IIM-Calcutta students win Best Teams awards at X-Culture 2020

Five students of IndianInstitute of Management, Calcutta, have won the 'Best Teams'awards at an international academic competition for solvingreal-life business challenges of corporates, the institutesaid in a statement.

The global X-Culture competition was launched by DrVas Taras in 2010.

In this global event, students from various countriescome together as a team, on a virtual format, to solveinternational business challenges of companies.

Along with their international team members, five MBAstudents of IIM Calcutta - Soham Basu Chaudhury, Ikjot Kaur,Arun Sharma, Haritha Unnikrishnan and Ritika Verma - wererecognised for their excellent performance in a highlycompetitive process, the statement said on Wednesday.

Their teams were picked up from among 45 'Best Teams'from 1,277 teams, comprising 5,955 MBA students from 150universities in 78 countries.

Each team was given a problem-solving task for aninternational business and the business idea was to besubmitted in a form of a report.

The 1,277 reports submitted were evaluated by a largegroup of international business experts comprising 174professors and coaches from 45 countries.

Each report was independently evaluated by 3-7 expertson several parameters, including report creativity, clarity,viability and style.

The finalists were evaluated by an additional awardscommittee and owing to the worthiness of multiple reports, 45teams were listed as 'Best Teams', the statement said.

Prof Ramya Venkateswaran of the Strategic ManagementGroup said, ''The X-Culture project is a greatly engagingpedagogical element in my international business course thatbrings alive the context and challenges of doing businessacross borders.

''The opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to alive company project, interacting with global practitioners,while simultaneously negotiating cross-cultural challenges ina global virtual team, makes for a rich and deeply reflectivepersonal experience for my students that boosts theirconfidence to take up international assignments in future.'' Institute Director Prof Anju Seth said,''Internationalisation is one of the key pillars of ourstrategy at IIM Calcutta to prepare our students to beeffective managers and leaders in the global workplace.

''In the year of the COVID-pandemic, the X-culturecompetition provided a particularly valuable opportunity forstudents to collaborate virtually on a global platform anddevelop a winning strategy for international businesses''.