MyTake

Sitting in the Vivekananda Hall at the Delhi School of Economics on the day of his birth anniversary while witnessing the discussions on Digital Revolution and the future ahead, I get reminded of the worldview Swami Vivekanand portrayed through his preaching and practices. The inscription in the hall reads - May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls – and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, is the special object of my worship . The farsightedness of his thinking and the depth in his beliefs brilliantly blended the universal conception that science and technology is trying to bring together by making the world look like a village and the flattening is proving to be a temptation for an entrepreneur and enterprise. Yes we are all beholding digital journey into the new world and as Nandan Nilekani had told Thomas...

Management was conceived as an art of getting things done through people. People were considered as one of the most important resource and their efforts as most important asset. Management of People or Personnel Management as traditionally followed in organizations focused on the processes of managing recruitment and training apart from maintaining labor relations. This continued till the importance of all functional areas became crucial and emphasis on responding to competing environment became a crucial challenge. Employees or the work force were considered as one of the converting force in the organizations and it was believed that one can learn all kind of generic work while on job and the organizations are obliging their employees by giving them opportunity to work for which they are compensated periodically. This later was recognized as a time which dominated traditional treatment of employees to primarily relate work or effort with compensation or salary. Now when we look ...

Recently, the Global Network of Doctorates organized its 5th International Conference on Issues and Challenges in Doctoral Research to mark its 5th anniversary on 25th August 2017 at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This network celebrates 25th August as World Doctorates Day as informed by its founder, Prof KK Dwivedi, Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gwalior. It was a great opportunity attending its inaugural session and listening to Dr BB Kumar (Chairman, ICSSR), Prof Ashutosh Sharma (Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India), and Prof Jagadish Kumar (Vice Chancellor, JNU). The whole conception of this annual event is to brainstorm on the issues related to doctoral research and work towards developing ways through which the quality of research can be improved. The network has more than 4,200 members from across 60 nations. It has developed strong discussion forums to deliberate on the issues concerning research quality and doctoral programs usi...

Technology is a big disruptor. For not just businesses but for state as well. The governments have learnt lessons from businesses and have started using technology to devise policies and to deliver them efficiently to the end users. Digital disruption is one such initiative and Digital India is one such mission which is targeted to provide seamless services in an open environment assuring transparency, security and speed. Public policy is an area which needs to embrace technology to strategize and develop appropriate policies to improve quality of life of people viz a viz their well-being. For state to visualise better growth and development there are two approaches which are visible. First is to push the policies whereby driving people to learn and develop an attitude of adapting to change. This pushes the people to change without much choice. By some it is viewed as an imposition whereas some consider it to be the need of time. Whatever be the case broadly it is consider...

[picture credit: https://d3ttu1mwmobba5(dot)cloudfront(dot)net/content/uploads/2015/01/Question-Marks-Confusion-puzzle(dot)jpg] Many of my students keep asking me - 'How can we improve ourselves; how can we lead in our career; how can we communicate better' . I have grown with similar such questions and found the answer from within. I am sure many of the students pursuing studies and looking for opportunities, many of them in the first phase of their employment and many who toil hard to grow with the organization, might be facing similar such questions. For all of them this small piece might be helpful. I keep telling the students – ‘You need to concentrate on 4 Cs, viz., Communication, Content, Clarity and Confidence.’ And then we get into some conversation about all these 4 Cs in detail. I have experimented with many of my students over the years. In around three decades of my career and around a decade of growing in school, college and university, I have lived with...

One of my students' Facebook status read:  Its often said that nothing fails like success. But I believe nothing is as permanent as failure. Once it gets inside you, it stays there for quite a long time and in this process it destroys everything. I am sure many of us, especially when we pass through the age he is passing, tend to feel this way. Many times we don’t share it with others. Once I saw this post I responded quickly (well within 6 hrs): It depends on the frequency of its occurrence... And one's attitude... Positive people take lesson from that and move forward with caution, care and commitment... Negative people curse it and kill their efforts, enthusiasm and energy. Ultimately choice is with the individual... One must not handover his/her remote to others be it individuals or objects. It did not just end there. It took me back to my own experiences and interactions. It drove me to the lessons that I learnt all the while. It has been really interesting when...

B USINESS operates on the basic premise of interdependence between enterprise and society.  Their isolation kills the very foundational spirit of business. State plays a role of facilitator in order to assure that the interdependence is well respected and maintained.  Even when we follow laissez faire or operate in free trade environment, exploitation of users of products and services has to be monitored and controlled.  Irrespective of model of development and geographies of operation, this has been the hallmark in sustaining business growth and building great enterprises. At individual level, well-being is a state in which a person feels good about one’s life.  It is a reflection on past experience observed through satisfaction, on having good conditions of life at present and having positive outlook towards future. At larger level, human well-being reflects on general satisfaction of all individuals with their health, education, relationships, environment, ...