Category: Growth

As attrition rate rises across Asia, this ‘untapped talent pool’ presents a solution

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Great Resignation, where people are quitting jobs in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic for better work-life balance and to pursue their passion, is still going strong and Asian economies are beginning to feel the heat now.

According to the 2021 Mercer survey, employers from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand observed a higher turnover rate, especially at the mid-career level. This means that employers would have to look for ways to deal with labour shortage and according to a senior International Labor Organization (ILO) official, the solution to the imminent crisis lies in an “under-tapped pool” of talent — individuals with disabilities.

Joni Simpson, a senior specialist for gender, equality, and non-discrimination, said that there are “an estimated 472 million persons with disabilities of working age in Asia” but almost two-thirds of them are outside of the labour force.

A recent ILO report on “Tapping the potential of persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific” said that Asian businesses struggle with disability inclusion owing to a “lack of awareness” and “prevailing stereotypes”.

It said, “Some of the most common assumptions and fears are that people with disabilities are able to perform only routine repetitive jobs, that they have low productivity and a high accident rate, and that adaptations to the workplace will be costly.”

However, Simpson said that “highly skilled workers with disabilities are out there and wanting to find jobs”. He added that it was up to companies to step up their “diversity-hiring practices”.

A senior Deutsche Bank official also stressed the need for businesses to open up to hiring persons with disabilities. “Statistically, more than one billion people in the world have disabilities. But it is often overlooked that within that number are countless talented and gifted individuals who are more than able and willing to support, outperform and even lead their peers,” said Bernd Starke, Deutsche Bank’s head of DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) corporate coverage for Asia-Pacific.

Benefits of hiring persons with disabilities

According to a Glassdoor survey, 76% of employees and job seekers want a diverse workforce. Therefore, hiring persons with disabilities gives a business a competitive advantage.

It has also been reported that the reputation and profitability of companies shoot up as they hire persons with disabilities. This has been corroborated by a 2018 Accenture study which found that “businesses which actively seek to employ people with disabilities reported higher revenues, net incomes and profit margins than businesses that do not”.

Besides, at a time when the attrition rate is going up steadily, employees with disabilities come with strong job loyalty. A study by DuPont de Nemours — focusing on the US job market — concluded that people with disabilities have better retention rates and less absenteeism. Experts also highlight that including persons with disabilities in a team instills empathy in others.

Also Read: 3 ways hiring this ‘under-tapped pool’ of talent can benefit Asia’s workforce

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cement demand expected to grow over 7 percent in 2022, says Ambuja

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ambuja Cements expects demand in the cement industry to grow over 7 percent in 2022, adding that it is ”well braced” to meet the requirements. The growth would be helped by factors such as infrastructure growth, demand for housing, increase in rural incomes and industrial growth, said Ambuja Cements, part of Swiss building material major Holcim group (earlier LafargeHolcim).

The Union Budget 2022 had allocated Rs 48,000 crore towards the PMAY scheme (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) and the completion of 8 million houses is envisaged in FY 2022-23, according to the company’s latest Annual Report. ”Activity in residential housing projects across towns and cities has also witnessed a sharp rebound and is approaching pre-COVID levels,” the report added.

On the industry outlook, Ambuja Cements Ltd (ACL) said, ”Cement demand is expected to grow at more than 7 percent YoY in the calendar year 2022.” This would be led by key drivers such as structural demand for housing due to the continued shortage of housing stock and increase in rural incomes over recent years, which will further supplement cement demand for individual housing. Besides, ”Healthy infrastructure growth over the next five years led by the government push to expedite the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)” would also lead to growth, it added.

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The NIP projects are worth Rs 111 lakh crore and 80 percent of this is to be invested in road, energy, urban rail and irrigation sectors. ”The Union Budget 2022 has set a target to construct 25,000 km of national highways and has increased allocation for PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana) by 36 percent,” the annual report said.

Moreover, growth in the industrial/commercial segment is driven by the requirement of warehousing space due to the e-commerce boom and data centres for back offices, which would also contribute to the demand. ACL Chairman N S Sekhsaria said, ”The industry offers significant headroom for growth aided by low per capita consumption and a massive government push for infrastructure and affordable housing” and the company is ”well-braced to meet the expanding demand.” ”We look at the future with unflagging enthusiasm. India continues to remain the second-largest cement producer in the world,” he said.

The Union Budget 2022-23 saw a significant increase in proposed capital expenditure, vindicating the government’s sustained focus on infrastructure. “Furthermore, the e-commerce boom, which is spurring demand for warehouse space, data centres and energy storage systems, will attract more investment as they have been granted infrastructure status,” he said.

As part of its growth strategy, ACL is investing in the cement grinding expansion plan of 7 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) across locations, including in a greenfield project at Barh, Bihar. ”This will help us move closer to our target of achieving 50 MTPA capacity in the near future,” he said.

Ambuja Cement has a present capacity of 31.45 MTPA. ”Further, we are increasing our presence in existing and new markets through our strong distribution network and dealer partnerships,” he said.

According to data available on Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA)’s portal, the total installed capacity in the Indian cement sector is approximately 545 MTPA.

Also read: Highway construction slows down to 28.64 km a day in FY22: Official

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

New study proves MBA managers cut firms’ wage bills but don’t always help boost sales

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Researchers have come out with data on the role of MBA-wielding managers on salaries and profitability. And the findings—though striking—might not surprise you.

A working paper from NBER states that within five years of the appointment of a manager with a business degree, wages decline by 6 percent and the labour share by 5 percentage points in the US against firms operated by non-business managers.

The National Bureau of Economic Research paper has not been peer-reviewed or been subject to review by the NBER board of directors, but the findings could be a wake-up call for B-schools (MBA schools) and business optimising practices.

Wage growth has slowed down, and the labour share in national income has declined in many advanced economies over the last three decades. The paper argues that a contributing factor has been “changes in wage policies of firms associated with business education of their managers/CEOs”.

“Our final sample contained around 9,900 US publicly listed firms with complete information on CEOs,” the paper states. “In 1980, only 26 percent of the Compustat firms had CEOs with business degrees (non MBA). This had grown to 43 percent by 2020. Almost all of the increase came from the share of CEOs with MBAs–up from 24 percent in 1980 to 37 percent in 2020.”

Compustat is a database of financial, statistical, and market information on active and inactive global companies. The paper shows that Harvard Business School contributed 19 percent of the business degrees of CEOs, followed by Wharton (8 percent), and Stanford (5 percent).

The findings show that firms do not enjoy higher output, investment, or employment growth after hiring business managers. “This suggests that business managers are not more productive than their non-business peers,” the paper states.

The paper goes on to illustrate that reduced wages seemed to go hand-in-hand with managers’ reduced proclivity to share rents with workers. Rent sharing is when a company shares profits after paying all factors their market rates with its employees.

But if a manager with MBA leads to reduced wages for employees and does not lead to higher profits for the firm, why are such managers hired?

Who benefits from having such business managers? Since business managers did not change the growth or productivity, lower wages should imply higher profits.

To find this, researchers started looking at changes in firm profitability, measured by return on assets. And the findings state that following a switch to business manager, return on assets increases by about 3 percentage points in the US.

“Higher profits also translated into higher stock market prices,” the paper states. “One clear group of beneficiaries from the practices brought about by business managers are shareholders.”

To be sure, the researchers ran similar studies for MBA managers in Denmark and concluded that it “is not just a US phenomenon”.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India can grow consistently at 8% for next 20 years on current investment strategy: Vaishnaw

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian economy can grow consistently at 8 percent for the next 20 years leading to the generation of up to 1.5 crore new jobs and bringing 3.5 crore people out of the poverty every year on the basis of the capital investment strategy of the government, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. While addressing the annual general meeting of Assocham, he said that the government has set a target of increasing the capital investment level in the budget from 27 percent of the GDP to 35 percent over the next few years.

“We follow the strategy of capital investment for 5-6 years more, we can grow at 8 percent consistently for the next 20 years, which means, every year, close to 1-1.5 crore new employment, 30-35 million people coming out of poverty. That’s the change we can bring in our society by that thought process,” Vaishnaw said. The minister said that India has been a consumption-led economy in the past and the Prime Minister has taken a “path of faith” to increase capital investment despite reluctance from several economists.

“Many of the European countries followed the prescription of the Nobel laureates and they are in a very bad situation. We decided to choose the path which had three elements — public investment, very focussed consumption and reforms and incentives for private industries,” Vaishnaw said. He said Germany, US, Japan, China and South Korea have followed the same path of capital investments for several years.

Also read: Infrastructure investments boosting employment; Gati Shakti will enable efficient planning, says Piyush Goyal

The minister said the country’s nominal GDP at the end of the financial year 2021 was Rs 198 trillion and the target was to reach Rs 225 trillion. In this Rs 198 trillion economy, close to Rs 116 trillion came from consumption which is about 59 per cent of the GDP and Rs 53 trillion came from investment which is only about 27 per cent of the GDP, the minister said. The government after analysing that its liability is around 60 per cent of the GDP, decided to go for increasing capital investments.

Vaishnaw said that the Centre gets roughly Rs 20 trillion as gross tax revenue and net tax revenue, after taking out state government share, is about Rs 15 trillion and non-tax is about Rs 3 trillion. “About Rs 18 trillion is the total receipt that the government of India gets on the revenue side,” he said.

He said that the way our economy is structured, Rs 13 trillion will go to the MSME sector and close to Rs 10 trillion will go as wages and salaries which will lead to people spending in several sectors. The minister said that people who are in the brick and mortar industry may have seen that the factory capacity utilisation was around 60-70 percent a year ago, which has now reached about 80-85 percent and in some sectors it has reached 90-95 per cent where people are now planning setting up new facilities.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mindtree opens first development centre in Kolkata, recruits 1,000 professionals

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Larsen & Toubro group’s IT company, Mindtree announced the opening of its first development centre in Kolkata engaging 1,000 professionals. There is renewed thrust from IT companies opening their base in the city or expanding existing facilities, Infosys has commenced construction of their facility in the city, an state government official said.

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The 56,000 square feet Mindtree facility located in the city’s IT hub–Sector V of Bidhannagar, is compliant with LEED standards of environmentally sustainable operations, and has been designed as an agile workplace to enable greater collaboration, innovation and creativity, the company said on Thursday. The company has more than 31,900 professionals across 24 countries. The company will provide digital solutions, consulting, cloud, core modernization, product engineering, business intelligence, data analytics, CRM platform, and cybersecurity services to some of the world’s largest retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, banking, financial services, insurance, travel, transportation, and hospitality companies in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, officials said.

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”The centre is the result of our continued investments in cutting-edge talent and infrastructure to meet the robust global demand for our services. Our focus is on leveraging our domain and technology leadership, global client footprint, progressive people practices, and close collaboration with academia to create future-ready talent and fast-paced careers in the city. Kolkata will play an important role in turning that into an even stronger competitive advantage for us. We look forward to growing our infrastructure and operations in the city,” Mindtree CEO and managing director Debashis Chatterjee said.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

View | 5 things cos can consider to motivate and retain women staff

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) have evolved considerably over the past few years. D&I is not just a good thing to do anymore but is a business imperative. With the changing demographics of customers across almost all industries, it has become important for employees to mirror their customers in order to provide a meaningful and superlative customer experience.

There is no ‘one secret ingredient’ for improving inclusion. Organisations must have a holistic, integrated inclusion strategy backed by senior leadership commitment. An organisation’s inclusion strategy cannot be treated as a flavour of the month, instead, it is a journey that requires a sustained multi-year gameplan. Organisations must craft a customised inclusion strategy backed by data and specific actions in order to move the needle.

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Here are five tips organisations can consider attracting, retaining and developing the careers of women in their workforce:

1.Promote women leaders as talent magnets: Studies show that having more women role models in leadership positions can create a safe and supportive network that will encourage more young women to join the organisation. It is, therefore, important to celebrate the success of women who have had thriving careers in the organisation, and getting them to talk about their journeys will inspire existing employees as well as aspirants.

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It is a known fact that the gender ratio significantly and swiftly drops at senior levels. Therefore, organisations must find creative ways to bolster women’s participation at the leadership level. Programs to accelerate the growth and development of top talent, identifying leadership roles, and hiring for niche roles will go a long way towards improving the gender ratio, especially at senior levels.

2.Build ecosystem support: There are a few areas that organisations can focus on to build ecosystem support: 

• Role of managers: Managers play a pivotal role in promoting inclusion, and this tenet can never be underestimated. Managers should act as coaches and confidantes who can spur the careers of women professionals to newer heights. They need to co-create the career paths of women professionals and nudge them to ‘raise their hands’ and make use of opportunities that come their way. Managers must learn to be bias-free and lead with ‘empathy and trust’ to have supportive conversations with women constantly. This practice is even more important in the current situation, where the pandemic has had a significant impact on the D&I dimension in the workplace.
• Learning and development: Organisations should provide sufficient opportunities to enhance the functional skills of their women professionals. These opportunities could be in the form of classroom trainings, peer learnings, or on-the-job power assignments. Leaders and managers should identify creative ways of offering learning opportunities to ensure women don’t feel overwhelmed, especially in the current pandemic situation. Senior women leaders can also lead by teaching emerging women leaders on various topics – this will create a natural networking opportunity for other women colleagues across levels, to interact and learn from one another.
• Best-in-class benefits: Providing best-in-class benefits is an important factor. These benefits can include, but are not limited to, elements such as leave benefits, flexible work arrangements, hybrid working options, and so on. It is also necessary to create a strong workplace culture that will be psychologically safe, so that women can avail of these benefits without any fear of impact on their careers.

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3.Create Employee Resource Groups: Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are self-empowered affinity groups that help create a strong ally network for the cause they are supporting. ERGs are usually powerful groups because they can build a positive groundswell and have the potential to create many allies. These groups can support women and enable them to thrive. For example, a buddy network for new joiners can help them imbibe the organisation’s culture and provide them career nudges from women who have experienced success in their own careers. Similarly, inclusion champions can facilitate the re-entry of women into the workforce.

4.Build sponsor networks: It is said that women get plenty of mentoring and training opportunities, but not adequate sponsorship. Sponsors are individuals who are powerful advocates for women at the leadership table and provide them opportunities, visibility, and influential assignments. They have the potential to ‘lift’ the careers of women professionals in the organisation. Ideally, sponsors are senior-level executives in the organisation who have a voice at the table and are among the key decision-makers.

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5.Promote senior leaders as inclusion champions: Senior leaders should role-model inclusive behaviours and talk openly about their inclusion journeys and pledges. Leaders should provide a safe environment that encourages courageous and uncomfortable conversations on inclusion among employees. Open dialogues that address these difficult questions can promote an organisation’s inclusion journey. In closing, it would be appropriate to quote Brené Brown: “To not have the conversations because they make you uncomfortable is the definition of privilege. Your comfort is not at the center of this discussion”.

(This article is written by Lakshmi R Rajagopal, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Fidelity Investments India)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India likely to grow at 7.8% in FY23, with risk tilted towards downside: Crisil report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian economy is expected to grow by 7.8 percent in the 2022-23 fiscal, mainly driven by the government’s drive to push infrastructure spending and a likely increase in private capital expenditure, rating agency Crisil said on Thursday. The agency, however, cautioned that the ongoing Russia Ukraine war and rising commodity prices do pose a downside risk to the growth.

The country is expected to register a growth rate of 8.9 percent in the current fiscal ending March 31. “Any potential upside due to the early end of a mild third wave of COVID-19 infections will be offset by the ongoing geopolitical strife stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is creating a dampening effect on global growth and pushing up oil and commodity prices. The risks to growth are also tilted to the downside,” it said.

Private consumption remains the weak link, owing to reduced direct fiscal policy support, Crisil Chief Economist Dharmakirti Joshi said while unveiling ‘India Outlook, Fiscal 2023’. As for the average Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation, he said, it will stay firm at 5.4 percent next fiscal — if the price of crude oil averages $85-90/barrel — and takes into account the excise duty cuts announced last year. However, upside risks will build if the geopolitical strife prolongs, keeping oil and commodity prices higher for longer.

Also read: Russia-Ukraine war: Icra sees serious downside risks to growth; CAD to cross 3.2%

Interestingly, when the price of crude oil averaged $110/barrel between fiscals 2012 and 2014, inflation was in double digits. That situation is unlikely to repeat this time due to the relatively benign domestic prices of foodgrains following sumptuous agricultural output, and comparatively lower core inflation. During that period, food and core inflation, which together have 86 percent weight in CPI, had averaged 9.8 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.

“We believe the fiscal policy will need to be deployed more aggressively than envisaged in the Union Budget for next fiscal. This can be done by increasing allocation for employment-generating schemes and food subsidy, and cutting duty on petroleum products,” Joshi said. This can be a relief bridge for those most affected by the pandemic till such time the virtuous cycle of investment-led growth plays out in the labour market, and private consumption demand becomes self-sustaining, he noted.

Also read: India’s GDP likely to be at 8-8.5% but crude price could play havoc: Jahangir Aziz

The higher price of crude oil will widen India’s current account deficit to 2.2 percent in fiscal 2023, the report said, adding typically, a $10 increase in the price of crude oil raises the current account deficit to GDP ratio by about 40 basis points. The near-term impact of high oil prices on inflation, assuming a significant passthrough, will be more pronounced than on growth, it said, adding all bets are off if oil stays around or above $100/barrel for a prolonged period.

“Across consumption segments, recovery curves have been staggered and income sentiment will be the key driver. As things stand, we expect India Inc to see revenue growth of 10-14 percent next fiscal,” the report added. While utilisation levels in legacy sectors do not support a rounded capex recovery, spending under schemes such as Production Linked Incentive (PLI) may result in industrial capex rising to above Rs 4-4.5 lakh crore on average in the medium term (through fiscal 2026) compared to Rs 3-3.5 lakh crore in the three years through fiscal 2020.

India’s investment focus is now shifting towards green capital expenditure, with an expected spend of over Rs 2.85 lakh crore per annum over fiscals 2023 to 2030, accounting for nearly 15-20 percent of total investments — into the infrastructure and industrial sectors — per annum, it said. This will further help push a supply-driven recovery for the economy as a whole, it added.

Also read: India’s Q3 GDP slows to 5.4%, FY22 GDP estimate at 8.9%; experts weigh in

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India’s manufacturing activities expand in Feb as output, new orders rise: PMI

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s manufacturing sector activities expanded in February as output and new orders grew at accelerated rates, supported by favourable demand conditions, a monthly survey said on Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was at 54.9 in February, up from 54.0 in January, signalling a stronger improvement in the sector’s health.

The February PMI data pointed to an improvement in overall operating conditions for the eighth straight month. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.

Sustained sales growth supported the upturn in manufacturing sector output in February. Moreover, firms responded to strong increases in new work intakes by lifting production, input buying and stocks of purchases, the survey said.

“Latest PMI data for India’s manufacturing sector revealed an improvement in operating conditions in February. Output and new orders expanded at stronger rates, while buying activity continued,” said Shreeya Patel, an economist at IHS Markit.

“There were, however, some key concerns that continued to threaten growth. Most prominently, cost pressures remained elevated as a result of shortages while delivery times lengthened once again. However, a key threat to manufacturers comes from only marginal increases in selling prices.”

There were some signs of capacity pressures on Indian manufacturers, with backlogs rising marginally. Despite this, and a pick-up in demand, employment decreased. The overall rate of job shedding was only fractional.

Patel, however, noted that sustained increases in backlogs could lead to higher employment levels in the months ahead, should capacity pressures continue. On the price front, strengthening demand for raw materials led to another marked rate of input price inflation. Input price inflation softens to a six-month low.

“For now, India’s manufacturing sector has weathered the storm of the Omicron variant, undoubtedly supported by the relatively high inoculation rate. Moreover, demand conditions showed notable signs of resilience and price pressures somewhat receded,” Patel noted. India’s GDP growth slowed to 5.4 percent in October-December 2021.

Asia’s third-largest economy is projected to grow 8.9 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 31, slower than previously anticipated 9.2 per cent, according to the data released on Monday. The weaker pace of growth came ahead of the heightened geopolitical risks to the economy from higher prices of commodities and energy after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Though the third COVID wave has now subsided, the economy faces headwinds, arising out of the geopolitical situation caused by the Russia Ukraine conflict.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Vision 2047: Globalizing Indian Thought

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The world of the future will belong to innovators and creative conceptualizers rather than narrow specialists working inside their own silos. It will become more and more important to be able to connect the part to the whole. In envisioning the future, we need to look at the year 2047—which will be the centenary of Indian independence and the golden jubilee of Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK)—from the eyes of the school student of today. It is today’s school-going generation that will be at the helm of affairs in 2047. Our primary concern here is how to broaden the identity of the student. We want to make them ponder the question: what makes a human being more wholesome? We want students to leave this institute as more evolved persons. This means focusing on the core of our humanity as much as the skills. The specific skills required to function in any job can be picked up along the way; the core, on the other hand, relates to the central values of a human being. These values are commitment to truth, sustainability and wholeness. It is this core that we must focus on developing in students.

Education must go beyond a transactional system that involves a fixed number of hours’ interaction between teacher and student: learning needs to be an ongoing engagement with our whole life, on the lines of the gurukuls of antiquity.

How are we Globalizing Indian Thought at IIM Kozhikode?

The spur to creating the Indian Business Museum came with the realization that much of the thinking on the current business environment had become limited and parochial. We wanted to create a repository of knowledge about India’s business heritage that would broaden the discourse on Indian business, introducing historical depth and a sense of rootedness. It is about creating a confident and secure identity. The strength of one’s roots is directly proportional to the magnitude of one’s visible achievements.

In addition to being firmly rooted in our country’s heritage, its traditions and knowledge systems, it is our vision to bring the fruits of that knowledge into the worldwide discourse. For several centuries now, the world’s centres of learning, and the conversations developing within them, have been dominated by Western analytical thought. This is like one species causing the decline and near extinction of other species. Conversations on globalization have for a long time been synonymous with Westernization. Indian thought does have a great deal to contribute to those conversations. The very complexity of our nation and its intellectual heritage make it ideally suited to take a lead role in dealing with what will be an increasingly dynamic future in a globalized world. Our recent experiences, too, are extremely relevant—practices such as jugaad, dhandha, the langar system and frugal engineering, which have evolved to meet the needs of our society at present, are cases in point. The Dabbawalas of Mumbai and Arvind Eye Hospital in Madurai have blended efficiency with the value of service in a way that is unmatched in the world. Indian businesses have deftly dealt with the paradox of creating value for money and value for many at the same time.

Such an orientation has for long existed in our minds, but it also needs a symbolic manifestation for our future generations to identify with these symbols. This is the thinking behind the Arjuna statue that stands at the entrance to the main block of our institute. An exceptional individual from Indian mythology, Arjuna symbolizes concentration, unwavering focus and a deep grounding in the skills and values imparted by his guru. Above all, Arjuna stands for dharma, which is the moral and ethical code of a professional in any walk of life. Some of our buildings are named after iconic Indian achievers such as Kautilya. You will see billboards on campus that have quotes from great masters ranging from Buddha and Vivekananda to Tagore and Teresa. Our new campus inside Infopark in Kochi has very aesthetically designed walls and classrooms. All our students’ hostels are named after Indian music ragas such as Jog, Kalyani and Hamsadhwani. India is the only culture that has different music for different seasons. Our music is a reflection of our non-linear minds. Our musicians realized that the music for spring had to be different from the music of the monsoon. This non-linearity is expressed in the awesome architecture of our campus: in the circularity of our open-air auditorium for instance. Our annual food festival, in which our students cook different dishes, showcases India’s myriad culinary traditions. Our construction work does not happen at the expense of our ecology. In fact, our buildings have grown with the hills rather than against them.

IIM Kozhikode is perhaps the only business school in the country with a very vibrant humanities and liberal arts area that coexists alongside finance, operations research, marketing and other business disciplines. The concern of this area stretches from a very popular course called social transformation in India to Indo–China relations, classes on Indian business history and culturally congruent communication classes. India’s primary contribution to the world has been in the realm of humanities. Our Nalanda and Takshashila were world-class universities that fostered a human and humane world. Our goal as a management school is to give to the world competent and compassionate professionals. We believe that no one can be a good manager without first being a good human being.

IIM Kozhikode has pioneered gender diversity. Our class of 2013 has 54 per cent women. So did our Class of 2020. For more than 50 years, the pioneering IIMs had an adverse gender ratio of about 90:10 in favour of men. IIM Kozhikode changed that in 2010, with more women than ever before entering the portals of an IIM that had long been the bastion of male engineering graduates. Through this, we ensured a more vibrant learning environment in our campus as women brought in different perspectives to decision-making, learning and conflict resolution. At IIM Kozhikode, we truly believe that India cannot be a true economic power when half of its population cannot make it to the boardrooms and the higher echelons of leadership. The institute has indeed set for itself a pre-eminent role of globalizing Indian thought. The sheer scale, scope and potential impact that India will have on twenty-firstcentury business make us believe that this is a legitimate aspiration. IIM Kozhikode’s mission is bigger than just disseminating academic or even professional courses. Our vision extends to those major challenges like infrastructure, health care, education, managing the aspirations of an ever-growing population with scarce resources. We truly wish to play our part in the creation of a new and resurgent India.

(Debashis Chatterjee is the author of ‘Timeless Leadership’ and the Director of IIM Kozhikode.)

This is a partnered post. 

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2047: Re-imagining education in an India at 100

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

After 34 years, India rekindled the conversation on its National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020. A policy is as good as it is actualised in practice and it would be ideal to explore the contours of national education practices leading to 2047 when politically independent India becomes 100 years old. From a teacher’s perspective, the next education practices can be viewed through the following five design principles.

To excel is key

Autonomy: Currently, the clamour for autonomy in education practices is a mixed bag of pretentious idealism and hard-nosed practicality. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 granting autonomy to the IIMs has now become an Act. In helming a first generation IIM for two terms, one has seen no dramatic variation in the nature of autonomy of the IIMs. The reason for this is that the IIMs, as indeed the Indian Institutes of Technology, have been performing institutions with robust self-correcting systems. The greatest insurance for autonomy is excellence in students’ outcomes rather than a piece of legislation. As long as institutions continue to excel, they will earn their autonomy through social, community and citizens’ sanctions. Legislation may help. However, institutions and institutional leaders who are trained for blind conformity will find exercise of autonomy rather difficult even if the law is on their side. In practice, autonomy cannot be defined by entitlement nor limited by unlawful encroachment. Mere assumption of autonomy does not ensure exercise of autonomy. By 2047, autonomy has to be imbibed as an institutional culture rather than a personal perquisite of a vice chancellor, principal or director. There will be autonomy in teaching methods, autonomy of the learner in creating her own curriculum, autonomy of thought and self-governance — Swayttata.

Technology-rich settings

Learning: In 2047, six billion people in the world would constitute the middle class. With little money but with enormous hunger for learning, they will define the learner base for a networked global university system. Technology will proliferate intelligence from hardware to software to everywhere. Smart schools and smart classes may soon morph to smart chairs and smart desks. Intelligence can be embedded into everything. Smart chairs will have sensors to map the flow of attention in the classrooms. On the other hand, the intangibles of the teaching learning process such as creativity, mentorship and facilitation of learning will give birth to the quest for mastery. Teachers will evolve from ring masters to zen masters, raising awareness rather than delivering content. The four core tasks of the university: creation; dissemination; accreditation and monetisation of knowledge will require a sweet synthesis of algorithm and altruism. Learning will involve mobilisation of knowledge for a specific person; is a specific context to face specific challenges or problems. In the ultimate analysis, learning will be about propagation of crucial questions rather than pre-determined answers. Pressure of performance will have to co-exist with the pleasure and ecstasy of learning — Ananda.

Coherence across fields

Trans-disciplinarity: The new National Education Policy (NEP) roots for multi-disciplinary institutions rather than standalone schools. Multidisciplinarity involves experts from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their unique disciplinary knowledge. In a world that is going to be more complex and volatile, expertise from multiple disciplines will be required to construct an understanding of the real life problems we will face. The challenges that COVID-19 has thrown before us require medical scientists, economists, historians, architects, health workers and political scientists and more experts to bring their disciplinary depth to the table. Frequent flooding of our cities is at once an urban planning issue, an engineering issue, environmental issue, public health issue, and of course a political issue that requires many diverse fields to create an understanding of the nature of the problem and its solution. However, by 2047, trans-disciplinarity rather than multi-disciplinarity will be the norm. Transdisciplinarity is about creating a coherence of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives. Knowledge in 2047 will move from discipline-based units to the unity of meaning and understanding. The reductionist knowledge of the West that explains the whole as the sum of parts will yield space to the quest for the part less whole that the rishis of the Upanishads described as purnatwa.

School as a connecting hub

Technology-innovation: Technology-led innovation will take learning from cognition to immersion. The content of knowledge has evolved from text that had to be cognised to include visual, audio and tactile immersive experiences. Traditionally, students of professional courses learnt through field and factory visits. Today, it is possible for a factory experience to be simulated in a classroom. A leading global engineering company, ABB, is using virtual reality to simulate a factory experience inside a school. A classroom will not be a place but a space. In 2047, school will not be a brick and mortar house but a connecting hub that will digitally decode, deliver and disperse knowledge. Disruptive innovation will enable technology to give greater access to hitherto exclusive knowledge and fulfil unmet learner needs. A vice chancellor’s office will look a lot more like a tech-studio. Technology will not be a cosmetic add-on but serve a strategic purpose. Leading schools of the world will harness talent and technology seamlessly.

Nurturing minds with values

Values, mindset and culture: By 2047, Indian teachers will be engaged in nurturing global mindsets based on three classical values of India: satyam (authenticity), nityam (sustainability) and purnam (wholeness). Mindsets will be based on how learners receive information and not what information they receive; on how to think rather than what to think. Education is finally about creating and sustaining wholesome cultures rather than serving the templates of outmoded civilisations. The post-colonial Indian education system has managed to create mindsets of clerks and coders and imitators to serve a civilisation that bets on material values of exploitation of nature and increasing consumption. While civilisation is about what we acquire, culture is concerned with who we become. The most valuable outcome of education is the becoming of a competent and compassionate human being. In 2047, a teacher’s role will be to midwife this transformative re-birth of citizens of our great nation.

Debashis Chatterjee is the author of ‘Timeless Leadership’ and the Director of IIM Kozhikode. (This article’s earlier version has appeared in The Hindu before.)

This is a partnered post. 

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow