With a more than 30-year legacy, the TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) has grown a lot, especially in the past four to five years. All the programmes are rigorous and challenge every student to think, explore their limits, broaden their outlook and stretch their horizons. This is done by cleverly designing and effectively implementing academic and extracurricular activities. The banking and financial services (BFS) programme, which is a specialised course in finance, was launched in 2014.
Academics
In contrast to a general postgraduate programme in management (in which the first year gives exposure to all the areas of management and a student can specialise in the second year), the BFS programme consists of hard-core finance courses right from the first year. In the second year, one gets to choose either the banking stream or the capital markets stream. This structure makes BFS students specialists and not generalists, unlike most other MBA graduates in the country.
The curriculum is 70 per cent similar to the CFA curriculum. The programme is more rigorous than a general postgraduate programme in management. This means that BFS students need to work harder for certain different and/or similar courses compared to their PGDM counterparts. People expect a lot more quality and content from BFS graduates. To uphold and build the BFS legacy and for one’s own personal development, a student cannot slack off!
Finance Lab
In 2014, TAPMI launched a state-of-the-art finance lab with 16 Bloomberg terminals, the largest in the country. BFS students use these terminals for their academic work and research. Bloomberg certification in areas like equities, FX, and commodities are mandatory. The advantage of this is that students are already trained to use Bloomberg, which is used by many potential recruiters.
Only three MBA colleges in India, including TAPMI, have a finance lab. Also known as the Bloomberg lab, it houses a board-room, a game room and two other rooms. Modelled on the Google office, the lab has colourful bean bags, posters and fun stuff, which makes it a brilliant place to be. It is in line with our director's thinking that Fun can be learning .
SMIC
TAPMI has a unique Student Managed Investment Course (SMIC), an elite programme for the A-list students of the finance stream, for which all BFS students automatically qualify. What sets SMIC apart is that the institution gives each student ₹25,000 to invest. Students work in teams, and each team has a mentor from the industry who is a current leader in the BFSI space. This inculcates the skill of fund management in each student. However, it calls for a lot of hard work.
Internship
Unlike a traditional internship that PGDM students go through, the BFS cohort had a two-month study tour in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), where the students had their own live projects, for which they were grouped based on the topics and assigned mentors. This played a vital role in moulding us into highly specialised and skilled managers.
Spirit of BFS
The BFS fraternity has made its mark in the institute. As a student, one is proud to carry this forward. The feeling that comes with it is very special indeed. It made me fall in love with finance all over again and much more intensely. As I mentioned earlier, one will have to work harder but passion and commitment automatically follow if you tread rightly. This makes the 'work' actually a lot of fun.
Campus
Waking up to the sunrise, taking walks in the rain alongside well manicured hedges, running down the valley, walking through clouds, the rainbows, stargazing, they are all worthy of inspiring William Wordsworth! A good campus makes college life so much better. This includes movie nights on the grass, night canteen parties and table tennis at 3 a.m. in the hostel. These places help you make memories and friendships which last a lifetime. Manipal can boast of natural beauty. It is a university town and students from all over the country converge here for various courses, from medicine to the culinary arts.
To sum up, I would say that the BFS programme is one of the best in the country for finance. It has been a trampoline for my learning, as well as my career.
The writer is a second year MBA student of TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal.