Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 3...

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 3...: Continuing from the 2nd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 3rd part of the learning in the field of Rural Manag...

43rd Week@XIMB

43rd Week@XIMB - 1st April to 7th April, 2012

1st April- REPP effect was conglomerating the senses. Various thoughts were springing in the mind. Like : Until Ordinary humans of the first world will become economically destitute, and will be reduced to the state of the third world, they will not rise in solidarity with all the dispossessed by colonilaism and neo imperialism.

2nd April- The last day of exam. Exam is over still two assignments are pending. The extent of stress is always relative to our current level of growth, hence satisfied with the performance.

3rd April- The assignments and packing had make the day hectic. Still, I am enjoying the marathon named MBA.

4th April- A nice day with final packing done for our summers. Seasons come and go. I’ve witnessed the beauty of XIMB campus in the rains, as well as enjoyed even a foggy night here. Although most of my schedule was occupied with classes and , I still found some time walking around the school in night to admire the hidden loveliness of the campus. But looking at what I’ve been through, I feel happy that I’m here. It has been amazing, and I’m looking forward to more exciting experiences.

I am now habitual of seeing my MBA friends around all time, and I miss them. Their smiles are simply everywhere, in the classrooms, the mess, XCafe, GR2 and even the elevator. Two and Half months to the new semester seems to be a long time to wait, but I know our eagerness to meet one another again will be much greater after a long break. Thank you my friends. You all make XIMB so special to me!!!

5th April- It took a special train journey of 30 hour to reach Bangalore. There is 5 day break before joining organization for summer internship.

6th April- Bangalore, you are special to me. MG road looks like New York to me. I said in my mind that its not that everyone should have the same but that each should have enough in the life.

7th April- A day in the train...

42nd Week@XIMB

42nd Week@XIMB - 25th March to 31st March, 2012

25th March - This Sunday has been devoted to assignments and presentation. I take a long nap instead of all this hectic schedules. I also talked to GM about doing PHD in public policy from any foreign university. The complex question of Distribution and Creation of the wealth always intrigued me. Merit, Network, Violence, Open Society, Distributive Justice and Reservations are few vague key words around which I want to focus my work.

To imagine a long life and planning for 20-25 years down the years is an extreme example of the unrealized luxury. Only elites can have insurance, coping strategies and resources for mitigating future risk required for such plans. There remains a deep aura of uncertainty  in the life of aam aadmi. What I felt deeply that future exists, may be for a day or week for most of the people living on the fringes. People are living from hand to mouth situation having much vulnerabilities like health, displacement and social risk. Majority of their time and wages is spent in food. Yet, they plan and save with much difficulty for marriages, festivals and fatal accidents. The vulnerability of commons is due to the wrong policies of the major institutions. The economic and social institutions are not designed by mistake but exists only for the benefit of the elite. There is a huge gap between what people want and what the government is prepared to give in the doamin of public services  and goods(education, health, clean water, sanitation). State policies have no meaning unless they consider the weakest person of the society. Salute to aam aadmi who is a portrayal of resilience and vulnerability in the same skin.

26th March - I had change in daily schedule and more behaving as an nocturnal animal. This mutation can be contributed to hot summer days of Orissa.

27th March - Convocation day. There was convocation address by Harsh Mariwala of Marico.

28th March - CID exam was a disaster. And yet, I am satisfied with my preparation level.

29th March - OM and CMIB exams were much better than previous examination. Exhaustion is approaching due to lack of long of sleep and stress.

30th March - RIM exam was tough yet viable. UDO exam was based on RLLE and bring out the writing bug in every student. The abstract concept of development and vision were flowing from the nip of the pen. The creative tension between mind and aching hand produced the answers of high creativity and innovation.

31st March - MP exam was over. Answer sheet with limited space are doing wonders for me and curbing the habit of muggers to vomit their data. Three exams more to go....

The Spirit of Invisible - Kalyan Akkipedi offers a quick peak into the heart of rural India peppered with lessons learnt from traditional healers, contemplation on co-operation between religious factions and the story of salt. Best Lines Read in the article: “Nature is unique in every region, and so are the ways to exist in synergy with it. Understanding this way of existence is knowledge. Knowledge is omnipresent in the region, but can’t be explicitly articulated. Traditions of a region preserve this knowledge in codified ways. Lifestyle in any given region evolves along these traditions. And, lifestyle interactions of a community weave cultural fabric. Therefore, each region has a unique culture. Without this uniqueness, there's no diversity.”

41st Week@XIMB

41st Week@XIMB - 18th March to 24th March, 2012

18th March - Prosperity of any nation depends on youths. Change requires individuals with grasp on realism, courage, willingness to change, and a readiness to support change, particularly among those who have the greatest means to do so. Jesuits are known for their work in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits, and for their missionary efforts. Jesuit Society is producing Business and Rural Managers at XIMB. There is no shortage of highly capable and qualified students who want to work for the development of the country. Yet, the managers from XIMB all need job for waving off loan and sustaining economically after MBA education. The selection process, curriculum, quality of faculty, pedagogy and the farce called placement are all oriented towards are not creating independent minds and risk takers. The warning of Prof Cornel West is coming in mine mind: "a market-driven technocratic culture has infiltrated university life, with the narrow pursuit of academic trophies and the business of generating income from grants and business partnerships taking precedence over the fundamental responsibility of nurturing young minds." The emphasis of any university, college or school should be on fostering curiosity rather than only competitive excellence.

19th March - I was not able to see Budget 2012 today. How to read the union budget was a nice initiative from Indian government for educated citizens. I was only able to read article No green signal yet for the Yuva Kisan by M. S. Swaminathan. Commenting on the poverty line will be like muddling on the pile of deadwood. I came to conclusion now that everyone believes what they want to. So depending on one's ideology, poverty in India has reduced or increased. There are lies, damn lies and statistics. What a true statement it is !

20th March - REPP: There was very good lecture on Globalisation with focus on value chain analysis. Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Friedman were the main writers to be read for an introductory level to understand pros and cons of this phenomenon. I came to know about new term : Risk Society what Ulrich Beck defines it as "a systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernisation itself."

Analysis of any case can be done in two frame work : Predictive and Explanatory. There is no need to write summary of the text for the academia. Learning can only happen when we embrace our errors. I came to know more about Collaboration Curves through an article posted on google group.

Social science is not a leftist hobby that we can do without. Today, MBA student has no sense of the history. As per me, there should be equal focus on IQ, EQ ( Emotional Quotient), and SQ ( Social Quotient) while selecting candidate for any B school in India. There is no use of economic progress that brings prosperity to few. And for that change, it requires socio-political awareness in the business managers community.

Global Mindset is much relevant to the rural managers. It develops a healthy skepticism of market fundamentalism, growth, reforms and offers immense opportunities. With the help of the global mindset, a rural manager can recognize paradoxes and complex realities with their nature of arguments, their origins, contexts, backgrounds etc.

21st March - MP: While urban planning focus spatial plan, rural planning is based on the sectoral plan. There was good discussion spatial planning and Central Place theory. Central Place Theory is a geographical theory that seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system. This reminded me of the cluster theory. Cluster are linked by commonalities and complementarities and they increase the productivity; Cluster and networks reduce the cost of economic transactions. They also give easier access of skilled workforce and offer a rich information flow environment.

22nd March - There was presentation on Haat and Xavier Vending zone in RIM class. We all are exhausted by the massive assignments and presentations with their deadlines approaching in each 24 hours.

23rd March -Confused positioning of RM program between development and corporate can be labeled on both students and faculty. Even with good educational opportunities, people have always prized opportunity over equality. There was talk of inclusion of few more subjects as an elective next year. Since students were also consider stakeholders, they were asked opinion first time in the history of RM course of XIMB. The process was not an administration initiative but a clear cut strategic plan of handful of students.

There must be choices of the stream at masters level, not the enforcement of ideas of few in administration.Ours handful of students came with good list of courses. Whole batch was included for their opinion but nothing concrete came out of their suggestions. As a community, we need to keep questioning and understand the hidden power of protest and voice. One must taking stand before the excessive power of the few imposes even larger costs on everyone else.

The protest of habitual dissenter is never taken much in consideration but that brings out discontent of the community. Unrest is, in reality, discontent. This discontent is a very useful thing for community mobilization. As long as a person is contented with his present and and behave like a frog in the well, so long is it difficult to persuade him to come out of it. Therefore it is that every reform must be preceded by discontent. I didn't see critical mass in the community who can take a stand even with their bounded rationality.

24th March - I am bunking lectures from last few days due to frustration with the assignments and quizzes. I am busy less productive. Still, I attended placement meeting called by our placement officer.

CID : It was the last lecture of Prof Banikanta Mishra. But we get only 15 minutes of his talk about values. He correctly lay emphasis on sincerity rather than brilliance. Humility appears in the person when one realize oneself lucky seeing poverty all around. He was second person after my father who lay emphasis on secularism.

He reminded me a quote of Bhagat Singh- "Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking." What more can I say, listen from him only.

XIMB - Prof.Banikant Mishra - The last Lecture

40th Week@XIMB

40th Week@XIMB - 11th March to 17th March, 2012

11th March - A reading day on MBA education :- What they don't teach you at Indian B-schools : In emphasising western theories and concepts, management education is curtailing innovation & Are you absolutely sure that you want to study an MBA? : Guest writer and IIM Ahmedabad student SG Shrinivas believes that the actual life as an MBA student is far from what is portrayed in the media, and those preparing for admissions should not base their decisions on sensational placement reports.

12th March - MP: There was discussion around fiscal decentralization with ensuring efficiency and identification of beneficiary at the ground level. Hoping to go in more details soon.

UDO: There was again discussion on Leadership qualities. XIMB values many factors such as your leadership traits, knowledge and genuine interest in course apart from past academic records. "Are leaders 'born' or 'made' ?" was the core question. The idea that leaders are born and cannot be made is a dangerous in context of India where there is tradition of dynasty politics and nepotism. The assumption of born leaders takes away focus from the development of leadership qualities. The main thrust then remains on finding innate leaders with the required qualities and hone them in a conducive ecosystem.

Yet, I like concept of the shared leadership. Its just like an extension mentor and trainee relationship to an altogether level. Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez are individuals who for one reason or another were unable to develop a shared leadership or even a team. Prof. Satish Dhawan's years as ISRO chief is a good example of leadership. Prof Dhawan's management philosophy was that when success comes in after hard work, the leader should give the credit of the success to the team members. When failure comes, the leader should absorb the failures and protect the team members.

13th March - RIM: There was discussion on community based marketing initiative and need of the ecosystem required for sustainability of the innovative product. Modern day technologies don't work for the small farmers as the repair and maintenance technology is absent from the ecosystem of the village. There was mention of a new documentary in the class.

Documentary : Tomorrow We Disappear (Trailer)


RS recommonded me video of discussion between Amartya Sen, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Prannoy Roy at Budget Battleground.

14th March - MP: There was discussion around fiscal decentralization; Backwardness of any region can be judged by PCI, Per Capita Availability of services and Per Capita Investment. There is no much support between fiscal decentralization and economic efficiency. Local government had ability of better revenue mobilization and pricing of local services. As we had already seen in the case of developing countries like India where there is insufficient percolation of benefits to the poor and socially disadvantaged sections, despite laucnh of the several poverty alleviation programmes.

As Oates (1993) explained, "the basic economic case for fiscal decentralization is the enhancement of economic efficiency: the provision of local outputs that are differentiated according to local tastes and circumstances results in higher levels of social welfare than centrally determined and more uniform levels of outputs across all jurisdictions.Although this proposition has been developed mainly in a static context (see my treatment of the "Decentralization Theorem,' 1972), the thrust of the argument should also have some validity in a dynamic setting of economic growth." Fiscal Experts have also concluded that decentralized government poses a threat to the macroeconomic stability and is incompatible with prudent fiscal management. (See Prud’homme, 1995; Tanzi, 1996). Among the fiscal experts a broad consensus has been arrived in the context of Musgrave’s trilogy of public functions, namely, allocation, redistribution, and stabilization, that the function of allocation can be assigned to lower level of governments, the other two would be more appropriate for the national government. Therefore, the macroeconomic management, particularly stabilization policy largely consider as clearly a central function (Musgrave, 1983; Oates 1972). [OP Vohra : Fiscal decentralization and devolution of financial resource]

15th March - CMIB : There were questions raised in my mind about sustainability of institutions created by projects. I never asked them in the lecture today. Even then, I had a doubt that most of the time, academician evade reality in order to fit various doctrines, instead of transcending theories in order to explain reality. The lack of pro-efficiency in philosophy and social sciences barred me from reaching any hasty conclusion.

RIM : There was discussion on Sarvodya Samiti Case Study. This case presents the situation faced by Pradip Mohanty, Coordinator of Sarvodaya Samiti, an NGO, which is involved in the production, processing, and marketing of honey. There is already diagnosis of the case provided by two IRMA professors here. Interesting point was the analysis of case through Ted London's Base of the Pyramid Impact Assessment Framework.

Guest Lecture by Rishikesha Krishnan
There was more focus on lack of innovation in the field of research and dearth of people filing patents. He strssed on the stock exchange for smaller firms for the growth of the new companies. There is no synergy of Capital, Idea and Talent required for new companies at present in India. More of his views can be captured in his TED talk :
Rishikesha Krishnan: From jugaad to systematic innovation


16th March -MP: There is shift in the public policy of the welfare states; They are moving towards rights based approach from basic needs approach. Demand Projection, Minimum Norms and Productive Area area given importance in planning with importance of both equality and efficiency.

17th March -CMIB : It was finally concluded that two programs/seminars can't generate empathy for poor. Personal belief of people are hard to change until backed by economic incentives in MBA education.

RM program in India doesn't have much heightened cultural awareness and global perspectives that rural managers need. There are still ghetto and commune of region /colleges operating within rural managers community. I can only recall importance of brotherhood from the french revolution : Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he can not achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity...

39th Week@XIMB

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.

38th Week@XIMB

38th Week- 26th February to 3rd March 2012

26th February - Mid-term papers of OM and CMIB were over till evening. I am trying to stop multi-tasking for achieving better concentration and productivity. Even if I do well or don't do well. I have realized that there are certain things that are important in life. I am trying to live as per them.

Patience, Curiosity, and Irreverence have always remained the guiding tools for learning. Knowledge with fear in the heart is a quality to despise. Hence, I am sharpening the courage for defiance as it will ultimately lead me in standing for something. If we don't take a stand for a cause in the protected academic institution, what are really our chances to face injustice bravely in the real world? Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it.

27th February - IRV and REPP papers were over. Currently, the whole batch is on the verge of rapidly going to 'Tragedy of Commons' due to few free riders. Hoping to resolve the situation soon.

28th February - There was an introduction to Public Policy in the REPP course. Public policy is what governments choose to do or not to do. While looking at Indian government, there seems no serious accountability and willingness in translating the well-intentioned policies into tangible action. There seems no end to the disinvestment process of cash cows to raise capital. It poses a very serious question: Do we need privatization or more accountability?

In The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What to Make of It (2001), Lindblom eloquently quoted that - Market System is the best mechanism yet devised for creating and fostering wealth and innovation, it is not very efficient at assigning non-economic values and distributing social or economic justice.

There is an unspoken dictum in the heads of power holders that market as a mechanism is exempt from social and cultural norms and lies outside the bounds of the society. Believing that for-profits in search of business will voluntarily serve the public good is naive. There is a contradiction between the motives of a private company and societal obligations. Currently, the free market is assumed as a hybrid of public subsidy and private profit by a common man. NDA government tried to serve the economic and political benefits of smaller strata with flawed policies and the 'India Rising' slogan, they were kicked out of power soon. Even the emerging middle class supports the private sector, but the resistance from everyday citizens of India can't be suppressed. Only massive state violence can override the wishes of people.

Public policy schools in India

IIM Bangalore - http://hrm.iimb.ernet.in/cpp/index.html

IIPA New Delhi – http://www.iipa.ernet.in/

Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi - www.cprindia.org

National Institute for Public Finance and policy - www.nipfp.org.in

NIRD, IIM A, IIMC (group PPM), MDI, ISB, Jindal Univ, BIMTECH etc. Even, XIMB is listed as one of the four in Wiki:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_policy_schools

29th February - I gave a lot of thought to Rural Consumption and Production. Due to intervention of FMCG companies, there is an improvement in the life style of few people. But, that growth is related to a service sector and over a long period of time, promoting only rural consumption is a downward spiral. Without the opportunity of sustainable income, there will be the emergence of huge economic inequality. There is a dire need of capacity building, making credit facilities available and effective utilization of productive assets. Information, Access, and Capabilities are three key indicators to measure the strength of any farmer. There is already an increasing trend of movement of agricultural cultivators to casual laborers, which is much in contradiction of the self-employment policy promoted by the government. There is a clear evidence that self employed cultivator is moving into insecure and unorganized labour market. What happens now of the dream of the self-reliant village?

There is a need for funding for rural infrastructure and market development. There are so many Agricultural Mandi's that are unreachable There is an urgent need for intensive development of cottage industries and agricultural processing units with backward and forward market linkages. The chain in the supply and distribution network is highly distorted by too many middlemen. We often tend to measure supply chain efficiency without looking into value chain analysis that can measure relevance of the nod in the network. A very nice paper to understand future of rural markets is - The Future of Small Farms: New Directions for Services, Institutions and Intermediation - Colin Poulton, Andrew Dorward, Jonathan Kydd ;

Guest Lecture by Rajiv Surana

Rajeev Surana runs a consulting & professional services firm, Scinnovation Consultants Pvt. Ltd. based in Mumbai offering “idea protection to commercialization” solutions to its clients consisting of Incubators, Individual Innovators, Research Institutes & SMEs. He gave a guest lecture that revolved around IP rights, Patents, trademarks, and copyrights with a small part deviated towards rural innovations and ideas.

1st March - REPP: There was a screening of a The film provides powerful visual evidence of the enormous potential of NREGA and outlines the reforms required to help realize this potential. Order the film on this website.

NREGA Reforms: Building Rural India - Trailer

We have to remember that NREGA will not form an engine for growth by itself. It addresses inequality by state investment, not actual wealth and job creation. There is practice of rampant corruption in panchayats which has been a convenient excuse not to decentralise power and finances.

2nd March - We were told about CENDERET first time in the class. Centre for Development Research & Training [CENDERET], XIMB, was set up in October 1988 as the rural and social development wing to highlight the issues in rural and deprived sections of the society. In 1994, a lot of funds remained underutilized due to a lack of competent manpower. There were no NGO with sufficient capacity and human resource to take any watershed and Drought prone area project. There was capacity building exercise of NGO through 120 days training by CENDERET. There was massive preparation of 450 village plans with help of these NGOs in which 60-70% were accepted and overtaken by the government. Now all these NGOs are capable of talking project from various donor agencies to the government.

3rd March - There were lectures on CMIB & CID. And the weekends on a happy note.

37th Week@XIMB

37th Week- 19th February to 25th February 2012

19th February - RLLE is an integral pedagogical component of the PGDM-RM course at XIMB. The objective of this live experience of one month is to develop respect for the poor and rural people while living with them and listening to their joys & sorrows, and appreciating their capacity to lead their life with dignity amidst several odds. We worked with the International potato Center on the phase of area identification of the project "Root & Tuber Crops for Food Security in the Asia Pacific". We had done the work in two phases:

Secondary data collection, Household listing and Field visit for identification of villages for the project area intervention & Primary data collection and analysis using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools in the selected villages.

This field learning and experience from rural India was a joy of our life and definitely unforgettable for us. We want to share our moments through the process of  "learning by unlearning" and hope that it will help all to experience through our eyes. We documented the entire trip in a short video of five minutes - XIMB RLLE (2011-13)- International Potato Center

There is a hypothesis that creativity isn't a linear, consistent phenomenon but rather happens in clumps and creative states are only super creative for a short time. Assuming our creativity can capture your attention. This project would not have been possible without my teammates Mriganka Mondal, Chandan Kumar and Kuldip Kalita! All thanks to them.

20th February - I rested today. We finished our RLLE report and chart for RLLE mela. It was pleasant to see that each of us avoided credit grabbing. By giving credit to the people where it is due, creates an environment of mutual trust and respect.

I saw a funny picture on Facebook about IRMANS that hold quite true for Rural Managers at XIMB also. I am reproducing the image here without any malicious intention -

21st February - RLLE Mela was much better organized than we anticipated. Our faculty and administration were advised by the director to read the book - Rethinking the MBA by Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin and Patrick Cullen.

22nd February - There was deep reading material given in REPP class of Politics of Economic Growth in India, 1980-2005 (Part 1 and Part2); The paper stress that Indian government policies were more pro-business than pro-market. I somehow agree with that. This article is not having asinine views of the market but a different perspective about the transformation of the political economy of India before and after liberalization.

23rd February - Only 16 students attended the CMIB lecture, the rest of them were kicked out due to failure in submitting assignments on time. I don't have clear disdain but always hidden anger against the establishment. But at this time, the strict action taken to maintain class discipline was justified. As per my opinion, punishment should be the last resort of any civilized society, but a society that is not prepared to punish those who would rule it by force and chaos is doomed to become uncivilised. "Stop passing the buck, nip it in the bud" is the best strategy to control mob behaviour. There are few students in the RM program who had a track record of indiscipline in the class. That is why I supported the actions of the administration.

RIM: There is a general assumption of the existence of the perfect merit and fair market among the elite and higher caste students. Even price discovery is a top-bottom approach in most of the commodity market. Hence, it's very difficult to establish true people's market. One more hidden fact: Caste reduces the transaction cost in India. That was an important lesson that needs to be much researched and studies by Indian management students. There is already research on this that suggests that socially backward castes do face disadvantages in finding regular employment in the sense that they face either higher transaction costs or social boycott by the trader community associated with entry into the market. Economic deprivation is a serious disability, So is social discrimination and oppression. One can access journal papers on the study of transaction costs at Ronald Coase Institute.

24th February - Midterm exams of BIS and MP were finished. There were two articles worth reading in such a hectic schedule even - Dear MBA Class of 2011 by Sidin Vadukut: Advice for the worthies undergoing campus placements, delivered in Morgan Freeman-style to soft hip-hop-ish beats and ‘Uncertified’ managers of Anna Hazare’s village give management lessons.

25th February - Midterm exam of UDO was over. There were five fascinating essays in the course material: Social Action to Overcome Someday by Harsh Mander, Building Bridges across Boundaries: Partnerships for Development by Arun Maira, Grassroots Development through Community Action by Bunker Roy, Sustainability of Interventions: Withdrawal - The concept, Need and Implications by M K Bhat and Anita Cheria & NGOs Civil Society and Political Development.

36th Week@XIMB

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.

35th Week@XIMB

35th Week- 5th February to 11th February, 2012

5th February - IRMA has declared their GD-PI list one month ago. XIMB-RM cut off for rural management course had been declared now. This year CAT, XAT & IRMA scores are valid for the entrance from this year. I welcome this diversification of application with different scores.

Lot of debate and analysis will go again in the rural management community.It is a course that has unique fusion of rural development and business management. Rural Management is a different course whose people are convinced of the superiority of their mission and are obsessed with the inferiority of their merit on CAT/XAT scale. As per mine opinion, a rural manager must be more professional and learned as comparison to the normal MBA college manager as one has less capital and more complex problems to deal with. More about rural manager as per point of view of an IRMA  at pagal guy.

I respect IRMA for their immense work in the field of development. Yet, governemnt and IRMA adminsitration have failed to set up more number of colleges on such pattern. With 32 years of establishment, there is no substantial increase in the number of seats offered from 80's to 2010. A very low increment of seats while the population has 65 billion to 112 billion people shows lag of government in the higher education. This is a drastic policy lapse from both IRMA and Central Government. They should take lessons from IITs and IIMs who are opening colleges without the illusive fears of quality dilution by few elites. Here, I will lay emphasis on the private colleges like XIMB that are putting efforts for developing such niche program with a different framework. Yet, reservation of seats for a youth from BPL card holder family by IRMA is a nice move. I heavily appreciate this progressive step. Way to go !

6th February - Quiz in IRV ; I was selected in the new XSYS Team that is the Systems Association of XIMB. That is a good progress happening slowly in mine professional life.

There is much beyond classroom to learn. The attitude of Spoon-feeding knowledge has killed the spirit of questioning and search for the solutions. Its hard to get the spirit of questioning in the last stages of your academic career.

7th February - ADM end term exam was there and hence it led to the official end of the 2nd trimester today. I missed two classes of REPP and RIM for the exam. It was a low point of my post-graduation academic session. There was huge and open discussion on the caste system with referring to an EPW article : An Obituary on Caste as a System by M N Srinivas. The changing social dynamics of India throughout centuries was well documented in this. Yet, the article misses to say much about caste system in Islam and Christianity of the converted community.

Mr. Sandeep Rajan and Mr. Harihar Dubey of PGDM(RM) 2010-12 batch have won the Earthian Awards 2011-12 declared by WIPRO.

8th February - I heard the name of Harsh Mandar who is a bureaucrat turned activist in UDO lecture. This was the last class of IRV. Prof summarized the class with anecdotes of his life and a nice video giving message to live simply.

Life is like Coffee

9th February - "What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over ― Aleister Crowley". Robert Chambers points out different type of biases that a rural manager should be minimizing. Its often true that we convert our developmental intervention as rural development tourism. In 1983, six biases of such visits : spatial, project, person, seasonal diplomatic and professional - against seeing, meeting and learning from the poor people were identified and described. In 2008, the seventh bias of security was added and all these biases continue to reinforce popular wrong perceptions.

There is Ganesh Devy and Mahashweta Devi who are working for tribal languages unknown to most of us. While they are unheard by most of us, we tend to read more Dickens than Mahashweta Devi to understand our own backyard. I was lucky to get a TED talk by G N Devy. Professor Ganesh Devy talks about how languages evolve. And how local Indian languages are dying, taking with them a treasure of historical knowledge and wisdom.

RIM: I learned about Distribution strategies and tactics of rural market. Companies are reviewing the rural marketing concept and trying to outreach rural market with NGO's and SHG other than the channel partners. There was discussion on SHG. The average life of SHG is 39 months as per a study (No reference document available).

There was a video shown on Project Shakti of HUL. HUL collaborate with self-help groups and non-governmental organizations to identify underprivileged women and train them to be saleswomen.

Film on Project Shakti

Congratulations to Suma Pratyusha and Sreevidya Gowda of RM-1 batch for finishing at Silver Level in the Acara Challenge 2012 organized by the University of Minnesota. Kudos to them !

10th February - It was the last day of National CSR Conference. Only lecture of REPP was possible with Joseph C Kumarappa. Economy of Permanence is a famous book written by him. Unfortunately the book is out of print but was downloaded and supplied to the whole batch by GB. [Download PDF Version]

11th February - There is case discussion in BIS over CCD. The approach to teach BIS completely through case studies is quite strange with most of the public coming from agriculture and commerce background. As they have consider BIS a technical subject with unheard jargon.

Guest Lecture by Biju Dominic

Biju Dominic is an alumnus of XIMB. He is currently CEO of FinalMile Consulting. . He mostly focused his talks om behaviour architecture- changing human behaviour with the help of Cognitive Neurology and Behavioural Economics. He talked a lot about solving macro level problems with micro- management.

- The genuine question raised by him was - Does Brain take a shortcut ?

- Indian politician is a person to learn man- management.He gave various example from Kerala to US Presidential elections to prove his claims.

- Sucking out of money phenomenon. This is happening to the big farmers at Noida and Gurgaon who had became suddenly rich with the higher prices of the real estate. The habit of austerity has given place to mindless consumerism. And they consume most of their money within few years, and never make a substantial investment . It has lot of do with irrational nature of the human beings that neo-liberal economics fail to explain.

34th Week@XIMB

34th Week- 29th January to 4th February, 2012

29th January - The whole day passed in the train journey back to the college. I was retrospecting about my career shaping at XIMB. It was the right question that led Atanu Dey to a different career. His question: “Why is India poor?”. Asking the right question can make all the difference. Critical thinking is the most effective approach towards learning and self discovery. I have initiated that process 3 year ago with the series of failures and wrong choices. We all know that streak of losses can be self-perpetuating. And one start to wonder where that elusive win will come from. One start blaming luck and all other external factors. One start hating the crowds and find oneself in that rut but until, one starts to win/gain even a small achievement. I am feeling confident with good academic record and grasping of the subjects in the rural management program. Atleast now, I am asking the right questions.

30th January - IRV assignment and UDO quiz welcomed me in the morning. Break even point analysis came handy while studying capacity strategy in OM class. For any profit and non profit organization, the cost effectiveness and efficiency in operational planning is must for achieving the suitable outcome. We learnt about the theory of constraints (TOC) that adopts the common idiom "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link" as a new management paradigm.

There was lecture in IRV on basic concept of design of market and valuation of assets. There was further heavy discussion on Law of one price, Information Asymmetry, Gambling and Legitimate Risk. The regulatory behaviour of market led me thinking into the zone of US model of laissez-faire and the European model of deficit-driven welfare states. There is always need for the right balance between markets and provision of public goods. Also, the tax imposed on the companies should not led us back into the license-raj era since welfare state depands on how much taxpayers are willing to pay for them. Present day recession is caused by too-big-to-fail banks and big cartels that could have been averted by stricter supervision and regulation of a financial system.

31st January - I learned in MR class that consumption pattern depends on occupation, education, values and socialization of the household. While during socio-economic surveys in urban areas, there is comparison through education-occupation matrix, the rural areas are compared by type of house and education. We didn't take income in survey as that is difficult to gather due to the privacy reason and may be seasonal in the nature. The occupation otherwise is more stable form of variable.

Professor at BIS lecture presented Cisco Telepresence Magic to show the future of the technology.



There is lot of positive thing that can be done by technology in the area of health care and education. As we are finding Aravind (India) or Narayana Hrudayalaya (India) using the latest medical technology for serving poor. I am more cautious with the approach. As higher technological innovation comes with patent and research cost leading to the monopoly of the producer company.

Heard first time about NCAER socio-economic survey, Thompson Rural Market Index and MICA rural market ratings.

1st February - While learning about Institutional Capacity Assessment and Organisational Diagnosis in UDO lecture, I came across Weisbord, Marvin R. Six box diagnostic model and McKinsey 7S Framework.

The symptom of undeveloped district in India can be easily seen through credit deposit ratio of the bank. It is same like checking cash inflow /outflow in the company. Micro Planning lectures are good and must be put forward in our civics books from 10th onward.

SEC elections were held in the night. They were full of candidates with inflated promises and flattery. How defenseless we are in the face of flattery! I was viewing the whole election as market segmenting, art of choosing and irrational nature of targeted consumers. The networking, deceit, lies and articulating speeches were making it look like a sop opera. It all lasted more than six hours. Speaking about the candidates : Flamboyancy created a mass following but also reduces the credibility with a poorer image. In the time of goodwill, erosion of credibility and intentions into question, no individual, company or NGDO can survive.

I will paraphrase here about “state of nature” and social contract. Any human condition absent from any political order, usually termed the “state of nature”. In this condition, individuals' actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience. Then, individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept corresponding duties to protect themselves and one another from violence and other kinds of harm. From this shared starting point, social contract theorists seek to demonstrate, in different ways, why a rational individual would voluntarily give up his or her natural freedom to obtain the benefits of political order.In our democratic political order at college level, it is necessary to qurantine the early intruders (unworthy candidates) in bud. Otherwise the well-meaning and merited representatives will be kicked out by these intruders either personally or by proxy depending on the nature of appointment or election. That is the summary !

2nd February - In CMIB, there was discussion on case study between the two approaches of development : facilitator or advocate what's the difference ? We again encountered the terms like 'critical thinking', 'paternalism' and 'sustainable development'.

Cavinkare Private Limited - Serving Low Income Consumers: The case discussed in RIM lecture highlights the understanding for rural market and innovations needed for the successful tapping of opportunities present in the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets. The Lessons :

1- A regional brand with the good market research and iinovation can beat MNC's in its backyard easily. Good example : Ghari moves out Wheel to be No 1 in laundry market.

2- Multi-attribute segmentation is key to the successful business. Tapping of economic activity clusters like Haats and Melas show the quick feet thinking of Cavin Kare. More about Marketing of Chik BY C K Ranganathan

3- FMCG companies like Perfetti with the brand like Alpenliebe represent the operational efficiency and low margin-high volumes segment.

The block launches of MAXINATIONS started in the night with the event 'Last Manager Standing' in which GR2 was clear winner.

3rd February - Paul C Mueller of US Consulate delivered a talk today. It revolved around New Silk Road strategy proposed under Hilary Clinton. They also talked about bilateral trade and investment in the infrastructure for longer terms with lower interest rates. I participated as audience of GR2 in the quizzing event of Maxinations.

4th February - Classes were cancelled at the last moments. I was busy in assignments. An important thing done was to vote in Pagal Guy Ranking 2012. An aspiring student should have more information with the higher level of transparency and competence provided by rating agency. Yet I don't have high regard for the Ranking and Admission criteria used by any magazines like Outlook or India-today. There sample population is very low and the process is not much transparent. They may be influenced by external factors like financial sponsorship. But most of the B Schools or Engineering colleges have a conviction based on a pervasive cult of their superiority which cannot be reasoned with. Colleges use the ranking system whatever shows them in good public light. Access to quality education for a student depends not just on availability and affordability, but also on the information gap between aspiring students.

33rd Week@XIMB

33rd Week@XIMB- 22nd January to 28th January, 2012

22nd January :  I wasted two of the three holidays in sleeping, web surfing and playing computer games. I have the old habit of procrastination in the cases of assignments.

23rd January : Nothing much substantial except learning about Non-Governmental Development Organization (NGDO).

24th January : I learned about Madhu Viswanathan in RIM lecture who has founded and directs the Marketplace Literacy Project a non-profit organization that offers marketplace literacy programs in subsistence marketplaces.



25th January : UDO lecture begins with Dalai Lama Quote : Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. There was emphasis on compassion in the organization. There were three TED video shown : Joan Halifax, Karen Armstrong and Daniel Goleman where I was having neutral, negative and positive feedback towards there views. I am reproducing here talk of Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence who asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time.

Daniel Goleman: Why arent we all Good Samaritans?



26th January : Train to Patna.  SRC organized the event "Para-Athlos 2012, a sports meet for differently abled children at the XIMB grounds ". Read on SRC blog for more detail ...

27th January : I missed 4 lecture today. This has never happened before.

28th January : Saraswati Puja organized in the campus ; I was in Patna thinking about governance and work culture prevailing in the state. The economic reconstruction is not “development as usual,” and became more sensitive to the specific needs and idiosyncrasies of the state affected by conflict and corruption over the years. Prosperity depends on the synergy between private sector, people and state as a whole cluster, not only on the individual entrepreneur. We have to remember that people have always prized opportunity over equality.

No democracy can be built on the foundations of the kind of mistrust and anger that prevails among various castes and classes. There is need for balance between merit and positive discrimination policies. Competition is not the only factor for the creation of smarter people or more educated people. People fulfill their potential if they can get access. Any economic model that does not properly address inequality will eventually face a crisis of legitimacy. So many years of Lalu Yadav has virtually destroyed any chances of growth in Bihar. This is the time of rebuilding and growth.

32nd Week@XIMB

32nd Week- 15th January to 22nd January, 2012

15th January : Sunday is mostly celebrated as perfect reading day by me. Pagalguy had some really interesting articles on their portal. I will put here two articles -

1- India’s latent entrepreneurship potential lies untapped because of life skills that aren’t taught and social expectations that aren’t set right. By addressing these problems in India’s bright youngsters through their curriculums, b-schools could lay the seed for innovative businesses that scale to become billion dollar companies, says Vijay Anand, Head of IIT Madras’s Incubation Center and Founder of popular startup event ‘Proto.in’. Read more here..

2- The popular method of measuring the average salary against the fees to calculate the Return on Investment of an MBA program has no fundamental basis by any concept of Finance, says IMI Delhi’s Admission Chairperson Prof Himadri Das. He suggests a more sound method to calculate the RoI and demonstrates how it is linked to the quality of the b-school’s professors.
Read more here...

16th January : It was just another busy day. Today, I felt that humans have been sandwiched between godless communism and God-damn-it capitalism. Thrash religion, Love People and Learn Economics sounds like good mantra for mine personal development!

17th January : REPP lecture was mostly based on news discussion. There was use of words like Structural Adjustment and Structural Transformation. They are buzz words mostly used by World Bank regarding Indian economy. I get to know about colleges of developmental studies at International (IDS SUSSEX, ISS in The Hague, UEA Norwich) and at National location.

I learned a little about product and service design at OM. MIS lecture was a slow starter. All software engineers feel nostalgic for their working days and IT firms. RIM lecture was focused on both production and consumption aspects of the marketing. There is a TED video of Madhu Viswanathan founded and directs the Marketplace Literacy Project a non-profit organization that offers marketplace literacy programs in subsistence marketplaces.

TEDxUIUC - Madhu Viswanathan - Bottom-Up Solutions for Subsistence Marketplaces


18th January : MP lecture was largely based on the village plan. It was last lecture of ADM. Professor talked about philosophy of life that includes hard work, knowledge and ethics. He emphasized on the competitive advantage within us due to ours exposure to both academic and Industry experts.

Ms. Parul Agarwal, from the 2008-10 batch and is currently working as a Senior Research Associate at IFMR-CMR. She came to our campus but I was feeling lazy to attend her lecture.

19th January : I finally submitted the final version of our RLLE report to the college. It was 115 pages long having 40 pages of diagram only. There is over focus on the Elinor Ostrom while talking about Tragedy of commons. I learned in brief about STEEPLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal )analysis that is used as a framework of macro-environmental factors used in strategic management. There was similar study of dimensions of the community in CMIB lecture.

strategic Guest Lecture : Mr Kannan Lakshminarayan will speak on "Weaving a Vision: Technology applications in rural areas". Mr Kannan an engineer and entrepreneur has designed the rural ATM and a decentralised microspinning machine for processing cotton.

Malkha, a neologism that conjoins the words Malmal and Khadi, is the brand name of natural-dyed handloom cloth produced by the Decentralised Cotton Yarn Trust in Andhra Pradesh [Source : India Together]. Malkha' is a new age cotton fabric, that fuses traditional methods of production with innovative micro spinning machine's. Microspin is a start-up company born out of the vision to radically transform what is arguably the oldest industry of India – Textiles. This enables a field to fabric manufacturing chain, which is environmentally conscious and socially responsible, empowering diverse communities of cotton pickers, weavers and spinners through their ethical trade policies and equitable profit. More details on his innovations are available at MicroSpin and Youtube Video of Malkha is available.

With the mission of helping banks reach out profitably to unbanked & under-banked regions, and years of R & D ably supported by IIT Madras, Vortex has designed ATMs which are highly reliable, rugged, easy to use and eco-friendly. They consume up to 90% lesser power and hence can be economically operated using solar power. Vortex ATMs are currently serving even the remotest parts of rural India – using technology as an enabler to improve quality of life. More details on his innovations are available at Vortex India.

20th January : XIMB was hosting pan-India annual B-School sports fest, Athlos, on the 20th-22nd January. It was a rest day for me. On a serious note, I gave a thought about pursuing higher studies(PHD) with few years of field experience. This decision depends a lot on the personal life and academic standards hiding in the future. I always think a serious student of developmental studies must be equipped with skills in the real world with basic knowledge of political science, statistics, anthropological ,historical and economics, to encourage them for multi dimesnsional analysis framework. Even Chris Blattman agreed with me in his blog post.

21st January : I have no interest in these gaming affairs. Still,  I was busy playing Age of Mythology whole day. Time enjoyed is not time wasted.

31st Week@XIMB

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.

30th Week@XIMB

30th Week- 1st January to 7th January

1st January : This day was not any more significant than other days. A day worth utilized in reading book.

There is a different world that exist outside the college gate. Hence, jumping directly from the graduate college to B School for higher education is not a good idea. One should try a year off or career building in any industry, NGO etc. It always makes you wiser. I feel sorry for the few classmates who didn't show the inclination of growing as a mature person even now.

Passing over six months in MBA, I think pre work experience before a MBA is more useful rather than a fresher doing an MBA. There is a difference in the mindset of the Workex and freshers. It is a difference of maturity and vision. People with Work-Ex may be overqualified or unfit for certain type of the job, but they can manage things better due to their previous interaction with the outdoor environment.

Recently Department of Industrial and Management Engineering (IME) at IITK plans for a ‘no entry’ board for freshers. It is planning to close the doors for candidates who don’t have prior work experience. “The reason why such a decision is being deliberated over is because freshers lack practical knowledge and can’t visualise the responsibilities that come with a managerial position,” said Prof BV Phani, faculty of finance and entrepreneurship, IME. “Our objective is to provide students with the best possible management exposure/education so that they learn and understand the process. Students view the management programmes of IITs as secondary, as compared to the IIMs, and stop-gap arrangements. This has resulted in a disconnect between the students and faculty.”

2nd January : Whole day was spent in CTCRI for the preparation of the report.

A sarcastic cover letter written to Hiring Manager for a International Humanitarian Organization. I see remarkable and subtle similarity in our course program with the applicant.

There is a tussle to turn this course like postgraduate course of social work without paying attention to the students loan. Education is not only about academic learning and vision about students of the college, but also about ROI (Return of Investment) on the high course fees paid by each student here.

I bookmarked an interesting paper by Bernadette M. Wanjala and Roldan Muradian published in 2011. Can Big Push Interventions Take Small-scale Farmers out of Poverty? Insights from the Sauri Millennium Village in Kenya. CIDIN Working Paper 2011-1. Nijmegen: CIDIN.

Abstract: Using household survey data from Sauri Millennium village and propensity score matching methodology, this paper sought to analyze the impact of the Millennium Village Project (MVP) interventions on agricultural productivity and income. The results show a significant increase in agricultural productivity and an insignificant income effect, which can be attributed to small land sizes and over-reliance on agriculture. The results indicate the need to diversify economic activities and a revision of the assumptions on the relationship between productivity and income, on which the MVP, and many other rural development policies, rely on.

3rd January - The registration for the third trimester started today. There are lot of academic reports pending to be completed due to RLLE.

My respect for our Class Representatives (CRs) Gaurish and Saket had increased today. They are coping with administration (higher management) without adequate support from the students on the issues of missing SRM (Social Research Method) classes and introducing of OBL (Outbound Learning program) to RM. They are the real hero that our Rural Management program deserve, but most of our batch-mates don't even respect the duo right now.

We remember the leaders who always encourage and gave opportunity to make our own choices. I hope better sense prevail in the administration. The course choices, not the mandatory part of the curriculum define the decision making power of a student in the Business School. The policies of college must reflect the priorities of the students and industry rather than reinforcing the position of the faculty caught in wrap of timelessness. We all know that the absolutist conformity had always discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent.

4th January - I was busy in CTCRI for preparing the RLLE report. I was surprised to know that people from other countries are waiting for out report.

‎5th January - I was busy whole day since there was visit of one company to the campus. Since, its a confidential matter, nothing much can be written in the public.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, formerPresident being felicitated by XIMB Director P.T. Joseph at Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar. He is at XIMB to interact with students on Thursday evening.— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

He raised an important question and an oath for the students - "What will i be remembered for..??" and "Small aim is crime." I disagreed with the quest of legacy raised in the question and the ambition aspect of the oath. I was surprised to see myself disagreeing with such an eminent personality and even mine own role model. There is no crime in aiming small. May be I acted as a conservative & guardian of "Small is Beautiful" manifesto.

His talk focused on the importance of creative leadership for economic development, the relevance of sustainable development in the current global economic scenario, the implementation of PURA (Provision of Urban amenities in Rural areas) and his visualization of India in the year 2020. He is an inspiration source to us who wants to create a sustainable development model by mobilising the youth of the country.  He mentioned a website of the movement started by him - WHAT CAN I GIVE?  His full speech at XIMB campus can be read on his personal website.

I decided to be free again on the personal front. Happy New Year to me.

6th January - I had meeting with Fr. P T Joseph regarding EQ & Leadership course with group of other students. He had taken feedback with the student of the last six month. Few of us had courage to speak our minds while rest were silent spectators. The anger against administration or system may prosper in the hostels (and now social media) but it is a practical prospect outlining career path of achieving economic stability that decides the fate of any revolution inside college premiers. This led to the path of subservience and avoiding any clash with the administration regarding their own problems.

7th January -A day of rest and reconciliation. While I was having good time, continuous news of recession had created a pessimistic environment. Top B-Schools like IIMs, ISB expect fewer recruiters, fewer jobs and lower salaries this time . This news alarms the bad condition of the rest colleges and Indian economy. A college reputation in market depends on the capability to place its student with good package. The mettle of a college and its student came in limelight of these tough situation only.

I am not a job creator. Even while seeking a job, I believe in the long term prospects. Most people mistake the placement packages for success that are mere numbers . Through hard work and determination, one can balance these figures in the career. So, one should not let figures determine success. The whole scenario of cultivating job creators rather than job seekers is changing the landscape of India business. But it is long time to change mindset of an average student burdened with the loan for the risk of an entrepreneurship. Here is one step taken by TISS in the correct direction - School abolishes placements to push graduates to become entrepreneurs.