Prof.V.G.Narayanan's Lecture

Prof.V.G.Narayanan of Harvard Business School delivered the 7th S.Ganapathisubramanian Memorial Lecture in Chennai on 5th January. The event was under the auspices of The Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

The lecture was marked by profound ideas and subtle humour. The professor who is a Chartered Accountant, MBA from IIMA and a Ph.D. in Business from Graduate School of Business at Stanford University spoke on "The future of Indian Management Accounting in the global context".

Narayanan emphasised the importance of online education in enabling customised teaching for millions. He was of the view that India can and should play a leading role in making this happen. Costs per student will fall drastically when online education becomes the norm. Universalisation of education will then become a reality. Way to go!

Chennai Business School: Graduation Ceremony

The sixth Graduation Ceremony of CBS took place on 8th August. Mr.Laksminarayan of Cognizant advised the students to consider Entrepreneurship as an alternative. He spoke excellently about the convergence of knowledge, technology, application and enterprise which spawns enormous opportunities. He was also eloquent about TIME (Convergence of telecom, IT, media and entertainment industries). Mr.Amrolia, member of governing council and CEO, spoke convincingly on four essentials for sustained success in business and life: 1)Integrity and values, 2)Constant Learning, 3)Ability to face defeats and learn from them and 4)Ability to influence people which is an offshoot of building relationships.

N R Narayana Murthy on IIT students

It is not surprising that whatever NRN says is heard with respect. Addressing a gathering of IIT alumni in New York, the software czar commented adversely on what he called "the lower and lower quality of students entering IITs". This is what the news agencies report:

Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayana Murthy



Press Trust of India, Updated: October 03, 2011 13:51 IST


New York: Voicing his displeasure over the quality of engineers that pass out of the IITs, Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy has said there is a need to overhaul the selection criteria for students seeking admission to the prestigious technology institutions.


Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians at a 'Pan IIT' summit here, Murthy said the quality of students entering Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.


He said the majority of the students fare poorly at jobs and global institutions of higher education. "Thanks to the coaching classes today, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower," Murthy said, receiving a thundering applause from his audience.


He said apart from the top 20 per cent of students who crack the tough IIT entrance examination and can "stand among the best anywhere in the world," quality of the remaining 80 per cent of students leave much to be desired. Coaching classes teach aspirants limited sets of problems, out of which a few are asked in the examinations.


"They somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be.


"This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at."


It is to be expected that NRN has formed his views analytically from his experience. There are two caveats though.

First, he was addressing those who had passed out of IITs. Alumni of any institution are generally pleased to hear that they were more diligent than the succeeding generations of students. Therefore, the applause that NRN received from the audience should not prejudice our mind . In other words, the applause was not objective approval.

Secondly, why blame the coaching institutions? After all they are only teaching the students. If they are able to sharpen the minds, what is wrong? There are many ways in which students learn. Coaching is perhaps the most focused way. One may even argue that if IITs are able to teach their students as well as the coaching institutions do, perhaps the quality of IIT students would be better ! (I am not saying that teaching quality in IITs is bad. I am only reminded of what Jairam Ramesh controversially said sometime in May this year: "The faculty in IIT is not world class. It is the students in IITs who are world class".)

There is thus a huge divergence between the views of NRN and JR. I believe neither is wholly correct.

According to news reports, NRN also observed that examinations should test independent thinking of students rather than their ability to solve problems. What is the utility of one without the other? Can these two qualities be delinked?

A curious case of corporate governance

Everonn Education Ltd., a leading provider of education service has claimed that "it would provide all cooperation to all concerned as necessary to clearly demonstrate its commitment and adherence to principled corporate governance". The company has said this after its CEO was caught red-handed bribing an Additional Commissioner of Income Tax. The non-executive Chairman of the company, J J Irani has since resigned from the Board of Directors. Mr.Irani is a former MD of Tata Steel Ltd.

Why should a company "affirm" its adherence to corporate governance after recklessly violating it? Can it not stop with confirming its readiness to cooperate in enquiries that are bound to follow? Does the company really believe that its claim of adherence to governance is credible? Crisis management requires transparency and frank admission of proven guilt. Mouthing non-existing allegiance to exemplary principles of conduct is a classic case of crisis mismanagement. Will corporates ever learn?

Farther away from home, the happenings at Sino-Forest Company, Canada are another instance of gross violation of principles of governance. The role of Ernst & Young has also come in for criticism. It is not clear how many more cases of corporate chicanery will come out in the open in the near future.

Unravelling of international education industry

Global Campus Management is a leading business group that facilitates admission for international students in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), Newzealand and to some extent in the USA. It owns or operates or partners with educational institutions catering to mainly hotel, hospitality and vocational industries. According to its website,
"GCM USA seeks to introduce GCM owned and/or managed curriculum into its partnerships and acquisitions, and offer a range of vocational courses to domestic and international students in hotel, resort and hospitality management, design including the specialist cognate areas of animation, communication, games, graphics, interior and product design, as well as business, IT, secondary school and English language courses."

GCM is suddenly in the news now because it has decided to go into "voluntary administration" possibly meaning it has gone bankrupt. Such a development obviously leaves in the lurch many students who have solely depended on it to begin or further their career. This is a risk that no one would have visualised even in wildest nightmares.
Organisations like GCM enabled interface between educational institutions and students all over the globe. GCM has/had offices in India (Gurgaon) and China (Beijing) also. The Indian office was catering to 80 cities in the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa. China being the largest source of international students, the Chinese office had no need to look beyond the Great Wall.

It is not clear why GCM had to wind up. Has its business model failed? Or is economic recession impacting international education industry also? Or, less hopefully, are some unscrupulous elements responsible for this failure?

Minister's rantings

It is unfortunate that Mr.Kapil Sibal continues his outbursts against the IIT faculty. He says that autonomy is only a smokescreen and that they are agitating only for more money. He continues that their agitation is not consistent with the dignity expected of them.
IITs already have a notoriety (perhaps undeserved) of being 'elitist'. Though many would dismiss this criticism as sour-grapism, the fact is that this view does exist. The minister's strident denunciations will only aggravate anti-IIT feelings. Ministers like Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor who are blessed with gift of the gab will do the nation a great favour if they control their utterances and tweets.
One is reminded of a popular couplet from Thirukkural which says, " Even if one does not control any other faculty, one should keep one's tongue in check. Else, one will come to grief through this lapse". It is high time that the minister initiates discussions with the faculty instead of allowing the situation to deteriorate further. Such loquacious ministers need to develop 'soft skills'.

Grievances of IIT faculty : Kapil Sibal's misplaced sarcasm

Teaching staff at IITs are on a war path. They are seeking more autonomy and better pay. Justification or otherwise for these demands depends on the eye of the beholder.
HRD Minister, Mr.Kapil Sibal has made two observations which are uncalled for. 1) We do not expect prospective Nobel laureates to go on hunger strike and 2) They get so much from consultancy that salary is only icing on the cake.

Observation 1 : Ridicule is implied in this statement. If the minister is convinced about the high academic standards of IIT faculty, he would not have made this comment. He also ought to know that the infrastructure made available in India can hardly enable anyone to get a Nobel prize. It was a miracle that Sir C.V.Raman could bag a Nobel. But those halcyon days are long past. If IIT faculty or for that matter any academician in India is not considered for Nobel prizes, it only reflects on the disabling environment provided by the government.
Hunger protest is a honourable practice sanctified by the Mahatma. Our minister would not have recommended Nobel peace prize for the Mahatma because he does not expect any honourable person to take to hunger protest.

Observation 2 : If IIT teachers are getting handsome income from consultancy, it is because they contribute. Does the minister propose that salary need not be paid to them for this reason? Also, not all IIT teachers are busy in consultancy. Those who do consult , become better teachers because of the experience they gain. Is the minister's statement a decent way of treating the faculty?

The demands of IIT faculty may or may not be met. But the faculty has a right to expect the HRD Minister to listen and respond without being sarcastic, insulting or patronising. An eminent lawyer need not continue his antagonistic approach after becoming a minister.

Reforms in Education

Kapil Sibal's eagerness to reform the educational system deserves welcome. At the same time, he must be cautious not to undo time-tested tools. Students have got used to Board examinations after 10th standard and after plus two. It is true and unfortunate that some students allow the Board pressure to overwhelm them. Such students are few and far between. This certainly is no reason for scrapping the Board exam after 10th. The minister may concentrate on making education more interesting and creativity-provoking.