Business

MUMBAI: An alumnus of the prestigious London Business School, Kumar Mangalam Birla has created a 15 million pound endowed scholarship programme to honour the legacy of his late grandfather and veteran industrialist BK Birla, the Aditya Birla Group announced on Thursday. The scholarship programme is the largest endowed scholarship gift to a European business school. An endowed scholarship distinguishes itself from other one-time donations in a way that the money given to the educational institution is invested and never withdrawn with only the interest earned used to fund scholarships. The programme will support the education of ten full-time MBA candidates of the B-school every year in perpetuity including five Indian students and five students from the rest of the world. Performers belonging to the top 5% ranking in a class will be eligible for the scholarship that will be applicable to students beginning their stint at the school from the fall of this year. The Aditya Birla Group … [Read more...] about London Business School gets a 15 million pound endowed scholarship gift from KM Birla to honour BK Birla’s legacy

NEW DELHI: London Business School has announced a first-of-its-kind campaign to raise £100 million over the next five years to attract world-class faculty, double its scholarships offering, invest in the latest technology and fund the development of Old Marylebone Town Hall, the institute said in a statement. The campaign launch will cover seven cities in a three-week period, including India. A series of events, chaired by the school's dean, professor Sir Andrew Likierman and other faculty and alumni, will set out the school's vision for the future, the institute stated. Idan Ofer, industrialist and principal of the Quantum Pacific Group, has pledged to donate £25 million towards funding the redevelopment of the iconic Old Marylebone Town Hall, in London, which was acquired by London Business School in late 2012. The teaching and learning facility will be named 'The Sammy Ofer Centre' in honour of Idan's late father, Sammy Ofer KBE, a shipping magnate and philanthropist. … [Read more...] about London Business School announces campaign to raise GBP 100 mn

MUMBAI: A Bangalore-based career analytics start-up has received a Rs 5 lakh grant for a unique business plan competition for which they were evaluated by visiting students from the London Business School (LBS), in association with Mumbai's angel investors. As part of their education programme, 86 students from the LBS visited the financial capital last week and the competition was held to test their business analytics skills, professor John Mullins said here today. A total of three businesses from across sectors made business pitches, of which Kunal Varma's presentation won the prize. "This is a grant from our end. It is not an angel investment, where equity will exchange hands. We are thankful for all our friends here and this is a gift from the school," Mullins said. This is the second consecutive year where LBS students visited the country, he said. During their week-long stay in the city, LBS students visited a village to acquaint themselves with local entrepreneurs and … [Read more...] about London Business School funds Bangalore analytics start-up

Mumbai: As British insurer Aviva undergoes a global restructuring and looking to cut 1,800 jobs, it remains committed to the India business despite poor performance since its commencement of operations nearly two decades ago. Trevor Bull, CEO of Aviva India, a joint venture with Dabur, said the company is hopeful of getting a partner, preferably a bank, to drive growth. “There is zero impact of global cost cutting on India business,” said Bull. “India is set up for growth and investment. India and China are to be growth guns for Aviva.” In 2017, Aviva Group determined that the goodwill of £47 million and £18 million of its investment in Aviva Life Insurance Company India Limited were fully impaired following management’s annual impairment review. Aviva sells insurance policies through DBS and Bank of Maharashtra and through corporate agency tie-ups. Aviva is more interested in tie-ups for distribution channels to sell policies. Aviva is … [Read more...] about Zero impact of cost-cutting on India business, says Aviva

NEW DELHI: In a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious target of India breaking into top 50 nations on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking, the country has figured among the 20 countries that have improved the most on the list. China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan are also part of the list which, as per the bank “is purely based on the improvements across 10 different regulatory areas”. “India made it easier to do business in four areas measured by Doing Business,” the multilateral agency said. The best performing/ranked economies will be disclosed on October 24. Authorities in Mumbai and New Delhi made it easier to obtain construction permits by allowing the submission of labor inspector commencement and completion notifications through a single-window clearance system. Starting a business is less costly thanks to abolished filing fees for the SPICe company incorporation form, electronic memorandum of association and articles … [Read more...] about Ease of doing business: India among 20 most improved countries