GROUP DISCUSSION

TIPS
1. Be as natural as possible. Do not try and be someone you are not. Be yourself.
2. A group discussion is your chance to be more vocal. The evaluator wants to hear you speak.
3. Take time to organize your thoughts. Think of what you are going to say.
4. Don't start speaking until you have clearly understood and analyzed the subject.
5. Work out various strategies to help you make an entry: initiate the discussion or agree with
someone else's point and then move onto express your views.
6. Opening the discussion is not the only way of gaining attention and recognition. If you do not
give valuable insights during the discussion, all your efforts of initiating the discussion will
be in vain.
7. Your body language says a lot about you - your gestures and mannerisms are more likely to
reflect your attitude than what you say.
8. Language skills are important only to the effect as to how you get your points across clearly
and fluently.
9. Be assertive not dominating; try to maintain a balanced tone in your discussion and analysis.
10. Don't lose your cool if anyone says anything you object to. The key is to stay objective: Don't
take the discussion personally.
11. Always be polite: Try to avoid using extreme phrases like: `I strongly object' or `I disagree'.
Instead try phrases like: `I would like to share my views on' or `One difference between
your point and mine' or "I beg to differ with you"
12. Brush up on your leadership skills; motivate the other members of the team to speak (this
surely does not mean that the only thing that you do in the GD is to say "let us hear what the
young lady with the blue scarf has to say," or "Raghu, let us hear your views" - Essentially be
subtle), and listen to their views. Be receptive to others' opinions and do not be abrasive or
aggressive.
Apart from the above points, the panel will also judge team members for their alertness and
presence of mind, problem-solving abilities, ability to work as a team without alienating certain
members, and creativity.

GROUP DISCUSSION TOPICS
Practice one or two group discussion topics for 20-30 minutes everyday with your mentor group.
You can decide a common topic(s) the day before.

Please write what topic you discussed with your friends in your tracker notebook.
1) Is dependence on computers or technology a good thing?
2) Are co-educational schools better than single sex schools?
3) Should smoking be banned completely?
4) Is money necessary for happiness?
5) Are films corrupting Indian youth?
6) Should ragging be banned at colleges?
7) The medium of teaching in schools should be English.
8) Does banning New Year parties and Valentine s Day protect our culture?
9) Womens empowerment will lead to social development.
10) What ails India more corruption or overpopulation?
11) Is honesty as a value lost in Indian society?
12) What are the advantages and disadvantages of joint vs. nuclear families?
13) Television! An idiot box or knowledge provider?
14) Religion And Politics Should Not Mix
15) Science Is A Boon Or Bane
16) Bullet For Bullet: Is It The Right Policy?
17) Age and Youth: Experience And Young Talent
18) Indian villages our strength or weakness?
19) Is India truly democratic?
20) What are the causes and possible solutions to the recent terrorist acts in India?
21) What shall we do about our ever-increasing population?
22) What is the single largest problem facing Indian society today?
23) Should we require sex education in schools?
24) There is too much sex and violence shown in films.
25) Are peace and non-violence outdated values?
26) Is rural life left behind in the Indian economy?
27) Indias water crisis: what are the critical issues and how can they be resolved?
28) Is cleaning our environment the responsibility of our government or us?
29) All of Indias problems are the fault of the politicians.
30) Reservation system is necessary for social transformation.
31) Corruption is the main outcome of democracy in India.
32) Has the time come to eradicate nuclear weapons?
33) All higher education should be provided free of charge.
34) Are women treated equal to men in Indian society?
35) Women are good managers
36) Each Indian state should be independent.
37) Is cricket taking away from other sports?
38) Military service should be made compulsory.
39) Impact of globalization on India.
40) Should India make peace with Pakistan?
41) Can you have politics without corruption?
42) Are MNCs good or bad for Indian economy?
43) Reform ideas for the Indian education system.
44) Pollution is a price you pay for economic development.
45) What should be the objective of a company profits or customer satisfaction?
46) Will the mushrooming of MBA institutes in India help the Indian economy?
47) Does censorship help or hurt society?
48) Should our leaders be the youth or the old?
49) Privatization will lead to less corruption
50) Is marriage a social trap?

MORE ESSAY AND GD TOPICS
1. Indian cultural values have nothing to fear from globalization.
2. The impact of economic reform has been that rich people have become richer and poor people
poorer.
3. Management education is only for the rich.
4. Reservation in parliament for women.
5. The US dollar is no longer a stable currency.
6. The impact of internet on India.
7. Behind every man there is a woman.
8. Politicians are not interested in the future of our country.
9. Wisdom does not come with age.
10. Corruption is the main outcome of democracy.
11. Is the consumer really the king in India?
12. Globalization versus Nationalism.
13. Conditional access system for cable TV watchers: boon or bane?
14. Pollution problems.
15. Commercialization of health care: good or bad?
16. Should agricultural subsidies be stopped?
17. Do we lag behind China?
18. Are MNCs superior to Indian companies?
19. Food comes first, ethics later!
20. To survive in the civilized world one needs to be a hypocrite.
21. Money is the sixth sense without which one can't enjoy the other five.
22. English language as a mode of instruction in primary level.
23. Men and women are different.
24. Given the present state of affairs, India will remain a developing country forever.
25. IIMs and IITs encourage only brain drain.
26. Whether reservation to women is beneficial?
27. IPL good for cricket or bad?
28. Modern cinema is a boon to Indian society.
29. Should youth indulge in politics?
30. US war on Iraq: justified or not?
31. Role of UN in peacekeeping.
32. Position of women in India compared to other nations.
33. Environment management.
34. Is China better than India in software?
35. Should Sonia Gandhi be made the PM?
36. BPOs in INDIA.
37. Government contribution to IT.
38. Will punch lines rule the advertisements?
39. Premarital sex.
40. India or the west: which is the land of opportunity?
41. Water resources should be nationalized.
42. Balance between professionalism and family.
43. Is it necessary to ban Coca Cola in India?
44. About hockey being the primary game in India.
45. Cricket should be banned or not.
46. Present state of Indian Cricket team.
47. Throwing trash on the ground is okay in India.
48. Advantages of co-education.
49. How to deal with international terrorism.
50. Hollywood versus Bollywood.
51. 20-20 versus Test Match.
52. Government schools versus private schools.
53. Corruption is the price we pay for democracy.
54. Foreign television channels are destroying our culture.
55. What India needs is a dictatorship.
56. With media publishing and telecasting trivia, censorship is the need of the hour.
57. Kaun Banega Krorepati is less about knowledge but more about money and personality.
58. Farmer suicides causes and possible solutions.
59. The rise of regional blocs threatens independent nations like India.
60. What India should do for more Olympic medals.
61. Methods of energy conservation.
62. Should the public sector be privatized?
63. Is India a soft nation?
64. Value-based politics is the need of the hour.
65. Religion should not be mixed with politics.
66. How to deal with high oil prices.
67. Our cricketers are not to blame for match fixing.
68. Why can't we be world players in industry as we are in software?
69. Multinational corporations: Are they devils in disguise?
70. Should there be limits on media freedom?
71. Should there be private universities?
72. Overpopulation in India: What is the problem and what can we do about it?
73. Are big dams necessary?
74. A Gandhian state selling liquor is an anomaly.
75. Dowry may look bad, but is an integral part of India.
76. The education system needs serious reforms.
77. The impact of MTV on our psyche.
78. Violence and crimes should not be allowed in films and on television.
79. Let us legalize gambling.
80. The objective of management is to maximize profits
81. Do professional managers have a chance in our family run businesses?
82. The internet is an exercise in hype.
83. Smaller businesses and start-ups have more scope for professional growth.
84. Do beauty and brains go together?
85. Secularism has become a tool to justify the wrongs done by the minorities.
86. We should legalize ultrasounds for pregnant women in India.
87. Are we overplaying and killing cricket?
88. Rural life is much more pleasant than urban life: yes or no?
89. What are the problems of Indian youth?
90. TV Serials: good or bad?
91. Media is a mixed blessing. / How ethical is media?
92. To fight AIDS, stop being coy about sex education.
93. What should India strive for: Westernization or modernization?
94. Developing countries need trade, not aid.
95. Flexibility of labor laws is the key to attracting more foreign direct investment.
96. Voters, not political parties, are responsible for the criminalization of politics.
97. Voting should be made mandatory.
98. India should go for the presidential form of democracy.
99. In our economic matters, there is an excessive tendency towards the thinking rather than
doing.
100. Government should clean its own hands before pointing a finger at the private sector for
corruption.
101. If Gandhi were alive today, what would he think of modern-day India?
102. Problems of Karnataka.
103. Did Barack Obama deserve to win the Nobel Peace Price in 2009?
104. Is is fair to have powercuts only in villages and not in Bangalore?
105. Commercialization of health care: good or bad?
106. Is the US economy headed the Japanese economy way?
107. Economic freedom, not old-fashioned theories of development, will lead to growth and
prosperity.
108. Markets left to themselves encourage greed.
109. For globalization to succeed in India people must be able to see what is in it for them.
110. Should businessmen run the finance ministry?
111. Should important services like transport be left to market forces?
112. Is there any point in having a business strategy when the world changes from month to
month?
113. Is the patents bill good for India?
114. Globalization is good for developing countries.
115. Public sector being a guarantor of job security is a myth.
116. How was India affected by the global economic recession?
117. Capitalism is a very flawed system but the others are so much worse.
118. How can business get rid of the bad name that it has earned?
119. Government pumping money into the economy is not the solution for our economic
problems.
120. Business ethics are no longer a luxury for corporations but a necessity.
121. How should privatization proceeds be utilized?
122. Will Mumbai's film industry ever evolve into a truly modern corporatised one?
123. Why not use a brand index to measure national prosperity?
124. What we need to do to reduce scams is to have better regulatory bodies.
125. War rhetoric is misplaced in a country like India that is trying to globalize its economy.
126. Trade can help the poor.
127. Steal a few lakhs and you're a criminal. Steal a few hundred crores and you become an
industrialist.
128. Managerial skills learned in the classroom can never match those learned from experience.
129. Democracy is hampering Indias progress.
130. Religion is a private affair and should be of no concern for the state.
131. Decreasing defense expenditure and increasing social expenditure is the need of the hour.
132. Joint family is a blessing in disguise.
133. Higher education should be made possible only for those who can pay for it.
134. Should doctors be allowed to perform euthanasia (assisted suicide)?
135. How can we mobilize youth to care about the environment?
136. Developing countries should spend more on development than on defense.
137. Money is required to earn more money.
138. Classical music heritage and the growing pop culture.
139. Nice guys finish last.
140. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
141. Bullet For Bullet: Is it the right policy?
142. Should India break diplomatic ties with Pakistan?
143. Age and Youth: Experience versus young talent.
144. East is east and West is where all the action is (Mark Twain).
145. India needs Gujral doctrine for better international relations.
146. Doctors' accountability to improve healthcare.
147. Universal disarmament is a must.
148. Indian cricket teams shouldn't be allowed to play abroad.
149. Should all states be given independence.
150. 20-20 versus 50-50 Cricket.