The Edge

I I L M I N S T I T U T E F O R H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Vol-VI, No. 2, April-June 2009

FROM VICE CHAIRMAN'S DESK

O

ne of the most oft-repeated observations in the context of higher education is the paucity of qualified teachers. This has been the refrain for quite some time whenever the issue of scaling up of admission capacity in institutions of higher learning, particularly in the field of engineering and management, is debated.

Unfortunately, the quality has been defined in these discussions in an unidimensional way — the research qualification. If a teacher has done doctoral work, he or she is presumed to be a well-qualified teacher. If not, they are below par.

To my mind, this seems to be an extremely narrow way of defining the quality of a good teacher. In Indian terminology , teacher is called ‘guru’ . The interpretation of the word is as follows : ‘Gu’ means darkness ; ‘Ru’ means light.

‘Guru’ is the person who takes the student from darkness to light. It is practically impossible to have a better definition of a teacher.

In ancient India, there was a proper

EDITORIAL BOARD Mrs. Malvika Rai Prof. B. Bhattacharyya Prof. Sapna Popli Dr. N.Chandra Mohan Shri Dina Nath Mishra Prof. Kailash Tuli Ms. Rohini Rode

understanding of the holistic nature of knowledge transmission. In Taittiriya Upanisad, we find : “The teacher in the earlier part, the student the back part; knowledge is the junction, teaching the connection” What does our ancient literature suggest as the desirable attributes of a good teacher? There are quite a few. One will suffice: The Tamil grammar, ‘Nannul’, suggests the following:

■ Deep learning ■ Impeccable ethics ■ Good temperament and patience A good teacher is compared to the (grand, firm, and fruitful) earth, to a (lofty, inscrutable and refreshing) mountain, to a (just and impartial) balance and to a (mild and pleasant) flower.

May be it is time to go beyond the PhD paradigm.

B Bhattacharyya

EDITORIAL TEAM

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Aakriti Bhatnagar Abhijeet Bhattacharya Deepshika Mewati Jyoti Malkani Niharika Malik Parul Khanna Sara Bower

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CONTENTS IN-HOUSE MAGAZINE FOR LIMITED CIRCULATION Vol-VI No. 2 April-June 2009

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IGNOU AND IILM TIE-UP FOR DESIGN EDUCATION

PRESIDENT OF INDIA VISITED IILM

AN INTELLECTUAL EVENING WITH NANDAN NILEKANI

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4th IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 E-WASTE A TOXIC REALITY

CAMPUS NEWS WORKSHOP/SEMINAR

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E-SUSTAINABILITY: IT AS A TOOL FOR CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT

GUEST LECTURE

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ENVIRONMENT WATCH

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ON THE JOB TRAIL

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INFORMATION NEEDED, NOT JUST PLAIN DATA

INDUSTRIAL VISITS

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STUDY ABROAD TRIP

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IT IS IT IN RETAIL ALL THE WAY

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS 55

STUDENTS’ CORNER

DESIGN FESTIVAL 56

BOOK REVIEWS SANATAN SANGEET SANSKRITI SAMAROH 2009

IILM ALUMNI

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I have gone through the Volume VI of "The EDGE" (January-March) and must say that it was really good to go through this magazine that is full of information.

The harmony of excerpts and the compilation of different topics with the excellent layout is superb which reflects the detailing in the overall design and presentation made in the magazine.

Let me take this opportunity to convey my special compliments to you and your editorial team for creating an information bank on IILM which indeed can be rated as one of the best magazine of B-Schools.

My best wishes and keep it up.

Govind Hari Singhania Chairman JK Business School, Promoter J K Organisation

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of The Edge containing the inspiring address by Mr Wajahat Habibullah. His description on Indira Gandhi is apt and excellent. I wish the journal continued success.

Prof. M S Swaminathan Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai

EVENT OF THE YEAR

4th IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 Lord Meghnad Desai, recipient of the 4th IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award 2009, shares his vision about what India is about and what it should be

The Emerging India I could speak about the general endemic problem of poverty, malnutrition, maternal mortality and various problems like that.

I think I'm going to try and put together these sources of ideas in a different way. I'm going to talk about the challenges that India faces rather than what the world faces.

The

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 Ambassador K V Rajan

a great importance and we are very pleased and privileged that Lord Desai has agreed to accept this award from IILM and also to deliver this special lecture, which is titled as "Our Troubled Times - Choices for India". With these few words, I would like to request Dr Shuchi from the faculty to read few excerpts from the citation to that we can set the ball rolling. After that we would invite Lord Desai to deliver his lecture.

Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Lord Desai, Lady Desai, Prof Bhattacharyya, Mr and Mrs Rai, very distinguished members in the audience, dear friends, it's a very great privilege for me to extend these words of welcome to all of you on a special occasion. It is indeed a privilege to welcome Lord and Lady Desai here. I have to say that there is absolutely no need to introduce Lord Desai since he is very well known, particularly to this audience, but to any audience anywhere because he has become a legend, e.g., in London, long before he became a Lord, he was known as Prof Desai. His name and the London School of Economics (LSE) could not be separated. Since then of course, many years have passed and he is now the Professor Emeritus at the LSE. Whenever I go to London, it is impossible not to see the impact of his work, speeches, writings, almost anywhere.

In the House of Lords, he is constantly surrounded by peers from the various parties, and intellectuals; at the time of his lectures the rooms at LSE are packed and it is impossible to get a seat. His speeches and writings have really a very long shelf life because they really make you think and they shape a lot of thinking around the world. His books are very well known. Many people who are not economists or academics have read his book on Dilip Kumar, which is a unique kind of masterpiece on its own kind because it goes far beyond being just a biography of that great actor. Then there are writings of political matters, economic matters, we read columns in Indian Express for example, and so, he is a very familiar name. The list of awards and recognition that he received is a very long one, including the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman, which he received a couple of years ago. Frankly, I have never considered him to be a member of the Diaspora. Today, it is very difficult to call any NRI a member of the Diaspora because most NRIs spend almost as much time here as they The

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Dr. Shuchi Agrawal Ambassador KV Rajan delivering the welcome address

spend in the country they have important responsibilities.

In summary, Lord Desai's ideas, his insights, his perceptions, his assessments, are extremely important, particularly in today's context and particularly for all of us in India when India is facing so many internal and external challenges as well as opportunities that are of great expectations and also of great concerns. I would not like to preempt or anticipate either of the subjects, which Lord Desai would cover in his speech or the issues, which could come up. But, I would like to say that this is the fourth in the series of distinguished Global Thinkers Awards instituted by the IILM. As in the case of previous special lectures that were delivered by the previous awardees, we intend to bring it out as a publication so that there will be a multiplier effect both within the country and outside.

So, this is a lecture to which we attach

Lord Desai's ideas, his insights, his perceptions, his assessments are extremely important, particularly in today's context and particularly for all of us in India when India is facing so many internal and external challenges

Lord Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai was born in Vadodara, in India on 10th July, 1940. A brilliant student, he matriculated by the age of 14, was an honours student before he was 18, had a master's degree from the Bombay School of Economics before the age of 20, won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and was a PhD at the age 22. Thereafter he joined the London School of Economics, an institution with which he had a distinguished involvement for several decades. He was the head of the Development Studies Institute during 1990-95 and the Director of the Centre for Study of Global Governance, which he founded in 1992. He is now Professor Emeritus of LSE, apart from being Chairman of the Trustees Board for Training for Life, Chairman of the Management Board of City Roads and on the Board of Tribune magazine. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

Prof. Lord Desai has written extensively on a wide range of subjects.

From 1984-1991, he was the co-editor of the Journal of Applied Economics.

His widely acclaimed works include Marx's Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism - Divided by Democracy, Development and Nationhood, Essays in the Political Economy of South Asia, and Global Governance: Ethics and Economics of the World Order.

Prof. Desai's immense experience and sound knowledge of economic and governance issues have been uti-

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009

Lord Desai lighting the inaugural lamp

lized by the governments of the United Kingdom and Algeria among others and International organizations like FAO, UNCTAD, World Bank, UNITO, and the UNDP. Prof Desai has also adorned the chair and the Presidentship of the Ecliptic South and the Finsbury constituency of the Labor party in London. He was raised to peerage as Baron Desai, of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in 1991. In recognition of Prof Lord Desai's outstanding contributions in diverse areas, he was honoured with the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman award as the most distinguished persons of the Indian origin in January 2004. Prof Lord Desai's speeches and writing on a wide range of subjects, including economics, societal challenges, politics, democracy, and governance have invariably been original, innovative, and stimulating and have made significant con-

tribution to understanding the challenges and opportunities of our times.

May I now request our chairperson Mrs. Malvika Rai and Prof.

Bhattacharyya, our vice-chairman, to present the award to Lord Desai.

Lord Meghnad Desai Your Excellency Ambassador Rajan, Mr Bhattacharyya, and friends, I thank you for giving me this honour. I hope that by the time I finish, you don't revise either the global or the thinker part of the award. I think it's a very general title, "Our Troubled Times‌" because our times are troubled in many different ways. One could talk about global financial meltdown the world is facing, which is going to take its toll yet for some more months, perhaps years; I could talk about climate change and global warming as another part of the troubled times; I could

speak about terrorism; I could speak about the general endemic problem of poverty, malnutrition, maternal mortality, and various problems like that. I think I'm going to try and put together these sources of ideas in a different way. I'm going to talk about the challenges that India faces rather than what the world faces. And to me the challenges that India faces were very much epitomized by what happened on 26/11 when for 59 hours 10 terrorists held Mumbai to ransom. There were several deaths, some of them brave but futile, others accidental, and some of course of the terrorists themselves. In the wake of that crisis, there was a lot of dissatisfaction, lot of public meetings. People were agonizing as to what they could do, and what this particular event told them. I think one has to understand the nature of the event. Why it was such a shock and The

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 why in response to that event, not only now but also in future, one has to actually think, much more the nature of India than anything else. I had two feelings when I watched it live on TV. First of all, that it was war on India. It was not in any sense a war on five star hotels in Mumbai. While some people tried to minimize it that people only worried only about the five star hotel, guests and so on, it was not an attack on them. Not only the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal where lots of ordinary people died, but there was the Cama hospital, Leopold Café, the Nariman House, in a sense, there was enough of Bombay which was and still remains the beacon of cosmopolitan life in India. It was an attack on the cosmopolitan idea of India. It was an attack on all of India. The reactions in my view, from the political establishments were grossly inadequate. I think it was a failure of ideas. The first reaction that I heard from the local MP Milind Deora, was a typical reaction from UPA, saying "I hope there are no communal riots in Bombay". It is not that I wish there were communal riots in Bombay, but I want to point out that in a very crucial moment when a lot of people have felt or should have felt that all India was under attack, the first worry that lot of politicians had was that India is not one. And indeed, they see India as divided. That was not the perception of the people who were standing outside. The in perception was that we were all together under attack. It was not an attack on a community or by a particular community; it was an attack by an alien element on all of India. But it was not clear that the politicians could articulate what India it was that was under attack.

Because, only a few days previously, one tendency in Indian politics BJP, Shiv Sena, VHP, etc, attacked Hemant Karkare and suspected him of being a traitor to India because he was investigating the Malegaon case. I have already said how the Congress, UPA reaction was also quite partial in terms of secular India under threat. The Prime Minister, who is actually a very The

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IILM’s Distinguished Global Thinker Award presented by Ms. Malvika Rai

nice man, did not appear before the country before 20 hours after the attack happened. And indeed, the most remarkable thing about those 59 hours was how leaderless India was.

Yes, the naval commandos and the NSG helped and the police and the firemen helped, the staff of the hotels were excellent, all that is true. But India, Bombay was leaderless. There was nobody who was able to articulate what had happened to India at that time because there was confusion. The Prime Minister I was told did not appear because the next day there was voting in Madhya Pradesh and he felt that by his intervention he might be accused of affecting election outcomes. This is one of the symptoms of what the problem is.

I want to say that what really has happened in the last two decades, the idea of India as it was — live and

It was an attack on the cosmopolitan idea of India. It was an attack on all of India. The reactions in my view, from the political establishments were grossly inadequate. I think it was a failure of ideas.

vibrant in the first few years after independence — has degraded. We do not have a narrative of India as a nation.

The narrative of India as a nation was constructed in reaction to the critic of a foreign power of a foreign culture, which said, you are not a nation. You are just a collection of religions, regions, thoughts, ethnicities and tribes, and so on. That was the accusation that the British made against India. At that time, the first few people who received western education in the middle of the 19th century, rose to this challenge. They had imbibed the idea of a nation, the history of how nations are made and what nations were at that time forming in Europe. They had amalgamated these ideas and reacted to the challenges to say, of course, we are a nation. There was another response possible which I feel never came to them. Europe is not a nation, why should we be a nation? Why should anything be a nation? What's so compelling about being a single nation? The challenge was to show that India was a nation. I think what happened at that stage, to begin with, to summarize a long history, one branch of the reaction to construct the story of the Indian nation was to take religion as the basis. Hinduism was the basis. Thus this word got concocted in the 19th century and one branch was the revivalist like Arya Samaj and so on.

Another one was reformist like the

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, and indeed the influence Swami Vivekananda and others was to take Hinduism and make a single coherent story somewhat like Christianity. Same sort of reaction happened among Indian Muslims. They too had a reform idea under Syed Ahmed and the revivalist ideas were going on and so forth. It was not until the Congress started articulating the needs of elite urban India. They began to form the notion of a nation, which of course had a religious root but perhaps it was more than that. From then on till about 1947, the struggle that Congress and other parties waged specially through different ideas, again and again came up with certain problems. One narrative of the Indian nation begins in almost pre-history and says India is a nation because it is an Aryan nation and this has a continuous history; it has a philosophy of culture and a certain beauty and profundity of thought which is continuous and therefore that is today the Indian nation. The Congress at that moment chose not to go down that line and it said, yes, while that is true, there is also a mixed stream of Islamic influence. A syncretic idea arose of India mingling of the Islamic and Hindu cultures and India is that which was formulated in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries and now it is that India which

India is now a vibrant democracy, the largest and most popular democracy in the world and if you think about it, not many nations around the world...can boast of having been a democracy for as long as 61 years. we celebrate as a single nation.

Nehru's Discovery of India was very much a lot of people hold.

The problem is that both the two narratives proved inadequate. First of all, the partition broke quite a bit of the old narrative of why India was a nation and then of course since Independence, there has been a clash between these two different ideas of why India is a nation. What young Deora was articulating at the time of 26/11 was indeed the fear that different people had different ideas why India was a nation. We have now come to a stage in Indian history where we can look again at that whole formulation of the idea of why India is a nation. It is possible that without fear of certain types which were haunting the earlier generation‌ The earlier

A warm congratulatory handshake to Lord Desai by Prof. B. Bhattacharyya

generation was haunted by the British critic that these people would never form a coherent union, they were never capable of self-rule and therefore they always needed a foreign hand to rule over them. Sixty-one years after Independence, India has laid to rest that fear that it would fall apart, would disintegrate, balkanize and not be able to run itself and so on. India is now a vibrant democracy, the largest and most popular democracy in the world and if you think about it, not many nations around the world including the western world can boast of having been a democracy for as long as 61 years. Germany has not been, nor has been Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, to say nothing about Eastern Europe, Russia has not been a democracy for 61 years in its entire history, and in French history the Fourth Republic did not last as long as 61 years. Being a democracy for 61 years is already beginning to be quite a unique achievement in the history of the world. There has been no other democracy which has been as multireligious, as multi-lingual, and as multi-ethnic as India has been. These are substantial achievements. My idea that I want to advance to you is that the earlier generation wanted a single story, a single unified, over arching narrative as to why India was a nation.

I would like to point out that not only are those stories now very divisive.

Those are the stories that are currently haunting Indian politics—the story of a Hindu India as against a syncretic India. Those stories are right now divisive and even haunting India and both of them are grossly inadequate. They are inadequate because first of all both the stories, by and large, are not Indian stories. There is the history of Delhi Sultanate. All of South India has been left out of that narrative because it did not have anything like the experience that North India had about the Muslim invasions. Even for a long time in ancient India, there was a distinction between Aryavarta and Dakshinapath.

And I think South India has a good reason of feeling that there is no suffiThe

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 cient admission of South India in Indian history. Also, we have kept the Northeast completely out of the narrative. When you think about India, people don't think about Assam, Nagaland, the Garos and the Khasis, Wasn't it interesting the other day in Bombay when a woman from Mizoram won the marathon, the organizers thought she was a foreigner? I think that was one of the most remarkable stories that a woman wins a marathon and she is completely ignored because nobody thought that she was Indian.

Our idea of what is Indian has to be expanded. Our ideas got to admit the

there is no reason why it should be so, because in the narratives of nationhood, the northeast played no part whatsoever. No Indian King of any religion ever got to Assam. Assam is not part of the national anthem if you think about it. I think the integration of different parts of India is our first priority. Secondly, the whole story of Hindu India, completely leaves out the Dalits. Everyone understood how glorious the religion was and how philosophical it is and now we talk about Advaitya and so on. The fact is those who were talking about Advaitya were living out of the considerable part of the society and oppressing them. I

Ambassador Rajan, Lord Meghnad Desai and Vice-chairman B. Bhattacharyya

really substantial diversity that exists.

Although we talk about unity in diversity, we really have failed to include the variety of ethnicities, races, religions and even languages. There are 26 languages in the eight schedules. But there are many more languages. I'm sure all the many languages in the Northeast have not received their due as Indian languages. We have to start believing that the people of Nagaland, Mizoram, or Arunachal Pradesh have not to be tamed to be Indians. We do not have to invade and take them over.

We have to embrace them as indeed what the history of the last 60 years has been. There has been a mixture as it was military and diplomatic efforts so that by now most of the Northeast feels it is genuinely part of India. But The

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don't know how one can reconcile philosophical heights with such gross oppression of a part of our own people. It's not that one wants to forgive slavery, but the Americans who went from Africa confronted the Europeans and it took America 350 years to finally embrace the equal citizenship of black Africans and white Europeans and that's what will happen when Obama is inaugurated. But in this case it was not any foreign nation. It was the own people of India who were being excluded out of the narrative of why India was India. And indeed I think, people like Ambedkar and Ramaswamy Nayakar and Jyotirao Phule had protested and indeed there was a case just before the British were about to leave India, people like

Ambedkar and Nayakar wanted the British to stay because they were not quite sure that their rights would be guaranteed. This is actually recorded in Indian history. But their fears to some extent were not true. There is still big trouble of social equality in India, and I do believe that this is the biggest struggle India right now faces and it is trying to meet this challenge whereby people of different caste, women and men, different tribes, all those people would feel to be socially equal. That has been the most thrilling experiment over the last 60 years. I take the view that India may be an ancient civilization but it is a young nation. It is a nation with a history of 61 years. What was born on 1947 was and is India.

India, which was pre-partition, was only India because the British happened to rule over the territory. The boundaries of India had never been drawn before in its history. No Gupta, Maurya, or Moghul king drew the boundaries between India and Tibet or between India and Afghanistan or India and Burma. What we know India before or after partition has been a construct of the 19th century.

Administrative unity that the British imposed on India gave it a shape, a territory, a size, and then we try to find stories to celebrate it as being eternally always there. What is there now since 1947, after the partition in India, Pakistan broke up into two and India survived. It survived because it is a unique experiment in creating a category which is not religious, not tribal or ethnic. It is a category of being a citizen of the democratic republic of India. For the first time in Indian history, ordinary Indians have a say in how they will be governed. There are all sorts of stories about how India had republics in the 5th century BC and so on, but none of them was a democracy. No previous Indian king or anybody else recognized the equality of all Indian citizens with a right to vote. The fact that Indians had for the first time the right to govern themselves was a revolutionary decision by the founding fathers of India. This is why relating

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 that experience to an earlier history is futile because the earlier history completely denies the equality of all Indians. It completely denies the right of all Indians to rule themselves. It completely denies the rights of free speech, right to private property, right to be anywhere, right to work anywhere, and so on. Therefore, we do not search in the roots of history for the reason why India is a great nation.

We celebrate the present. Yes, it's an imperfect present and the present has to be improved upon. Every nation has to again and again retell the story.

America was a nation of white Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 18th and early 19th centuries. By the end of the 19th century, it was thought to be a nation of white European Christian Protestants. After a while not just Protestants, Catholics also became part of America. Now they say only whites, Blacks, and American Indians are all part of America. America has changed the story of its own nationhood every fifty years or so. There is no reason why India should be stuck by old stories and not rethink themselves. The rethought history of India would be the story of India as it were born. Yes, it is old civilization but what's valuable is not the old, what's valuable is the new. What the present generation in 60 years has achieved has never before been achieved in India. Unity, a single government, a nation of equal citizens, struggling to establish social and economic equality for its citizens, but all the time trying to do it in a consensual and as far as possible, non-conflictual way. If we celebrate that, then we don't have to wreck ourselves on the storms of communalism and secularism because I do believe that is an irrelevance. Let us say that being citizens is the mot important thing and what your religion is, is your private matter.

What is important is that we are all part of India, people born here, who live here, vote here, who run their lives here, and the fact that they do it together in this way is what defines India to be. Therefore, the choices for India in these troubled times is to assert itself as a unique creation, which

should go on growing. It is something that all Indians have created together and it has not been a gift of any foreign or domestic power or leader.

Ambassador K V Rajan Lord Desai has kindly agreed to answer any question on any subject apart from the fascinating subject of the idea of India of which he has spoken about so eloquently. So, the floor is wide open. You can ask him anything except his age. There are lots of interesting people in the audience, so please do not go away without giving all of us the opportunity of discussing the points that you might have.

Question: Lord Desai, on your last comment of

ascertaining these ordinary truths rather than invoking the great glorious past; I want India define from its present because the present is much more glorious from the past from my view.

Once you start defining the past as glorious, you are going to tell a partial story. You are going to exclude somebody, either the untouchables, or the Muslims, or the women, or the tribals.

Why do that? The story is here and now which no previous dynasty has ever achieved in Indian history.

Question from Mr Sundaram While congratulating you on having a very clear perception of what our identity as an Indian is, I also accept your analysis that the basic problem is

Pavan Varma, former Director General ICCR and now India’s Ambassador to Bhutan, asking a question

yours, what are the choices for India?

Can you elaborate it more, is it the same thing as Shining India?

MD: I think those Shining India and all those big celebrations are for foreign consumption therefore, inviting outside money. I want this to be something internalized. I want people to be able to say confidently, we are not afraid of Balkanization. We are not afraid really that India will divide itself or Indians will be divided. Majority of Indians are happy to live where they are as a democracy and while on the periphery there are people who say Biharis should not come to Mumbai or Biharis should not go to Assam, by and large, all Indians think they can live anywhere they like, regardless of what language they speak and if we go on

that we are having nobody at the helm or rather to put it more specifically, I would say the people who are there at the helm, don't have the courage of conviction to put forward their personal agenda. In this kind of situation, they would not also accept a neutral and a healthy perception, which you have put forward and exactly this kind of dilemma that the man on the road in India is faced with.

Question from Mr Pavan Varma I just heard Mr Desai say that India should divest itself from its past. A Russian historian once told me "people who think that they have no past are plain stupid". Countries evolve and the future is inextricably linked to its past.

It can make rational choices about what parts of the past to retain, but The

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 we can't start on a blank slate nor is it desirable to do so, especially for an ancient and complex civilization like India which goes back 5000 years. The past is so greatly influencing factor in the way we fashion our present or we build our future. I would like your comment on this.

Question from the audience Why do we still have that feudal mindset? You see the newspapers talking of whenever the leaders are elected like the coronation of Sukhbir Badal as the future Chief Minister, why do we have that mindset. And secondly, since it is open to your other question, I always enjoy reading your columns, and the last column where you celebrated the sovereignty of the nation whether in tongue-in-cheek, what choices India has in dealing with Pakistan with the present scenario, which is your starting point, and have we gone wrong or are we on the right path?

MD: I think I would take up Pavan's question first. I don't think one will ever be able to do away with the past.

It is there. The question is, or what troubles me rather is that, the attempt to write a continuous story of India as a nation from anytime before 1947 creates certain divisive forces in my view. If I begin to see India as a nation, not as a civilization, India is an old civilization but a new nation. As a civilization, India has the glorious past, which is much celebrated. Defining the nation as timeless 5000 or so BC, I believe leaves out a lot of people who are cowardly Indians. But even if it was that was not the case, those who would be included under the definition, some of them were not given their full status as equal parts of the society.

As for the feudal mindset, we say it feudal because that is a western word.

But inequality of status is embedded in the notion of Hindu society. There is a man called Louis Demont, a French anthropologist, who celebrates the fact that Hindu society celebrates inequality so uniquely. He wrote a book called Homo Hierarchichus, The

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about the classic of Indian sociology.

Some people like the fact that the whole nature of the problem is inequality. These are vertical divisions and not horizontal divisions. I have another French friend who is also an anthropologist says, what is now happening in India is going to retain its caste and is going to be horizontal and not vertical. May be that is eventually the end of an independent India. It will retain the caste label, retain the caste identity but make them horizontal and not vertical. That would be a great achievement if that happens. Then you can retain the past as Pawan says.

An identity as an Indian citizen is a dominant identity when you think of India as a nation.

What unifies us is not that we are Hindus or Muslims, but we are Indian citizens...the political system is avoiding celebrating that and is looking for other stories which are inadequate.

Having lived abroad for 45 years, the most striking thing about western society is how immensely socially equal it is. There is a lot of economic inequality. What America has struggled with in the 20th century especially in the last 40 years, is to give equal status to the American blacks. This is the challenge that India faces. It is called inclusion. But what is it really about? It is about giving dignity to everyone as Indians. They have the political right to vote as Indians. Some of them are using their right to compensate for the social inequality. The whole Mandal movement is about using caste-led forces. I think it is an imperfect way but that is the political dynamics of India. We have to understand what the

past bequeaths India. Independent India is trying to absorb its past in a way in which no previous age in Indian history has ever tried on the basis of social equality of its citizens.

The whole notion of citizenship is an extremely revolutionary notion in a society that does not define itself on an equal basis. Religion will not give us equality as a central principle. That is the problem about addressing critic or a Hindu view of life. What is called secularism does not go away from religion. While Sikhism was a tremendous experiment in a more egalitarian society, it is an isolated example. The notion of equality is very much a modern notion. It did not come to the world till the 19th century. India has become a modern nation. It is in its modernity that it has to struggle to achieve this equality. It is this, which gives value to India as a nation. An identity as an Indian citizen is a dominant identity when you think of India as a nation. What unifies us is not that we are Hindus or Muslims, but we are Indian citizens. We have to become conscious of that. My complaint about the political system is that, it is avoiding celebrating that and is looking for other stories which are inadequate. We are struggling with these divisive stories because we are caught in the old time warp what the British did. India is a multinational polity which has created a single citizenship and that is image. That is the argument that we have to take forward.

K V Rajan: Would you say that the past that we glorify so much is also misused in order to perpetuate some of these in the present day? You did not talk much about the negatives of our present. You wanted us to celebrate our present, e.g., corruption, which is one of the biggest concerns of the common man of the country. Is there something in constantly celebrating our past, which enables us to rationalize or continue with some of the evils today?

MD: That's a whole very big subject on which I have given a lecture. I do not want to get to that road because

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 many societies are corrupt. In one way, one could say it's not a causal relationship. In the last 30 years, India has become more corrupt. That is true. But in the terms of the emergence of the lower caste and lower orders up the stream, India has seen some great triumphs. The earliest story was very elitist. The founding fathers were going to give everybody these rights. After the 1970s, people started demanding their rights. They started using the ballot box to assert them. That led to things which made people very uncomfortable. People like Mayawati feel very uncomfortable. She goes out to offend even more than what normally would be considered offensive. In Mizoram, a guerrilla leader Laldenga and has been a chief minister for a while. The fact that what they were fighting for was actually the dignity of the Mizos as part of India. Not subdued, or conquered, but integrated as part of India.

While lot of attention is being given to Kashmir being an integral part of India, the whole northeast story is yet to be told because that has been a story of trying to integrate parts of India which were not normally thought by mainland Indians as part of India.

Question from M M Dooser Q: I'm M M Dooser. M doesn't stand for Martin. I want to first compliment and thank IILM for giving us the unique opportunity of listening to living legend, something we all enjoyed.

Sir, I want to take advantage of the offer that Mr. Rajan made, that we could ask question on issues other than what you have brilliantly covered.

I just want your reaction to what you think is the impact of global economic meltdown on Indian economy in the years to come.

Question from Charan Wadhwa I must compliment Lord Meghnad Desai for giving us a very provocative address. He is entitled to his views and he will find dissent because that's a part of the democratic values that he also cherishes. Being an Indian, I'll go with Pawan Verma. You may distinguish between civilization and nation.

But you have a concept that western nations adopt. If you give up that concept of modern nation the way the Europeans define it, or the Americans define it, you will find, we have acknowledged historians saying, if not from Bharatvarsh, at the time of Bharat, there was a nation, we believed so. There was Rama's time even if there were inequality of all kinds, if a little washerman said that Sita had problems, it was very much taken care of. Good, bad, or indifferent, the views of some of the people were given a very high degree of importance; it is not highlighted very

I have not seen “Slumdog Millionaire”, but I'm sure it will be a great film. What I like about "Slumdog Millionaire" is, that here is a perfect blend of somebody taking an Indian story, which an Indian could have made, but here is Danny Boyle making it. much. I'm not extolling these virtues. It is not that great in terms of the modern stand but if we go back there is Chanakya, who very much espoused nationhood. Nationhood is clearly spelt out as going all the way from Kabul, all the way to Pataliputra. You are talking about the northeast. Please note that, Kamakshi temple in Assam is very much part of our culture—it talks about Assam and other parts. I'm not as well read in Sanskrit. The traders went, the kings went and set up empires, ruled and spread religion.

Look at the value system of modernity.

You don't have to appreciate only social equality in the modern nation, state of the western variety. Appreciate the fact that Indians have never invad-

ed of any kind whether they were Hindus or Muslims, in any other nation. Appreciate the fact that we have a certain value system where we recognize all religions of the world as equal. The whole world is our family.

This is our scripture. There is a globalization concept here. We care for others. We have not persecuted anybody.

We have embraced every persecuted nation that has come to this country.

So, please recognize the values, which also form part of nationhood. We have to revive some of those and synthesize.

It is not the coordinates of Western geometry. We can synthesize the whole culture — Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and any other culture. I believe in a modern India in terms of sociology or religion that will form the backbone of the modern concept of nationhood which believes in this kind of synthesis by giving them equal rights.

MD: I like your reaction.

Question from the audiance I liked the way you mentioned what India is all about. How we are going from strength to strength despite not having the leadership, that's your point of view. I would really like this young generation to hear you more often because you can tell them what exactly they need to do and that's what our young generation needs to understand. My question is, as a citizen of India, what is your view on "Slumdog Millionaire", if at all you have seen that.

MD: To take the last question first, I'm not a citizen of India. I'm a British passport holder and I have not seen "Slumdog Millionaire", but I'm sure it will be a great film. What I like about "Slumdog Millionaire" is, that here is a perfect blend of somebody taking an Indian story, which an Indian could have made, but here is Danny Boyle making it. I'm not a filmmaker but I feel Danny Boyle has lot to teach Bollywood about how to make a tight, strong film in 120 minutes without songs and dances.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is part of the globalization of India. Part of the fact that India is not only a destination for many The

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 nations to come and invest. India is also the second largest investor in UK. The second question, I think the global meltdown will not affect India perhaps not as much as it affects America or Britain. But I think the effects are going to last and the couple of conferences I have been lately, it will be much more than the government has realized. The year 2009 is going to be much worse than people think. But, it is a growth recession and not a real recession. The growth will be 5% rather than 7%. Having benefited from foreign investments and so on, how can India be insulated? When there was inflation earlier in the air, the government was blaming global influences. You cannot have inflation with global influences. No one is an insulator from bad effects. It can't be true.

India is semi-articulated with global economy. The more articulated it is the better.

I very much appreciate what you said because that is the basic challenge to my thesis. Is there a notion of Nation which is pre-modern? I believe when they were doing Ashwamedha Yajna, at the time of Yudhishtir near Haryana and Punjab, what they called Vasudha was probably Punjab.

Because in those days people thought that until we had rail and roads, we could not imagine of distance. I think India or Bharatvarsh was north India at most. South India was almost out of it.

Although I take your view about Assam, why is Andaman & Nicobar part of India? How is Ladakh part of India? When did the rest of northeast become a part of India? When did Kabul stop being part of India? Being part of an ancient civilization, people of course thought about the notion of society, of people.

There were many kingdoms. In the history of China, there is almost a single ruler in the whole of Mainland China except in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Otherwise China is defined as a single administrative unity and an old civilization. India was never an administrative unity. It was a civilization, an idea, a culture, but no single king ruled The

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M M Luther, former Chairman MMTC, asking a question

over currently what Pratibha Patil rules over. The kingdom created in 1947 is the largest Indian territory that any Indian king ever ruled over. India has many nations in it. At the time of the Pandavas, Ulupi was almost a foreigner when Arjun married her. Even the notion of Ram coming down from Ayodhya to the South, is wonderment in finding the Vanars. There were many nations and even now there are many nations.

But after Independence, a single citizenship is created which takes a multinational polity and makes it a single supernation. That is the supreme achievement having got this huge past from that divisive partial past. It may be the washerman was hurting and the woman was badly treated. But the woman is also part of the nation and if

Whose fault is that we have illiteracy? How come India has been independent for 60 years and there are governments in power so called popularly elected in UP and Bihar, which kept the people in ignorance?

she is badly treated, she is not part of the nation. The mistreatment of Sita is a scandal in my view. I would not go further into that. Sambhuka is yet another story. The poor man's head was chopped off for reading.

Someone was saying we have illiteracy and so on. Whose fault is that we have illiteracy? How come India has been independent for 60 years and there are governments in power so called popularly elected in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which kept the people in ignorance? Why there is larger literacy in the south than in the North?

The reason is the orthodox Hindu system. The domination of orthodox Hindu caste in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. That's why they are BIMARU states. The southern states are good because they had a strong anti-Brahmin movement throughout the 19th century. They grasped literacy. In the north, the great Congress party kept its people in ignorance. Now, I prefer there were no reservations.

I prefer we had affirmative actions but not based on caste label. In Indian society, people use group strength to move the whole group up. That's what Ram Manohar Lohia saw brilliantly.

Caste is not a problem in south India; it is a problem in north India. Mandal is a north Indian problem. When Mandal was implemented, Jayalalitha

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009

Dignitaries in the audience from right to left include Shekhar Gupta, Editor-inChief & CEO of the Indian Express Group and Lady Kishwar Desai

had said, "this is not good enough for us. We have already done all this and have gone way beyond that". There was a very anti-Brahmin movement in the South all the way up to Maharashtra.

Jyotirao Phule, Ramaswami Naicker, they all created a different society.

The Mandir problem in north India is because of the neglect of literacy, especially in rural areas, the women, and the lower castes. Given the powerful weapon of vote and ballot box, the illiterate and the downtrodden have decided that they are going to get their rights. And if they have to do it in an imperfect way, so be it because they are not going to get that from above. The reason why there was Emergency in the 1970s in my view, there was a serious breakdown in the elitist model of democracy. The people who were left out of it are deprived of the benefits of nationhood, benefits of economic development, and benefits of social traits. Finally they decided, hey! We better take power in our own hands.

All social movements, which are challenging from below, are imperfect.

When I lived in America in early 1960s, the movement erupted. Lots of criticism was made—they were uncouth, they were not democratic and were rude. But in the 1960s, the movement

from below and such movement also use some crude effective mechanism to get in the way. I heard once Kashi Ram saying brilliantly, " I'm not interested in a stable government. I'm interested in a fragile government. In a stable government, you guys rule over us.

In fragile governments, we get a little of our way." If people already see that even in free India, they were excluded; those excluded people have got to assert their rights. It is indeed a very troublesome thing, but it is a positive aspect.

In 1950s, the good Western-educated, liberal Oxford and Cambridge educated were loved by us. We are somewhat feudal. We like our rulers and their skin. Then people like Kamaraj Nadar came along who could

When Mandal was implemented, Jayalalitha had said, ‘this is not good enough for us. We have already done all this and have gone way beyond that’. There was a very anti-Brahmin movement in South all the way.

not even speak in English and Lal Bahadur Shastri. So, India was becoming more like India. It has now Indianised the whole notion of Parliamentary democracy. I think India is the most interesting democracy in the whole world.

Question from Ritu Verma You have given a brilliant exposition but unfortunately, the debate seems to have been centered around whether we are an ancient nation or whether we are a nation, which is 61 years old.

Even if we grant that we are a 61 years old nation, as you said, when we framed the Constitution, we gave the right of franchise to every Indian, I think this is the greatest thing, which has happened to every Indian. The choices before India, you yourself said, when the terrorists attacked Mumbai, it was not an attack on the Trident or The Taj; it was an attack on India. But you yourself analyzed, there were different reactions to it. One was Milind Deora's and another reaction was somebody else's. You said they were conditioned by their own thinking. Sir, what is the uniting thing in India today, now that we are a nation of 61 years, and we have been able to hold together for 61 years whereas our neighbour has fallen apart? Maybe, in other places also in the world, democracy has not survived; it has survived in India. It is a great credit to India. But Sir, we also have to look up to the tendencies, which have developed during these 61 years. We have started thinking more in terms of caste, regions, and more in these divisive things. I think the challenge before us is how we can get over this. How we remain a nation and how we hold together. I will like your comment on this.

Question from K Mittal Recently, British Foreign Secretary was in India, although he said no reaction lies with Pakistan. He considered that Pakistan had a complicity in this Mumbai event, but side-by-side he also reminded about that India should try to solve this Kashmir issue.

Mussharafji said that this terrorism problem would automatically vanish The

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4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 the moment you solve this Kashmir issue. In a wheeled fashion it shows that the entire terrorist attack in Mumbai had the support of the Pakistan government. Because the UK Secretary also used the language of reminding us to solve the Kashmir problem. How is UK maintaining such kind of a stand? The Kashmir problem is their creation. They divided our country.

MD: To answer the first question, there was unity in the 1950s. India had the great Prime Minister uniting ideas and so on and a lot of people look back upon that as great days of India.

But, at that time it was a very elitist leadership. Everybody expected the ruling party to equitably distribute the fruits of development among all communities. The Congress was hostile to the idea. But, in many ways we ended up having an economic programme, did not create enough employment, did not get enough growth, did not cut down enough; I think if people have taken to reservations and caste

In the 50s, people used to wonder whether India could have a western style of democracy. We do not have a western style but have an India style of democracy. There are more castes now, but this is because the Congress broke up. labels and so on, that's because the compulsions have driven them to say, "if we don't use the strength we have to gain our what is due to us, we will never get it from above." In the 50s, people used to wonder whether India could have a western style of democracy. We do not have a western style but have an India style of democracy.

There are more castes now, but this is because the Congress broke up. It's a kind of dialectical thing. On one hand yes, I wish there were not many caste parties. On other hand, those caste parties have brought up people who were formally excluded. Talk about Lalu Prasad Yadav after having had a dip in the river and wearing a clean shirt he was attacked. Because as a Yadav he is not entitled to wear a clean shirt.

Ambassador Rajan displays the autographed sketch of Lord Desai to the audience

The

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That is on Independent India. There have been enormous oppressions on ordinary people in Indian society and this is why they have taken to politics because this is the only sphere in which they are equal. Indians are equal at the ballot box. That revolutionary decision by the Constituent Assembly, you have adult franchise for men and women alike, something that France had only in 1945 and England not until 1928, has made people confident that they can get a proper position in Indian society if they use political action. India is the most politicized society. Yes, it is corrupt; I wish there were much more easier ways of getting there; in that sense our history compels us to have only certain choices and not other choices. That's where history does dominate.

Nehruji used to say casteism and communalism will go away when there is economic growth. He thought communalism was due to lack of jobs.

But life is not that simple. India will have to make its own modernity. It will make it through political action. It will take time but it will do it. That is a great achievement. A tiny spec of optimism is the latest provincial elections.

It has been read by lot of people as sign that now the Indian voter appreciates and rewards. Chief ministers do not use ideologies but are bijli, sadak, and paani chief ministers. Even in the Gujarat elections I have to say this, Narendra Modi is not my favourite person, but until very late in the campaign when communalism issue was raised by the Congress, he was not raising it.

He was the bijli, sadak, paani man and he got re-elected as bijli, sadak, paani man although his record in Godhra riot is bad and I think he is unforgivable. But he won the elections. The low growth up to 1970s erupted these tensions; the high growth since 1990s has donated enough money in the government's coffers to be able to undertake those schemes, which will actually elevate the position of people who were left out of the system. More growth, more employment will make caste less important. People will think

4TH IILM DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL THINKER AWARD 2009 jobs outside the public sector, think about schools outside the government elite institutions and then they will progress. I'm not sure yet, but it may be a turning point. We will see what happens in April and May. About Pakistan and the British Foreign Secretary, it is very difficult being in India to understand how the world views India especially Kashmir. I have lived for 45 years outside India.

India's view is very simple. Kashmir is an integral part of India. It was always in India and anybody who says it is not India is not an enemy but does not understand Indian history. I do not want to go through the history of what happened and what did not happen, but let me just say this, the recent election is celebrated as a great achievement because there have been very many bad elections in Kashmir.

Kashmir has not had even a good or bad deal like Maharashtra, Assam, or Nagaland. There has been a great sensitivity that unless Kashmiris what, they should not be allowed to have their own election. Putting Sheikh Abdullah in 1953, there is no way it can be defended. It was arbitrary and it was bad. India needs to be relaxed about Kashmir. Nobody can take Kashmir. We are a sovereign nation and everybody can get lost. Nobody can take Kashmir from India. No power on earth. That confidence is still not there in India.

That's another reason why the whole narrative of nationhood is fractured because they still think in terms of Partition. They still think in terms of old categories, which is why Kashmir does not seem to be part of India. Kashmir is a part of India for 61 years. No David Miliband or Condoleeza Rice can take it away. It is not possible. India should be confident and say David Miliband, thank you, you are wrong on Kashmir, go away, instead of this amazing sense of reaction as "how dare he say this?"

He is a Foreign Secretary of a free nation. He can say this. If you don't like it, break off relations with UK. Why are we so sensitive? I was so astonished by the reactions! As if he has done something really grossly bad. All he said,

Seen in the picture (right to left) are Anil Rai, S L Mehta, Mrs.Gita Rajan, Shekhar Gupta and Lady Desai

and he is not the only person who said it, Condoleeza Rice said it and Hillary Clinton said it in her evidence to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in her confirmation.

People do consider that along with Palestine and so on, Kashmir is in that list of problem areas. Perhaps it should not be or perhaps everybody should think as India does, but life is not like that. Osama Bin Laden thinks that part of the global Islamist strategy against the crusader, as he calls them, is Chechnya, Kashmir, Philippines, Gaza, I know you shake your head and you think he is wrong.

Nobody can take Kashmir from India. No power on earth. That confidence is still not there in India. That's another reason why the whole narrative of nationhood is fractured because they still think in terms of Partition.

I think he is wrong but that does not matter. Enough people willing to arm themselves, Strap themselves with bomb and blow themselves up for that reason. So, we know this problem and let us clarify and not have this hypersensitive reaction. No victimhood please. India is not a victim of anybody any longer. David Miliband was followed by Peter Mandelson who came here talking business and money. People are looking at India to do business. India is not a basketcase. India is not a third world country anymore. I wish to God that the Indian ruling class would grow up and be equal to the global position India has attained. India is a global power. Pakistan is a fraction of India's size. Our entire foreign policy is obsessed with Pakistan and nothing else. I said this in my column that it is no good saying Pakistan officially launched the terror attack. It is not provable and it is no good climbing up that ladder. It would be much more nuances to have said, we got this guy, we are going to try him and we are going to publish his confession. We are going to show that in our system a person can have a fair trial despite being a terrorist and challenge the world who said.

The

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EXPANDING HORIZON

BROAD-BASING DESIGN EDUCATION IGNOU and IILM tie-up for Design Education IILM School of Design signed an MoU with IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University), India's largest University, for imparting design education on 9th February 2009, thereby opening the floodgates to new career options to thousands of deserving students enabling them to become design professionals.

IGNOU is the largest university in India and IILM Institute of Higher Education is an established institution in the private sector with a keen eye for quality education.

Together, the two institutions have decided to broad-base design education and have signed an MoU to this effect.

The main objectives of the collaboration are: ■ To jointly create and develop innovative and cost-effective design programmes at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels, ■ To promote and implement these design programmes, ■ To contribute to the development of technical professionals in the areas of

MoU documents being exchanged between Ms. Malvika Rai, Chairperson of IILM, & Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, for launching a four-year inbuilt modular degree program in Design Education at IILM School of Design, Gurgaon

product design, communication design, interiors and furniture design and textiles and apparel design.

The plan is to implement these in both models, viz, face-to-face and distance education modes. This will

A Balasubramaniam and U S Tolia, Registrar, IGNOU, signing the MoU The

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go a long way in helping design establish itself a robust profession in the country. A CII report on design says that there is a projected annual requirement of at least 10,000 designers in this country.

This gap is now being somewhat closed by private institutions.

These institutes are, however, few in number and are located in only select towns. Talented students across the length and breadth of the nation are increasingly moving to these select towns for design education. This MoU will now help achieve the target of educating designers required in this much sought after profession.

A large number of aspirants apply for programmes in design in premier design institutes like NID, Ahmedabad and IIT Guwahati for under-graduate programmes in design and NID Ahmedabad, IIT Delhi, IDC, Bombay (at IIT Powai) and School of Planning &

Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, V C of IGNOU, conducting the proceedings

Architecture, Delhi for post-graduate programmes.

Since all these programmes have limited seats, these aspirants who may have the desire and the aptitude get disappointed. These candidates are the focus group of this programme as it will strive to give them an opportunity to get suitably qualified.

Design as a profession is maturing and the demand for such creative professionals is increasing.

The gap in demand for professional designers are now being met by either under-qualified or unqualified people. A lot of these working professionals are also self-taught.

This MoU will help meet the growing demands of the industry and provide qualified professionals who would be of international quality.

There is also an urgent need for adding to the knowledge base of the design curriculum by encouraging professionals to get into research. It is presently lacking in numbers because of the dearth of suitably qualified candidates to take up design research leading to a PhD. Major institutions like the IIT, NID

and CEPT are devising ways of encouraging design students to get into research. An internationally acceptable degree in design will lead to more candidates applying for design and a percentage of these may want to take up research as well, thereby contributing to the betterment of the profession.

IILM has a School of Design in its Gurgaon campus and it will leverage its 5 years of experience in design education to kick-start this programme. The programme at IILM School of Design has some of the best design professionals involved in teaching and curricu-

Design as a profession is maturing and the demand for such creative professionals is increasing. The gap in demand for professional designers are now being met by either under-qualified or unqualified people.

lum development. The institute has a working relationship with NID in developing curriculum and founding the National Entrance Examination on NEED. The first batch of graduates have all been placed. Major design agencies, like Dovetail, Sesh Design and Think Design, advertising agencies like JWT, Saatchi & Saatchi, industries like Whirlpool and USHA Lexus, and new ventures like ibibo.com and Evok are all happy to take our students for internships.

The face-to-face programmes will be delivered at the Gurgaon campus which already boasts of modern classrooms and studios, workshops, computer labs, a fullfledged library and wi-fi connectivity. It will grow into the other campuses and centres as the rollout plans get implemented from this year.

History will record this as a moment as huge leap for design education in India. The small steps of implementation have begun already.

A.BALASUBRAMANIAM Dean, IILM School of Design The

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SPECIAL GUESTS

President of India at IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Jaipur Very few MBA aspirants know about management education in terms of content, technical jargon, pedagogy and so on. "New Beginnings", a week-long orientation programme was thus conceived about four years ago to give our MBA students a feel of what management education is all about and equip them for a better beginning. The event was organized on an ambitious scale with several dignitaries, including Smt. Pratibha Patil, the then Governor of Smt. Pratibha Patil addressing the students at IILM, Jaipur Rajasthan.

The Governor in her address stated that transformation is the name of the game and that science and technology institutions have responded effectively to the changing scenario.

Our Indian scientists and techSmt. Pratibha Patil playing table tennis with Dr. Bapna Smt. Pratibha Patil planting a tree at IILM nocrats in the field of information and technology are manufacturing to the service sectors issue of quality governance by saying the most sought after human and from capital resources to human that non-corrupt, transparent, propeople government is the need of the resource -- 30 per cent of scientists at and knowledge resources.

Talking about social emancipation, day. According to her, true education the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are Indians. These she remarked, that social transfor- is a mix of positive thinking, right oritrends are representative of the new mation would lead to faster econom- entation and a strong character. forces driving development from ic development. She addressed the N. CHANDRAMOHAN

The Governor releasing "Management Corridors" The

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A student being felicitated by Smt. Patil

An intellectual evening with Nandan Nilekani IT was a very delightful evening for the alumni of Princeton and Wharton to have a get-together at IILM Lodhi Road campus on 16 April 2009. This venue gave an opportunity for some of IILM students and faculty to meet and interact with the IT supremo Mr. Nandan Nilekani.

It was not a lecture but also a conversation just with famous economist and journalist Dr. Surjit Bhalla. The conversation very much focused on India's problems. It was like traveling in the frame of ideas and to scan India from various perspectives.

Nilekani felt India can change in the next one decade. But that requires a strong political, social and economic backup of the minds of the people who run the country.

In response to questions from Dr. Bhalla, Nilekani said many things can change India, if we do some of these major changes. ◆ Citizen identification card for the entire 1100 million Indians. ◆ Application of IT in sectors like banking, elections.etc ◆ Public distribution of food and other commodities. ◆ Identification vouchers for poor. ◆ Providing Internet access to all.

HONOUR FOR TECH-SAVVY NILEKANI Nandan Nilekani's appointment as the Chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India was announced on 25th June, 2009. In his capacity as cabinet rank minister, he would be doing something which will be immensely useful for a country like India with 1.1 billion population. In "Imagining India" He had dreamed of this big project, wherein he writes under the title, "GETTING RID OF OUR PHANTOMS: SINGLE CITIZEN ID", (in Imagining India, Page: 367). There he conceptualizes that instead of numerous IDs like PAN Number, Passport, Voter ID card, India needs something uniform and tangible ◆ Spearheading education for everybody and everywhere. ◆ Classical universities are inefficient and innovation is need of the hour.

Education can change India. ◆ Middle-class rising will percolate the effects of prosperity. ◆ Utopia of India can materialize with technologies, especially IT. ◆ New government will have a great responsibility to usher in a new era

The caricature evokes a hearty chuckle from Anand Rai and Nandan Nilekani

across the board. In his words, "Such a 'national grid' would require; as a first and critical step, unique and universal ID for each citizen: Creating a national register of citizens, assigning them a unique ID and linking them across a set of national databases, like the PAN and passport, can have far-reaching effects in delivering public services better and targeting services more accurately."

IILM felicitates him on this deserving honour to him and harnessing the potential of Nanadan Nilekani's deep trust in the application of technologies for the better organization of India. and to survive recession. ◆ IT at all levels can control various frauds (like Satyam). ◆ Computerization has been a boon for railway bookings, stock markets etc. It should be adopted in various other domains.

The entire talk, discussion and question-answer session were absorbing for all those who had this great opportunity of being a part of this distinguished gathering.

Nilekani was very open and the main content of the conversation between him and Dr. Bhalla was to a great extent based on Nilekani’s book, "Imagining India".

The conversation was very stimulating and enriching. Two hours passed by in a flash. The conversation session was followed by few questions from the audience. Being an alumni meet, for the gathering this was also an emotional experience for the old students. There was lot of enthusiasm.

Finally, the function ended on a very nice positive note, followed by a sumptuous dinner.

KAILASH TULI The

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GREEN CONCERNS

E

lectronic waste or e-waste is one of the fast growing environmental problems of the world. The common understanding of e-waste comprises mainly endof-life information & telecommunication equipment and consumer electronics. Electronic waste is only a subset of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). Any appliance using an electric power supply that has reached its end-oflife would come under WEEE.

E-WASTE COMPONENTS

e-waste A TOXIC REALITY

It is time for India—a dumping ground for hazardous e-waste from developed countries—to come up with a proper policy to manage the toxic litter if we want a clean, green and serene nation for future generations

E-waste encompasses evergrowing range of obsolete electronic devices such as computers, servers, monitors, TVs & display devices; telecommunication devices in Bangalore. India has an alarming such as cellular phones & pagers, 10% annual growth rate in generacalculators, audio and video tion of e-waste, one of the highest. devices, printers, scanners, copiers Three categories of WEEE account and fax machines, besides refriger- for 90% of India’s e-waste generaators, ACs, washing machines, and tion—large household appliances microwave ovens. E-waste also (42.1%), information and communitechnology equipment covers recording devices such as cations (33.9%) and consumer DVDs, CDs, floppies, electronics (13.7%). tapes, printing cartridges, Electronics Industry military electronic waste, Association of India automobile catalytic con(ELCINA) predicts India verters, electronic comwill generate 4.34 lakh ponents such as chips, metric tones of e-waste by processors, mother boarthis year-end. 3.3 lakh ds, printed circuit boards, tonnes of e-waste generindustrial electronics suated last year was ch as sensors, alarms, sirens, automobile Dr. P. Malarvizhi dumped into rivers, land fills and drains. electronic devices, etc.

Professor - Accounting Only 19,000 tonnes of E-Waste Statistics: & Finance the annual e-waste is National WEEE Taskforce ranks states and cities recycled in India, due to poor recythat generate WEEE. The state-wise cling infrastructure—a serious enviranking of largest WEEE generators ronmental threat. A report by hardinclude Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamil ware body Manufacturers AssocNadu, UP, Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, iation of Information Technology Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and (MAIT) says e-waste from discarded Punjab. The city-wise rankings of computers, TVs and cell phones is largest WEEE generators are projected to grow to more than Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, 800,000 tonnes by 2012 with a Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, growth rate of 15%.

Pune, Surat and Nagpur. An estimat- A DUMPYARD OF E-WASTE? ed 30,000 computers become obsoIn India, electronic waste manlete every year from the IT industry agement assumes greater signifiThe

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cance not only due to the generation of our own waste but also dumping of e-waste, particularly computer waste, from developed countries. Countries such as India and Pakistan are becoming dumping yards of e-waste from developed nations. Foreign countries export huge computer waste in the form of reusable components that forms a biggest source of PC scrap in India. There is a growing realization that e-waste issue may assume dangerous proportions over the next few years if it continues to be left unaddressed. About 80% of e-waste generated in US is exported to India, China and Pakistan. Almost 50% of the PCs sold in India are products from the secondary market and are reassembled on old components. The problem is compounded by the fact imported equipment is brought in duty-free. The e-wastes are imported into India are often disguised as second-hand computer donations or simply as metal scrap.

E-WASTE HAZARDS E-hazards arise due to improper recycling and disposal processes of e-waste. In India, there is lack of governmental legislations on ewaste, standards for disposal and

proper mechanism for handling these toxic hitech products. E-wastes mostly end up in landfills or partly recycled in unhygienic conditions and partly thrown into waste streams. E-waste contains valuable materials such as gold, platinum, silver and copper, and harmful substances like lead, cadmium and mercury.

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research revealed that over 95% of the e-waste is segregated, dismantled and recycled in the unorganized sector in urban slums. Due to lack of awareness, they use strong acids to retrieve metals such as gold, in poorly-ventilated enclosed areas without masks and technical expertise. No sophisticated machinery or personal protective equipment is used for the extraction of different materials. This results in direct exposure to dangerous and slow-poisoning chemicals, risking their health and natural environment. In the absence of suitable techniques and protective measures, recycling ewaste can result in toxic emissions and pose a serious health and environmental hazard. For eg., Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) have high content

E-hazards often arise due to improper recycling and disposal... In India, there is lack of governmental legislations on e-waste. of carcinogens such as lead, barium, phosphor and other heavy metals. When disposed carefully in a controlled environment, they do not pose any serious risk. But breaking, recycling or disposing CRTs in an uncontrolled environment without necessary precautions can result in harmful side effects for workers and release toxins into the soil, air and water.

Computer waste that does not have any resale or reuse value is openly burnt or dumped in landfills. Many of India's corporations burn e-waste such as PC monitors,

PCBs, CDs, motherboards, cables, toner cartridges, light bulbs and tube-lights along with garbage, releasing large amounts of mercury and lead into the atmosphere. A study on the burning of printed wiring boards showed an alarming concentration of dioxins in the surrounding areas where open burning was practised. These toxins cause an increased risk of cancer if inhaled by workers and local residents or by entering the food chain via crops from the surrounding fields.

Harmful e-waste substances are highly toxic and hazardous, if not handled properly. Companies must realize going green saves money and hence they must focus their efforts on eco-friendly products that reduce carbon and other harmful emissions. Products sold must be backed by efficient disposal strategies to effectively tackle the problem of e-waste. Eventually, the government has to define roles of each stakeholder, including vendors, users, recyclers and regulator for environment friendly recycling.

E-WASTE RECYCLING Trade in e-waste is dominated by the 'informal' sector. Recycling of e-waste is largely undertaken by unorganized recyclers, in an unscientific manner. There are no clear guidelines for the unorganized sector to handle e-waste. Informal sector is handling and recycling over 95% of India's e-waste which is not only generated within India, but imported illegally as well. A large chunk of Indian companies still do not have an e-waste disposal policy that has captured the attention of large, existing network of informal sector. An e-waste case study in Bangalore estimates around 25,000 The

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people work in the informal ewaste sector, earning wholly or partly their living out of it.

However, thanks to the informal sector, e-waste has been kept away from the dump sites so far. But, its activity still generates a high environmental and social impact (use of toxic chemicals, poor working conditions, child labor, etc.). It is time for us to acknowledge these skilled workers by integrating them in a transparent and organized national e-waste collection & recycling system. India needs simpler, low-cost eco-friendly technology for reusing, recycling and recovery of metals, glass & plastics and hazardous materials such as phosphor coating, LEDs, mercury, etc. Of late, companies such as LG, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Wipro and Infosys are involved in eliminating toxic chemicals from electronic goods. The electronics industry needs advanced e-waste recycling facilities that do not pose a threat to workers and environment. This can be made possible with the enactment of existing ewaste guidelines into legislation.

WEEE - NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIONS Worldwide, the first legal regulation on WEEE came into force on July 1, 1998, enacted by the Swiss government through Ordinance on the Return, taking back and Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ORDEE).

The purchase price of all appliances covered by the ORDEE includes a prepaid disposal charge based on voluntary sectoral agreements. End-of-life equipments can The

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import of such wastes from countries that have not ratified the convention. The Supreme Court of India has banned the import of such waste. Hazardous waste management and handling rules, controls the import of hazardous waste from any part of the world into India.

However, import of such waste may be allowed for processing or reuse as raw material. There is no specific legislation pertaining to the management of e-waste so far.

Many companies still do not have an e-waste disposal policy that has captured the attention of large, existing network of informal sector thus be returned by customers free of charge. Consumers are obliged to return end-of-life appliances and are not allowed to dispose them via household waste or bulky waste collections. Under the ORDEE, retailers, manufacturers and importers have to take them back at no charge.

On the domestic front, the Government of India has reiterated its commitment to waste minimization and control of hazardous wastes, both nationally and internationally. India signed the Basel Convention on March 15, 1990, for the control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Disposals on. As per the Basel Convention, signatories cannot export hazardous wastes to countries that have ratified the agreement. However, the convention agreement does not restrict the

CONCLUSION The current awareness levels among stakeholders, regarding the existence and dangers of e-waste are low. It could be partly because the volume of e-waste generated in India is not as large as in developed countries. As per The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), only two cities, Delhi and Bangalore, have effective e-waste management systems in place. Hence, urgent measures are to be taken now, to make consumers and manufacturers aware of e-waste problems. For this, first, awareness needs to be created in the informal sector on the health hazards of unscientific ewaste recycling. Second, they can be trained to handle the critical recycling processes under supervision through proper training and licensing. Finally, clean channels are the need of the hour for proper management of e-waste through a formal national policy, as how it is now available for bio-medical waste management. This is possible through successful integration of informal sector with the formal recyclers of ewaste. This would help us in leaving a clean, green & serene India for our future generations.

CYBER PROGRESS

e-sustainability

ITas a tool for Continuous Development IT is not a magic cure for all problems, yet with proper collaboration and planning, it has the tremendous potential to help organizations grow and at the same time ensure economic, social and ecological progress

I

nformation technology has provided organizations with many tools for improving data processing, creating efficient and varied modes of communication, achieving operational efficiency and improving productivity. As organizations are becoming more technology intensive, IT is no longer an after-thought; it is deeply entrenched in an organization's strategic planning processes. While IT has helped organizations achieve a competitive advantage, the role of IT as a tool for sustainable development is still questionable. Can Information Technology help organizations transform their businesses aiming at profits while ensuring economic, ecological and social prosperity by being more sustainability-oriented?

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT? Coined by the Brundtland Commission, sustainable develop-

ment is defined as development of all business activity on environthat "meets the needs of the pre- mental, social and ecological syssent without compromising the tems, it has become imperative to ability of future generations to meet strategize for competitive edge with their own needs". Sustainable holistic sustainable development development encompasses envi- strategies in place.

While considerable effronmental, economic orts are being made in the and socio-political susWest, concentrated efforts tainability. are being made in India as In our rush to comwell. The Prime Minister's pete and grow, we have Council on Climate Change grossly overused our is working on a national natural resources. The program to address differeffects of misuse and ent relevant issues. The overuse of resources by Eleventh Five-year Plan individuals as well as (2007-12) includes industries are beginning to manifest. Vandana Srivastava various strategies in the areas of afforestaGreenhouse effect, Assistant Professor - IT tion, sustainable global warming and effective use of resources are no energy use, flood protection, translonger topics of discussions for portation etc. Experts from corpothought-leaders and environmen- rate work closely with TERI-BCSD talists; they are deeply entrenched researchers to help develop soluin policy and strategic decisions. tions and strategies for use by the Today, it is no longer enough for an industry, while organizing workorganization to be competitive. shops, trainings, seminars, events Owing to the fundamental reliance and publications. Efforts for susThe

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tainable development can no longer be a government initiative; it has to be ingrained in strategic planning of all organizations and individuals.

ROLE OF IT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has played a major role in shaping the global business environment. The growth and application of various ICTbased tools and technologies have changed the way organizations work. The initial euphoria of “IT as a great enabler” having abated, it is time now for organizations to leverage IT to focus on sustainabilityoriented business. Using IT-based tools for sustainability—"e-sustainability" —in the business model is the need of the hour. Some strategies for e-sustainability: ◆ Building a real e-company through effective use of technology: What we need today are paperless organizations that rely heavily on IT-based tools. Use of intranetbased portals for communication and collabora-

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Prius, a hybrid vehicle, uses an onboard computer that takes inputs from the battery, pedal, engine and other parts and selects the correct energy source to maximize energy efficiency tion, enterprise-wide cross-functional information systems and inter-organizational information systems can reduce the reliance on traditional resource intensive business models. Video-conferencing and work-from-home will lead to reduction in travel expense, which ultimately reduces petrol consumption. Organizations need to build strategies which replace the traditional ways of doing business. ◆ Maximising efficiency and reducing carbon footprint: Judicious use of computer-controlled systems for effective planning and deployment of resources can help attain operational efficiency and reduce operational costs. Use of appropriate hardware and applications can help an organization collaborate with its partners, customers and employees while ensuring tight control. Technologies such as RFID, sensors, GPS systems are being used to ensure control despite geographical and organizational boundaries. Use of technology allows for (re)design of eco-friendly products. Using IT-based solutions, manufacturers are designing automobiles and machinery with controls and monitors that help optimize energy-consumption and control the type of effluents. One such example is Prius, a hybrid vehicle by Toyota, which uses an onboard computer that takes inputs from the battery, pedal, engine and other parts

and selects the correct energy source and other outputs in order to maximize energy efficiency. Use of computerized systems for controlling effluents from factories are being designed and used effectively. ◆ Creating and using information and tools for sustainable development: Using existing sustainability focused databases and software can help designers and engineers improve product and service design. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Initiative have developed a software program to measure the environmental impact per dollar of products. In addition, the Alliance for Environmental Innovation has created an IT-enabled tool to guide designers in selecting the least environmentally damaging material, process, and products.

Organizations pursuing the sustainability need to take a systematic approach to ensure the availability of useful information to support decisions on how to manage and enhance their social and environmental impact and value. Organizations such as Sustainable Development Networking Programme, India (SDNP India) and TERI facilitate the process of sustainable development by disseminating solutions, promoting good practices and strengthening democratic practices through a mechanism of information exchange between NGOs, government and research bodies, business establishments and civil society. ◆ Removing the Digital Divide: Even the most consistent efforts for sustainable development may not be enough without addressing human needs and social issues.

Meeting basic human needs may become the core business strategy of a sustainability-oriented company. In 1987, the Brundtland Report emphasized upon early access to and sharing of information and expertise between all nations and actors as a key component to

ensure a sustainable future for the planet. The definition of sustainable development embodies a belief that people are the most critical knowledgeable force and should be able to alter and improve their lives in accordance with criteria that take account of the needs of others and protect the planet and future generations. Information exchange is therefore an essential component to sustainable development.

While several initiatives are being taken by the government and non-government organizations, efforts taken by private organizations are substantial. Initiatives such as ITC's e-choupal, TARAHaat, NIIT's Hole-in-the Wall are making a significant difference.

Some of the commendable efforts taken for reducing the digital divide need special mention.

The Mukhtabodha Project (for Digitizing of libraries in Indian languages), egovernance initiatives such as Bhoomi (for development of cadastral maps), HoneyBee by National Innovation Foundation and IIM, Ahmedabad (which focuses on collection and digitization of information about innovations made by villagers to solve their problems), Digital Libraries set up by important institution (such as Indian Institute of Technologies at Delhi and Kharagpur, The Energy Research Institute, New Delhi, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai), and efforts of SRISTI (in strengthening the capacity of grassroots inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems) are just a few of the many steps being taken.

All such initiatives have profound implications. Information about nutritional values of foodgrains can mean better health, even to those with little to spend on food. Public disclosure of information about industrial pollution will lead to a cleaner environment. And

microcredit programmes can make it possible for poor people to invest for a better future. In a broad sense, information access gives people greater control over their destinies and environment.

HANDLING E-WASTE While ICT can play a vital role in facilitating holistic development, over dependence on IT has a negative aspect as well.

Apart from its physiological and psychological effect, one prime is the handling of ewaste. Both the hazardous and non-hazardous waste at the end of a high tech product's life—referred to as "e-waste"—presents environmental concerns. Only about 14% of computers and other devices worldwide are recycled and remanufactured. The rest find their way to landfills. The toxic wastes gradually leach into the ground water and become a health hazard. What are required are recycling organizations. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has formulated a policy on e-waste management and plans to set up recycling plants in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. Non-government organizations such as TPL, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of SIMS Recycling Solutions, and Eparisara in Bangalore are making efforts in the area of eco-friendly e-waste man-

Approaching development from an information exchange perspective can improve quality of life. Information about nutritional values of foodgrains can mean better health.

agement. They have partnered with multinational organizations contributing to their corporate social responsibility goals of an eco friendly e -waste management by minimizing product lifecycle costs, focusing on controlling toxicity, sustaining resources and reducing global carbon footprint.

The writing on the wall is clear.

All these steps may be beyond the capacity of one company but are attainable if all work together. As more businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies take the first steps, coalitions can form and difficult, cross-cutting problems can be addressed. The ecological and social impacts can be reduced through a combination of product and business (re)design, closed-loop systems, and planning and policy. IT is not a magic cure for all problems, yet with planning and collaboration with all stakeholders it has the potential to help organizations innovate for sustainable development.

Since nature is itself a large information system, its potential to change business will be unleashed only when the IT sector begins to work with nature towards sustainability.

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INFORMATION POWER

Information needed, not just plain data D

emanding "the right informa- INFORMATION GENERATION tion at the right time" may so- ALLIED ISSUES On an enterprise scale, the abiliund like a clichĂŠ, but in truth ty to make information more visible businesses require it to operate.

Before the augmentation of to the decision-makers faster and, Information Era, the decision-mak- therefore, more "actionable" is a ing events relied on guess-work or critical piece of puzzle. Even the trial and error practices. Businesses best companies face problems in key process management that wanted competitive capabilities that debase advantage switched to the realization of value information management from an enterprise wide systems for drilling and information integration detailed data analysis. system. The grounds for Such systems and meththese issues can be a nuodologies have evolved mber of data centric pracduring the tenure, what is tices that are followed: now known by the term Discrepancy amongst "business intelligence" or "BI". Business intelli- PRIYANKA KAPOOR data sources: Business intelligence can be gence is a varied cateLecturer, O & IM considered critical for gory of applications & technologies for congregation, stor- organization's existence. However, ing, analyzing, exploring, and pro- such intelligence gathering (assemviding access to data to assist enter- bling, consolidating and analyzing prises make better decisions. It's an information) about the organization's processes, financial state, perin-depth analysis of company data.

The technology and methodolo- formance and other pointers most gies that works behind the analysis often is hindered by discrepancy work on unwieldy compilation among data sources, data quality of information and transform issue, and ambiguity on how to them into organized, readily- introduce practical and positive accessible, human-readable changes to the business processes compilations of data. Enter- derived from the knowledge extractprises want to track their ed from BI initiatives.

Organizations are largely unpreoperations, industry trend and customer pared to cope with the rapid cycle of demand for up-to-date information activity pattern. which is evident after observing their attempts to respond to the rapid and intrusive growth of globalization as well as intensifying competition.

So the fact remains information is a problem as well as a solution.

Information out of reach: Needed information is dispersed in many technology systems, wherein typically, these heaps of data were cre-

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ated in response to demanding needs or as an initiative to update the organization's technology infrastructure. All these stores present information in its own format and huge amount of effort and time goes in making particular data set comprehensible to other applications and to the systems. The end product is multiple data stores and datarepositories containing data in pieces with minimum linkage; search techniques worsen the situation because of their own precincts and eccentricity. It makes the most efficient of the systems generate a situation where the question arises "With access to so much data, where is the information?"

This information inefficiency, a result of this independent source of data, is compounded when it is out of the data repository and maneuvered in tools for analysis, planning, or forecasting of the business. The result can be dicey as business managers tend to make decisions on basis of partial information. So, the question to be address is to how an enterprise accumulates "a lone version of certainty / precision".

Confined to the executive level: Even though business intelligence is widely recognized, survey shows problems with inconsistent or poor quality data and an ad hoc approach often used to mount business intelligent systems. Business Intelligence is still thought to be a technological luxury restricted to the boardroom and executive suite or to the technical analysts. The future of BI is in operational level that helps lowerlevel workers make quick and intelligent decisions about the business tasks before them.

As per a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, just 4% of respondents say they are "satisfied" with data integration and analysis in their companies. 80% say their organization's performance would progress if intelligent data were dispersed to employees other than senior and middle managers. 40%

Economist Intelligence Unit says just 4% of respondents say they are “satisfied� with data integration and analysis in their companies. report their workers make poor estimation because of insufficient data.

Report generation: Reporting is business's prime means for converting data into understandable information, but reporting as well is seized back by the multiple instances of data generated by different utility systems. Selected and formatted data together with graphs and tables and in text make a report. The scenario becomes as crucial when each reporting system is coupled with a customized application or database where the data is isolated inside it. The reports generated may carry a greater degree of variance presenting different versions of truth. What these systems provide are mere slices of information, leading users to shift between various tools available that make the whole system inefficient and timeconsuming.

With multiple systems and every system controlling and generating reports largely on just its own data repository, organizations fail to obtain comprehensive as well as

timely analysis of information on aspects about customers, products, suppliers etc.

SUGGESTIVE POINTS To create an information-centric enterprise, data from across your enterprise needs to be integrated, system should deliver self-service reporting and analysis, providing robust and flexible presentation layer for the full breadth of analytics (statistics, predictive analytics, data and text mining, forecasting, and optimization including) capabilities—all integrated within the business context for better, faster decision-making.

Information Modeling: This technique speaks about building a system above the technical systems.

This allows information access and integration that can downsize business's information and support its deployment. Such a system uses two levels of modeling that support a layer of business-to-data abstraction to make it possible for users across the enterprise to access whatever information assets they need. This modeling layering approach can assist in making optimal use of existing end-user systems and backend data investments.

An information model is a framework that provides the flexibility needed to support the business's need for customization, which is used to systematize and assist access to information resources. The The

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referred model can consist of a semantic layer, which separates the enterprise business, i.e. the logical from the physical. The scope of this model is not limited to technical users, the information labels can be generated by the non-technical, as they comprehend its meaning instead of figuring out the physical structure i.e. nature of data.

Information model has several benefits: it allows organizations to define and name information consistently, in ways that then can be standardized across the enterprise.

The model can yield a single view of information shared by everyone in the company. In addition, an information model eliminates the problem of data silos and nonconforming practices by users. A centralized information model can enforce the consistency required to maintain efficient information use across the enterprise.

Consolidation and standardization of BI applications: A key survey indicates companies impose a centralized strategy to manage their BI projects. Majority of companies use Business Intelligence tools in isolation within individual departments or groups; this scenario generates the need for consolidation and standardization of BI applications.

However, fewer platforms are preferred to consolidate the information: organizations also report that their current and legacy systems are sometimes incompatible.

Delivering information, not just versions of reports: Organizations should focus on delivering information, not just increasing the output of reports. Information is what is needed by managers and front-line employees, not reports. The information demand has led to an abundance of reports generated by point solutions even though reports that may well contradict one another. A typical scenario would explain: a report from a financial Information system might contain data that conflicts with a CRM reports sales figThe

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Organizations should focus on delivering information. Information is what is needed by managers and front-line employees, not reports ures. And since the two systems are likely to use different data formats, aligning them likely will require manual effort. This sort of inconsistency across hundreds or thousands of reports leads to frauds and costly errors. Moreover, since reporting tools in point applications tend to have limited functionality; users are more likely to reach out to IT to customize reports to suit special requirements. What majority of business intelligence systems solely do is present information in the form of historical reports that give you hindsight but limited insight.

Extract Value from Enterprise systems: Another move toward establishing a more informationcentric enterprise is the often difficult job of extracting data from multiple Enterprise systems / ERP instances (as well as other applications such as CRM). The ERP providers' own software for these areas is maturing, their primary capability remains working with data produced and stored in their own systems, with less focus on

integrating data from heterogeneous ERP, CRM and other applications.

While ERP has become synonymous with consolidation, in truth, its modules typically are not seamlessly integrated. To improve integration, ERP suites are designed to run on SOA with rewritten interfaces, adapters, portals and the applications themselves adhere to industry standards for Web services and processing based on the XML standard.

Put Databases to Fuller Use: With the development of data warehouses, data marts and BI, the data management function has shifted attention to getting data back out of the database (focused primarily on working with transactional applications); this is the central concern of another solution in bringing consistent information to a wider range of users.

When BI and reporting are tightly integrated with one database system, the tool implementations can require significant adjustment to work with other sources.

Data warehousing addresses this problem by loading data into a specialized store used by intelligent systems, reporting and analytical tools. However, even organizations that have established an enterprise data warehouse often have data marts and other sources that hold needed data as well.

REFERENCES: ◆ Business intelligence putting information to work", a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit Sponsored by SAP and Intel, Ted Kemp, Rama Ramaswami, Mike Kenny. ◆ Five ways to tame the chaos of corporate data, aligning business and IT to improve performance, Ventana Research, 2007. ◆ Why Customer Data Integration (CDI) Projects Fail - Data Model Inflexibility, Anurag Wadehra ◆ Creating the Information-Centric Enterprise, Modeling Information and Broadening Access to It Can Transform Your Business, Ventana research

SHOPPING OUT Technology has revolutionised the way we shop. And the day is not far off when we can go on a buying spree from our sofa — at the click of a mouse

T

he retailscape in India has taken off in a big way. We see corporatization of retail stores, greater emphasis on customer service, latest designs on offer, better store ambience and, of course, implementation of latest technology. Technology has helped retail organizations to improve their POS (Point of Sale) systems, in store security, supply chain and communicate better with their customers. All these functions and more are being revolutionized through investment in technology.

Let's look into some of these aspects in greater detail.

1. ELECTRONIC POINT OF SALE SYSTEM: The most commonly found EPOS system is the 'stand alone' till at the checkout point. It offers three functions: ◆ A price look-up facility, whereby the machine is able to store the prices of all SKUs through the application of an appropriate code. ◆ The ability to record and store information on the sale of individual items. ◆ The capacity to print receipts that show an abbreviated product description & price.

Much of the retail EPOS information is sent to suppliers who would have established an e-business portal that collects daily sales & other data automatically from retailers. This facilitates automatic ordering and stock replenishment at the earliest.

2. ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER

IT

IT IS IN RETAIL ALL THE WAY Electronic funds transfer has been operational for quite a while now, and enables direct transfer of funds from one bank account. The wider use of electronic transfer of funds at the Point of Sale in retail has been through installations at the checkout for payments using credit & debit cards. By the use of the debit card, customers transfer money from their account to that of the retailer's.

We now also see a lot of ATM counters coming up within stores and malls.

3. BAR CODING The bar code consists of a series of bars that can be read by the laser scanner, in addition to human-readable number. This coding system known as EAN (European Article Number), has been developed on an international basis, enabling compatibility for imported & exported goods. This eases the job of

Monica Mor Asst. Professor Marketing

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Electronic retailing was first developed on a large scale in the 1980s. This area has been advancing at a rapid rate... this could well account for a major revenue source for brick & mortar stores cashier at the cash till during checkout, and helps faster billing.

4. ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE EDI systems send the data captured at the store level direct to the suppliers or depots. It is used as a replacement to manual time-taking processes followed for stock replenishment. There are different EDI messaging systems retailers, manufacturers & shippers use. It enables JIT (just-in-time) ordering, speeding up stock turnarounds & creating close partnerships between retailers & suppliers as companies share trading data for mutual benefit.

The EDI system enables the development of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR).

5. EFFICIENT CONSUMER RESPONSE ECR makes EPOS sales data available to suppliers so that they maintain the required inventory level, via programming their production & distribution systems. Forecasting techniques are used by both retailers & the suppliers, where the supplier takes the responsibility for The

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replenishment of stock at the least possible time. International retail chains like ZARA from Spain have made the systems at their supply chain level so robust that they are able to generate great stock turnarounds, thus enabling them to reduce their prices by just about 20% during sale period as against other apparel stores who sometimes have to sell their products at 60% of the original price.

6. RFID - RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION RFID is a technology that allows an object or person to be identified at a distance using radio waves. The devices or tags are inserted into containers, cartons & even behind the merchandise label to track information about the object. The data on the device can be acquired without a visual line of sight & in harsh environments in which bar code labels don't work. RFID eliminates all manual processes in checking the movement of the stock during transit from supplier to retailers. This significantly reduces dependency on warehouses, bringing down the distribution & inventory costs.

Wal-Mart has demanded that its top hundred suppliers put RFID tags on all cases, cartons & high-margin items.

Vendors have been forced to invest more in technology upgradation.

7. ONLINE SHOPPING Electronic retailing was first developed on a large scale in the 1980s. This area has been advancing at a rapid rate, and with peoples' acquaintance with computer & internet increasing by the day, this could well account for a major revenue source for brick & mortar stores.

This, however, entails setting up of websites that are secure & user friendly.

Amazon.com has been one of the biggest success stories in e-tailing. Sitting at home or office, at the click of a button if shopping is possible, then who wouldn't want to shop.

AT THE POINT OF PURCHASE While technology has helped the retail sector in channelizing most of their backend activities, it has also benefited their marketing and communication team to reach out to prospective customers more effectively. There is extensive usage of

The future trends expected to benefit the retailing world include self checkout systems (already used in a few international stores) where a cashier's role gets eliminated.

Electronic Point-of-Sale Signage, which are LCD (Liquid Crystal Displays) that show the name & prices of merchandise.

These signs are attached to store shelves, peg hooks or products, and in many retail stores replaced the conventional price tags & printed shelf labels.

FUTURE TRENDS The future trends expected to benefit the retailing world include self checkout systems (already used in a few international stores) where a cashier's role gets eliminated. The electronic equipments cannot afford a technical failure, and the system support staff has to ensure that the equipments do not break down.

As a customer my comfort level with all these equipments in a retail outlet have been more restricted towards the Point of Sale system. Yet I can vouch for the customer convenience. Checkout time has been reduced significantly with the replacement of manual billing processes with EPOS and Bar Coding. I would be waiting for the day when trolleys would be fitted with video screens, and having uploaded my shopping list I am guided by the screen, as to which shelf I need to go for my next purchase.

Then again I have heard about virtual and interactive mirrors, which will help eliminate the pain of trying & retrying gar-

ments in the fitting rooms. Check the picture to understand what I am talking about.

Here a customer wishes to buy a garment and she is being assisted by the interactive mirror inside the trial room.

No need for trying on a garment and stepping out to seek your friend's views (with that sheepish grin when the world outside turns to look at you every time you step out wearing a new attire)..now, get your friend inside the room and try out garments virtually.

E-tailing; thumbs up for this if I am guaranteed the safety and security of my credit card details online and the websites are more visual and user friendly. I would definitely enjoy shopping online within the confines of my home. I have also heard of sites that facilitate virtual shopping. It's a concept similar to WII gaming. I wear equipments on my hands and head and walk on a virtual shopping ramp, pick out my shopping items and fill a virtual cart. Wouldn't that take us to the next level of shopping and that too convenience shopping. Check out the picture.

My suggestion: upgrade your laptops and wish yourself "Happy Shopping", 'cause now the ball is in our court whether we want to accept this technology or not, IT is going to knock on our doors real soon!

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STUDENT CORNER IT CAN REJUVENATE HEALTHCARE DR. NIDHI GUPTA (PT) PGPHA 2008-10

ealth care is the largest segment after retailing in the world and its growth in the next decade is comparable to the IT boom in the last 10 years. Health care is growing increasingly complex, and most clinical research focuses on new approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

Gone are the days when an ailing person had to travel a distance to reach a clinic/ hospital depending on the nature of the ailment, fill up a form, wait to see the doctor, collect the prescription, go to a pharmacist at another location to buy the medicines, then go to a laboratory in another location for a test, or perhaps go to different laboratories in different localities for different tests.

The patient has to go back to the laboratories to collect reports. The patient goes back to the hospital, collects the records of his previous visit, and waits for the doctor.

Gone are the days when Indians travelled abroad for speciality surgeries, incurring heavy costs.

In contrast, relatively little effort has been done to perfect operational systems, which are partly responsible for well-documented problems with medical safety. Past are the days when hospital medical stores as well as patients' files were full of piles of prescriptions and test reports. Now is the time of paperless offices, a reality in the health care industry too. All this is possible only with information technology.

Not only patient records but most complicated procedures and tests have now been computerized leaving a little room for errors. Hospital information system has made it very easy to consult any medical professional sitting anywhere.

The challenge for clinical informatics is to develop multi-perspective evaluations that integrate quantitative and qualitative methods. Computing is "an essential technology," and large corporate hospitals such as Max, Fortis, Workhardt, Escorts, NIMHANS, VIMHANS are increasingly spending on health care information technology.

But, despite the substantial opportunities for improvement in patient safety, the development, testing, and adoption of information technology remain limited. Numerous barriers exist, although

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some approaches to overcome them are at hand.

Another key to improving safety will be improving access to reference information. A wide range of textbooks, references on drugs, and tools for managing infectious disease, as well as access to the Medline database, are already available for desktop and even hand-held computers. One of the main benefits of using computers for clinical tasks that is often overlooked is that it makes it possible to implement "forcing functions"—features that restrict the way in which tasks may be performed. For example, prescriptions written on a computer can be forced to be legible and complete. Similarly, applications can require constraints on clinicians' choices regarding the dose or route of administration of a potentially dangerous drug.

Multiple studies demonstrate that computerbased decision support can improve physicians' performance and, in some instances, patient outcomes.

With the enormous investments in Information Technology, the question of payoffs from IT has become increasingly important.

Organizations continue to question the benefits from IT investments especially in conjunction with corporate initiatives. Furthermore, the impact of technology on nonfinancial outcomes such as customer satisfaction and quality is gaining interest. The difficulty in identifying impacts from technology has been the isolation of benefits of IT from other factors that may also contribute to organizational performance.

Furthermore, benefits from technology investments may be realized over an extended period.

Finally, IT benefits may accrue when they are done in concert with other organizational initiatives.

Appropriate increases in the use of information technology in health care—especially the introduction of clinical decision support and better linkages in and among systems, resulting in process simplification—could result in substantial improvement in patient safety.

It can be concluded that the fundamental difficulty in modern medical care is execution.

Providing reliable, efficient, individualized care requires a degree of mastery of data and coordination that will be achievable only with the increased use of information technology.

NO RECESSION CAN DROWN THEM Higher education is also said to be countercyclical because people who do not find jobs in recessions hat does it mean to be countercyclical? acquire new skills that will open new and better job Well, their water does not swirl in the opportunities. The weakening job market is presopposite direction in the bath tub drain. suring more adults to enhance their educational That would be the southern hemisphere, not coun- backgrounds. Similarly, layoffs are causing workers tercyclical. What it basically means is that when to learn new skills. Kevin Modany, CEO of ITT economics and finances are bad for most indus- Educational Services, said the current environment tries, things are generally pretty good for them. is placing a "premium on skilled labor". So, private They are the original "hedge" against bad times. education providers have often been viewed as These are those industries for which the demand is countercyclical companies and their recent earning not (positively) correlated with the business cycle. reports have reinforced this reputation.

Similar is the case with Medical Care, which also The demand for their products is not much affected by availability of current income, but by other shows countercyclical behavior. It is a necessity so people even in recession would not avoid heath personal, social or economic factors.

The sales will skyrocket, according to Burger King care. Moreover this industry also fits in the definichief executive John Chidsey, who told Reuters that tion of a typical countercyclical industry— one that despite recession, "If you look at the QSR space— shows increased growth in bad times. The need of hospitalization, medical help, and the quick-service restaurants—we psychiatric help increases when peotend to be countercyclical because THE DEMAND FOR ple are stressed and under pressure. as people have pressure on disposTHEIR PRODUCTS This is the case with the transable income, people trade for IS NOT MUCH portation industry, especially their value. Which makes sense if you AFFECTED BY labor force. When things are great all think about it, as people don't THE AVAILABILITY OF around, they may be hurting a bit. mind dropping a few dollars for a CURRENT INCOME, When recessions hit, and companies quick meal or a cool game, which lay off workers, the top level workers Chidsey calls disposable income.”

BUT BY OTHER take a pay cut and work at middle Chidsey told Reuters that a typical PERSONAL, SOCIAL management, the middle managers person can eat well on $25 a day OR ECONOMIC who are out of work take clerical whether they are health conscious FACTORS jobs, the out of work clerical workers or not, especially if they're purchas(not to be confused with clerics, who ing items from the value menu.

Similar could be the case with Mc Donald's who are never out of work) take menial labor jobs, and whoever is left that needs cash goes to drive a taxialso offer Value Menus and many more like them.

But in a comparison with videogames, Douglas cab (though this is usually not the case with A. McIntyre of 24/7 Wall Street wrote that the Indians). Since they (transportation companies) are videogame industry is also a disposable income not only in the business of moving passengers, but market that won't feel the recession either. One of also in the business of leasing vehicles to drivers, as the examples he used was the sale of Nintendo's they get more drivers, their utilization increases, Wii system, with a 17.5 million projected figure and their companies prosper.

This state can also be attributed to automobile increased to 18.5 million for fiscal 2008.

"Even modest gamers are probably not investing repair business which is also countercyclical in more than $1 a day over the course of a year," most circumstances. While there may be a few McIntyre explained. "The video game industry shows people who will be forced to get rid of their cars even a modestly expensive product can sell in large rather than repair them if they are laid off in a volumes in a weak economy if its value is clear. recession, many others will need them so badly Videogame consoles sell for $200 to $500. Video they will spend money repairing a car they cannot games are under $100. But, heavy users play for afford to replace. Historically the latter has outhours a day. That means the net cost of the prod- weighed the former. Similar is the case with groucts is in pennies a day. Moreover nothing goes bet- cery chains in recessions, since people do not cut ter with a big, fat, juicy burger than fries smothered down much on them when they are in moderate financial distress. in ketchup, unless you add videogames to the mix.

CHITRA BHAWNANI PGPHA 2008-10

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BOOKMARK

Learn to make profits — the Wal-Mart way BOOK REVIEW B Bhattacharyya Vice Chairman, IILM

WAL SMART : WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO PROFIT IN A WAL MART WORLD. Author: William H. Marquard (Tata McGraw Hill Ed.) PP 258 + Index.

Price 450/- year not mentioned

T

o begin with a quiz, which are the only two companies in USA which showed a rise in their share prices in 2008?

Answer, as some of you may be aware, Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

On reflection, is not this what is expected at a time when everyone, who is anyone, is talking of apocalypse, at least of the financial type?

When money is scarce, when you think you may well be the next guy who is going to be 'benched'; then you go for expenditure squeeze.

One sure way to do this is to go to Wal-Mart which from the beginning adopted the strategy of giving value to customers in the form of lowest possible prices. 'Everyday Low Price' has been the single The

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most important USP of Wal-Mart.

And its growth, phenomenal as it has been, testifies to its success.

India is considered by most marketing experts as a country where value for money proposition rules, at least for majority. WalMart strategy is, therefore, something which should be relevant to India. Indian consumers may have to wait some more time, depending on which way the new government will go as to the FDI in retail, but the students for retailing will learn a lot from this book.

EXTRACTS Wal-Mart executives admit that the majority of their customers are "opening price point" shoppers who are looking for the entry-level product, such as a store-brand cola or a bare-bones DVD player.

The average Wal-Mart customer earns between $40,000 to $45,000 consistent with the $44,000 median United States household income. Modest-income customers tend to go first for the product at the lowest price, lest they have to sacrifice other purchases by having spent too much of their paycheck.

This explains why 86 percent of Americans with household incomes of less than $25,000 have shopped Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart supercenters in the last six months. It also explains why WalMart notched a 10 percentage point gain in the number of shoppers earning less than $25,000 who say they shopped more at Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart supercenters in the previous year. It notched no gain at all among shoppers with household incomes over $ 100,000.

A satisfied customer is the key BOOK REVIEW Sujit Sengupta Associate Professor & Area Head Marketing

Title: SATISFIED CUSTOMERS TELL 3 FRIENDS, ANGRY CUSTOMERS TELL 3000 Author: Pete Blackshaw Pages: 193 Price: Rs.601

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e are accustomed to the catchphrase "Satisfied customers are the best advertisement of a product' or "Satisfied customers tell 4 others and really dissatisfied customers 10 to 11". And all marketing directions aim towards this saying. The latest in the series is the book written by Pete Blackshaw "Satisfied customers tell 3 friends angry customers tell 3000."

In today's Internet-driven world, customers have more power than ever. Through what interactive marketing expert Pete Blackshaw calls "consumer-gener-

ated media (CGM)"-blogs, social networking pages, message boards, product review sites-even a single disgruntled customer can broadcast his complaints to an audience of millions.

This creates enormous challenges—and potential liabilities— for major companies and brands, but it also presents unprecedented opportunities. Three truths are outlined upfront in the book: ■ Businesses cannot control behavior of consumers. There is an clearly identifiable ground shift in how consumers talk to companies ■ The longer companies refuse to accept the influence of consumerto-consumer communication and bring about old ways of doing business, the more they will alienate and drive away their customers ■ To succeed in a world where consumers now control the conversation, and where satisfied customers tell three friends, while angry customers tell 3000, companies must achieve credibility on every front.

Managers, marketers, and business leaders have to establish and maintain credibility for their brand by being authentic, listening and responding to customers and forming relationships built on openness, transparency, and trust.

Filled with stories based on the author's experience working with and studying Fortune 500 brands such as Toyota, Nike, Sony, General Motors, Unilever, Nestlé, Southwest, Lexus, and Bank of America, Blackshaw offers a clear strategy to sustain a competitive advantage by creating enduring, loyal relationships with today's consumer driven society.

This book is a practical guide on how to build a brand authentically in today's word as business cannot afford to ignore CGM and they no longer have anywhere to hide.

A real case study for aspiring entrepreneurs BOOK REVIEW Sweta Gupta Lecturer, Accounting and Finance

Title: ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT Author: K. Ramachandran Pages: 257 Price: Rs.350

I

ndia is experiencing a paradigm shift with tremendous interest among youngsters to pursue entrepreneurial careers.

Entrepreneurship is a combination of skills, attitude, and knowledge, difficult to teach in conventional institutional framework but possible to develop through educational inputs. The role of an effective teaching material in building an entrepreneurial society is crucial given that the new generation of entrepreneurs has to come immediately after graduation or later. The common challenge faced by academicians is the limited availability of material to impart entrepreneurship education.

Case study is a superior method to build entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities. Cases are descriptions of real life situations that pro-

vide opportunities for discussion and capability-building. There can be problem cases where the student is exposed to decision-making dilemmas or case histories wherein the student learns about interesting events that provide opportunities for analysis. Both kinds of cases help the students in developing conceptual clarity. The experience of case analysis enables students to gain confidence in their judgments. It builds listening skills, speaking skills, team skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills.

The book has a collection of cases that show what entrepreneurs have done both on economic and social fronts across India. All cases discuss the start-up phase, how they spotted the opportunity and the challenges they faced. There are stories of successful people who became immortal by creating new products and services and transformed the way things are done. They spotted an unmet need and offered an innovative but acceptable solutions to people. The book presents success stories in sectors like food products, social service, retail, education, pharmaceuticals, software, designing, consultancy, hospitality, outsourcing, etc. Through these 16 case studies the book aims to inculcate in the readers entrepreneurial capabilities.

The book is a rich resource for teaching entrepreneurship. Each case offers a strong base for classroom discussion that can develop insight into the content and process of entrepreneurship. Students will appreciate cases that are drawn from environment which they are familiar with and case analysis to be one of the most appropriate tools to build relevant entrepreneurial capabilities.

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Imagining India is a positive dream

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n this planet Earth, every sixth person is an Indian and to put their imagination with one's own scholarly inputs is indeed a marathon task and here, in these 531 pages of exciting book, "Imagining India", Nandan Nilekani does it with immense genius.

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this book is divided in four parts. Part I (8 chapters) is about India re-imagined, Part II (6 chapters) is titled as 'All Aboard', Part III (5 chapters) is about 'Fighting words', Part IV (7 chapters) is christened as "Closer Than They Appear.". He climaxes the book with a conclusion chapter and appropriately christened, "The Awakened Country".

The book is lucid in its content and Nandan starts with Nehru whom he happened to have seen in his childhood with his father.

Nehruvian imprint is seen in his writing. He has well read contemporaries authors like Ved Mehta, VS Naipaul, Salman Rushdie etc. and obviously he is very much in tune with the present intellectual psyche of the nation. Not only that he has had numerous meetings with, "Who's who" galaxy of people like; Ramachandra Guha, Atul Kohli, Girish Karnad, Kaushik Basu, Sam Pitroda, Deepak Nayyar, Pachauri, N Parthasarthi, P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Jairam Ramesh, and so on. One can have a glimpse of the people whom Nandan met during the course of writing this book. He seems to have met all sorts of people personally. They include journalists, bureaucrats, politicians, technocrat, intellectuals, thinkers, economist, and sociologists etc.

That reflects his immense passion to explore the imaginations, dreams and ideas about present The

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BOOK REVIEW Kailash Tuli Professor OB/HRM

Title: IMAGINING INDIA Ideas for the New Century Author: Nandan Nilekani Publisher: Penguin Group, Allen Lane Pages: 531, 2008, Price:Rs. 699,

and future India. Such deep understanding of the Indian psyche is also due to his being the part of India's IT revolution at Infosys.

The ingredients are from deep churning of the psyche of intellectuals of all shades and thus the result is an exceptionally not to be missed book: "Imagining India".

Nandan writes about his personal middle class background but at the same time he has a clear vision of those millions those who live in poverty, villages, slums and other economic and socially illconducive and hostile environments. It is strange that we all are so diverse and yet all are Indians.

Probably with any scientific analysis we may struck a rationale that diversity has to be a law in a country of 1100 million people.

Using the term of Peter Drucker about 'Knowledge Societies', it is a

coincidence that India armed with its power of English language, a reasonable infrastructure of education and IIT-like institutions could be a part of global technology. It is a great 'Power Shift' happening in global scenario and emergence of India is causing great ripples in the world. That is how India could respond well rather excellently in this global revolution, which has undoubtedly changed the world and India in particular. The Indian middle class is the most competitive facet of millions of Indians.

Their role is like the prime mover in any gigantic system. These socio-economic percolation would take may be 2-3 decades to make India more booming, shining and in tune with developed countries.

Even right now there is something like glittering scenarios of Rich and Famous in India as they could be anywhere in USA or Europe. The only disheartening part is that they are too much in proximity with Dharavi and other pathetic pockets of poverty.

The author believes that IT can bring equity, efficiency and effectiveness all three-in-one healing pill for the nation. He feels this can empower to "People Power".

Quoting Minoo Masani with reverence, Nilekani writes, “It is Minoo’s small man' - people demanding better solutions, people impatient and angry with ineffectual ideology - who is bringing new policies to the fore front, driving change and shaping a renewed idea of India.”

These special kind of young ones or YAVIS (Young, Attractive, Verbal, Intelligent, and Successful) are steering the new generation and in few years their wonderful tribe is likely to flourish too many folds.

Young boys and girls of postreform of India have new interests

and inspirations. They are not Energy, Politics, Poverty, Water, political enthusiasm. But right now, much concerned about traditional Transparency, Urban matters, we still face a whole 'rhetorictopics and life styles. There is a Environment, NDA, BJP & UPA etc. implementation gap'. India is playbrave new world unfolding before The most frequent personalities ing catch up from far afield, and these youths. To add flavor, IT, mentioned are: Chidambaram, infrastructure is finally getting the Internet, mobile phones, plenty of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, funds it needs---but the problems domestic airlines, credit cards, and Rajiv Gandhi, Montek Singh spring up when it is time to build. charming salary packages, are fuel- Ahluwalia, Nehru, Vajpayee, Vijay (Page: 252) "THIS IS WHERE it gets messy. ing their passions of living a life full Kelkar, etc.

There are many wonderful So far, the debates on our various of "Affluenza". Their new mindset, to enjoy life, has transformed a sig- excerpts from this book out of issues have been fairly straightforward to write about. But we have nificant young sector of India in to a which I will like to catch a few.

“When I travel outside India, my two kinds of ideas in India now--dynamic and robust nation. In very specific way it is that many advan- homesickness and sense of dis- those we can discuss calmly and tages of new economy are reaching placement are the aural as they are somewhat coherently and those many and yet there are many who visual. In India it is impossible to where our debates rapidly derail remain untouched by that. This is miss the chatter and noise of a pub- into white-hot, emotional argujust a very peculiar phenomenon in lic place--- which I find is often sev- ments, deeply rooted in ideology India and only demographers, soci- eral decibels higher here than any- and beliefs so long-held they have ologists and psychologists can where else in the world. And not become a matter of faith. ------- The only do we love to talk, we do it in idea that the country has become explain it. different tongues." more optimistic about over the last Imagining India is a very posi- thousand sixty years---demographics, entretive dream and its realization is (Page: 83) preneurship, the seen by Nandan through IT. Already IT Imagining India is a very positive dream and English language, the of IT, globalizahas shown its Midas its realization is seen by Nandan through IT. role tion and democracy--Touch in banking, elechave been the tions and voting, ID Already IT has shown its Midas Touch in foundation for an cards, railways, PAN, banking, elections and voting, ID cards, expanding economy." bill payments and so (Page: 287) on. But the size of our railways, PAN, bill payments and so on.

"They say fortune nation indicates even "My wife, Rohini visits a lot of is all about timing, and India has gigantic efforts are not enormous.

More the computerization in India, government schools as part of her incredibly lucky over that our NGO reach-out. One of the ques- growth story is happening at a time the merrier it would be.

Indian Diaspora is quite relevant tions she most likes to ask the kids when the technological revolution is topic, which he has touched. As of what they would like to be when providing us with a basis for a funnow it is a boon. There was a time they are grown up. The answers are damental transformation in goverwhen it was considered brain drain. varied —'engineer' teacher', 'po- nance, better public service sand for In fact thousands of youth have an liceman and, increasingly, 'comput- creating a targeted safety net for the incorrigible mission to go abroad. er' [sic]. But even in the rural poor. ----India particularly well suitThey can go to any extent to get schools, one aspiration that they ed to harness the powerful capabilthemselves out of India, in spite of never express is 'farmer'---their ity of IT just as we are undertaking horrible odds they face in Western parents hope that the lives of their our biggest development journey. children will be different from the The talent that made India the cendestinations.

Bibliography index is often a subsistence livelihoods that they as tre of global delivery in IT over the sharp indicator of what names, farmers have endured, and they last fifteen years has now developed themes and topics obsessed the and their children see these schools the skills and experience it needs to apply these learnings at home. ---author. In Nandan's book, one as their way out. (Page: 206) “We make our plans and India's potential here to become an would see the most frequent references and some of these are; announce our schemes,' Montek open, wired economy, unregulated Bureaucracy, Caste, Congress, says, 'but the potential of our plans by any kind of 'intellectual license Constitution, Democracy, Economy, and their real successes have been permit raj', can be a strength diffiIT, Infosys, Infrastructure, Telecom very different." ...Our investments cult to beat in today's information enterprise, Labor, Education, in infrastructure today get plenty of age." (Page: 382-3) The

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S A N ATA N

S A N G E E T

S A N

S

anatan in Sanskrit means eternal or timeless. The coming into existence of Sanatan Sangeet Sanskriti is the result of the efforts of a group of lovers of music and dance to find a promotingforum-cum-research-institute for music, dance and other Indian arts.

The Sanatan Sangeet Sanskriti was established in the year 1993 with the above objectives in mind and proposes to engage in shaping talents and to enable others to learn and appreciate art. Under this, the Sanskriti provides teaching facilities for classical and light music and dance, particularly Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. It also provides facilities for research in music, dance and other Indian arts.

Conducting competitions for young artists in music, dance, awarding outstanding artists to honour them are part of the gamut of the activities of the Sanskriti.

THE AWARDS FOR 2009 ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Clockwise, the Sanathan Sangeet Sanskriti awardees are Pushkar Lele, Prabha Shah and Pandit Birju Maharaj, respectively. Ms Malvika Rai, MN Krishnamani and KV Rajan distributed these awards to the distinguished artistes The

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Sanatan Nritya Samman to honour a senior artist for his/her personal excellence and outstanding contributions to the Indian classical music/dance, awarded to Pt. Birju Maharaj.

N S K R I T I

S A M A R O H

Sanatan Kalakriti Puraskar given to a distinguished artist in the area of painting and sculpture category in recognition of his / her achievements and potential, to Ms Prabha Shah.

Sanatan Sangeet Puraskar given to a distinguished young artist in recognition of his/her talents, achievements and potential, in the area of Indian classical music/dance, awarded to Mr. Pushkar Lele.

This year, the awards were given at an event on Friday, March 13, 2009, at India International Centre, New Delhi. Mr. Pushkar Lele a budding vocalist, performed enchanting ‘Raagas’ and mesmerized the audience.

Pt. Birju Maharaj performed 'Hori', displaying various ‘mudras’. The flirtations between Radha and Krishna enacted by him were a wonder to watch.

Simultaneously, Ms. Prabha Shah portrayed the performance of Pt. Birju Maharaj on canvas by using vibrant colors. Eminent personalities from all walks of life were present and enjoyed the performances to the fullest.

2 0 0 9

clockwise Pandit Birju Maharaj greets eminent guest Zohra Sehgal and autographs the painting of Prabha Shah. Birju Maharaj and Pushkar Lele dazzle the audience with their performances The

Edge 41

Gestalt Therapy for counselors from schools

WORKSHOP/SEMINAR Prof. Tuli in interaction with a group of school counselors, and explaining them the fundamentals of Gestalt counseling approach

Gestalt therapy is an existential and experiential approach in psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapistclient relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation.

Personal responsibility and the principle of "Here and Now" are the core fundamental principles of this counseling approach.

A half-day workshop on Gestalt therapy was held at IILM, Lodhi Road on 9 February 2009. The program was especially designed for counsellors from various reputed schools from Delhi and other cities. Ms. Neeti Sanan gave a welcome address and introduced IILM to the counselors present. She then welcomed Prof Tuli to commence the workshop.

The workshop was very well conducted, with many participative members. A movie was shown during the workshop as well. Ms. Grewal from GNPS, Chandigarh, gave parenting tips on handling children better in today's age of stress and tension.

After the completion of the The

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workshop, Ms Pooja Talwar gave a presentation on the undergraduate courses at IILM. There were many questions asked during the presentation. The group was then led to the basement to do few Gestalt exercises, which was part of the workshop.

The school counselors felt that the workshop was extremely useful and a 4-hour session did not do justice to the topic that needed at least two to three days to reap full benefit of the therapy. They also suggested that the summer break of the schools would be a good time to do so. Feedback received from counselors was very positive and encouraging.

Ms Satinder Kaur of Guru Harkishan Public School appreciated the seminar and felt that she gained from it and also enjoyed it.

For Ms. Dona Pal of St. Columba's School, the workshop was a great refresher. The activities were engaging and could be very well appreciated in school.

The participants were from distinguished schools like Neena Virmani from Pathways, Nidhi Kaul from Suncity Schools, Nandita Saha from BTS and Shalu Gupta from DPS, Rohini.

ROHINI RODE

Fun merged with learning at this day’s session "Why can't a man marry his widow's sister?" was the question raised to check the listening skills of the participants during a quick session of rapid fire questions at a Staff Training Workshop at IILM, New Delhi Campus. The one-day workshop was conducted on the March 18, 2009.

There were 20 enthusiastic participants from the Gurgaon and Delhi Campuses who transformed the workshop into a peppy, bubbly and perky environment of fun-filled learning.

Several departments participated in this absorbing event. They were from administration, program office, library, placement, and hostel coordinators, etc. An icebreaking session called 'Musical Chairs' kick-started the session. The only deviation from the rules was that the participants could run to any corner and in any direction, enabling departmental friends to go beyond comfort zones better.

Settling with unknown faces as neighbors, the session started by each of the participants introducing their partners. They spoke about things that they felt great about IILM like the people, ambience, infrastructure, discipline. In addition, some aspects of IILM that could be improved—like basic induction or orientation when a new member joins our IILM family, to have more training programs internally, may be an annual picnic—were discussed.

A session on ASK analysis was conducted to check that of the

three components—i.e. ATTITUDE or SKILLS or KNOWLEDGE—which is the most important component to achieve success. A debate was initiated and soon got resolved by an activity in groups where participants identified their leader-icon and unique qualities of the person.

The director-cum-executive dean gave an overview of the bschool and all functions, after which followed a session on communication skills. In this one and two-way communication, verbal and non-verbal communication, barriers— perception, filtering and listening—were covered. The so-called "Chinese whisper" was an interesting account of how filtered communication flows, while in the listening session, there was active, selective and passive listening.

There was a test on listening during which the participants proved themselves to be very good listeners, but boomeranged during rapid fire questions!

Customer service session followed, in which they shared good and bad experiences; understood what it takes to be giving an ecstatic customer delight.

The participants recalled their 'moments of truth' that their customers face with them, and most importantly addressed the issue of who all are their customers— internal as well as external.

The last and most attentiongrabbing session was interpersonal skills and team-building session, with each topic having an engaging activity. In interpersonal skills, multiple balls were to be juggled within the entire group of 20 people. And finally, each team in the last activity had to build a strong and sturdy bridge out of 30 old newspapers.

They individually passed the "smile" parcel before the end of the day to mark fun at learning.

PALLAVI GHOSH

Recession and the Indian industry GUEST LECTURE

Participants at the workshop at IILM’s Gurgaon Campus

A one-day workshop was held at IILM’s Gurgaon Campus on the "Impact of Recession on the Indian Industry and its Future Trends".

It was attended by over 40 alumni from different campuses of IILM. The speakers at the workshop included automobile industry expert N.K. Bansal and general manager of HT Media Rahul Jain, Prof. Rahul Mishra, Associate Dean, IILM, Prof. Deepak Tandon and Prof. Vijesh Jain.

New insights emerged from the workshop; notably, one regarding the management perspective to the current crisis, where quality in management can lead the industry to emerge out of this recession. Also, the need to re-look its priorities with regard to the nature and dynamics of the owner-manager relationships.

Although it is a bit difficult to achieve a strong relationship between the owner and the manager universally, unless this is done, it will be very difficult to come out of recessionary trends, one of the experts at the workshop asserted. Short-time economic measures can only give a

temporary respite from this crisis. The proposed management success model will also help businesses grow in a healthy manner while ensuring longterm sustainability and societal acceptance. Improved ownermanager relationship can also provide a conducive environment for employees to be more innovative, motivated and loyal to their employers. In such situations, employees will also find opportunities for long-term personal advancement and their contribution to the businesses will be more positive.

While advancement of global communication has proved to be a boom for most businesses, it has unleashed complicated speculative buying and selling in the commodities. This has created a dangerous situation where prices rise and fall on unrealistic expectations. The result is the market in sync with the fundamentals.

Although it may be very difficult to regulate commodity exchanges or not, it is possible to promulgate certain measures to reduce the number of 'uninformed' and 'uncertified' speculators.

VIJESH JAIN The

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Relevance of IT in business world DHIRAJ SAXENA, with his rich experience in Informayion Technology (IT), enlightened students with ITs significance in business during his hour-long lecture at IILM Lodhi Road campus in March. The focus of Mr. Saxena's presentation was alignment of IT with business objectives and its integration with the value chain. During his lecture, he elucidated various components of IT—people management framework, customer relationship framework, supplier management framework and information security & standards compliance, etc.

During his lucid discourse, Mr. Saxena elaborated on what information is and its relevance in

GUEST LECTURE today's world. Information is a meaningful collection of data from which a person can derive knowledge for working better with stakeholders. He said that the key attribute of managing IT

IILM teachers dance to the tune of TransBodyTrain WORKSHOP on an interesting and absorbing theme 'TransBodyTrain dance' was conducted for faculty members at IILM Lodhi Road Campus, on 14th March. About 12 members participated in this unique workshop which was conducted by Ms. Susen Okotie, an intercultural Trance Teacher, and Facilitator in the International School of Biodanza. She was supported by her colleague Mr. Rudolph. They have an Institute of Biodance and Transbody in Vienna. (See website: www.transbodytrain.org) TransBodyTrain works with musical/rhythmical/melodic trance as a field opener for different kinds of experiences being expressed by the body in motion.

TransBodyTrain promotes or deflagrates levels of deeper trance and The

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suspension where resistances of all kinds can melt down and relaxation or reconnection can take place.

This practice leads to vitality and a sense of well-being and just by dancing together it can bring back a community feeling of working together. It can be an effective "Team Building" activity in the context of Management. Due to its effect on the parasympathic system, it can be of great therapeutic value in stress reduction.

TransBodyTrain is for those who are on the verge of something new, be it that they become aware of inner limitations, which they would like to overcome. All participants had quite unique experience, which they felt busted stress and added cheers to their mood, motivation creativity and enthusiasm.

KAILASH TULI

is the availability and confidentiality of information. In other words, information needs to be available only to the authorized person and not to anybody else.

DAMINNI GROVER

Academic tie-up with Cologne University IILM Institute for Higher Education and Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany signed an academic agreement for student exchange.

This university is the largest university of applied sciences in Germany. It has 18,000 students and offers more than 45 courses and has 450 professors. Over 3,000 foreign students from 93 nations also study here. The web link is http://www.fh-koeln.de/ fh_www/hochschule/welcome/en glish.html. Collaborations of this nature give an international exposure to students. IILM students have gone to Austria, France, and UK. Present tie-ups will give students an opportunity to visit Cologne. This will be very beneficial for IILM students who want to learn in the historical city of Cologne in Germany.

“It is the youth’s duty to protect the earth from the demon called global warming.”

THE Business Management students of IILM, Lodhi Road got an opportunity to witness an informative and eye-opening talk on “climatic change” by Mr. Bhure Lal. Mr. Bhure Lal is a man of multifarious interests and strong commitment to values. He is one of those rare administrators who has made their mark wherever they have worked. Born and brought up in Delhi, he started his career in the army. Later, he joined the Indian Administrative Service and was allotted to the Uttar Pradesh cadre. His posting as district magistrate in Allahabad and Varanasi brought him closer to the people and their problems. Later, he was chosen to work as secretary to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has worked with two Prime Ministers of the country as joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office. He has never forgotten his first career with the armed forces that led him to closely observe the activities of ISI in India and he published a book under the title ‘Monstrous Face of ISI insight into the global menace of terrorism’. He has been a whistle-blower against corruption and landed himself in hot water a number of times.

He spoke on the contemporary issue of global warming and its consequences on the welfare as well as living conditions of human beings. Climatic change is not only an environmental issue. It has also become an economic, political and human issue. The scriptures of Hinduism, Judaism, Jainism, Christianity and Islam have emphasized on the promi-

ENVIRONMENT WATCH nent place of environment. One who does not love God's creation will not be allowed to live on this earth. We can see this saying taking a real turn. For instance, in Darfur (Africa), a civil war is going on and the natives have been rendered as refugees. This situation is the result of the current problem of global warming.

According to UN estimates, by 2050, refugees will be around 200

A 2.5 ton AC generates 3 kgs of carbon dioxide. A geyser that runs for 1 hour emits 3.3 kg of carbon dioxide. Excessive use of lead can destroy the creative genes of children making them indolent million and as per the research conducted by International Red Cross society, the number of refugees by 2025 will be 25 million. Many countries have been adversely affected: Australia is facing drought for the last 9 years and Spain is also in its clutches of resulting in the destruction of manpower on a large scale.

Glaciers are melting due to the rising temperature and if it continues in the same fashion, islands such as Sri Lanka, Maldives etc. will be submerged within the next 30 to 35 years.

Flora and fauna are also affected badly as three of our species disappear every year. Even India is not free from the threats being imposed by the global meltdown.

For instance, a half degree rise in temperature can decrease wheat production by 17% and rice production by 30%.

The concept of industrial revolution, migration of people from rural to urban areas, industries based on consumerism and increasing energy needs are some of the factors responsible for the current problem. Every individual contributes to global warming by using material comforts like cars, air conditioners, microwaves, geysers, iPods, music systems, washing machines etc. Did you know that 2.5 ton ac generates 3kgs of carbon dioxide? Did you know that a geyser when runs for 1 hour emits 3.3 kg of carbon dioxide? Did you know that excessive use of lead can destroy the creative genes of children making them indolent?

However, the above statistics are like a wake-up call for today's youth. We have been depositing poison in our Earth. Now it is our duty to preserve the natural environment for our own good and welfare. It is the duty of the youth to protect the mother EARTH from the demon called GLOBAL WARMING. The world doesn't need anymore tsunamis, when the sea comes in conflict with nature but restoration of nature.

The youth must become energetic and determined in order to achieve the aim of creating an environment where all the species may breathe properly and freely.

AADITYA SHARMA The

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CAREER MANAGEMENT CENTRE The Career Management Centre (CMC), a unique initiative of IILM, aims at providing a comprehensive array of services and support for its students and alumni for assistance in their career development. CMC mentors student development and provides all information and resources required to find a place in industry.

CMC also recognizes that student's knowledge, skills and attitude play a vital role in their career choices. With this in mind, it facilitates various tests to measure the students' career-related competencies and develop them to their best.

The CMC has five segments working towards its main objective.

1. PLACEMENT DIVISION The division facilitates summer internship and final employment activities, including various other year-long activities for a better understanding of the corporate world. The prime responsibilities taken are final and summer placement in the domestic and international sectors through an on-line job portal. For better corporate understanding, corporate interaction, industry visits, corporate lectures, networking with professional bodies, student and official participation in seminar and conferences and corporate empanelment are coordinated.

The significant achievements of the CMC are as follows: A. International Placements at IILM Institute for Higher Education ◆ Al Wazzan Group from Kuwait: One candidate was placed on a salary package of Rs.9.40 lakh per annum.

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ON THE JOB TRAIL ◆ Sakshi Advertising from Dubai: One candidate placed on a salary package of Rs.9.20 lakh per annum.

B. Pan Campus Recruitment by Leela Group One of the initial processes at IILM was the Pan Campus Recruitment Process for The Leela Group hosted by IILM institute of higher education. There were a total of 736 students who participated in this process from 8 campuses across Delhi and NCR. The group selected 15 students after a 2-day rigorous selection process from all the campuses. Three students from IILMIHE have been recruited for various departments of the hotel.

Our campus and premises were highly admired by all who visited.

C. CII World Economic Forum India Economic forecasts predict that India's growth rate is 7% in 2009 despite the slowdown in many of the largest industrialized economies.

However, the resilience of the Indian economy will continue to be tested by looming global and domestic challenges.

It brings us great joy to share that a team of selected IILM students provided support and coordination on all organizational aspects of this forum.

It was a great opportunity of international exposure for our students wherein they interacted with global leaders.

2. ASSESSMENT CENTRE Aptitude, attitude, competencies, interests, personality and

values play an important role in career choices. The Assessment Centre pays attention to this aspect and measures students' behavioral and job-related competencies. With this in mind, CMC’s Assessment Centre conduct 16 PF and DBDA test psychometric tests to measure the students' career-related competencies and further develop them to the fullest by providing guidance to students by counseling.

Guidance in Career counseling and mentoring activities is provided by the department's Senior Faculty through the process of investigating possible career options and help students make career choices which are in tune with their interests, abilities, and work experience.

The counseling sessions for the students is a continuing process, which includes individual counseling session as well.

3. LIFE SKILLS Leadership and the potential to solve problems is an essential attribute for the manager of today. The Life Skills programme will train budding managers in the skills required for decisionmaking, taking initiative and influencing others.

4. ALUMNI NETWORK Initiatives that have been planned and executed for our alumni: ◆ Planned speaker sessions where they can interact with the current batch and encourage them on various issues pertaining to their career and academics. ◆ Networking with the alumni through social networking sites (Google group, Linkedin.

Facebook, Orkut etc.)

◆ Circulation of e-Edge Magazine to all alumni to keep them involved in the campus activities and also invited their articles for the magazine. ◆ Gurgaon Alumni e-newsletter The newsletter will be published biannually.

Career Management Benefits ◆ Lateral Placement opportunities are being provided to the alumni on a regular basis. This effort has also been highly appreciated by all alumni and they have been participative. ◆ The Alumni is invited for Management Development Programmes and various other events and workshops that are related to the institute, ensuring that they stay involved. ◆ Our alumni have been actively helping us with the summer internship of our first-year students ◆ Receiving job description for the final placement from our alumni from time to time. ◆ Industry Visits.

5. HR NETWORK Industry Interaction: CMC acts as a hub for all corporate affairs activities. It acts as a catalyst in so far as the group's relationship with key functionaries in the corporate and academic world. CMC participates in HR summits and network with CII, FICCI, etc. Few of the important summits attended/participated during 2008 are as follows: i. CII World Economic Forum India ii. TIE-The Indus Entrepreneurs Conference 2008 iii. SIAM 4th Annual Convention iv. CII HRM Summit 2008 Corporate Connection with IILM: The enterprising and industrious students of IILM have valuable inputs and skills taught to them in the classrooms by the

best of faculty.

However, to bridge the gap between the theoretical and practical aspects of the curriculum, industry and corporate interaction is extremely important.

NEW INITIATIVE Recruiters’ Forum: The CMC department is also undertaking an initiative to have a Recruiters' Forum. The objective of the forum is to have an opportunity to interact with the recruiters and receive any feedback from the prospective recruiters about the curriculum, brand and the products.

Launching IILM's Entre club: IILM, apart from offering traditional career paths to its students, has added a yet another choice, "Entre Club".

Entre Club will foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and promote innovation. This Club is going to be the main driver and backbone of the entrepreneurial activities in the campus. The club aims at putting in place systems and processes for active student participation in entrepreneurial activities. The mem-

bers of the club will work with partners like TiE, NEN etc. to organize various activities round the year.

INDUSTRY VISITS Management may be taught in ivory towers of business schools but it is learnt on the soiled shop floor of the factory! Industrial visits are the step towards practical learning as seeing with one own eyes makes learning more easy.

In this light, the students of IILM institute for higher education are given a wide exposure in all the sectors. So far, the students have visited companies like Parle Products, Radisson Hotel, Hero Honda Motors Ltd, Honda Siel Ca rs and Escorts Tractors. The st u d ents were introduced to all major departments to understand the working in the corporate sector.

Hoping that this initiative will ensure that the student's journey from the management institute to the industry is very smooth, we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

JYOTI GROVER

The

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A powerful tour of NTPC INDUSTRIAL VISIT

Purpose of the Visit: An industrial visit to the National Thermal Power Corporation was organized for Undergraduate Stage III students on April 23, 2009 to acquaint them with power generation to develop an understanding of a long-term strategy in meeting the increasing demand for electricity in the country.

The students were gradually acquainted with NTPC’s history and its future vision. NTPC Limited is India's largest power company with an installed capacity of 29,894 MW generating power from coal and gas. NTPC has diversified into hydro power, coal mining, power equipment manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, power trading and distribution and i planning to move to nuclear power generation.

A.K. Bagh, a knowledgeable representative of NTPC, briefed students about the power generation step by step beginning with crushing of coal, then feeding it into a combustion unit where it is burned. Heat from the burning coal is used to generate steam that is used to spin one or more turbines to generate electricity.

Students were amazed to note the environmental commitment of The

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Understanding TV Today

NTPC, by undertaking programmes like ash utilization, monitoring of environmental parameters, upgradation & retrofitting of pollution control systems, resources conservation, municipal waste management, hazardous waste management, biomedical waste management, land use/bio-diversity, green belts, etc.

A question-answer session also took place later.

Key Learning's at NTPC ■ NTPC Vision 2012- "Generation of 50,000 MW of Power" ■ Vision 2017-Generation of 75,000 MW of Power" ■ Electricity generation in India is about 100,000 MW, 70% of which is thermal (mostly coal based).

NTPC is lightning our life by generating about 705 MW of power per day and is supplying about 98% of the same as 2% is used by them.

■ NTPC was the first among power utilities in India to start Environment Impact Assessment studies and reinforced it with Periodic Environmental Audits and Review ■ Currently using Bituminous coal for the generation of power. But planning to shift to nuclear power generation.

Undergraduate students visited Living Media Limited to view the happenings of the 24-hour news channel "Aaj Tak". The purpose of the visit was to expose the students to the field of media and the importance of communication.

Students were shown around the office of TV Today Network by a Producer, Ms. Neelam Kumar, who has produced many shows for Aaj Tak and Headlines Today.

The students were keen on knowing about technicalities of broadcasting. They were intrigued by the use of the teleprompter which facilitates reading the news. She showed them virtual studios, editing department, video library, control rooms, from where the news, shows and various other programmes were telecast, live as well as recorded. Students met anchors, news readers, editors and other people.

They also interacted with Deputy Editor Mohit Roy Sharma and enquired about their prospective career in the field of media.

Rohit Mehrotra from marketing department gave a presentation about TV Today Network. He mentioned the strategies involved in the marketing of their channels, magazines, newspapers and radio FM channel called Meow.

He talked about the creativity and innovation and various other strategies that were incorporated by 'Aaj Tak' so that the channel retained the 'Number One" position for eight years in succession.

The visit gave the students a fair insight into the importance of marketing and advertising in the field of media. It also facilitated their learning regarding the importance of communication in media.

SANGEETA YADAV

SAUMYA SHIRINA

INDUSTRIAL VISIT TO HIND TERMINALS ANOTHER Organizational Information System industrial visit was organized to give the Undergraduate Business School (UBS) students an opportunity to witness technological innovations at Hind Terminals, India’s first private rail operator to run its own rakes.

During the lucid discourse, Dr L. R. Thapar, Director, Projects, provided information on Hind's products and services that helped companies to effectively meet their business challenges. In the first year of operations, Hind Terminals handled more than 100,000 containers at CWC Logistics Park. Dr. Thapar said that at Hind, they are constantly updating themselves with latest technology such as touch screen facilities, EDI, SMS-based container information, CCTV surveillance, walk-way metal detectors and providing real-time container tracking solutions to clients.

Hind has a distributed network architecture wherein, each unit has its own local area network connected to the main office. They are using Windows platform and ORACLE and MS-SQL databases.

Two levels of communication net-

works implemented at Hind are MPLS and Internet (1:1). They are secure networks to host their applications solutions. Internet (1:1) is used to publish their messaging server to the world so any emails ending with "@hindterminals.com" are routed to their messaging server. Also, published links like "tracking.hindterminals.com" are enabled, so that Hind Terminals customers can access their applications. These links work as backups to MPLS links when there is any outage. This was something new for the students.

Hind is using security solutions for securing information and pre-

venting external attacks. Some technologies the use are firewalls, secure information gateways, enterprise solutions for antivirus, anti-spam, etc. They use elaborate backup policies to ensure it is done at multiple levels and there is no loss of data. This ensures if any disaster occurs, they should be able to recreate the work environment without data loss. A person from one department cannot enter another without the use of a swipe card.

Students learnt about application of technological innovations at Hind Terminals.

DAMINNI GROVER

IILM goes to Atlas IILM's undergraduates headed to Sahibabad to visit the Atlas Cycles factory. The purpose of this visit was to better understand production/operations management of a manufacturing industry, concept of a manufactured product in the context of delivering system design, process technology, operational layout, capacity planning and control, quality management, operational improvement etc.

Mr. Sehgal (General Manager,

works) and Mr. Tiwari ( Dy. Manager, Quality Assurance) accompanied the students and faculty around the plant. Of interest was the manufacturing of mud guard and the coloring process. Manufacturing and assembling of smaller parts was explained to students. To ensure colors of the cycle don't fade, a coating process is done.

The export unit of the cycles was shown and the students were told how cycles for the export market

are differently manufactured from those for the domestic market.

Some parts of the cycles are imported and how these are fitted were shown. The final kit of the cycle with instructions to assemble it before despatching was shown.

The workers, themselves users of cycles, are encouraged to give quality suggestions. These are incorporated with due reward and recognition is given to the worker.

BHAWNA AGARWAL The

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IILM students visits PepsiCo TWENTY seven undergraduate business school students were taken to the PepsiCo plant in Greater Noida to better understand how carbonated & non-carbonated (juice based) soft drinks are made.

They were taken through the entire bottling process from the first stage of preform making to blowing of the bottle till the last stage, viz. packaging and storage.

A soft drink bottle or any SKU (stock keeping unit) goes through 400 stages of tests, which makes every bottle or tetra pack unit a world-class product. The quality standards are stringent and the same are standardized across the world, without exception.

The highlights of the visit were as follows: ■ Standardization of process: This is across all plants of the PepsiCo system and norms are adhered to without exception.

■ Assembly line: manufacturing process in which parts (interchangeable parts) are added to a product in a sequential manner. It is used to create the finished product in a faster manner than the handicraft-type method.

■ Conveyor arrangement: Configured and disposed to move cleaned bottles from cleaning station to filling machine.

■ Quality product despite stage production: The plant lines were running at the speed of 400 BPM (bottle per minute) and every bottle so closely inspected by line inspector, that it was amazing to know that every bottle produced is a world quality bottle.

■ Mechanization: The entire plant was so mechanized that there were very few people manning the line/machines.

■ Good housekeeping: The entire plant was so well done up, that it The

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Below: BLOWMOULDER

showed that iconic products are produced in an environment which is hygienic and process driven.

■ Teamwork: It appears to the eye that 10 people produce a billion beverage bottles in a year The entire operations was an ideal example of teamwork by a

Above: CONVEYOR BELT

set of people whose common objectives was to produce a world -class product. Team comprises semi-skilled, skilled workers and professionals.

■ Hiring of Quality People: We were briefed about the good profile of people (Up-skilling).

Alienation & De-skilling was on the lower side.

■ Environmental Regulations: "When we sit in class and learn all the acronyms of environmental regulations, it's abstract". But when we go out and see the plant and we see the three-story piece of machinery they installed to comply with air-quality regulations, and you hear that it's very costly to implement, it brings everything into the real world."

This gives us an insight about the environmental regulations followed by the company such as waste reduction programme which saves the company a lot of money.

SHIVANI KHURANA and GUNJAN MEHTA

IT made easy at Patni An Organizational Information System Industrial visit was organised to Patni Computer Systems Limited (Patni) on March 25, 2009. The group consisted of 23 undergraduate students. Incorporated in 1978, Patni is a leading IT consulting services and business solutions provider based in India. The business processes are in compliance with Six Sigma and BS 7799. The company has been accredited with the ISO 9001:2000 certification and is assessed at SEI-CMMI level 5 and P-CMM level 3. It has alliances with leading IT vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Siebel and Oracle.

Dhiraj Saxena, Head, Technology and Information Security kicked off the introductory session stating that Patni's telecom domain is gaining momentum and is now contributing significantly to overall revenues. The company provides IT solutions to its clients globally.

The bulk of its revenues are generated from the software services segment. Mr. Saxena provided valuable insight into Patni's six key business verticals—BFSI, manufacturing, telecom, product

engineering services, independent software vendors and retail.

These verticals help the company cater to niche segments and build domain expertise. The company has been continuously gaining domain knowledge and targeting its customers with advanced IT services and solutions. This focused approach ensured success of the company in verticals such as retail and telecom.

While sharing his experience with students, he said that Patni has witnessed strong traction for its offerings for SAP, particularly in the CPG division. The company uses CAD/CAM to design products. The company has established a SAP NetWeaver centre of excellence in India, which supports the development of solutions based on this technology. Students visited the data centre, which has a state-of-theart wold-class IT infrastructure.

It is one of the main data centre in Delhi.

It was an enlightening experience for participants as they got exposure to various aspects of IT systems used at Patni.

DAMINNI GROVER

IILM students at Patni. Students got valuable exposure to various aspects of information systems at this company

Fiscal lessons from Geojit Financial Services Ms. Sweta Gupta, an accounting and finance faculty, gave her students a valuable opportunity to witness online trading in cash and derivative markets. They were also briefed about mutual fund industry and portfolio management services offered by a broking firm. She took her students to Geojit financial Services with faculty Girish Ahuja and Gunjan Mehta.

Geojit, a member of NSE and BSE, has a network of over 300 branches in India and abroad, rendering quality equity trading services.

Gaurav Kumar Srivastva, Manager, Geojit Financial Services, spoke about the use of the software called ODILINE which is used for online trading in cash and derivative market. This is a software used by NSE. He explained the functions of the software and how it can be used to do online trading. The different features of Mutual funds like types of mutual funds, NAV, asset under management, open-ended and close-ended funds were also explained.

Mr. Srivastav explained the risk and return profile of mutual fund schemes. His presentation on portfolio management services included details about the PMS Service offered by them and other broking members, including different features like minimum amount, fees, return and risk.

SWETA GUPTA

The

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STUDY ABROAD

IILM Study Abroad Trip 2009 The study abroad tour 2009 was organized to the following countries: France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland from April 7, 2009 to April 19, 2009.

These countries were covered in 12 days. A group of 21 students and two faculty members went to visit various partner institutions of IILM in Europe where they attended and participated in lectures and seminars.

This program included visits to academic institutions, listening to lectures, participating in seminars, company visits, as well as plenty of sightsee-

"Innovation is the key to success in all organizations today and the one which ceases to innovate eases itself out of the marketplace very soon" : Prof. Willy. He said to successfully innovate, it is imperative to "think out of the box". It is not necessary that a product should necessarily emerge from two related categories. The Medici Effect emphasizes that two highly unrelated fields/ categories could be brought together for a completely new product idea. An exercise was given to the students in group to come up with innovative product ideas taking unrelated fields into consideration.

ing opportunities and personal development skills.

The tour was designed to offer students a healthy mix of academic, industrial and cultural pursuits.

For our academic visits, we chose institutions with which we have collaboration. The institutions chosen included: 1. Burgundy School of Business, Dijon, France 2. Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences, Dornbirn, Austria 3. MCI, Innsbruck, Austria

IKB executives apprised the students of the steps involved in preserving water from the mountains and transporting them to the homes in Innsbruck.

Ms Sabine Mueller had a brief interaction with the students where she apprised them of the management practices extensively followed in French organizations. This session was a prelude to students’ visit to Essilor, a highly rated and globally recognized French company in the field of optical lens.

The

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Visit to Swaroski Crystal world at Wattens in Innsbruck in Austria

Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences, Dornbirn, Austria worked its sessions to impart academic input to the students as well as apprise them about the university

Essilor is a renowned optical lens manufacturing company and very highly regarded in France. It has offices worldwide, having a presence in India too.

At Essilor, the visit was divided into two parts.

First, the students were addressed by the company officials where they were told of the various steps involved in the manufacture of optical lens and the rigid quality control procedures in place to ensure zero defects.

Thereafter, the students donned white lab coats and were taken through the manufacturing facility and the quality control area in groups where they were given a live demonstration of the operations. Sample lenses were distributed to all visiting students by the company officials.

SUJATA KHANDAI & DAMINNI GROVER The

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HR Club panel discusses how to manage in a downturn FACED with the most unprecedented economic conditions, the issue of improving the financial position of a business, whether through cash generation, debt refinancing or cost reduction, has risen to the top of the boardroom agenda.

The challenge for management teams is to ensure that a balance is struck between the immediate need to drive out cost and generate cash, with the longer term aspiration for growth.

A panel discussion with experienced industry personals was an effort by the HR Club to groom our students into executives who have a strategy to manage through a downturn.

This would give them a better understanding to take advantage of the opportunities available today, and enable them to emerge from the bad times re-energized and get ready for the future.

The inauguration of the event was marked by lighting of the lamps followed by welcoming guests with bouquets of flowers.

Mr. Param Ajjan, CEO, The Matrix, commenced the discussions by asking the audience to reflect upon the topic of discussion, "Managing in a downturn".

Ideas from participants brought forth the importance of managerial actions during such a phase.

Dr. A.K Vij, CEO Engineers India Ltd., provided a powerpoint presentation on recession and its intricacies and suggested ways to tackle the business environment at a time of economic crisis. He shared his experiences with the audience by focusing on The

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the impact of recession on his company and commented that recession has never struck EIL. According to Dr. Vij, the recession only inflects the mindset of investors and rather than reality in the Indian market. He even said that some sectors like the pharmaceuticals or life sciences never cease to grow, indicating that they in dynamics are independent of the downturn.

Examples of EIL coming into aluminum sector from hydro carbons suggested that it is a good time for partnerships, alliances between businesses and strategic cost management.

Mr. Manish Anand, DGM, Landis Gyr, very aptly termed the downturn as a downtrend and emphasized the importance of leveraging technology to extend its implementation during recession. He guided the students about the application of ERP and innovations (both customer and HR focused), communication network, knowledge sharing forums and think tanks within the organizations.

Mr. Param Ajjan, being an HR person, commented that it is the cycle that determines a trend and that the market has its own ups and downs. It is all about how you manage relationships both inside and outside your concern. He also spoke about the stimulus and financial bailout packages in USA and commented on their inability to focus on social security.

Important questions and comments were made by Ashima Lamba, who represented the curiosity among the students about the role of people in a con-

cern and the ways to combat layoffs along with going down attrition rates.

Servjaeta Verma contributed to the discussion by talking about the Toyota car launch during recessionary times and inputs on innovations, positioning strategies to improve brand loyalty among almost lost customers.

Samrat Ray reflected that the demand of the customers may go down but the latent need never dies, so a company should always focus on the brand building of a firm by focusing its promotional activities in those areas where there is larger recognition (Example: HUL in India, South Africa, and Brazil). He mentioned the aspect of operational optimization, which suggested the production of half the size of the product that was previously for sale. This would lead to decrease in per unit cost of production and even increase brand awareness and thereby investor's confidence.

Abhishek Mishra, Abhijit Gun and some from the audience discussed the scope and expectations from a fresh MBA graduate in finance, marketing or HR at the time of a market downturn. This resulted to discussion on how to mould a career path and thereby utilizing the recession for building opportunities.

The enthusiasm among the students after the conclusion of the event was palpable. The success of the event organized by the HR Club lies in the effort to contribute its best to the students' community.

SUJATA SHAHI

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Prof. KAILASH TULI

Prof. DEEPAK TANDON

Professor OB/HRM

Professor Finance

❚❘❘ Participated in "Leaders 2009 Hungary" Organized by Hungarian Gestalt Association & GIC of USA at Dunakliti, Hungary from 24th to 28th March 2009, as an invited Facilitator in group discussion and also presented paper and workshop related to Gestalt theme

❚❘❘ Presented a research paper duly accepted at Institute of Productivity & Management Ghaziabad in 2nd International Conference on "Leadership and its Role in Preparing the Organization for Unprecedented Change" on 23rd May 2009

❚❘❘ Delivered and conducted a series of lectures-cum-workshops to students and faculty, from 30th March to 3rd April 2009, on topics like; Health and Personality, Health Life Styles with Mental Health Consequences, Gestalt Therapy and Role of Yoga and Gestalt in Health-related practices, at Department of Health Education, The University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Also collaborated with Prof. Milada Krejsci for coauthoring a book on Management of Sports Psychology

❚❘❘ Paper accepted and due for presentation at second National Conference on Finance & Banking (NCFB 2009) which will be held during 27th & 28th August 2009 at Saintgits Institute of Management, Kottayam, Kerala

❚❘❘ Nominated as the Consulting Editor of "FWU Journal of Social Sciences", published biannually from Pakistan ❚❘❘ Appointed: Consulting Editor for "Journal of Personality and Clinical Studies (JPCS)" ❚❘❘ Paper entitled, "Global Gestalt versus Global Turbulence: Prudence lies in Human Psyche" in "Journal of Personality and Clinical studies" in 2008 (Volume: 24) ❚❘❘ Appointed Ph D Advisor for two students of Ph D (Psychology Department) University of Delhi

Dr. PRITI PANDEY Associate Professor Finance

❚❘❘ Conducted lecture sessions on Accounting and Finance for AIMA, for their PhD students in April 2009

❚❘❘ Paper accepted for oral presentation for the International Conference on Indigenous Management Practices (ICIMP2009) during July 16-18, 2009 at Annamalai University, Tamilnadu,

Dr. P. MALARVIZHI Professor, Finance

❚❘❘ Presented a research paper titled "Determinants Of Corporate Environmental Disclosures Of Indian Companies" - An Empirical Research, at the Conference on Global Competition and Competitiveness of Indian Corporate, jointly organized by IIM-Kozhikode and IIM-Lucknow, at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, 21-23 May, 2009. This paper was coauthored by Dr.Sangeeta Yadav, (Faculty IILM-LR) ❚❘❘ Invited as Esteemed Guest of Honour & Panelist at the National Conference on "Environment, Energy, Occupational Health and Safety (EEOHS): Vital necessity in Corporate world", between 27th 28th February, 2009, organized jointly by Ministry of Environment

& Forest (MoEF) and SEARCH Foundation at WWF India Auditorium, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi ❚❘❘ Developmental Projects evaluated as State Level Expert Appraisal Committee Member of MoEF, GOI, for environmental accounting as part of Environmental Impact Assessment - Project proponents are Delhi State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd., and Delhi Police ❚❘❘ Presented a research paper titled "Role of Religious Organizations in Economic Development and Social Issues" in the seminar on "Women and Religion", 26-27 February, 2009 at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeet, New Delhi jointly with Ms.Sangeeta Yadav (Faculty of Economics, IILM Lodhi Road Campus)

Dr. SANGEETA YADAV Assistant Professor, Economics

❚❘❘ Presented a research paper titled "Role of Religious Organizations in Economic Development and Social issues An Indian Perspective" for the theme "Religious Organisations and their Services to Society" for the seminar on "Women and Religion", 26-27 February, 2009 at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeet, New Delhi, jointly with Dr. Malarvizhi, (Faculty of Accounting and Finance at IILM - Lodhi Road Campus) ❚❘❘ A research paper titled "Trade Liberalisation and Export Performance: Estimation of Trade Elasticities" was published in "Management & Change" published by IILM Institute for Higher Education , - Vol 12, No 2, 2008, pp 109-118

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DESIGN CONNECT IS NOT JUST A FESTIVAL, IT IS A CONCEPT DESIGN FESTIVAL

DESIGN CONNECT is an event where design aspirants, design students and design professional come together to celebrate all aspects of design at the Gurgaon campus of IILM School of Design.

The event was inaugurated by famous designer Satya Paul, a man whose work in design travels all over the world. While inaugurating the graduate show, he said he was impressed with the quality of work of the students. He was also happy to witness "Colors on the Ramp", a fashion show that was entirely put together by students. They presented two sequences where the colors of the night were interpreted by one group,

Satya Paul, renowned designer, as chief guest.

while another group worked on colors of marine life.

We started by designing the event. We included serious seminars, fun and creative competitions, song and dance competitions; a ramp show and also an exhibition of our graduating projects. A competition among students led to the design of the event logo. Foundation student Saarthak Arora's logo was chosen. The students also designed the dĂŠcor of the workshops.

This included tie-anddye banners that

Installing Bottle Tree

Painting Bottles for Planters The

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Preparing Mounts for Waste Bottle Installation

Tie&Dye TShirts Made

by Students for Sale 1

adorned the walls, chimes and installations made from used bottles and textiles murals for a backdrop.

Swaroop Naik, a product design student, also designed and made the trophy for the music competition, aptly called IILM IDOL. This way, our students had a complete immersive experience of designing.

This event celebrates design in a variety of ways. One was that we marketed our creativity through DESIGN HAAT, a place where every product has been designed and made by individual students.

To give these products an identity it deserves, we launched it as a label: ONE OFF. Ms Anju Modi, an accomplished designer, launched the brand and inaugurated the shop.

We invited professional designers to share their work and their world views through the Design Gyan seminars: this helped aspiring designers to understand the ways of the professional world.

Space designer Siddhartha Das spoke about his work in the area of designing cultural spaces. Toy

Colors of AfterHours - Green

Helping each other for the Ramp Show 1

designer Suhasini Paul spoke about her work in the area of traditional toy design. Paul Sandip, a product designer, spoke on designing of everyday objects.

Satya Govind Chari spoke about Cartooning, Caricatures and Comic books illustration in a freewheeling style.

We had also lined up traditional craftsmen who came from UP and Orissa, who interacted with students in a session, aptly called "Create with Craftsmen".

We also had Discover design workshops for school kids in paper products and cartooning.

Students had a first-hand experience of how designers work.

We also invited students from school and colleges to participate in unusual but creative competitions, including making mobile movies and a competition for creative excuses.

The event concluded with a song and dance routine. We had a group dance competition where Tagore International School got the award and Sania Sehgal from IILM School of Design was chosen as the IILM IDOL for 2009.

A BALASUBRAMANIAM The

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A truly green initiative

EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS In a joint initiative with Tata Energy Research Institute, a fortnight-long Earth Day celebration took place at the Banyan Tree School campus. Issues of biodiversity, stark misuse of resources and carbon emission were dealt with through skits, quizzes, songs and posters. Neil Taylor, associate professor of Science and Technology Education at the University of New England in Australia, spoke to the students about sustainable development.

Green bags were made out of eco-

SCHOLARSHIP BAGGED Mariyan Fatimah, a student of The Banyan Tree School at Lodhi Road, has won a prestigious national scholarship awarded by the Kishore Viagyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for a project in the basic science category. Her project submission was on creating biodiesel out of waste cooking oil.

The scholarship includes a monthly grant of Rs. 4,000 and an annual contingency amount of Rs. 16,000 till the time she pursues science as a subject.

Students of The Banyan Tree School at Lodhi Road with posters and green bags made out of eco-friendly material as part of Earth Day celebrations

friendly material. Students in a collective effort put together 5,000 paper bags to be distributed in the local market to dissuade shopkeepers and the local community from using plastic bags. WWF India, for its part, organized activities in which students participated with enthusiasm. The distribution of prizes at Pragati Maidan was the finale of this fortnight long event.

Mariyam Fatimah has got into the Integrated M.Sc. through the KVYP scholarship. She has got admission in Mohali

THE BANYAN TREE SCHOOL CELEBRATES THE 60th JUBILEE OF INDO-SWISS FRIENDSHIP To celebrate the 60th silver jubilee of Indo-Swiss friendship under the theme science and education all over India The Swiss Embassy in collaboration with Banyan Tree School and Centre for Media Studies conducted a series of inter-school events. The events included T shirt designing, essay writing and a quiz competition in which 36 leading schools of Delhi and NCR participated. The

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Swiss ambassador his Excellency Phillepi Welti was welcomed by the students who presented a cultural program. The banyan tree school and Springdales, Dhaula Kuan were adjudged first in English and Hindi essay writing respectively.

Father Agnel school won the quiz competition and DAV shrestha Vihar got the top honors in T-shirt designing.

KUSAM WARIKOO

Creativity, Action & Service at the Banyan Tree World School lings. Masks and other material A VISIT TO 'SANKALP' (27th were distributed among them so APRIL, 2009) that they could make the paintings The students of Grades II to V and flowers on their own. had an opportunity to visit BTWS students had gone with Sankalp, a school for the less privthe idea of sharing their learning ileged children. These children, with students at Sankalp. The who otherwise do not have many interaction between the two opportunities for obtaining formal groups of students was marked by education, are given a fair chance an unbiased attitude, the hall mark for doing so. They are provided of an open mind. Socio-economic with training at schools aided by or strata differences did not come the Government, which prepare in as children shared bench space and help to integrate them into a and ideas. Our students noticed formal school system. They motiand commented on the well mainvate and monitor the children in tained and disciplined school their pursuit for further education. atmosphere. Tia, 'they wished all Sankalp is also running a mobile the teachers who came into their school to provide education to class to observe the activichildren who cannot come ties that were going on.' to the school premises.

"We cannot As our students They are doing a reflected on their commendable job in hold a torch to light visit in the Assembly this respect. There are more than 650 another's path without the next day, what students in classes brightening our own" was noteworthy was the feeling that they 1 to V in schools run were model students by the NGO. and keen learners. As We were given a BEN SWEETLAND expressed by Kalp, who warm welcome on our met his long-lost friend arrival by their Director Ms. Kishore, who used to distribute Anuradha, who had arranged for newspapers in his complex. Kalp us to interact with the school's was surprised that Kishore found Grade IV students. time to attend school but was Our students started by singing delighted to see that his friend was a prayer song, 'Ham ko man ki motivated enough to continue with shakti dena'. Next, we had Akshit his education.

(Grade II) playing the Congo for The visit initiated a two-way them. His performance was apprelearning process between the twin ciated by the children as well as group of students. BTWS students the Director. Our students showed saw how education was a privilege their counterparts at 'Sankalp' coveted by children, motivating how to do 'thread painting' and them for learning irrespective of 'flower making'. The students the facilities provided. Sankalp stuthere were enthusiastic learners dents on the other hand got an and eager participants in these opportunity for learning a creative activities. They could be heard disway of skill enhancement. cussing how they would do it at home for their parents and sibMEERA SAIN The

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Distance but effective learning DISTANCE EDUCATION provides an opportunity to students to learn anytime, anywhere. It is one of the most effective methods of instruction across the world.

Academics acknowledge that learning is important and not the channel of education.

The correspondence or distance open educational system is an alternative mode of imparting instruction, which has helped India to meet the education demand of millions of people at different levels, bringing teachers and students together through printed materials, audio-video productions, computers, and other media to facilitate learning.

It is an easy, accessible and affordable mode of upgrading one's knowledge pool and people from all sections — corporate professionals, homemakers, public sector employees, army officers, doctors, lawyers etc.—have pursued or are pursuing distance learning programmes.

These programmes are best suited for those who aspire to soar high professionally, yet hardly have time to join a regular classes. One can pursue education in management and other professional fields without leaving the boundaries of the home or work-place. These programmes unfold new career avenues and help students move up in life.

It is with due consideration of these factors, along with the perceived gap in the education realm of a truly flexible, skill-specific and customizable distance learning mode that IILM Institute for Higher Education decided to stepin with its proven expertise to the aid of those searching for worldclass education from the comfort of their home. ICME Centre for Management Education was The

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born, aiming at providing quality business and management learning to deserving aspirants via the Distance Education mode. With distinguished faculty members for imparting quality education and training in the field of management, ICME offers programmes leading to certificate, diploma or PG diploma in management, covering conventional as well as innovative programmes that are launched with a view to fulfill the student's need for: ◆ Certification ◆ Improvement of skills ◆ Acquisition of professional qualifications ◆ Continuing education and professional development at work ◆ Self-enrichment ◆ Diversification of knowledge ICME confirms the tradition of personalized holistic education and integrates many opportunities for the overall personality development of its students and strives to include fun element in the learning process. It stresses the imparting of not just mere technical tools but also of diverse soft skills that are so important in today's management scenario.

The institute enables and facilitates the professional application

of expertise and intellectual resources. With the mission to develop tomorrow's business leaders through integrated learning and industry-academia partnerships, it has partnered with leading corporates and academic bodies like the Distance Education Council, Government of India, and developed programmes like PGDM (DE) which is an innovative industry-oriented management program initiated to identify and nurture talent.

PGDM (DE) is a management program with a unique blend of distance and classroom learning.

It is designed to bring quality management education within te easy reach of deserving aspirants who cannot join full-time campus programs due to professional and/or personal commitments. It equips students with the necessary knowledge and skills to become superior management professionals and thereby gain a stronghold in the industry.

Such was the widespread fervour and anticipation for the program that even at the pre-launch phase, ICME garnered 9 franchisee partners in the NCR region alone within 30 months based on the strength of IILM's established pre-eminence and the innovative design of the curriculum.

Currently operating with six centrally-owned study centers, we are looking towards a massive expansion with at least 40 partners in one and half years' time.

We are launching two sessions per year and the roadmap ahead is promising with a gradual rise in student intake—reaching 5000 students in two years.

Academic excellence, holistic education and global relevance are the cornerstone of ICME's vision.

DEBANJAN DAS

ALUMNI NEWS ◆ Ruchi Sally of PG 04-06 IILM Gurgaon married on 21st November, 2008. ◆ Gaurav Tyagi of PGP 06-08 of IILM Gurgaon, got married to Amrita of the same batch on 27th March, 2009. ◆ Paramita Tarafdar (PGDBM 2006,) and Subhojyoti (PGDBM 2005): Paramita and Subhojyoti got married after college.

Paramita had recently shifted her job from GE Money to ABN Amro. Subhojyoti is working with Techbooks. The couple got a new car to celebrate their anniversary. ◆ Sudipta Sengupta: Sudipta (PGDBM - 2006, Lodhi Road) joined indiatimes.com (Times of India Group) as a product manager in the new initiatives division. His role requires him to conceptualise new businesses and make them a reality. Prior to joining Indiatimes.com, he was working with Bizsol Advisors Pvt. Ltd. as a managerstrategy and planning and launched India's first citizen journalism news portal named merinews.com from the company. ◆ Indranil Sarkar: Indranil (PGDBM -2005, Lodhi Road) had joined Skymet from Syven Technologies. Skymet provides weather-based solutions (weather reports, weather forecasting etc) to various media houses.

Recently, he has been promoted to a senior editorial position with a 50 percent plus hike in his pay package. In his new position, Indranil will be managing one of the most prestigious projects with their client, Nokia.

Unsolicited contributions to alumni pages may be sent to vijesh.jain@iilm.edu

IILM ALUMNI

Kanupriya Jain of PGP 2005-07 of IILM Gurgaon, married Tarun Jain on 7th Dec 2008

Disha Telkar of PG 2004-06 of IILM Gurgaon, married Cristoph de Kalbermatten, from Geneva, Switzerland. She married on 4th January 2009. IILM family wishes them very happy married life.

UPWARD MOBILITY Viresh Keshri of PG 2004-06 IILM Gurgaon, Joined Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd. as financial planning manager in Oct. 2008, and got four awards in a row — Joj award, Swift Launch award, Pursuit Award, Fast Start Cup in Jan-Feb 2009 Deepesh Sharma of PG 200406 IILM Gurgaon, joined IT Solutions, Delhi in May 2008 and got promoted this month to the position of relationship manager.

Jyoti Bajaj of PG 2006-08 of IILM Gurgaon, changed her job from Keane India to Lufthansa. She joined in Feb 2009 as business controller - finance.

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WHERE ARE THE BEST JOBS RIGHT NOW? IILM ALUMNI

Nikhil Arya of Buniyad Properties responds to questions from IILM alumni

Rakesh Chander from HT Media, Pratush Das from Wunderman Advertising and Nikhil Arya from Buniyad Properties interacted with students of IILM and addressed their queries relating to the summer projects, future career strategies and related topics. This event took place on 21st Feb 2009.

Some of the good sectors to look at include the following:◆ HOSPITALITY: Only choose 5 star hotels (e.g. Leela Hotels, Taj) ◆ FMCG: Project on inventory management is good. ◆ FACTORS IN CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR ◆ RETAIL: Inventory and supply

chain management projects should be avoided. A good project can be "To study the shelf life of a particular product" ◆ MEDIA AND ADVERTISING: Research-based projects include 'qualitative research on media impact in online media'; 'consumer taste and behavior. It was also pointed out that advertising jobs start with a very low package. Work opportunities mainly deal with clients, strategic and planning process, media planning and client service. ◆ REAL ESTATE SECTOR: Growing sector that basically involves marketing research and adequate selling skills.

VIJESH JAIN

IILM Alumni Cricket Team wins tournament

IILM Alumni Cricket Team has been playing friendly cricket matches and has become a highly recognized corporate team. They ended their last season on a high note bagging the number one position among 42 teams taking part.

This season, they played for the biggest T20 The

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Corporate Tournament organized by Roshanara Club where 8 major corporate teams participated. Pepsi, Reebok, Citi, IILM, Roshanara and few more battled for the number one position in corporate cricket.

IILM Alumni Cricket Team won the T-20 Tournament.

POOJA TALWAR

THE FUTURE OF A BRAVE NEW WORLD ldous Huxley wrote, “Brave New World” in 1932. It was unbelievable at that moment but with the passage of time, it was proved right.

"Future Shock" was another wonderful piece of work

by Alvin Toffler in 1970. Millions are witness to the prophecy of this book and his predictions, which we have witnessed and experienced in our own times.

Future is a fascinating and seductive academic discipline. In the words of Fritz Perls, father of Gestalt Therapy, "The past exists now as memory, nostalgia,

A

regret, resentment, phantasy, legend, history. The future exists here and now in the actual present as anticipation, planning, rehearsal, expectations and hope, or dread and despair.”

Here are few quotations which pertain to future and are very much scientific in their spirit. World Future Society keeps a track of these developments. They have professed and have given 10 very astounding forecasts for the next 25 years. These are fascinating to read. So, enter the brave new world with cheers of course!

Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous unseen nanodevices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere. Everyone will have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Professional knowledge will become obsolete almost as quickly as it’s acquired. Most professions will require continuous instruction and retraining. At any given moment, a substantial portion of the labor force will be in job-retraining programs.

Bioviolence will become a greater threat as the technology becomes more accessible.

Emerging scientific disciplines (notably genomics, nanotechnology, and other microsciences) could pave the way for a bioattack. Bacteria and viruses could be altered to increase their lethality or to evade antibiotic treatment.

Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030. As more of the world's population lives in cities, rapid development to accommodate them will make existing environmental and socioeconomic problems worse. Epidemics will be more common due to crowded dwelling units and poor sanitation.

The car's days as king of the road will soon be over. More powerful wireless communication that reduces demand for travel will become prominent.

Careers, and the college majors for preparing for them, are becoming more specialized. An increase in unusual college majors may foretell the growth of unique new career specialties.

There may not be world law in the foreseeable future, but the world's legal systems will be networked.

The Middle East will become more secular while religious influence in China will grow.

Popular support for religious government is declining in places like Iraq.

Access to electricity will reach 83% of the world by 2030. Electrification has expanded around the world, from 40% connected in 1970 to 73% in 2000, and may reach 83% of the world's people by 2030. Electricity is fundamental to raising living standards and access to the world's products and services.

The race for biomedical and genetic enhancement will — in the twenty-first century — be what the space race was in the previous century. Humanity is ready to pursue biomedical and genetic enhancement.

Compiled by Prof. Kailash Tuli from www.wfs.org

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Institute for Higher Education