ISB Roundtable on Higher Education

 I participated as an invitee at ISB Hyderabad's Roundtable to discuss the road ahead for Indian higher education sector. There were a few other education leaders, from private institutions/universities such as SRM, Galgotias, IMS Ghaziabad, and CRM etc. I met a few former colleagues. We had a couple of breakaway groups too.

Pics from the event. 

Indian School of Business

 ISB or the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad is a unique place, known for a high quality PGP. I had a discussion with their representative, Varshita, about collaborating with their Digital learning team for offering a few courses to our students. Pics from my visit.

With Varshita, outside her office. She ghas completed PGP from ISB, and has a law degree from NLU at Bhopal.

The architecture of ISB is quite unique.

Ethnicity and Good Governance

 There is a lot of speculation about the ethnic Indian who is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's steps. In my own opinion, that hardly matters. What matters is how well he or she will govern the U.K.

We have had many Chief Ministers, usually local stock, who have governed various states. The one who made a visible difference in Andhra Pradesh where I grew up, was Chandrababu Naidu. He may have lost his appeal today, but he was the first to introduce Powerpoint presentations-in government! He is also said to have made one to the ISB founders to get them to set up shop in Hyderabad.

He is single-handedly responsible for getting the IT giants into A.P. - not just Indian giants, but all the global ones. That is not a  mean achievement, given Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others were probably contenders at the time.

Good roads that are not an eyesore can be a very visible symbol of good governance. Gadkari reportedly got 50 flyovers constructed in Mumbai in a few years of ONE term, whereas we struggle to build one in that time elsewhere!

Sreedharan was allowed by powers that be to do good, and so was Verghese Kurien given a free hand. Maybe that is a secret sauce- a free hand given to capable people! 

The Indian School of Business

Visiting ISB for some work, I could not help but wonder at what Indian universities can be, and what they are. Promises of greatness belied. If you are at a typical state university campus, what you see is lack of professionalism everywhere, and a lack of maintenance even in the basic painting of walls, fixing of broken chairs and so on. Not to mention the broken intellectual infrastructure.

When will this change to something we badly need? My theory is that one of two things has to happen. Foreign universities must descend in large numbers and provide a kick in the backside to shape up these slumbering giants. Or, every university must be made autonomous, and every college must be asked to market their own programs, with few exceptions. Might just shake up the lethargy prevailing all around.

The ISB is a reminder that it can be done.

Education Seminar at Sohna

I attended a seminar on higher education at an upcoming Haryanvi town of Sohna, beyond Gurgaon yesterday. It was organised (very well) by a media company called nine dot nine floated by the erstwhile Dean of ISB, Pramath Sinha, and his team.

The town of Sohna, about 25 kms. from Gurgaon is reported to be another Gurgaon in the making. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing. Anyway, the venue was the Westin at Sohna. Why Westin went east into this place is a question, but having got there, they have managed well. The food was excellent- they had an Italian-Spanish mix of some yummy stuff the names of which I can't begin to remember.

The turnout at the seminar was good, ranging from the ex-chairman of UGC, to a lot of Vice Chancellors, of private and public universities. I also ran into an IIMB alum from three batches after mine. Many new business ideas were apparent from various sponsors of the seminar. Adobe, Oracle, Naukri.com and so on.

The best presentation was by the founder of FLAME, a liberal arts school in Pune, Parag Shah. He explained 'Dil se' (from his heart, literally) the reasons and reasoning that went into founding the 4 year degree program-offering institution. He is also a builder, and has built some real estate including a golf course around the school. But his philosophy of how to combine music and mathematics in the same school on the lines of similar institutions in the West struck a lot of chords. Of course, he had Dr. Indira Parikh, former IIMA professor, to help him as the Dean to implement his ideas. True innovation, in the way courses are offered in different streams, and students grow up as a complete person, rather than as an engineer or doctor. Great idea, I would say.