A yearbook serves as an omnibus of a student’s college life. The Editorial Board of Manipal Institute of Technology raced against the clock to produce the yearbook for the year 2016-2017. On the 8^th of April, 2017, the 60^th yearbook of MIT was launched at Sir M.V. Seminar Hall, with an audience of students and faculty alike.

The ceremony started off with the lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries present. The Joint Director of MIT, B.H Venkataraman Pai, and the Associate Director for Student Welfare, Dr. Narayana Shenoy K., Prof. Balakrishna Maddodi and others graced the occasion. The lighting of the lamp was followed by speeches delivered by the honorable chief guests. They lauded the hard work put in by the staff of the Editorial Board. They also mentioned, time and again, that the team managed to pull this off without much external help from the administration. However, the administration admitted that there might be a steep decrease in the number of yearbooks issued in the coming years.

Picture Credits: The Photography Club

Dr. Sudhamshu Bhushan Raju spoke about the name of this year’s yearbook ‘Regashi’, a Japanese word which, when translated to English, means ‘legacy’ – an apt title considering the heritage the college has built over the years, through its students. Soon after this, the board members, as well as the staff of the MIT Editorial Board, were felicitated and awarded certificates of merit for their transcendent effort. The yearbook, in all its glory, was distributed to the staff and students present. The ceremony culminated with a vote of thanks by the Managing Editor, Suvodeep Misra.

Picture Credits: The Photography Club

Please note that the yearbook can be obtained from the Student Welfare office at Academic Block-1.

You’re a famous personality in the investment and the stock-market world now. How did you make the transition from studying engineering at MIT to money management?

There was no transition. Anybody who studies to be an engineer need not pursue hardcore engineering. Engineering gives you an analytical frame of mind where you’re encouraged to question things and your curiosity grows. When I went to the US, it was the right place for asset management and investment management. While I was there, I read a book called ‘One Up on Wall Street’ by Peter Lynch and realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and that something like this can be done back in India. I never wanted to stay in the US. When I came back, it was very difficult to even get an annual report from the ROC (Registrar of Companies) – there was no Internet. You had to pay a bribe to get an annual report. So, I focused on the technical aspects of the market which is looking at stock prices and chart prices. They say ‘fortune favors the brave’, our markets were transitioning at the time; they were becoming more and more sophisticated. We got ‘Futures and Options’ introduced in 2000. Since India was an emerging market, the general interest in speculative instruments was much greater. Technical analysis became a rage. Along with technical analysis, I have written a couple of books that are best sellers. We also run a SEBI registered firm – SEBI is the official regulator – which offers money management and trading advisory services. Whether you’re a ten-year investor or you’re a five-day trader, we help all kinds of people. Engineering gave me an analytical ability, business skills, and life skills.

MIT makes you mentally strong. It gives you a pan-India perspective and good people-reading ability. All of that is important too; it’s not just what you read in books. It has brought me a long way in terms of how I present my material. When it comes to appearing in media channels, having studied at MIT and interacting with people from all over India, I am able to add colour to my commentary. That widens the audience. Someone else might give you a dry type of commentary, but I have added my own style to it like Siddhu does in cricket.

The thing with investment is that India is moving towards financial savings, that is where most countries move. Earlier, people used to invest in real estate but now (with demonetization) you have to invest in stocks. In a way, I saw this coming fifteen years ago. A general interest in entrepreneurship and an interest in the investment-world made me construct this sort of a business.

People, sometimes, find the stock market to be risky and highly unpredictable. As someone who has worked as a portfolio manager, how would you convince a client of your ideas?

In the consulting world – it could be law, chartered accountancy or medicine – if I come to you and merely tell you that I’m a good doctor, you will not seek my consultation. The correct way of doing it is to build a profile. I appear on television, I have written bestselling books, and my comments appear in newspapers so I’m already soft-selling it to the audience.

People watch me on television for five or six months before they decide to approach me. To become an expert, you have to be present on all kinds of media. You can’t simply cold-call to obtain clients. Once you’re established as an expert, people are willing to pay you you’re quote. No business can be run by putting out advertisements. Advertisements can build a brand. It can’t get you you’re business. That’s the whole idea of consultation. People are not buying what you sell, they’re buying what you stand for. I stand for financial freedom and to live my life on my own terms.

Following up on that, while there may be some clients or viewers who benefit from your investment advice, there may be others who lose out and consequentially blame it all on you. How do you handle such instances?

I have delegated the task of listening to angry customers. I have three people in my office whose only job is to pick up the phone and when a customer is angry, hear them out as well as understand that the customer is abusing me – not them. I keep negative feedback away because I understand that trading or investment is like a sport. You will have good times and bad times. There’s one person who gives constructive feedback, there’s another person who just wants to abuse so I keep the abusive one at a distance. I also believe that if people are abusing me, then I’m doing something right.

Mr. Ashwani Gujral addressing students of MIT on ‘How Brand MIT Grooms Entrepreneurs’. Credits: The Photography Club, Manipal

What is your philosophy when it comes to investment in the stock market, if you were to tell it to a layman?

Anybody who understands business can invest in the stock market. I have three broad philosophies: I want the company to have common people as customers like a consumer business. It could be an electric fan company or a company that sells soap. The customer shouldn’t be the government because that is where the problem lies. One should have strong balance sheet. I like a company which has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.5, not more than that. Why? Because even if the company is not profitable today but it has a strong balance sheet, it will not go down. When times improve, you know that things will pick up. The third philosophy is that I would buy bad sentiment. When demonetization occurred, the market fell by ten percent and that is the time you dive in. You never buy good sentiment because good sentiment is high price. Most engineers want to join L&T. I don’t want to invest in L&T because of heavy capex. Your project can get delayed. What’s the point? I’d much rather invest in Domino’s Pizza. All the construction companies, they don’t do well. Companies like GVK and GMR build huge airports but their stock is at seven rupees or ten rupees.

That’s the whole idea of consultation. People are not buying what you sell, they’re buying what you stand for. I stand for financial freedom and to live my life on my own terms.

You’ve been a panelist at CNBC TV-18 for quite some time now. What role do you see the media portraying when it comes to informing the public about economic affairs? Keeping in mind the 2008 economic crisis, one of the primary causes was that people were not able to understand what they were signing up for. How could the media have helped here? 

Media has a limited role in this regard. The bigger role is of the regulator. What happened in 2008 was that in the US investment banks or housing companies, they started giving loans to homeless people. People who didn’t have any income, who couldn’t make any down payments. What happened? They assumed that they will be able to flip that home at a ten to twenty percent higher price and then make some money to return the loan. Here, I don’t think there can be such a situation because our banks do their due diligence. Here, people like you and me are not defaulting. Who’s defaulting? Adani, Ambani, and all the big names are defaulting. Here, housing finance is the safest asset because we pay our EMIs.

The problem arises when the regulator is not strong and things go out of hand.  What will happen is, when a bank starts giving out more loans they will have more profit today, but five years from now when the loans don’t come back they’ll get into trouble. RBI is very strong regulator. The banking or financial crisis over here is unlikely but it rarely happens because of stupidity or inadequate research. People get into timber-farm type businesses or they’ll get into some sort of ‘chitfund’. If the product is not regulated by a regulator then you are signing up for something that is not authorized. If you buy a ticket in the black market or do unauthorized things yourself, how can you blame the regulator or the media? The media didn’t ask you to invest in that company.

The media can inform and the media does inform but, finally, the decision maker is not the media. Sahara collected five hundred and thousand rupee bills from poor people telling them that they’ll be buying real estate. Did anybody check their papers? If I come to take money from you, will you not ask me if I’m regulated? Do you have any authorization to take it? It has to be an agreement based system. If one says that they are uneducated or know nothing, then please don’t invest.

The students and faculty of MIT in attendance. Credits: The Photography Club, Manipal

You will be addressing students on ‘How Brand MIT grooms Entrepreneurs’. While there has been a surge of startups especially in cities like Bangalore, a lot of sources say that the startup bubble in India is bound to burst. Do you agree?

You’re talking of only one type of startup which is e-commerce. There are other types of startups as well. E-commerce has no business model. The business model they have is purchasing something for one-hundred rupees and selling it for fifty rupees. And they seem to think that as long as they  have many people buying, somehow they will become profitable by the end of the year. That model is crashing. What I am talking about is, you acquire any kind of skill like technical analysis and build a business around it. You can get a skill in dry cleaning and have chain of dry cleaning stores. Just learn any skill. It can be engineering or non-engineering, and create a business around it. My whole point is that MIT – because of its ecosystem – prepares you very well for business. Mostly because you can see so much business happening around you.

Can you tell our readers what’s looking good this week in the stock market?

For that, you’ll have to watch my show (laughs). Although, I can give you an insight. This is a capital-starved country and capital is very expensive. Companies that are lending and are lending to common people like us should be your focus. Companies like Capital First, in housing finance you have LIC Housing, Edelweiss etc. Anybody who’s giving out capital to common folks is making money. Anybody who is taking capital (the capital guzzler) like the highway-maker or the flyover-maker is down. So, the lenders of capital is what you should be looking at.

Manipal has been home to a large number of students over the past 60 years. Despite the different paths their lives might take, each and every student looks back at Manipal with fondness, acknowledging the major role MIT played in shaping their lives. The occasion of MIT’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations brought 3 of the college’s most distinguished students of the batch of 1984 – Mr. Anant Talaulicar, Mr. Sachin Menon and Mr. Thomas Cherukara, back to MIT. Mr. Anant Talaulicar is the Chairman and MD of Cummins India Ltd. Mr. Sachin Menon is the MD of Menon Pistons Ltd. And Chairman of Kolhapur Institute of Technology. Mr. Thomas Cherukara has worked as ED and CEO of the MGF Group, and is now the CMD of the CBC Group.

33 years after they left college, these eminent alumni made their way back to MIT to see the campus once more, relive their memories and interact with the students. We got a chance to engage in a freewheeling chat with them about their experiences in Manipal, and their message for the young aspiring businessmen in the college.

Now that you’ve seen the college as it is today, what are the changes that stand out to you? Are there any things you think are better now, or were better in your time?

“The main quadrangle hasn’t changed much, so that brought back a lot of good memories”, said Mr. Talaulicar. “The rest has changed dramatically, the labs, hostels – the hostels seem like hotels now”, he added. Mr. Talaulicar felt glad that things were simpler during his time here, however, as he feels it made him a stronger person. “I was brought up in Mumbai, with a good standard of living. I was a protected child, the eldest of the family, and got lots of attention.”

Coming to Manipal was a culture shock. Back then, it didn’t have many facilities and it was in the heart of rural India. Experiencing a simple way of living and eating what was kept in front of us in the mess, really helped me in life. Now, even though I live in five star hotels, I can still eat and sleep anywhere. When I go abroad, I have no problem adjusting to the food and the culture.

According to Mr. Menon, he sees an urgency in the faculty and management today to create a link between the college and the industry. “During our time, the teachers just had to finish the curriculum”, he said. “Today, the concern and sense of urgency to achieve that connect between the industry and the students is quite evident in the interactions I have had with them. They want to give students a better exposure, because that is how they believe the institution will be remembered.” People can build buildings, create extensive curricula, but the experience that a good college can give, apart from the education, is what sets it apart.

Mr. Cherukara feels they had more freedom during the time they were in college. They could get back to the hostel quite late. “Of course, an 11 pm curfew is quite good compared to many other colleges”, he quipped. “We had our comforts, but we took the hard way, not many things were handed to us.” He felt the professors during their time were excellent, adding that they rarely missed classes. “However, the success, or pass ratio during our time was quite low. Nothing like the pass ratio you have nowadays”, he added, to which Mr. Talaulicar joked, “We had some students who were professional students, so to speak.”

What are the things in your life that you think were shaped specifically by your time at MIT?

Mr. Talaulicar mentioned that he was quite lost, spiritually speaking, when he first came to Manipal. Growing up in a Hindu household, and having Muslim and Christian friends at the same time, he would observe all the religious habits people around him had. “I noticed three common things across religions”, he said. “One was fear based spirituality, the second, guilt based spirituality, and the third, blind faith. I struggled with all of them.” When he came to Manipal, he would read all kinds of spiritual books in his spare time. “I would study hard, occasionally party with these guys, but I practically read all the religious books when I was here. That left a very deep impact on me, and I would ascribe that to Manipal.” He thinks we should worship our work, give ourselves totally to it and not expect material results.

“All of us experience great joys and successes, as well as sorrows and failures in life. The poor leaders are those, who get carried away by either.”

Manipal has a vastly diverse student community, and everyone has their own group of friends. This is another important aspect of college life. Mr. Menon feels that there were a few fellow students, mostly batch-mates and seniors, who he remembers many a times. “These are the people who taught me things like being fearless. It may have been a strike we did for postponing exams, in which I would observe the student leaders in front of us. I would wonder what drove them, I started analysing.” He had one of the most important pieces of advice he could give. “These four years, you should keep your eyes and ears open. Do not judge whether things are good or bad right now. Ten, twenty years down the line, when you look back, everything will fall into place.”

You talked about the advantages of diversity in MIT. On the flip side, when you are one among so many, one may feel like one has lost his way, since it becomes harder to make a mark. I’m sure it’s like that in the business world as well. How does one attain that self-satisfaction to get above all this?

The answer to this question was pretty clear. Mr. Talaulicar said, “If you think this life is about competing with others, then you’re going down the wrong path.” It is essential for all of us to know our purpose in life, to find something worth putting in all the effort. When we start doing that, we automatically expand our sphere of influence. Mr. Menon and Mr. Cherukara agreed, saying it is important we stay grounded in who we are. We are all unique in our own way, and knowing your own strengths and faults, and working on them, is a life-long journey. Years from now, you’ll learn from your experiences, and find your balance in life.

You have all been in business for a long time now, and many students here aspire to do the same. What advice would you give to those who want to make the transition from engineering to business?

To this, Mr. Talaulicar reiterated what he had said at the Diamond Jubilee inauguration. It’s really important for each and every one of us to find our own calling, and not go by a herd mentality. We hear a lot of voices, a lot of noise that comes from everywhere, and if we start believing those, very soon, we end up unhappy. “What really is the purpose of this life? What are your personal values? What energises you?” When we get our own unique answers to these questions, we will be happy, and we will find our own path.

Life is all about finding a balance between work and your passion. This was the underlying message of the conversation. Times change, the infrastructure changes. The values we imbibe, however, remain the same, regardless of when we come to college. These four years in college are the formative years of our lives. In a college like MIT, it is important to not restrict yourself to academics, and make the best use of the freedom we get. These are the years to make lasting relationships, to pick up essential values, to create new experiences and above all, to find what you would love to do with your life. As Mr. Talaulicar said, “If you discover your own dharma, all the answers become clear.” It is good to try and teach these things, but at the end of the day, they come only through self-reflection. Some may realise this faster than others, but we’re all on our own journeys in life.