"Shastrarth” 2012
The first year students of B.Sc. Economics organised a National Inter-collegiate debate, "Shastrarth” on the 1st of February 2012. With topics ranging from "Are social networking sites bringing people closer” to "Governments of the world, Rise! Limit economic freedom to limit economic inequality”, the debate witnessed keen participation from 16 top Mumbai colleges including St. Xaviers, Sophia, KC, RA Podar, National, Thadomal, among others. Outstation teams included the Symbiosis School of Economics. The home team was among the top performers, making it to the finals. However, as had been decided earlier, the finals were contested between the visiting teams only. A keenly contested final round saw RA Podar College of Commerce and Economics trump Thadomal Shahani Engineering College to emerge victorious. Pranav Advani from RA Podar was adjudged the "Best Speaker”.
The event was judged by leading academicians such as Dr. G. Kalyanaram, an alumnus of MIT and a leading scholar in the area of Marketing, and Dr. Anupam Rastogi, Senior Professor, SBM, NMIMS and also industry experts such as Mr. Jagdish Acharya, CEO, Asian Paints PPG, who was also the Chief Guest at the ceremony.
The first year students of the School of Economics organized an intra-School Model United Nations (MUN), an academic simulation of the United Nations, on November 11, 2011. The students of both years, representing delegates of various countries, actively spoke on the topic ‘The territorial and political issue of Kashmir’. The simulation turned out to be educative as well as entertaining, with competitive arguments from 14 countries and a false bomb scare in the midst of a UN Veto session.
Students of SAMSOE participated in ‘Kartavya’- the debate organized under the aegis of the University of Mumbai, together with the NGO, ‘India Against Corruption’. A keenly debated first round, comprising of a Team ‘For’ and ‘Against’ the motion, culminated in the selection of 3 students to represent the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics in the First round.
A student of Second Year B.Sc. Economics, Sanjana Govindarajan was selected to be a panel member on the ‘Times Now’ debate "Politics Encourages Terrorism”. The debate was held at the Times Now studio on Saturday July 30, 2011. Sanjana Govindarajan spoke for the motion. The debate was moderated by Arnab Goswami and the other panel members included Mahesh Jethmalani, Anupam Kher and Prasoon Joshi. The programme was telecast on August 6, 2011 on the ‘Times Now’ TV channel.
As part of the innovative pedagogy aimed at making the teaching-learning process more interactive and fun, the following tools were used in the course of teaching the core Economics papers
FILM SCREENINGS
We at SAMSOE believe that simply studying from textbooks is not enough. In today’s world, a holistic and well-rounded education is required. To that end, students are often shown films of various kinds; some aid the learning process while others allow them to relax after a long day.
The Movie Club screened the Academy Award-winning film ‘The Fighter’ on December 8, 2011.The film looks at the early years of boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.
The Movie Club screened the National Award-winning film ‘Parzania’ on November 24, 2011. The film is inspired by the true story of a ten-year-old Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, essayed in the film as Parzaan Pithawala in the film, who disappeared after the Gulbarg Society massacre on 28 February 2002. As part of the screening, Mr. Rahul Dholakia, director of the movie, interacted with the students the next day. He talked about the difficulties he faced during filming and the issues he had hoped to address through the film.
The Academy Award-winning film "The Dark Knight” was screened for the first year students on November 19, 2011 as part of their Micro Economics course. Prof. Amita Vaidya used the movie in a unique manner, as an introduction to Game Theory. She discussed how Game Theory was used in the movie & related it to the game theory used by firms in Oligopoly.
The Movie Club screened the film ‘La vie en Rose’- a French film- on November 17, 2011.
On August 9, 2011 a film "Nero’s Guests” was shown by Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar for the First Year B.Sc. Economics students. The basic objective of the movie was to study the issue of corporatization of India’s agriculture & the consequent fallout in the form of farmers’ suicides.The learning objectives were (1) To highlight the problems faced by the farmers in Vidharba. (2) To sensitize the students to the plight of farmers in India. The screening was followed by a class discussion.
On August 3, 2011 a film "Wall street” was screened by Dr. Rama Pal for First Year B. Sc. Economics students. The film, deals with the inside story of stock brokers and how they play games to reach to the top. This movie was a part of the "Economic Times” course.
CONFERENCES/SEMINAR/WORKSHOP ATTENDED & RESEARCH PAPERS PRESENTED
Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar attended the Platinum Jubilee National conference held at TISS Mumbai during 17th-19th February 2012 and presented a paper titled "Globalisation and the role of the State in Emerging Economy Conflict Zones: Regulatory Repressive vs. Participatory Active.”
On February 15, 2012, a workshop on, "Why this Kolaveri…?” a mental health session held for all the students of NMIMS and the BNCP on all kinds of addictions, smoking, alcohol, drug dependency, substance abuse to social networking at Bhaidas Hall from 10.00am – 12.30pm. Students of both F.Y. & S.Y. B.Sc. Economics attended. The program was emceed by two students of F.Y. B.Sc. Economics.
A work shop was conducted by Dr. Brindley on the topic ‘Opportunities (academics/ scholarships etc) offered by USF to students interested in pursuing higher education in the U.S.’ on February 6, 2012. The F.Y. & S.Y. B.Sc. Economics students attended the same.
Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar attended the "International Symposium on a Sustainable Future – 2012”, in IGIDR during 19th – 21st January 2012.
Karishma Tiwari, a second-year student won the Third Prize at Manshodhan -I on26th November, 2011 for her research paper titled ‘Global Food Inflation: Trend, Causes and Implications’ written under the guidance of Dr. Rama Pal.
Dr. Rama Pal, a faculty member of the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics presented a research paper titled ‘Inequalities in Child Health in India: Implications for Inclusive Educational Development’ at the Symposium of Ninth Conference of the Indian Association for Social Sciences and Health (IASSH), on November 24 & 25, 2011.
ORIENTATION 2011 – 12
The orientation programme for the First Year B.Sc. Economics batch (2011 – 2012) was organized on July 15 & 16, 2011. Refreshments were followed by an Orientation into Library Usage & Black Board ICT Technology by Mr. Shivanand S. (Librarian) and Mr. Sujeet Chowdhary respectively. Ms. Alka Shukla (Deputy Registrar) briefed the students about the examination system of the Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics, rules and regulations pertaining to the examination system as also the grading system followed at NMIMS.
The afternoon session consisted of an Ice-breaker session conducted by the Second Year B. Sc. Economics students in the presence of the faculty members.
A workshop on "Enhancement of Emotional Quotient” was conducted for the First Year B. Sc. Economics students on July 16, 2011 by Ms. Leonie D’Mello, a freelance trainer for the past two decades. The workshop lasted from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
A Workshop on "Lateral Thinking” was conducted on July 23, 2011 by Mr. Suhail Gupta, a consultant with Ideas Management Consultants- a firm which holds the patent to conduct Lateral Thinking workshops from Edward De Bono, the famous Lateral Thinking expert. This workshop was conducted for First Year B.Sc. Economics students.
