After getting a good response, NIIT Imperia is now ready to expand nationwide and is planning to double its centers by March 2008. Currently, NIIT Imperia offers the program at 10 centers in eight cities. It plans to expand to 20 centers in 16 cities by March 2008. It recently added two new centers in Bhubaneshwar and Nagpur as part of the expansion plan.

NIIT Imperia was launched in September last year with academic support from three leading management institutes: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) and IIM Indore (IIM-I).

Secunderabad-based TIME (Triumphant Institute of Management Education), one of the leading MBA training institutes, organized a seminar on MBA as a career option on September 16 at its different study centers including Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon. The theme of the seminar was Chak De! CAT 2008.

The first MDP program began on September 3. Several MDPs in areas like finance, operations, quality management and HR practices are scheduled in September, October and November 2007.

NIIT Imperia says that these MDPs are created to meet specific skill-gaps amongst corporate executives. Speaking to MBAUniverse.com, Dr Smarajit Dey, president, NIIT Ltd. said, The long term executive programs are more comprehensive knowledge oriented. MDPs deal with specialized skills that executives desire.

The workshop, titled Beyond Voice, provided an opportunity to the students learn about marketing realities and interact with the industry leaders.
The key speakers at the workshop were Mr Raghuvesh Swarup, Head of Product Marketing at Nokia and Mr Manish Sabnis, National Operator Accounts Manager at Nokia. Mr Raghuvesh Swarup is a post-graduate from XLRI Jamshedpur from 1993 batch while Mr Manish Sabnis is a JBIMS alumnus from 1993 batch.

Confirming the news to MBAUniverse.com, FMS Dean, Prof J K Mitra said, Dr Kalam has accepted our invitation in principle to join us as honorary adjunct professors which mean he will join us as a full-time professor. His joining will take some time as we are working on the modalities. However, Prof Mitra refused to divulge further details, saying more specifics would be forthcoming by the end of November.

addressed students at the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai.He delivered talk on consulting as a career option and gave a holistic view of the challenges and opportunities in consulting and the thumb rules to follow when one gets into it.

Kumari Selja, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for housing and urban poverty allevation, was also present.

FOSTIIMA is an intiative of seven IIM alumni including noted entrepreneur Mr Jerry Rao. Speaking to MBAUniverse.com Mr Anil Somani, Founder Trustee & Executive Chairman, FOSTIIMA, said, We imbibe a lot from IIMs and through this initiative we would like to contribute in some way toward society by developing a talent pool and inculcating in them leadership and managerial skills.

This was the advice offered by Mr Chad Troutwine, Founder of Veritas-Prep, a US-based leading GMAT-prep company while responding to a aspirant query on AskMBAUniverse.com, a new Expert-Q&A platform launched recently on the website. The average amount of work experience at the top US MBA programs ranges from 4 years for Stanford to 6 years for Wharton, said Mr Troutwine. If you want to attend a top international B-school, I strongly suggest that you work for 4-6 years, gaining valuable leadership experience and industry-specific knowledge.

He stressed that how relatively easy it is for a fresh graduate to take risks like the one he did, drawing a parallel with other young entrepreneurs. Commenting on the value of an MBA in his career path, he said, The safety net of a management degree gave me the opportunity to take the risk. It was a tool to be organized in a sector as disorganized as the film industry.

American Homes fall was triggered by the recent meltdown of the market for securities backed by risky U.S. home loans and the debt crisis that followed.