25th Week @XIMB

25th Week - 27th November to 3rd December

27th November - I changed the old costly hotel to a cheap one. Lot of Condoms
were previously used in the room when it was cleaned in front of me ! I learned that Cigarettes, Liquor and Tea have strong sales distribution network. It was an off day.

28th November - There is no photo taken in the field trip of poverty and hunger as I didn't want to glamourize the poverty. I am travelling between mountains and rice fields. Tobacco chewing is seen in both gender.

There is unavailability of mobile network of airtel and vodafone . Only BSNL and Reliance has better outreach here. Accessibility of mobile network is there ;to block level and ;on highways only. There are no signals at GP (Gram Panchayat) level. Naxal affected block is identified for risk mitigation in the data collection through unofficial sources.

29th November -Government officials are cooperative but the pace of work is quite slow here. The brand name of XIMB works as people are impressed by the name of 'Jhabier'. Going through government records gave me creepy feeling that even data and stats are white lies but a vital ones.

30th November -I was doing household listing today in some block. There is lack of irrigation facility in Koraput region. There are household that have literally had nothing to survive. People eat Raagi here when rice crop fail.
Some people even don't know the name of their forefathers. It shows somewhat lack of history in tribal area. The villages were deep inside and far from highway.

1st December - I covered Koraput block today. This is more prosperous than its neighboring blocks. I took a train for Bhubaneswar in the evening.

2nd December - I reached Bhubaneswar and took a day off from any sort of work or study. Hearing bitter, harsh and cool stories of initial phase of RLLE of my friends.

3rd December - Off-day for work. Given a lot of thought about MBA and learning curve !

Reading without reflection is like eating without digestion. The same indigestion is happening to me. When will I read all the study material? One never knows. The worst bit is one does not know where to seek improvement in daily routine. It feels as one is doing masters in backlog management. The point of all the academic activity is not to score marks but to inquire. I am unable to comprehend the complete picture of this 2 year MBA education today.

24th Week @XIMB

24th Week - 20th November to 26th November

20th November - I woke up early for SKYPE meeting with a scientist at IPC. There were classes on Sunday. RMAX election. The election revealed one more basic fact about group behaviour. People don't like monopoly of a subgroup in a close community. The popularity meter affects the deserving candidate due to democratic nature of the elections.

21st November - Not selected in Summer Internship of another company after GD round. I need to improve my communication skills and a lot of introspection is needed in the career strategy.

One job opportunity was told to us by our program coordinator : PMRDFs. The Ministry of Home Affairs has identified 60 districts of the country as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) districts. The Government of India has launched a special programme in these districts called Integrated Action Plan (IAP). PMRDFs (Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows Scheme)will basically function as development facilitators, they will assist the Collector and his/her colleagues in each of the IAP districts and provide them with the necessary analysis of situations and how they should be handled.

22nd November - Ours presentation in SRM class was postponed. I read an excellent article about Innovation. The DNA of Innovation: The DNA of innovation is an idea. Nothing happens until someone has an idea.

23rd November - RLLE orientation started in CIP, Bhubaneswar. I am going to Koraput. This project is about root tuber crop and food security.

'Cotton for my Shroud' is a documentary on farmers' suicide. It is very useful, to discuss what is plaguing Indian agriculture and to create debates around what needs to be done now.

Cotton for My Shroud



It captures what's going wrong in Indian agriculture in general and Vidarbha in particular - gambling with cotton, wrong technologies, Bt cotton, expensive seeds, crop failures, increasing costs, indebtedness, villages like Dorli near Wardha up for sale, anti-farmer trade policies, suicides nay genocide, agitations and firing on farmers, market machinations, the callous attitude of elected leaders etc. etc.

24th November -  Most of the fellow students had left for RLLE. Hostel is vacant and felt like a deserted place. My train is at 7:35 PM to Koraput.

25th November - The day was passed in the preparation of the trip. Many people were leaving the college for RLLE trip. I got the train for Koraput at evening. I was suffering from fever and cough.

26th November - The Pace of the life is too slow in Odisha in comparison to UP also. I will not call it lethargy as that is described by my friends here.

I reached Koraput in the morning. Koraput is a small place with lot of government offices. Transport Service charged very high price and our stay was provided at very very costly Hotel Lemon Castle at Semiliguda block of Koraput district. There was no hotel available at main district headquarter due to by-election in the neighboring district. I traveled around 120 Km with public transport on the day of arrival only at Koraput. It was tiring and long day!

23rd Week @ XIMB

23rd Week - 13th November to 19th November

13th November : Sunday evening with Lucky Ali. A happening end of the leisure day.

14th November : "A person's a person, no matter how small" - Dr. Seuss, author. I learned this lesson today but don't remember where.

15th November : We presented CCD (CAFE COFFEE DAY) in marketing class and comes unscathed of any negative criticism. ADM lecture was good. Most stupid questions are those that are never asked. It was a really good quote from Gaurish Manerkar.

16th November : People don't know how to use mail. That can only I say now on public forum. Otherwise a regular day.

17th November : It was last class of ITM and PROJM. A happy end of trimester is coming soon. Learned about Brian Wasnik and Duncan J. Watts.

Duncan J. Watts (born 1971) is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Researcher and the author of the book Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. I am producing here his famous article in Harvard Business Review- Viral Marketing for the Real World by Duncan J. Watts and Jonah Peretti

Brian Wansink (Ph.D. Stanford 1990) is the John Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University, where he directs the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. Wansink is best known for his work on consumer behavior and food and for popularizing terms such as "mindless eating" and "health halos." I am putting up here the weblink of Mindless Eating for surfing.

We were told about MacArthur winner Sendhil Mullainathan and how he uses the lens of behavioral economics to study a tricky set of social problems — those we know how to solve, but don’t.

Sendhil Mullainathan: Solving social problems with a nudge



29 People of XIMB RM batch have gone together for the movie RockStar. Good break from routine!

18th November : What people here usually called USP (Unique Selling Proposition), it has got better name. Its called PVP (Personal Value Proposition). Build Your Personal Value Proposition is a good blog article by Bill Barnett who led the Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company.

Kiva - The Pedro Story: A story of how a small loan from you can change the life of a family.



Rural Development is an area where rural managers are launched into battlefield with a service revolver to face AK 47. The overall participation on the basis of merit is quite low in the nature but the problems of development are much complex than any other industry.

19th November :  I was sick today. ADM quiz was a disaster.

Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions. Thanks to Jeevan Sir for this talk.

Sheena Iyengar: The art of choosing

22nd Week @ XIMB

22nd Week - 6th November to 12th November

6th November - Sunday. SRM lecture is missed . There was good news that I am shortlisted for interview of MSME.

There was election for core place-com committee in the evening. 5 hours of marathon and participatory process was over with 22 candidates (14 Voluntary and 8 at the moment). Politics inside the branch has started officially.

7th November - Interview for MSME was not much satisfactory. But I studied a lot about Clusters of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and livelihood generation through Cluster Development.

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation is doing good work in the area of hunger and food security. As per there Vision : A society where everyone has access to food and nutrition security. And Mission : Ensuring food and nutrition security of vulnerable sections by empowering them, by promotion of focused interventions, by capacity building of various stakeholders, and by research and advocacy.

The ‘Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India’ is prepared by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation with support from the United Nation’s World Food Programme (UNWFP).The Report is in two parts. The first part examines the status of food and nutrition security in Rural India. Ranking of States based on their status has been done using seven indicators, viz., population consuming less than 1890 Kcal, access to safe drinking water, sanitation facility, women with anaemia, women with chronic energy deficiency, stunting in children and children with anemia and comparison made between two time periods. The thrust is on outcome indicators. The second part of Report examines the major public food delivery systems – Public Distribution System (PDS), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meals Scheme (MDMS). The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) has led to exclusion of large number of needy poor. The Report recommends a return to the ‘universal PDS’ that existed till 1997.

An idea about OMFED struck into my mind. I discussed the feasibility of the idea with Gaurish. In the same ADM lecture, we were told about hostile world and effects of missing deadlines.

8th November - There was no study for MEARS test. Interview for core Placecom committee takes place. I was not selected for core Placecom. I was disappointed a bit but life goes on.

A manager should have both bird's and snail eye view for observation. A good lesson learnt about fallacy of the jargon oriented MBA program.

9th November - I was neither selected in SIP of MSME foundation not shortlisted for Birla Tyres. I missed out last MEARS class where there was emphasis given by faculty that we are students of rural management, not rural development.

There was presentation on Kudumbashree by Mr. Nair. Kudumbashree : prosperity of the family, launched in 1998 is women oriented and community based State Poverty Eradication Mission of Government of Kerala. The programme has 37 lakh members and covers more than 50% of the households in Kerala. Built around three critical components, micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the Kudumbashree initiative has today succeeded in addressing the basic needs of the less privileged women.

I am embedding here the youtube video whose small section was shown in RPLS classroom.

World Economic Forum: East Asian Solutions for Global Food Security



10th November Launch of EXPRESSION and various games committee involved.
There was case discussion on Custom Car Care by Anne M. Martin, John F. Graham. This comprehensive case provides an opportunity to cover the entire marketing framework and is particularly useful to demonstrate a break-even with a profit level.

I was also part of marketing team for game Kurukshetra. Kurukshetra stands tall as the prodigy behind Xpressions and is one of the flagship events which can proudly boast about its rich legacy of the past 16 yrs.

11th November Finally XPRESSIONS started. There was CONCLAVE- a panel discussion in the morning. Harish Bijoor and Rita Soni were invited guests. Harish Bijoor run a private-label consulting firm that specializes in Brand and business strategy and teaches Rural Marketing at ISB Hyderabad. I am putting his blog profile for the reference. Ms. Rita Soni is CEO of NASSCOM Foundation. Her detail can be found on the website of NASSCOM Foundation. Alas, I missed the event as was busy in a meeting at CGIAR Orissa for RLLE.

12th November : A day of relaxation and sleep. A rarity in the life of Jhabier student.

21st Week @ XIMB

21st Week - 30th October to 5th November

30th October: The Mid-term exam is over and the whole day has passed in watching movies and roaming around. I read a good quote today from C K Prahalad that states: Executives are constrained not by resources, but by their imagination.

All Aboard The Slave Ship: An open letter to Young India, callous and comfy in its cocoon.

31st October: Winters and studies post mid-term have started. I have been allotted Meghalaya for RLLE (Rural living and learning experience) and hoping to see the true picture of BHARAT vis a vis India.

My CV was also not shortlisted for a summer internship at TERI, hence, I was quite disappointed today. Hoping for a new start. Gaurish, Partha, and AP give much moral support to overcome this grief.

An old Interview with students of PGDM-RM students (Future Rural Managers)

1st November: Apple's Think Different advertising campaign. 1997-2002 re-consolidated my conclusion that thinking differently and independently is the ultimate path of growth.

There was mention of noble laureates Elinor Ostrom and Paul Krugman in marketing class. Elinor Ostrom's speech and Paul Krugman's speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony are linked to the common good . As a budding rural manager, one should know a little about the works of Elinor Ostrom.

She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources (CPR). In particular, Ostrom's work emphasizes how humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable resource yields.

As per the advice of faculty teaching ADM course, two types of abilities are needed to get a premium over others. One is our ability to relate and learn, other is our ability to forecast the future.

2nd November: I missed MEARS lecture for SRM assignment.

Our Human Behavior can be predicted by laws of Mathematics. It was a revelation for me despite having an engineering background. Heard about Sheikh Maktoum and Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (Phantom of Bombay House) in ITM class for the first time.

3rd November: Learned much from below two study materials and one short video.

McKinsey & Company - The 'bird of gold': The rise of India's consumer market: If India continues on its current high growth path, incomes will almost triple over the next two decades, and the country will climb from its position as the 12th-largest consumer market today to become the world's 5th-largest consumer market by 2025.

McKinsey & Company - India's urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth : India has a young and rapidly growing population—a potential demographic dividend. But India needs thriving cities if that dividend is to pay out. New MGI research estimates that cities could generate 70 percent of net new jobs created by 2030, produce around 70 percent of Indian GDP, and drive a nearly fourfold increase in per capita incomes across the nation.

Food and You:

This animated story journeys through the broken food system and then looks at the transformation that is already underway to bring about change. It brings it back to you, the individual at the root level, and invites you to be part of the movement to grow a better future.

To learn more about Oxfam International Youth Partnerships, visit the website here: http://oiyp.oxfam.org.au/

4th November: Today, the Programme coordinator of PGDRM proposed to send students next year to understand farmers' crisis in different places (In 16 years, farm suicides crossed a quarter million). He also encourages all students to understand local issues in great detail, irrespective of the given location. This step is inspired by IIM students to study ‘crop holiday’ villages. (The much discussed ‘crop holiday,’ declared by the farmers in East and West Godavari districts has drawn the attention of IIM Ahmadabad agri-business management students.)

Milton Friedman on Libertarianism and Humility: Human freedom is inextricably bound with tolerance. As Milton Friedman argued (see the video), the foundation of libertarianism is tolerance. (Fantastic 43 minutes long talk especially for the critics of Ayn Rand).

5th November: It was a day that lasted with 5 lectures. The most happening discussion was done in ITM class on Snacko India Limited: Leveraging Trade. Promotions for Competitive Advantage by Sajjan Raj Singhvi, Rajat Gera.

There was also a brief discussion on the case study of SEWA Union: Organising Bidi-workers. Book Download Link. Ela Ramesh Bhatt is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA).