived such fruitful lives, exerted strenuous efforts for
a better future only to pass into eternal darkness, the
bottomless pit of oblivion? Is this existence so less
promising, so ruthless?
Now consider an alternative reality, where some part
of you subsists, in form of soul or some afterlife. If
you think deeply, even this sounds disconcerting.
Won’t you get bored of living, living, and living after
some time? No matter how gracious, disease free and
abundant your afterlife would be, after a point, you’ll
get fatigued of even the best pleasures.
Are you comfortable with this reality of living forever,
with no death to rescue your monotonous existence?
You either survive your death in a bodiless form or
Shubham Verma
you completely merge into emptiness. But none of
these alternatives sounds pleasing. We want a grey
area between the extremes of eternity and death. But
there isn’t such a thing!
Next, let’s think about TIME!
Can you think of a time when TIME didn’t exist?
Quite funny, isn’t it? We can’t! Even before big bang,
there must have been something, vacuum or eternal
darkness. We can’t conceptualize any instance when
even time or vacuum didn’t exist.
Yet, the concept of eternity also creates uneasiness.
How can anything, be it even TIME or vacuum, ex-
ist forever? It has to have some point when it com-
menced. How could it be beginning- less? What was
before this beginning-less existence? No answers!
So gentle readers why not relax and take a joyful nap!
Don’t stress your tiny brains with the infinitude of
universe and its secrets. Yes, be curious and probing,
but learn to put down the lens when you feel it’s too
much.
 What is Decision Fatigue and how it is affecting us?
Shubhamoy Halder
At work, consider it is a normal day, you are sitting in
front of the screen with multiple tabs opened. Your
job requires you to make several choices throughout
the day and near the end of it, you feel mentally tired.
You don’t get excited about making further decisive
choices and feel that your cognitive abilities have
dropped from their peak. Sounds familiar? Does this
situation ring a bell?
According to the science of decision making and
psychology, you are going through decision fatigue.
You don’t just switch from task to task for 10 or 20
times throughout the day, an average user switches
between tasks for more than 300 times a day. Each
of these tasks comes with its own
set of trade-offs, where either of
two choices has positive and nega-
tive elements, you make a decision
which at first seems normal but
is an advanced and energy-con-
suming form of decision making.
Moreover, each of these decisions
eats into our willpower bit by bit.
Eventually, you hit what psycholo-
gy calls decision fatigue.
This is the reason why shopping
at hypermarkets is tiring, you are
bombarded with a plethora of
coupons, discounts, and schemes.
You stand there constantly review-
ing your choices to gain the maximum out of your
options and by the time you reach the cash register,
you easily fall prey to sugary treats. These impulse
purchases are not controlled by you, the external en-
vironment is manipulated to trigger such kinds of
purchases because many shoppers already have deci-
sion fatigue by the time they reach the billing coun-
ter. A study by Florida State University directly links
decision fatigue with low glucose levels and hence
now you understand why that Mars Bar seems a lot
more attractive after a long day of shopping.
In another study, researchers looked at more than
1,000 parole hearing decisions made by judges in the
US. They found that the most important factor in
whether or not someone was granted parole wasn’t
their nature of crime, background or sentence; it
wasn’t even their conduct during jail time. It was the
time of the day when their case was heard. Prisoners
who appeared for their parole hearing early in the
morning stood a very good chance of receiving it. Al-
most seventy percent of the morning cases worked in
favour of the prisoners. But the same cannot be said
for those who appeared late in the day; only ten per-
cent of such cases worked in favour of prisoners. A
classic example of decision avoidance, it is always saf-
er to reject a parole request for the mentally fatigued
Judge after spending an entire day making decisions.
The busiest of personalities, to avoid such a condi-
tion or to at least reduce its intensity, tend to limit
their number of decisions daily. A simple example is
clothing; former US President Barack Obama, Mark
Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs have
been known to reduce their every-
day clothing down to one or two
outfits. Steve Jobs was famous for
his turtleneck with blue jeans and
former President Obama wore
only blue or grey suits during his
entire eight-year tenure at the Oval
office.
There are more ways to get around
Decision Fatigue. By simplifying
choices and reducing the number
of decisions, you free up space for
the ones that matter. In this sce-
nario, fighting the right battles is
what brings more energy and suc-
cess. Another way is to schedule high-priority deci-
sions at the start of the day, make the best use of your
morning energy for decisions that really matter. Use
the power of the afternoon nap, to recharge yourself,
a refreshing afternoon nap is always revitalizing for
the mind and body which immediately delays the
onset of decision fatigue.
Good decision making is not a trait, it is a state
which constantly fluctuates. The best managers use
self-control to structure their lives in a way to con-
serve willpower and motivation. They don’t sched-
ule back-to-back meetings; they don’t restructure
their organization at 8 PM, and they don’t make
major commitments or promises in cocktail parties
with all-you-can-eat buffets. In a sense, the best de-
cision-makers are the ones who know when not to
trust themselves.
 ILLUMINA
The Illuminati believe in having no secrets inside; believe in truth and light. Illumina, the
Disguised Market Research Club is one of the oldest clubs of MDI Gurgaon and the members
are called the Illuminati. Illumina is the second oldest club of such a format in India, and it
organizes the annual market research fest on campus celebrated in the format of a Diwali Mela.
And celebrating their 23rd successful year, Illumina 2019 was BIGGER, BETTER and BRIGHTER.

An energetic team of 23 was selected to be a part of the Illuminati 2019, and they started the year
with a bang. ‘Rural Illumina’ was the first event that the club conducted at the Dusshera Mela at
Pataudi village. Two major market research projects by Mankind and Colgate-Palmolive were
conducted by the students in the rural setting to study the behavior of semi-urban and rural
consumers. The team generated insights from the disguised format and interacted with the
evolving crowd to understand their awareness and expectations from the respective product.

The success of Rural Illumina was followed by the preparations for ‘Urban Illumina’ which was conducted
on 20th October. “We wanted to organize an event better and brighter than the previous years, not
only in terms of projects but in terms of events and entertainment too,’’ said, Ankit Arora, Secretary,
Illumina 2019. Collaborating with some major brands like HUL, ITC, Swiggy, Jawa Automobiles,
Mankind, Denver etc., the team conducted more than 10 disguised market research projects. The
night was concluded on a high note with performances by the band Astitva and DJ Ritviz.
Following every year’s tradition, Illumina successfully conducted ‘Expressions’, an
event specifically designed to gain insights from children aged 6-12 years.
The team looks forward to conducting a successful ‘Mall Illumina’ by
the end of the year. The Illuminati believe in taking control
and enlightening the world through knowledge;
knowledge that they attain through
disguised and creative formats.
MarQuity, the marketing club of MDI, was first formed
with the vision to impart marketing knowledge to the
student community in the most effective and engaging
way. Since then, MarQuity has been enhancing the
marketing quotient of the students on campus through
market research, guest lectures delivered by leading
personalities from across domains, networking events
and other novel techniques.

The club organised a wide range of activities and events

throughout the year to give students a glimpse into the
world of marketing. Events like MarQ-Witty, a national
case study competition, provided some of the best
marketing minds in the country the opportunity to
apply theoretical frameworks and marketing knowledge
to real-life scenarios and come up with out-of-the-box,
yet viable solutions.

Prestigious organizations like Lead Angels, Cash

Karo, Aha Taxis and Yschool floated various live
projects to enable the students to formulate
relevant business strategies to address
the issues being faced by businesses today.

Different engaging and fun on-the-spot events like

Bamboozled, Piction Diction and Bulls Eye were
organized by the club during Imperium to test the
participants’ marketing knowledge and encourage
participation.
MarQconnect, the Marketing Conclave, an annual marketing event of MDI was
conducted on the theme ‘Current Trends in Digital Marketing’ with an impetus to-
wards understanding digital marketing from the viewpoint of customers as well
as the top management. The key speakers were Ms. Shalu Jhunjhunwala, Industry
Head - Auto, Google and Mr. Subramanian Komal, VP Marketing, Asia, Whirlpool.

MarQuity hopes to continue its efforts towards the enrichment of the market-
ing acumen of MDI. The primary objective of all the events planned by the club is
to enable the students to develop foresight and innovative bend of mind when it
comes to the field of marketing so that they can beat their competition at every step.
STRATEGIST

“The essence of strategy

is choosing what
not to do.”
- MICHAEL PORTER
Strategist, the strategy and consulting club of MDI
Gurgaon, works towards helping students pursue
their interests in the field of consulting. The club
seeks to equip the students with skills and resources
necessary for the development of their careers in
roles of Business Development, Strategic Planning
among others. ‘No time is idle time’, is the thought
with which strategist works to impart consulting
skills in every ManDevIan.
Team Strategist kicked off the work with its
yearly edition of ‘Strategist Speaks’ – a series of
one pager information capsules floated weekly to
help students get a hang of what is happening in
and around various sectors. To facilitate students
with a comprehensive understanding of necessary
concepts and to promote peer learning, the club
conducted ‘Consulting Circles’ – where students
got into interactive discussions with each other in
groups of four. Mock interviews were conducted
for the students interested in getting into strategy
roles and the club also conducted a session where
students from the PG’18 batch who had just
completed their summer internship stint at various
firms shared their interview experiences.
‘Biz Czar’, the annual flagship business case study
challenge of Strategist was organised in the month
of November. Biz Czar witnessed an enthusiastic
participation from the batch. ‘Alumni Talks’ were
conducted by reputed MDI alums to make students
of the current batch aware of the nuances of the
corporate culture, upcoming trends and industry
know-how.
The club believes in not only limiting itself to
academics and conducts numerous fun engagement
activities during Imperium which attracts huge crowd
from various B-Schools.
In 2019, as a part of its corporate engagement, Strategist
collaborated with Truebiz Learning and floated a live
project. After 2 rounds of interview, 13 students were
selected from PG’19 batch which gave them a hands-on
experience. Working with the corporate experts made
the students understand industry practices prior to
their summer internships. As part of its yearly online
engagement, Strategist conducted ‘Ranneeti’ – an online
business simulation game and ‘Checkmate’ – an online
chess tournament.
With its year-round engaging initiatives, Strategist works
towards shaping and guiding the future consultants and
business leaders in making and always strives towards
achieving its vision.
Strategist conducted ‘Ranneeti’ –
an online business simulation game
and ‘Checkmate’ – an online chess
tournament.
HR DIRECTION
“You can have the best strategy and the best talent in
the world, but if you don’t have the heart and mind
of the people who work, none of it comes to life. We
bet on people, not just strategies.”
HR Direction, the HR
academic club of MDI
Gurgaon, is a student
body which aims to
provide an engaging
learning platform
to the budding HR
professionals of the
college by integrating the
experiences of industry
practitioners with the
theoretical knowledge of
academicians in the area of human resources.
This club has etched a name for itself in the
domain of Human Resource Management
education in the country by organising
numerous inter B-school competitions,
corporate guest lectures and the most
awaited annual HR Conclave.
In addition, the Club organises Eleusis every
year during Imperium. This event ensures
the participation of students of B-schools
from across the country. It consists of a
multitude of interactive rounds starting
with an online quiz, followed by a case study
round and the final round at the campus
during Imperium.
The club provides utmost support and
guidance to the HR students by releasing
the annual compendiums before summers
and final placements. These compendiums
aim at providing the students a gist of the
basic HR trends and technologies. The
club releases monthly Newsletters to keep
the students updated and also bi-weekly
Scoops to impart knowledge in the form of
short nuggets. HR Highway was launched
to provide better visibility
and interactive data to the
audience. Knowledge
sharing sessions held
by the club from time
to time help students
learn HR Management
with ease and fun.
With an attempt to
provide sufficient practical
experience in the domain of
Human Resource Management,
HR Direction has brought numerous live
projects for the HR students. Reputed
organisations like Airtel, PepsiCo, GSK,
TATA Steel, Fresenius Medical Care and
Bennett, Coleman & Co. have provided live
projects for the students in HR. The club
looks forward to our alumni connection for
such live projects in the near future.
HR Conclave, HR Direction’s Marquee Event
is scheduled to be held on 18th January, 2020.
The most awaited event held by this club will
witness great discussions among leading HR
professionals in the industry verticals on
the planned theme “Industry 4.0”. The event
will also include a case study competition
and various interactive sessions throughout
the day. This event of HR Direction is
never worth a miss. It awaits enthusiastic
participation like the previous year.
The club has made substantial progress
in a couple of years and will continue to
serve the Human Resource Management
students upholding their importance in any
organisation.
A new year, a new batch and a new
beginning. The academic year kick-started
with the legacy of King of Kings, the
inter-section Sports tournament for the
new batch. KOK 2019 was massive in its
scope, energetic in terms of participation
and limitless in terms of fun. We saw the
entire batch come together to celebrate
sportsmanship. The sprawling campus of
MDI with its football fields and courts
for badminton, lawn tennis, volleyball,
basketball, came to life where it was not an
uncommon sight to see students running
from class to the court and acing both like
a pro. KOK was not just about the talent
on-field, but also the creativity shown by
the different sections off-field through
participation in the sports quiz, battle of
memes on social media and WhatsApp,
and anything to ensure that their section
emerged on the top. All this created a
strong sense of bonding between the batch
mates and KOK remains one of the fondest
event for everyone from the new batch.
With the on-boarding of the Junior Sports
Committee, it was time for SportsComm
to expand their horizon onto newer fronts.
As a result, the King of North i.e. KON 2019
was organized. This tournament saw the
participation of other reputed B-schools
such as FMS, IIFT, IMT and IIM-Rohtak,
to name a few. This helped students to
not only keep the KOK spirit going, but
S
also create and strengthen bonds among
students of other B-schools through their
common love for sports. MDI emerged as
the overall winners yet again, by securing
the first and second position in 5 and 4
P
sports respectively, out of the 11 sports
played in the tournament.
The characteristics of perseverance,
O
determination and teamwork permeate
the character of every successful person,
be it on field or in the classroom. Every
player who participated in and organized
R
KOK or KON symbolized these traits. It
was not about winning or losing at the end
of the day, but the ‘never give up’ attitude
which made the events about the depth
of character, bonding and learning which
T
one was able to accomplish through the
games.
We look forward to much more
S
participation and bonding in our
upcoming sports tournaments. Keep the
sportsmanship spirit high, MDI!
C
O
M
M
IMPERIUM
I mperium, the flagship cultural, management
and sports festival of MDI Gurgaon was held
from 22 November 2018 to 24 November 2018.
Year after year, Imperium has successfully built
its reputation across India through their creative
events and effective implementation skills. The
theme for the year- ‘Unravel Yourself ’, justified
the amount of hard work and enthusiasm that
the members put into organising the event.
The festival witnessed participation from
nearly 5000+ students from B-schools across
the country in not only the management events
but the cultural and sports events as well.
Management events organized by various clubs
and committees such as Marquity, Monetrix,
Opsession, Impulse, ThinC and Strategist
included a one of a kind business simulation
game, Nautica. Although conducted for the
first time, the competition garnered quite some
participation of nearly 1300 contestants from
colleges across the nation. The game, spread
over multiple rounds, nudged participants
to bring new perspectives and to test their
knowledge in real life business scenarios.
In addition to all the business related
competitions, performances, and cultural
competitions have always been prominent
attractions of Imperium. Cultural events such
as War of Bands, Street Play, Solo and Group
dance competitions are organised in
collaboration with the cultural committee and
Sanskriti. Such events provide young managers
a getaway from their reckless lives, where they
loosen up and dance to the soothing beats of
the heart. Sports competitions such as Football,
Basketball, Cricket, Badminton, Tennis, Table
Tennis, Chess, Snooker and Futsal have always
been large crowd pullers. E-sports was a new
concept that was implemented through FIFA,
Counterstrike and Dota. The nights were filled
with Sourabh Pant’s energetic comedy and
Nikhil D’Souza’s soothing voice in association
with Coke Studio’s rhythmic performers.
The nights were filled with
Sourabh Pant’s energetic
comedy and Nikhil D’Souza’s
soothing voice in association
with Coke Studio’s rhythmic
performers.
Imperium has been known for not only allowing
students to showcase their management
skills but also indulge in activities that result
in a holistic development of the individual.
Imperium has successfully carved its own
place among the stalwarts of business school
fraternity.

Opsession, the Operations Management
Club of MDI Gurgaon, is the go-to-
place for the student fraternity seeking
awareness and expertise in the field of
Operations. Over the years, the club has
actively engaged the students through a
series of events and competitions. From
resolving academic queries to conducting
events at the college and national level, the
constant endeavour of team Opsession is
to help the students gain new perspectives
and be abreast of latest developments.
Under the guidance of Dr. Manoj
K Srivastava, Head Professor,
Opsession, the club strives hard to
make life at MDI a learning journey.
Over the years, Opsession has been
publishing editorials, articles, etc. with
the objective to impart knowledge
by learning from live examples from
the industry. Some of the initiatives
taken by the club are ‘OpStakes’ and
‘OpTonics’, which are the annual and
half yearly magazines respectively.
Events that the club organizes round the
year engage the students and provide
them with opportunities to learn
crucial concepts through simulations.
It conducts ‘Opniscient’, a national level
case study challenge every year which sees
participation from all the premier B-schools.
Opsession successfully conducted its
second annual conclave – ‘OpsTalks’. The
event was graced by Mr. Amit Gupta,
President – Business Excellence UNO
Minda, Mr. Mahesh Iyer, Vice President
of Vedanta Limited, and Mr. Sachin
Haritash, CEO of Mavyn. The topic
of the discussion ‘Emerging Trends in
Supply Chain Management’ was chosen
considering it to be apt for the audience.
Another panel discussion on ‘Challenges
Inhibiting Globalization of Indian
Supply Chain’ led by Mr Nikhil Kush,
Indian leader – Supply Chain Projects
PATH, Mr Anand Awasthy, Managing
Director NTPC GE Power Services
Ltd., and Mr Sandeep Anand, CEO of
Alden Global Value Advisors, witnessed
overwhelming response from the students.
The club hopes to constantly extract
newer perspectives and insights from the
best industry practices from all across
the globe, and impart it to the students
to polish their acumen in the domain.
 SAMARITANS
Samaritans- The Social Initiatives Club of MDI, of the AIMS Week. This workshop aimed at
strives to sensitize the future business leaders ofcelebrating womanhood and conducting an
the institute towards social responsibilities. The informative session on one of the most tabooed
vision of the club is to harness the management subjects in the Indian society. The AIMS Week
acumen of ManDevIans in making a difference started off with a huge plantation drive in the
to the society, and Samaritans with its various campus and continued with NGO visits, dental,
initiatives, truly strives towards achieving this eye check-up, and blood donation camps. The
vision. satisfaction it had brought on the team’s part,
and the happiness and impact it had brought on
The Samaritans year kicked off with the Aarohan the part of the community, was immense.
week, in an attempt to bring about consequential
changes in the society through interactions at Team Samaritans went a step ahead and brought
the grassroots level with regards to different on campus some of the most insightful live
sectors including education, healthcare and projects from the industry in order to help
environmental care. The Aarohan Week started our students unravel the enigmas and find
with events like Kids on Campus from the NGO relevant solutions to problems prevalent in our
Mera Parivar, Old Age Home visit to Tau Devi country. WhereIsMyPETGoing was one such
Lal Old Age Home, Blood Donation Camp live project which Samaritans, in partnership
with participation from 71 donors, Self-defence with Skills4Change, had launched. As a part of
Workshop for girls conducted by professionals, this project, students were in charge of tracing
and concluded with Bird Feeders Installation the plastic waste on campus and coming up
in the campus premises. This was followed with techniques for their responsible disposal.
by sessions on topics like Sustainability in MDI’s students and its infrastructure played a
business and Circular Economy to broaden the monumental role in the entire project.
thought process of young minds and to help
the key stakeholders like management students Expressing gratitude, even for the slightest of
understand the significance of sustainability in contributions is something which Samaritans
business today and in the days to come. believes in. Hence “Samaritans at MDI” is an
initiative which will be published on its recently
Then came the batch of 2019-2021 with an launched Instagram handle, to laud people at
unparalleled zeal, brighter ideas and greater MDI for their contribution towards making
keenness to make an impact and give back to MDI what it is today.
the society. One of the initiatives, the execution
of which wouldn’t have been possible without Samaritans, with its drive to ensure greater good
the energy and enthusiasm of the recent batch for the society as a whole, is upping the ante
was the Menstrual Hygiene Workshop for the with every passing year. And with this gusto and
helping-staff which was organized as a part passion, progress is inevitable.
Delphique, India’s only B-school event which focuses on strong
research in various domains of management, is MDI’s Annual
National Management Convention. Named after the famous
‘Delphi’ method, the event provides the perfect platform for
academia and leaders from the industry. They come together to
discuss contemporary issues faced by the business world and come
up with creative solutions.

Last year, Delphique signed up with Ogilvy & Mather, PayTM,

Mahindra First Choice, Langham Capital, ICRA, Equirus,
JustMyRoots, Kalchi among others for research panel discussions.
Delphique signed up
The event was graced by important dignitaries like Mr. Aditya Mittal, with Ogilvy & Mather,
Associate Vice President, Langham Capital, Mr. Saurabh Jain, Vice
President, PayTM and Mr. Sathiyanarayanan Muthukumaraswamy,
PayTM, Mahindra First
Head of Marketing and Digital, Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd. Choice, Langham Capi-
In its latest edition, the 23rd, Delphique has associated with Reckitt tal, ICRA, Equirus, Just-
Benckiser, MagicBricks, AmbitionBox by Naukri.com, ICRA, and
Sqrrl for the research panel discussions. Mrs. Vani Gupta Dandia, Ex
MyRoots, Kalchi among
Marketing Director PepsiCo will be the chief panellist for Vincenza, others for research panel
the international business plan competition. discussions.
Delphique has also associated with InsideIIM.com for Dialectic, the
annual debate competition, where the creator of InsideIIM.com, Mr. Ankit Doshi will be the jury. The
projects floated during Delphique are chosen such that they provide first-hand experience of what it’s like
to work on challenges faced by businesses every day.

The corporate connects that Delphique attracts help to foster a bond between the college students and or-
ganizations quite early on and provide industry exposure to young and bright MBA aspirants. Delphique
continues its efforts to bolster the brand MDI and carry forward the proud legacy of its forerunners.
 MONETRIX
Monetrix, the Economics and Finance Club
of MDI, takes great strides in moving towards
its vision of raising the level of the finance
aptitude within the campus. It conducts a
slew of activities, both inward and outward-
looking in order to achieve this and continually
strengthen the presence of brand MDI among
the financial hubs of the corporate world.
The second edition of ‘Finance Conclave’ was
conducted in February 2019, which was held
with the goal of improving industry connect.
The conclave had one panel each of finance and
economics wherein esteemed speakers discussed
topics namely ‘Alternative Investments’ and
‘The state of the Indian economy’. The panel
discussions were headed by two of our alumni Mr.
Aaditya Gutgutia and Mr. Ashutosh Datar and the
sessions witnessed an enthusiastic participation
and immense engagement from the audience.
The club also organized ‘Trajectory’, a
finance based case study competition, in
association with NIIT Technologies. This
initiative provided an appropriate platform for
students across the country to showcase their
analytical ability and depth of understanding.
The activities conducted by the club are de
signed to improve the aptitude of members as
well as to nurture a thriving culture of finance
on campus. Bi-monthly knowledge sharing
sessions are held wherein every session pres
ents a quick update of the activities of their
respective economies. Besides this, current-
affairs sessions were conducted before summer
placements to help the students in the interview
process. Some of the newest initiatives taken
up by the club to continually take the vision of
its founder members forward includes a new
blog where students are encouraged to write
their opinion about issues with which the
Indian economy is grappling and on the spot
events during Imperium such as ‘FinPoker’.
The activities for the rest of the year revolve around
deepening the industry and external connect,
through the Finance Conclave. The club strives to
strengthen its relation with the alumni who have
ventured into the field of finance, via their LinkedIn
group. It plans on taking the Finance Conclave of
2020 to a higher level by enhancing the number
of illustrious alumni visiting the conference.
Through its all-year-round sessions and activities,
Monetrix is redefining finance for its students
while still being informative and innovative.
 ALumni
engagements
2018-19
A Glimpse
As published in Yearbook, Class of 1996
Secretary’s message
alumni relations

I am beyond elated to present to you the fifth

edition of MDI Chronicles – our annual magazine
that recaps the events and achievements of MDI
in the academic year gone by. We have attempted
to capture the evolution and progress of MDI
year after year along with the documentation of a
few random musings from our current students and
faculty.

Over the past year, the Alumni Relations Committee has

undertaken several initiatives to deepen our bond with our
beloved alumni. One of the new initiatives taken this year is the setting
up of a bookshelf that was inaugurated on the event of National Alumni Meet 2019. The idea behind the
bookshelf was to create a collection showcasing books published and authored by our esteemed alumni. The
response we received for the bookshelf has been overwhelming. Alumni Relations Committee also started
issuing Alumni ID cards to the graduating students containing details of the student and facilitating easier
connect with the college. Our alumni portal has gained immense traction and we are happy to announce
that we have had over 5000 registrations in the first eight months. We witnessed one of the most successful
Regional Alumni Meet 2019, both at Mumbai and Bangalore with a turnout in never before records. Other
events worthy of mention are the mock personal interviews conducted by alumni for the current batch of
students to prep them for their summer as well as final placements.

The success of these initiatives is wholeheartedly attributed to our benevolent alumni who carve out time
out of their busy schedules to be a part of our events. Our alumni are the flagbearers of the institute and have
constantly proved resourceful to us and we are very grateful to them for blessing us with their warm and gracious
guidance. I would also like to thank Dr. Kanwal Kapil, Dean of Alumni Relations and Prof. Rupamanjari Sinha
Ray, Coordinator of Alumni Relations, for their unwavering faith and support, without which these events
and initiatives would have never materialized. But the credit for execution and implementation of the new
ideas goes to my team of Senior and Junior Alumni Relations Committee members, who have had my back
throughout. This magazine and every event of the committee is an outcome of their unceasing and untiring
efforts that has shaped the Alumni Relations Committee into what it is today.

I envision that the symbiotic relationship of our institute and alumni base grows only deeper. I hope that the
Alumni Relations Committee plays a pivotal role in this symbiosis and achieves greater heights with each
passing year. We will continue to look for ways to appreciate our alumni and show them the love and attention
that they deserve.

And finally I hope you’ll enjoy reading MDI Chronicles as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Dr. Wasim Parkar

Secretary, Alumni Relations Committee
2019-2020
the team
alumni relations committee

Junior Alumni Relations Committee

Shubham Verma, Gagan Jain, Gokul Chhabra, Tanayjit Chakraborty, Rohan Hassija, PJ Naveen, Anmol Singh, Arunima Agarwal,
Yashi Mittal, Choudhury Smita Dash, Tulika Mazumdar, Nishtha Mahajan, Renuka Singh, Anamika Bharucha, Shivam Goel

senior Alumni Relations Committee

Arko Roy, Aman Khandelwal, Amogh Jain, Souradip Sarkar, Rahul Mukherjee, Dr. Wasim Parkar, Avanish Kumar, Baruni Goel,
Shreya Singhania, Vipasha Midha, Avni Bhasin, Aarushi Gupta, Ritu Surana, Shreya Ghosh
AN ALUMNI RELATIONS COMMITTEE PUBLICATION