IMMinent Disaster
There have been a series of unfortunate events relating to my alma mater in the past few weeks. Minister Joshi has taken a series of steps to reduce the autonomy of IIMs, and this has the alumni in arms. He has slashed IIM student fees from Rs. 1,50,000 to Rs. 30,000 (reason given: IIMs are elitist, the average man cannot enter easily). Rumors exists about other proposals:
- disbarring faculty from performing consulting work for industry, something critical for their training and an alternate source of funding for the college (reason given: they should concentrate on teaching)
- setting up the Bharat Shiksha Kosh, which does not allow alumni to contribute money directly to their alma mater (reason given: ?)
- increasing the number of students, without increasing the number of teachers proportionately (reason given: India needs more managers)
- appointing directors of the institutes by education ministry (reason given: if we pay to subside education, we should have a say in how you use the money)
The downfalls of this action (and proposals) are being covered well in the Indian media, so I shall not repeat them here. See Rediff for an overview. The alumni has set up an egroup, HandsOffIIMs, with a growing membership (open to all, not just alumni). As you can imagine, the tone on that group is personal, vitriolic, and somewhat emotional. Amusingly (and sickeningly), the government has ordered all Indian ISPs to block the entire yahoo groups domain (which includes ALL yahoo groups) from access by anyone residing in India.
Coincidentally, the Economist (a favorite magazine for me) published an article on the effect of government interference with higher education in England last week, with a message similar to the name of the egroup - Hands Off Universities.
Frankly, the whole affair makes me painfully aware of the problems of living in India. The current “feel good” factor pervading the Indian economy would have one believe that India has indeed become a better place to stay in. A viable alternative to the US. Great jobs, improving infrastructure, spreading consumerism (some would argue against the merits of that :) - all point to a better lifestyle. But then politicians will be politicians. A sobering reminder that the BJP in India are like the Clinton Administration in the Dot-com boom years. Their contribution to prosperity was not in actively encouraging it, but rather in stepping back and letting it prosper without meddling. Power-hungry Joshi’s recent action is a good example of “if it ain’t broke, grab it”.
When I came to the US and took a few classes at a top 20 business school here, I was struck by how few the differences were between CMU GSIA and IIML. The students were better dressed here (chappals and shorts don’t quite cut it for the appearance-conscious American MBA :). But seriously, the diversity of faculty and student experience made them interesting to work with and learn from, the high-speed wireless internet infrastructure on student laptops made research (and vela-giri in class) a cinch, the diversity of electives was another plus. But, surprisingly, I did not find any intellectual heavyweights in any class I attended - the 2-3 students in each batch that make everyone stop talking and listen to them - the ones that always have something insightful to say. Also, many students were part-timers (since they worked full-time), and there was no campus housing. At IIML, > 50% of my learning was outside the classroom, in the mess, in late-night study meetings, group discussions on topics relevant and irrelevant, and so on. There was no ‘college festival’ with fun-fairs, management games etc. where the batch bonded together, and met students from other B-schools around the country. The closest thing was stuffy ‘operations case presentations’ or ‘consulting competitions’ with teams from top US B-schools presenting Powerpoints in power suits. Hardly ‘bonding’ stuff. The real shocker (and this may to due to a skewed sample), was that IIML actually had a much better business library than CMU. Granted, IIML has an enviable library by Asian standards, and CMU has many other outstanding libraries, but the B-school library at CMU left a lot to be desired. I learnt so much about management just browsing obscure topics in macroeconomics, organizational behavior, retail management within the L library that I would need to perform a direct search for, at CMU.
Anyway, my point is that the IIMs offer a world-class education, and I hope that the current Joshi-machinations do not ruin that for future generations. Amen.
- disbarring faculty from performing consulting work for industry, something critical for their training and an alternate source of funding for the college (reason given: they should concentrate on teaching)
- setting up the Bharat Shiksha Kosh, which does not allow alumni to contribute money directly to their alma mater (reason given: ?)
- increasing the number of students, without increasing the number of teachers proportionately (reason given: India needs more managers)
- appointing directors of the institutes by education ministry (reason given: if we pay to subside education, we should have a say in how you use the money)
The downfalls of this action (and proposals) are being covered well in the Indian media, so I shall not repeat them here. See Rediff for an overview. The alumni has set up an egroup, HandsOffIIMs, with a growing membership (open to all, not just alumni). As you can imagine, the tone on that group is personal, vitriolic, and somewhat emotional. Amusingly (and sickeningly), the government has ordered all Indian ISPs to block the entire yahoo groups domain (which includes ALL yahoo groups) from access by anyone residing in India.
Coincidentally, the Economist (a favorite magazine for me) published an article on the effect of government interference with higher education in England last week, with a message similar to the name of the egroup - Hands Off Universities.
Frankly, the whole affair makes me painfully aware of the problems of living in India. The current “feel good” factor pervading the Indian economy would have one believe that India has indeed become a better place to stay in. A viable alternative to the US. Great jobs, improving infrastructure, spreading consumerism (some would argue against the merits of that :) - all point to a better lifestyle. But then politicians will be politicians. A sobering reminder that the BJP in India are like the Clinton Administration in the Dot-com boom years. Their contribution to prosperity was not in actively encouraging it, but rather in stepping back and letting it prosper without meddling. Power-hungry Joshi’s recent action is a good example of “if it ain’t broke, grab it”.
When I came to the US and took a few classes at a top 20 business school here, I was struck by how few the differences were between CMU GSIA and IIML. The students were better dressed here (chappals and shorts don’t quite cut it for the appearance-conscious American MBA :). But seriously, the diversity of faculty and student experience made them interesting to work with and learn from, the high-speed wireless internet infrastructure on student laptops made research (and vela-giri in class) a cinch, the diversity of electives was another plus. But, surprisingly, I did not find any intellectual heavyweights in any class I attended - the 2-3 students in each batch that make everyone stop talking and listen to them - the ones that always have something insightful to say. Also, many students were part-timers (since they worked full-time), and there was no campus housing. At IIML, > 50% of my learning was outside the classroom, in the mess, in late-night study meetings, group discussions on topics relevant and irrelevant, and so on. There was no ‘college festival’ with fun-fairs, management games etc. where the batch bonded together, and met students from other B-schools around the country. The closest thing was stuffy ‘operations case presentations’ or ‘consulting competitions’ with teams from top US B-schools presenting Powerpoints in power suits. Hardly ‘bonding’ stuff. The real shocker (and this may to due to a skewed sample), was that IIML actually had a much better business library than CMU. Granted, IIML has an enviable library by Asian standards, and CMU has many other outstanding libraries, but the B-school library at CMU left a lot to be desired. I learnt so much about management just browsing obscure topics in macroeconomics, organizational behavior, retail management within the L library that I would need to perform a direct search for, at CMU.
Anyway, my point is that the IIMs offer a world-class education, and I hope that the current Joshi-machinations do not ruin that for future generations. Amen.
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