Where money talks
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The IFMR course in advanced finance is attracting IIT graduates because of its vast potential and scope for innovation.
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A COURSE offered by a Chennai-based institute that provides high-end management training in finance, is attracting some of India's best brains.
These students join the PG programme in Advanced Finance offered by the Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, after giving up lucrative jobs in high profile companies.
The IFMR Director, R. Kannan, says the programme provides a comprehensive view of the theory and practice of modern finance. Graduates from the programme will be immediately productive in treasury, risk/portfolio/insurance and general financial management. It trains high-end professionals in practical financial modelling.
It requires drawing expertise from economics, accounting, statistics and sophisticated mathematics.
Prof. T.P. Madhusoodhanan, who coordinates the programme, says five IIT graduates (who normally head straight to the U.S. or to the IIMs) chose to come here, that too after giving up jobs in places such as Infosys, Tata Motors or Larsen and Toubro.
"The course requires very high mathematical capabilities, and naturally, IIT grads have this capability. That is one reason why most of our students are from these institutes. The value of the programme can be seen from the fact that the ICICI (one of the prime movers behind IFMR and this programme too) will take up successful candidates from here straight into their Treasury wing," he notes.
The institute is planning to start a full-fledged stock trading floor for the trainees to understand real world finance. Applications are being invited for the next batch, says Prof. Madhusoodhanan.
"We will finalise the candidates list early so that it gives time for the candidates to give notice to the employers, in case they need to give up their jobs." The programme comprises four terms.
Eligibility criteria
This is a demanding programme comprising 14 core courses and three to four elective courses, all requiring significant and advanced mathematical usage, familiarity with computers, GMAT or GRE scores (within the past six months) with a score at the 95th percentile or above. IIT grads with a CGPA of 8.5 or above are exempt from this requirement.
Fee: Rs.4.10 lakhs.
Applications/prospectus cost Rs. 600. The form can be downloaded from www.ifmr.com. The last date for applications reaching the Registrar's office at IFMR (24, Kothari Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai 600 034) is November 30.
Student feedback
Tarun Gupta: "I chose the IFMR course as I have been interested in financial engineering since my IIT days.
This course not only covers all aspects of finance as covered in general management course but also provides rich mathematical techniques to manage risk and pricing of new evolving financial products. These techniques are the latest and evolving in the world. Thus, this course puts us on the forefront of financial innovation."
Prior to joining this course, he worked in Enterprise Solutions, Infosys. "Today, considering the value that this course is going to add to me, I feel I have taken the right decision of leaving my job."
His classmate, Amit Gupta, who quit Tata Motors, says: ``The course outline was one which is rarely found in any good B-schools. I hope to utilise the resources learnt here by offering my services to the banking industry where I foresee a lot of potential for financial innovation."
The course highly justifies my decision to quit the job as I was eager to enter a financial stream (a natural choice for most of the engineers).
Mahendra Pratap Singh (another IIT graduate, who resigned as Design Engineer at Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai) concurs with the comment.
K. Ramachandran
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