Showing posts with label July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label July. Show all posts

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 the proverbs of Ghagh aur Bhaddari for weather forecasting. There has been a research paper - Farming proverbs: analysis of Their Dynamics and Farmers' Knowledge by Ranjay K Singh and A Dorjey.

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

30th July - A two-day 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) and is coordinated by Prof. Shambu Prasad. There was detailed coverage on the blog of Kisan Swaraj.

My Learning:-

1- People have lost many years doing wrong things. But you have to do wrong for long enough to realize this. It's 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 the keyword for the next green revolution. More collectivization of farmers is required to increase 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 for millet. Per capita yield must be matched with the per capita nutritious value of the crop.

31st July - There were guest speakers in the 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 it to useful products, thereby generating livelihood for locals. Both of them were critical of the engineers. One of them was about the design of sewage systems design and the other was about the use of incinerators for the disposal of solid waste.

One quote mentioned in the slide quite touched my 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.

The 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. The core message of organic farming forms an antithesis for the students looking for their bright future in fertilizer giants like Monsanto, DSCL, Tata Rallies, etc. I will support my 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 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 on the topic of Decarbonisation of the whole energy sector, Industrial Symbiosis at Kalundborg, and the "Quasi Cyclic" economy. There was criticism of the cluster approach of industries in her talk as these clusters concentrate pollutants. In India, industries rarely see waste as a resource.

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

4th August - I was sick with a fever and still managed to attend a few classes of immersion courses. With the 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 a 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, August 6, 2011

8th Week @ XIMB

8th Week --- 31st July to 6th August

31st July - "Teach for India" came for a Presentation at XIM, Bhubaneswar. Sunday Morning was good. SAMBANDH 2011 kicked started in the evening.

वो इंतजार था जिसका ये वो सहर तो नहीं, ये वो सहर तो नहीं जिसकी आरजू लेकर.

I remembered this line today. The batch is doing awesome in dance, song, games and every extra curricular activities. Yet no body is uttering a single word either about B Plan or Social Entrepreneurship. What a batch of under performers. Anyone's role model define the horizon of his/her aspirations. Our batch is choosing wrong role models for rural management programme.

1st Aug - SADA class was good today because there was discussion on Ideology. I loved one quote mentioned in slide. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist."

Pandit Shri Hari Prasad Chaurasia conducted a Hindustani Classical Flute Recital today. It was mesmerizing and worth experiencing. His consummate artistry and inimitable style held the audience spell bound for 2 hours. As they say : The flute is the symbol of the spiritual call - The call of the divine love.

Sports Committee Launch also happened. Another day in XIMB is over. But I will quit alcohol and cigarettes. As in the words of Suma - Music has an overwhelming effect to change the mood.

2nd Aug - XQuizzite Launch Quiz. One team used smart phones for quiz that was quite sad.

3rd Aug - ME (Managerial Economics) marks came. 3.5 out of 10. Not bad for me.

4th Aug - LTB lecture was a disaster for the class.

5th Aug - RDA quiz is disaster for the batch. Rest of the day was passed in relaxing way. Milind Gete is upset over the pedagogy employed here. I agree with him. Ours batch is under-performing despite of huge potential.

6th Aug -Finally, the pending initiation of Field Familiarity Program by Kajri Mishra today. No group presented the ppt but we have a talk delivered by a fantastic person named Joe Madith. Joe Madith founded Gram Vikas in 1979; He make a few sarcastic/formal comment on Shambhu sir, students and XIMB in his speech but that was quite well articulated in the nature.

Social entrepreneur Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas tells about his life to NDTV.



Joe Madith told about his life. He was involved heavily in students politics and expelled from several schools during early adolescent. He is an alumnus of Loyola College Chennai. He had done cycle tour of India covering each district.  He was working on Bio Gas (Bullshit) and then he shifted to sanitation (Full-shit) programme. He doesn't believe in change but complete transformation and there was a lot stress on Human dignity in his speech. That part touched me. I always felt that lack of dignity of physical labour is rampant in India. Despite of his left oriented thought process, he is working as CEO of Gram Vikas.

Two anecdotes are especially mention-able. First, George Bush sit on the last bench in the classroom. That was pointed by his professor in Harvard Business School. Hence, an open warning was given to backbenchers. Second, he was offered a meeting and cup of tea after several protests by British consulate in Chennai. While American consulate asked his principal for prosecuting him to due to his non violent protests against Vietnam war and equal rights for Afro Americans. A good example of difference between policies of two nation in a third world country...

Lesson Learned : First, poor people don't want miserable solution. They want the best like any other humans. Second, authority is not the source of truth. Third and last, exclusion of many as birthrights by few is an orthodox practice prevailed all over India.

Social entrepreneur Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas, tells Global X what happened when, at age 11, he tried to unionize the workers who were employed by his very own father. Within two months, he was in boarding school!


I am going XLRI for sports meet today in the night. Don't ask me which game that I didn't know either.

Monday, August 1, 2011

7th Week @ XIMB

7th Week --- 24th July to 30th July

24th July - Sunday.

Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself

After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret ! Ted Video


25th July - Leadership & Team Building (LTB) Mid term paper at 6:00 PM

26th July - Managerial Economics (ME) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM

27th July - Rural Financial Institutions & Markets (RFIM) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM

28th July - Quantitative Methods (QM)Mid term paper at 3:00 PM.

29th July - A day started with quiz and further class of Individuals in Organisation (OB-I); There was meet of Placecom committee and discussion is classified secret, not to come in the public blog.

A special Talk delivered by Dr. Kundan Kumar (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography & Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, Canada), on "Climate Justice" at 3:45 PM

A guest lecture by Dr Dindo Campilan from Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)on 29th July 2011 at 6:30 PM

SAXIM Launch happened at night with the motto of Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God; There was No PPT, No FLASH and No MANDATORY ATTENDANCE; Only JLT;

30th July - The headbanging, dancing , dehydration and deprivation of sleep is seen on everyone face. Long talk with Saket 'Camus' Vardhan in the morning.

Team SRC (Social Responsibility Cell) X-STAGE launched at 10:30 PM. Talent Hunt 2011 that gives a performing arts competition (on stage). Singing sensations, dancing dynamos, adroit actors and performing prodigies were all there. Yogesh with his adrenaline driven speech showed me necessity of guts despite of various opposition and boos.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

6th Week @ XIMB

6th Week --- 17th July to 23rd July

17th July - Sunday. I was selected in shadow Placecom committee of 11 members. SANIDHYA opened us an insight into diverse talents of our seniors in the evening. Almost negligible presence of faculty was above my head.

18th July - I become a default member of RMAX by securing admission in PGP-RM course at XIMB. Rural Manager's Association of XIMB (RMAX) is a registered student body which caters to the specific needs of a rural management student. Rural Managers Association of XIMB (RMAX) was started in 2003. Gramotsava, the rural marketing fair started in 2006.

"The real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time." - C.K.Prahalad (Author of 'The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid')

Whole day was gone in COMM presentation. I really understand today why the level of managers in communication is such high here. Only Solo reason : Good faculty. I choose the less traveled path and I pledged to make difference by connecting urban market with rural customer.

19th July - Placecom work kicks off. LTB classroom was fun as I volunteered for a group activity. Learned that - “In business, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate” Chester L. Karrass.

20th July - Tag with names written are distributed to us for being monitored in the class by XIMB. It is degrading and ; People are taking photo of each other without understanding the ulterior nature of the act. I am completely against this tagging;

21st July - Seniors tried to sell XIMB T shirts; Cost/per T-Shirt was offered Rs 500. Too much fight between Gaurish with Divya and Drasti has crashed my mind. The communication group is on the verge of breaking point. Me and Diksha are working as Peace makers. I discovered my USP as conflict and negotiation skill.

22nd July - Urgent batch meet at 3:10 PM ensured that people become serious for other Interest Committees. RMAX Shadow Committee Interviews are going on today.

23rd July - Saturday was welcoming us with presentation in communication and a quiz in Microeconomics. I gave 1 minute presentation on Azamgarh. Last class of RFIM - Nothing is intelligent, everything just needs time and mind. Saturday Night was welcomed with Rollywood event. This is done for seniors by 1st yearites. Guitarist, Dancers and Singers just created the atmosphere of joy. I did't drink alcohol in the night instead preferred  to watch Harry Potter 7th part.

Monday, July 18, 2011

5th Week @ XIMB

5th Week --- 10th July to 16th July

10th July- Walked out in the night before Viva session for SADA group assignment work. Kudos and Thanks to Prateek Singh and Parthasarthy CR for supporting me in this tough situation. 20 people boycotted while rest of the batch enjoyed entertaining time till 5 AM with seniors. I am still proud of my decision as they say in English : A Man Do What He Has to Do !

11th July - Necessity for me to improve in verbal English became exposed in front of whole class. Got two valuable lessons that rational acts depend on emotional memories and assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

12th July - Missed Jogging today. I was literally scared in ME class due to the questions of Biresh Sir. Attended Student Executive Council (SEC) and Place-com meeting. I have to write SOP and prepare Resume for this. Seniors have lot of energy in them; Hats off to them :)

13th July - The Bhaina Song was mailed to us; Presentation of IRC, Alcom and Illuminatix in the night. Volleyball Court inaugration was done but our team lost to BM guys due to lack of proper smasher.

14th July - RFIM class was cancelled and the whole day gone in preparing for the RFIM quiz. But I recalled a very old nazm today : चमन में इख्तिलाफे रंगो-बू से बात बनती है. हम ही हम हैं, तो क्या हम हैं. तुम ही तुम हो, तो क्या तुम हो।

15th July - Friday; RFIM test was disaster for me. Deja Vu of engineering days came back. I was so disgusted on my own performance. I dropped out of JAM session and my teammate Gautam became angry for this unprofessional behavior. There was skit at each block where performance of our team was awesome. Typical Raju Srivastava act of making non living objects talk was a brilliant idea. Rishab, Prateek, Gaurav , Shreyash, RaFa, Shrey, Srijit, Yogesh, Chandan and Snehashish performed brilliantly. That was followed by Daru Party. RS and Vodka were fine but rum became too much for everyone in the humid condition. Still I was in the few last men standing list. Amazed to know that Shivam and Piyush don't drink.

16th July - Woke up at 1:45 PM; There was an alumni meeting with Mr. Anupam Satpathy who is currently working with DSCL. He was also the RM Secretary for Batch 0f 2008 - 10. JAM Finals result came quite late night; Kshitij and Vaibhav secured overall 2nd position. Really feeling proud of them. Interview for shadow committee of RM Placecomm was held at 11:30 PM. Gaurish helped me a lot in interview preparation

Was scheduled 7th but given chance at 4th place. Missing viva was main point of interview process. All 6 people were really good in framework of the knowledge and responsibilities. I was asked question from facebook profile to blog. I forget during interview session about USP written in SOP that were Integrity and unbiased nature.

Saw Delhi Belly in the morning 2AM ; Bhag D K Bose exciting. What make this week special was that I was questioned by two friends on my support to reservation of SC/ST ? Old tantrum of Poor Brahmin student was told to me... But there are no judgement only optimum choices in management, life and development. Doing everything right is an unrealistic goal that I can promise to you

Friday, July 8, 2011

4th Week @ XIMB

4th Week --- 3rd July to 9th July

3rd July: What a grand start of the week. Birthday of Kasturi Lal celebrated among great enthusiasm and pleasure. I was lucky one selected for accepting the fake proposal scene. Feeling lucky :)

It was followed by Cricket Match at 1:00 AM at Lawn Tennis Court. I also started jogging from today with Parthsarthy CR to improve fitness.

4th July: Class of Societal Analysis & Development Alternatives (SADA) with the topic Power of Imagination was innovative and entertaining in its approach. I saw the infinite possibilities of the words that can change the world in a blank page. I learned about Concept of Interbeing by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and Technology With A Human Face by E. F. Schumacher.

There was a special talk arranged by XIMB administration on biodiversity and conservation. The most absurd part was that only Rural management students were invited.  Does the responsibility for conservation of nature and awareness about poverty lies on our shoulders alone ? Either Business management and Human Resource Management will not be befitted by such talks or  its out of their ways of doing business. I hope that this should not be repeated again by XIMB administration.

Special talk on "Environment and Democracy: Cases on Biodiversity and conservation" by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Pankaj Sekhsaria is a member of the environmental action group, Kalpavriksh and in based in Pune. His main responsibility is editing, publishing and distributing the Protected Area (PA)Mr. Sekhsaria says, “We point the finger at the tribal carrying firewood on her head when our own aluminum-hungry lifestyles are the real cause of forest loss.”  Only 2% of Indians invest in stock market but the whole newspaper is filled with news about them. Parallel world exist all around us. There is a difference between low carbon foot print of tribal way of living and Use, Consume and Throw  lifestyle of us.  It is about the right of way of life that is more sustainable and environment friendly. There is fundamental paradox of our notion of development. Development for whom and on whose cost ? 

-Western environmental ethics are mostly post destruction and born out of guilt.

-Estimation of Life cycle (Recycled tax) should be made for each product to internalize the external cost. He talked about TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity).

He used a specific anthropological word Culture of Language that gives people capacity to engage with intra and inter cultural realm.Students were more focused on making slow and innovative way of integration tribal in them, while speaker was considering tribal and poor as mainstream and us as westerners.

5th July: I lacked the flow in presenting my ideas that became evident during group presentation in Rural Development Administration (RDA)class.

Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff



Today, I became frustrated over unprofessional attitude of few of my batch-mates. Few are considering MBA as an extension of their graduate studies. Work experience should be made mandatory before MBA. We learn more from peers, seniors and environment of the college than to the class room lectures as compared to our cool days graduation.

I even suspect over the selection procedure and criteria of the XIMB rural entrance pro-gramme. There are bulk of people who have no idea of rural or even intent to work with them. Threshold level should be more pushed towards concrete knowledge rather than jargon learnings. Few words like BOP and Inclusive Growth are most abused terms in classroom discussions by people without having any clue about them.

6th July: Have a fair discussion with friends on the vision and mission of XIMB. There are teachers here who are highly aid oriented than preferring trade with poor. Gaurish made a valid point that no one gives a person importance until he/she have some value attached to him/her. We need to create economic value for the people otherwise this game/illusion of development will go on forever. I thought in back of mind that as vote creates political value, how could we create economic value of poor in an economic system?

There was an innocent question asked by one of our batch-mates in an informal discussion with his/her friends : What is difference between slums and villages ? Last night rage became reignited inside me.

7th July: Interaction with seniors goes till 4:30 AM. It was boring and unwanted as per my perspective. Four classes mixed with photo schedule make a hectic day for me. The death news of our 2011 batch Arjit Ghosh was quite depressing and there was gloom all around.

8th July: Personality Test is given in the class of Organizational behavior. I am not spontaneous in the nature but too much analysis is paralysis in decision making. I participated but not selected in Brandstorm 2011 (MAXIM);

9th July: Saturday was a relaxing day. There was talk about Acara challenge; Acara Challenge is a social entrepreneurship event.The Acara Challenge is a unique way for the students to get involved in entrepreneurship and sustainable design for social change.

Quote of the Week : In the words of Alexander Pope, "In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity".

Monday, July 4, 2011

3rd Week @ XIMB

3rd Week --- 26th June to 2 July :

A hectic schedule of classes, assignments and projects.

Watched Manthan. A must watch movie for RM students on White Revolution and luckily was available on xsysserver. Movie is based on a story written jointly by Verghese Kurien (the Father of the White Revolution in India) and director Shyam Benegal.

Nandankanan Trip missed.
Election for Cultural Representative takes place.
Gaurish's decision to stay back was a moral boost for me.
Courier arrived finally with all stuffs.
I am liking XIMB now !!!

Thanks to Mriganka Mondal for this beautiful protest song.