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.