Showing posts with label 4th Trimester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th Trimester. Show all posts

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 4...

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 4...: An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there? ” There ...

Saturday, September 15, 2012

66th Week@XIMB

66th Week@XIMB - 09th September to 15th September, 2012

09th September - Nothing of importance happened today in my life. Yet, I was sad. There was demise of a great figure among the community of rural managers. Father of White Revolution, Verghese Kurien was no more with us.

10th September - There is great article paying tribute to Dr Verghese Kurien - Inspiration to a Rural Manager. Dr. Kurien is being limited by media as a man who has created Amul, the Brand of India. His contribution is much more than forming brand Amul. He created a legacy in successfully running cooperative and never succumbing to political pressure. This becomes more outshining in the context of failure of cooperative movement in India.

I was reading QRM in detail for exam. There were great revelation because I had not taken interest in the elective course from start. I got few facts right from a research paper of Fekede Tuli -

1- The quantitative purists articulate assumptions that are consistent with what is commonly called positivist paradigm and believe that social observations should be treated as entities in much the same way that physical scientists treat physical phenomena. To the contrary, the qualitative purist also called interprativist or constructivist by rejecting the positivist assumption contended that reality is subjective, multiple and socially constructed by its participants (Krauss,2005; Bryman, 1984;  Lincoln & Guba 2000; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Amare, 2004).

2- Positivism is based on the assumption that there are universal laws that govern social events, and uncovering these laws enables researchers to describe, predict, and control social phenomena. Interpretive research, in contrast, seeks to understand values, beliefs, and meanings of social phenomena, thereby obtaining a deep and sympathetic understanding of human cultural activities and experiences.

11th September - ESM and QRM paper were over today. I came to know about Sanjay Ghouse whose mission in his own words “To change the world and make a difference in the lives of the ordinary people”. He is a real inspiration for all of us rural managers.

12th September - CM exam was the last paper. I read about producer companies in detail : Resource Handbook For establishing a Producer Company.

13th September - This is the last day of 4th Trimester.

Let us start with a great line by Peter F Drucker in the "The Practice of Management" first published in 1955.

"No greater damage could be done to our economy or to our society than to attempt to professionalize management by licensing managers, for instance, or by limiting access to management to people with a special academic degree."

Following are his arguments in support of the view:

1. A degree in management does not by itself make an individual a professional manager any more than does a degree in philosophy make an individual philosopher. The essence of professional management is achievement, not knowledge; results not logic. By insisting on holding a degree, we are overemphasising knoledge and completely overlooking skill. This will eliminated those who individuals who, though highly skilled, do not have reqired degree.

2. People once certified as professionals on the basis of their academic degrees would always remain professionals, despite their knowledge becoming obsolete in later years.

14th September - New trimester and new promises. Yet day gone in completing backlog of assignments and submitting fees. There was no coordination between administration and finance. 13th Sept was the last date of fees submission and that coincided with the exam schedule.

15th September - AMDA, QRM and ESM assignments were completed today. There deadlines were within 3 hours.

The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy

The future of our world depends on addressing global challenges now. We need to create sustainable livelihoods, feed a growing population and safeguard the environment. We need to make the global economy green.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

65th Week@XIMB

65th Week@XIMB - 2nd September to 8th September 2012

2nd September - I submitted a team project report on Asian Paints in SDM. The whole process of data mining, compilation, editing, and printing with the team was good learning.

There was a scheduled industry talk of SREI Sahaj CEO on Sunday afternoon. The topic of the Talk was 'challenges in the service delivery channel and route to market strategies in rural India'. It began late on time but went quite fantastic overall. The Key learning - 'Positive dissatisfaction' is a good start for a young professional like us. There are more standard operating procedures and compliance in a big company, hence it is not a good option for fresher to start their work there.

Guest : Mr. Sanjay Panigrahi , CEO of SREI Sahaj

No rural people will pay for information on weather and government schemes. So business for information directly to the end consumer is not a viable option currently. Delivery and Management should be the key focus for a good business model in rural India. Most companies in India have a strong urban model while only Agri-input companies can claim to have a dent in the rural market. Few companies like Unilever, Dabur, and CavinKare have partial success in this rural arena. People who had worked in rural branches of SBI and RRB's have also knowledge of the rural mindset. Amul is like any other MNC in the front end while rural in the back end.

How to identify and define rural areas? This is a bigger question in front of companies. (I agree with this questioning as one sure way to get the wrong answer is by not framing the right questions). LG has defined an area below the population of 1 lakh as rural. That is an absurd definition. The worst criteria are population as consumer behavior differs due to cultural aspects in different parts of India. Assam and Bengal are more outgoing for education than Bihar and Orissa. One of the good methods employed by companies to classify rural pockets was the distance from highways.

The largest expenditure incurred by companies on advertisement is taken by DD due to its outreach. Local broadcasting channels like Mahua TV and Sarang TV are a good way to reach a rural audience of particular regions. Government has credibility in the rural areas that are lacked by private players. There are nearly 77,000 branches of banks and 1,36,000 Post offices (data not exact) in India. Yet, that number is quite low. Along with high operational cost, due to this trust factor, local MFI's and banking correspondent were used by leading banks for lending in rural India. This shows the importance of trust in making transactions with the rural customer segment.

There is more need for micromanagement in India. Everything is okay, not great at the policy level but implementation is bad at the panchayat/block level. The private player has also to manage and engage daily with governance complexities and lack of infrastructure. Three critical steps changed India in the last decade: First, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and The Golden Quadrilateral. This made rural areas more accessible for product/service delivery. Second, increase in funding through various social welfare schemes. And third, rural laborers were paid remittance through a safety net like NREGA.

There is a huge generation of data that requires intelligent MIS and data analyst. There is more need for knowledge before investing time and money in rural India. There is a need to understand the domestic market more than ever in recessing market example tolerance level is more in rural customers. In this quest for understanding rural consumer, answers can be dramatically different and contrary to the popular belief.

3rd September - A very hectic day amid regular classes. I gossiped a lot in the night for mental relaxation. Last class of SDM. It ended overall on a high note with a surprisingly good TED talk video.

Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation

4th September - There was a group presentation in ESM on Organic Farming in Cuba. I wanted to raise several statements of protest in front of Professor. I rather restrained myself in the end.

5th September - There was the last class of QRM that lasted for 45 minutes. I had talked with our Professor. She told us few things about rural management education and pedagogy in India. There is a dearth of teaching cases in the area of rural management. This shows a lack of research and funding in this field.

Key Learning: Writing up field notes immediately is one of the sacred obligations of fieldwork. Sometimes maintaining this diary becomes both boring and painful. I repeat the same behavior every day and expected to churn out a new insight. There are confront unpleasant facts, including lack of acceptance, ambiguity about a question, and gaping holes in the analysis. Believe Everything and Trust Nothing is the mantra of the observation to see clearly through the ideological maze.

While Managers are prepared for risk aversion and to achieve profits, an entrepreneur is a risk-taker. In the rural setting, business development and community mobilization become a key tasks for anyone. Trust is something on which business works in rural areas.

6th September - A great news for XIMB RM 2011-2013 batch. Our batchmate Sreevidya Gowda (India) was chosen among the TOP 50 INDIAFRICA BUSINESS VENTURE Winners. Nirmal purifier has been designed to provide access to iron-free safe drinking water at a low cost. The design was a semifinalist at the Dell Social innovation challenge and a finalist at the Acara Challenge conducted by the University of Minnesota.

Listening to the New Amul Manthan Song

The Manthan music video has a unique emotional appeal. The lines like 'khush rahe tera beta beti' in the new music video show how it is because of the efforts of a rural milk producer that nutritional requirements of a child to an urban mother are taken care of.

7th September - HRM paper over. Do you know who is Amanda Ammann? I was also not knowing about her details till now. I meet her few times but she never revealed her real identity and just enacted as a normal exchange student.

8th September - MFM paper is over. The tragic story of making mistakes in the balance sheet went on this time also.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

64th Week@XIMB

64th Week@XIMB - 26th August to 1st September, 2012

26th August Past performance are not an accurate predictor of future outcomes. Yet they can give a reference line about the academic career of the person. So much can be said in reference to the academics grades. Are we the student more than the CV and grades?

There was also a lot of thinking gone over the news item - Placement reportage: How the DMS, IIT Delhi 2012 placement report is designed to mislead you?. This shoddy practices of fudging placement report without having a real-world experience of running a values-driven company possess a serious ethical challenge. It is actually a less known but well performed malpractice in most of the B-School!

While army officers go beyond the call of duty sacrificing life for the country, investment bankers do exactly opposite. I can understand root cause of such problems in our education system only that never punishes plagiarism and other such activities. This makes me deeply critical, but am trying hard not to become cynical. As thy folklore wisdom persist that MBA is hyped but post MBA life is over hyped.

27th August There was talk given by Mr.Roy Prosterman, Founder of Rural Development Institute (RDI). He has twice been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

There was exhaustive discussion on Spectrum Brands, Inc.--The Sales Force Dilemma in SDM class.

28th August There was virtually not much substantial gain in attending MFM, CM and HRM lecture today.

29th August - A huge discussion on the future of RM program in QRM class. RM program has currently ambi dextrous nature. With its position, it is difficult to find any College to do bench-marking for academic curicula. To understand crux of the debate, one need to use right nomenclature either development or management. Any college should have these aspects for growth: Creation of knowledge through research, Application of knowledge within the industry through commercialization and dissemination of knowledge through classroom lectures. There is a huge gap in research area that needed major thrust .

Any college is built around three pillars: administration , faculty and alumni. At the moment, all of them are not clear about their own vision of XIMB and the third we don't listen any about. There is a practical joke in XIMB that those few who raise the slogan of RM in the loudest voices have nothing to do with the vision of this program. Testosterone and allegiance-driven student community has no place to stop and think over vision of the programme.

Not a single memorial exists today for Fr. Bogaert. What a shameful state of XIMB RM that can't even honor its own pioneering professor and patron. Father Bogaert was the first co-ordinator who facilitated in setting up of CENDERET in 1989. He was the driving force for this Rural Development(RD) program that later evolved in to Rural Management(RM).

30th August - The last class of ESM was on corporation and sustainability. The transition to sustainable capitalism will be one of the most complex our species has ever had to negotiate. Traditional accounting methodas never takes in account natural assets.Current financial tool like NPV or IRR can't easily account for intangible benefits. Sustainability is a parameter of long term impacts and we have to look in the economics with more timeless way, for next generation rather only as discounted cash flows. There was an article on sustainable practices of ABB ltd. on same day worth looking.

One of our Alumnus Mr. Nikhar Gyanesh (2005-07 Batch) currently working with CEAT Tyres as Senior Product Manager visited campus. His talk revolved around Tyre industry and importance of academics in the industry for 'gyaan'. Tractor companies were major clients of Tyre Industry. M&M has a share of 41.4 per cent in the tractor market, followed by TAFE at 23.4 per cent and Escorts at 11.4 per cent. John Deere accounts for a market share of only 7.5 per cent.

31st August - I visited to the C&FA office of Dulux paint today. This visit was done for understanding sales and distribution network of Dulux paint. The discussion was very small due to last day of the month. AkzoNobel is the parent company of this brand. We were given additional 'gyaan' that AkzoNobel has been ranked as the most sustainable chemical company in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DSJI).

1st September - I have heard and seen a lot of XIMB-RM social group’s view of reality. A lot of talks with fellow rural managers became an important data source on ecosystem of the college, private thoughts, and feelings about after-school jobs and future possibilities.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

63rd Week@XIMB

63rd Week@XIMB - 19th August to 25th August, 2012

20th August - Since 1997 Dr Debal Deb has been conserving 700 varieties of native rice that seed companies are trying to drive out. He works for biodiversity conservation, knowledge transfer and non-commercial seed exchange within and beyond India's indigenous communities.

Folk Rice Dr Debal Deb



21st August - Today is my birthday. I will only quote Benjamin Franklin on life :"Content to live, content to die unknown, Lord of myself, accountable to none."

21st August I participated in Kurukshetra and Spardha Launch. There was a good Harvard Business review article uploaded by SDM faculty : Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing by Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham, Suj Krishnaswamy (Complete Reading)

22nd August - There was presentation on OSCARD by our group in CM. We cam ro know about: Narasimham Committee on Banking Sector Reforms (1998). There was discussion on MFI Andhra Crisis in MFM class.What's wrong with microfinance? edited by Thomas Dichter and Malcolm Harper is a good book that must be studied in detail for academic knowledge. Ticket size of loan given by ACCION International is between 200-300 $ at Latin America in comparison to average loan size of Rs 5000 -1000 in Indian Micro-finance Industry. Hence, the cost of regulation is much higher in Indian context. So we require more patient not passive capital for revival of Indian Micro-finance Industry.

23rd August - Triple Bottom Line was discussed in detail. The phrase “the triple bottom line” was first coined in 1994 by John Elkington, the founder of a British consultancy called SustainAbility. Now companies are looking for businesses to bring value to their societies. There were not much classes this week. Hence, quite and relax week was coming to the end.

24th August - XIMB organized a ‘Business Conclave Week’. Top executives across the industry would be visiting our campus from 24th to 26th August, 2012. Everyone put up a good show.

I missed preparation as well as functioning of ENVISION 2012 program that was part of this business conclave. That is not what me to be as a professional. Clive Lloyd’s team returned WestIndies with 5-1 pounding at the end of the 1975-76 series in Australia. Clive Llyod said: ‘never again’. They searched some fierce fast bowlers and nurtured young batsman, and turned the table against Australian. I also declare today that this laziness will never happen again.

25th August - Last class of HRM was a guest lecture.

Guest Talk: Mr Saroj Mohapatra, HR JSPL Orissa Unit.

Saroj Mohapatra stressed on the quality is more important than the package of the job. Management education has been born out of school of economics and industrial sociology. In colleges, subjects are taught in compartment wise while its chaos and mixture in the reality.

He told us a story of vision. Revenue source of Dubai was coming only from oil resource. Prince of Dubai planned for non -oil revenue in future. So he set up the most unusual target : making Dubai a tourist destination. That was achieved through engineering and good management. This is what we lacking in India. The task of government is governance and regulation not running business. When there was no investment, there was worried about utilization of mineral resources. Now, with investment coming, government has been worrying about people. There is a structural problem at policy level.

There is a rent seeking mindset embedded in Indian people. When government displaces for road or irrigation project, there is not much talk about compensation package. But, when private parties do this for like steel plant, there is always talk of rehabilitation and justified compensation package. JSPL is paying 5 times package yet there is demand for the job guarantee for grandsons. There must be peaceful co existence of under-developed, developing and developed. Unless there is provision of social mobility, this can't be achieved.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

62nd Week@XIMB

62nd Week@XIMB - 12th August to 19th August, 2012

12th August - There is a policy paralysis in India. There are concerns over contraction in industrial output and drought need to be addressed soon. India's economic growth could fall below 5 per cent in the the first quarter of current fiscal.

13th August - Mr. K. Ramkumar, Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank is responsible for Human Resources, Customer Service & Operations. Are top business schools losing sight of what hirers want? is a probing article by him with a countering answer from N. Ravichandran, Director IIM Indore - Institutions need time to mature made by day.

RBI had released long ago Malegam Committee Report on micro-finance. Report of the RBI Sub-Committee of its Central Board of Directors to study Issues and concerns in the micro finance institutions (MFI) Sector.

14th August - I had taken an interesting question for the research while doing later assignment of QRM. How students of PDGM-RM in XIMB identify effective (and ineffective) areas of the curriculum offered to them ? The parameters were field work, demand in market, relevance in development field or attributes like value addition of knowledge etc.

15th August - On the occasion of the 65th Anniversary of India's Independence Day, I have to say nothing. Facebook pages are colored with the heart of patriots.

16th August - ‎"Start Your Venture" not floating this year 'due to some last minute procedural problems' ... a step back for RM program.

TALK DELIVERED BY MR. AJIT KANITKAR AND MR. DINESH AWASTHI


As part of the Livelihood sharing series a special talk by Ajit Kanitkar (Program Officer, Ford Foundation and former Professor, IRMA) and Dinesh Awasthi (Director EDII) was organized on 16th August, 2012. Livelihoods MANTHAN is a collaborative effort to envision the participation of management and higher educational institutions as an important part of the livelihoods ecosystem int the county. The distinguished speakers spoke on the theme “Grassroots Entrepreneurship and livelihoods” and interacted with the XIMB, Rural Management students at length. The talk was coordinated by Prof. C. Shambu Prasad and a few representatives from NGOs and professionals working in the livelihood sector also attended the session.

Ajit Kanitkar reminded the audience that agriculture itself is an enterprise, albeit a very risky one. Uncertainty about the monsoon, price fluctuations, spurious seeds, storage and transportation, pest attacks and so on makes agriculture the riskiest enterprise. Under these circumstances the speaker argued that there has to be a multipronged strategy to generate enough livelihood options for the people and it should specifically address three major areas of concern. First, there can be no substitute for agriculture in a country like India where 60-70 crores of people are still dependent on it. We have to find ways and means to make agriculture a profitable enterprise. Secondly people have to start respecting vocational education. Time and resources has to be allocated for training a large number of young people for skill development. Thirdly, Mr. Kanitkar mentioned about the need to promote social enterprises.

“Economy of scale and scope is the most important factor for successful running of any social enterprise” - Dinesh N. Awasthi.

Dinesh N. Awasthi firmly believes that until unless all the people are economically empowered it will be impossible for them to get social and political empowerment. According to him Social Entrepreneurship is all about making products and services available to people which are accessible as well as affordable. He explained the three different views about social entrepreneurship.

a) Ashoka Foundation view:- It believes that whosoever is doing social innovation and trying to fix social issues, irrespective of the facts like whether it is getting grants and funds or not, its earning profits or not and whether it is self-sustainable or not it should continue doing the work.

b) Muhammad Yunus view:- His view is opposite to Ashoka foundation’s view. According to him a social entrepreneur must be self-sufficient; its activities should be self-sustainable and must make profits. People, organizations who are investing in a social enterprise should re-invest the profits in these activities only. They should not take away any part of the profits that are being generated.

c) Any enterprise should address the need of bottom of the pyramid following the principles Availability, Accessibility, Affordability.

17th August - There was a group presentation on Individual lending in MFI. That passed quite well. I learnt the difference between asset based and collateral based lending.

There was career counselling Session with Prof. Govindrajan. I expressed my interest in either consulting or development sector. Market research will be my third option. I am looking forward for off campus amid weak economy that may affect placement.

Vijay Mahajan: Rebuilding a Stronger Microfinance Sector in India - Vijay Mahajan, the president of the Microfinance Institutions Network of India and also the founder and chairman of the Basix social enterprise group talked to India Knowledge@Wharton about the implications of the new bill and the way ahead for the sector.

Why research that establishes causality is better than just correlation? by Krishnamurthy V Subramanian, Assistant Professor (Finance), ISB. Correlation is the basis for superstition while causation forms the basis for science.

18th August - I visited office of The Odisha State Cooperative Agricultural & Rural Development (OSCARD) Bank. That was followed by brief discussion between our team and one of the staff member of OSCARD bank. They were not so reluctant to share financial data but it looked more like white elephant of the government.

Mechai Viravaidya: How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place

Saturday, August 11, 2012

61st Week@XIMB

61st Week@XIMB - 5th August to 11th August, 2012

5th August - Professor Dilip Soman from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, speaks at a conference about behavioral economics and mental accounting.

Fear of Finance: Financial Literacy and Planning for Post secondary Education



6th August - One of our faculty is an IRMA alumnus. She shared a valuable insight about rural management course. IRMA has no case studies as reading material in its early years. Faculty, students and visiting fellow of the institute thrived hard to develop their own case research material. Today, we all are benefiting from their ground work. As long as basic principles of reliability, rigour, precision and validity are followed, the research quality will always be good. There is a great and valuable resource of Working Papers (228) on IRMA website useful for rural managers. These working Papers provide an opportunity for IRMA faculty, visiting fellows and students to sound out their ideas and research work before publication and get feedback and comments from their peer group.

Rural management student must check this page of International Journal of Rural Management for latest developments. The International Journal of Rural Management (IJRM) is the first international journal that focuses exclusively on rural management as opposed to rural or community or sustainable development.

7th August - ESM: Agriculture should be looked from the livelihood point of view rather than contribution to GDP. Industrialized farming is not sustainable and there is hidden cost of subsidy with health issues. There are success stories built on sustainable agriculture. With dedicated investment of time and energy for three years, Rajeev Baruah has proved this fact. There is no need of crazy maverick backed with foreign aided NGO to do this job.

Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986 and expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 150 countries.

8th August - We have already news of weak monsoon rains that can slow down sowing of key crops. There is also a story of public private partnership in Maharashtra. Maharashtra govt join hands with PepsiCo, Unilever and others to develop value chains for vegetable crops. FMCG companies are shifting focus from premium products because consumers will be trading down due to inflation and low income due to uneven rains. As per India Meteorological Department(IMD) Rainfall deficiency is large in Punjab, Haryana, west Rajasthan and Saurashtra and Kutch.

9th August - ESM: There was full on discussion on Watershed Management as a strategy for managing natural resources. There was presentation of documentary of Waterworks India: Four Engineers and A Manager. The camera travels from the remote cold desert of Leh to far south in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, then visiting two outstanding rural engineers in Rajasthan.

No talk of Water Management is complete without mention of Rajendra Singh
known as "waterman of India". He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2001 for his pioneering work in community-based efforts in water harvesting and water management.

Water Mangament Workshop by Rajendra Singh-Part 1


2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Part of the talk can be viewed on the you-tube.

India Water Portal is an open, inclusive, web-based platform for sharing water management knowledge amongst practitioners and the general public.

10th August - There was talk given by three eminent fellows:
1- Debashish Sen - Head, Natural Resources Management at PSI attached
2- Dr Nagesh Kolagri on participatory GIS in empowering rural communities.
3- Dr. Baharul Islam Mazumdar (Sr. Agronomist, Tripura) on SRI

There was a batch meet called by placement committee on the scenario. It was an eye opener for those sleeping with cushion of brand name XIMB. It's time to buck up and start revising their knowledge stock and flow !

11th August - Only two closing lectures of immersion course ensured a peaceful weekend.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

60th Week@XIMB

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 proverbs of Ghagh aur Bhaddari for weather forecasting. There has been research paper - Farming proverbs: analysis of their dynamics and farmers' knowledge by Ranjay K Singh and A Dorjey

The linkage of good monsoons and Indian market is too much close still we keep ignoring reality of the rural market. With an inadequate monsoons the rural consumption falls and so does their overall sales of agri-input companies. There are many more whose sales are indirectly dependent with the agricultural cycle but with the poor monsoon that will also go down. Use of local, non-hybrid seed varieties and cheaper micro-irrigation are the ways in which farmers try to maximise their returns in times of drought.

30th July - A two day workshop on “Markets That Empower Farmers (& Consumers)” has started today at XIMB. This learning and brainstorming workshop is jointly organized by XIMB and ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture) is coordinated by Prof. Shambu Prasad. There was detailed coverage on the blog of Kisan Sawaraj.

My Learning :-

1- People had lost many years doing wrong things. But you have to do sometime wrong for long enough to realize this. Its worthwhile to do something not for the sake of money and pleasing society.

2- Too much consumer centric approach has diverted our attention from the problems of primary producers and rural livelihood. Policy, Market and Technology are currently used for agri-business rather than agriculture. Farmers are in crisis, not farming.

3- Diversity is the key concept for sustainable agriculture. Sustainability should be key word for next green revolution. More collectivization of farmers is required for increasing bargaining power. Bina sanskar nahin sahkar, bina sahkar nahin udhar (without morals no cooperation, without cooperation no uplift).

Fact: 5000 liters of water is required for rice in comparison to negligible irrigation required for millet. Per capita yield must be matched with per capita nutritious value of the crop.

31st July - There were guest speakers in ESM class : Joseph Thomas, Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship, IITM and Sridhar Radhakrishnan who runs a Zero Waste Center in Kovalam, recycling local waste and converting them to useful products, thereby generating livelihood for locals. Both of them were critical of the engineers. One of them was about design of sewage system design and other was of on the use of incinerator for the disposal of solid waste.

One quote mentioned in slide quite touched mine emotional chord : “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Concept of waste management is good and useful for assessment of product life cycle assessment. While the whole class was very vocal in their support of organic farming, I found that response quite shallow. As the core message of organic farming forms a antithesis for the students looking their bright future in fertilizer giants like Monsanto, DSCL, Tata Rallies, etc. I will support assumption by quoting Upton Sinclaire : "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

1st August - M-CRIL is Micro Credit Rating International Ltd. M-CRIL is a global leader in the financial rating of micro-finance institutions and in sectoral advisory services.

2nd August - Prof Nonita Yap, Professor in Rural Planning and Development at the University of Guelph delivered a talk on "Greening the economy - opportunities through cleaner production and industrial ecology" at XIMB. She touched the topic of Decarbonisation of the whole energy sector, Industrial Symbiosis at Kalundborg and Quasi Cyclic economy. There was criticism of cluster approach of industries in her talk as these cluster concentrate pollutants. In India, industries rarely see waste as a resource.

3rd August - Immersion course Agribusiness Value Chain Finance (AVCF)and Carbon Management and Carbon Trading (CMCT) started today.

4th August - I was sick with fever still managed to attend few classes of immersion courses. With weekend looming, enjoy this video !

Making the Market Work for the Poor : This session was moderated by Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice President, The Aspen Institute USA and the panelists included Adarsh Kumar, Executive Director, All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association; Lakshmi Venkatesan, Founding Trustee and Executive Vice-President, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST); Deepender Hooda, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha (Indian National Congress); and Amitava Chattopadhyay, The L'Oreal Chaired Professor of Marketing-Innovation and Creativity, INSEAD, Singapore.



The majority of Indians are still not reaping the benefits of liberalization. While there seems to be growing consensus that the trickle-down theory is not working for India, is there a way that markets can be made more responsive to the rural poor in particular? Beyond NGO activism, how can the poor buy-into the market economy?

Saturday, July 28, 2012

59th Week@XIMB

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 agri-business sector: ITC's e-choupal boosting company's FMCG business. ITC typically organises 60,000 Pradharhan Khets and 6,000 Choupal Haats in a year. There is a general criticism that its expansion has benefited only large farmers as their produces could be sold at somewhat better prices and perhaps quickly through e-choupal. But, they are ignoring the ITC is market development initiative with its huge cash piles against nexus of caste based strong lobby of traders and middle men.

26th July - CM quiz was last one and that finishes mid term on happy notes. Let us watch a conversation with Wharton Marketing Professor Jagmohan Singh Raju .

Multinational Corporations and Rural India:





27th July - Lectures started after the mid term. That was a boring stuff. I am also struggling with facebook addiction and attention deficit disorder.

28th July - This was a sleeping day still I was lucky enough to read Report of the Nair Committee on Priority Sector Lending. There was also news of RBI enforcing foreign banks to raise their priority sector lending (PSL) portion to 40 per cent from 32 per cent currently. The move will impact only four of 55 foreign banks, which have over 20 branches. Only four foreign banks — Standard Chartered Bank (94 branches), Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (50 branches), Citibank (42 branches) and Royal Bank of Scotland (31 branches) would come under the ambit of the new norms. Another foreign lender, Deutsche Bank, has 16 only branches. That's a welcome move by RBI.

Some loans that would be classified as priority sector -:
  • Loans up to Rs 1 crore to micro and small service enterprises
  • Loans to food and agro processing units
  • Loans to distressed farmers indebted to non-institutional lenders
  • Overdrafts up to Rs 50,000 in no-frills accounts
  • Loans to individuals other than farmers up to Rs 50,000 to prepay their debt to non-institutional lenders
  • Loans up to Rs 25 lakh for housing in metros having population above 1 million
  • Loans up to Rs 15 lakh for housing in cities having population less than 1 million
  • Education loans up to Rs 10 lakh for studying in India and Rs 20 lakh for studying abroad
While doing AMDA assignment on Multicollinearity, I read about Demonstration effect (Keeping up with the Joneses) and Cobweb model. I also made inquiry about Co-variance and correlation. The problem with covariances is that they are hard to compare due to metric units. Notably, correlation is dimensionless hence more author friendly.

Why Do I Love IRMA ? : The memoirs of an IRMA alumnus in one page article is beautiful reading on this weekend.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

58th Week@XIMB

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 missions. It’s happening in Bihar, Odisha government is also now planning. If students take this opportunity, XIMB can possibly look to become sole leader in this space, something like IRMA is in so many.

PRADAN has an advanced course on livelihoods and they have an intensive workshop lasting around 18 days. They get experts from across the country and collecting different curriculum from across schools.

19th July - Neo-urbanization is a new mega-trend rising in India and other parts of the world. It is the extension of traditionally urban benefits and opportunities to semi-rural and rural communities. Neo-urbanization can transform market needs by empowering people in many ways. These are the views of global telecommunications equipment corporation Alcatel-Lucent.

Neo Urbanization - the new paradigm shift




I will not call this paradigm shift like the company promoting this video. This was a gradual change with the development of infrastructure connecting periphery of urban centers and rural area. Foreign companies have been slow in realizing the emergence of rurban area in India. For beginners, the new land development between a rural area and the EDGE of a developed suburban area is called rurban.

20th July - I was busy whole day in lectures.There was a scuffle between workers and management employees at Manesar plant of Maruti on 19th July. Awanish Kumar Dev, a manager in the Human Resources department of the Maruti Suzuki Manesar Plant was killed. Maruti Suzuki management has not even constituted the Grievance Redressal Committee and the Welfare Committee at its Manesar plant which was agreed upon after the last dispute in October 2011. So who can prevent such violent outrages of the workers.

21st July - XSYS interview for the selection of the shadow members were conducted.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

57th Week@XIMB

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. This means the average world citizen has an eco-footprint of about 2.7 global average hectares while there are only 2.1 global hectare of bioproductive land and water per capita on earth. Humanity has already overshot global biocapacity by 30% and now lives unsustainable by depleting stocks of “natural capital". Hence, business as usual is not an option anymore.

11th July - There was launch of Rural Managers` Association of XIMB (RMAX) today and Systems Committee of XIMB (XSYS).

12th July - The Biosphere Rules (Harvard Case Study) - The rules for the biosphere’s operating system are built upon bio-logic, which nature uses to assemble life and structure ecosystems. There is complete reading of 8 pages at Scribd.

13th July - There was team presentation on Maharashtra State Co-Operative Sugar Factories Federation in CM lecture.

FMCG firms draw up fallback plans : Following deficient rains, a demand slowdown, especially in rural areas, looms large.

14th July - Even I was learning Data Analysis from long time, I learnt about Goodness of fit quite later. Better later than never.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

56th Week@XIMB

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 Institutions.

4th July - Missed QRM lecture due to sleep.

5th July - Agropedia is a comprehensive, seamlessly integrated model of digital content organization in the agricultural domain. It aims to bring together a community of practice through an ICT mediated knowledge creating and organising platform with an effort to leverage the existing agricultural extension system.

6th July - I searched a new website for freetime pleasure reading : GoodNewsIndia- News from India of positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs. Salute to the website of D V Sridharan for documenting us news that is little known.

7th July - Those rural management students interested in selling fertilizers must be aware of NPS (Nutrient Based Subsidy).Until 31.3.2003, the subsidy to urea manufacturers was being regulated in terms of the provisions of the erstwhile Retention Price Scheme (RPS). Under the RPS Retention Price was fixed for each unit by the Govt. The difference between the Retention Price of Urea and the maximum retail price of urea was paid as subsidy. Details can be obtained from studying fertilizer policy of the government.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

55th Week@XIMB

55th Week@XIMB - 24th June to 30th June, 2012

24th June - Sunday was spent with some business analysis news and listening to Mr. Prabhat Patnaik on the topic "The Perverse Transformation"..

Reebok is revamping the branding strategy with an inspiration from the Dominno's Pizza. After all, what was the market for home-delivered pizzas before Domino's began operations? Zero. The most efficient, most productive, more useful aspect of branding is creating a new category. Start something totally new. Hence, the learnings were clear: "Ask not what percentage of an existing market your brand can achieve. Ask how large a market your brand can create by putting resources behind creating a category."

Aditya Birla Nuvo to invest Rs 1,600 crore in Kishore Biyani's Pantaloon Retail. That is a big story to be watched in the coming years. Launched in 1997, the Pantaloon format is spread in 35 cities with 65 stores and 21 factory outlets covering total retail space of over 2 million square feet. As per my assumption, this move has been done to bring a consolidated position in multi brand retail market where the government may soon notify 100 percent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. (Source) Rapid expansion of the retail chain with high cost of real estate became unfeasible to finance. The interest rates were higher, hence there was failure of big brands in retail sector.

22nd Rajan Memorial Lecture - by Prabhat Patnaik @ IRMA



The 22nd T S Rajan Memorial Lecture was delivered by Mr. Prabhat Patnaik on the topic "The Perverse Transformation". The memorial lecture seeks to bring renowned development practitioners in the rural sector to address the participants and interact with them.

25th June - Theory building is mostly qualitative work and require a lot of triangulation of the data. QRM lectures are getting more boring with each passing day.

26th June - Conclave on MDGs is being organized tomorrow which will be attended by prominent speakers. There was talk of N C Saxena, Dr. John Oommen and Professor Peppin delivered in Odisha MDG Forum presentations.

HRM (Human Resource Management)classes are boring but revised Delphi method.

27th June - While reading about Cooperative Model in India, the role of registrar comes under scrutiny.

28th June - There was use of term Markov Analysis in HRM class. In QRM class, there was a long monologue of Professor on Philosophy of research and Reality. That reminded me back again to the folk story of Blind men and an elephant, Rashomon effect and Stereotyping. Humans have habit of hasty generalization that define their belief structures. Interpretation of reality must address the manifold nature of truth.

“We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” -Werner Heisenberg

29th June - There was discussion on The Myth of Kalahandi in ESM lecture. 19th Century travelogues mentioned Kalahandi Granary of east and this place supplied food at Bengal famine. Kalahandi became a classic case of environmental degradation leading to poverty and deprivation. Why have things changed? Rain never failed Kalahandi. Mismanagement did. In 1946, traditional structures irrigated 38,684 ha, 1970 to 8,007 has 80% drop with declining forest cover 67% (1900) to 13%.

Johl Committee Report, 1986, recommended diversification within farming away from wheat-paddy rotation to the extent of 20 per cent in favour of fruit and vegetable, fodder and oilseeds crops. Here is an clip of his interview where talks about the importance of the policy environment for the conservation of water in India, and effective techniques.

SS Johl Interview at Columbia Water Center, New York


30th June - Individual Photo session for placement brochure. Closing the week with a quote of Martin Luther King - Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Over the bleached bones of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

54th Week@XIMB

54th Week@XIMB - 17th June to 23rd June, 2012

17th June - I started traveling for Bhubaneswar from home. Traveling in the various compartments of the train makes our interaction different class emerging and present in India. A 8 hour journey in jam pack general compartment of the train makes one tough and bares grim reality of poor infrastructure of this developing country. Yet if we can choose, we can live in the world of comforting illusion.

18th June - The train was late in the arrival just by 2 hours. Rain and storm welcomed me back to the educational institute of east India. There was new batch roaming around in XIMB. A new group of budding rural managers were going to start their journey.

In my opinion nearly all students who enter this prgramme with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the public, but after two years of competition and loan.
And slowly everybody care for nothing but the right job with the right company where we all can get in top level management in coming years and earn big bucks. May be this is required for our own sustainability.

19th June - There was first lecture of CM (Cooperative Management)in which history of the cooperative movement were discussed. The modern cooperative movement can be said to have started in 1844, with the creation of the Rochdale Principles.

Cooperative Credit Societies Act, 1904 was the first Incorporation that later lead to the development of Cooperative Societies Act, 1912. Post Independence, the Committee on Cooperative Law under the chairmanship of Shri S.T.Raja in 1956 recommended a Model Bill for consideration of State Governments. In 1990, an Expert Committee, under the chairmanship of Choudhary Brahm Perkash, was appointed by the Planning Commission to make a rapid review of the broad status of the cooperative movement, suggest future directions and finalize a Model Cooperatives Act. The Committee submitted its report in 1991. Report of the High Powered Committee on Cooperatives can be studies in much details.

20th June - I came to know about Mousetrap Fallacy theory that is held in high esteem in marketing. The additional sophistication may increase measuring ability and effectiveness yet may be unusable at such cost. This was taught interestingly in the 2nd lecture of QRM.

The video aims at explaining the foundation of sustainable development planning, i.e., each policy and investment decision must take into equal consideration its economic, social and environmental impacts.

The Future We Want


21st June - I didn't attend the first lecture of ESM (Ecosystem and Sustainability Management) where there was screening of the movie 'The call of Bhagirathi' that was winner of the national award as the best investigative film in 1992. It revolves around the big costs of big dams, a film by Anwar Jamal.

A trailer -The call of Bhagirathi



There was kick off start of the official interaction (viva) session with the PGPRM 2012-2014 batch since has arrived in the campus.

22nd June - RM Knowledge depository was restored on the XSYS-server. Thanks to seniors and XSYS team for this feat.

CM - ICA provided the information about co-operatives worldwide that is the apex organization. UN proclaims 2012 International Year of Co-operatives: "Co-operative enterprises build a better world"

There were five acts necessary for managers working in India. They are - Indian Trust Act, Indian Societies Registration Act, Trade Unions Act, The Companies Act and The Co- Operative Societies Act.

FAQ - A Non Profit Organisation can be registered in India as a Society, under the Registrar of Societies or as a Trust, by making a Trust deed. A third option is registration as a section-25 Company under the Companies Act, 1956.
Whether a trust, society or section-25 company, the Income Tax Act, 1961 gives all categories equal treatment, in terms of exempting their income and granting 80G certificates, whereby donors to non-profit organisations may claim a rebate against donations made.

23rd June - Placement Batchmeet was held for the placement season coming soon this year. In this depressing economy, there is challenge

A mail was floated for the suggestions by Team Placecom. There was a bottom line in the mail that inspired me. That ended week on the high note. "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success".