My solitary confinement at Kochi got extended to IIM Lucknow which included pursuit of academic excellence, heightened physical activity, new challenges in terms of adjusting to a younger crowd and listening to a sophisticated academia / intelligentia of IIM Profs, from 9.30 to 5.30 every day in Class room. All these were absent from our lives for quite long and it looked like a challenge, even though there was so many who took it as leisure activity.
Today, as the week came to an end, we had a Nature Walk conducted by Mr. Deepankur Saha, a Phd student in IIM, who is a bird watcher and avid Eco tourism planner in the making. We went about five Kms away from Campus close to Gomti river, where there was huge marshy land with occasional ponds intercepting in between. Close to every such water body, we could see several varieties of birds enjoying their morning adulations, and some even taking a quick dip into the water to catch tadpole/fish for a delicious morning breakfast.
It was a pleasant 2.5 hours stride zig zagging the grassland and Deepankur gave us an insight into bird watching, their specific naming pattern, colours, habits - which we can also call as their attitude, making them very distinct for identification by birders. Names like parakeets, lap winged birds, Jaghna, King fishers, Kothwal, kept on getting into our ears ritualistically. Most of the names looked familiar but soon forgotten !!. We were joined by an enthuastic Doctor Couple and two more specialist bird watchers from Lucknow town. We slowly moved around the marshy patch of land prior to Gomti river front and this was far different from the river front artificially built in the City which we saw yesterday !!.
There was a cool breeze all around and the sun showed up very gently and the atmosphere was inspiring for a deep contemplation. I had the good Company of Dr UK Dhrupati , an insightful IRS Officer from Odissa and we moved on closer to different patches of land in search of new variety of birds. The movement was slow but steady and we could spot at least 10 to 12 varieties of birds, some small and big, extremely colourful & intricate, making pleasant noises and telling something in their own language. The Lady accompanying the birder, was cautious and also picking some beautiful flowers from the pond. She was actively suggesting her husband to look out for newer birdies hiding in the trees/bushes. Seeing her interest in a variety of flowers, I got her a bunch of colourful flowers along with stem, which she gladly took to plant in her home. Probably this sleek tube like plant got a new home now.
We had a good discussion on developing a hobby for elevating our own happiness to a subtler level and making it long lasting one, which does not depend always on an external object. Dr. Karthik Drupathi is well read and knowledgeable person on these matters and it was a good conversation.
Now about CLASS ROOM TRIALS of First Week:
Week 1 started on Sunday 4th September, when we landed from Kochi by Indigo. We were pleasantly welcomed by Chiranjeevi in the reception and our rooms were neat and tidy. We were explained about the facilities in Camp which included a good Gym, Swimming pool, lots of space for morning/evening walk and Yoga between 6 to 7. I made myself clear that I need to positively use the facility for upgrading my weakened body and raise spirits for my academic pursuits.
The first day, our morning session was on understanding IFRS enabled Financial Statements by Prof. Seshadev Sahoo, who is also the Programme Director of our MDP program. He has an excellent domain knowledge and the session was interesting with practical anecdotes and we could study certain financial ratios peeking into accounts of several leading Corporates. There were good insights into financial statements of well known companies and their intricate terminology to hide/disclose financial issues from both Management and governance perspective. We could learn techniques of reading into statements and a good amount of management/accounting jargons and concepts were made clear for understanding financial statements better.
The second session was by Prof. Nishant Uppal, on an interesting subject of “Change and Conflict Management. He kept us awake and laughing through out the afternoon, with his energetic movements and quick responses. Not a single moment he allowed any slackness and the interactive session was very lively and interesting. The subject was quite new to us, being a part of behavioural Management principles, and quite a good number of references were given for further reading. We learnt new management words Upward delegation, Ambidexterity, Ash Conformity study, Classical conditioning / Associate Memory or social learning.
The practical explanation and demonstration of heuristics and biases - Anchoring thought, Bounded rationality made us realise how lazy, stupid and perennially dissatisfied we are, in this materialistic world which runs the whole economy literally !!. The tools used for breaking pattern, randomisation, Rig mender system (which consciously causes someone to remember something) , tail gating were fairly new to us. In the exercise that followed, I found myself more into an Adult pattern, rather than Nurturing, Controlling and Child. By answering a set of questions, we can make out in which category we may fall in our relationship with others.
The flair of Management jargons slowly got into our heads quite easily, when some games were also made part of understanding the concepts of communication, leadership qualities, change management. Most of it we don’t remember but it has gone into the woods, however making deep impressions on our personality and the way we think about conflict management. The day ended with a positive note that we can keep ourselves busy in understanding new concepts in a different way. IIM Profs have their own way of delivering the task to Tax Executives from different parts of India!!.
Next day, we had Prof. Ashutosh K Sinha, a seasoned Management professor with vast experience in a big corporate. He was just reflecting the sentiments of a Vision and Mission statement for the department and made most of the answers coming from the participants. He had a knack of putting across a point of view and solicit our indulgence into the deeper concepts. An interesting perspective about knowing others and competitors was presented. He widely quoted from Management gurus and gave a reference to Chinese General Sun Tzu on his War strategy. If you know yourself and also others, you cannot be defeated in 100 battles; if you know yourself and not others, you may win one and lose one; but if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will lose every time- by Tzu made good business sense even now.
We had some very pure economic perspectives by Prof. Debdatta Pal on Microeconomics of Taxation which included the concepts of Demand and supply, Factors of production, price elasticity theory. He could well articulate the principles through graphic presentation of Free market and price floor concepts. The justification for taxation to cover up the Dead Weight loss was made evidently clear through these graphs. This session was followed by Prof. Sabyasachi Sinha on Design Thinking and Innovation as a necessity and tool for product design.
After brief explanation of concepts, we were busily engaged in developing a start up product for “elderly” and we had to actually take an interview over phone soliciting their view for a food product suitable for their age group. We picked up “Puja ke baad Pet Puja” and a healthy recipe for elders after our team spoke to some seniors. Difficult part was to get them on line and talk within 15 minutes. It came out well due to persistence of our Lady Colleagues who could design an App as an interface between elders and Home made product manufactures and displayed them with miniature Idlies / dosa and of course a Chakli made by me using a cardboard cover of glass on my table !! Other teams also presented product design for “Relaxa”, a proto type for use of elderly to take care of household needs and “Hum safar” – product/service for logistical nees of senior citizens.
Fourth day, there was an interesting Session on Financial flows and Structure Implications, by Prof. Prakash Singh, which essentially highlighted on role and responsibility of Central Bank, regulators of various markets and government in general. We conceptualised the sectors relating to Investment Banking, Merchant Banking and learnt about fault lines of NPAs, Micro financing and Bond market. The emphasis was on Populism v/s Viable Economic Policies and the implications of a Consumption economy. The Professor could effectively demonstrate the need of proper regulation and impact on growth.
The afternoon session was by Prof. Payal Mehra on Influence and Persuasion Communication. She could very well relate to our predicaments which we normally face while communicating with younger generations. The communication has become more and more transactional and hence basic rules were detaile for handling. Surprisingly, in our group the persons between 70s and 80s were missing while we had those born between 60 to 70 and later 80s. Professor was very adept & deep sighted while she could with dexterity gave tips for handling an adamant assessee as well as handling a tough boss. Saying no and remaining in control in our relationship with others, was very interestingly presented.
The last day went off very quickly with Prof. Prakash V Atilli on Information, Cyber risk assessment. The session generally covered a wide variety of topics including, some insights into biggest data breaches seen in Face book, Aadhar, Wannacry – ransomware etc., We were made aware of concepts relating to Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA-AAAA) and threat modelling principles of Microsoft was contextually well explained. Being last day of week, we couldn’t make best use of the session, being highly technical in nature.
The final session for the week was by Dr. Saugata Bhattacharya, Chief Economist of Axis Bank, who flew from Mumbai to teach us, the Global Macro Economic Outlook and its impact on India. The Professor is found to be highly experienced in this field and could very well relate Macroeconomic perspectives of Global economy and its impact on Indian Economy. There was a detailed analysis of Key factors of World Economy covering relative statistics for various economies and their implication in long run.
There was also an interesting and varied discussion about Green bonds getting prominence in future, Regulation and challenges of Cryptos vis-a-vis stable cryptos - Libra and prospects of Semi conductors in global market. He patiently explained the concepts and it was quite deep to get into the subject, being a highly specialised area. My old passion for the Applied Economics during undergraduate studies got re-kindled and it kind of freshened up my mind.
In retrospect, I can confidently say that we had a fruitful stay during the first week and hope it remains same for the rest of three weeks.(s.srinivas@incometax.gov.in / ssvas1966@gmail.com)
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