36th Week- 12th February to 18th February 2012
12th February - It was a lazy Sunday morning. I visited Balihanta Haat for the survey with my RIM group. That was a different perspective of the markets often neglected by the mainstream.
We were sent an e-book of the Statistical Year Book India 2012. The present issue of the Statistical Year Book India 2012 is the 45th edition of the publication in the series. The present volume of the publication contains comprehensive data on economic and social sectors, spread in 44 chapters covering more than 350 tables. The data includes the latest state-wise indicators. In addition, a variety of graphs and charts have been given to represent pictorial data. [Official Source]
13th February - There was systematic preparation of the pictorial representation of the vision statement of any organization in the UDO lecture.
The Mentorship Program for the XIMB aspirants-2012 was rolled out and I am involved in this initiative. I had also written a possible list of the question that may be asked to aspirants by the interview panellists. Rural Management GD-PI Preparation ;
There was an intense discussion on Free Trade, Fair Trade and Price rigging at the REPP e-group. The success of the nation nowadays is increasingly measured on its ability to attract foreign investments rather than the welfare of its people and territorial security alone. There is a need to re-look the policies and practices in the institutes building minds of India. One learns by going much against the traditions rather than with them. One must have a pinch of contempt for the authority, otherwise, he will become spineless down the years by the system. The need for critical thinking by students to solve complex social, political and economic problems is more. Critical thinking starts with curiosity and observation. It saturates when one started asking questions about the validity of the axioms. Critical thinking reaches a zenith when you can understand the complexity of dialectical thoughts.
14th February - I was inspired by hearing the word axiom in today's REPP class. Currently, I lack the zeal and intensity to write like a madman. I recalled those old days when I had written an article questioning the axioms on my blog with the sheer passion and fire burning within. I was once an elegant writer and have a deep and nuanced understanding of the various topics. MBA education had somehow diluted the real me. I assume that it would take time to rediscover what I want to do again and maybe I just haven’t had that time. The logical explanation being that once primary goals are achieved, there is a sense of emptiness. I have been taking lectures, quizzes and doing assignments almost non-stop for the last month. Even the holidays were spent on the journey. I am finding myself unable to plan for any B-plan or social entrepreneurship plan. Yet, I am happy with the academic pressure of this trimester. It's pushing me against the wall to utilize time in a much more efficient way. A diamond isn't recognized as just any of the allotrope of carbon of unknown quality. It is a diamond because of the rigour and pressure it is put through in a specific environment. Hoping for the same metamorphosis for me.
15th February - This was an off day. I thought about these stabilized seven months where I actually enjoyed the whole atmosphere. Tall peaks are not always better than long plateaus as true greatness must include protracted excellence for a sustainable time. I am enjoying my current performance and stay at XIMB. The work I did for our corporate created their profits and I received a good salary, but it was making me miserable in the process. Rather than matching the job to our skills, often we tend to match our skills for the jobs. That was a mistake done from my side also.
Why do one work on the project? Either to increase our CV value or to have a real social impact! There is always a choice. I assume that a person should go with what makes one happy. Forget the society. Society would not come to help you if you were starving and naked in a gutter. There are economic constraints but more often it's a social status that barricades them from serving the needy.
16th February - RIM: This class amazes and talks a lot about humans, particularly in consumption behaviour. Perception is the reality in marketing. Rahul Gandhi tore apart the SP memorandum without even reading it in the public meeting. There is no rationale behind this but it has a mass appeal that isn't there in intellectually debating over the memorandum.
There was a talk about freedom and responsibility in the classroom deviating from regular studies. A manager can't afford to be an overpaid supervisor. There will be a loss of credibility. A manager should be able to go into the details and also be able to get the job done.
When there is the maximization of individual freedom, that destroys the cohesive system. The basic framework should be maintained otherwise adults will not be able to make good choices individually. Only by putting constraints on the individuals, social returns can be maximized. I don't know whether to agree or disagree over this issue.
There is material suggested for reading purposes: HUL's Nitin Paranjpe On The Capacity To Fail, HLL Is Reinventing Distribution, and How Companies Learn Your Secrets.
17th February - Capital Investment Decisions (CID): This was the first class of Prof Banikanta Misra. As is popular wisdom, an educational institute is only as good as its faculty members. This was the peak of our interaction of the first among equals in the several Professors of XIMB. There are five topics that a student should cover for learning Finance: Basic Statistics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Basic Accounting and Proper Communication Skills to frame the logic in the words.
We watched Swades movie as a part of the CMIB course to understand community mobilizers. I was able to see the positive impact of religion in rural India and the transformation of SRK from Bisleri to tapwater with more ecstasy. I had once written an article about the impact of this movie upon me. Revisiting old memories again Swades: 5 years onward...
18th February - There was a case study discussion in BIS class. Leveraging Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainable Development in Rural India - A Case Study on India’s Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI)
CID: The second lecture was slow and steady in nature. Yet, we were ashamed of our low knowledge level in accounts and finance to openly interact with such a good professor. Literally, the whole class was spent in the awe of him.
The whole day was long and tiring for me. There was be a Guest Lecture on e-Governance at the end of the day.
Guest Lecture - Mr Rudra Prasanna Mohapatra, Management Consultant
The invited speaker told us about the use of a web portal to give voice to the people and on the same lines making available all the government records in the public domain. There was quite an open and healthy debate on the problems like Computer Illiteracy, Conversion of hard copies to soft copies of records, beneficiary feedback for project evaluation, lack of data operators even at the block level and technical limitations of the web portal. Time Issue and Coordination Issue were the major factors behind the delay of the project. Time Issue becomes more intense with the decentralization of the plans. Converging all micro Planning at the village level to the macro extent is a challenging task that can be faced by any organization.
