Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Convocation @ XIMB

On Monday, March 25, 2013 at 6.00 P.M. we had our 22nd Convocation. Shri Jaspal Singh Bindra, Executive Director and CEO-Asia, Standard Chartered PLC of Standard Chartered Bank Ltd. came as the Chief Guest. I finally convocated from the Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar(XIMB). The degree of rural manager was awarded not only in letters but also in spirit. It will be impossible to say when so many of us will gather at the same place again. May be in upcoming 10- 15 years ! This could not have been achieved without emotional support and confidence by my parents, Prem bhaiya, Chandan, Shreyash, Abhishek and college friends like Gaurish, Gautam, Anshumani, Partha, Abhijeet etc.
As an overpriced assets, we all are out of the walls of the college campus. I suddenly understand why values like humility, sincerity and honesty are more important than qualities like intelligence and achievements. A person's most useful asset is not a head full of knowledge but a heart full of love, with an ear open to listen & a hand willing to care.

In coming times, we will be busy in work and burdened with more loans (namely House, Car & Personal). When a person has the single most important thing in life - choice, then one is empowered. As a student receiving quality education from premier institute, this degree has given me a basket full of alternatives. One has choice either to become brick of the foundation or finished top of the dome. I wanted to be an innovator rather than copy-paste machine. I just like to end by quoting thoughts of two eminent personalities -

"A teaching university would but half perform its function if it does not seek to develop the heart-power of its scholars with the same solicitude with which it develops their brain-power. Hence it is that the proposed university has placed formation of character in youth as one of its principal objects." ~ Mahamana Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya, The Founder of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

"Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt . they can't afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy." ~  Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, historian, political critic, and activist.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 6...

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 6...: 1- In economics, the Dutch disease is a concept that explains the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural res...

Saturday, March 2, 2013

90th Week@XIMB

90th Week@XIMB - 24th February to 2nd March, 2013

24th February - Its not about good grades. Its about surviving the last trimester..!!

25th February - Abhijit Sen Committee was setup once to examine whether and to what extent futures trading has contributed to price rise in agricultural commodities. I couldn’t find the report on any of the government website but found the report on Mint’s website (Draft Report of the Expert Committee on Commodity Futures Trading). There was no evidence to suggest that futures trading stoked inflation.

26th February - The line between recklessness and overconfidence can be difficult to find. I crossed that line in CMD end term paper and find bamboozled by the question paper. That came as an shocking eye opener for the last trimester.

Batch 2011- 2013 at XIMB gets grand farewell with recalling success, achievements and memories over the last two years. People will be missed, but never forgotten.

27th February - Milestone Achieved! XIMB Rural Management Achieves 100% placement for 2011-13 batch today. A fabulous job done by Placement committee. Thanks to Niraj Kumar sir and Jeevan J Arakal sir for their continuous support. Great work done by Krishanu, Darren, Gautam, Rupika, Jisha, Mithilesh, Rahul, Jyoti. Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for your continued success.

28th February - End term exam is going on. I am feeling relieved with end of each paper.

1st March - I didn't submit any assignment of either GID or G&D. That was highest act of insincerity in my academic career at XIMB.

2nd March - Baggage of rural manager has to be kept aside for a new journey ahead. I am ending this daily updates today. It takes years of self-reflection and asking some really uncomfortable questions about yourself, but you do come out of it a better person. That was the purpose of writing about daily learning in the journey of two years.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

89th Week@XIMB

89th Week@XIMB - 17th February to 23rd February, 2013

17th February - Sikkim Trip

18th February - Sikkim Trip

19th February - Sikkim Trip

20th February - All classes were finished till now. I only remember Hobbes quote mentioned in Ethics class - It is a bleak world where there is continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The following seven students of RM II have won the worldwide ACARA Challenge of USA (University of Minnesota). The Teams are: Pure Pots- V Ramesh, Pabitra Nayak- Prize $ 1500 ; Nutricycle- Jyoti Kumar Mainali, Omprakash Singh, Shreyas Bhartiya- Prize $ 1000 ; Community Shops- Amit Verma, Sachin Pethkar- Honorable Mention- (Prize money on Pitching)

21st February - Only one student had completed IRP in a entire batch of 330 students, and that puts his effort in perspective. B Srinivas Rao completed his IRP with full dedication and efforts.

22nd February - This was the last class of CMD where I learnt about futures market in more detail. The recent growth of futures trading has taken place in the backdrop of a long history of ban on forward trading when the perception about these markets was not good. These markets are bound to challenge status quo and adversely impact some interest groups. Whenever futures markets try to grow faster than the under developed physical spot markets of underlying commodities, disconnect between the two gets widened thereby exposing the futures market to the criticism of being driven by speculators, even if closely regulated.

23rd February - From a distance it seems that XIMB-RM is two poles: the potential, educated progressive half; and the self indulgent and bias, backward half. And they are quite dynamic in nature depending on situations ;) But a neanderthal legacy of hullabaloo over civilized and reasoned debates exist in the students.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

88th Week@XIMB

88th Week@XIMB - 10th February to 16th February, 2013

10th February - A person's essential fair-mindedness is perhaps its most striking and skillful feature that can won him over adversaries. That was my assumption until I came at XIMB. Here, the bias decision will win you more friends and build a reputation of caretaker. I hoped that such scenario changes in coming times in vain. The lobbies, peer pressure and affiliation became stronger with each passing day. I read a quote by Warren Buffett that cleared the fog in the mind : "If they don't have integrity, they never will. The chains of habit are sometimes too heavy to be broken."

11th February - George Orwell had said long time back: "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." This holds so true for each batch of engineering or management that I have been part of.

12th February - I read a wonderful statement on Economic inequality in a Journal : (Economic) Inequality materializes the upper class, vulgarizes the middle class and brutalizes the lower class.

13th February - Not in campus.

14th February - Not in campus.

15th February - Not in campus.

16th February - Not in campus.