Dissertation & Project Literature Surveys

What is a Dissertation?

Dissertation is a lengthy, formal treatise, especially one written by a candidate for the doctoral degree at a university. It is a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research, usually included in the syllabus for an advanced academic degree courses. A dissertation advances an original point of view as a result of research, especially as a requirement for an academic assignment. On this website an article on Voluntary Retirement Scheme of Nationalised Banks in India (of the year 2000 AD) was published, contributed by a post graduate student from Kerala Ms.K.R.Chitra. The subject presently is not covered in any text book. The entire inputs for the article was drawn from publications of newspapers, government publications, and information from websites of particular banks. This is a typical dissertation. Under this series, we will be publishing an article with title "Internet Banking in ICICI Bank (A success story) to be contributed by another student from Mumbai, though it was originally submitted by the said student to the Institution she is studying as a case study. "Case studies take as their starting point issues or challenges facing managers in real life business situations. They are naturally written around actual scenarios in real companies. Case writing is a particular skill that aims to present the business scenario in such a way as to involve the reader/student in the resolution of the issue"¹. It analyses unique situations, events or performance and try to explain the special and significant factors that contribute to the unique phenomenon. There are several automobile manufacturers at present in India. But Maruti Udyog Limited alone could keep leading the market all the while? This is a case study. The article can also be presented as an example of dissertation.

It is an exercise involving collection of viewpoints and submissions of different authors on a subject (eg. motivation) and compiling a summarised report, representing a comprehensive (but not lengthy) and balanced treatise on the subject. Here there are several descriptive works on the subject by multiple authors. A student needs to have a summarised reference work to have a complete understanding of the subject. For this project Literature Survey is the answer. We propose to publish an article with title "Investment & Portfolio Management". There could be literally hundreds of academic books and other sources like articles contributed in popular journals. All these constitute the source material. We need a simple, but exhaustive narration on the subject to gain a balanced overview and knowledge of the essential ingredients about the topic.

It is a project on this Website conceived with the objective of collecting and publishing dissertations and project literature surveys on significant titles of wider interest under the disciplines of Banking, Finance and Management. Both dissertations and project literature surveys are widely accepted as teaching aids. This is a transition from learning to application. Students engaged on such assignments temporarily quit the academic environment of the class-room and enter into realms of the real world. It is also an occasion for them to interact with real world practising managers and professionals in their pursuit to gather inputs for their work. Student Corner is an initiative responding to the increasing popularity of the modules on Indian Banking and Learning Circle on this website amongst PG Students, who have proved to be computer savvy and quite regular in surfing the Internet and world wide web to widen their educational needs. There were in the past quite a few requests from PG students for help in compiling such of their assignments. As the articles published would be topics of current interest and would be a ready source of reference to the students, it would incidentally be enhancing the usefulness of this website.

I invite diligent students studying in different academic institutions of excellence and leading professional colleges from all parts of the country to support this venture and contribute good projects to enhance its utility to the community of students studying professional courses. I will also seek contributions from eminent scholars to supplement the contents of this project. The articles may be of 25 to 50 pages size. Suitability of publication will be exclusively based on my discretion.

[¹From the website of The Asian Business Case Centre - URL http://www.asiacase.com/ecatalog/NO_FILTERS/page-MGTISSUE-553621.html]