1-year Full-time MBAs!

Here is an excellent piece on the 1-year MBAs by Shikhar Mohan. By far the most informative comparison giving the differences and similarities between the 2-year MBAs and the 1-year MBAs.

Most importantly, it elaborates quite well on WHY THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS part-time MBA!

Please read it and share it with as many as possible.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/don%60t-mistake-it-for-an-executive-mba/497566/

Quoting from the article,


"The first point to note is that the IIMs’ One Year Full Time MBA is a ‘Regular’ Full Time MBA and not an Executive MBA."

"81% Fail" Education Quality

I have been away from the blog so long. I had the temptation to write something on the World Cup victory but by the time I woke on the next day, there were 200 good blogs already. So I only forwarded, tweeted and facebooked the links!

Anyway, so I read in Times of India yesterday that 81% of Engg. students failed in their first year. 81%!!!

1st Year students trip at first hurdle

The result tells me that 81% of the top of top students, by any means in the top 10% of their HSC / +2 and Engg. entrance cannot clear the first year?! As most would shrug and say, "They don't make any good students these days. They are paying attention somewhere else. Interested in movies and music and friends and TV. And yes mobiles are a distraction."

How convenient. Are you saying 30 years ago people did not have friends or were not interested in movies? Whom are you kidding!


If anything, this is a reflection on the kind of clumsy infrastructure we have built for the generations that are supposed to take care of our nation's future. The education, the much neglected education system and the rotten teaching quality MUST TAKE THEIR SHARE.

Ha ha! Who am I to decry this system? What do I know of the system. Just the little bits and pieces appearing  in our untrustworthy media. Would you not say that? I know sure.

Ok agreed. I am not an expert. So here is what the Economist has found out about our fabulous education system.Click on the link below and out of the drop-box click on Compulsory Education and University Education.

EIU's Global Talent Index - The graphic is fantastic yet a brutal and sad truth on how messed up our priorities are.



 In Compulsory Education (It should be more like Compulsory??!! Education) - In 2011, we are ranked 58th out of 60 countries. In 2015, we are still 58th! Ahead of Nigeria and Pakistan.

In University Education - In 2011, India is 56th out of 62 countries. In 2015, we are projected to move one step ahead to 55.

One of the criteria is expenditure per student for higher education (as % of GDP per capita). That it gives such a low figure tells us how sadly we are being outpaced by most our peers. The problem is that you and I can debate endlessly and write such articles. The powers that be continue to look in the other direction.

Value of good teachers!

Are teachers relevant? The question is horrible in nature. But here in India, are they seen as relevant? In the last 60 years though literacy has gone up, it would be difficult to claim if people are any better educated? Haven't we all, at some time, felt that good teaching can improve a lot many things?

Check this paper on Value of Teachers. (Got the link from Greg Mankiw's blog. One more fine blog to read).  

This one is one of the finest and most relevant economic papers I have read. Though my economics knowledge is limited, I find this paper relevant, more relevant to our nation India than to the U.S. where the author has researched and published this one. 

Quality in teaching in India varies as much as winters in Siberia and summer in Central India. You see a very high standard in institutions like IITs, IIMs, mediocrity in a very large band in between and absolute chaos in a small but substantial percentage of schools. Unfortunately the mediocrity and chaos keep the majority back for their lives in our country. Rural landscape in India has problem of mass absenteeism and this has to do with issues of pay and lack of incentive in opting teaching as a full-time occupation. The paper addresses these and many others issues, only that it is with U.S. in purview.

But we Indians would do well to push some of our economists and policy-makers to find the root-cause of malaise in education sector. We have to fix this soon or be left behind. 

Heroes and Hope of my India

Human society gives (or is meant to give) us dignity and self-respect. We understand hunger, thirst, love, smell just like other species on this planet do. But feeling inspired, national pride, dignity and other such evolved senses / feelings are more related to humans.

In my memory, the first time I felt inspired was probably when I read the history of our independence in 3rd standard. 20 years later, I relived the same feeling.

One of my very close friends, Aniket Mahulikar and his colleague Madhavi were with me at Delhi for the last 3 days. Aniket is 26. He is one of the best cricket players and certainly the best chess player our building has produced (the team has about 16 players :D). He figured in Bombay division merit list in 10th board exams and did his engineering from VJTI - one of the top Engg colleges in Bombay. He joined Infosys thereafter. He loves seeing TV and cricket. Everything usual so far.

In May 2008, Aniket left Infosys to work as a school principal in Pune. Yes, Aniket and Madhavi are both school principals from Pune.


Aniket runs a school called "Savitribai Phule English School" which has children in Junior KG, Senior KG and first standard. Madhavi runs another school in Pune. Now children to their schools come from nearby slum areas. These schools are a part of schools run by Akanksha, a NGO working in area of education. Aniket's school is funded by the Thermax Foundation.

I asked Aniket what drove him to take up this assignment. What was it that he felt? When did he decide he wanted to be a social worker?

He said he felt it everytime something happened...since he was 12-13 years old. He said an earthquake many miles away would make him worry about the people there. Everytime he walked around slums, he felt "Destiny has given me so much more - I need to share". And he felt the sharing should sustainable.

When he finished his engineering, he and his friends wanted to start a school in 20 years time or so. Wow! Now that is long term vision. To gain hands on experience, he volunteered to work in slums and, he says, he found his calling in education. Whenever he sees children in slums, he is motivated to get them in schools. What amazed me was his clarity of thinking. He understands that he will have to wait for 10-15 years before his efforts show results.

Children are the easiest part of work; it is the parents who need constant motivation and counselling. And I heard both Aniket and Madhavi speak to a couple of parents about children. Their profound understanding of their students' backgrounds is incredible considering they both come from reasonably well off backgrounds. Their work also spans in bringing the community together, instilling confidence in children and their parents, re-igniting the need of dignity and self-respect in the parents' hearts and motivating their colleagues - the school teachers.

It was a heart warming experience for me to see these heroes of my nation. Everyday, when they came back from their training, they would email and SMS their teachers about their day - and, sure enough, they would receive many responses in a few hours time. Their commitment to the cause, maturity of thoughts, clarity of reasoning and unlimited idealism was both inspiring and overwhelming.

Their future plans include taking their respective schools to tenth standard thus ensuring all children come out with an ambition and starting more schools in rural India.

I hope their plans come true and they succeed in whatever they decide. It is these heroes that make me again believe in the future of our nation. Real stars of our times who have committed themselves to the cause of underprivileged.

Vision, leadership, strategy, unlimited energy, patience, faith, humility, pride about work & colleagues, and a disarming smile is how I describe these 2 stars.

It was an honour to interact with them.

Links to
Aakanksha's site - http://www.akanksha.org/
Aniket's blog - http://aniketmahulikar.blogspot.com/

Note - Aniket and Madhavi both mentioned many more people who have helped them in their efforts. Because it was not possible for me to include all the names, so I focused on the 2 of them in this article.