Project Appraisal

Aug 04

The players: ARMSASCI Business mgt course and Ms Kirti shettigar (manager Union Bank), Mr Mayur Vijay Somani ( Union Bank Mumbai) Mr S Anoop ( Kerala State Planning Board ) Mr B Sree Kumar (Kerala State Planning Board ) Dr Ashok Kumar Kumhar ( Directorate Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Bhopal MP) Mr Nitish Kumar (Strategic Management group IFFCO Delhi) Mr Vijay Aggarwal (Power Finance Corporation Delhi) and Mr Vinay Kumar (PNB Lucknow)

ACT I 

Scene1

Class Before the Start

Monday started as all other mondays did . Dull and boring. Then things started looking up. We were having a change of location whereby we moved to the new location of ASCI at Banjara hills. The new location also brought new classmates in form of bankers and government officials from MP,Kerala and Delhi. Prior to that we had an interesting class on Human resources where we analysed the company of matt and Jack. Matt proved to be intelligent , when he did not leave the company inspite of Jack having been chosen the CEO, until he found a new job. Prior to leaving he shared his angst with jack about the way the company was being run. For three years he kept quite before telling Jack that he was doing it all wrong. The way he went about it proved Jack to be the villain of the piece...It was quite dramatic .

Scene 2

In the morning on Monday on arrival we knew that we were to be clubbed with the new class. It was a break in monotony of having spent our entire time in a single classroom in the main campus. On arrival at the new campus we were warily eyeing the new arrivals who had arrived for being educated on project appraisal. Knowing our wild and unpredictable ways they were kept isolated from us in the first two sessions , which were tackled expertly by Prof Harsh. After being suitably softened up by HR the classes were amalgamated. Many of us had not suitably recovered from the excesses of the weekend and hence the class post lunch passed away in somnolence. 

ACT II

Scene1

Tuesday morning saw the whole class in a much alert state. Gradually our eyes opened up to the latest incumbents of the class. There was a lot of experience and expertise in the new lot of students . The instructors were primed to take the method of instruction to the next level. Prof Rafat was her usual affable self - which did not deter her from her agenda - which was to teach us about the weighted average cost of capital. For her we were the equity and the bankers were the debt and together we formed the weighted average cost of capital. AND since we were going to be around for the longer period of time and were more ignorant about the ways of the financial world she had to walk the tight rope to ensure that the experts and us ignoramuses understood what she was teaching, She managed the class admirably. Prof Mahadik then took an inspired class on the tools for project analysis. It dawned on us that the classes were for the bankers and we were merely listening in...

INTERVAL 

Scene2

The Scene was now set for the expert of them all to come in and lecture us on the Issues and Challenges in project Finance . Mr BNV Parthasarathy was more than qualified to give us an insight into the bankers' perspective as he held us enthralled for the next three and a half hours . His educative and practical lecture was replete with examples both personal and of other construction companies as he skilfully guided us through the rather complicated process of project finance. It also became clear to us that the one week course was rather well structured as it progressed from one stage to another through the day. At the end of the day our battered mnds deserved the rest we were looking for from the long session in the class...Promises to be an interesting week...