IIT Delhi's dubious distinction

It has often been debated whether institutions of higher learning like IITs and IIMs have failed in instilling ethical behaviour in their students. Though one may argue that brilliance has no correlation with morality, it disturbs us whenever we come across an IITian or IIMite who has achieved "success" by transcending acceptable standards of decency.

The names of Rajat Gupta and Ravi Rishi readily come to our mind. The former has allegedly abetted Raj Rajaratnam in scandalous insider deals. Ravi Rishi owns the UK-based $800 mn Vectra Group that is alleged to have adopted controversial methods to market Tatra army trucks to the Indian Army. Both Rajat Gupta and Ravi Rishi are 'distinguished alumni' of IIT Delhi.

IIT Delhi has ofcourse produced many engineers of unsullied reputation. This list includes Raghuram Rajan, Y C Deveshwar, M S Banga, Vinod Khosla, Rajendra S Pawar and Padmasree Warrior. But it is a cause for concern if the institute produces even one morally distorted apple.

Srijan Pal Singh

Srijan Pal Singh is an atypical alumnus of IIMA. He passed out in 2009 as a gold medallist and declined a job offer from Boston Consulting Group. He is now working with APJ Abdul Kalam. APJ and SPS have recently commended the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. They envision bright days for India when thorium replaces uranium as the fuel of choice for a power plant. Here is a 2009 report on SP Singh: (courtesy: Business Standard)

"IIM-A student chooses politics over placements


Vinay Umarji / Ahmedabad March 7, 2009, 0:19 IST

Opts out of placements to apply to national political parties.
If Krishna Chepuri, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), made history by interning with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Sitaram Yechury, another IIM-A student has now chosen politics over placements. Final year post graduate programme (PGP) student Srijan Pal Singh has opted out of placements to pursue his dream of joining politics.

The 25-year-old has applied to a couple of national political parties including Congress party and is awaiting reply.

“I had always wanted to work with political parties and be actively involved in politics. So far even as a student I had been trying my hand at politics in several ways. Now, I wish to get fully involved in politics which is why I opted out of placements this year in spite of having couple of offers in hand. I personally wish to work for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi," said Singh, who, after applying on the political party's website, is now lobbying in the political corridors of Delhi to fulfill his dream.
Singh's interests in politics can be linked his involvement in the Public Policy Group (PPG) course, for which a team of seven students were assisted by Members of Parliament (MPs) like Sitaram Yechury, Madhusudan Mistry and Harin Pathak to formulate a framework for constituency management programme, last year.

Under the PPG course, Singh, and his batchmates, also developed an information and communication technology (ICT) system under which citizens in several constituencies could register their complaints with their respective MPs through an interactive voice response system (IVRS) and avail prompt response from respective departments.

Singh, who has worked with several NGOs and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), also has an offer from the global agency in hand. Before pursuing a PGP degree from IIM-A, Singh graduated in mechanical engineering from the Government Engineering College at Lucknow.
This year, around seven students have opted out of final placements at IIM-A including Srijan. Another final year PGP student, V Krishnakanth, 24, has decided to set up his own career consulting firm to coach eng0ineering undergraduates for post graduate entrance exams. "Coaching is a very fragmented market and I observed that students rarely get all kinds of coaching at one place. Using my education at IIM-A, I will be coaching them on how to crack several entrance exams. While currently I will be focusing on engineering undergraduates, later on I will also train Std. XII students for SAT," said Krishnakanth"

SP Singh deserves best of luck.

World class research

An IIMA-ite settled in the US says the following:

"Take the IIMs: During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a decent trickle of Indian PhDs from respected American universities returning to India, would be recruited by Ravi Matthai & nitish dey. It was a brief window of arbitrage. By the mid to late 1970s, that was no longer the case. You would have classic situations like CK Prahlad feeling, or Paul Mampilly + Suresh Seshan (not US PhDs) seeking greener pastures at AIM Manila. American universities would offer professorships to PhDs in management & engineering to a PhD from a barely average American university, thus there was no longer any need to go back to India. Further, Indira Gandhi had dispelled hope of India to shine soon.



Take the 2000s, 30 years later, with India shining, when ISB took root. The under-trial Rajat Gupta and convict Anil Kumar, as McKinseyites, realized that the Ravi matthai model would not work. Further, they did not want to recruit Indian university PhDs (or even IIM FPMs), because they could see the huge quality difference between faculty at American universities and at IIM/IIT. These ISB founders decided to “arbitrage” across Indian faculty at American business schools, specifically faculty with a PhD from the top business schools, who were active in research, and had proved themselves by earning tenure at some decent American university. They provided these Indians in USA with airfare + campus hotel in Hyderabad, and very little direct cash compensation. Thus, the compensation was indirect, i.e. a free paid trip to India, with the possibility of immersing themselves in (shining) India while there were making their brief 1-2 week teaching journeys, family reunion, etc. The cost to ISB would be higher than recruiting and paying Indian faculty. However, ISB soon began charging US$ fees after its turnaround, sufficient to cover these US$ expenses. It is unclear how long the Gupta/Kumar arbitrage model would work. Thus, ISB (it least in its initial stages) could not be accused of harboring (Indian home grown) faculty which did not live up to world class research standards.

Can the IITs/ IIMs catch up to world class research standards? Note that these world research standards apply only to universities in USA, who dominate the world in academic research output, due to a century-long tradition of academic independence and emphasis on faculty research. US Universities are not seen as mere teaching factories, but epicenters of deep research. Faculty are appointed and tenured based largely on research, with Peking capability being considered a minor component. UK has barely a handful of research universities, and likewise Europe. You don’t hear of much research coming out of Japanese universities. Australia has only three relevant research universities, maybe 4: Sydney, Melbourne, ANU Canberra and Perth, and they’ve got to where they are by emulating Oxbridge research tradition of their mother country. When was the last you heard something novel come out of German/ Germanic universities after Einstein and WW-2? Thus, the expression “world class research” is appropriately substituted by “American university research”."

Fracas over quality of IIM / IIT Faculty

The argumentative minister has once again stirred the hornet's nest by questioning the "world-classness" of professors of IIMs and IITs. He has also drawn an odious comparison between the qualities of students and faculty of these institutions. Having been a student of IIT himself, there is an inherent conflict of interest in his utterance. Apparently, he had been unable to benefit academically from his professors. This could be his fault rather than a foible on the part of his gurus. The honourable minister loves to create controversies. Remember the nonsense he uttered about India's Home Ministry while he was in China ? It is clear that IIT has not taught discretion to this voluble politician. To that limited extent, teachers in IIT are blame-worthy.

It is unfortunate that IIT / IIM academicians have joined a slanging match with the minister. Why should they be so sensitive to the rants of a hubristic self-acclaimed intellectual ?

Academic hubris

We had earlier highlighted the lack of responsible behaviour on the part of IIMs in the conduct of entrance exam in the digital mode. The second phase of CAT 2009 involving facility for the wronged candidates is now over.

Listen to what Prof.Satish Deodhar says with unrepentant hubris: "With the conclusion of second phase, it seems that it was a minuscule segment of students who made large noises about the technical glitches." Can one be more insensitive than this?

Contrast the professor's present uppity statement from his obsessive 'empathy' noted in the posting dated 2nd December, 2009. This is transcendental hypocrisy.

The CAT snafu

Maladministration of the ongoing Common Admission Test for entry into IIMs and other business schools is a big blow to the reputation of IIMs, particularly IIM Ahmedabad. One may argue that the computer-based test is administered by Prometric assisted by NIIT and therefore IIMs are not to blame. But it is not so. After all, Prometric and NIIT are only acting as agents of IIMs and therefore the blame for serious hiccups falls on IIMs.

One may empathise with IIMA in response to the CAT convener, Prof.Deodhar's repeated use of the word 'empathy' for the CAT applicants. However, playing ducks and drakes with an exam that is taken seriously by more than 2 lac students is unpardonable. It is now manifest that the test is being conducted without proper prior preparations. Rescheduling the test for the disappointed applicants does not salvage the situation in full. It is incomprehensible how IIMA decided to conduct only computer-based test when it could not have been fully convinced about availability of foolproof hardware and software.

Who is accountable for this fiasco? Obviously it is IIM. What should it do now? At a minimum, it must conduct a written CAT for all the applicants at its cost. Otherwise, the weightage in the computer-based mishandled test would be language-10%, quant-10%, logic-10% and LUCK-70% This incident proves that just one mishap is enough to tear to shreds the reputation built over years.

IIM-A's claim on 'the brightest minds'

A PTI report that appears in newspapers today (2nd Nov.) quotes a press release by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad as saying, inter alia, :"The brightest minds of this country would once again be vying for internships at firms from all over the world". This refers to summer placement of IIMA students.
Is IIMA complying with generally acceptedv marketing principles in making this claim? Notice the hubris in claiming monopoly over the brightest minds. The release does not say "Some of the brightest minds---"
If an FMCG or a consumer durable company makes a similar claim regarding its product, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) would come down heavily on the company. (ASCI is a self-regulatory body of advertisers and ad agencies.)
For example, in JK Tyres vs MRF, ASCI acted against MRF for claiming in its advertisements, "Always the favourite choice of Indian truckers" and "Standard and quality unmatched in the world". ASCI has hauled up many companies including HUL, Brittania, Pepsico India and Eureka Forbes for making "unsubstantiated claims".
Such claims fall foul of chapter I.1 of The Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising of ASCI (www.ascionline.org) The relevant para reads as follows:
"Ads must be truthful. All descriptions , claims and comparisons which relate to matters of objectively ascertainable fact should be capable of substantiation. Advertisers are required to produce such substantiation as and when called upon to do so by ASCI."
If brightness of mind is not an objectively ascertainable fact, the claim must not have been made in the first place. If it is ascertainable, IIMA must produce a substantiation independent of CAT score.
However, IIMA may take refuge under para I.6 of the Code which permits an exemption. It says,"Obvious untruths or exaggerations intended to amuse or to catch the eye of the consumer are permissible provided that they are clearly to be seen as humorous or hyperbolic and not likely to be understood as making literal or misleading claims for the advertised product."
The PTI report also states that incidentally the IIMA has recently featured in the top 100 ranking of the world renowned magazine Economist, a survey conducted across major business schools including Harvard, INSEAD, London Business School and Stern. What is not mentioned is IIMA is ranked 99th.