MIT Sloan School BITS Alumnus Dr SP Kothari of BlackRock BGI Lectures at BITS Pilani

Dec. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- Dr S.P. Kothari has served as Global Head of Equity Research and has been responsible for research in active equity strategies supporting Barclays Global Investors' (BGI) which has recently been acquired by BlackRock a premier provider of global investment management, risk management and advisory services to institutional and retail clients around the world.

Prior to joining BGI, Dr Kothari was Deputy Dean and Gordon Y Billard Professor in Management at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, he was the Head of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In 2005-06, he was Thomas Henry Carroll-Ford Visiting Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Dr. Kothari received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and is an editor of the Journal of Accounting & Economics (1997-present) a world-renowned academic research journal in accounting. His research focuses on financial reporting and valuation, asset allocation, explaining the diversity in international accounting practices, use of employee stock options for compensating executives and accounting for stock options, evaluating investment performance, and corporate uses of derivatives for hedging and speculation.

He has also been on the Board of Directors of Vicarious Visions (www.vvisions.com) from 1998-2004, and a Senior Consultant with Charles River Associates International (www.crai.com), a business-economics and litigation support consulting firm, for eight years. He has consulted with many large corporations, including leading US and international banks, Australian television broadcast corporations, US steel companies, E&Y, KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

On December 04, 2009, Dr SP Kothari delivered a lecture on the topic “Economic Recovery: Global Trends and Implications for India” at the Lecture Theatre Complex of Birla Institute of Technology and Science – BITS Pilani Rajasthan India.

Giving an overview of the Economic Crisis, he highlighted the recovery trends in USA, UK, Spain, Germany, China and India. He pointed out that in the stock market revenues are down but coupled with severe cost cutting, profitability has bounced back. He gave a critical analysis of Mexico, China and India in terms of Literacy, Population, Population Growth, GDP per capita, exports, imports and Net FDI to date.

Regarding India, he said that investment challenges have intensified and have become critical. With outlook for export driven growth worsening, he was appreciative of the commendable economic growth and financial stability in India.
Considering the limited potentials of agriculture in boosting per capita income, for raising the GDP per capita of India from existing $960 to $5000, he pointed out that out of the three options of Savings, Productivity Gains and Foreign Investment; he was of the opinion that FDI was the best bet.  Further since Infrastructure projects are often regulated monopolies, Dr Kothari prescribed that domestic investment be channeled into Infrastructure and FDI be targeted at Education, Retail, Airlines, Steel, Automobiles, Entertainment, Medical Services etc. Dr Kothari’s lecture ended with an interesting set of questions put by the audience and the brilliant replies by him.

It is indeed a matter of pride that S P Kothari was a student of BITS Pilani during 1974 – 1979 and obtained his B.E. (Hons) Chemical Engineering. He is bound to climb many more peaks in the years to come.

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About BITS Pilani: The Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani is a Deemed to be University established vide Sec.3 of the UGC Act, 1956 under notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of June 18, 1964. NAAC - National Assessment and Accreditation Council reaccredited BITS with 3.71 CGPA out of 4 and awarded "A" grade "Very Good" status. It is indeed a matter of pride that for the year 2009, BITS Pilani has been ranked among the top ranking universities along with IITs in various Magazine surveys such as India Today, Outlook, LiveMint etc. BITS offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad campuses. BITS Pilani has done pioneering work in industry university collaborations in terms of Practice School and Work Integrated Learning Programmes. Alumni of the Institute who are Proud to be BITSians and ambassadors for Brand BITS Pilani are spread across all continents from Australia to America.