Wednesday, March 27, 2013

“B-Schools Should Desire Maximum Industry Interface”

Taking Forward their Commitment to Education, The Ninth IIM was set up in Rohtak in 2010 under The Mentorship of IIM-Lucknow. In Conversation with B&E’s Bhuvnesh Talwar, Dr. P Rameshan, Director of IIM-Rohtak, talks of Urgent reforms that are Required in India’s Management Education System.

An economist and an IITian, Dr. P. Ramesh has represented India several times in the international arena. The most prominent ones being The Asian Productivity Organisation, Tokyo, Japan, representing India on “Survey on Total Factor Productivity” on Asian countries and at the National Experts’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is presently involved in teaching, training, research and consulting. Prior to joining IIM, Rohtak in July 2010, he served as Director in-charge of IIM, Kozhikode during April-May, 2009. In an exclusive interview with B&E, Dr. Ramashan discusses the need for innovation and greater independence at work place.

B&E: There is a general opinion that India has been home to some quality B-schools. Do you think there are loopholes in the system that deserve careful corrections?
Dr. P Rameshan (PR): In any business field, first the business emerges and develops, and then the government thinks about placing control mechanisms. Yes, there are issues in terms of accreditation and regulatory mechanisms since the existing systems are inadequate. However, a view over the need to regulate the business of B-schools has strengthened over the years and a good mechanism will definitely emerge soon.

B&E: Although considered as one of the key ingredients of quality B-school education, many institutes in the country still treat “industry interface” as secondary. Why so?
PR: I think every business school should desire maximum industry interface. However, to many of them, industry interface is a tedious task. This is due to their own constraints and inadequate response from the industry. It has been observed that although companies speak of increased interaction with the academic world, they have actually been wary of the initiatives of the academia.

B&E: Unlike the West, India has failed to develop home-grown cutting edge technology. What is your opinion on the same?
PR: This has been a matter of concern for many of us in the academic world. However, the Indian teachers are so pampered by ready-made material available from the western world that they do not feel the need to develop new material or frameworks. In fact, Indian academic researchers have not been sufficiently motivated to work on fundamental issues. The short run orientation of Indians due to genetic, social and economic reasons have also contributed to this.

B&E: What value-addition do internship programmes offer to freshers and students with prior experience?
PR: For a fresher, everything that he learns about management is new and his value addition is obvious. During the internship, he gets an opportunity to apply the concepts and techniques he learnt over the first year as the whole experience will be new to him. For those with prior industry experience, it’s the time to revalidate what they experienced while on job.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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