31st Week- 8th January to 14th January 2012
8th January: A busy day in the assignments.
There was a public lecture by Prof Norman Uphoff, Director, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) and Professor of Government and International Agriculture on “Public Policy Opportunities for Food Security (and Poverty Reduction) in a Climate-Stressed World: Building Upon Our Learning from Agroecology and SRI (system of rice intensification ).” There was a headband of "JAI SRI" (Joint Action Initiative on System of Rice Intensification). The students of the 3 Continent Global Management Program also attended
The System of Rice Intensification, assembled in Madagascar over a 20-year period and gaining application internationally since 2000. As per my knowledge, PRADAN started introducing SRI in rainfed areas of the Eastern Gangetic Plains in 2003. He stressed the point of diminishing return obtained in the genetic input and external input after few seasons of cultivation.
9th January: There was only one lecture on IRV (Introduction to Risk and Valuation). I was amazed to know that the Ph.D. guide of our Prof. is Dr. Kirit S. Parikh. He stressed the fact that nothing is interesting if you're not interested and preparing the question paper of any subject can give you command over it. I was introduced to the concept of the time value of money.
- Microeconomics is only a tool of decision-making in the text of consumers, firms, and markets.
- Each of the people sitting in the class has a different opportunity cost, hence the unique ability to differ in decision making.
10th January: Only one lecture on REPP (Rural Enterprise and Public Policies). He gave high regard to P Sainath. He raised the point that despite so many successes, India's rural-urban divide is terrifying. As Amartya Sen warns in his address to the 93rd Indian Science Congress in Hyderabad, India's future "cannot be one that is half California and half sub-Saharan Africa". South Africa and Brazil have economic inequalities within their social structure but now India is also joining their ranks. All thanks to the wrong economic and political policies of the Indian government.
The concept of Gap Year College was told by him. An interesting concept read by me in the blog of Rashmi Bansal. Ending today with a quote for an engineer -
"And somewhere there are engineers
Helping others fly faster than sound.
But, where are the engineers
Helping those who must live on the ground?"
-- Young Oxfam Poster
11th January: A lot of classes were canceled.
When you feel that the film industry is always a place of people with no art, culture, or political interest. The stereotype is wrong. Surprised to see the talk of Mansoor Khan who was talking about sustainability and growth. For those who aspire for a career change, purpose in life and trying to make sense of this insane world, he sets a glaring example.
TEDxYouth@Chennai - Mansoor Khan - The Third Curve.
Mansoor Khan is known to the country as the director of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander. Despite being a success in Bollywood, he moved with his family to Coonoor where lives on a 22-acre organic cheesemaking farm. Alumni of IIT-Madras, he went on to study at Cornell University and then, MIT, USA.
12th January: There was the first lecture on CMIB (Community Mobilisation & Institution Building). There is a proposed discussion of Swades, Manthan, and Chak De India in the course outline. I am excited about the movies especially Manthan. Manthan was a 1976 Hindi film made by Shyam Benegal, based on a story written jointly by Verghese Kurien and director Shyam Benegal.
Professor of OM (Operations Management) started with few quotes that were so precise and accurate.
“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” ― Albert Einstein.
“If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.” ― Bill Gates.
"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt.
I heard the first time about the triple bottom line (abbreviated as TBL or 3BL). As per the economist (magazine), behind it lies the same fundamental principle: what you measure is what you get, because what you measure is what you are likely to pay attention to. Only when companies measure their social and environmental impact will we have socially and environmentally responsible organizations.
Never know about any business model till this class. Learned about one today. For example, one of the initiatives in the business excellence movement is a framework known as the TBEM (Tata Business Excellence Model). TBEM assesses core aspects of business operations: leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce focus, process management, and business results. Read more on the Tata group website.
13th January: MR (Marketing Research) class started with two lectures back to back. A lot of stuff about social networks and content analysis is still there to learn.
OM (Operations Management) class is becoming full of new information and jargon. One article on strategy was given to us for reading. What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter. Source: Harvard Business Review, 21 pages. Publication date: Nov 01, 1996. The author argues that operational effectiveness, although necessary to superior performance, is not sufficient, because its techniques are easy to imitate. In contrast, the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more difficult to match.
14th January: CMIB lecture was focused on the definition and characteristics of the community. I was thinking about our Cinephile society that emerged as Cine Darbaar now. My head was revolving around the talk, dreams, and vision of realistic and indie cinema. I was able to appreciate the necessity of social capital and the need for regular interaction for vibrancy in the community.
Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks. - Mark Twain. Any guess for mentioning this quote. I was reading about forecasting in OM (Operations Management) class. We were assigned to find the concept of the Markov chain. Happy Weekend.
I talked today with one of the teachers about the quality of students at XIMB. The discussion was casual yet confidential in nature.
