The pride of an academic institution is at its peak when its students internalize the learning, showcase it to the outside world in a crucial context and are acclaimed as the best in the country. T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal (TAPMI) has reasons to feel so. Excelling in classroom performance is only one aspect of management learning. Putting the learning to use in the field, showcase it to the experts from the industry, getting it benchmarked against the best such works in the country and being rated as the very best is an entirely different feat. TAPMI students have done just that. Barely three months after the summer internship, seven of their students showcased their works in national level competitions, where all top-ranking business schools sent their students to compete, beat them all beyond doubt by winning prizes repeatedly. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, TAPMI students have proven their superiority by their performance, and not by their claims. The list of TAPMIans who won various prizes this year (2006) is as follows:

1. Ashish Patnaik won the First Prize in Summer Project Competition  conducted by IIT, Mumbai.
2. Ashish Patnaik also won the Second Prize in “Kshitij”, the summer project competition organized by XIM, Bhubhaneshwar.
3. Yudhishtir Joshi and Raj Kamal Singh won the Second Prize at the Summer Project Presentation Contest (Finance) at XIM, Bhubhaneshwar.
4. Rohit Nishant and Mohammed Illiyas Sharief presented a paper titled “Quality of Project Management” at Project Management Institute, Delhi and won the First Prize.
5. Rohit Nishant and Mohammed Illiyas Sharief also presented a paper in the Research Paper Presentation Contest at IIM, Bangalore and won the Third Prize.
6. Abhishek Sinha won the First Prize at the Summer Project Presentation Contest (IT/Systems Segment) at “Prerana 2006”, conducted by NITIE, Mumbai.
7. Rohit Nishant and Shankara Narayanan won the First Prize at the Summer Project Presentation Contest (Operations/SCM Segment) at “Prerana 2006”, conducted by NITIE, Mumbai.
8. Yudhishtir Joshi and Raj Kamal Singh won First Prize at the Summer Project Presentation Contest (Finance Segment) at “Prerana 2006”, conducted by NITIE, Mumbai.

In addition, the students of TAPMI did not stay behind in extra-curricular activities either.

9. Abhishek Sinha and Rohit Prasad Sarma won the Second Prize at the Management Debate Competition at IIM, Bangalore.
10. Abhishek Sinha and Rohit Prasad Sarma also won the Third Prize at the Management Debate Competition at IIM, Kozhikode.

A noteworthy aspect of these competitions is that the contestants hailed from all top-ranking business schools such as IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, NITIE-Mumbai, Sydenham-Mumbai, IIT-Mumbai, NMIMS-Mumbai. The competitions were fought fiercely and only the best minds emerged victorious at the end.

Another noteworthy aspect is that the judges have been either famous personalities such as Harsha Bhogle or top-ranking executives from various business organisations such as Cognizant Technologies, Ernst & Young, i2 Consulting, Nocholas Piramel, Johnson & Johnson and Citigroup.