A NEW ERA OF BUSINESS COMPETITIONS

On November 30, 2015, a month-long signature event of NSU Finance Club, namely "IDLC Presents BLUEPRINTS 1.0"drew its closing ceremony with the grand finale in the plaza area of the university. This was the first ever financial modelling competition introduced in Bangladesh.

The team called "The Finance Crunchers" from North South University consisting of Md. Faisal Imam, Sabbir Ahmed, Sarker Md Sadman Shabab Ratul, and Abu Karam Mohammed Sager became the champions.Both the first and second runners-up positions were secured by twoteams from IBA, DU –"Thin Guys and Fat Ladies" (Lamisa Faika Shahriar, Musharrat Rahman, Waseem Khanand Sudipta Saha Turja) and "The Trilemma"(Lamia Hossain, Nandita Hore and Ornila Khan) respectively. The champions won a prizemoney of BDT 2 lacs, while the first runners-up earned a prize money of BDT 1 lac and the second runners-upbagged BDT 50 thousand.

On the same day, NSU Finance Club also launched "Bangladesh Finance Symposium" for all the finance enthusiasts around the nation in order for them to exchange knowledge and experience and gain valuable insights from finance professionals by witnessing talks and dialogues between industry experts. The chief guest of the event was the Chairman of NSU Board of Trustees, M A Kashem and the special guests were Dr. Gour Gobindo Goswami (Vice Chancellor In Charge), Dr. M Emdadul Haque (Director, Student Affairs) and Dr. Ziaul Haque Khan.

Over 150 teams and 600 participants competed in BLUEPRINTS 1.0 from October 2015. Round 1 of "BLUEPRINTS 1.0" came through the workshop which was divided into two sessions due to immense enthusiasm of the crowd of participants. Only 30 teams out of 157 teams qualified for the Round 2 of the competition after their solutions were evaluated by professionals from IDLC Finance Limited. The second and the final round required the participants to make a financial model for a project and find out the step by step approach whichrequired them to do a feasibility study. The 30 teams had to present their analysis and recommendations in front of the judges in Round 2 from where 9 teams secured their place in the finale. The finalists of BLUEPRINTS 1.0 had to present their respective solutions in front of the judges along with preparing business and financial reports. The presentations of second round were assessed by judges from IDLC Finance Limited whereas the final round was adjudicated via judges from IDLC Finance Limited, IDLC Investments Limited, Citibank NA, IDCOL, HR Textiles and other reputed companies.

The moderator of the Bangladesh Finance Symposium was Khan Md. Saqiful Alam,a lecturer of the Department of Management of NSU. The first session accentuated upon functions of different financial markets, financial institutions and their future prospects along with a Q/A session. The second session held a discussion upon the skills required from a finance graduate in order to excel a career path in finance which involved important tips for the students. The dialogue was held among renowned corporate figures namely Farzana Islam Lisa, Irfan Islam, Nafeez Al Tarik, Shah Muntasin Mujtaba, Sifat Jahan, Shaikh Malik Al-Razi, Ali Imam, Rezoan Hoque and Ruhina Rahman.

After the completion of the presentations of BLUEPRINTS 1.0's finalists and Bangladesh Finance Symposium, the closing ceremony began with speeches from the guests. Later, crests were presented to the title sponsor IDLC Finance Limited and the co-sponsorsFreedom, TeleTalk and Seven Rings Cement, followed by the awards for the winners. 

SHOUT was the strategic partner for the event.

Jawad is your next-door superhero who needs you to get him his cape. Your curtain will work too. Shout at him on facebook.com/jawad.muhtasim or jawad.mmjr@gmail.com