The team members, the sister duo Richa Tandon and Bhavya Tandon, bagged the Best Social Message Award in their first car rally outing for their car decorated with balloons, tassels and messages in support of and to spread awareness about the LGBT+ community.

The chocolate-brown Honda Jazz hatchback was voted the Best Dressed Car at the event. Apart from being festooned with balloon and a huge rainbow banner on the top, It was plastered with posters on the sides with the slogan “We Stand Together” and “Long Live the Queer”. The hub caps were entirely covered with the Pride sign set against a rainbow background.

Times Women’s Drive, an initiative by The Times of India Group that started in Mumbai in  2009 added a new chapter of TWD-North this year by organising a drive from New Delhi to Jaipur. It is stated to be the world’s biggest All women car rally in TSD (time, speed and distance) format.

First Time Participants Richa-Bhavya’s Drive to Fame

This was the first time both the girls participated in a car rally. About herself, Richa says, “I work with something that is just opposite of driving- drinking! Jokes apart, I take care of the white spirits category of a liquor giant called Radico Khaitan. I’m a post-graduate in Integrated Marketing Communications.”

“Bhavya is a lawyer by profession. She has done her LLM from Edinburgh and is currently assisting the famous gay couple lawyers- Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy,” she adds.

It Took Guts to Drive With LGBT Message

About the overall experience, Richa says, “It took guts for us to drive my car with this message. It also took guts for TWD North and JKTyre motorsport to give us an award for this message.”

Despite changes in the colonial era laws, Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) remains a sensitive issue in India.

“We were a bit apprehensive about driving with this message on our car from Delhi to Jaipur, at the world’s largest all-women car rally. However, we got an overwhelming and positive response from other participants. We got flying kisses and thumbs up from strangers on the road, the cops and the toll guys,” says Richa.

“The first appreciation came at 2:30 am in the night when we were decorating the car and a car full of old uncles and aunties were driving pass by and stopped, I was a bit scared that they’d show discomfort or resentment, but they said “Wow, All the best, May the pride flag fly higher!”

“The rally was my first. My navigator was my superstar sister. Both of us sucked at Math and the rally was mostly about the precision of deriving time to cover a particular distance in, from the various distances and corresponding speed for a navigation map given by them (very different from the Google maps),” she adds.

Never Expected Any Award

The duo never expected to win any award. Richa says, “Our social message/ theme LGBTQ-We Feel for you. We Drive for you, we thought was bold but may be too controversial, but to everyone’s surprise, I was proven wrong when TWD North and JKTyre motorsport awarded us with the ‘best social message award’ and showed their bold and gallant support to the community,” she adds.

“Honestly speaking, like I said, this was our first rally and we knew that we won’t be doing it to win it. But then there were other award categories we knew we could maybe win if we put genuine effort.

How the LGBTQ Theme Came UP

“Bhavya is very supportive of this community. She’s done pride parades in Edinburgh before. That’s how the idea came. I took charge on doing the stickers and the flag printing and all.”

“Because of my hectic work schedule, I couldn’t get the time to do it before, so the two of us literally did the entire decoration and all at the 11th hour- just the night before the rally. Which is not brave of us, because after sleeping for literally just 3 hours, I did feel extremely sleepy on the highway, while driving to Jaipur,” she confesses.

“Overwhelming- is an understatement. The first appreciation came at 2:30 am in the night when we were decorating the car and a car full of old uncles and aunties were driving pass by and stopped, I was a bit scared that they’d show discomfort or resentment, but they said “Wow, All the best, May the pride flag fly higher!

“That gave us our first confidence. Next, when we reached Siri Fort (flag-off point) in the morning, we had all eyeballs. People were coming to our car and getting selfies clicked, unceasingly.

“And the best was when we realised that some gays were coming and appreciating, but the magic moment truly was when on the road, they were giving us flying kisses, when cops and random strangers and toll guys were doing thumbs up to show their strong support,” Richa says.

The rally had about 150 cars and over 300 participants. Each car had a theme and a message. The ones that stood out were Breast cancer, Blood donation, and menstrual hygiene to name a few.

Bhavya termed the drive as “one of the most amazing experiences” she ever had. “It took us a couple of hours to decorate our car. We could hardly sleep before the rally as we were but once we were at Siri fort and we saw such positive reaction from the crowd, it was all worth it.”

A lawyer by profession Bhavya had her graduation at KIIT school of law. She recently completed post-graduation in criminal law and justice from the University of Edinburgh.

“It was there where I got the chance to learn more about the LGBTQ community. And ever since my first pride parade in 2019, I want to work for the community till our society accepts them completely. It was just a small step we took, but definitely a courageous one,” she adds.

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In Technology, there is a huge demand for big data analysis, reports BusinessBecause quoting the Financial Times 2018 MBA Skills Gap survey. Technology Management was the second-most popular module behind leadership skills in a recent survey of more than 1,200 MBA candidates by CarringtonCrisp.

• Among the specialisations with the highest job prospects for MBAs are technology, finance and healthcare
• More than 50% of students at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business chose careers in technology
• Finance offers plenty of global opportunities for the millennial generation
• Entrepreneurship, another popular choice, has schools offering incubator hubs and other facilities for the students to gain hands-on work experience even before graduating
• In Marketing, while the demand for traditional roles in the US has increased by 79% in 2018, digital marketing recorded the highest numbers
• The prediction in Healthcare Management is that in the US alone, 2.4 million jobs will be created between 2016-26

MBA graduates of several B-schools in the US, including MIT Sloan and Berkeley Haas, found good roles in the sector. More than 50% of students at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business chose careers in technology.

Finance follows close behinds with around 22% of the graduates finding openings in the sector. It also offers plenty of global opportunities for the millennial generation. The schools included Wharton, London Business School, and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Next comes Entrepreneurship for those wanting to start their own ventures. Several of the schools, with their incubators for start-ups and other facilities, offer good opportunities for the students to develop the necessary skills even before graduating. Among these schools are Stanford Graduate School of Business, IE Business School in Madrid and Imperial College Business School in London.

In Marketing, while the demand for traditional roles in the US has increased by 79% in 2018, digital marketing recorded the highest numbers.  According to QS Business School rankings, 22% of Stanford’s graduates chose to go into marketing and the highest rated program in Europe was at ESADE, Barcelona.

The prediction in Healthcare Management is that in the US alone, 2.4 million jobs will be created between 2016-26. In the US, the top schools offering this specialisation include Harvard Business School and UCLA Anderson. In Asia, Goa Institute of Management and the National University of Singapore offer healthcare specialisations.

The event was organized by the World’s No.1 website for news and guidance on One Year Full-Time MBA courses – OneYearMBA.co.in and its sister website TwoYearMBAWorld.com. This was the second year of the annual event and like last time was a huge success with hundreds of MBA aspirants benefiting from direct interactions with top B-Schools. 

The institutes that participated at the event were SPJIMR Mumbai, IMT Ghaziabad, IIM Lucknow, TimesPRO, Praxis Business School and admitONE GMAT Prep & Admissions Consulting.

ONEConnect’s mega hoarding informed MBA aspirants of the participating B-Schools for a week before the event!

Representatives of the Schools answered participants’ queries regarding various aspects related to admissions such as eligibility norms, fee structure, application process, deadlines, scholarships and shared information about post MBA career growth.

ONEConnect was promoted extensively at CyberHub

Now in its 15th year, the 1-year Post Graduate Program in Management (PGPM) at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) is finding increasing acceptance among MBA aspirants as well as recruiters.

Dr Anjali Malik, Associate Professor, Marketing and Associate Program Head PGPM at SPJIMR said the program, now in its 15^th year, was initially among the lesser known ones.

It has picked up pace over the years with professionals having 5 to 6 years of work experience joining in to enhance their skills for roles in top management positions.

Hundreds of MBA aspirants thronged the event

The curriculum has also been upgraded to include Design Thinking & Innovation course and another one in Management & Liberal Arts, she added.

Dr Malik and Urvija Singh, Admissions Coordinator, SPJIMR, expressed happiness at the number of footfalls and the location of the event at Cyberhub in Cyber City, a corporate park in Gurgaon that houses some of the top IT & Fortune 500 companies. The target audience for business school is present at this venue, they said.

Meanwhile, the Praxis Business School stall attracted those looking for specialisations within MBA. Harish Dalwaipattan, Head, Marketing at Praxis said the School was offering a 1-year program in Business Analytics aimed 

SPJIMR Mumbai at ONEConnect ’17

at those with 2 to 5 years work experience with mathematics background with knowledge of IT.

The program, in Calcutta and Bangalore campuses, has two intakes in January and July. The classes comprise 35 to 40 students, he added.

Sonali Mehra, External Relations, Executive Education at IMT, Ghaziabad said the 1-year MBA programs were on the growth path with more and more specialisations being offered.

She said the program mainly catered to those looking to develop general management skills rather than specialisation as they have already developed a certain amount of expertise in their industry domain.

TimesPro mainly deals with short-term courses in digital marketing, banking and has recently launched one on data sciences. It is also an authorised educational partner for SAP,

IIM Lucknow representative Rishabh Saxena, Admissions Officer at IIM L said along with the rise in a number of applications for the 1-year full-time IPMX program, the quality of applicants has also improved considerably.

AdmitONE GMAT Prep & Admissions Consulting provided participants with information about how to crack admissions, preparation methodology, admission requirements, short-listing of schools and submitting of applications.

The event also opened a window for the aspirants to gather information about eligibility requirements class composition, average work experience, sectoral background, companies represented for different B-Schools, post MBA career opportunities-placements, key roles and recruiters.

A ONEConnect hoarding welcoming MBA aspirants at the CyberHub entrance

The conclave, themed ‘Emerging India — Opportunities & Challenges’, will feature keynote addresses by industry leaders and panel discussions among the CXOs of top-notch companies and academicians.

Perspectives on India’s Economic Future

The event seeks to provide perspectives on India’s economic future by examining opportunities and challenges for the evolving business ecosystem industries in three core areas — Next Generation Operations, Financial Inclusion and Human Capital Management, in the form of talks as well as panel discussions, an IIMB release said.

Speakers Line-up

The line-up of speakers include Juergen Hase, CEO – IoT Business, Reliance Group; Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman & Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motors; Dr. Jacob Crasta, Chairman CME Group, Co-Chairman ASSOCHAM (Southern Council), Member PM’s SME Council; Santhosh Jayaram, Partner, Sustainability & Climate Change, KPMG; D P Singh, VP and Head HR, IBM India and South Asia; Ajit Mishra, Chief Marketing Officer, Essar Oil; B Venkataramana, Group President – HR, Landmark Group.

Wide range of topics

They will discuss topics ranging from the role of sustainability and supply chains in India’s growth story, human capital and upskilling, role of financial inclusion in sustainable economic growth, knowledge management and consultancy, human capital management, and more.

ALSO READ: IIMA Wants To Double PGPX Intake To 180

The event is targeted at Operations, SCM, HR, Finance enthusiasts, sustainability and climate change specialists, professionals, students, policy specialists, and start-up executives.

The Conclave is organised by IIM Bangalore’s EPGP (Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management) batch of 2016-17.