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
85th Week@XIMB - 20th January to 26th January, 2013
20th January - I got a great Facebook status over sales job : In Sales -someday you are the P*mp and someday you are the Whore. I am not much of a sales or finance person but what I realized that it only matters to do our work with integrity, excellence and discipline irrespective of where one is working in future.
21st January - Small clusters of graduation friends is a creating frog in the well attitude of the entire RM community. Author himself has not dwelled much beyond 100 people but has not hard lined himself with any lobby or Legacy system.
22nd January - We have started to speak the language of B schools and consultancies like ‘products’, ‘customers’ or 'stakeholders' even in our normal talks. This education is showing its toxic side effects.
23rd January - No updates for today.
24th January - I was packing for the upcoming home trip.
25th January - Our mid term exam of CMD got postponed to March 2013.
84th Week@XIMB - 13th January to 19th January, 2013
There was no record written for this whole week. Procrastination and laziness has completely captured me. The jargons like - Knowledge, Networking, Soft-skills, Development, Corporate, High asymmetry of information, Dichotomy, Business and government, Market, Customers and Growth, Value creation, Stakeholders, Institutions, Relationship Management, Structures, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: rampantly used in GD & PI's were put on rest. I am leaving readers with a brilliant convocation address and will be away from all social networking websites like Blogs, Vlogs, Blogs, wikis and even micro blogging site Twitter for a week.
Salman Khan gives commencement address at MIT (2012)
83rd Week@XIMB - 6th January to 12th January, 2012
6th January - 'Theory of maximising shareholder value has done great harm to businesses' : Meet Philip Kotler, the SC Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago, and, in the words of Management Centre Europe, “the world’s foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing”.
7th January - I was feeling quite low and listening to this song.
Hausla Buland - Haywards 5000 Anthem Theme Song
8th January - I started preparing for AIDMI, Srijan and OLM with keeping in mind that risk of unemployment reduces slowly and at great cost.
9th January - I applied in Ujjivan Microfinance today but withdrew my application later. Yet, I attended talk of CEO, Ujjivan MFI given by Mr. Samit Ghosh. Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ujjivan Financial Service (Ujjivan), a micro finance institution which provides financial services to over a million urban & semi-urban poor across 20 states in India. Ujjivan started operations on November 1, 2005 and is headquartered in Bangalore. Ujjivan believes in holistic approach to poverty alleviation and works closely with a sister non-profit institution, Parinaam Foundation to provide services in healthcare, education, vocational training & community development to its microfinance customers.
The whole batch was unaware that average tenure of CEO is only 1.5-2 years. The clarity in your structures, Walk the Talk, Leadership & Types of Investors always define any organization. Ujjivan MFI wants happy customers not a money lending NBFC(MFI) and it had proven by emerging virtually unharmed at the times of MFI crisis as with their risk assessment, they decided not to move in Andhra.. That validated that company is going in right direction. Mr. Ghosh told us about middle class financial inclusion in late 1980's and 1990's era. There was a gradual movement middle class - ICICI, HDFC, HSBC and CITI Bank leading the baton of the private sector. Currently available two wheeler, four wheeler and housings loan were unheard in 1985. The same process is going for bottom of pyramid customers now. BOP customers even bank account but they were not financially included till now.
10th January - The pressure is on. As they say, it rains hardest on those who deserve the sun. We were delighted to host Ved Arya for a talk today. Ved shared his experiences founding and building SRIJAN -- "Creation" in Hindi, and an acronym for Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action. It was registered, as a public charitable trust in Delhi with the aim to promote strong self-reliant village organizations, partnerships and enterprises to enhance people’s access to natural resources and their capacity to manage them sustainably. I was especially impressed with Ved's holistic perspective on the value chain of self-help and joint-support and cluster development and technological innovation which come together to be of differentiating benefit to rural Indian farmers and their families.
11th January - I applied for two enterprises working in the development sector. One was SRIJAN (Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) that is a not-for-profit organization. They were looking for professionals who are enthusiastic to work at grassroots for the upliftment of the rural population of India. I had good discussion with Ved Arya who considered me unsuitable for this job. This was partially due to my commitment to family and age factor. It is very strong to comment but people like C P Mohan and Ved Arya involved in core development will always fail to grab why money security is a prime motive for rural managers of neo-liberalization era.
The other enterprise was National Rural Livelihood Mission, Odisha. It was a contractual job similar on the lines of Jeevika, Bihar. More can be read about their sister organization: TRIPTI and Aajeevika. I qualified three rounds consisting of written Test(Essay on Poverty and its eradication), GD (FDI in Retail)and Personal Interview (Based on Winter Internship and Book Reading).
I had finally seized the day. Carpe diem !!!
12th January - Streak of lazy days has just began.
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.
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 :
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- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
