Bangalore Management Academy and IFAN have conducted an all India essay competition on the topic ‘The Market Economy and its impact on the Global Financial Crisis’.

 There were 40 entries from all over the country, out of which 28 papers were shortlisted for the final presentation. The judges for the event were Ms. Priti Parekh, Mr. Asif Syed and Ms. Rekha. The participants were invited to BMA for their paper presentation on 31 October, 2009.

The 28 Students were divided into four groups and asked to speak on these following topics in the first session:

1)      Rule of law

2)      Why are property rights important?

3)      The role of the state in a market economy

4)      What does Globalization mean?

Dr. Amir Ulla Khan, moderator of the session, invited the candidates of the groups to speak on the topics given above.

The spokesperson of the first group Ms. Roly Yadav spoke on Rule of law. She spoke about the Natural Justice and Constitution.  The group tried to answer the questions asked by the audience.

The spokesperson of the second group spoke on the topic ‘Why are property rights important?’ They too answered the questions asked by the audience.

The next spokesperson of group three spoke on the topic ‘The role of the state in a market economy’. She spoke about the different policies of the government. Dr. Amir Khan asked the students about the state interference in market economy in the US.

The fourth and last spokesperson, Gokul Krishna, spoke on the meaning of globalization and its benefits. Responding to the question asked by Dr. Khan on the negative impacts of globalization, the participants discussed the impact of recession in the US that is affecting the economy of other countries. They also gave examples of various industries, especially textile industry. The judge for the presentation, Mr. Asif Syed, asked the question to the students about the percentage of textile industry in India immediately after independence.

After a coffee break the paper presentations by the participants began at 11.30 a.m. Every participant was given ten minutes to present their paper and two minutes were devoted for the Q and A session.

The first session of the paper presentation was for an hour and a half, and consisted of nine participants. Ms. Sandhya was the moderator for the session. She introduced the topic and also briefed the parameters of the judgment.

1)      The first participant was Parnika Malhothra from Amity Law School. She spoke on ‘Credit rating agencies’ and its failure which caused the financial crunch and the lack of regulation on the part of the government.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

2)      The second participant was Shyam Chandvale from ILS Law College. He spoke on limited governance, market economy and its impact on global financial crisis and possible solutions.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and other participants.

3)      The third participant was Karthik R from Amrita School of Business. He spoke on Global financial crisis and Subprime prices.

The presentation was followed by questions from Amir Ullah Khan. He asked if we should discourage investment of foreign money. Asif Syed asked a question to the participant which led to an interesting discussion.

4)      The fourth participant was Kush Karla from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law.  He spoke what happened due to the recession. He spoke about investment banks which have caused the crunch and thus recession. He spoke about the housing crunch and real estate market. He said India should look for the diversification for its export markets.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Rekha asked if the crisis had led to the recession or vice-versa.

5)      The fifth participant was Saloni Khanderia from National Law School of India University. She and her partner spoke on the factors responsible for the crisis and chaos in the global market. She emphasized on the weak regulation.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Rekha asked her a question on low credit transparency.

6)      The sixth participant was Paras Katoch from Amrita School of Business. He spoke on how the global financial crisis occurred. He explained the business cycle. He also spoke about the recovery from the present crisis.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students. Asif Syed asked if ‘Sub prime lending’ is the cause of the crisis. Ms. Parekh asked how the crisis could be prevented from occurring again.

7)      The seventh participant was Sahana D.S. from Holy Shepherd Education Society. She spoke about the reduction in foreign equity flows, shrinking of credit markets overseas, global fall and the outputs of the countries.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

8)      The eighth participant was Kajal Gupta from Mount Carmel Institute of Management. She touched upon the outcomes of the financial meltdown, optimum level of regulation, banking panic, causes of crisis, impact on Indian industries and world’s economy.

 The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students. Ms. Rekha asked if Obama’s intervention has benefited.

      9)    The ninth participants were Swati Mishra and Divya Vaswani from Indian Business            Academy. Divya Vaswani was the presenter. She spoke on Market economy, deregulation, securitization, SPL, panic in market, fall in house prices and financial instability.

              The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

After the lunch break the participants assembled at 1.30 p.m. at the seminar hall.

10)   The tenth participant was Neha Rani from Global Entrepreneurship & Mgt Academy. She spoke about free economic system, banking crisis, optimum banking regulation and reasons for global crisis.

      The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Parekh asked if the suggestions given by the participant could avoid such crisis.

11)   The eleventh participants were Navneet Kaur and her partner Mrinal Chadda from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College. Mrinal Chadda was the presenter. He spoke about the economic and housing bubble. He also said that the recessions are demand driven. He gave a hypothesis of a baby-sitting business.

 The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

12)   The twelfth participant was Charlotte Roland D’Souza from Mount Carmel Institute of Mgt. She spoke on the causes for financial crisis and its impact on financial institutions. She also gave an illustration of the housing bubble.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students. Asif Syed asked her if this was a defect with the market economy model or the American economy model.

13)  The thirteenth participant was Ankit Garg from IIT Roorkee.  He spoke about repercussions of the crisis. He also spoke about American debts and its self regulatory market. He compared China’s economy to Russia’s economy. He also suggested possible solutions for the crisis.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Rekha asked him if he had drawn parallel from the Great Depression with the present crisis.

14)   The fourteenth participant was Vijay Ramdas from National Degree College. He spoke about the causes of the crisis, counter cycle and comprehensiveness.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students. Ms. Rekha asked him about the moral practices in business.

15)  The fifteenth participant was Roli Yadav from Mount Carmel Institute of Mgt. According to her profligate lending, use of excessive land use regulation, deficient regulation, failure of market discipline, and shadow banking system was responsible for the US financial crisis.

               The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students. Ms. Rekha asked about real channels. Asif Syed asked her if she thought that market economy does not work.

16)  The sixteenth participant was Shrimn Nishit from MIT- Manipal University. He opined that though market economy was responsible for the financial crisis it was not the only reason for the crunch.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

17)   The seventeenth participant was Balaji D from R.S.K. Higher Secondary School. He spoke on subprime mortgages, innovation and equity.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Rekha asked him in what positive way had market economy impacted global financial crisis.

18)  The eighteenth participant was Selvam from St. John International Residential School. He touched upon the American economy downfall and the housing bubble and fall of the banking system. He spoke on how the global financial crisis affected Indian economy.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Asif Syed asked him whether the global economy would be more stable if the other countries’ economy would grow bigger than America’s economy.

After a short coffee break the paper presentations continued.

19)  The nineteenth participant was Ben C. Das from St. John International Residential School. He covered the types, causes and consequences of financial crisis like market failure and regulatory failure.

 The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Rekha asked him to explain one of the regulatory failures.

20)  The twentieth participant was Gokul Krishna from St. John International Residential School. He held the American Dream to own a house fueled by easy credit conditions responsible for the present financial crisis. He touched upon shadow banking system, investment banks, leverage, job losses, subprime mortgages, and so on.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges. Ms. Parekh asked if he had dreams like the ‘American dream’ and so, does greed have an end.

21)   The twenty-first participant was V. Srinath from St. John International Residential School.  He spoke about housing bubble, subprime mortgages, refinancing, ARM and so on.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges.

22)   The last participant was Samruddi from Jyotinivas College. She spoke on the impact of the crisis that has affected globally. She opined that America did not regulate the investment banks and innovation.

The presentation was followed by questions from the judges and students.

Panel Discussion

The judges shared their views with the audience during the panel discussion. A general feedback was given by each judge to the participants regarding the techniques and content of the paper presenters. The judges congratulated all the participants. However, they felt that the paper presentations should have been based on the participants’ observation and research rather than just a compilation from the data available.

 Ms. Priti Parekh gave some ideas on how a good PPT should be. She said that the presenters should wear comfortable clothes while presenting a paper and should have a formal tone. Ms. Parekh also asked the students to pursue their hobbies. 

Mr. Asif Syed asked the students to be cynical about whatever they read because all companies have profit motives. He warned them not to rely completely on the data available and urged them to draw original ideas from what they read.

Ms. Rekha asked the participants to be passionate about whatever they do and convinced about what they are saying. She asked them to be conscious of their environment and the audience reaction to their presentation. She also said that they should be well prepared for their presentation.

Dr. Amir Ulla Khan initiated a conversation in the panel discussion with the following questions:

1)      How has India seen the Global crisis?

2)      Why is FDI less in India compared to China?

3)      Are the IT firms in India highly hit due to the global financial crisis?

Prize Distribution

The certificates of participation were announced by Ms. Sandhya P and given away by Mr. Joe Thomas to all the participants.

The prize winners were announced.

The first prize was bagged by Parnika Malhotra of Amity Law School

The second prize was bagged by Paras Katoch of Amrita School of Business

And the third prize was bagged by Navneeth Kaur and Mrinal Chadda of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.

There was a special mention for Ankit Garg, Selvam, Vikas Patochi for their presentation.

The session ended with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Amir Ulla Khan.