We, at SCMS Group, have completed another successful year of consistent progress in a number of key areas. 2006 was another year of significant growth, both in terms of quantity and in terms of quality, for the SCMS Group.

During the year, SCMS had diversified its activities into three new areas, namely, Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Bioscience & Biotech Research and Animation & Media Studies.

A new campus was established in Bangalore, the first of its kind outside the state of Kerala, for an Academy for Animation and Media Studies. Another new campus is in the process of establishment at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. A new hostel complex with all modern amenities to accommodate 300 girl students was completed in the Prathap Nagar campus in record time.

A new postgraduate course, MCA, was started in SSET, the engineering college at Karukutty. The number of seats for B.Tech. (Mechanical) at SSET was increased from 90 to 120.

Four B.Tech. students bagged the top three ranks in the final examination conducted by M.G.University during June/July 2006, a clear indication of the excellent quality of teaching standards maintained by the Group. A few second ranks also came to our B.Tech. students.

As usual, 100 percent placement was achieved for the PGDM students of 2004-06 batch.

Another major achievement was that the seventh annual best b. school survey conducted by Business India for the year 2006 rated the PGDM programme of SCMS-COCHIN as A++. With the result, SCMS-COCHIN was ranked as one of the 21^st best b.schools in India.

The most spectacular achievement of the year was the award of the highest grading for the PGDM programme of SCMS-COCHIN by the National Board of Accreditation and the renewal of accreditation for another five years. In effect it was a litmus test for the superior quality of education and the first class infrastructure facilities provided at SCMS-COCHIN. No other b.school was given accreditation for 5 years in 2006.

Consequently, when the AICTE decided to conduct a series of accreditation awareness programmes all over the country to boost up the quality of education, the conscious choice for playing host to the inaugural programme fell on SCMS-COCHIN. It was held at SCMS campus on 23.12.2006 AICTE felt that it was appropriate that a national movement for quality improvement should start from the campus of a role model in quality assurance. It was indeed a great honour bestowed on us by the national apex body, a motivating force for us to scale new heights in our journey towards a world-class status.