Development in a Trimester of rural management - 6

1- In economics, the Dutch disease is a concept that explains the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector. There is an over-dependence on exports of primary products pushes up the value of its currency, leading to a downward spiral in its manufacturing productivity and competitiveness.

Same analogy in reverse notion can be put in the case of placement of rural managers. Unless the economy is worse, most of the rural managers are placed in either Banks or Sales job. With the expansion of the batch size and recession in Indian economy forced them to diversify their target organizations. Thus it has resulted in the placement of rural managers in diversified sector.

2- There is no placement week but a placement season.

3- Attendance falls drastically in this trimester. There are just different reasons before and after getting placed.

4- As per Prof Banikant : Ans. Nowadays the students are brighter but they are very oriented towards their final placements.

5- People prefer direct speaking student representatives over a diplomatic answer from the administration. People support a work by student representative who can spoke with honest realism about the need for harsh measures while latter only just endlessly just promised hope. That is why our batch respect Team Placecom. Kudos to them. Team makes successful captain, Successful captain does not make successful team. That is true for this team also.

6- I assume mine classroom as a microcosmic model of middle class India. While attending ethics and governance lectures, I easily pinpointed the real crisis in this country i.e. the intellectual and moral decline. Even we have potential to debate, articulate and analyze as an argumentative Indians, there is much gap in our perception and true nature of the values like integrity, liberty, equality & fraternity.

7- We as a whole bunch of individuals show tolerance for breaking rules, bad behaviour and corruption. Back Chats and Insider information were ugly faces of the placement season in the whole batch.

8- Networking ensures long term industry and company contacts. Placement season has again confirmed this rule.

9- I always kept in the mind that parameter of success is not the highest salary. It is very easy to give to the temptation of the money. I decided not to be part of slave auction business but to build up experience and skills through exposure. But the financial aspect like loan is important while securing dream job.

I was lazy and insincere as a student in this last trimester. The past is prologue, as they say. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I don't want to carry this legacy in the new work environment.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 5

I didn't come down to XIMB to oversleep. I've worked below what I am capable of. Here in 5 points what I learnt in last 3 months:

1- Generally, the clashes within lobbies of students are less real than the ones between the outsiders and system who find themselves in places where they are not a good fit. There are few people in our batch whose distinct and peculiar view make them to stand out from the rural manager's community.

2- College should be able to assist a student because they had structures in place for people seeking entrepreneurship. We lack an ecosystem to discuss social barriers for an entrepreneurial activity. Climbing corporate ladder is respectable but exploring new venture is seemed as "worst fears" come true where person is tagged as "confused".

3- In life, as one achieves success, the ability to take risks falls in almost the same proportion. Hence, it is better to throw away some securities in the search of unknown territories. I am happy to make up my mind for development field in the upcoming placement season throwing away securities of good salary.

4- Some People come across the English speaking environment right from a very early age. That may sound like a lame excuse but they are more comfortable than most in GD & Interview with their communication skill.

5- The man on the field needs to be supported and nourished that establishes trust and relate to the empowerment.

It is not only diversity but quality of experience in initial years that matters most in foundation of ours world view. I refused to just be good, because I had a dream to be great. It's a dream that every one one of us has had in our heart. The difference is, we don't put faith in, we don't persist, we don't improve, and we end up just moving to a stable and mediocre life.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 4

An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there?” There must a greater emphasis on individuality and questioning the status quo in very academic program. Continuing from the 3rd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 4th part of the learning in the field of Rural Management. Here in 10 points what I learnt in last 3 months:

1 - RM student could barely handle the stress when the pile of assignments came to them. They devolve from sensible students to the frenzy morons looking for their grades.

2 - The exposure to the American just do-it culture can produce entrepreneurs rather than a MBA degree. MBA is only as mandatory prestige tag for sure success in industry.

3 - Everything that we do, revolves around the singular concept of landing up with a great job. And the fact is no matter what we do, we will end up with a decent enough job in a corporate environment.

4 - Marketing is not expensive, merely frightening. The best way to learn marketing is to do marketing. It require talked to people of different temperaments at their mental level.

5 - When bulls fight, crops suffer. Such is the politics of professors and college administration.

6 - Donor mentality in reconstructing lives of poor can have a loophole that poor may become accustomed to depending on foreign aid.

7 - Business is not a science that can be learnt from textbook but it can be absorbed a little a time and learning process can go on infinitely. The encounters with men/women of different attitudes and bargaining power provides one an insight of the crux of the business. And same holds true for tracking companies and market with much more complex business ecosystem around them.

8 - Today our villages are languishing due to the lack of – political will, availability of resources and most importantly abject neglect by the intellectual capital of the country. In words of Arvind Kejriwal: All the government schemes are made in Delhi where one Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a non-elected representative, makes schemes and allots Rs 30,000 crore to implement them across the villages of the country. The needs of each village are different from the other.

9 - When a society boast about how glorious they have been in the past, it is an open indication of how defensive they are currently in their mindset. Such is the scenario of Indian society. And only exposure to real-life data helps students of this society in being better prepared in their professional careers.

10 - To be poor is to be denied the opportunity to participate in social, economic, and cultural transactions. Poverty is not created and recreated in a social vacuum; it is produced and reproduced through practices that are both relational and unequal. Lack of tenurial security and lack of appropriate development inputs are among the reasons why Naxalism has spread so much in the country.

There is a great anecdote by Prof Arunn that must be embraced for life - During my Ph. D. days a decade back, I met in a conference, one of the original thinker and top performers in my domain of research (heat transfer); over a bar conversation, I was about to excitedly explain an idea that I 'planned to work' and he gently patted me to silence in mid-breath; Arunn, don't tell me what you 'plan to work', work; and publish; and I will know what you did. That response (from a 'gentle giant' with more than 600 papers and 10 books and one of the 100 highly cited authors in mechanical engineering) was a 'slap of advice' that is indelible. It helps now and then to keep oneself busy.

Life of A Rural Manager

What is unofficial tagline of Brand Rural Management Programme at XIMB : “We Try Harder”

A simple question is asked by an aspirant, “Why does anybody ever want XIMB-RM as first choice in admission ?”

Yes, we all know that “XIMB-RM is only No. 2.”

Yet the reply is simple: “We try harder in nurturing our budding rural manager because we have to make a point. It's always the second ranker who works harder and learns a lot more in the process.”

The origination of the answer is not to create a cute, gimmick, but instead it was – and is -- a business philosophy that every XIMB-RM students holds true. Each and every student of rural management knows that he must work harder and learn extensively than their counterparts. XIMB - RM focus on frank and truthful statements about our ranks and education philosophy. This institution is a Sangam (confluence) where we seek to find balance between mainstream business and development of people on margins.

As I write this, I'm enjoying cool breeze of Vagator beach, Goa with a chilled beer. Actually, that’s not the true case at all. I'm sitting in a small room with bare minimum facilities at Gajapati district during winter internship. I assumed before joining XIMB that I can handle the weather of Odisha. Rarely, it rains mildly with a romantic weather. Its always either a dull humid weather or heavy rains. Nothing weakens Superman like Green kryptonite, the humidity acts same way here draining all energy! For once, we can wish cool weather every day (yes dear XIMBians, We all love Bhubaneshwar weather :X)! To add to that rigour were other matters like bad food (very very important). We love cuisine like Night-mess ka roasted chicken to X-cafe ka garlic chicken soup.

Arbeit macht frei is a German phrase, literally "labour makes (you) free". The slogan is known for having been placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, but that should be put on the entrance of this place. Yes, life is not so cool here. Time is a scare commodity in this place. Yet, one can see endless usage of time in various activities. People still have the spirits to involve in various Committees, quizzes, games and X-Walks. But this is a thing about XIMB: you rarely get time for yourself. Even the whole 24 hours seems to be exhausting, tiring and even suicidal as it can sometimes get, I don't think any of us would want it any other way.

When Rural India wakes Up at 5:00 AM only then our rural managers stop their interactive chatting sessions and start dreaming of liberal days of graduation. 15 minutes before beginning of the class, get you Ass Up Fast is the call from the beloved lazy neighbor. Even then, 9 out of 10 Rural managers are firmly grounded on their bed. Such is the start of the day and the forecasting of whole saga of two years can be made on this start.

There are not only Intelligentsia, Devil's Advocate, Activist, Salesman and Social workers but also Mamas, Chachas, Night-Owls & Free-riders present in each batch. There are people here who provide a lot of joy whenever they leave the room. While one or two are such masterpiece while everybody was drinking from the fountain of knowledge they only gargled. Yes, there are superstars who gives solid evidence of halo effect. Some of ours species can even argue with a signpost but there is one with whom it's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm. I fall in the category of rural managers who set low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.

Before a layman goes on a trip, one may want to read more about the history, the people, the landscapes, and the present political and cultural situation of the destined place. That is the pedagogy of academics for rural manager. Donor Mentality, CSR activities, Development tourism, Caste based business, deep poverty, top down approach of government, rehabilitation policy etc ... we were mentored for two years to question authority and yet develop leadership traits.

Our alumni travel across India and are ease with corporate office as well as a tribal community in a remote region. That sets us apart from our colleagues in India. We have our internal conflicts like how we will integrate development (not sure what it meant then) with surging profits of the company. We know both about CK Prahlad and P Sainath. P Sainath who? A question that is asked too frequently from the rural managers.

And we learn in two years : For India, reality bites. But Lage Raho India ,dream on! Business Managers are good Hegelian. They have a good theory, forget about the reality. Hence, the author has chosen to become rural manager. Yes, saying golden words in the end, we all have a deep love for 'sustainable development' of all 'stakeholders'.

Notice: This was a draft written long ago treasured in archives of the blog for unknown reason. It's been like 8 months since I last wrote in one flow. I am throwing a glimpse of life of a rural manager tailored at XIMB.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 3

Continuing from the 2nd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 3rd part of the learning in the field of Rural Management.  Here in 6 points what I learnt in last 3 months:

1- Integrity and Humility are more necessary to success than the knowledge. Only creating assets and giving knowledge is not enough but the spirit of service is far more essential for a rural manager.

2- For-profit firms, they argue, often face pressure to abandon social goals in favour of increasing profits. Non-profit firms and charities are needlessly restricted in their ability to raise capital when they need to grow. There should be a third way of developing the objectives of both firms.

3- There is a misplaced tendency to look at "progress" through the eyes of people in power or in powerful economic institutions. There lies a great assumption that if they do well, wealth/prosperity will trickle down into the lives of ordinary people. This approach is one of the many 'indicators' of the development, not the only one as perceived by mainstream.

4- Government can give equal opportunity to all, but still a Steve Jobs will be a Steve Jobs, all people are not going to become Steve Jobs. Equity does not mean that all children must learn the same thing at the same rate but they have the same access to same infrastructure and facilities.

5- LPG are regarded as panacea of all the problems. I don't agree with this trend. Often assets and infrastructure created that are more beneficial to the elites than the poor who created them. I am not yet sure of the access of the vulnerable group of assets created in NREGA.

6- The true institution failure happens when the voice of vulnerable people are kept silent. Not being organised, they lack representations in social, economic and political institutions and often fail to participate despite granted rights. Most of the time, they form group on the basis of their social identity and caste system thrives with changing times.

Summary of One Year :
It is not the most talented who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change. One year has passed since my admission in 2-Year Full Time Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Management. I don't much bother academic competence but trying to learn with each passing moment. MBA degree is a fast-track exposure to various functions in the organisation -- sales, marketing, human resources, finance, product management and strategy. While development studies take s in the domain of sociology, anthropology, economics, political science and even public administration. Rural Management is a hybrid mixture of both these domains. I have not allow myself time to settle down. I tried to jump at every opportunity, to do as much as I could with my time. Rural Manager is needed to harness grass-roots dynamism and entrepreneurial potential. Hoping to convert this knowledge to some useful actions.

XIMB -RM has taught me the tact to handle of academic pressure. Still, much can be done to put a student through an intellectual rigour. I never tend to prioritize the number of hours spent in the classroom over the quality of teaching, that helps me much in assessing impact of classroom lectures on me.

As an IT engineer with 12 hrs 3.5L job at MNC was good but never a satisfying one. It is not money that has tempted me to give up a stable career at IT firm and enter rural management program. It is the freedom to read widely, think deeply, write independently and keep learning—the opportunity to live in the world of ideas and realities simultaneously. I have achieved a lot of mine goals and pretty happy with my progress. In the end, I still ponder over a simple question - But what does it mean anyway — development?

Rural Management GD-PI Preparation

Later Addition (Jan 2020): Diary of Rural Manager ! on the jobs, career prospects, and life of a rural management graduate.

I was an aspirant for the rural management program last year. I applied for both XIMB and IRMA. I tried to write down a possible list of the question that may be asked by the interview panelists. Please customize the questions as per your needs.

01- Describe yourself in 3 words?
02- Tell us about yourself and your family background.
03- What is success according to you?
04- What is an Urban area?
05- Why do you think you are suited for RM?
06- Why you pursued Engineering at graduation?
07- Why do you switch to the IT industry after a degree in mechanical engineering?
08- What is Development? What is development according to you?
09- Why IRMA/XIMB/TISS?
10- Would you like to ask any questions from us? Would you like to ask any questions from us?
11- Why Rural and What is Rural? Why did you think about rural?
12- Why prepare for rural management, not for the AGM course at IIMs?
13- Is there any business plan in your mind and how it will benefit rural people?
14- So how is the campus, when did you reach it? How do you feel about Gujarat/ Orissa/ Mumbai? What is your first impression?
15- Have you done self-analysis. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Briefly outline your strengths? Briefly outline your weaknesses?
16- Why do Companies see bright prospects in Rural India?
17- Why should we select you or special points? 5 reasons why should we select you? Give one reason why should we select you?
18- Give one reason why we don’t select you?
19- Describe the nature of your work experience, responsibilities, and achievements.
20- Have you any experience of scholarly work?
21- Do you think development activities require a lot of money?
22- What is leadership according to you? Can you cite any example from your life where you demonstrated it?
23- Do you think you will be able to switch from a metro city to a rural area? why?
24- Tell us something which is not written in the resume?
25- How will you convince the poor villager to send his children to school? What incentives are on offer if he sends his children to school?
26- What kind of things have you done in the office other than work? What did you learn and understand from this?
27- There's enough aid flowing in. And yet, things aren't turning out the way they should. Why?
28- How do you plan to fund your studies? You will be requiring loans or your family would pay it?
29- How did you come to know about the institute?
30- Why management? Can you not serve a rural population with your technical skills?
31- You can do MBA from another college, and earn in lakhs, why rural management and get less paisa?
32- Why is there a need to work for rural people?
33- How can technology help the rural sector?
34- After working in AC rooms for around 3 years in the software industry, will you be able to able to adjust the demanding job profile of a rural manager?
35- The software industry is a lucrative industry then why do you want to join IRMA?
36- Asked about what I liked in the company you work for?
37- How can you use mech engg knowledge and IT exp in rural development. How will your expertise from your work ex bring about change in a village?
38- How do you relate to the background and how do you plan to apply? What part could technology play in rural development?
39- What can computers do for farmers? Explain the limitations of IT-based initiatives?
40- From where did this rural thing come to your mind?
41- Suppose you are to develop a business model for a village. How would you do it?
42- What do you mean by community service or welfare?
43- What all community work have you done?
44- What do want to convey by research and investment in the rural sector?
45- What would be my first step to develop rural people ... if I were the PM of India?
46- What is the difference between India and Singapore?
47- Gave a situation "Some money is given to a rural person through micro-credit. How will you ensure to get it back?"
48- How education of elders will ensure the development of the rural sector?
49- How will you bring about changes in a village which has been neglected over the years?
50- How will you change the mindset of a farmer towards genetically modified crops and convince him to make the switch?

Brief Idea about - Poverty, Migration, Education Policy, Agrarian policy, E-Governance, HDI, Microfinance, Annual Budget Plan, Poverty Line, GDP, PPP, PCI (Per capita income), Information of Home state and city, Various central and state(home) government schemes, NRLM, NREGA, NRHM, Panchayati Raj, PESA, Free Trade, Fair Trade, ICT (Information and communications technology), Welfare State, Market Economy, PURA, Major Sectors of the Economy, Green Revolution, Rabbi- Kharif Crops, Name of few scheduled tribes, National Food Security Mission, BT crops, Land reforms, AMUL, White Revolution, IMR, MMR, Literacy Rate, Working Population, Disguised, Seasonal and Under Employment, Polio Mission, Chipko Andolan, CRISIL Ratings, Economic Recession, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Five Year Plans, Bottom of Pyramid (BOP), NABARD, BRIC, UID Aadhar, Lokpal Bill, Rainfed Area, Inflation, Cash Crop, Public Distribution System, Rain Water Harvesting, WTO, etc etc...

Read about NGOs like Pratham, Gram Vikas, Goonj, PRADAN, BASIX, SEWA.

Development in a Trimester of rural management - 2

Continuing from the 1st part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 2nd part of the learning in the field of Rural Management.

Looking into mine MBA and engineering curriculum, I can easily conclude that it is heavily influenced by American model and lacks novelty. Despite of mine low academic orientation, I have not seen really good books from an Indian author. Most of the books are from western universities. Hence, there is dire need to dejargonise and accept superfluos nature of our education.

During this trimester of PGDM-RM (rural management) at XIMB, I asked this question again and again :- why one chooses any course or college ? Whether one prefers a brand or academic learning or mere placement records of the college for routing the career path.

Any college should have these aspects for growth : Creation of knowledge through research, Application of knowledge within the industry through commercializaion and Dissemination of knowledge through classroom lectures. I am glad that XIMB fairs a good mark in this.

There will never be a final crisis of capitalism unless there is an alternative.Similarly, until students see an alternative system in RM, the prevailing dilemma of development and management will prevail. But even this duality helps us in looking for designing an economy of well-being.

When there is a large chance of being educated in an increasingly homogenised economic/educational system, RM course provide a different overview. Here in 5 points what I learnt in 3 months:

1- We don’t tend to celebrate ‘empowerment’ because there is no glamour in it. We celebrate charity because it makes us feel good.

2- We can make people accountable by giving them ownership and concrete goals to achieve.

3- We need to listen to dissonance of the participatory of the system. It is as much true for Panchayat level to the MBA college level where stakeholders are students.

4- Excess of Knowledge and logic sometimes became anti actional in nature. It makes person cautious and should be used for planning only. This country has enough critics but only few selective solution providers.

5- India have large people with an entrepreneurial nature but they only need subsidized capacity building. It is quite paradox to 'charity driven and complex' development approaches practiced by the government.

While writing conclusion is not an easy task, I can only remember the opening lines of novel "The tale of two cities by Charles Dickens" in the times of recession and protests.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the uperlative degree of comparison only."

Development in a Trimester of rural management

John Stuart Mill is right here: there is no development, democratic or economic, without an educated citizenry. Hence with this statement, I will shade mine myopic narrative of the last 3 months of the education. Roughly, the things I am doing out here is to fight the common perception between development and management.

During this trimester of PGDM-RM (rural management) at XIMB, the question that was constantly asked by me was how much of it is “Development” and how much “management” ? With rural India in the context, this issue becomes a divergent for many budding rural managers.

The purpose of nearly all writing is to communicate easily. Here in 10 points is what I learnt in 3 months:

1- The first lesson towards developing an understanding that development is not merely about subsidies, urbanisation and poverty but also about being sensitive to the people.

2- As an aspiring rural managers should have understanding that must encompass history, sociology and the economic factors that also shape people’s lives. Quality of a learner is never an accident. It is always result of intelligent effort.

3- Between intention and implemention, there is a step called planning that needs learning from experiences, peers, teachers and most important through insight of a common wisdom of people.

4- We as managers, leaders and adminsitrators counsel and judge people without knowing much about them. Before presuming to do so, we need to be educated about why people behave the way they do. Then ask ourselves a far more difficult question: ‘Who am I to talk to other people and advise them about their development?’

5- There is nothing called perfect system, we try to make a system perfect by adapting ourselves to the problems at hand. One has to challenge organizational culture without destroying it.

6- Intent and honesty of purpose indeed attracts the valuable talent across the strata of society. But what you want to do and why holds important parameter for the people involved in any project. The character of a person/institution can be the most powerful yet most difficult competitive advantage to develop and maintain.

7- Omission is usually a luxury of the person with many choices. That we do knowingly. But denial is the instrument used by us for avoiding grim realities and ours responsibility.

8- Money does not motivate people, people want social recognition and autonomy.

9- People have capability to become intellectually self reliant and a lot of sustainable knowledge is hidden in them. They only need facilitators like us.

10- As an engineer, I learned that there is immense need to demystify technology first for the rural populace so that they will have the confidence to use and manage it. Technology can't be monopoly of engineers and technocrats.

It is the sheer desperation and helplessness that opens the world for a miracle. But messiah appears only at the time of immense crisis and disaster. We can't wait for Anna and Gandhi to show us the path always.

Develop a vision and skills for implementation, the rest pieces of mission will fall in the right places !