Tag: IFMR GSB

The Trailblazer

Suresh Vasudevan 0 Comment Alumni Spotlight, In Focus , , ,
<strong>The Trailblazer</strong>

Interview With Dr Ameesh Samalopanan, Krea University’s First PhD Graduate

In July 2022, Krea University added one more name to its league of distinguished alumni – Dr Ameesh Samalopanan became Krea’s first PhD scholar awarded a doctoral degree. Under the supervision of Prof Vijayalakshmi C Balasubramaniam, IFMR GSB, he successfully defended his thesis on “Exploring Dignity at Workplace: A Mixed-Method Study”. Dr Samalopanan now works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Studies at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Inspired by his achievement, we reached out to him for an interview, hoping for a glimpse into his world of scholastic proclivity and research pursuits and what we have are candid insights into his PhD journey, his motivation and goals, the rigour and gaiety of his university days, his pinnacles and vicissitudes, as well as what this major academic milestone represents for his overall career trajectory. 

When and how did you decide to pursue a PhD? Was it a difficult decision to make? How did your PhD fit into your overall professional growth trajectory?

 Like most good things in life, the decision to pursue PhD was something that gradually grew upon me. I was a psychologist by training, working mainly in psychiatric hospitals. In between, I used to take one-hour sessions on various psychology/counselling-related topics, and always received great feedback. That was the main reason that, when a teaching opportunity came, I didn’t have to think much before accepting it. A couple of years as a lecturer made me realise the worth and value of a PhD as a degree, along with the insight that full-time research can be fun. 

 Please tell us a bit about the topic of your PhD research, the reasons you chose to focus on this specific area, and your key findings and results. 

 Okay, so a master’s degree in psychology and a couple of years of work experience as a counsellor had transformed me into a person with a keen interest in people’s issues (at individual levels), and one context of particular interest to me was the workplace. I was always curious about what matters most at a workplace, and I realised it was probably the desire to be treated with dignity that weighs over everything else. But interestingly, not many efforts were done academically to define and conceptualise what dignity, specific to a workplace context, means and what impact the lack of it can have on other relevant aspects of a workplace. My PhD thesis is titled “Exploring Dignity at Workplace: A Mixed-Method Study”, and if you have to put it into a basket, it aligns more with humanistic philosophies in management, which advocate for people-oriented management practices that seek profits for human ends. The key findings of my research were to give a conceptual model to the concept of “dignity at workplace” in the Indian context, develop a measure for it, and assess how it impacts other organisationally relevant variables. 

Did you face any challenges and doubts during your PhD studies? How did you overcome them?

 Well, PhD is one of the longest courses you will ever subscribe to, and it requires a minimum of 4-5 years for its completion. One has to be really lucky to have 5 consecutive years with no challenge or self-doubt. Of course, at times, you have personal issues that might pop up, and sometimes academic. Personally, the PhD program was extremely challenging, as it happened during the pandemic time. And the data I worked with was primary data – the data you collect personally, via interviews or surveys. That was just one of the many hurdles. But my extremely supportive guide, Dr. Vijayalakshmi Balasubramaniam, the Krea family in general, and a little bit of self-drive, ensured successful completion of the program.

How much endurance and determination is required to succeed in the pursuit of a PhD degree? Was it always about remaining serious, being single-focused and undistracted from your work? Can PhD also be fun?

As I mentioned, Doctoral programs are not short-term courses, and being goal-focused and having a determination to achieve them is definitely a prerequisite. But having said that, if I may rephrase your question, one doesn’t have to be “serious and undistracted” all the time. In fact, compared to other academic programs, a PhD program is much more relaxed in terms of its structure, at least during its “research phase”. There is no ten-to-five class hour rigidness – you work at your own convenience. You just have to adhere to certain submissions and presentations deadlines. This definitely translates to having more time for yourself. Travel, movies and food are my interests, and I always had more than enough time to explore and enjoy those interests. 

In fact, I would say that being “single-focused” on your research might actually act counterproductively. One should take breaks, enjoy other aspects of life, rejuvenate and then come back to the project with a clearer mind. 

Please tell us about some of the best moments you have experienced during your PhD journey – moments of elation, triumph, and success. 

I returned to campus life after an academic gap (having worked for a few years), so I always made a point to make the most of the campus activities. It’s very easy to get into the MBA crowd in the first two years of PhD, as you would be doing your coursework with them (that’s how it works at Krea). 

During the first year of my PhD, my team (we were a small group of four friends) came second in a national-level ad-making competition – and that is something that is still fresh in my mind.

All the campus events and gatherings organised by various student clubs, committees, Abhyudaya (the flagship event of IFMR GSB), and regional festivals like Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja, were always special. 

Apart from that, we regularly trekked and traveled to nearby locations. Sri City opens up to a rich Tamil culture towards the south, and a vibrant Andhra culture once you start exploring the north; and thus it was a great starting point for a backpacker like me. 

Academically, I won the Best Paper Award in a few prestigious conferences – these are definitely achievements I would love to flaunt. However, the cherry on the top was the moment I cleared my PhD and the congratulatory messages that came in, addressing me as “Dr Ameesh”.

Could you share some of your greatest learnings from your PhD journey – something you will always carry with you and draw inspiration from?

Of course, every PhD student, over the course of their journey, picks up essential life skills like endurance, self-drive, improvising and handling rejection. What makes me particularly happy is that I achieved a major academic degree at a time when even surviving was difficult. We used to have these regular semi-annual review meetings, where we present to the PhD committee the progress made in the last 6 months. One of review meetings happened during the second wave of COVID, a time when the death tolls were maximum and those numbers included people we knew by name. I still remember how one of the external committee members was mighty impressed to see I could make this progress during those troubled times. I believe this was a baptism of fire for my research career, and it has instilled in me a sense of self-belief and the lesson that one needs to keep hustling. 

But apart from that, when you invest so much time trying to explore a topic, transference and countertransference are bound to happen. This is more true for social sciences as, most often, the topics we choose are closely aligned with our own belief systems. As my research was focused on demonstrating the importance of dignity, the experience certainly made me more appreciative of the people around me and made me aware of how the “little acts of kindness” can touch the lives of people around me in a big way.  

And finally, what would be your piece of advice for anyone who contemplates doing a PhD and pursuing a research career?

I believe that the beauty and the perks of academia as a whole, and research in particular, is one of the best-kept secrets in the world. Generally, the research career is projected as a bookish, monotonous desk job that involves a lot of number crunching and something that sucks the life out of you. But truth be told, a research career is one of the most exciting ones you can think of. Yes, one needs to be really passionate to finish it, it is a long route, there are going to be bad days, and you will have self-doubt…but trust me, it’s worth it!

Unravelling a Narrative on Education, Economy and the Vision Forward with Dr Raghuram Rajan

Lekshmi Gopinathan 0 Comment In Focus, Latest at Krea , , , , , ,
Unravelling a Narrative on Education, Economy and the Vision Forward with Dr Raghuram Rajan

“Our development has to build on our unique aspects, more specifically on our liberal democracy and institutions, and that will be our strength. The future is limitless.”  

These inspiring words pitched the gateway to a deeply insightful session anchored by Dr Raghuram Rajan, as he shared narratives on the need-of-the-hour remedies for India’s economic recovery, on creating better education and healthcare systems, and working on using hard infrastructure to facilitate access to markets.

In a wide-ranging discussion, with the students at Krea, Dr Rajan also responded to a room brimming with questions and shared his perspectives on various aspects, from making a choice to move away from the rat race, better ways of financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and its merits, lessons from history and the need for young students such as the audience to fight for preserving and advancing the India that we have created, with resilience and optimism.

Dr Raghuram Rajan kicked off the interaction shedding light on the K-shaped economic recovery in India and how poor employment numbers are the key indicators of economic underperformance.

“One of the numbers that really struck me is the female participation in the workforce in India and it was the lowest in G 20 along with Saudi Arabia in 2019.  Even Saudi Arabia has reformed, opening up jobs for women, their labor force participation for women is 33% today, we are still at 20%. We have a long way to go.”

He expressed the need for a reality check, on what could be rectified and done differently. On why a country with definite successes such as the largest two-wheeler industry in the world, ability of ISRO to send missions to Mars for a fraction of the cost as NASA and whose UPI is being emulated in many countries as a case study of fast payments, is still underperforming.

He laid emphasis on creating hard infrastructure that allows connections and access to markets and soft infrastructure such as creating more education and healthcare. He suggested that withing the economy, India focus on services more than goods. He conveyed the importance of investing in people and how the biggest concern today is not economic recovery but schooling, especially of young children in government schools who have been set back by two years and are in the danger of dropping out.

Reminiscing his time at RBI, he spoke of days when they would step out to have a meal at the home of a Class 4 employee, the lowest tier of employment in the organisation. “It was a fascinating sight to see the children of these employees work with Infosys and some as bank managers. In one generation they had moved out of the low level of employment to this, that’s what education can do.”

As the session moved on to the Q&A segment, the questions rolled in succession. Answering one of the queries on disparity, he retorted “We have to work on ensuring quality of education spreads from stronger universities to weaker ones. Universities like Krea should become research universities, so they can train teachers and students at Krea could do a PhD, come back and populate the other universities. Create an ecosystem and spread the benefits. This won’t happen overnight and will take 20-30 years to realise but any vision has to start now.

In answer to a query on colonialism and India and its dire effects on India’s progress, Dr Rajan recommended that we look forward and use history in matters such as dialogues on climate change. “Use it to insist on the right to more emissions than Western countries as they have been destroying the atmosphere for a much longer time”.

Speaking in response to a question on financial inclusion, Dr Rajan emphasised how entities in microfinance do bridge the gap through easy facilitation of credit, but the bigger problem lay in the management of finance by the poor. There is an urgent need of imparting skills and education before providing credit to them. In many such cases, Fintech could step in at places where banks are reluctant and even hand hold them, exploring new possibilities and ways to access.

On being asked to comment on the ‘rat race’ and a way out of it, he advised, “You can refuse to be part of the rat race. There are so many possibilities today. As we grow richer as a country, we can afford basic living in what we do and wherever we are. Then you can look at fulfilment in what you do instead of from the salary you are getting.”

Sharing anecdotes laced with humor from his own life experience, Dr Rajan explained how during his younger days, the choices were limited to either the IIT, the stream of medical science and to some extent the Economics at St Stephens and becoming an entrepreneur was often associated with youngsters who couldn’t land employment opportunities. On how he succumbed to the rat race, studied at IIT and later circled back to Economics. He shed light on how there were innumerable opportunities for the young graduates today.

As a parting note, Dr Rajan left these powerful words with the young audience to mull and act on. “As young people you need to fight for a better India, the future of the country is in your hands. Fight for a country which embodies the best of the past. We have a constant battle on what is best and it’s you who has to decide that. The experiment of India that our founding fathers thought of is a bold one, let’s not lose the best of what we created, let’s preserve that. Do whatever you do with all the energy you have. It’s not necessary to be a social worker or work in an NGO, you can produce the best widget in the world and still add value. Just go out and be the best in whatever you do.”

Lekshmi Gopinathan reports, from the Communications Desk.

The 7-35-25 CON[EU]NDRUM: Looking at the CAI deal

Anita Mankottil 0 Comment Blogs ,
The 7-35-25 CON[EU]NDRUM: Looking at the CAI deal

THE BASICS

The EU-China Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), better known as Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), was agreed on Nov 2013. Just to set things straight, this is not a full-on trade agreement but a “pact” for the EU to create new investment opportunities for its native companies in Chinese market by eliminating discriminatory laws and practices (that were only accessed by Chinese companies and corporations from third world countries). It was the combined idea of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and anxious Chinese President, Xi Jinping, to get this deal finalized after enough [35] concessions. Disregarding the proposal of early consultations with Biden-led US, Merkel-Xi had other plans. History speaks that Germany do carry good trade relations with China. To think of it, the largest EU investment sector in China is the automotive industry which is obviously a big deal for Germany. But we can’t conclude that Germany will be the only beneficiary here - several fronts need to be considered. Above all, this is just an agreement in principle and the deal’s full text is yet to be published. So it is up to the European parliament to ratify and mark it green for the BIT to finally commence from 2022. Nonetheless, the following illustration would brief out things:

Image credits: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202012/1211466.shtml

For people with utmost curiosity, you can still refer to the key elements of “the most ambitious deal” published by the EU, here. 

THE RECIPROCITY GAP – a major concern

After noting the pros, challenges are now weighed in terms of imbalances created in EU-China FDI flows due to [buzzword] “lack of reciprocity”. Backtracking it shows that EU has been way more receptive to foreign investment than China with the latter operating in a restrictive FDI regime. And if reciprocity persists, anti-globalization sentiments might fuel an erosion of support for the European producers and consumers. So the treaty “is supposed to go” some way to rebalancing this. But in factuality, it supports the theory of one-sided fulcrum.

THE INVISIBLE HAND OF GEOPOLITICS

[1] THE IMPACT ON TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS

In December 2019, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi answered a question saying that it was unlikely for a “developing economy” like China to come to an agreement with the [Brexited] EU. But with strategic intentions, Xi intervened personally to snatch the deal within the window of opportunity. Thus the seven-year long-awaited video conferencing got a fair bit of coverage on December 30, 2020. But it got backlashed that the accord might create friction in EU’s relations with the incoming Biden administration. The view would clearly weaken Biden’s “efforts for a closer US-EU check on China”. Even if the CAI is neither signed [due to the US pressure] nor implemented, China is +1 for creating chaos and controversy amongst backers and opponents of the agreement in the European Parliament and among other member states. It is a symbolic win too good to pass for the dragon.

[2] AN IRON FIST (NO MORE) IN A VELVET GLOVE?

Romanticizing different versions and believing in soft power based on hardcore facts is what India has been through. But the changing world order did make the tables turn for the aforementioned. Indian diplomats and policymakers now deal in High Level Dialogues (HLD) circumscribing this BIT. But it transpires to be negative for India’s foreign policy assumption that Europe is in for the US’s ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy that is meant to “rebalance” China’s reign. Without Europe as its ally, the strategy is a road to nowhere. Quite knowingly, Merkel hurriedly reached out to PM Modi to persuade India to accept CAI as a market access pact while continuously harping on the importance of the India-EU trade deal. To this, the French diplomat asserted NSA Ajit Doval on “forestalling China from manipulating Europe” thereby hinted at Raisina Dialogue (India’s premier foreign policy conference) to boost Indo-Pacific partnership. So, at the end of the day, India, fortunately, is not in the dire position and must climb down from its ivory tower to assess the reshaped world order. 

[3] THE FINAL WHISTLE‘THE DIPLOMAT’ concludes that the EU should rethink its China policy and introspect its coordination with the States. An EU-US solidification will have more leverage in relation to China and can be a “catalyst for a broader multilateral coalition of concordant countries to promote the rule of law and to blunt Beijing’s efforts at economic coercion”. But for the European geopolitics, the pact is still meant “to defend NATO territory” and achieve stabilization.

Lockdown: A blessing in disguise

Anita Mankottil 0 Comment Blogs ,
Lockdown: A blessing in disguise

The blog is written by Rajashree Sadhu. The Author is a MBA student of IFMR GSB at Krea University

“God always have a better plan for us, though the process might be hard and painful!” that’s what my grandfather told me always. Hey wait, I am not writing this article to give you philosophical advices.

But………. Then What?

Well, this abrupt lockdown of the entire world has bought a lot of unexpected dismay in our lives (especially migrant’s workers and not so privileged section of the society). Yet, isn’t that’s what life is, it happens to us when we are busy having other plans.

We are continuously worried and grumbling about negative things that we are facing due to this pandemic- loss of lives(due to Covid-19), job losses, salary cuts, internships cancelled, business at halt, economy is at a standstill, disruption in supply-chain and above all ‘THE GREAT RECCESSION’ (on its way).

But salute to the frontline warriors- doctors, nurses, policemen, sanitation workers and others who are working day in and day out to help us overcome this tough situation. This pandemic coupled with lockdown (which is the only solution to stay safe) has put humanity into a huge test. It’s an opportunity for all of us to serve the under-privileged section of the society who are not able to get their daily bread due to lockdown and no earnings.

Yet some miserable incidents are happening in few places – like pelting of stones at policemen, doctors when they are trying to help us in this pandemic, such incidents are really unforgiving. This is not the time when we should believe in rumors, be arrogant and thereby create violence in society. We all have to fight this together and cooperate with the frontline workers.

This time too shall pass, so we should focus on the positive things that we are experiencing and how can we make the most of the time that is available to us. If you ever felt that you lack time to do the things you wanted to do then this the opportunity. Up-skilling ourselves, improving our fitness, spending time with family these are the things we always wanted to do. Life always comes to us with surprise gifts, blessings and of course hurdles which makes our lives even better.

We neither know how long will this pandemic last nor how long will this lockdown continue, but we can hope that this period will be over really soon. Optimist will always love to see the positive side of things and so if we look deeper we will realize the good things that we are experiencing at this point.

The environmental pollution levels have gone down drastically, rivers are cleaner than we have ever seen before, we are able to breathe fresh air again and a few endangered species have started to appear in few places. This makes us realize that apart from human beings other animals too have equal rights to live in this planet. Nature always has its own healing process but in our rat race to achieve more we forget that, what we are experiencing now is nothing but the collective karma to humankind! Mother Earth will come alive again and it will be more vibrant than ever before.

There is another aspect of this pandemic- a lot of business opportunities will come up. Make in India and manufacturing sectors will be boosted up far more. Every country from now on will try to be self-reliant. The change in consumer behavior will open up new avenues for businesses. Fintech, digital payments, e-commerce will experience a big boom in the days to come. Medical infrastructure will gain more importance than ever before.

Most importantly this lockdown has provided us a huge lesson- no work is small, everyone has its own importance starting from a rag-picker to a top notch celebrity. Today, we should all be grateful to the doctors, paramedical staffs and nurses who are saving millions of lives in this pandemic.

Life always allows some crisis to occur, before revealing its full bright side. As every cloud has silver lining so does everything in life, for a period we are having a tough time but we will be victorious one day. This crisis will give us the zeal to put the best in whatever we do as don’t know when our day is. This Corona Virus will take away a lot of things from us, but in return it will provide us a life time lesson that will help us in the long run.

#TGOK – The Girls of Krea

Anita Mankottil 0 Comment Student Spotlight , , , , , , , ,
#TGOK – The Girls of Krea

Say hello to some of the young trailblazers at Krea

Five young girl students at Krea open up about their journey at Krea and trace their experiences through this incredibly diverse community. Coming from varied backgrounds, both educational and otherwise, their steadfast belief in diversity at Krea runs parallel across their stories. Tracing back to the day they stepped into Krea up until today, these bright young minds have paved their ways with indomitable spirit. Read more on their multifaceted evolution and that one encounter at Krea which spilled out of checked boxes and made them believe that Krea is truly diverse, that Krea’s home.

Chaarmikha Nagalla

Cohort of 2023, SIAS

When Chaarmikha stepped into Krea, she had plans set in stone, with an aim to pursue Computer Science and later move into a conventional IT career. But today, she is comfortable exploring further in these unpredictable times. Having stepped out of her comfort zone and having tried new things, she believes she has evolved into a self-aware individual with clarity of intentions.

Chaarmikha founded Girl Up Prerna in 2020, a club under the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up Campaign and the project is very close to her heart. The club has several activities and advocacy related to gender equality right from donation drives to awareness facilitation. “I started working on this in 2020 and it’s definitely a cause that I passionately work towards.”, adds Chaarmikha.

On diversity at Krea, she says, “Unity in diversity is definitely a line that applies to Krea. We’re all very different from each other but have the same value systems and morals. One instance of diversity that I remember well was during the finals week of the Literature and Arts course. We had to pick and explore the folklore of one language and one person had to research while the other two represented/ enacted and wrote. All of us came from different linguistic backgrounds and different skill sets and it was surreal to see such creativity in each of us.

Ameena Abbas

Cohort of 2023, SIAS

“I come from a part of the society where anyone with a background in science is expected to become a doctor or engineer. Krea was a turning point. It changed this notion for me and opened so many more avenues, I realised I could explore more than one subject at a time.”

In her Admissions essay, Ameena had strongly conveyed her intent to break away from the classic mould of being subservient to the other gender. Ameena was very sure of picking up Biology as her pathway to a career but the foundation courses at Krea made her realise that she wanted to choose Chemistry and that’s exactly what she did.

Experiences have punctuated Ameena’s journey at Krea and she counts on her two-month long internship with Led By Foundation, who empower young girls belonging to the minority community empowerment by providing them with real-life career skills, a supportive ecosystem, and access to the right opportunities and networks. Ameena found the opportunity transformational as it allowed her to work with girls her age and more, facing issues in the society that she too had undergone.

Speaking about diversity at Krea, Ameena says, “ The diverse cohort of students at Krea is something that stands out. Even having a roommate teaches one so much. Two people from different cultures, distinct ways of studying, varied point of views, these really have helped me become a better individual with an open mind.”

Maitri Modi

Cohort of 2022, SIAS

“ I come from a CBSE school with a science background with no exposure to Arts and Humanities. And then Krea happened, I realised how much I enjoyed these too. I think Krea helped me transform from a solo artist to a team player, the focus now is always on group growth and not just individual growth,” says Maitri.

Maitri believes that the Krea journey has allowed her to keep her core values and principles intact while she has become more grounded, stable and calm. She can now understand claims and differentiate evidence. Ethics has been a course that has stayed with her and thanks to the same, she is now pursuing a capstone thesis on data privacy and ethics.

Refreshingly, Maitri’s take on diversity at Krea brought forward a fun anecdote from her first year , “ I am a Gujarati and through the initial days at Krea I wouldn’t prefer rice as it was in stark contrast to my wheat-heavy diet. And then on occasions of Onam and Pongal my friends would enjoy the feast from a banana platter and having never eaten rice with hands myself,  I was introduced by these set of new entrants in my life to try it out (all backed by the science of why eating food by hand is beneficial). I am now a convert and love eating with my hands plus the sambar and chutney are my favorites. This, for me, was an eye-opener into the diversity that the Krea community holds.”

Maitri also set up a Food Bank at Krea during her first year where the surplus untouched food from the mess would go to an orphanage in the neighboring village of Sullurpeta. Maitri wished to do this on a much bigger scale involving the industrial units at Sri City until COVID brought everything to a halt.

Sai Avanthika

MBA Class of 2021, IFMR GSB

A national level tennis player, a classically trained singer and now a management leader in the making, Sai Avanthika looks forward to bringing a change no matter the chosen field.

Avanthika joined the class of MBA in the middle of COVID and the initial interactions were all virtual. “Though it was all online, everything was so thoughtful. Even our orientation ceremony ‘Prarambh’ was packed with industry level speakers, including our current Chief Economic Advisor, Dr Anantha Nageswaran. We had a really warm welcome at IFMR GSB.”

Avanthika is now back on campus and calls it one of the happiest experiences of her academic journey. Ruminating about her journey, Avanthika adds, “ I came in as a fresher, I had no corporate experience but the diverse environment at Krea has helped so much. My batch has peers from 23 states with varied work experience, across the genders and study backgrounds. I was a little nervous when it started but now I have grown into a more confident individual with more clarity and a keen overview of what awaits, what corporate life is going to be, thanks to all the exposure.”

Avanthika believes conversing and ideating with different people, who speak different languages and come with different perspectives because of how they grew up and their own experiences has opened up her mind to a different world.

“In terms of information, the knowledge of people’s struggles, really brings in a balanced mindset. Even in case analysis, this helps, the diverse backgrounds and how different everyone thinks.”

Since returning to campus, Avanthika enjoys going for late night walks through the serene paths traversing the campus with her friends, all of them coming from different regions of India, so distinct to her own self. They listen to music, talk, let out steam and call it a day. And the conversations in itself feel like a cultural exchange, diverse and inclusive.

The sports person in Avanthika appreciates how Krea encourages sports and the good sporting facilities available on campus. She foresees a great scope for expansion, “ I don’t see a lot of girls playing.  If I can bring about a change being a woman, if I could inspire more people to pick a sport and play with them, I would be happy. This is one of the reasons I joined the Sports Committee. I really look forward to bringing about a change in the way people perceive sports to be, they still look at it as a fun activity but it’s a way of life.”

Manvi Teki

Cohort of 2022, SIAS

As a young student, Manvi stepped in with a firm outlook on the ways of life and believes that the journey at Krea has been one of self discovery. “Life is not black n’ white, there is no right or wrong, the experiences at Krea taught me to actually understand, accept and look at things from various perspectives, that there is always more to something than meets the eye.”

Manvi believes the diverse interactions, be it with the professors, students, or support staff has been a powerful means of self-discovery, and has helped her shape her own world view.

Manvi celebrates the diversity and inclusiveness at Krea and reminisces one of the earliest incidents to drive the sentiment home, “I was in a class where we were having a  political debate about the way certain things should be. It was a class of 15 people and everybody had a different outlook to bring to the table based on their own life experiences, this spoke intricately about Krea as a community. This opens up our minds, gets the flap out of our eyes and forces us to look outside.”

Manvi has also been a Student Ambassador at Krea and worked closely with the Outreach and Admissions team. She looks back at her time as a young 17 year old, seeking answers and confused about college choices and feels that being a Student Ambassador was her way of paying forward, enabling students like herself to gain clarity. It also reminded her of the growth and change that she had gone through herself.

One of the projects closest to her heart at Krea was her internship with IBM. “ We applied all the facts we had learnt into the project. We had to create a questionnaire using NLP technique to tap into human consciousness to gauge their learning style and the results were used on various IBM learning platforms. We used what we learnt in Computer Science, a course in Brain and Behaviour and Design Thinking. It was a reflection of my Krea journey itself, of applying things in your real life, truly interwoven.”

Take Two- Diversity Dialogues

Anita Mankottil 0 Comment Faculty & Staff Spotlight , , , , , , ,
Take Two- Diversity Dialogues

A veteran from the area of Strategy and Management, Prof Shobha Das,  Area Chair – Strategic Management, IFMR GSB, got on a Zoom call with an Ethnomusicologist, Prof Sumitra Ranganathan, Senior Assistant Professor of Music, SIAS. What followed was an exchange from worlds intersected, in stark contrast yet drawing the parallels.

Prof Shobha and Prof Sumitra got together for a special exchange of ideas and perspectives on the occasion of International Women’s Day, tracing the similarities and differences in their lives as academics and as women from diverse fields. Paving the way for an interesting dialogue, Prof Shobha Das drew attention to how arts and management are considered to be siloed as two different worlds but yet share deep commonalities. In agreement Prof Sumitra explained how this is innate to the consciousness at Krea, how habits of the creative mind come together in almost all domains.

Drawing on her life as an academic, Prof Shobha spoke about how academia is synonymous with her identity, more so than being a woman. Academia has allowed her to explore, interact with different people and learn about things, about how it affirmed there is no ‘me’ in academics.  While Prof Sumitra pondered on her identity at the intersection of arts and academics, her journey from being a theoretical physicist to the  world of IT and finally to the shift in academics, and how it made the most sense in a space such as Krea University. She expressed how she felt closest to home in academia, where the active churning rarely stops, and spills over.

“The artist in me expresses it in this way, my shift into academics happened following a song, it was a beautiful dhrupad I learnt from the Maharajas of Bettiah, composed by them. And following that song is how I decided I will do my PhD in music and then I made a transition and there I have stayed ever since.”

Prof Sumitra expressed her amazement at women artists from traditional communities who have always had to manage their time and demands made at them as a person. Prof Shobha drew the analogy to the field of management, to what is labeled ‘The Great Resignation’ in the post pandemic era.

“More women have resigned than men because women have realised if now they go back to the workplace, all things they have adapted to will feel astray. The onus is on them to now continue the new role but apparently the men aren’t that affected by the change in role because they probably were able to partition it still and continue to do so. The Great Resignation is greater for the women, post pandemic. We will have even fewer women in the workforce.”

Continuing the thread, Prof Sumitra spoke about the pressure women face as caregivers and how it comes into play when she seeks employment, cloaked as questions and qualms. Prof Shobha pointed out how the top 500 Fortune Companies in the United States had 8 percent women as CEOs and the top 500 companies of NSE had 5 percent as CEOs and the buck didn’t stop there, a study by IIM-A showed that the gender pay gap increased as women climbed the ladder instead of the other way round. This led to contemplation over the takeaways from the pandemic on how to bring women back to the workforce, of the awareness and the solutions.

Prof Shobha stressed on the fact of inability to delve deeper into metrics, incentives and motivation to keep higher education equally excitable for men and women. On how if one lesson from the pandemic is accessibility, the other is a question on digital divide. In Prof Shoba’s words, “A chakravyuh we need to emerge from.”

Retracing a Mnemonic for woman empowerment, something she had coined for an event in the year prior, Prof Shobha expanded STREE- Support The People Who Are Around You, the women and community members. Talk about the people and what hardships they have, stories are never hidden. Raise awareness in every forum you can. Educate yourself and others of opportunities available for women. Empower women, put power back in their hands.

Prof Sumitra added how there is a huge opportunity to bring the quality of a woman that is associated with the aspect of ‘care’ to the classroom. A need to feminise the workplace, to bring in the idea of care to the classroom where everyone cares for the other, making space differences and acknowledging that they come from various backgrounds and do not face the same challenges, to inculcate the ethics of care into enabling students, workers and colleagues.

The short conversation concluded with a pause, refraining from a full stop. With a promise for future collaborations, exchange of novel ideas and building of continuous bridges.

Please click here to view the engaging dialogue.

Non-Banking Financial Companies in India: A study on their crisis and revival strategies

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Non-Banking Financial Companies in India: A study on their crisis and revival strategies

By Sourav More

IFMR GSB – MBA Batch of 2023

“An essential feature of the evolution of the financial system has been the emergence of non-banking financial institutions,” read an RBI press release on 2 January 2012. Time and again, they have emerged as an epicentre to support the often credit-starved MSMEs and Rural India. The NBFCs landscape in India is a story in itself, as it has been a rollercoaster ride for them right from their humble beginning in the 1960s to finding innovative ways to drive the growth of MSMEs; and then the sudden shakeup due to the default in debt repayment by IL&FS group in the latter half of 2018, which ultimately resulted to a liquidity crunch and had negatively impacted their stock prices.

Growth Drives

  1. NBFCs mainly targeted the customers who are from the unorganised and under-served segments, customised their products as per their preference, and thus, NBFCs created a niche for themselves.
  2. NBFCs have always come up with newer and better technology for their customers, with 24/7 service and reaching the Tier-2, Tire-3, and Tier-3 markets. This helped them have a wider reach.
  3. NBFCs have been trying to set up co-lending arrangements with digital platforms and commercial banks, like Punjab National Housing Corporation – a part of Punjab National Bank.
  4. NBFCs are investing in data analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance their business operations and also commensurating technological advances.
  5. NBFCs are focusing on lending to the subprime customer segments through proactive, robust and agile risk management modules, in comparison to commercial banks.

 NUMBER OF NBFCs IN INDIA AND ITS DECLINE OVER THE YEARS

Roadblocks to these growth prospects

  1. NBFCs have been trying to offer customers the kind of products that they want through constant customisation and innovation, and this has led to misalignment in product offerings with customers and a rise in the cost of investment and operations.
  2. The asset-liability mismatch, which became the cause of concern for the Liquidity Crisis of 2018, was mainly because NBFCs borrow funds at a lower rate for a shorter time period and lend the same at a higher rate for a longer time period, and after four to five years the interest rate usually increases and ultimately it leads to a loss for the company. Due to this, their liabilities were maturing faster for payment compared to the loans advanced.
  3. NBFC payroll had a downward spiralling effect on their quality of sourcing due to the absence of direct sales agents. Effective underwriting was required to form personal relationships with prospects. 

The liquidity crisis of 2018: Case of DHFL

Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) provides home loan services and was one of the biggest housing finance companies in India. Unexpectedly, their share prices fell down by more than 60% after 21 September 2018 which created panic in the market. There was a rumour that DHFL may have defaulted in one of its debt payments, and people said that DSP mutual fund sold short term DHFL papers at 11 percent yield which was at a discount of 18 percent to its actual yield. Investors were worried why an AAA-rated company sold its short-term papers at such a discount.

Upon further discussion, it was identified that the fund house had IL&FS debt and IL&FS was roiled by a lot of defaults in commercial papers, which led to a shortage of INR 1000 billion in the system. Exposure to IL&FS formed the base of all the rumours and it spoiled DHFL’s valuation, and the same thing happened for other NBFCs as well.

Steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India   

  1. On 2 November 2018, RBI announced Partial Credit Enhancement (PEC) to bonds, the period of occupancy of which should not be less than three years. These were issued by systemically important non-deposit takings of NBFCs amid the liquidity crisis.
  2. To reduce the stress of NBFCs, RBI relaxed its rules to sell or securitise the loan books. Therefore, NBFCs can securitise loans of more than five-year maturity after holding those for six months.
  3. Harmonisation of different categories of NBFCs into fewer ones was done for greater operational flexibility. AFC, LCs and ICs were merged into a new category called NBFC-Investment and Credit Company (NBFC-ICC).

IFMR GSB PhD scholars present papers co-authored by Prof Madhuri Saripalle at 17th CAED Conference

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IFMR GSB PhD scholars present papers co-authored by Prof Madhuri Saripalle at 17th CAED Conference

We are delighted to share that Aditya Kumar and Manasi B – two PhD Scholars at IFMR GSB (Batch of 2019) – presented their individual papers at the recently concluded 17th Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data (CAED) Conference organized by the Faculty of Economics – University of Coimbra, Portugal. 

Aditya’s paper was on “Determinants of Export Intensity in the Indian Food Industry”, and Manasi’s paper delved into the “Growth of the Indian Pharmaceutical Firms: An Empirical Analysis”. Both the papers were co-authored by Prof Madhuri Saripalle (Associate Professor at IFMR GSB). Congratulations to them!

‘AIMA India Case Research Centre’ publishes marketing management case study by IFMR GSB professor in their latest issue

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‘AIMA India Case Research Centre’ publishes marketing management case study by IFMR GSB professor in their latest issue

The AIMA India Case Research Centre, a well-known portal focusing on developing and publishing industry based India-focused research cases, has published a marketing management case study by Prof Sathya Saminadan, Assistant Professor at IFMR GSB – Krea University. The case study titled ‘Sustaining the Market Share Against the Branded Firms in an Unorganized Sector’, explores several unorthodox marketing and relationship strategies used by an entrepreneur against branded firms. The case study also highlights the realities of the market, a perspective that would serve well for management students. 

Read the case study here: https://www.caseresearchaima.in/frontend/product_display/390

MBA Office releases the medal winners, merit scholarship awardees, and Dean’s Merit List from the IFMR GSB MBA batch of 2019-21

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MBA Office releases the medal winners, merit scholarship awardees, and Dean’s Merit List from the IFMR GSB MBA batch of 2019-21

We are delighted to share the list of medal winners, merit scholarship awardees and the Dean’s Merit List at IFMR Graduate School of Business (IFMR GSB), Krea University from the MBA batch of 2019-21.

Medal winners:

The first three medals – the C.M.Kothari Medal; the A.Sivasailam Medal; the A.M.M. Arunachalam Medal – are awarded to students based on their academic performance (CGPA) at the end of their two-year MBA programme.

The HT Parekh Medal is given to a student for their best all-round performance in academics and extracurricular activities. 

Here is the list of winners: 

S.No.NameRankMedal
1Swasti 1st rankC.M.Kothari Medal 
2Harini G2nd rankA.Sivasailam Medal 
3Sonu Agarwal3rd rankA.M.M. Arunachalam Medal
4Srishti MaheshwariBest all-round performanceHT Parekh Medal 

Dean’s Merit List (Batch of 2019-21):

The top 5% students in a batch, on the basis of academic performance (CGPA) at the end of second year, will be included in the Dean’s Merit List. Below are the students from MBA batch of 2019-21 who made it to the Dean’s Merit List:

S.No.Name
1Aditya Logad
2Tanmoy Acherjee
3Utkarsh Srivastava
4Srishti Maheshwari
5Sumit Jha
6Modi Yash Kamleshbhai

Merit Scholarships:

We are also delighted to share the list of students who secured the Merit Scholarship. Merit scholarships are awarded to the students securing top four ranks, based on the CGPA at the end of the second year.

The Merit Scholars from the MBA batch of 2019-21 are:

S.No.Name
1Swasti
2Harini G
3Sonu Agarwal
4Aditya Logad

Krea University