The sampling methodology and the survey instrument have been explained in detail, and the field work relatively recent, done in mid 2007. Not meaning to be xenophobic, it was still a bit sad to note that such a study got done because Konrad Adenauer Stiftung initiated and commissioned (and presumably funded) it. It is true that in India, we generally have trouble finding adequate funding for regular studies of this kind which tell us more about ourselves. If the quantum of data were proportionate to the quantum of our usage of the term demographic dividend, we should have had several more and larger youth studies in the public domain. One is not referring to country wide studies done for private companies that measure cola consumption or media habits or advertising preferences of young India; but of public domain insights on how young people think and feel about issues like those […]
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However, competition is about to explode. Top management schools of the world will soon be in India, many are already here in some form or other. Singapore, China and Dubai are aggressively attracting campuses of the world’s best management schools. The IIMs, with their current level of wide ranging government control and interference on their operations and very limited degrees of strategic freedom could end up being marginalized. The poor pay scales and continuous attempts to “regulate” faculty activities, lead to difficulty in attracting high caliber new faculty. The poor quality of infrastructure relative to the newcomers, the severe controls and constraints in internationalizing their footprint of knowledge etc., needs to be addressed. This report focuses on each of these problems and suggests a way forward. On autonomy and accountability The best way to enable the IIMs to survive and seize the opportunity ahead is, to empower their present boards […]
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1 December 2008
It was sheer luck, providence, kismet, that some of us live to tell this tale, while many of us were not so lucky at all. The pain on the faces of their loved ones is devastating for all of us watching – a pain that seems to come all too frequently nowadays. While television stations are going up the learning curve with each such episode, the Government seems to have not learnt at all. Not even learnt that we need a different Home Minister, someone better equipped to do such a big, important, and complex job. These past few days, as we weep with the victim’s families, and listen in horror to friends tell of watching people being killed in front of their eyes, my mind has been screaming, “It is NOT the economy, stupid”. Who cares where the Sensex is, when we have senselessness all around us. Who cares […]
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Corporate Dossier - August 1, 2008
A few weeks ago, the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad organized a conference where alumni entrepreneurs were invited to share their experiences with the centre and with students interested in becoming entrepreneurs. Most of us would assume that very few people showed up on either side, since the popular perception of IIMA is that it is the bastion of straight-and-narrow corporate executives, and not the breeding ground for off-the-beaten-track entrepreneurs who march to the beat of his own drummer. Factually, the audience comprised about 150 alumni entrepreneurs and over 250 eager beaver students who came to learn whatever they could and to ask questions like “Is 5-6 years of work experience in a company a good thing before striking out on your own” and “how do you know when you are ready to take the plunge”. At the conference the CIIE also released a book […]
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Cover Story, The Week - 13 April 2008
Lots of debate is happening around how to build “Brand India”. There are two commonly voiced dilemmas. One, that some of the harsh realities of India are so harsh (poor infrastructure, poor human development index, poor responsiveness from Government to potential investors, corruption etc.), that they will always appear as ugly black warts, marring the credibility of any ‘beautiful India’ or ‘powerful India’ branding that we do. The other dilemma is that there is no single India, and that it is impossible to reflect, under a single brand, the ancient heritage and the modern accomplishments, tourism’s “incredible India” and ITES’s 24×7 “industrious India”, manufacturing’s “innovative India” and the magic of handcrafted artisan India, the budhist stupas and Nehru’s temples of modern India, yoga, medicine and the IITs. The answer to the first is simple – yes, we need to work on our warts, but even as we do so, we […]
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