This article was written by Dr. Prithwis Mukerjee. You can read more of his blogs at http://yantrajaal.blogspot.com

Why do universities exist? At the most abstract level, academic institutions are supported because it is believed that new thoughts and ideas that emerge from them will lead to better standards of life and living in th civil society that funds the creation and sustenance of these institutions. These thoughts and ideas are in the form of new knowledge that is both created and disseminated in an efficient manner and this dual role, namely creation and dissemination, is structured as research and teaching. Hence the faculty of an academic institution is expected to generate new thoughts and ideas through original research and ensure that not only these ideas, but other equally useful ideas generated elsewhere, at other institutions, is communicated to the students in a lucid and interesting manner. Hence a good academician is expected to contribute to research as well as to teaching — plus of course the inevitable overhead of administrating a complex institution so that it can do its primary roles in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

If we leave aside administrative duties, then what distinguishes a good academician from the not-so-good? Obviously we are left with the two other functions: research and teaching, but more often than not, faculty is evaluated — both during new recruitment and during ‘promotion’ — on the quality of research, rarely on the ability to teach. This is a dubious yardstick but even it is not — and I am not admitting that it is not dubious — then the next shadow of doubt is cast by the metrics used to gauge the quality of research: the number of publications in peer reviewed journals. This leaves us with two questions namely (a) Is the number of publications a fair metric for the quality of research? And (b) Should research be the only yardstick for faculty evaluation?

A little thought will reveal that the two questions are independent but let us address the second one first. The obvious answer is that research should not be the only yardstick — Isaac Newton was a terrible communicator while George Gamow and Martin Gardener were wonderful teachers but were not known for any great discovery. [OK, Gamow introduced the idea of a Big Bang ...] The not so obvious answer is that we agree that teaching is important but we do not have a universally acceptable yardstick to measure teaching skills but since we do have one for research quality; let us use that one anyway. But what is this universally acceptable yardstick for research quality? Oh, the number of publications of course! …and that is where the second question folds into the first.

So is the number of publications a reliable measure of the quality of research? Before articulating my answer let me state up front that in a post-graduation career spanning more than a quarter of a century, I have  published three papers in peer-reviewed journals (of which one happens to be “national” one, much to the chagrin of our “international”ists ) Compared to the dozens, if not 70, 80, 150+ papers published by some of my colleagues, this is peanuts but instead of hanging my head in shame I have this intrepid desire to carry out a thought experiment.

Let me create a magic broom with which I can sweep away (or expunge) any peer-reviewed academic paper from all repositories on this planet and then see what happens when I use this broom. It is my conjecture (if not my firm belief) that if I were to sweep away 75% of all papers published till date, the world will not know the difference! Raise that figure to 90% and the world will be slightly worse off. Raise that to 99% and the world will be significantly poorer and of course if we go to 100% then civilisation as we know it will obviously collapse into depths of misery and despair. So it is not that publications are pointless — but the vast majority is! But then, why this proliferation of trash?

The answer is of course obvious to anyone in academia — people publish because it is the only currency that we have to purchase recognition. It is the only currency that is freely convertible to permanent faculty positions and since all of us need a stable income (and by extension, a stable lifestyle) that is the currency that we need to earn and hoard.

Or do we? For a beggar on the road, a rupee is very valuable but for a millionaire an extra rupee or two is hardly of any significance. It has no impact on the quality of his life. So could be the case for someone who has reached the peak in academics — which incidentally is not too high, since you cannot go beyond being a professor in any case. Once you have climbed onto the high tabletop of the academic plateau and you have no inclination to seek another job elsewhere, then earning anything more in the currency of peer-reviewed publications is of minimal or marginal economic value.

One could of course argue that economic value is not the only value that one should be concerned with. In Maslow’s hierarchy, the need to be recognised by one’s peers is the one that comes after one has been able to satisfy one’s basic economic needs and publishing papers fulfils that need — to be able to pin medals on one’s chest. But are these medals like the Param Vir Chakra? Or trinkets like the Padma Bhushan?

Going back to my theory of 75% trash, the vast majority of papers fall into the trinket category…. created, not through the art of real “oil-on-canvas” research but, through the craft of “patched-collage” work. Publishing papers is now more of a craft where one has to meticulously read through legions of past papers, find one small niche that everyone has somehow overlooked and plug it with great hype, hoopla and fanfare — and if you can form a cartel of mutual “admirers” who will refer to each other’s papers with circular citations, then your citation index can be driven up as well. Another analogy would be to compare publications to locating and repairing potholes on an existing road while leaving the great task of building that new road through the mountains to that 1% of the publishing population.

But if publications are really all that worthless then (a) why do universitities continue to use them for evaluation and (b) why do people who do not need publications continue to seek them? The answer to both questions is that they know of no other way!  Great research — the result of that blinding flash of intuition or insight — is rare after the age of 30 and this means that most of the papers that fall in the essential 1% category would have been among the authors first few papers. After that art gives way to craft and professors who really do not need to publish any more trash find themselves increasingly incapable of doing anything else — they are trapped in a zone of comfort. And a lot of that comfort comes from the legions of apprentices — research scholars and junior faculty — who are now available to carry on with the craft of assembling papers and the luxury of being to able to append your name to the product of someone else’s craftsmanship. This then is the nursery from where a doyen of academia generates his brood of 50,60,100 papers.

Moreover it is this same doyen who, freed from the need to think about anything original, is now responsible for the administration in the university — perhaps as the head of the department or involved with the recruitment or promotion of other faculty members. Can he think of any criterion other than the number of publications? Unlikely …  and that answers the first question and explains a university’s addiction to the publications as a yardstick to measure the quality of research.

So is there an alternative?

As a late entrant to academia, my external, industrial perspective tells me that there is a world of innovation that exists outside the closed of peer-reviewed journals. As a computer programmer, I have come across many new and exciting things, not in journals but on the web and and only a  handful of these things can track back to journal. In fact the Communications of the ACM, the premier society of Computer Scientists, tracks only a handful of papers in its vast digital archives and this is what most of us read anyway. On the flip side some of the most interesting and useful things that I have done would never ever be published in any journal but nevertheless they have been appreciated and praised by clients, friends, acquaintances and peers.  Traditional academics may be reluctant to classify what happens in this world as  research but  if we were to go back to the definition of the term in the first paragraph of this essay —   as the fountainhead of  thoughts and ideas that lead to better standards of life and living  – then the reluctance is neither defensible nor acceptable ! Honestly speaking, the excitement of working with new and innovative ideas — without the claustrophobic constraint of having to have your work formally approved by anonymous peers of dubious competence and capability — is exhilaration by itself.

But you can feel this rush of adrenaline if and only if you have transgressed the need to be appreciated by your peers and reached that next level of Maslow — where you yourself is your own motivation to push into areas that you think are worthy of your interest. If your peers — and the little journals that they fret and preen over — do not care about your thoughts and ideas, then sorry,  it is their problem, not yours !!

This then is the level at which a senior academician — and hopefully juniors too, in the future — should be in when he engages in research but to honestly be in this state he must guard against two major temptations : the temptation to be arrogant and dismissive of others and the temptation of sinking into intellectual lethargy and stupor. Then and only then can he ignores the species of panthera tigris papyrii — paper tigers — and tell them on their face that their grapes are indeed sour.

ONCE the written tests from B-schools such as CAT, MAT, XAT etc, are done with, it’s time to turn your attention to the next phase of the selection process – the Group Discussion (popularly called the GD).

In several years of my association as a facilitator, moderator and judge for GDs, I have seen some perfectly good and capable students falter at this stage. While we can choose to blame the environment or even question the very validity of this tool, the fact remains that GDs are part of your life for the next few years at least and you need to be good at them to get into the institutes and organisations of your choice.

Let’s make an attempt to demystify the GD from two perspectives: one, what do institutes look for in GDs, and two, how do you prepare yourself to improve your performance in GDs. We will also bust some myths that this animal has picked up over the years.

A typical GD comprises eight to 12 participants engaging in a discussion on an assigned topic or case study for a period of 10-20 minutes. You will be assessed on your performance, both as an individual and a team contributor. From an individual contributor’s point of view, you have to excel in both content (the points you make during the GD), and form (the manner in which you present your views).

Team spirit
As an effective team player you would have a ‘connect’ with and acceptability by the other members of the group, you will listen to and understand others’ points of view, contribute to the discussion with your own points and conduct yourself with grace in a group situation. Attributes like knowledge, analytical ability, assertiveness (but not aggression), clarity of thought and expression and decision-making ability play critical roles in enabling a superior performance in a GD.

So how does one prepare for GDs – can one prepare at all? The answer is a thundering ‘Yes’.

Three components
I would divide this task into three components:

• Improving your comfort level in English

• Improving your levels of awareness of the environment around you.

• Understanding and working on your behaviour in a group situation.

Mastering the language
English will remain the medium of transaction throughout your working life – so a level of comfort in English is critical not just for success in GD but also for career success. Address the four components of the ‘practice’ of English – listen, read, speak and write.

Listen to people who speak well – the objective is to get used to the ‘sound’ of good English.
Reading is, sadly, a vanishing pursuit in our country – nothing can substitute the learning that reading affords. Develop a culture of reading – this will further strengthen your relationship with the ‘sound’ of good English.

The only way to get better at speaking in English is to speak more of it – especially in groups and formal situations. Make sure you speak ‘correct’ English even in informal gatherings. Remember, practice of correct English is habit forming (and so, unfortunately, is the practice of bad English).

This habit should also extend to any writing that you may do – an article, an essay or an e-mail. If you follow this four-fold path, slowly but surely your familiarity with and hence confidence in English will improve.

Content is king
The quality of your content will depend on knowledge levels, an attitude of enquiry and debate and the ability to think on your feet. Be a well-informed person – read newspapers and magazines and understand the dynamics of the industry, the society and the polity. Support your assertions with valid arguments and data wherever possible.

Most topics don’t have easy answers– you should attempt to bring in new perspectives to the discussion and not get sucked into this practice of just supporting or countering the topic or simply trying to prove others wrong. I call them passengers – people who go through GDs with a combination of ‘I agree with you’ and ‘I don’t agree with you.’ Good to know whom you agree with – but is that all you have to say?

Presentation, equally important
Form comprises structure, word selection and delivery – learn to structure your inputs in a manner that makes it easy for others to understand you. Talk slowly, but like a bullet rather than a paragraph. Indians tend to talk too fast; we are also verbose. No wonder then that an audience, clearly keen to make its own mark, passes our comments by. Also, use ‘soft’ words when you are countering someone’s point of view – a polite suggestion is much more effective than a rude rejoinder.

Use phrases like ‘we could’ rather than ‘we should’ – for example, ‘we could look at some other aspects of the topic’ is a suggestion – it would get you a ready audience; ‘we should look at some other aspects of the topic’ is prescriptive and the natural reaction will be – who are you to tell us what we should do? Words like ‘concern’ go down much better with the group than words like ‘problem.’ ‘I feel we are digressing’ has a whole different flavour than ‘I feel you are digressing’ – the first is an admission, the second an accusation. These small things make a huge difference to your acceptability within the group and hence your performance. Your work at improving your English should pay off here – enabling you to use the right words.

Listening, a must
Behaviour in a group spans concepts like giving space to others, listening to them, learning not to interrupt abruptly, treating peers with respect, appreciating opposing points of view – at the same time remaining competitive. Learn to listen attentively, and learn to live with differences – the whole beauty of a discussion is that people think differently and there are no clear rights and wrongs. How does – ‘I have another perspective on this’ sound instead of the usual ‘you are wrong?’

So how do you know if you performed well in a GD? The best measure is the quality of response you get from the rest of the group – did the other members listen to you when you spoke – did your inputs give a new direction to the discussion – did some of your peers address you while speaking and look for your support? If the answer to some of these questions is ‘Yes’, you did a good job. This also explains the real reason behind the universal crib – “I contributed good points but no one listened to me.” If the points were really good and presented well, people would have definitely listened. So, as is the case in most things in life, you yourself are in charge of your destiny.

Work on your English, increase your levels of knowledge and awareness, assess and improve your group behaviour. You will start looking forward to participating in GDs.

With an obsession with placements, Business schools in India — IIMs not excluded – have degenerated into thinly disguised placement agencies or at best glorified vocational schools. The compartmentalisation of B-school curriculum into the four principal management functions, namely Finance, Marketing, Human Resources and Systems and Operations reflects this mindset. These are the four principal kinds of tasks that a manager is expected to perform and B-schools pat themselves on the back if they can teach these four skills to the satisfaction of the recruiting companies. [Though in reality, companies that hire from B-Schools do not seem to care for even this skill ...] Unfortunately, this puts B-schools in the category of vocational schools or V-schools.

If we draw an analogy with engineering schools, this approach would mean that students are taught workshop practice — chipping, fitting, foundry, welding — assembling circuit boards or laying out wires for electrical circuits! But an engineering school teaches much more! From mechanics, through thermodynamics, control systems, logic gates all the way up to engineering mathematics and algorithms. This is the kind of knowledge that separates an engineer from a technician and by extension the kind of approach that separates an IIT from an ITI!!
So if we wish to move from an ITI to an IIT, a V-School to a B-School, what is it that that should be on the curriculum? One approach would be replacing the current four areas with four other more fundamental ones: Leadership, Mathematics, Psychology and Technology.

But before we adopt this approach we need to understand how these four things map into and support the more traditional areas. To do so, let us dig deeper into what is meant by these four areas.

Leadership in the context of B-schools consists of Entrepreneurship — which could be traditional entrepreneurship as in setting up new businesses but should also extend to entrepreneurship within a firm, or intrapreneurship, where each business unit operates on its own risk-reward model. However this entrepreneurship should be tempered with Ethical behaviour and a strong focus on Equity — that ensures that the rights of all stakeholders are adequately protected. So Leadership can be defined in terms of Ethics, Equity and Entrepreneurship.
Managing a business calls for both analytical – left brain, and emotional – right brain, skills. That is why managers are expected to have both IQ as well as EQ. Mathematics in general, represents the core analytical ability and in a B-school context can be translated into modelling techniques that apply to financial models, optimisation models that lead to operational efficiency and models that apply to marketing and sales. On the right brain side, where one has to deal with human beings, the core skill is Psychology that can be used to understand Consumer Behaviour, Organisational ( and employee ) Behaviour and of helps us to understand the laws that lead to the resolution of disputes.
But in today’s business environment, the biggest driver is the development and deployment of new technology. What are the key technologies that a B-school should focus on? Ever since the discovery of fire, Energy is recognised as the key to growth. Food security and health issues force us to focus on the Life Sciences in general and Bio science and bio engineering in particular and Habitat requirements lead us to seek breakthroughs in Materials and Manufacturing. The last, but not the least, that ties all this together is Communication and Collaboration technology that has traditionally been referred to as Information Systems.

This sixteen areas (a) Leadership, Ethics, Equity, Entrepreneurship (b) Mathematical Modelling, Financial Models, Operational and Optimisation Models, Marketing Models (c) Psychology, Consumer Behaviour, Organisational Behaviour, Dispute Resolution and (d) Communication and Collaboration, Life Sciences, Materials & Manufacturing and Energy could represent the core set of knowledge that any Manager ( as opposed to a supervisor ) should possess or build upon. With this model, it is not at all difficult to accommodate all the four traditional disciplines, namely Finance, Marketing, HR and Operations, quite easily within one or more of these sixteen areas.
Interestingly enough, these 16 areas can be grouped into a traditional Magic Quadrant where the left half represents left brain activities and right half represents right brain activities and as we move from bottom to top we move from specific topics to more general ones.

A typical B-School curriculum consists of 32 courses spread across 4 semesters. 16 of these courses could come from these areas while the other 16 could be distributed across specific electives that delve deeper into one or more of these areas.
In an era when a B-school is judged on the basis of its Industry interface and in its ability to turn our “industry ready” managers, this model may be questioned and criticised on being too theoretical and divorced from what the industry needs. However let us understand that just as industry needs both engineers and technicians for engineering functions, it also needs supervisors and managers for business functions. IITs provide engineers, ITIs provide technicians. Similarly high end B-schools should build Managers who can provide leadership in thought and action — not supervisors who know how to calculate loan EMIs.

Anybody who has visited a government office in India would of course attribute this delay to competence or corruption. More often than not, a little bit of speed money — the chaipani — has a magical effect and most red tape disappears. On the other hand, we do know that the best and brightest in the land are hesitant to join the government and so there does exist a certain lack of competence in administrative matters.

But let us be charitable for a while and assume that our bureaucrats are indeed competent and NOT corrupt : in that case should red tape not disappear from our lexicon ? But it does not and will not .. and here is why !

You ask a sarkari babu to buy a computer for his office and he ( or she ) will get tied up in knots ! Committees will be formed, specifications will be drawn up, tenders will be issued, evaluation committees will be set up, contracts will be “negotiated” ( OK, in this case without kickbacks), purchase orders will be issued, AMC contracts will be discussed and then — and only then — a single machine will arrive in the office — the process will take not less than a month but more often than not three months.

But when the same sarkari babu sends his son to college and the son wants a computer, how long do you think the process will take ? Perhaps a day to check with a more knowledgeable colleague and then another day to make the purchase — at most three days !

Why is there so much difference in these two cases ? In the second case both the AUTHORITY and the RESPONSIBILITY of buying the computer lies with the same person but in the first case, it lies with two different persons ( or different organisations)

This separation of responsibility and authority is the root cause of all bureaucratic delays in the government. The police are responsible for maintaining law and order but the authority to sanction the money lies with someone else. The PWD is responsible for repairing roads but authority lies somewhere else. And it is not just financial authority ( though that is the most important one). The authority to issue a formal circular ( to clarify some obscure point of view ) does not generally lie with the person who is supposed to act upon that obscure point of view.

Separation of responsibility and authority is not a bane for only the sarkari bureaucrat. Employees of private companies have to go through the same process but the delay and level of pain is less because in many cases the source of authority and the agent of responsibility is organisationally closer and in many cases the two entities merge into one office : a manager who is responsible for sales is also empowered with the authority to spend money.

So the separation between authority and responsibility is less and in many cases, it does not exist. Why is it so in private companies but not so in the bureaucratic bowels of the sarkar bahadur ? The answer lies in the third element of the ART of Red Tape : TRUST.

Owners of private companies — as reflected in Boards — have a level of TRUST in the their managers but the owners of the country — as reflected in legislature — do not trust the administrators. It is almost as if it is a self evident truth — an axiom — that a government servant cannot be trusted to do anything. You need to have a complex system of checks and balances — the Vigilance Department, the CAG, the CBI — to keep an eye on each other.

Authority, Responsibility and Trust — unless we as a society can come to grips with these three factors and work out a way to harmonise their relationship, bureaucratic delays will continue and we will be left admiring the ART of Red Tape.

My visit to Gram Vikas at a small town in Ganjam district called Mohuda turned out to be one that left me yearning for a next visit. The serenity, the woods, the small town hospitality were all in place. To speak about Gram Vikas, it was an NGO founded by Joe Madiath in 1979 when he and a handful of his friends came to Orissa in 1971 following the cyclone which ravaged it and Bengal. Through Gram Vikas, Joe aims to reach the impoverished villages of one of the poorest states in India, Orissa and provide facilities that even the government sometimes does not deign to provide. While travelling through rural pockets of Orissa, Joe noticed an otherwise normal rural India phenomenon, villagers defaecating in the open, by the roadside. The government, under various ‘schemes’ for them, constructed toilets which were on inspection, nothing but a hole in the ground. Like Joe says, it is as though the government feels that poor people deserve poor quality. Through a water and sanitation focus, they aim to provide clean, fresh water for use by entire villages. He sought to deflate the concept of construction being the ambit of engineers. Furthermore, village folk consider it quite all right to bathe in a common pond and bathe animals in it as well. Gram Vikas took initiatives towards these ends as well.

A brainchild of Joe Madiath, the programme has a very simplistic approach to empowering villages and village folk. Gram Vikas aims to provide clean water to every home through three taps, one each in the bathroom, toilet and kitchen. When taking up a village for sanitation, they insist on 100% involvement of the residents. That is to say that every household must have agreed to the initiative and the construction would be done by the villagers. An average of Rs. 1000 is collected from every household, each to his capacity. To this end, Gram Vikas provides the cement, pan, door and steel. An overhead tank is constructed along with wells and bore-wells. This way, even the village youth is taught masonry and can earn a livelihood. A bathroom and a toilet are constructed for each house then using labour from the village itself. Furthermore, pumps are installed for each village as per requirement. In those villages with electricity, pumps are fitted for filling the overhead tanks whereas the villages which are still impoverished of electricity, the tanks are equipped with water drawn using the principle of gravitational flow.

Providing water and sanitation is not the only way this initiative has helped the villages. Self-help groups of women are formed for managing finances for household expenses. One of the main grouses of women across villages was that the men folk would waste all the hard-earned money in alcohol and illicit liquor. After Gram Vikas came in, it was a necessary condition put down that alcohol is banned from the village as a whole. Though it faced more than a fair share of resistance from men, this step actually worked and has made a lot of villages alcohol-free. Women still express their gratitude to Joe for this.

Gram Vikas has also installed more than 55000 biogas plants in villages across Orissa to help meet fuel needs. More than 128 villages have been touched by Gram Vikas in a span of 30 years. When one spark strikes a leaf, it sooner or later creates a forest fire. So did it happen with Orissa. The prosperity of one village had neighbouring ones enquiring about what brought about such drastic transformation in the village. And so the story of Gram Vikas spread.

A Gandhian by philosophy, Joe Madiath feels that this is one small way in which he can assist in making the villages of India self-sufficient and empowered. In his youth itself, he was notorious for rallying his plantation workers against the poor way they were treated by his family. It earned him a seat in boarding school but did not kill the kindred spirit within. Working for the people of Orissa, according to Joe gives him a sense of peace and feeling that he has been able to help the world in a small but meaningful way.

In the past few years, the work of Gram Vikas has been touching one village after another across the land of Kalinga. Though in India, not many people are aware of this low profile yet high-powered organization, nor of Joe himself, Gram Vikas has created waves in the world of community service across continents. The Kyoto World Water Grand Prize and the Skoll Award for Social Entrpreneurship have been awarded to Joe Madiath, the face of Gram Vikas. Organizations from various countries have approached gram Vikas for assistance in similar efforts in their community. Even some states in India have looked to Joe for help in their villages, to replicate the Gram Vikas model for water and sanitation requirements.

I believe that this is an achievement which has received less recognition than its work deserves by far. Transformation of villages is not left at the hands of a government which already has enough on its platter. If a few Indians like Joe cropped up in different parts of the country, it would definitely add up to a mighty story of self-reliance, independence and dignity in people who thought that the government is their sole “maai-baap”. The smiles on the faces of villagers in Ganjam district are a certificate to this achievement.

This post appeared in the blogsite strat.in and has been voted as one of the best blog entries in the Incredible Indians contest.

Know more by visiting : http://strat.in/incredible-indians-contest/

This entry has been  made by Uma Balakrishnan. “I’m a student by qualification and an answer-seeker by choice  (of course, the two need not be related!) I am pursuing my MBA in Praxis Business School, Kolkata where I have my fingers in the pies of the Strategy, Marketing and Quiz clubs, apart from being the co-editor of the college newsletter.

I don’t think I’m out on a mission to “Save the Earth” or bring world peace to fruition, but yes, there must be something I can do which makes Life worth living. Well, I love travelling and meeting people from different places because it has given me the opportunity to meet interesting people and unearth fascinating perspectives. Books and music make up a major part of my leisurely occupations. Ayn Rand and Jeffrey Archer are what I find riveting (though Atlas Shrugged is taking me more time than warranted to complete!). I also enjoy penning down things that touch a chord in me, most of it being poetry.”

“Think Big, Think Fast And Think Ahead.

Ideas are no one’s monopoly”.

The above lines said by Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani say a lot about his personality. On 28th December 1932 a child was born at Kukaswada near Chorwad, Junagadh (now the state of Gujarat, India) as the second son of a school teacher with modest means. Inspite of being born in a modest family the boy was far ahead in his thinking and was very keen to make it big in life. His rebellious nature of challenging the accepted, ability to dream big and a huge appetite to take risks weren’t appreciated by his conservative father. There are many young men out there who face the same problem when they want to do something more meaningful in life and most of the time they have to surrender to their family and relatives pressure. This boy was different as he was loaded with confidence and wasn’t the kind who would give up easily. Right from the childhood he showed his knack for entrepreneurship by undertaking small business activities and making money out of them.

When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked with A. Besse & Co. for a salary of Rs.300. Two years later, A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s filling station at the port of Aden. Satisfaction word did not exist in his dictionary as he always wanted to move to the next level. Apart from that, there was an inner drive and a huge ambition to make it big in the world of business. As a petrol pump attendant he used to bet in the commodity market and make some extra money. This shows that he was a known risk-taker. He was street smart and was gifted with an innate wisdom. During one incidence, he found out that the intrinsic value of the silver is more than the face value of the coins being circulated by the government in Yemen. He immediately started accumulating those coins and got them melted and sold the metal in the bullion markets. This shows how shrewd he was as a person.

What was most admiring about him was his belief in the power of dreams and the magic of thinking big. He remained an advocate of this power all through his life. How many petrol pump attendants can dream of creating an oil and gas empire? This message is very appropriate for the people in a developing country like India. People should get out of their comfort zones and should push themselves harder in order to achieve more. This is the way societies have progressed in the west. He was very candid and was always open to ideas and suggestions. He was also a very helpful person and followed an ‘open-door’ policy. Employees could walk into his cabin and discuss their problems with him. His people skills were legendary. He had a special way of dealing with different groups of people, be they employees, shareholders, journalists or government officials. Success in life is not related to formal education and fat degrees alone. He did not study after matriculation yet he achieved so much success. This is because he learnt from his experiences in life and made sure this is passed on to his next generation also.

Indian has achieved a lot from his contributions and achievements. Today, Reliance is the largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. Look at the amount of wealth which the Reliance Group (ADAG included) has created for the country. Look at the amount of employment opportunities (direct as well as indirect) which the Reliance Group has created for our countrymen. Look at the small and medium businesses which are directly or indirectly related to the Reliance Group for their livelihood. If today, Reliance decides to go for a new project than look at the amount of business opportunities and demand that single project will create for other goods and services. This is the way wealth trickles down in an economy because of the multiplier effect. If Dhirubhai made money he also created opportunities for thousand others to grow along with him. Look at the amount of returns Reliance Group has consistently given to its shareholders. In fact, the whole idea of creating value for shareholders was pioneered by Dhirubhai Ambani in the Indian stock markets. That’s why he is known as the father of ‘The Indian Stock Market’. There are many families in our country (particularly in Gujarat) that made enough money just by investing in Reliance shares to get their daughters married and buy houses for themselves. This is the reason why Reliance is favourite scrip among most of the investors today. Dhirubhai has created an institution which has outlived him and will remain so for years to come. It was the conviction of Dhirubhai which has led to Reliance discovering huge gas deposits in the K-G Basin which will satisfy a lot of energy needs of our country. It would save around $20 Billion of the foreign exchange outflow from our country annually. Both his sons Mukesh and Anil have grown their businesses manifold and are carrying his legacy forward to the best of their abilities. Today, Reliance is a force to reckon with not only in our country but on a global scale. It has been only possible because Dhirubhai always use to benchmark his company with the global standards.

He was a person with a lot of compassion for the society. He was involved in a lot of philanthropic activities without being boastful about it. Unlike, other businessmen he did not believe in creating news about his charity work. These are the traits which makes him truly great. Lot of people achieve success in life but very few of them can carry it off with humility. It is extremely difficult to achieve so much in life and still be connected to your roots and remain humble.

A person may argue that he was involved in a lot of unethical business practices. I have a different take on that. He was an opportunist and he made sure that he exploited every loophole to his advantage. Even Lord Krishna has done the same thing in order to win the battle of Mahabharata for the Pandavas. During his time, it was so difficult to do business in India, yet he converted adversities into opportunities. Now, that is the quality one attaches to an optimist. He was a leader who had this unique ability to inspire people around him so that they move forward with a lot of zeal and positive energy. A leader can make the people around him aware about the things which they haven’t thought about themselves. The gleam and passion in his eyes and body language use to have a magnetic effect on people around him.

I feel he is one of the greatest entrepreneurs which this world has ever seen and the various awards and recognitions at the global level is a proof of that. Even if our country has 10 such Dhirubhais we could grow at a much faster rate and achieve our goal of a developed nation at a much quicker pace. Dhirubhai Ambani seems destined to be remembered as a folk hero—an example of what a man from one of India’s poor villages can accomplish with non-shrink ambition.

“Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance and for India.” – Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani

This post appeared in the blogsite strat.in and has been voted as one of the best blog entries in the Incredible Indians contest.

Mr Kapil Sibal,
Minister for Human Resources Development
Government of India

Dear Sir, Mr Sibal

Sub : Simplifying & De-stressing Secondary Education

Your thoughts on the abolition of Class X examinations and the introduction of a single nationwide Class XII examination are like the winds of change that should blow away the cobwebs from  the  stultifying and claustrophobic classrooms to which we in India have condemned our children. You would of course know that in the United States, a similar system is in place with students – if they wish to join college – having to take only the SAT examination.

Our Class X examinations serve no purpose but to allow students to enter Class XI. Our Class XII examinations are no better – they merely serve as entry portals to colleges and in the case of engineering colleges, even this nominal and residual value is ignored because every college has its own entrance examination – nobody trusts the Class XII results. So no tears should be shed if these two examinations are consigned to the dustbins of history !

But there are powerful vested interests at work who would like to see these examinations retained. The various boards – ICSE, State Boards of Secondary and Higher Education – that owe their existence, salaries, perquisites, power and position to the existence of these examinations will fight tooth and nail to retain them and since education is a state subject it will not take too much of an effort for the states – particularly the communist ruled states – to block this initiative politically.

So is there a way to go ahead with these excellent proposals in the face of political opposition from the states ?   Yes, if  — in my humble opinion – we consider the following steps :

1. We note that the the CBSE and the centrally funded institutions of higher learning ( IITs, NITs etc ) fall under the jurisdiction of the central government and any changes to their operations need not have the explicit concurrence of any other entity or political constituency.
2. The Class X CBSE examination can be abolished and the Class XII CBSE examination should be thrown open to all students – irrespective of the affiliation of their school. So students in non CBSE schools can continue to write their own examination but in addition can be optionally asked to write the CBSE XII.  But why would they ?
3. The motivation to write the optional CBSE XII examination would be that its scores will be used for admission to the the centrally funded institutions of higher learning because the IITJEE and the AIEEE would be abolished ! So in one shot the CBSE XII examination becomes the de-facto single Class XII examination in the country .. and this can be achieved irrespective of whether the state governments agree to this or not.
4. If all centrally funded institutions ( including non engineering colleges like JNU, Vishwabharati etc ) converge to this single examination then the logistics could prove challenging – the number of students may reach a crore ! So instead of having the examination just once a year, it may be offered once every two months and a student should be allowed to sit for it as many times as he or she wants – provided that the last attempt should be within 12 months before entry to college. Thus the validity of the score would be 12 months. By spreading the examination over a year and allowing multiple attempts, the stress level associated with the examination will go down significantly. Children will be happy !
5. Since we have multiple instances of the CBSE XII examination and population that is taking the examination is different, marks and ranks are irrelevant. Instead percentile scores – based on the marks scored by all students who have taken the examination over the past two or three years – should be calculated and all admission decisions should be based on these percentiles. But given the diversity of institutions that will be using the score there should be separate percentiles for Physics-Chemistry-Maths, History-Geography-Civics, English and local language.

State boards can continue with their traditional Class X and Class XII examination which will act as feeders to local colleges but over a period of time the state examinations will become irrelevant – students will gradually lose interest because their result will be of interest to a very limited number of local colleges. The popularity of  optional CBSE XII will be high because (a) that is the only route to join the popular central institutions and (b) there will be no schedule conflicts and students can take the examination at their convenience.

If the CBSE XII examination can be conducted with adequate care and diligence, new private colleges and universities – that should get created under the Governments higher education policy – and even local colleges in progressive states will inevitably gravitate towards the same.

Hence we would have achieved our aim of abolishing Class X examinations and having a single Class XII examination without too much struggle and effort on the political front.

What is Cloud Computing ?

Cloud Computing is less about any particular technology and more about how we use technology to reduce costs and improve efficiency. In Cloud Computing you move your data – and the programs that operate on this data – from private machines – desktop PCs or corporate servers – to machines owned by vendors.

How does this help ?

It reduces cost – both capital and operating, through economies of scale. It is like replacing the electricity generator in your home by plugging into the electricity supply : the cost and nuisance value of generating power at home is far more than having it supplied from a central utility. When a vendor supports a hundred customers with his bank of servers and support staff the cost to each individual customer goes down.

An intriguing concept, but does it work ?

Many of us are already using Cloud Computing without being aware of it. When you host a website or use Gmail or Hotmail you are using a server that is owned and operated by a vendor and your data – your web pages or your precious email – is resident on the vendors’ machines. Your data is somewhere in the internet “cloud” !

Then what is this new hype and buzz about Cloud Computing ?

Websites and email are “new age”, internet applications – not in the same league as traditional personal productivity tools – word processors, spreadsheets – or business applications like Order Management or Customer Relationship Management. The current buzz is because of the possibility of migrating these traditional applications from private machines to the shared machines offered by vendors.

How do you actually do this ?

Consider Google Docs – as an alternative to Microsoft Office. On the Google Docs website the browser will show a screen that is very similar to that in a traditional word processor or spreadsheet. You can create and edit documents or populate a spreadsheet with data and formulae but when you finally save your data … it goes and sits, not on your hard disk but on the Google servers – and you can access this data later from any other machine that is connected to the internet.

What about business applications ?

If you have an ERP server you can of course have it located on vendor premises but you could also build your own applications and have it hosted on the web.

Does it mean learning new technology ?

Not really. My students – both in Praxis and at IIT, Kharagpur – have been building and deploying fairly complex applications on the web using the Zoho platform that looks like a combination of Visual Basic and MS Access – except that it is free and resides entirely on the Zoho website. There is nothing to purchase, download or install.

Can this be used to build really complex applications ?

Depending on your skill you can build complex applications either on Zoho or on the Google Apps Engine but quite a few applications in HR, CRM and Finance are available off the shelf.

What if I cannot access the internet ?

That is like power outage – a risk that one has to live with but with wireless broadband becoming available this risk is diminishing everyday.

Is it safe to put company data on third party servers ?

Is it safe to put your money in the bank ? It is – if the bank has a good reputation. So is the case here. One must choose a reliable vendor and more importantly one must make sure that the data is not getting locked into any proprietary format. As long as the data is in an SQL compliant database, then you always have the option of unloading your data and using it elsewhere.

Who are the good vendors ?

Almost every vendor offers a service in this area but the two that I encourage my students to try out – because there is no cost involved – is Zoho and Google. In fact, in my new book I have shown how a non-programmer can build and deploy a Zoho application in less than 60 minutes.

What is this book all about ?

“Business Information Systems” is based on my lectures at Praxis and IIT Kharagpur. Both students and managers will find this book useful not only for traditional topics like RDBMS and Object Oriented Programming but for many new age concepts like Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing.

Where do you get these unusual ideas ?

I am engineer by education, a programmer by passion and an imagineer by intention … and my subscription to Slashdot keeps me abreast of what is happening in the world of computers.

Dr Prithwis Mukerjee teaches Systems Engineering at the Praxis Business School, Calcutta and at IIT, Kharagpur. You can read about his new book “Business Information Systems” at http://bis.yantrajaal.com

But political refugees and economic refugees are now old news … The latest development in field of human misery and migration is that of the environmental refugee — that is those who have to leave home and hearth becaus home and hearth is not habitable anymore.

In the past we have had many environmental disasters and some of them have been pretty gruesome : Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdex and what not, but these were “incidents” or “accidents” that affected a large number of people over a period of time. What is now looming over the horizon is a more systematic attack on a way of life and the culprit is “mother nature” itself … in the form of global warming.

We have all heard of global warming .. how the glaciers are melting, how the arctic ice cap is shrinking and how the sea water is rising but Cyclone Aila — that struck the Sunderbans in June — has made it so very real for us in Calcutta.

How and why ?

Because we now see more and people leaving the Sunderbans to come and start camping in our southern suburbs like Sonarpur and Gosaba. These are people who are realising that there is no future left in the Sunderbans. The embankments are being washed away, fresh water wells are being submerged in brine and paddy fields are turing salty … and what is worse is that the process is irreversible. With each passing day, the water will rise higher .. more embankments will be washed away, fewer and fewer sources of fresh water will be available and cultivable land will diminish.

So why stay anymore ? It is not as if these people are leaving because of political or economic pressures but because the land is becoming inhospitable.

These are the refugees of the 21st century, the environmental refugees.

At its minimum, a company must adhere to the conditions of the Companies Act and register itself with the Registrar of Companies. We note that the RoC does not really approve or reject the application on the basis of the quality of the companies products or that of its promoters. All that the RoC ensures is that the company meets certain basic disclosure norms in terms of ownership and financial issues. The focus is on accurate disclosure — or transparency — not on the actual facts and figures that are being disclosed.

As the company gets bigger and needs access to more funds, it seeks listing in a stock exchange. A stock exchange is not a monopoly government organisation — it is run by its members as per rules that dictate a certain minimum level of financial competence and ensures a far more rigorous level of financial and administrative transparency. Once again, the focus is on transparency of the organisation, not on the quality of products or services offered. A stock exchange has two interesting aspects : first there can be more than one stock exchange, so there is no threat of a monopoly and second they are supervised by SEBI to ensure compliance with the laws of the land.

However the stock exchanges do not provide financial support to any company. That is done by individual investors in the capital market based on their personal or institutional perception of the company’s performance.

So the three components of financial sector are (a) Registrar of Companies and the Companies Act (b) Listing in the Stock Exchange under SEBI supervision and (c) Funds from the Capital Markets. For foreign companies wanting to do business there is the fourth agency — FIPB that has a wider mandate of protecting India’s strategic interests.

Let us now map these components into the Education sector.

First the role of the Registrar of Companies can be performed very well by the AICTE — provided we remove its authority to approve or accredit institutions. This authority used with malafide intentions has been the bane of education in India because it has kept out the best and allowed in the worst operators. The powers of the AICTE should be restrictively defined in a new Education Act and should be modelled on that of the RoC.

Any institution registered with the AICTE should be allowed to offer any educational services subject to the Consumer Protection legislation in the country. Consumers in India are quite conscious of their rights and if they have the choice — as they now have in telecom or air travel, not to mention on soaps, shampoos or cars — there is no fear that educational service providers will be able to cheat them. Let us have some respect for the Indian customer.

But if an institute wants to move into the next, higher league, we need a self-managed organisation like the industry association that will ensure discipline and transparency in its members. One or two leading institutes — some from the government sector like IIT, IIM and some from the private sector like BITS, ISB — can take the initiative to form these associations. Initially this might lead to multiple organisation — like multiple stock exchanges — but in the long run, through a natural process we might end up with two or three, similar to the BSE/NSE model that we have today. These associations would ensure transparency and consistency in the behaviour of its members and could be supervised by a government body like the AICTE. Institutes accredited through these associations would be ranked higher in the perception of students — who are the customers of educational services.

Finally funds ! And this is where both the government and private organisations must step in with generous support — but we must use a market driven approach. Both the government and the private sector should set up multiple funding organisations each with its own goals and objectives. The UGC is an obvious candidate but the Department of Space could provide separate funding for programs leading to astrophysics and the Department of Minority Affairs could have a separate funding for Muslims. Similarly Tata Steel could fund institutes operating within 50 kms of Jamshedpur and an NRI in California could fund institutions in his native Bankura district — to each his own !

Whatever may be the source and intent for funds we need transparency on two fronts (a) the criteria for funding and (b) the actual distribution of funds in each year. Each funding agency could have its own criteria publicly available and any “registered” institute can in principle apply for funding provided it meets the requirements of the funding agencies. Agencies would distribute funds to eligible institutes based on their perception of how “good” the institute is — in terms of how published criteria. This is where metrics like “student-teacher ratio”, “placements”, adherence to social goals in terms of gender and caste equity, quality of research, patents can be introduced. All funding agencies may not have the same set of criteria — each should have the liberty to specify its requirements and institutes will have to compete for funds.

Some of the funding may be automatic and statutory – for example HRD funds to IITs and IIMs – while others may be discretionary based on the extent to which an institute meets the criteria. However all funding agencies , especially those based on tax payer’s money, must make available to the public all information on funds disbursed to each institute AND the justification for the same in terms of the adherence to the funding criteria.

Potential students can study the pattern of fund disbursals and draw their own conclusions about how good or bad an institute is as perceived by funding experts who have voted with their purse ! In a sense, market forces will drive both funding and students to the best institutes in the country.

In fact honest competition is what is completely missing in the education sector and this has led to an immense complacency in the public sector education system in the country. What makes it worse is that public sector institutes are so dependent on the bureaucrats in the HRD ministry for money that they have no option but to toe the sarkari line. Both these issues can addressed through the structure that is proposed here.

And finally what about foreign universities ? If as a nation we are brave enough we can allow them to come and operate through this route but otherwise we can have the equivalent of an FIPB to ensure that trashy organisations are kept out — but this is neither necessary nor sufficient for quality and is best kept in abeyance for the time being.

As a part of the Prime Ministers 100 day program, may I request Mr Kapil Sibal to organise a conference on Higher Education where ideas like these – and those from other, more eminent people – can be formally considered for speedy execution.