The activities of the Operations and Systems Club of TKM Institute of Management, “OXYGEN” were inaugurated by Dr. Mohan Mathew, Senior Manager, Ernst & Young.,Thiruvananthapuram at the Seminar Hall on October 3rd, 2009. The function was presided over by Prof A Viswanathan, Director, TIM. Prof. P Nizzar, Dean and Mrs. Gayathri Jnaneswar, Co-ordinator, Oxygen Club, and Mr. Harish Krishnan,Chairman, students’apex association TACT addressed the gathering.

          The topic of Dr Mohan Mathew’s presentation was “Current trends in global economy and knowledge management” He dealt with the genesis of the present global economic crisis in detail. The global economic imbalance was the root cause for the crisis. There was the huge current account deficit in U.S on the one side and huge surplus in China and the OPEC countries on the other side. This imbalance resulted into huge cash inflow into U.S and developed countries for investment. The U.S citizens have a spending orientation while there was a saving orientation in China and Gulf countries. The massive FDI inflated real estate prices in U.S. The financial institutions regarded it as an opportunity to grow fast.The regulatory system in the U.S financial sector did not have the teeth to curb risky speculation by investment companies and banks. They lent massively at sub prime rates in the U.S housing sector, risking the credit worthiness of the loanees. The investment companies brought complex and exotic financial products in derivative market. The huge default in repayments in housing loans had a multiplier effect in derivatives market and led to the collapse of major banks and financial investment companies. Trillions of assets were lost .There was severe liquidity problem due to the banks tightening their credit policies. As result, trade and industry suffered huge losses resulting in loss of employment to millions of people. The reduced spending further aggravated the economic crisis. U.S being the largest economy, the crisis affected all countries in the world in varying degrees. India and China were relatively less affected. GDP growth was severely affected in most of the countries. In India, we have a good regulatory system in the financial sector and we have sizable domestic consumption. Hence the economic growth will be in the range of 5 to 6 % instead of 8% as planed earlier. The crisis is beginning to ease and by 2010 the position will be better.

          Next, Dr Mohan Mathew dealt with Knowledge management, a fast developing area in all corporates. Due to intense competition, it is important to capture knowledge and share with the employees to sustain completive advantage. Advancements in information technology have enabled development of systems for knowledge management. He explained how Earnest and Young is delivering professional services in knowledge management to international clients.

          He also enlightened the MBA participants on the expectations of corporate and how they need to develop themselves to become employable.

          Mr Charlie Thomas, an alumnus of TIM, and executive in Earnest and Young spoke on his experiences in the corporate world.

          The presentation was followed by interaction with the participants

          Philip John, Student Co-ordinator of Oxygen Club made a presentation about the activities of the Club for 2009-2010.

          Following the inauguration, Oxygen conducted a CEO meet in the campus. Mr. Philip John, CEO, Accel Transmatics Ltd., Technopark interacted with the TIM students at the Seminar Hall on October 6th 2009.

          The Club organised a guest talk at the campus premises on Nov 3rd where the Senior Management Team from Hindustan Newsprint Ltd gave a presentation on “Practical Aspects of ERP implementation” .

          A guest talk on “Environmental Management Systems” was organised by the Operations & Systems Club , OXYGEN on the 25th of March at the Seminar Hall of TKM Institute of Management, Karuvelil, Kollam. Speaking at the session, Mr. P Rajendra Prasad, AGM-Marketing, KMML and President, Quilon Management Association, said that a healthy environment is of crucial importance to sustained development. Mr. Prasad spoke about the aspects and impacts of environment management such as global warming, air pollution, and acid rain. He stressed the importance of environmental policy, objectives, management commitment, employee involvement and periodical monitoring for improving the effectiveness of environmental management system. He also pointed out the practices followed by KMML such as continual improvement, pollution prevention measures, and water conservation programme and the various steps of environmental programme that contribute to the essence of a successful environmental management system . The presentation was followed by a briefing on Quilon Management Association, a prestigious apex body of professional management in Kollam and affiliated to All India Management Association that aims to foster management skills among the executives and help managers and organizations meet corporate challenges. The possibility of QMA joining hands with TIM to organise events at the campus was also discussed. The meeting was presided over by the Dean, Prof P Nizzar. Prof. A Viswanathan, Head-Operations & Systems department, and Mrs. Gayathri Jnaneswar, Co-ordinator, Oxygen Club also spoke on the occassion.

         Oxygen, The Operations Club of TKM Institute of Management, Kollam in association with Economic Times conducted an interactive session on ‘3G – An idea whose time has come’ on May 24th at the seminar hall of the institute.
         Addressing the MBA participants, the chief guest of the day, Mr. Nommy Paul, Manager, Network Services from Idea Cellular Ltd. pointed out the features and advantages that 3G, one of the much talked about ‘ideas’ of today, has to offer. He spoke about the transformation from 1G that permits only voice calls to 3G that features faster Ethernet, video calling and the like Ideas are generated when minds of people are connected together. 3G enables people to share their minds and get connected in a faster way. Speaking at the session, he cited various real life situations like jasmine revolution and how the modern network technology have an impact on the social issues happening in the world. He quoted various other examples like how GPS evolved as a result of space war and gave an insight about how slow hunches becomes an idea.
         The opportunity for 3G in India is immense as indicated by an exhaustive market study conducted by Idea. Through the study it is revealed that Indian mobile users are behind US counterparts in terms of time spent on mobiles and data usage. India is at par with US on applications and services accessed on mobile except for weather, internet radio and shopping. These weak sessions are the untapped areas that may provide huge opportunities for upcoming entrepreneurs and managers. One should utilize these opportunities for our country to become a better living place on the planet.
         Nommy described what 3G is as a technology and the various terminologies in cellular telephony such as frequency, spectrum, bandwidth, coverage, 3GPP, throughput, etc. The interactive discussion enabled the students to get an insight into technologies like EDGE m, EVDO, Push to Talk, WCDMA, GSM and HSPA .
         The services offered in 3G are grouped into four viz. Conversational class (voice and video), Streaming class (streaming video), Interactive class (web browsing), and Background class (mail downloading). Having launced their 3G services in Kollam city a few days ago, he also briefed how the telecom giant Idea differ from other competitors in the 3G services. 3G network helps one to be better connected with the world and thus enables one’s ‘slow hunches’ to become a ‘Big Idea’.
         The presentation was followed by interaction with the participants. The function was presided over by the Dean, Prof. P Nizzar. Also present were Dr. S Kevin, Director, Prof A M Salim, Emeritus Professor, Mrs. Gayathri Jnaneswar, Co-ordinator, Oxygen Club, and other faculty members and staff.