KREA University is a Liberal Arts and Sciences, having a unique ‘Interwoven Learning’ approach that weaves creativity and action, arts and sciences, theory and practice, to make students ready for the real-world challenges and opportunities. It is backed by some of the best minds and thought leaders in the country, including Raghuram Rajan, the former RBI governor, N Vaghul, the former chairman of ICICI Bank, R Seshasayee, former chairman of Ashok Leyland and Infosys. With this, it is supported by many business leaders like Anand Mahindra, Sajjan Jindal, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and Anu Aga. Read on to know more about the recent happenings at the University.

Placement season observes top industry recruiters visiting IFMR GSB

IFMR Placements

Date:January 14, 2020

Top Business schools of the country reflect encouraging placement trends for the class of 2018-20. S P JAIN Mumbai and SIBM Pune have released final placement reports while interim reports reveal, 80% students placed at FORE School and 90% students of IFMR GSB has been recruited as of Jan 10th 2020.

The placement season at IFMR Graduate School of Business (IFMR GSB), Krea University located at Sri City looks impressive, as 90 % of the students from the batch 2018-20 already received job offers recently.

The average remuneration of INR 9.6 Lacs per annum reported so far is an increase of 10.5% from last year (average salary INR 8.67 Lacs p.a; highest was INR 18.8 Lac p.a). This is the 2nd batch of outgoing students who are being awarded MBA degrees from IFMR GSB, KREA University. The top recruiters include JPMC, Deloitte, E&Y and Infosys with similar number of offers followed by CRISIL, Credit Suisse, Accenture, HDFC, Nielsen, Temenos, Federal, Wipro, Barclays, Bank of America, Sammunati, Philips, KPMG, Genpact and HCL among others. 

“Out of total number of 185 students in campus, 32 students received PPOs, 130 students were offered jobs in the campus while 23 students are yet to accept an offer or waiting for the right kind of role or company”, said Prof. Shreenath Ramamurthy Head, Placement, Career Services and Corporate Relations.

“The 10 weeks long Summer Internship, enabled the PPOs in large numbers. It helped corporates evaluate the interns and make early offers to the students as they met their recruitment criteria well”, added Prof. Shreenath.

Apart from the roles in Quantitative finance, Research Analyst, Financial Modeling, the campus also witnessed profiles being offered in sales and marketing, Relationship Management and other non-finance roles.

Summer placements for the batch 2017-19 went well, with the highest stipend offer of INR 1 Lac and an average stipend offer of INR 32 thousand for 2 months. A total of 45 companies participated, and the top recruiters included Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, HSBC Bank, CRISIL, EY, JP Morgan Chase and Co, among others. Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, and Royal Bank of Scotland offered a stipend of INR 1 lac.

Finance and Research Symposium at IFMR GSB

IFMR GSB Krea University

Date: December 16, 2019

IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) at Krea University organized a two-day Research Symposium on Finance and Economics at the university campus. The Symposium focused on various topical subjects within the world of Finance and Economics like Financial Globalization and Economic Development, emerging trends in Corporate Finance and Governance, Behavioral Finance, Digital Finance, Asset Pricing and Financial Markets. The Symposium was a successful event that saw over 50 participants and 20 paper presentations.

Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, Dean-IFMR Graduate School of Business in his welcome address highlighted, “The Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) has a rich tradition of academic and research excellence. Research pursued at IFMR has a practical orientation and policy relevance. This Research Symposium is a platform for the exchange of ideas, questions and answers between academics, students and industry practitioners from many corners of the world, making it an intellectually stimulating and enriching experience. The high quality of sessions and paper presentations is a testimony to the high esteem in which they hold Krea University and IFMR GSB.”

Vice-Chancellor of Krea University, Dr. Sunder Ramaswamy shared in his opening message that IFMR GSB had begun a new journey under the aegis of Krea University, pioneering interwoven learning to prepare students for a dynamically diverse world. He further reiterated that for the historically research focussed IFMR GSB, the Research Symposium is an important initiative. The participation of researchers from India and abroad, as well as the careful selection of papers by the Scientific Committee, evidences tremendous support this initiative has received.

Dr. Parab Bardhan, Professor of Graduate School at the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley delivered the inaugural address. In his talk, Dr. Bardhan spoke about the impact of inequality and inefficiency on the economy. Citing recent research, he said “a long-term rise in inequality can push the economy into a deep recession. It may hurt macroeconomic performance by making it difficult to stimulate enough mass consumer spending”.

The Symposium included a pre-symposium workshop on empirical corporate finance, plenary sessions, technical sessions, and a panel discussion. Some of the speakers included Dr. Nagpurnanand Prabhala from the John Hopkins Cary Business School, Dr. Paresh Narayan from Deakin University, Australia and Dr. Bala Balachandran from La Trobe University, Australia.

KREA University organizes inaugural ceremony themed ‘Cinema’

KREA University

Date: December 13, 2019

Krea University has launched the futuristic 'Amphitheatre' on campus. It will be a platform for showcasing diverse literary and cultural activities such as hosting graduation and social events like movie nights, parent meetings, among others. Gp Capt P Ramesh (Retd), Chief Administrative Officer, Krea University, Mr. Senthil, Project Team member, Krea University and Dr. Bishnu Mohapatra, Dean, School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences lit the ceremonial lamp. The student committees of IFMR GSB and SIAS worked in collaboration under anchors Joseph Anthony and Kinny Singh (IFMR GSB) to organize the inaugural ceremony themed ‘Cinema’.

Dr. Mohapatra during the address to the student community emphasized the need to utilize the space as a venue for performance, assembly, and informal gathering calling it an 'Agora' or an 'Adda'. The formal addresses transitioned into an eve of performances by students of both schools. The audience stayed entertained by an array of performances ranging from music and dance performances, poetry reading, stand-up comedy and more.

The inauguration of the amphitheater was a success as everyone, performers and spectators alike were overpowered by a sense of joy and enthusiasm. Ranging from the star-crossed lover's tale of Leila Majnu by IFMR GSB’s Abhinay to the fun light-hearted dance by SIAS’s dance club... poetry on hopes by Pooja Basutkar to the bitter-sweetness of graduation by Ojal Jain, the inauguration evoked a range of emotions among the students.

IFMR GSB engages with alumni, seek advice on restructuring pedagogy

IFMR GSB

Date: November 26, 2019

Restructuring pedagogy and evolving curriculum to make it industry-relevant is a challenge that all top Business Schools across the globe have been facing. While IFMR Graduate School of Business at Krea University, known to be backed by some of the best minds in the country like former RBI Chief, Raghuram Rajan and supported by business leaders the likes of Anand Mahindra, Sajjan Jindal, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others, has been no exception. 

During the recently held alumni meet, seeking inputs from the star-studded highly successful alumni towards developing and re-designing the curriculum was one key objective among other fun-filled activities. The reminiscent alumni wholeheartedly participated in the discussions and deliberated on the topic suggesting changes for possible implementation which may impact the upcoming batches of their alma-mater. 

Dr. Sunder Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Anantha Nageswaran, Dean IFMR GSB, and Dr. Bishnu Mohapatra, Dean SIAS interacted with the alumni on various topics from the current economic state, interwoven learning system to upcoming infrastructure in the campus, which followed cultural programs, Halloween themed events, games and a late-night musical fest. 

Nostalgic alumni Saurabh Saha, Head of Category Marketing at Udaan.com expressed his thankfulness and said, “Having worked on improving alumni relations during my time at IFMR, I know how hard it is to engage with the alumni community and get their time. However, having so many of them turn up for today is a testament to the planning and effort that must have gone into making it successful.”

IFMR GSB which has one of the highest ‘faculty: student ratio’ among private business schools in India offers 22 core and approximately 55 elective courses, spanning 8 disciplines for the two-year MBA program in Finance, Marketing, IT & Operations, HR, and Financial Engineering, with additional specializations in Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) & Data Sciences (Business Analytics). 

KREA University: India can be the Educational Hub for Asia & Africa, says Dr. Raghuram Rajan

Krea University

Date: November 6, 2019

Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Advisor - Governing Council & Academic Council, Krea University and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India interacted with the students and faculty at the IFMR Graduate School of Business and School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) at Krea University Campus recently.

During the interaction, Dr. Rajan congratulated the students and faculty for setting extraordinary standards of excellence, while abiding with the core values of the University. He said that the students of today have great challenges ahead of them which are born out of an extremely fast-paced and complex world. The challenges of the 21st century are substantially different in scale scope and space. He added the mission of Krea University is to create a new generation of thinking Indians who will contribute to the development of the globe. He also urged the students to be courageous and develop a spirit of curiosity that questions everything, learns from the past and takes bold new steps towards the future. 

“We can be the Educational Hub for Asia & Africa if India can build world-class universities. There are thousands and thousands of students who would like to learn closer to home. What the country needs is to create an environment where an education ecosystem can flourish.” Dr. Rajan added. Speaking on employment and jobs Dr. Rajan said: “What we need is an atmosphere where young graduating students are motivated to create new businesses rather than just relying on corporate jobs.”

The Governing and Academic councils of Krea University have captains of corporate India and eminent academics who have teamed up to transform education and create an institution of global prominence. A varied academic council with people like Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Manjul Bhargava, and John Etchemendy bring their own experiences, to put together programs that help students develop broad perspectives and think both creatively and critically.