Study tours turn business deals

If young enterprising MBAs are to be believed, international study tours by B-schools are no longer just for the sake of exposure.

A large number of students from the first batch of Nirma University's family business and entrepreneurship course have bagged business contracts in Shanghai, Taipei and Seoul right after their international study tour this year.

Naveen Parekh, one of the students, has received clearance from the South Korean government to establish a BPO to teach the English language in Seoul.

Parekh, who has already invested Rs 20 lakh in the project, floated the BPO in collaboration with a South Korean business student he met during his study tour.

"It was during the study tour that I realised the huge demand for learning English in Seoul and made a business proposition to a local student who shared my views," said Parekh, whose BPO will be based in Siliguri.

Another student Deepak Thakkar has bagged a contract with a top food products company in Beijing to export guar gum, which is scarce in China but available easily in India.

Thakkar has already exported his first order worth $42,000 and hopes to get next order worth $2 to 3 lakh by the end of the year. One of them studied the rising prices of tomatoes and pineapples in South Korea and has begun exporting them at half the price from India.

With the Consulate General of India at Shanghai and the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce extending full support, the students have concrete plans for international tie-ups, said Pawan Kumar Chugan, who was chairman for the international study tour programme.