Business Standard poses a question and solicits responses from students across India for their weekly column “ Student’s Corner”

The topic for last week was Do you think fee waiver should be made mandatory for B-schools to help economically backward students?

Here are all the responses sent by IBS students:

Fee waivers would not only bring a sigh of relief for many deserving students but also a ray of hope and motivation for many. But the challenge for the B-schools is to clearly and correctly identify the criteria of for the waiver, because of the immense variation in the fee structure across the nation. This makes the economic inability of a student a relative concept. If this challenge is subjugated, fee waiver would be welcomed by all management aspirants.

— Rhiva Singh, IBS Gurgaon.

Winning Entry

It’s difficult for students belonging to middle class families to afford a B-school without a loan, let alone economically backward students. A mandatory fee waiver to such students will not only provide support to their families but will also benefit B-schools by providing them a bigger pool of talent. It’s better to provide a poor but deserving student rather than providing for undeserving students based merely on their communities. Such waivers will provide equal opportunities to all students in real sense and will be a correct means to insure a growth towards a less divided India.

— Neha Singh, IBS Gurgaon.

Fee waiver should be given to those who ‘fall under economically backward student category’. There are so many potential students who can’t afford fees to study in top ranks B-schools in India. As a result, those potentials remain constant and can’t get the proper nutrition (knowledge and experience) to grow much more. Students belonging to backward classes by availing such facility can achieve more and such facility is also a big help to the parents. Students will feel less financial burden and they can freely concentrate on their academics. So, it should be given to economically backward student.

— Vishal Vijayan, IBS Ahmedabad.

Many eligible students do not go for higher studies like MBA because of exorbitant fees. So providing a relief in monetary term is very good option for them. But waiving the fee could be a major step. B-school can give the option to payback the fees after joining the job. Because of that student also take studies seriously and chances of having dispute among other people also stop. The major task is selecting right candidate for such a precious option.

— Manish Kumar K Gupta, IBS Mumbai.

IIM-A said that it educated 41 students for free in 2009-10. Definitely it was free for IIM because the burden of fee waived, was borne by remaining students in form of fee hike. Fee waiver is not borne by the institutions but is passed on to other students who manage to get fund through loans and other means. But in the end everyone gets same opportunity to sit for placements but while one has everything at stake the other nothing. Instead there should be a contractual agreement between the institutes and economically backward students to repay their fees when they earn.

— Anoop Periwal, IBS Mumbai.

Fee waiver should be made compulsory for under privileged students as many of them fail to make it to their dream campuses for want of finance. Instead of reserving seats for students ,which in many cases the students dont need as they come from affluent background, the primary focus should be on the family income. If a student’s family income is less than Rs 1.5 -2.0 lakh/year, he/she should be made eligible for a fee waiver. This might even create a wave and help to abolish reservation system which is being misused.

— Saurabh Saxena, IBS Mumbai.

While economically backward students could realize their dreams, fees need not be waived but could be sponsored by Government/Government banks/companies/large tax payers. Government could give an option for large companies or large tax payers to waive the sponsored amount in the tax. In this case, corporates have an added advantage by sponsoring such students by providing employment to them upon completion of their programme as well as save taxes.

— Divya Srinivasan, IBS Bengaluru.

To promote higher education at the lowest level, B-schools should mandate fee waiver to help and motivate economically backward students. Poverty is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population and if youth are not well educated, then country growth is at stake. In India majority of people are not financially sound and with the increasing fees of B-schools, they cannot afford for higher education and remain incompetent. Not only B-schools but even banks can provide some facilities like education loan at low rates to support economically backward students.

— Chirag Kriplani, IBS Mumbai.

Implementation of fee waiver at B-schools will come only in fruition when students from economically weaker societies participate in these programs. The entrance examination fee, college form fee are also a matter of concern for these students. Also the numbers of students eligible to B-schools are puny. Hence government of India must run some program to educate weaker societies to let their children go for higher studies. Scholarships, funds and other help at school and graduation level must be provided to ease financial burden.

— Sandeep Guleria, IBS Gurgaon.

Putting the burden on the shoulder of educational institutions to provide cheap education by means of fee waiver for poor students might not be an effective and the right step. Such a step might serve the purpose to an extent but at the cost of quality of the education. Also, the effectiveness of such a system can not be guaranteed. Instead, the government should directly fund the education of poor students, being the most responsible and capable body.

— Kushal Bhadani, IBS Mumbai

I was always fascinated with watching young guys and girls from USA and other countries visiting Delhi for vacations as if it was their second home. Last week I got a chance to meet Jack through one of our mutual friend Prashant and after some formal discussion I asked him how come he was in India since the last 4 months. So Jack narrated his sad yet astonishing story, how in his state Pennsylvania crime is at an all time high so he is taking Unemployment Benefits there and working back here in India, “just for a change of air” and once the tenure ends he will return back home but he will make sure that he makes enough money over here. Now what the hell does that mean…!

In United States of America as soon as you become unemployed, you need to contact your state’s Unemployment Office to check your benefits eligibility. Maximum number of weeks that a US citizen can get unemployment benefits in New York itself is 79 which were earlier up to 93 weeks. You should not be surprised if the unemployment eligibility appears either generous or scanty .You can find little variations in laws in different states of America but the benefits could be extremely high for workers and the civilian labour force 97 percent and 89 percent respectively.

In Texas anyone can get Unemployment benefits based on factors like laid off, fired without misconduct, quit for medical reasons, quit for stalking and the list goes on which includes Unemployment Benefits if your employee reduces your working hours. In Pennsylvania  the Unemployment Benefit are controlled by Department of Labour and Industry  and is described under Special Session number 2 Article 1 “Unemployment Compensation law”. Here as well the laws are based more or less on similar parameters; which includes factors like last four quarter earning details, motivation to work, mandatory registration with job portal.

Now take a look at these figures among world’s top 10 cities offering best Unemployment Benefits Pennsylvania comes in top ten twice with its cities Pittsburgh on first rank and Philadelphia at sixth position with a weekly unemployment benefit up to $550.So they are earning almost 30,800 per week for not working in America, and in India this is what is offered to a Trainee MBA graduate for a whole month. There are other cities like San Antonio, Texas at 8^th rank, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina at 3^rd and 5^th spot.

Some more research and you will come to know that out of   top 25 global cities with highest number of Facebook users US cities occupy six different slots which includes New York, Los Angeles ,Dallas, Philadelphia.

Going by the crime rate in USA these are the same cities which are either hub for Gambling and Prostitutions or suffer from the epidemics of extremely high crime rates in the whole USA. According to the FBI reports on crime occurrence in difference cities of USA only in California state its cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland were the chart toppers with highest number of Violent Crime reported, the point worth mentioning here is that Texas is the second state with highest number of such violent crime reported.

Now the question is it just by sheer luck that same city posses all these three features of high Crime Rates, largest Number of Facebook Users and highest and best Unemployment Benefits. According to my analysis it is a chain process. Someone who just left his job after working for one year is getting $550 for free, so why will he/she even think of working? Now he/she is free the whole day with his wallet full so he is online, being party to the increasing “online culture” trying out his/her hands at cyber crime, pornography and at the end, once they lose track completely they turn towards crime in real life. At the end of the day after they realise they want a change of air they do visit our beloved country.

Contributed by SHARIQUE MANAZIR ( Class of 2013, IBS Hyderabad)

E-Commerce unlike the common myth is not only about buying and selling of products and services over electronic system such as internet but includes wide range of functionalities like Electronic Fund Transfer, Supply Chain Management, Online Marketing, Online Transaction Processing and Inventory Management. Looking at the future roles and prospects of internet Mr. Michael Aldrich in the year 1979 invented online shopping through the assembling of T.V, telephone connection all together with a real time transaction processing system. The whole idea behind online shopping at that time was to gain higher market penetration in the highly competitive market and to provide ease of shopping.

But at that time hardly anyone had realised that the E-Commerce that started from a basic Electronic Data Interchange meant for B2B processes will expand its roots in almost all business processes. Forrestor Research estimates the USA online retail industry will be worth 279 billion $ in 2015. According to Mr. Rajan Anandan MD Google India the expected India E-Commerce industry is of net worth 7billion $ and is expected to go up to 40 billion $ in the next 5 years.

E-Commerce in various businesses

Under the B2C marketing the E-Commerce has its presence from a pin to Mercedes. We can buy goods and service ranging from fashion, accessories, books, furniture’s, cars etc. It includes the resale market, Matrimonial Sites, Tours and travel and fund transfer. E-payment of bills and E-ticketing in India is serving millions of customers every day.

Under B2B models firms are looking for electronic gateways for making all the contact in terms of dealings information exchange with vendors, suppliers, their corporate clients with the help of E-Commerce only.

Under the G2B models now the state and central government is using E-commerce as a platform for assigning tenders, licences , work permits etc to their potential customer. It not only makes the whole process hassle free but brings transparency along with it too.

Security Risk Involved

According to an estimate 57% of US businesses say that they are losing more  money through computer hacking than through regular crime, which amounts to a total figure of 559 million US $ last year itself. In USA total number of internet user are almost 24.5 crores while in India this figure goes to 10 crore. Countries like USA and UK have got stringent Cyber Laws to safeguard businesses and customers from any kind of malpractice while in India we are still in initial stage as a result of which we still do not have any exact figure of money drain happening because of lacunas in Indian Cyber Laws. Today Britain leads Europe as the heaviest users of Internet banking services, with over a third of the UK population visiting e-banks. Traffic has grown by over 27 per cent in the last six months alone, and the growth in Internet banking is increasingly spilling over into business banking too. The surge in the popularity of these e-banks is not without its problems however, as most of the larger enterprises have, at one time or another suffered some sort of a security glitch. Most of the online systems now boast 128 bit encryption with SSL (secure socket layer) which is as secure as it gets, provided that the bank side security systems have not been compromised. But this trend is far from being inevitable or even undisputed, as a recent survey from Datamonitor showed when it revealed that in the UK, 63 percent of those polled said that they preferred to visit the bank branch, 25 per cent favoured telephone banking, and only five per cent cited the Internet as their favourite way of interacting with their bank. Moreover there is no bad apprehension regarding success of E-Commerce in India which is very much visible from the success of business models like Flip-Kart and e-bay. We can say that even the online banking is preferable among young generations but are we still ready for a E-Banking is still a questionable looking at the lack of Special Cyber Laws for E-commerce in India.

(All data given above is from published sources)

Contributed by SHARIQUE MANAZIR ( Class of 2013, IBS Hyderabad)

Published in the business section of www.rediff.com on 22nd May, 2012

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-column-its-not-greek-mr-mukherjee/20120522.htm

 The crisis in our economy is growing. Are we heading towards 1991?”, asks Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi (BJP) to Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament on Wednesday, 16th May. The reply consisted of statements like “Indian growth story is intact“, “The rupee fall arising out of the weakness in Euro“, “India’s growth story has not come to an end. I have confidence in people and political system of this country“.

The problem is, apart from Mr. Mukherjee himself, and a few other Congressmen, nobody else believes in his words any more. Not denying the role of Euro zone crises in the fall of the rupee, one still needs to look inwards and ask the question, “where is the government machinery?”

Seems like they are just biding time for the innings to get over, without getting all out before the time is up. There hasn’t been a single confidence boosting measure by the government in the recent years.

Reforms are announced, Mamata squirms, reforms are rolled back, back to status quo. She is the villain, government is bechaara (poor thing) and lachaar (helpless).

Impact on Importers and Overseas Investments

The rupee has fallen to an all time low of Rs55/$ (on May 21). The CEO of a company, which is looking to invest close to $20 million in land and equipment abroad in the coming year, was clearly a worried man when he said, “Desh ki to batti lagne waali hai (the country is going to get ruined). The government does not have the balls to protect the economy. They should stop the flight of dollars. Take tough stands. My cost of capital has just gone up by 20% in a year! How do I compete with the Chinese, the Koreans, the Malays and the Indonesians? I am going to withdraw from the project if this continues.”

Similarly, the importers are concerned about the increase in their cost of buying goods and services.

Till Friday (May 18), the dollar has appreciated by 18.8% against the rupee. In the same period, the dollar has appreciated 0.82% against Malaysian ringgit, 7.67% against the Indonesian rupiah, 4.76% against the South Korean won and has depreciated by 2.84% against the Chinese yuan.

Except China, all the other currencies have suffered due to the flight to dollar. But they are still faring much better.

Impact on Exporters

The IT companies would have benefitted from the slide in rupee if they had not hedged their positions. Those who did not hedge, are sure to benefit. But, only as long as their customers do not start demanding for discounts, which they already have.

The micro, small and medium enterprises, which contribute to exports in a big way in sectors like gems and jewellery, textiles, handicrafts, etc are already badly hit due to the global economic crisis. Their concern is that the falling rupee might further accentuate their financing constraints, due to rise in borrowing costs.

The Reasons

Euro zone tried to save a country which was living beyond its means as a result of which euro is all over the place. This has resulted in the flight towards dollar, which itself is a fundamentally weak currency. But what is the alternative? Gold?

An already gold obsessed nation has more reasons to buy gold now. The money spent on importing gold does not have any multiplier effect as it just gets hoarded. For the year 2011-12, the import bill of gold accounted for about 25% of India’s trade deficit.

Oil is another commodity which forms a large percent of the import bills. Subsidising it is not helping matters. Not for the oil marketing companies, not for the economy. Removing the subsidies might upset didi, but it will reduce the fiscal deficit and lower consumption will result in lower imports, hence lower trade deficits.

Inflation (consumer price index) has once again gone up in April to 10.36% on an year-on-year basis, versus the 9.47% in March. GDP growth rate has come down, Index of industrial production is down, food bill and subsidies are the highest ever, and Mr. Mukherjee says, “I have confidence in the …political system of this country”.

The Culprit

The slide of the rupee is the consequence of a spineless government, not Greece. No steps by the RBI can stop the fall in the rupee, if the investor confidence is not restored in the economy. If the current team at the centre, the team which is credited with putting India on the growth trajectory, cannot do it, it would be a shame. Because then this very team would be blamed for the slowdown or rather the downward slide!

This article was originally published in Postnoon on May 18th, 2012 http://postnoon.com/2012/05/18/life-insurance-simplified/49106

As I walked into the lobby of my apartment block, Mukherjee was waiting for me, sitting on a sofa, with a piece of paper in his hand. The moment he saw me, he jumped up and extended his hand to greet me.

Me: How are you Mr. Mukherjee?

Mukherjee: I am fine, except that I don’t understand your world.

Me: My world?

Mukherjee: Yes, your world of investments, financial jargons, markets, assets.

Me: Ah! That? What’s troubling you?

Mukherjee: See I want to buy a life insurance. So I contacted an agent. After meeting him, I am totally confused. There are so many different types of policies. Now which policy should I buy?

Me: That’s it? Let me explain a few basic things about insurance to you. Hopefully, then you will be able to decide about which policy is suitable for you.

Since you have already made up your mind to buy a Life Insurance policy, you probably already know that such an insurance provides the beneficiaries, that is, your family, the financial protection in case of the death of the insured or in the case of terminal/critical illness of the insured. Most of the policies have exclusion which will not cover you in the event of suicide, war, natural disaster, fraudulent claims etc. The sum that will be paid to the beneficiaries depends on the sum assured at the time of buying the insurance. The premium that you will pay, will depend on a number of factors, like age, sum assured and the type of policy.

There are basically two types of Life Insurance policies. They can be for a specific number of years; term policies. Or for the entire life of a person; whole life policies.

Term Policies: As the name suggests, term policies are for a specified period, say 5, 10, 15 years up to a maximum of 35 years. The beneficiaries are paid the assured sum in the event of the death of the insured during this period. However, no money is paid to either the beneficiaries or the insured, if he or she survives the term of the insurance. These policies are known to have the least premium amongst all types of life insurance policies.

Whole Life Policies: Whole life policies assures the payment of the assured sum to the beneficiaries, irrespective of when the insured passes away. Similarly, the insured needs to pay the premiums throughout his life time. There can be variants of these policies as well. For example, you can buy a cash back policy where a certain amount of cash is returned to you after a few years, and the balance is paid to the beneficiaries after the death of the insured.

Mukherjee: But have a look at this sheet. It says that there are other policies too like the endowment plan and ULIPs.

Me: The other types of policies are nothing but additional features added to these two. For example, Endowment plans are term policies with elements of savings attached to them. So you buy a policy which ensures a certain sum to your family in case of your death, during the term of the policy, and in case of survival, you get the sum assured along with a bonus or return. You might even opt for an annuity plan. Which basically returns you the money in the form of an annuity (divided into equal annual payments over certain number of years), instead of a lump sum, upon survival. Unit Linked Insurance Policies, popularly known as ULIPs are again like term plans, where a part of the premium that you pay, gets invested in the stock markets.

Mukherjee: So it is not as complicated as it looks in this sheet?

Me: Not at all. Go home, discuss with your wife, and then decide on the policy you want to buy!

Leadership is putting your plan of actions into the right direction and encouraging others to implement those actions with zeal and vigour. It is nothing more than convincing someone to do a task with a feeling of involvement rather than a burden. If the 10 letter word was as simple as that, what could have been the reason of public failures of leadership in almost all fields? You name it politics, sports, science even the Holy Guru’s also which some of the general Indian public seems to believe more than anything else in this world; there has been a complete downfall in almost all industries.  Here I present few of the pitfalls which if not corrected can lead to the downfall of a leader exponentially.

  Vision: if there is anything that brings the leader to the top is the vision he had once. A clear, passionate, straightforward yet vivacious vision should be clear in the mind of the leader. If   the vision loses its clinch of a laser you might see a disappearing leader. A dedicated leader with a clear path can think of defeating the obstacles, however If a leader cannot code or decode the vision with clarity, the leadership skills are in the shades of gray. A leader as a top notch individual should have confidence in his abilities.

 Communication: having a vision will be of no use in case a leader cannot transfer the vision to the people. A leader who can transfer “what he meant” to the followers with a clear motive can expect the people to sense the goals; it removes the misunderstanding and ambiguity part from all the tasks and conversations. Communication is of great importance if a leader is to drive people towards the goal and get the tasks accomplished.

People are not Resources: The biggest misconception with today’s business freak world is the interchangeable use of the word people and exchangeable item.  The biggest quality a leader can have in him is seeing people like a valuable resource rather than interchangeable piece of machinery.  A leader is always the one who focuses on strengths of others rather than their weaknesses. A leader who imbalances the importance of the path to be followed with the result that is the time a leader can expect to be running a one man army.

An individual who cannot manage himself can never manage others.  If there is ever a task of prime importance in the career of leader it is self management. A leader who leads a lot of people is always expected to be above all of the others. A leader, who cannot manage the hormonal balance of his DNA properly, will never present an image to convince others of success.

Leaders driven by fear of failures can never sound the bugle of success.

History will always remain a book of record and life will always be a free frolic like a feather.

If you are an Indian and especially from North and Eastern India you know very well how important Rikshaws are in day to day life of a common middle class person. The face of a dark, expression-less man pulling a three wheeled machine for meagre charge has been an integral part of your life. Yet you do not know that they are the only marketing brain who use multiple pricing strategy for the service they provide in one single day to achieve their Target.

The eyes in me never saw you in solitude. I never walked the moments when you were in isolation. You were incessantly filled with different hearts piercing into their deepest instincts. The trembling and the firm feet were walking in aloof and never knew that you stuck by those deepest instincts. You carried them towards oblivion, you ushered them into the world of ambiguous management and you distracted them for life. Of course these years of fakeness accumulate around you, can be seen in your overstepped tiles in red and not red. Useless words, the enormous voices and the ambivalence of pathetic and yet pumping hearts are the first things you look for under your sunless roof in every sunshine morning imbibing the Jurassic park. Fortunately you don’t know that you will experience the betrayal when these foolish people make merry the time they bid adieu this untold conversation with you. They might never know you were a stranger in disguise. They even might not remember those footsteps. And they will never recollect your untouched presence and aching touch.

Time goes by; it passes. For you this merciless time will make no amends and leave you for different footsteps of slander and ungratefulness. My dear friend you will never find the form that is an expression of your innermost desires and aspirations. Remember, every morning you will be consulted for denigration and for all the nights you will be quit as an abject failure for an abyss of nothingness. You will be ripped in their stink. The trees around you will grow old, the air engulfing you will get thicker and for your own stoned heart you will become an insufferable bore. There aint even a blink of a moment of love, truth and understanding tipped for you and yet you big hearted scoundrel spreads like the unconditioned mother.

Your silence has been destroyed. Hopeless books, wasted papers, meaningless placards, disgusting music that lost its essence in heartless I-pods, never so worthy mobile phones, objective less laptops, and the world of non sense pierce through you, in your constant awareness, bidirectional. Don’t question them you eternally blessed fool. They are too quick to revere your pain. They will walk away and leave your paper blank. They won’t even spill the ink. Their hands won’t ache. I have spied with the armor of my eyes and have seen a dull beginning and a flamed end. The window in my room, the balcony outside it has witnessed your grief. But the feet will churn you and I neither am any good of a friend. You blathering nincompoop, every heart will wake against you.

My eyes will again open to a new day and I will walk through you in another morning light, the dark leaves still by your side. You probably would have gulped the yesterday’s tormented blood and made those chatter like an old man tiles firm again for another tourney of atrocity. You fool of the first water, how in this world could you?

You think to yourself: get the hell out of here, get out quick and don’t look back.   

Contributed by Mohd Haris Bhat ( Class of 2012, IBS Hyderabad)

Business Standard poses a question and solicits responses from students across India for their weekly column “ Student’s Corner”

The topic for last week was Do you think government should fund students instead of funding universities?

Here are all the responses sent by IBS students

Funding is a government contribution to help universities impart better education without making the education costlier for the students. These funds are the reason that universities are building themselves better in terms of infrastructure, faculties, technology and so on.  If the government begins to funds the students instead, the result will be rise in student fees and less development of the universities on the whole. Thus a better idea for government would be to insure other form of monetary help to students like increasing scholarships, and reduce interest rates on education loans.

— Neha Singh, IBS Gurgaon.

When we talk about funding student, we are focusing on one individual which in itself is a good step towards the betterment. On the other hand it is about funding whole institutions like universities which could give way to the term ‘corruption’. There is a possibility that the fund which comes to university won’t reach students wholly. And if we actually want to fund the university then we have to keep an eye on the whole system. Rather, personal accounts should be created for individuals so that they or their guardians can use the fund in the correct manner.

— Achint Mathur, IBS Gurgaon.

The government is paying attention to prestigious institutions such as IITs while 90 per cent of the country’s students are studying in less endowed institutions. These disparities must be bridged if higher education is to have the desired effect on the national economy. Therefore the government should fund universities and encourage private sector investment. The government should provide soft loans, scholarships, tuition fee waiver, fellowship, and assistantships to invite growing talents to show their abilities.

— Devang P Gandhi, IBS, Mumbai.

In India there is a huge pool of students who want to study but cannot because of financial incapability. Instead of funding big Universities which concentrates on a small group of population, government should focus on proving funds to students directly, which can also help to reduce the illiterate population. Funding to universities can be self financed also, but there should be proper mechanism and student should get scholarships when needed. But in India we all know how much government distributes and how much the beneficiary receives.

— Anoop Periwal, IBS Mumbai.

Government funding the universities is no guarantee that the benefit will be passed on to the students. Thus it would be better if the government funds the students instead, so that the ones who are bright and deserving get a chance to succeed in future and can pursue their own interests to carve out a career path for themselves. Thus they would not be dependent for the funding of their studies on the university, which might use the government funds for its own purposes rather than utilising them for the betterment of the students.

— Devika Singhal, IBS Gurgaon.

Each year government provides hard earned money of citizens (tax) to various universities to the tune of hundreds of crores. Now if we check the ROI on the invested fund, it would be a negligible. So before funding the student for better education, let we make our education better. Many Indian went to other universities for getting better education. That is why government should firstly focus on improving the education and bringing it to the international benchmark.

— Manish Kumar Gupta, IBS Mumbai.

Neither do we have universities nor do we have the students that are funded by the government. Its actually a ‘double edged sword’. So instead concentrating on a single factor we should concentrate on both the things. There should be more Corporate participation in funding the universities . After all some of the best Corporate honcho’s are from these Universities. Being an MBA myself I completely understand how expensive education has become, funding of students should be done on merit basis so that the right student gets the support. .

— Kshitij Khandelwal, IBS Gurgaon.

Today, there are not enough number of quality universities in the country promoting tremendous competition among the students to grab a seat in one of the good universities. A big part of the population being poor, and not all of them could get to one of these top universities, struggle.Education loans are available, but not to those who don’t have a backup for their loan and have not got to one of these top universities. Still, their career has to excel. They too need a good college to study and educational loan available to them as well.

— Kushal Bhadani, IBS Mumbai.

Aspirations of India to create a ‘knowledge society will remain a distant dream as long as quality higher education is not provided to students who are really willing to study but are financially not so privileged. Need of the hour is to bring bold structural change in the Indian Education System. Education being the only area where we still haven’t focused on economies of scope, thus we need to take some proactive decision like entrance of corporate sector in establishment of private universities with world class research based education methodology.

— Shailja Kapoor, IBS Mumbai.

The government should make it a point to disburse maximum amount of fund to deserving students instead of funding universities. The amount of proportion of disbursement of funds should done in proper proportion. At the same time, The Indian Management institute’s should also see to it that whatever funds they receive from the government it should be properly utilised as a financial aid for the education of the deserving right student. and not to every student.

— Stephan Rodrigues, IBS Mumbai.

The discussion of funding universities or students solely has been a thorny topic since long. The issue is contentious and with corruption being the bread winner in major areas the decision needs high accuracy. Keeping the political issues intact what we have in government universities is complete misery in terms of seats and needy getting the favour. So the needy, which used to starve waiting for colleges, are now starving for seats and opportunities. What we have right now is panoply of inefficiency, RTIs and political favoritism. Theoretically and morally it’s time we let people handle people’s money.

— Manu Arora, IBS Gurgaon.

If the government stops funding the universities, education will be about demand and supply. While the Universities would not stop functioning but rather will only push or encourage courses which have demand in the market; this will turn the society towards those courses and eventually force students to compromise on the field they have to choose than what they really like. In order to avoid the economics in education there needs to be a balance, for this the government should understand, what the skills of the students are than to force the skills needed in a corporation.

— MS Srivamsee, IBS Mumbai.

I think government should fund universities instead of funding students. Government is providing its assistance to students by providing them education loans,and some other schemes. If government funds universities it would be helping both in a way that it would help universities to get more facilities for its students, and providing them with modern facilities which would indirectly help students only. If universities would be having enough funds then they can provide their students with economic help like concessions in their fee,or providing scholarships to more number of students.

— Shweta Singh, IBS Mumbai.

Government should fund students instead of universities. Nearly 38% of India’s population is poor and there are so many talented students but because of poverty they can’t afford to get admission in universities to fulfill dreams. Government should fund students and let students decide in which universities they would like to go based on their choice. Another fact is that, if universities require fund for development, can easily take loans compare to students as because of their poverty they can’t provide anything as security to banks so it become difficult to access loans.

— Babita Burdak, IBS Mumbai.

The government should fund the students directly. It already has a structure at the primary school level which can be expanded for the higher education. The government has the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ for the children between 6-14 years. The students interested for higher studies can be funded after checking the socio-economic background. The government can pay directly to the university or the college the fees and provide books as well. The tracking team should look after the progress of the student and if anyone fails to perform the service should be withdrawn immediately.

— Varun Goel, IBS Mumbai.

Currently, the government shouldn’t stop funding universities but the extra money should be used or allotted for distributing vouchers and cash coupons for those in need. This voucher/coupon system will be directly accountable to the parents who are going to pay for their child’s education through these coupons. This will not only increase literacy ratio but inculcates quality education in a student.

— Abhishek Fanse, IBS Hyderabad.

Better to do an MBA from a foreign university than to do it from India in this much amount, is always a second thought in a student’s mind. Government need to stop this brain drain so that the students can be motivated to study here only and we can actually see that the money is being invested at the right place. Also, funding the university is also a positive point as good infrastructure and better facilities makes a healthy environment to live and study in. It is always said that ‘Padhega India to Badhega India’.

— Vivek Gujral, IBS Mumbai.

The support provided to institutions creates a race for admissions where even many talented students tend to lose. Also government entices more students to study in their funded premier school which artificially boosts the supply of graduates. In turn, this lowers the salaries of these same graduates. The weaker section of society needs to be developed to cure this scenario. Instead of funding premium schools, if government tries to fund primary students, it would not only increase the literacy rate but also develop individuals, which would generate quality graduates, thus improving the job market.

— Vivek Kamalia, IBS Mumbai.

The government has already taken initiative on that facade by escalating the allocation to Right to Education (RTE)-Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to Rs 25, 555 crore, showing an increase of 21.7% from 2011-12. More such initiatives will not only lead to better education but would also pilot to job creation reducing unemployment. Corruption is not a new word for Indians so if the government would fund Universities there will always be funds that will be sapped out of the system. However, Government must also fund Universities so that there can be research work conducted and study may not just become an activity.

— Vritika Sharma, IBS Mumbai.

Government should act more like a regulator and the catalyst at the same time .The Government should finance the institutes in the initial stages as the gestation period in the education sector is the longest and some kind of financial support is required and also would help in creating benchmark in the education sector .At the end would say the regulation control is highly pivotal in success of the institutes .

— Karishma Virmani, IBS Gurgaon.

Student funding by the government can happen by means of vouchers and educational tax credits. Today government provides funds to government and private-aided universities which then provide education to students. Education for the poor and needy can be greatly improved by funding students who are in need. This will make schools directly accountable to parents since they pay for the education through vouchers. Parents decide and parents choose, not bureaucracies. The poor are getting left behind due to lack of access to quality education. This will ensure quality education for poor and will give them right to education of choice.

— Ankur Sharan, IBS Mumbai.

Imagine if instead of funding universities, the government adopts a policy of rendering financial aids to the students across 26,500 colleges of India. Certainly there would be less financial burden on students but in long run it will harm young students who would be disdained of new technologies and infrastructure. Government spends 1.14 per cent of its GDP on higher education, and adopting the policy of financing students instead would have ill effects too. Instead GOI could adopt policies to help certain needy students financially out of their education funds.

— Sandeep Guleria, IBS Gurgaon.

The newspapers & News channels ain’t just Greek and Latin… The Greece story was inevitable, so instead of cribbing over the crisis. Let’s look at how this crisis is not all that bad, at least for India.

Let us understand why this mess. Greece exits the euro, the euro currency weakens leads to dollar getting stronger, and as the dollar gets stronger the rupee weakens even further. So for us the electronic gadgets cost more. But let’s look at it through our country’s perspective.

1. The Crude Oil is traded in dollars, the OPEC nations earn more dollars for the oil that they export. More dollars for the OPEC nations eventually brings down the crude oil production cost (Extracting cost). This might help in crude oil prices coming down* a bit (As OPEC’s aim is to regulate oil prices and keep a watch so that people do not shift to cleaner energy sources due to the rise in oil prices).  India imports crude oil so this would ease the inflation a bit.
2. Unlike most of us who feel that India just imports crude oil to consume it completely, we are in for a shock (India ranks 22 in exporting of refined petroleum products). So this means weaker rupee gets
3.  us more dollars.
4. Eventually weak rupee is good for the exports of the country; IT companies will earn more dollars (if they haven’t hedged their risk against the volatility).
5. Usually when the rupee weakens the foreign funds flow in as foreign investors buy more stocks.
6. The NRI’s will want to send back their savings as Indian banks give close to 9% return on their Investments, whereas in other countries it’s too less. And a
   lso since the rupee is weakening RBI’s plans to cut the rates further in the next month’s review is out of question.
7. Now when the rupee is weak, your products in the international market are cheaper so people will prefer Indian products over the others. This means more exports.

All of this leads to more of foreign funds flowing into the country. Currently with a growth rate of 6.9%,

India might just take advantage of the mess outside.

Contributed by M.S. Vamsi ( Class of 2013, IBS Mumbai)