Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) (founded 1979) is an autonomous institution located at Anand in Gujarat, India with the mandate of contributing to the professional management of rural organisations.
The focus of IRMA has been on strengthening the management capacities in organizations which are controlled by users of their services rather than by capital suppliers. It is this commitment which defines IRMA and gives it the identity unique among the management institutes.
Documentary film about IRMA, Course, Career path featuring some of the alumni working in the Development sector. Dr Kurien, the founding chairman of IRMA shares his vision for setting up the institute.
Those who are unable to watch the video can see @ Yahoo! Video. IRMA Barefoot Managers
I have applied for Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programme. I have qualified into the written examination of this exam; GD-PI will be happening soon and final results will be declared till end of March 2011.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Perfect is The Enemy of The Necessary
Race vs. Class: The Future of Affirmative Action: Miller Center of Public Affairs.The debate has obvious parallels with the caste vs. class reservations :-
There may be a perfect way for solving all the problems. But there may be problem of implementation at the ground level. This should not stop us from doing what we are capable of in the required direction. Hence, despite of all merit talk, I prefer reservations and empowerment of class, caste or gender in our society. And make a statement that Perfect is the enemy of the Necessary.
Sustainable Development :
Engineering for sustainable development means providing for current human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The three components of sustainable development which are environmental responsibility, economic return (wealth creation), and social development.
Amartya Sen has talked of freedom as development . This means not just more consumption but more voice, access to accountability , access to influential networks and livelihood choice, access to good governance, and physical security. As math education is reduced to the calculation, the talk of development is reduced with data and statistics.
As Pakistan’s finance minister in the 1960s,a distinguished economist, Mahbub-ul-Haq was able to generate a growth rate of seven per cent. “And still people voted us out,” he acknowledged. “It was a rude awakening for me. I then realized that a high economic rate of growth is no indicator of human development.” Mahbub-ul-Haq then gave me the memorable gem: “We were wrongly advised that we should take care of GDP and it will automatically take care of poverty. This is not correct. We need to take care of poverty and it will automatically take care of economic growth”.
The key issues of research in area of Human and Economic development include size, scope, ownership, technology, and management from the sustainability perspective. The domain is so large that it can draw concepts from anthropology, sociology, economics, ecology, public policy, public administration, corporate social responsibility, law and governance, ethics, entrepreneurship, gender studies, and so on, necessitating a multi-disciplinary standpoint.
There may be a perfect way for solving all the problems. But there may be problem of implementation at the ground level. This should not stop us from doing what we are capable of in the required direction. Hence, despite of all merit talk, I prefer reservations and empowerment of class, caste or gender in our society. And make a statement that Perfect is the enemy of the Necessary.
Sustainable Development :
Engineering for sustainable development means providing for current human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The three components of sustainable development which are environmental responsibility, economic return (wealth creation), and social development.
Amartya Sen has talked of freedom as development . This means not just more consumption but more voice, access to accountability , access to influential networks and livelihood choice, access to good governance, and physical security. As math education is reduced to the calculation, the talk of development is reduced with data and statistics.
As Pakistan’s finance minister in the 1960s,a distinguished economist, Mahbub-ul-Haq was able to generate a growth rate of seven per cent. “And still people voted us out,” he acknowledged. “It was a rude awakening for me. I then realized that a high economic rate of growth is no indicator of human development.” Mahbub-ul-Haq then gave me the memorable gem: “We were wrongly advised that we should take care of GDP and it will automatically take care of poverty. This is not correct. We need to take care of poverty and it will automatically take care of economic growth”.
The key issues of research in area of Human and Economic development include size, scope, ownership, technology, and management from the sustainability perspective. The domain is so large that it can draw concepts from anthropology, sociology, economics, ecology, public policy, public administration, corporate social responsibility, law and governance, ethics, entrepreneurship, gender studies, and so on, necessitating a multi-disciplinary standpoint.
Individualism
Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so independence and self-reliance.
Introspection is only way of exploring subjective experience depends largely upon the extraordinarily creative interplay between seeing and thinking. And no excellence is possible with a degree of self-doubt. The more people talk about these uncomfortable issues, the more comfortable you will get with being open about what is happening to you.
The correct definition of Knowledge: Developing a coherent body of ideas and creatively reaching out to the unknown with the power of critical and scientific thinking. That can be done in education sector. There is a dire need to promote technical and social innovations in all fields of life. That comes when the feeling of social, cultural and religious identity lapses to give rise to individuality.
Promotion for working at grass root level for development can be given through inclusive education. The mindset of exclusivity is antithetical to education in a democracy. One more matter to be careful of is 'Choice'. Often 'more' is not always better, particularly when we abdicate our power to filter and choose.
In the US, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Massachusetts, and lowest in low-tax Mississippi. In Europe, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Sweden, and lowest in low-tax Eastern European nations.It seems that a thriving state stimulates a thriving volunteering sector – and a shrunken, passive state encourages passivity in the population.
Humans are versatile and multidimensional in nature. That has been proven with the development of various companies. Most of our management rituals were designed (a very long time ago) to promote discipline, control, alignment and predictability—an uni- dimensional model of growth. Yet, new companies having exponential growth in little time like Google, Amazon and Apple have been built around principles like freedom, meritocracy, transparency and experimentation. They are so endlessly inventive and strategically flexible because they provide space and time to each individual.
Anarchism works in the creative destruction of the old institutes. There will always be people giving a voice to the voiceless. An anarchist is an individual with the voices of conscience. To categories dissenters as enemy of state/institutes will be an act of injustice.
Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning. The evolution of life on Earth, language, and a free market economy have all been proposed as examples of systems which evolved through spontaneous order. The basic unit is given freedom to grow. Freedom is prerequisite for spontaneous order to take place, rather than liberty being the result of spontaneous order.
India is a divided nation in which the governors and the governed do not share a unifying worldview. While Western liberal democracies are focused on the rights of the individual, India is more concerned with the rights of groups. The politicians and extremists thrive in order to perpetuate conflict between people with the one-dimensional narratives of the problem. That leads us to the path of police state. Only rebels, not reformers are born in such atmosphere of suppression.
Still, progress of an individual without social sustainability lacks farsightedness and vision.An individual should aspire for coherence and relevance for better future of whole environment. Non-sustainable development decimates the environment, the burden of which falls on the poor and unprivileged.
The correct definition of Knowledge: Developing a coherent body of ideas and creatively reaching out to the unknown with the power of critical and scientific thinking. That can be done in education sector. There is a dire need to promote technical and social innovations in all fields of life. That comes when the feeling of social, cultural and religious identity lapses to give rise to individuality.
Promotion for working at grass root level for development can be given through inclusive education. The mindset of exclusivity is antithetical to education in a democracy. One more matter to be careful of is 'Choice'. Often 'more' is not always better, particularly when we abdicate our power to filter and choose.
In the US, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Massachusetts, and lowest in low-tax Mississippi. In Europe, volunteerism is highest in high-tax Sweden, and lowest in low-tax Eastern European nations.It seems that a thriving state stimulates a thriving volunteering sector – and a shrunken, passive state encourages passivity in the population.
Humans are versatile and multidimensional in nature. That has been proven with the development of various companies. Most of our management rituals were designed (a very long time ago) to promote discipline, control, alignment and predictability—an uni- dimensional model of growth. Yet, new companies having exponential growth in little time like Google, Amazon and Apple have been built around principles like freedom, meritocracy, transparency and experimentation. They are so endlessly inventive and strategically flexible because they provide space and time to each individual.
Anarchism works in the creative destruction of the old institutes. There will always be people giving a voice to the voiceless. An anarchist is an individual with the voices of conscience. To categories dissenters as enemy of state/institutes will be an act of injustice.
Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning. The evolution of life on Earth, language, and a free market economy have all been proposed as examples of systems which evolved through spontaneous order. The basic unit is given freedom to grow. Freedom is prerequisite for spontaneous order to take place, rather than liberty being the result of spontaneous order.
India is a divided nation in which the governors and the governed do not share a unifying worldview. While Western liberal democracies are focused on the rights of the individual, India is more concerned with the rights of groups. The politicians and extremists thrive in order to perpetuate conflict between people with the one-dimensional narratives of the problem. That leads us to the path of police state. Only rebels, not reformers are born in such atmosphere of suppression.
Still, progress of an individual without social sustainability lacks farsightedness and vision.An individual should aspire for coherence and relevance for better future of whole environment. Non-sustainable development decimates the environment, the burden of which falls on the poor and unprivileged.
Rural Management - 1
Why Rural economy is always in a poor state ?
Poverty exists in both rural and urban India. Slums are visible signs of poverty in the our cities. Slums are our failure in planning to implement an affordable housing in metros for the poor migrants at the cost of welfare state.
There is an immense migration of the landless labours in cities from the rural areas. Many reasons can be cited for this state such as failure of rural economy, regional nature of growth, absence of basic civic amenities in rural India and caste discrimination in rural India. Poor people can afford the physical torture of the slums but cannot bear the mental torture of rural habitation caused due to caste discrimination. In slums people have only class identity and not caste identity.
There is a huge connection between poverty and caste system in India. Majority of land in rural India is in the possession of minority upper castes. Hence, all the subsidies and growth in the agricultural sector is enjoyed by this minority rich and relatively more educated class. Productive assets must be created for the landless rural population.
Planning and implementation in India are very centralized. Local self-governance is dysfunctional as transparency and accountability is lacking in the institutions. Social-auditing to the rural projects are absent. Local self government Institution should be involved in planning and decision making. Rural projects of the government and working of the local self government should be brought under the purview of e-governance for transparency. But a country with a low literacy rate, e- governance is still a dream.
Poverty can be well understood by this simple example. Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India says that 46 percent of the farmers who own a mobile phone do not have a bank account.We need 'Financial Inclusion' for every citizen of this country. Financial Inclusion means, providing financial services to one and all, irrespective of their income and the place they belong to.
Five Articles on Social and Financial Issues in Rural India:-
1- Money for nothing. And misery for free : Afer a promising start, the microfinance story became one of desperate need on one side and greed and politics on the other, reports Rohini Mohan. Photographs by Vijay Pandey. Microfinance has created deeper crisis socially, about the creation of a life on credit.
MFIs typically borrow from banks at 11- 15 percent interest but charge 24-30 percent, including the operation cost of traveling to remote villages, and factoring in possible defaults. Unlike in an SHG, where the loan is given to the group, the MFI gives loans to an individual who is backed by a group guarantee.
2- Hiware Bazar: Model Village for the Nation ; A five pronged approach has been adopted for the socio-economic infrastructure of the village that includes : Free labour, Ban on Grazing, Ban on Tree Cutting, Ban on Liquor and Family Planning.
3- Tiding over farm woes: Reaping the advantage - Farmers’ unions, who only organise protests demanding higher prices, have failed to educate their members. And only way to pull out farmers from the vicious cycle of indebtedness is to push them out of the Green Revolution model of farming.
4- Living with 'installments' : Many micro-credit loans do no more than allow a family to juggle its finances for a month-to-month existance. As investors embrace this 'market', MFIs are increasingly under scrutiny. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
5- UNDERSTANDING UNTOUCHABILITY: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1589 Villages [PDF file]--- Navsarjan is one of the leading organizations working for advancement of Dalit rights. Based in the western Indian state of Gujarat,Navsarjan currently organizes more than 3,084 villages to fight the practice of "untouchability” and to improve the economic conditions of Dalits.
Poverty exists in both rural and urban India. Slums are visible signs of poverty in the our cities. Slums are our failure in planning to implement an affordable housing in metros for the poor migrants at the cost of welfare state.
There is an immense migration of the landless labours in cities from the rural areas. Many reasons can be cited for this state such as failure of rural economy, regional nature of growth, absence of basic civic amenities in rural India and caste discrimination in rural India. Poor people can afford the physical torture of the slums but cannot bear the mental torture of rural habitation caused due to caste discrimination. In slums people have only class identity and not caste identity.
There is a huge connection between poverty and caste system in India. Majority of land in rural India is in the possession of minority upper castes. Hence, all the subsidies and growth in the agricultural sector is enjoyed by this minority rich and relatively more educated class. Productive assets must be created for the landless rural population.
Planning and implementation in India are very centralized. Local self-governance is dysfunctional as transparency and accountability is lacking in the institutions. Social-auditing to the rural projects are absent. Local self government Institution should be involved in planning and decision making. Rural projects of the government and working of the local self government should be brought under the purview of e-governance for transparency. But a country with a low literacy rate, e- governance is still a dream.
Poverty can be well understood by this simple example. Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India says that 46 percent of the farmers who own a mobile phone do not have a bank account.We need 'Financial Inclusion' for every citizen of this country. Financial Inclusion means, providing financial services to one and all, irrespective of their income and the place they belong to.
Five Articles on Social and Financial Issues in Rural India:-
1- Money for nothing. And misery for free : Afer a promising start, the microfinance story became one of desperate need on one side and greed and politics on the other, reports Rohini Mohan. Photographs by Vijay Pandey. Microfinance has created deeper crisis socially, about the creation of a life on credit.
MFIs typically borrow from banks at 11- 15 percent interest but charge 24-30 percent, including the operation cost of traveling to remote villages, and factoring in possible defaults. Unlike in an SHG, where the loan is given to the group, the MFI gives loans to an individual who is backed by a group guarantee.
2- Hiware Bazar: Model Village for the Nation ; A five pronged approach has been adopted for the socio-economic infrastructure of the village that includes : Free labour, Ban on Grazing, Ban on Tree Cutting, Ban on Liquor and Family Planning.
3- Tiding over farm woes: Reaping the advantage - Farmers’ unions, who only organise protests demanding higher prices, have failed to educate their members. And only way to pull out farmers from the vicious cycle of indebtedness is to push them out of the Green Revolution model of farming.
4- Living with 'installments' : Many micro-credit loans do no more than allow a family to juggle its finances for a month-to-month existance. As investors embrace this 'market', MFIs are increasingly under scrutiny. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
5- UNDERSTANDING UNTOUCHABILITY: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1589 Villages [PDF file]--- Navsarjan is one of the leading organizations working for advancement of Dalit rights. Based in the western Indian state of Gujarat,Navsarjan currently organizes more than 3,084 villages to fight the practice of "untouchability” and to improve the economic conditions of Dalits.
Development Management -1
The present economic model is premised on the centrality and openness of markets. But the market forces themselves are a function of economic power and control. In cases in which economic resources and opportunities are widely distributed, economic activity may best be left to individual, private initiative, and market forces, but in societies with a skewed distribution of natural resources and opportunities, a free play of market forces could marginalize an increasing proportion of people, without state intervention through reforms.
Development projects are being initiated and implemented in order to fight against poverty and economic stagnation. It brings to us ethical questions of an inequitable distribution of development's benefits and losses. The principle of the "greater good for the larger numbers," routinely invoked to rationalize social disruptions like forced displacements, is, in fact, abused and turned into an unwarranted justification for tolerating ills that are avoidable. Compulsory displacements that occur for development reasons embody a perverse and intrinsic contradiction in the context of development. The outcome is an unjustifiable repartition of development's costs and benefits: Elite enjoy the gains of development, while majority bear its pains. This raises major issues of social justice and equity.
People believe in aid as a form to get rid of poverty. Aid has empowered only authorities, not necessarily citizens. The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 was given to Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank because contradictory to popular economic axiom, he believes that credit is a fundamental human right despite of one's financial position. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.
Muhammad Yunus delivered his Nobel Lecture on 10 December 2006 at the Oslo City Hall, Norway. Read the full Nobel Lecture and watch a 15 minutes interview.
Mohammad Yunus gives emphasis in his noble lecture : There is a conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives - to maximize profit. This interpretation of capitalism insulates the entrepreneurs from all political, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental dimensions of their lives. This was done perhaps as a reasonable simplification, but it stripped away the very essentials of human life.
Human beings are a wonderful creation embodied with limitless human qualities and capabilities. Our theoretical constructs should make room for the blossoming of those qualities, not assume them away.
Interview with Muhammad Yunus - Media Player at Nobelprize.org
Development projects are being initiated and implemented in order to fight against poverty and economic stagnation. It brings to us ethical questions of an inequitable distribution of development's benefits and losses. The principle of the "greater good for the larger numbers," routinely invoked to rationalize social disruptions like forced displacements, is, in fact, abused and turned into an unwarranted justification for tolerating ills that are avoidable. Compulsory displacements that occur for development reasons embody a perverse and intrinsic contradiction in the context of development. The outcome is an unjustifiable repartition of development's costs and benefits: Elite enjoy the gains of development, while majority bear its pains. This raises major issues of social justice and equity.
People believe in aid as a form to get rid of poverty. Aid has empowered only authorities, not necessarily citizens. The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 was given to Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank because contradictory to popular economic axiom, he believes that credit is a fundamental human right despite of one's financial position. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.
Muhammad Yunus delivered his Nobel Lecture on 10 December 2006 at the Oslo City Hall, Norway. Read the full Nobel Lecture and watch a 15 minutes interview.
Mohammad Yunus gives emphasis in his noble lecture : There is a conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives - to maximize profit. This interpretation of capitalism insulates the entrepreneurs from all political, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental dimensions of their lives. This was done perhaps as a reasonable simplification, but it stripped away the very essentials of human life.
Human beings are a wonderful creation embodied with limitless human qualities and capabilities. Our theoretical constructs should make room for the blossoming of those qualities, not assume them away.
Interview with Muhammad Yunus - Media Player at Nobelprize.org
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