39th Week- 4th March to 10th March 2012
3rd March - I was burnout, hence enjoyed Saturday night alone. I had applied for a live project at RMAX. Let's keep the finger crossed.
I gave a thought about the phenomenon of 'class participation in the grading system. Approximately 10-20% of overall marks in each subject are attributed to class participation. That is quite a difficult proposition for introverts until the topic of discussion is not very close to their heart. Unfortunately, I have realized that 'class participation' refers solely to speaking in class. Sometimes, 'Participation' is wrongly interpreted as saying stuff as much as you can as opposed to attentive listening and thinking. There may be less correlation between 'Best Orator' and 'Best Idea'.
4th March - Life at b-school is a complete antithesis of life at any engineering college. You have to redefine your work aesthetics and utilization of time. It's always a hectic schedule with a lot of readings that require a lot of trade-offs. Yet, one has to always remember that only hard work and what you truly are as a person, MBA or no MBA, will carry you forward in life.
Anyways, I was not selected for the live project at RMAX. President John F. Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, unequipped boats will be dashed to pieces. I am not buzzing with positive energy and confidence but had enough belief in overriding hard luck one day. But, I browsed through the e-Governance portal of the Indian government for the live project. I studied Framework & Guidelines for Use of Social Media for Government Organisations that may be useful in the UDO course. The basic statement undermining government vision was - "Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man".
5th March - There is always a sense of regional politics involved even in the elite B School OF India. Only a few view every incident through the spectacles of politics. REPP assignment required review of an EPW article:- Lineal Spread and Radial Dissipation: Experiencing Growth in Rural India, 1993-2005 ;
6th March - Huge Discussion on NREGA. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. There is more focus on area identification than targeted beneficiaries in NREGA. Livelihood beyond agriculture is not considered in NREGA.It is also a hugely land-based activity that has threatened skill-based activities like weaving.
7th March - MP: Political decentralization has no meaning if there is no fiscal decentralization. To stop leakages of the funds in transfer and efficiency, there must be the identification of beneficiaries through an open process like a social audit. As the wrong planning can further widen the gap between rich and poor, as already there is the skew distribution of resources. Even if the productivity and yield is increasing
8th March - Each ministry is an isolated island in the government. Hence, the narrow specialisation diminishes knowledge of the larger picture. The excess knowledge of expertise has led to less and less sync with other participants. 'Whose cost & Whose Benefits' is a necessary question to be asked to see the relevance of each stakeholder in the policymaking. 'Politics of Knowledge' was the new term for me.
There should be the distribution of reading material constituting the stories from the rural hinterland in vernacular for rural management students. 'Social Monopoly' is one more keyword to be looked at in the future.
Reading a nice article on public policy - Citizen voices, policy choices - It is clear that people across the country are driven by strong environmental values. Therefore, without having a policy process that channelises their perceptions and crystallises them in policy statements, it is not possible to sequence and prioritises our environmental problems, says Videh Upadhyay.
9th March - Holi was celebrated with fun and enjoyment. There was a good article By Joseph E. Stiglitz:- Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 per cent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
10th March - The feeling of low intellectual capacity is inbuilt in a few of my batch-mates. The whole rural managers' community is aware of the deficit of knowledge. Still, it shuns the idea of learning. The personal aspirations are quite despite the conducive environment, even XIMB is not able to change their mindset. I hope that the analytic vigour of the MBA program can make them more sincere towards their approach to studies and outbound learning. I have grown up hearing stories of heroes, which often contain privation, hardship and humiliation. There are grandiose visions of each budding rural manager, but they should not overlook the complexity of the context. No dream is ever chased alone. It is necessary for the community to mobilize for innovating new ideas that create value for all. Creative and critical thinking demands far more attention than natural smartness.
