IIMA to conduct Amaethon annually

Even as agribusiness has been gaining popularity, the Agri Business Centre (ABC) of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) will organise `Amaethon 2005', the maiden B-school meet on agribusiness, rural management and allied fields.

Amaethon is the ancient god of agriculture. The purpose of Amaethon 2005 is to converge the best brain in the sector to focus on emerging trends, avenues and challenges in agribusiness, to spur interest in the sector and to develop a problem-solving ability through friendly competition in a times format.

Students from various B-schools would participate in the two-day event, that begins at IIM-A from Saturday. The major events at Amaethon are Saakar - the business plan contest, Shodh - the paper presentation contest, Agri'gate - the case analysis contest and AgriMARK - the marketing plan contest.

IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia said on Friday that the institute will make this an annual event, even as the scope of agribusiness is increasing fast.

"Students from various B-schools will participate in the event, which we hope will become an annual feature," Dholakia said.

A panel discussion on the emerging dairy industry in India and the world will also be part of the event. The discussion, called `The Milky Way Forward' will include speakers like Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation managing director B M Vyas and others.

P R Anil Kumar, chief manager, rural microbanking and agri business group of ICICI Bank, will also be one of the speakers at Amaethon.

Until recently, the agriculture sector, in spite of being a private sector, was primarily funded by the government. But of late, many corporates and private banks have begun investing in the sector to tap the potential of the rural market.