He was delivering the special address at the CIIs National Conference and Annual Session 09 in New Delhi on March 27, 2009.

Differentiating the current crisis from the previous ones, Dr. Ahluwalia said, The crisis is being transmitted to India from foreign channels and the positive side is that Indian rural economy has not been as adversely affected as the urban one. The slowdown presents an opportunity for Indian Business leaders to introspect and optimize the present opportunity to emerge stronger for the more competitive times to come.

Indias leading management portal MBAUniverse.com analyzed this years placement trends and compared it to previous years reports of all IIMs to draw this conclusion. It has been examined from the placement reports that students are being offered lesser salary as compared to last year. Considering the current economic meltdown and shrinking job opportunities in the market, passing-out students are left with no other options than to accept job offers with low salaries.

While addressing the graduating students at the joint Annual Convocation of IMT Ghaziabad and Nagpur on March 21, 2009, Mr. Mahindra said, The old order is changed, and nobody quite knows that what the new order is going to be which will make this generation first of new breed. The great challenge will be to wrest triumph out of what appears to be a global disaster, to build on the lessons of the past to secure a better future.

The institute had invited Mr. Anand G. Mahindra, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. as the chief guest for the occasion. Other eminent personalities at the Convocation included Mr. Bakul Nath, Vice President, IMT; Dr. Bidya S. Sahay, Director of IMT Ghaziabad; Dr. Anwar Ali, Director of IMT Nagpur.

Mr. Mahindra conferred degrees and diplomas on all graduating students of IMT Ghaziabad and Nagpur.

The conference will provide a forum in which delegates can interact and network, with the topic areas being at the forefront of corporate governance developments in an international context.

Prof Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director of IIM Calcutta, will deliver inaugural address and Prof Asish K Bhattacharyya, Conference Coordinator, will deliver the welcome address. The theme of the conference is Corporate Governance at crossroads.

While addressing the theme Turning crisis into opportunity: The role of governance and reform at CII session Prof. C K Prahlad said, Indian business leaders need to reinvent ideas to tackle the current crisis, and they are competent enough to do so. There is a requirement of innovative ideas at all spheres in the corporate sector to come out of the current crisis. He was speaking at the CII National Conference and Annual Session 2009 in New Delhi on March 26, 2009.While throwing light on the causes of the current crisis, Prof.

While encouraging business leaders to adopt innovative ideas by referring to some of the success stories of top Indian companies, Prof. Prahlad said, India has the ability to become a hub of innovations. The business models adopted by some of the Indian companies have repeatedly proved that through innovation profit can be maximized; and they have ensured that the quality product can be delivered to masses at low prices. For instance, Tatas Nano, Airtel, Amul Jaipur Rugs, Aravind Eye Care, Jaipur Foot and many others are the result of the innovations.

The first day of the two-day conference addressed various sub-themes like Turning crisis into opportunity; Global economy and its impact on India: The outlook; The emerging role of public sector in a post crisis economy; Indian economy: reforms required; Governence: What are the reforms required; and Agenda for first 100 days of the new government, etc.

The objective of the forum was to provide a platform for global business leaders, academics, policy-makers and sector-specialists to debate some of the most pertinent issues affecting business, economic and social growth in this part of the world this year, the focus was on health and the environment.

The fourth Oxford India Business Forum was started with the opening comments from Mr. S. Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., who was also the Founding Sponsor of the event.

Now in the line of convocations, it was the turn of Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB) which hosted the 18th annual Convocation in its campus on March 21, 2009.
The Chief Guest on the occasion was Shri. Siddhartha Behura, I.A.S., Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. Also present on the occasion were Shri.Rajive Kaul, Chairman of XIMB , Fr. P.T.Joseph S.J., Director, Prof. W.S.William, Dean (Academics) and Fr.Tony Uvary S.J., Dean (Administration).