Diary of a Rural Manager!

90th Week@XIMB - 24th February to 2nd March 2013 24th February - It's not about good grades. It's about surviving the last trimester...!! 25th February - Abhijit Sen Committee was setup once to examine whether and to what extent futures trading has contributed to price rise in agricultural commodities. I couldn’t find the report on any of the government website but found the report on Mint’s website ( Draft Report of the Expert Committee on Commodity Futures Trading ). There was no evidence to suggest that futures trading stoked inflation. 26th February - The line between recklessness and overconfidence can be difficult to find. I crossed that line in CMD end term paper and find bamboozled by the question paper. That came as a shocking eye opener for the last trimester. Batch 2011- 2013 at XIMB gets grand farewell with recalling success, achievements and memories over the last two years. People will be missed but never forgotten. 27th February - Milestone...

89th Week@XIMB - 17th February to 23rd February 2013 17th February - Sikkim Trip 18th February - Sikkim Trip 19th February - Sikkim Trip 20th February - All classes were finished till now. I only remember Hobbes quote mentioned in Ethics class - It is a bleak world where there is continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. The following seven students of RM II have won the worldwide ACARA Challenge of USA (University of Minnesota). The Teams are: Pure Pots- V Ramesh, Pabitra Nayak- Prize $ 1500; Nutricycle- Jyoti Kumar Mainali, Omprakash Singh, Shreyas Bhartiya- Prize $ 1000; Community Shops- Amit Verma, Sachin Pethkar- Honorable Mention- (Prize money on Pitching) 21st February - Only one student had completed IRP in a entire batch of 330 students, and that puts his effort in perspective. B Srinivas Rao completed his IRP with full dedication and efforts. 22nd February - This was the last class of CMD where ...

88th Week@XIMB - 10th February to 16th February 2013 10th February - A person's essential fair-mindedness is perhaps its most striking and skillful feature that can won him over adversaries. That was my assumption until I came at XIMB. Here, the bias decision will win you more friends and build a reputation of caretaker. I hoped that such scenario changes in coming times in vain. The lobbies, peer pressure and affiliation became stronger with each passing day. I read a quote by Warren Buffett that cleared the fog in the mind: "If they don't have integrity, they never will. The chains of habit are sometimes too heavy to be broken." 11th February - George Orwell had said long time back: " Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." This holds so true for each batch of engineering or management that I have been part of. 12th February - I read a wonderful stateme...

87th Week@XIMB - 3rd February to 9th February 2013 3rd February - Not in campus. 4th February - Not in campus. 5th February - Not in campus. 6th February - I returned to the campus and attended GID lecture. I became aware of the term Green GDP for first time. The green gross domestic product (green GDP) is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored in. Due to lack of training in economics, I was also unaware of the term Shadow Pricing . While discussing more about economics, I came to know about Ithaca Hours , Joan Robinson , Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). There was a general consensus that our society with market economy has transformed into market society in the age of neo liberalization. 7th February - There was discussion on audit process of an organization in GD class. That led our informal discussion in the class to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. 8t...

86th Week@XIMB - 27th January to 2nd February, 2013 I am away from the laptop, internet and XIMB for a complete week on a trip to home. I was becoming stoic calm proof against vicissitude of academic pressure. The power of "rural": A special on rural marketing

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' ...

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 th...

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 als...

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 th...

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...