IIT-JEE coaching pioneer to down shutters after 57 years

A Mumbai-based institution has decided to slip quietly into history. Agrawal Classes, that large blue neonlit sign seen from the Dadar flyover, will turn its lights off as the coaching institute has decided to down its shutters after sharpening a million minds for 57 years. G. D. Agrawal, who started tutoring children in maths at his Matunga home, is today in his eighth decade, with none of his heirs ready to carry on with his dream of teaching science. “We are no longer taking students. We have decided to shut down the class. It’s the final decision that the owner has taken,” the woman at the admissions counter said on Wednesday.

So, many of its alumni, including Nadir B. Godrej (1969) of Godrej Industries, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani (1975), Mahendra Choksi (1960) and Ashwin Dani (1961) of Asian Paints and Phaneesh Murthy (1980) of iGate Global Solutions, will, while passing through Dadar, be greeted by the blank facade of Harganga Mahalthe building they once went to every morning to learn the fundamentals of science.

After the initial eight years, Agrawal moved out of his home to a place in Dadar TT, then the heart of Bombay, and soon expanded his menu of courses to include physics, chemistry and English. In 1962, its first year of coaching students preparing to get into the IITs, V. D. Hattangadi bagged the all India rank 1, the news making Agrawal Classes the top destination for engineering aspirants in the country. The tagline, “Ideal for Scholars” said it all the class admitted only top rankers and promised to make them even better. Go-getters would come to the city just to be coached at Agrawal. “If you made it to Agrawal, you knew you had made it,” said an old student. While the number of students it admitted went up every year, the values that Agrawal started will never change.

Source: The Times of India, December 30, 2010

In coaching heartland Kota, competition is for faculty

Over 20 years ago, V. K. Bansal, an engineer who suffered from muscular dystrophy, began the first IIT-JEE coaching institution in Kota, pioneering the coaching class boom in this sleepy town in Rajasthan. Virtually all coaching classes in Kota, including the popular “Resonance”, were started by former faculty at Bansal Classes. And now, seven teachers from Resonance, including three heads of department (HoDs), have formed a brand new coaching class called “Rise”. A number of students enrolled in Resonance have shifted to Rise. There has been a great deal of bad blood with each institution accusing the other of treachery.

Two months ago, the three HoDs, who are now with Rise, informed the management at Resonance of their intention to start their own coaching institution after the current academic session got over in February as they didn’t want students to suffer from the split. Suddenly, at a meeting on Saturday, faculty at Resonance was informed that these three HoDs were no longer with the institution. “We were all really shocked by the move. All seven of us (three HODs and four teachers) quit and formed Rise the very next day,” said Amay Pandey, a former chemistry teacher at Resonance, who is now with Rise. According to Pandey, the moment students got to know of this, there was an uproar at Resonance, with 1000 students making the switch from Resonance to Rise within a few hours. “We closed admission to Rise on Monday night,” said Pandey.

Manoj Sharma, Vice President, Operations and Business Development at Resonance, has a completely different version of the events that unfolded over the Christmas weekend. For starters, he disputes the figures. Only 100-150 students have left us for the new class. We have seen a mere 2-3 % drop in attendance,” said Sharma. As for sacking the faculty mid-session, Sharma said this was because they were openly recruiting both students and staff from Resonance for the new coaching class while on the rolls of Resonancea claim the Rise team has vehemently denied. “They are at liberty to start their own class, but they should not do this at our expense. There was no need to discuss their plans with students and teachers,” said Sharma.

Source: The Times of India, December 30, 2010

Engineers may soon find it easier to work, study abroad

In two months, India is likely to become a permanent member of an international accord that will make its graduate engineering degrees recognized among all member-states. Permanent membership of the Washington Accord will benefit hundreds of thousands of students from more than 3,000 engineering colleges in the country, said the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulates technical education. It will make the four-year bachelor of technology (B.Tech.) degree offered by AICTE-approved and accredited institutes equivalent to similar degrees offered in 13 other permanent member countries of the accord. These are the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.

Besides making it easier for Indian engineers to study further, or work in these countries, India’s permanent membership will also facilitate faculty exchanges, international collaborations and joint research work. Engineering students who have already graduated may not enjoy the same benefits.

“A two-member committee is visiting New Delhi in early February to meet us and tour several engineering colleges in the country in this regard. Our aspiration to become a permanent member should get realized soon after,” AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha said. The panel will include a member each from the US and Singapore.

The Washington Accord came into existence in 1989. To become its permanent member, a country needs to be a temporary member for two years. India’s temporary membership will expire in July 2011. Russia, Turkey, Germany, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also currently hold temporary membership. While taking the temporary membership, India asked for a review of its accreditation system and the standard of its engineering degrees. After the review, a team suggested reforms in the accreditation system.

Mantha said over the past 18 months, AICTE has been implementing these changes, such as online application processing and clearance of accreditation. The system has also been made more transparent, with institutes posting infrastructure and faculty details on their as well as the AICTE’s website. A better monitoring system has also been put in place.

“This academic session, all fresh permission and renewal of AICTE recognition was done online. The monitoring was regular and the educational institutes were also cooperative in uploading a variety of details. We hope this has strengthened our stand,” Mantha said. AICTE, which is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), has sent a preliminary report to the accord committee on the changes brought in over the past year, he added.

J. Veeraraghavan, former education secretary, said India should become a member of the accord if it helps improve the quality and accreditation standards of engineering education. “We should go for improving (the) quality of our engineering degrees through this. If it talks about relaxing our regulating standard, then we should refrain.” The accord will increase the global mobility of Indian engineers, said Veeraraghavan, who is now the director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust. “India should not worry about brain drain as we have a huge manpower pool. India can increase the engineering student intake and fulfil its demand, as well as the demand of some other countries,” he added. India produces nearly 800,000 engineers every year. The Union government plans to add 200,000 more seats in the next academic year.

India’s permanent membership of the Washington Accord will not benefit the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), a group of 15 elite engineering colleges that has its own reguatory mechanism, and does not fall under AICTE’s purview. IITs already have collaborations with leading overseas institutes.

Source: Mint, December 30, 2010

Engineering colleges have to reserve up to 5% seats

From now, technical institutes approved by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) have to reserve up to five per cent of their seats for students from economically backward sections of the society. “Till now, tution fee waiver scheme operated by AICTE allowed providing up to 10 per cent supernumerary seats that are given to students of economically backward category. “It was the discretion on the part of the institution to apply for such a scheme. Now these seats are made mandatory for every institute up to five per cent,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said today. Unveiling the revised AICTE norms here today, he said the technical institutes can from now on can increase the intake capacity per programme from 40 to 60 seats.

Opening up the doors to the corporate sector, he said companies can also set up technical institutes provided they set up entities registered as a non-profit entity under section 25 of the Company’s Act to run such institutes. No joint venture will, however, apply to this, he said, adding the scheme would only be allowed in 241 districts where at present no AICTE approved institute exist.

“If corporate sector wants to offer AICTE programmes, they can do so after setting up a section 25 company without a joint venture, and thereafter seek approval from AICTE for the programmes,” he said. At present, only trusts and cooperative societies are allowed to run technical institutes. Further, corporates can set up campuses through PPP or through build-operate-transfer mode under agreement with public sector. Further relaxing norms, he said in rural sector, only 10 acre will be required to set up an engineering institute while in urban sector only 2.5 acre.

He said the measures are aimed at easing the pressure on the education sector and providing relief to the students in matters of admission. “These are all incentives given for expansion of the education sector because the demand is huge and supply is less and the problems of fees etc. So when the sector expands and meets demands, the pressure on the system will be much less. It will be easier for students,” he said.

Significantly, Sibal also said that as per the new AICTE norms, stand alone PG programme can be offered by institutes as against the existing norm where PG courses are allowed in campuses where under graduate programme exist. He said B.Sc. students can seek lateral entry to a second year degree programme provided they have passed Mathematics at XII or at B.Sc. level besides engineering graphics and engineering mechanics along with second year subjects.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), December 30, 2010

Radiology MD seat costs Rs. 15 million, yet not available for next 3 years

An MD radiology seat under management and NRI (Non-Resident Indian) quota in medical colleges costs Rs. 12.5-15 million. And despite this pulse-stopping figure, seats have been sold out for the next two to three years. This is the where the gravy train starts, an explanation why consulting specialists and treatment in specialty hospitals cost the earth. No doubt modern equipment is expensive and adds to the cost of treatment, but the fee that an MBBS graduate pays is the main factor.

It’s an open secret: the fee charged by some deemed university medical colleges, as well as those affiliated to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), range from Rs. 6 million to Rs. 15 million. A few years ago, orthopedics was the hot favourite. Now it is radiology which commands Rs. 12.5-15 million. If graduates don’t book their seats now, they should be prepared to add 10-20 % premium the next year. Early booking ensures the rate is frozen.

So what could be the reason that radiology costs so much? Believe it or not, it’s insurance companies plus the fear of litigation, say doctors. No hospital wants to get mired in litigation, so the first things recommended are exhaustive investigations, ranging from common blood tests to MRI. This has generated demand for specialists, says a doctor. The first thing a patient is asked on arrival in hospital is whether he/she has a mediclaim policy. If the patient has one, a battery of tests is ordered, whether required or not, the doctor noted.

Source: The Times of India, December 30, 2010

IT companies hope to attract programmers, clients with architectural sizzle

A massive futuristic office complex is rising from a patch of spare, arid land near Chennai. Six butterfly-shaped buildings dock like spacecraft to two long metal-latticed terminals. About 12,000 people already work at the campus, being built by India’s largest technology company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). It eventually will have space for 24,000 of Tata’s nearly 180,000 employees.

Meanwhile Infosys, one of Tata’s biggest competitors, has added a corporate campus for 15,000 employees with buildings that resemble the Parthenon, the Coliseum and the Louvre’s glass pyramid. Infosys plans to build an additional 10 million square feet of custom office space by mid-2012, at various sites, adding 25,000 workers to its current 122,000.

It is all part of a construction spree by India’s outsourcing companies, which are growing at a breakneck pace after the lull caused by the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. But the building boom is about more than making room for more workers. The outsourcing giants, which include Wipro and others, hope that architectural sizzle can help them compete for the nation’s top software programmers, while also burnishing their reputations with overseas clients and prospective customers.

In this nation where world-class high-tech companies co-exist with urban slums and rural poverty, employers like Tata, Infosys and Wipro have set out to create avant-garde, environmentally smart corporate sanctuaries. And even if some architects and critics complain about the wisdom and taste of the efforts, the executives behind the building boom say their ambitious projects put a modern face on Indian business. T.V. Mohandas Pai, a Director at Infosys, which has 15 campuses around India, said his company’s eclectic mix of designs from all over the world reflected this nation’s inclusive sensibility. “One singular thing is monotonous,” he said. “In India, we are a colorful people.”

Like China a decade earlier, India appears to be at that phase of economic development where buildings are meant to help advertise the nation’s arrival on the world stage. But unlike China, where the government and state-owned corporations took the lead, private companies in India have headed the charge — not the government, which struggles to execute even basic construction projects.

And within India’s business world, technology companies have been more adventurous than others, perhaps because of their outsize financial success and their need to hire tens of thousands of workers to write software for foreign clients. State and federal governments are aiding the effort by offering these companies generous tax incentives and choice pieces of real estate to build big campuses.

Competition for employees is intense, because while India produces about 500,000 engineers every year, most colleges provide such poor education that the industry says that just a quarter of graduates are employable. But among those most qualified are typically graduates of elite places like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS). As many as 18% leave for other jobs every year. The outsourcing companies see lavish, environmentally friendly campuses as a way to help attract and retain the best and brightest workers.

With their manicured lawns, power generators and lakes, the campuses are a noticeable improvement on most engineering colleges, which suffer from India’s standard infrastructure deficiencies — blackouts, water shortages and poor maintenance. “I prefer a big campus,” said Aditya Mathur, a software engineer, 23, who joined Wipro a year ago, and now works at a four-year-old office in Gurgaon, south of New Delhi, as a software tester. “The facilities are better in a big campus.”

TCS spending US$ 200 million on its Siruseri campus and has hired the Uruguayan-born Canadian architect Carlos A.Ott, who designed the opera house on the Place de la Bastille in Paris. The company is also building big campuses in Ahmedabad, Pune, Calcutta and Hyderabad. But some critics say that too many of the industry’s new complexes are intended to make a big splash without much thought of how they will function and fit into the local surroundings.

“It is a haphazard reaching for something that will quickly make a statement about the place being world class,” said Himanshu Burte, an architecture critic who writes frequently for Indian newspapers. But Rahul Mehrotra, a prominent architect who has designed an office building for Hewlett-Packard in Bangalore, the city at the heart of India’s technology industry, said that too many Indian tech campuses had a hackneyed feel, evoking the sprawling suburban campuses of Silicon Valley or American companies like Google and Apple. “The architecture in these cases symbolises the fact that these are places of outsourcing, not cutting-edge research,” said Mehrotra, who lives in Mumbai and Boston.

Pai of Infosys said he was unconcerned about such criticism. He said the people who mattered to the company — employees and customers — raved about its buildings, particularly those that resembled landmarks like the Coliseum at its new campus in the city of Mysore.” They like the fact that it’s so diverse,” he said. Infosys probably set the standard for ambitious corporate campuses in India more than a decade ago. Many other companies grew helter-skelter wherever they could find space. But Infosys started building large complexes, beginning with its first campus on the southern edge of Bangalore, its home city, in 1995, just a few years after India started to open its economy to the rest of the world.

That first campus, which, after many expansions, can now accommodate 24,000 people, was considered cutting-edge for creating an ordered oasis of lawns and lakes in the midst of the urban chaos that envelops most commercial areas in India. The complex also established the company’s quirky style with a glass pyramid for an auditorium and a building that resembles a washing machine and helped set a benchmark for big campuses in the technology industry. Pai, who determined the overall layout of the campuses with the company’s Chairman, N.R. Narayana Murthy, said Infosys was determined to make every new campus “better than our last campus.”

Their rules include the tenet that no two buildings should look alike. Another audacious goal is that every campus should become a “carbon sink” in the next five years. In other words, trees, lakes and other natural features should absorb more carbon than is generated by the campus. Some other firms, like Wipro, tend to be more understated, opting for standard-looking office buildings. But even these companies have trademark causes. Wipro prides itself on minimizing the use of power and, especially, water. It recycles water and creates lakes to harvest the rain. At one of its campuses in Bangalore, a training center appears to float on one of these reservoirs.

Source: The Economic Times, December 29, 2010

Is Chandigarh becoming an MBA hub?

Is Chandigarh becoming the new Mecca for the managers of tomorrow? With nearly 40,000 engineers and 150,000 other graduates passing out every year from more than 200 engineering institutes and colleges in the Chandigarh region, the number of students taking the CAT, GRE and GMAT has dramatically shot up.

Nationwide, in 2009, about 250,000 students appeared for the Common Admissions Test (CAT) that would help them get into management institutes, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The figured dropped in 2010 to 205,000. In Chandigarh, about 12,000 took the CAT in 2009 and 10,500 in 2010. So approximately 5-6 % of the total number of students taking the CAT from all over the country, are from the Chandigarh region.

In the decade since 1998, the number of students taking the CAT from here has jumped from 1,800 to a whopping 14,500. Academies that coach students to take competitive examinations, like Bulls-Eye, Career Launchers and Professional Tutorials, to name a few, are also flourishing. Bulls-Eye, which prepares students for the CAT, now has three centres in the Chandigarh capital region, and enrolled over 4,000 students last year.

“More than a 100 students on an average, from Chandigarh, have been receiving calls from IIMs across the country every year. If you compare it to cities like Nasik which are double the size of Chandigarh, this is significant. Students from Nasik, for last few years, has not received more than 2-3 calls annually,” says Hirdesh Madan, founding Director of Bulls-Eye. He says about 35-40 students from his institute receive calls from the IIMs every year. With three new IIMs (Raipur, Ranchi and Rohtak) added to the list, the number of seats on offer will increase, too.

The demand for management among Chandigarh’s students points to a sociological u-turn. From engineering and then IT, which were preferred career options a decade ago, students are now gravitating towards management as a more lucrative option. “Most jobs today are in the services sector. Banks and insurance companies are growing at a phenomenal rate, and require people at both the entry and middle management levels,” says Bulls-Eye’s Madan. Today students are no longer interested in government jobs.

Both youngsters and their parents are now looking IIM-wards. Shweta Gupta sees herself as a successful entrepreneur in future. This year’s CAT was her second shot at management, and she is anxiously waiting for the results to be announced in January. “Once you have an MBA degree, your standing in society goes up,” she says. “For our parents, too, it is something to be proud of and brag to relatives about. It’s not enough to do just engineering any more. One must also have an MBA degree.”

The infrastructure also helps. Unlike Delhi, where students have to commute over long distances to reach their coaching centres, everything in Chandigarh can be accessed in under 40 minutes. This may have encouraged more students to enroll in the coaching institutes. Also, with smaller B-schools coming up in nearby towns like Banur and Abhipur, which are 10-12 km from Chandigarh, students who fail to make it to the top management institutes schools, can now opt for those closer home.

Source: The Economic Times, December 28, 2010

Politicians pick IIT, IIM brains for help

All that you see of a politician is a khadi-clad individual with a smiling face and folded hands. But, who’s in the backroom making things happen? Those who teach a lesson to the political stalwarts are some of the best brains in the country graduates from top class institutes like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Management seems to have become an integral part of politics these days. Many politicians have teams who direct them on strategies, policies and implementation of programmes. And there are others who are part of the political movement trying to bring in more efficiency in the system.

An IIM-B graduate working with politician Jayaprakash Narayan is currently doing a project on Vidhana Soudha. Ajit Phadnis, had earlier in the year, submitted a report on Indian Parliament. In the report, Ajith will recommend changes that can be brought in for better efficiency and discuss ways of making people more aware of the proceedings in Vidhana Soudha (State Legislative Assembly). For Ajith, its an effort to encourage youth into the political movement. “There’s lot of cynicism associated with politics. Youth needs to be part of the system to improve it,” he said.

C. S. Krishna, an IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) graduate, heads the team of Uday Singh, an elected representative from Purnea, Bihar. Krishna had interned with CPM when he was still in college. Realizing the value that people can add on to conventional political system, he got back into the field. Today, he and his team members help with constituency development and policy research. Various issues like welfare schemes, implementation, understanding public policy at micro level and how it can be delivered effectively are looked into by his team.

The time of elections is a time when they turn super busy. A graduate from IIM-Calcutta (IIM-C), who didn’t want to be named, worked with BJP leader L. K. Advani during the general elections last year. “It was just before I joined my corporate job. I wanted to get a feel of it,” he said. He was part of the war room helping with research, manifestos, website content and press articles. He also was part of the field work, including campaigning, handing out leaflets and holding small gatherings at market places.

Though most of them say that these netas (politicians) have their own legacy and image among the public, there are some who do brand building even for them.

Source: The Times of India, December 28, 2010

Cabin crew training academies turn to imparting social skills

Chastened by the 2008-09 conomic slowdown, many of India’s cabin crew academies have diversified from instructing women aspiring to become flight attendants to training them in customer care services, airport duties and even teaching general social skills such as attending kitty parties. Cabin crew academies mushroomed on the back of a boom in the aviation sector in 2004-07, when domestic carriers decided to buy nearly 500 aircraft over a five-year period. Some of these institutes even planned initial public offerings (IPOs) to raise money for expansion.

But the subsequent slowdown hit the industry hard. “Many institutes were wiped out or shifted their focus to customer care services from cabin crew training. The business during 2007-2009 was down by 50-60%,” said K.S. Kohli, Chairman, Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training, based in Delhi. Kohli conceded his business had also been affected, but said with the aviation sector recovering this year, it is now on the mend. “Though we are not diluting our focus on air hostess training, we are diversifying into soft skills training for first impression for people of all walks of life.”

Frankfinn has developed a concept it calls “first impression studio”, under which it offers courses for cracking interviews and trains housewives in attending kitty parties. “We have developed a small course for foreigners visiting India under “Hello India” brand, while there is “Take Off” course for Indians visiting abroad. There are special soft skill training courses for entrepreneurs and corporate executives,” Kohli said. His institute has hired consulting firm Pricewaterhouse-Coopers Llp to advise it on the makeover. It also plans to hit the market with an IPO in the next 24 months and will soon hire an investment bank, Kohli added.

Mumbai-based Avalon Academy, run by Aptech Ltd., has started offering courses in personality development, aircraft maintenance engineering, airport management, customer care and ground handling, says its website. “We realized in 2008 that the airline industry is not working well. But the paradox was airport infrastructure was growing,” said Ravi Dighe, head of Avalon Academy and an Executive Vice-President of Aptech. “With aviation infrastructure demand catching up, we structured our programmes for airport management. We had incorporated personality grooming and other soft skills in the curriculum.”

Gurcharan Bhatura, Secretary General of the Foundation of Aviation and Sustainable Tourism, an independent non-profit research body, said the progression came naturally to cabin crew academies. “The disposable income of middle class is fuelling the tourism industry. The demand for workforce in the sector is huge. Customer satisfaction is key to this service industry. Air hostess training academies could easily transform themselves into organizations that can train workforce for tourism industry with soft skills,” he said.

But not all academies have been able to make the turn. Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., country’s second largest airline by passengers carried, started the Kingfisher Training Academy in Mumbai in April 2007. Though the academy remains open, it did not expand the way it had been envisaged. “With the slowdown, many airlines have stopped expanding the cabin crew training branches,” said an airline consultant, asking not to be named.

AHA Aviation and Hospitality Academy Pvt. Ltd. of Delhi was earlier exploring plans for an IPO; the slowdown forced it to cease operations and it is now struggling to get back into business. A former executive said, on condition of anonymity, that the company is facing some functional issues, without elaborating.

The airline consultant mentioned above said many fly-by-night operators had appeared during the boom years, offering guaranteed job placements to their students. “But most of them disappeared with the economic slowdown,” said the consultant. “For an institute, it will be tough to resurface again as they lost credibility in the first episode. There were criminal cases against many of these promoters.”

Source: Mint, December 27, 2010

CCI outsources talent search to National Law School

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), the country’s premier law school, has started the process of hiring officers for the under-staffed Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a second year. NLSIU issued an advertisement last month inviting applications for 39 officer-level posts in law, economics and financial analysis at the anti-trust watchdog. The last date for submission of applications is 22 January.

CCI started functioning in 2009 with more powers than its predecessor, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, to implement India’s nascent anti-trust legislation. But against a sanctioned strength of 190 officers, the regulator has only 94 officers on its rolls looking into 117 cases pending before it. It has been able to issue a solitary order, on housing finance, so far.

“We can’t handle the recruitment on our own and, hence, have decided to give it to NLSIU to handle it for us,” said a senior CCI official, who did not want to be identified. CCI decided to outsource recruitment to NLSIU in November 2009. The first batch of 30 officers was recruited in May this year. “NLSIU is charging us a fee for the recruitment, but it is very nominal. It also gives them a branding opportunity. We are happy with the quality of people that have been recruited by NLSIU. It is a highly respected institute,” said the CCI official.

NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Venkata Rao and Dinesh Dixit, who is in charge of recruitment at CCI, confirmed the partnership. Mint had reported on 9 November 2009 that CCI doesn’t have enough staff to tackle cases. For around two years after it got statutory powers, CCI played only an advisory role as it looked to hire a chairman and five senior members, delaying the start of operations.

CCI had earlier sought the help of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), to ascertain the nature and proportion of professionals to be hired. IIM-B in 2007-08 recommended that CCI hire lawyers, economists and financial analysts in the ratio 2:2:1. Samir Gandhi, a competition law partner with Economic Law Practice, said: “It is a good idea to have a filter applied by an academic institute.”

“None of the people (in CCI) really have experience on competition law,” said Pallavi Shroff, a senior partner at New Delhi-based law firm Amarchand Mangaldas. “They all have to be trained. People from the European Union, US and UK have been brought in to train them periodically. Everybody is learning.”

India’s competition law regime has two levels. At the first, the competition law body — CCI — decides whether an entity has violated competition law, investigates the entity if it has, and issues an order. At the second level, the Competition Appellate Tribunal, the appellate body, hears appeals from entities that believe CCI has ruled unfairly against them.

The first exam conducted by NLSIU did not have any questions on competition law or the Competition Act, according to a person familiar with the paper, who did not want to be identified. Gandhi of Economic Law Practice said the test is probably generic in nature as specialized talent in this area of law is not available. “I would ideally think that the candidates should have a basic understanding of competition law. But downstream, there is no university teaching this in the country. It might now have become an optional course in some law schools,” he added.

Source: Mint, December 27, 2010