Diary of a Rural Manager!

60th Week@XIMB - 29th July to 4th August, 2012 29th July - Sunday is celebrated through a video on rural marketing sharing experiences of Airtel, M&M, and Hero Honda in rural India Eyeing on the monsoon reality, farmers in northern India always use the  proverbs of Ghagh aur Bhaddari for weather forecasting. There has been a research paper - Farming proverbs: analysis of Their Dynamics and Farmers' Knowledge by Ranjay K Singh and A Dorjey. The linkage of good monsoons and the Indian market is too close still we keep ignoring the reality of the rural market. With inadequate monsoons rural consumption falls and so do the overall sales of agri-input companies. There are many more companies whose sales are indirectly dependent on the agricultural cycle but with the poor monsoon that will also go down. Farmers try to maximize their returns in times of drought through the use of local, non-hybrid seed varieties and cheaper micro-irrigation. 30th July - A two-day worksh...

59th Week@XIMB - 22nd July to 28th July, 2012 22nd July - Sunday was gone in studying for mid term exams. Raising an Olympian - MARY KOM : As the Proud Sponsor of Mom, P&G presents a series about the Mom behind each Olympic athlete. 23rd July - ESM exam is over.The big news was about Hindustan Unilever Ltd. HUL increased its net profit by 112 per cent for the first quarter of 2012-13 to Rs.1,331.2 crore, thanks largely to a one-time gain on sale of property amounting to Rs.607 crore. Hindustan Unilever Profit More than Doubles on Strong Sales and Speaking at company AGM , HUL Chairman Harish Manwani lays emphasis on role of corporate in financial inclusion. 24th July - Tuesday was a holiday. I came across an article: How Hindustan Unilever is making every employee a marketer . 25th July - Mid Term exam of MFM was more analytic than based on rote learning. With Q2 session results are coming, companies are coming up with reports. Here a positive news from ...

58th Week@XIMB - 15th July to 21st July, 2012 15th July - Sunday is always wasted in some entertainment and long sleep. Today there was Individual Profile verification for Brochure and work ex certificate submission by placecom. 16th July - In QRM lecture, there is lot of emphasis given on ethical behavior of the researcher. A researcher must not opt either for socially desirable or biased answers for personal economic benefits. Such type of researchers /journalist are hard to find these days. 17th July - Rural poverty can be attributed a lot to ecological poverty or in easy terms biomass scarcity available for commons. Hence, a rural development program must be quite eco-specific. Auxiliary benefit of NREGA includes eco-restoration & regeneration of natural resources.Once upon a time, World Bank sees NREGA as policy barrier hurting economic development and poverty alleviation. 18th July - One opportunity for XIMB is to track performance in state livelihood mission...

57th Week@XIMB - 8th July to 14th July, 2012 08th July - The rest-day must be utilized in watching good video from you-tube. So, here comes a video where with wisdom, eloquence and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. A simple as yet a very accurate presentation of the actual state of Rajasthan. Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting 09th July - There was discussion on a case study :- ICICI Bank: Challenges in Rural Banking in SDM lecture. Abstract : ICICI Bank challenge is to set up and ran an effective sales and distribution system (that is primarily non branch based) for rural Banking lending business and to scale up and so profitably. 10th July - Our Ecological Footprint is growing larger. Ecological Footprint is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate...

56th Week@XIMB - 1st July to 7th July, 2012 1st July - There was an interactive session with Mr. Paul Polak, Founder and Director of IDE ( International Development Enterprises )in the Auditorium. Paul Polak‘s latest adventure is Spring Health , which plans to provide access to clean water to 10 million people within four years. I am embedding TED talk delivered by the Paul. He wrote a book 'Out of Poverty' on his tryst with poverty. TEDxMileHigh - Paul Polak - The Future Corporation Quote: “Talk to the people who have the problem and listen to what they have to say.” 2nd July - I have still a lot to catch up in writing a priori reasoning and null hypothesis in AMDA. Yet, I am happy to learn in details about forecasting and estimation method. Mathematical model is helpful in making decision with a holistic view of economy. Thanks to IndiaStat for amass of data to experiment with. 3rd July - Learned about financial and social inter-mediation of Micro-finance Inst...

8th Week --- 31st July to 6th August 31st July - "Teach for India" came for a Presentation at XIM, Bhubaneswar. Sunday Morning was good. SAMBANDH 2011 kicked started in the evening. वो इंतजार था जिसका ये वो सहर तो नहीं, ये वो सहर तो नहीं जिसकी आरजू लेकर. I remembered this line today. The batch is doing awesome in dance, song, games and every extra curricular activities. Yet no body is uttering a single word either about B Plan or Social Entrepreneurship. What a batch of under performers. Anyone's role model define the horizon of his/her aspirations. Our batch is choosing wrong role models for rural management programme. 1st Aug - SADA class was good today because there was discussion on Ideology. I loved one quote mentioned in slide. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist." Pandit Shri Hari Prasad Chaurasia conducted a Hindustani Classical Flute Recital today. It was mesmerizin...

7th Week --- 24th July to 30th July 24th July - Sunday. Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret ! Ted Video 25th July - Leadership & Team Building (LTB) Mid term paper at 6:00 PM 26th July - Managerial Economics (ME) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM 27th July - Rural Financial Institutions & Markets (RFIM) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM 28th July - Quantitative Methods (QM)Mid term paper at 3:00 PM. 29th July - A day started with quiz and further class of Individuals in Organisation (OB-I); There was meet of Placecom committee and discussion is classified secret, not to come in the public blog. A special Talk delivered by Dr. Kundan Kumar (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography & Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, Canada), on "Climate Justice" at 3:45 PM A guest lecture by Dr Dindo Campila...

6th Week --- 17th July to 23rd July 17th July - Sunday. I was selected in shadow Placecom committee of 11 members. SANIDHYA opened us an insight into diverse talents of our seniors in the evening. Almost negligible presence of faculty was above my head. 18th July - I become a default member of RMAX by securing admission in PGP-RM course at XIMB. Rural Manager's Association of XIMB (RMAX) is a registered student body which caters to the specific needs of a rural management student. Rural Managers Association of XIMB (RMAX) was started in 2003. Gramotsava, the rural marketing fair started in 2006. "The real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time." - C.K.Prahalad (Author of 'The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid') Whole day was gone in COMM presentation. I really understand today why t...

5th Week --- 10th July to 16th July 10th July- Walked out in the night before Viva session for SADA group assignment work. Kudos and Thanks to Prateek Singh and Parthasarthy CR for supporting me in this tough situation. 20 people boycotted while rest of the batch enjoyed entertaining time till 5 AM with seniors. I am still proud of my decision as they say in English : A Man Do What He Has to Do ! 11th July - Necessity for me to improve in verbal English became exposed in front of whole class. Got two valuable lessons that rational acts depend on emotional memories and assumption is the mother of all fuckups. 12th July - Missed Jogging today. I was literally scared in ME class due to the questions of Biresh Sir. Attended Student Executive Council (SEC) and Place-com meeting. I have to write SOP and prepare Resume for this. Seniors have lot of energy in them; Hats off to them :) 13th July - The Bhaina Song was mailed to us; Presentation of IRC, Alcom and Illuminatix in the...

4th Week --- 3rd July to 9th July 3rd July: What a grand start of the week. Birthday of Kasturi Lal celebrated among great enthusiasm and pleasure. I was lucky one selected for accepting the fake proposal scene. Feeling lucky :) It was followed by Cricket Match at 1:00 AM at Lawn Tennis Court. I also started jogging from today with Parthsarthy CR to improve fitness. 4th July: Class of Societal Analysis & Development Alternatives (SADA) with the topic Power of Imagination was innovative and entertaining in its approach. I saw the infinite possibilities of the words that can change the world in a blank page. I learned about Concept of Interbeing by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and Technology With A Human Face by E. F. Schumacher. There was a special talk arranged by XIMB administration on biodiversity and conservation. The most absurd part was that only Rural management students were invited.  Does the responsibility for conservation of nature and awareness about...

3rd Week --- 26th June to 2 July : A hectic schedule of classes, assignments and projects. Watched Manthan . A must watch movie for RM students on White Revolution and luckily was available on xsysserver. Movie is based on a story written jointly by Verghese Kurien (the Father of the White Revolution in India) and director Shyam Benegal. Nandankanan Trip missed. Election for Cultural Representative takes place. Gaurish's decision to stay back was a moral boost for me. Courier arrived finally with all stuffs. I am liking XIMB now !!! Thanks to Mriganka Mondal for this beautiful protest song.