Reengineering Indian academic processes

Professor Damodar Acharya’s viewpoints expressed in an article titled “On Growth Mode” (ET Supplement dated 15 June 2009) makes interesting reading - particularly the ones on creating opportunities up in the value chain and a strong bottom-line recommendation for scratching entrance examinations of all kinds. In his capacity as the Director, IIT Kharagpur he says: “Time is ripe to scratch the entrance examination of all kinds, be it for admission to prestigious technical and medical institutions or leading universities in the country.” While it would be interesting to know the details of his recommendations for the admissions process, here is one “out-of-box” suggestion that I had articulated earlier in my blog post titled: “Year of Creativity and Indian Education”

When I was pursuing some links in the Harvard Business Review (June 2009 issue), I came across the following two papers – a must read for these tough times.

As also pointed out in an ET article (by T T Ram Mohan dated 11 June 2009), the first paper titled “The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School” by Joel Podolny highlights some shortcomings in B-School teaching: (a) Inattention to ethics and leadership (b) A tendency to teach management in “disciplinary silos” instead of offering a holistic view (c) A focus on theoretical models that do not clarify how organizations actually work and (d) An obsession with school rankings that, in turn, leads to a focus on jobs and salaries in place of the greater good of society. Some of these points I had highlighted earlier in my own blog post titled “Value-Oriented B-School Curriculum”(http://ksahu.blogspot.com/2009/03/value-oriented-b-school-curriculum.html)

The second paper titled “How to be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy” is a good one for creating a just and humane work environment. The author, RobertI. Sutton, is a professor of Management Science and Engineering atStanford University, where he cofounded the Hasso Plattner Institute ofDesign. Interestingly, though my proposal for establishing the “KalingaInstitute of Design (KID)” brought me close to KIIT in 2005, it is yet to be a vibrant reality in the erstwhile state of Kalinga (Orissa).