What it takes to be a Great College

What is one thing that all great colleges have in common? If you think it is the ROI for joining that college or the salary offered, then you may be mistaken. A great college is defined by the culture and the sense of belongingness that its alums have towards the college. All the other factors are the outcome of long-term benefits of it, at some level or the other. Therefore, it is paramount to have a Strong Alumni network in any institute.
We, IIM Raipur’s community are the young toddlers in this sphere of colleges. It becomes an onus on us as community members to build a goodwill and lasting culture of the institute by engaging with the alumni network of our college. We do have alumni meets and city visits, however, calendar events are not enough to motivate and inculcate a culture of helping (giving & seeking), which leads a sense of contribution (forgiver) & indebted (for seeker) towards the community as whole. Both will be more connected with each other and it will also bring the sentiment in the seeker to help someone else and so on and so forth, this is how a culture is built.
We hence would like to bring this thought to action via the resourcefulness of Apps/social media platforms, where you can connect with your peers, faculty members, and the alums to seek help and help others. By taking such steps, we can contribute towards building a strong culture. When great things around us happen online, why not create a community that thrives on mutual admiration and education, be online.
It is time we get the butterfly effect rolling in favor of our community. The IIM Raipur backyard for innovation and excellence.

Author :

Shashank Patekar

Class of PGP 17-19

IIM Raipur

Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official view.

The Adventures of the Youth Delegation Programme

The Department of Youth Affairs in India gives a golden opportunity to the Indian youth to go and visit different countries in Asia-Pacific regions and explore their culture. As a part of this program, students visit different cities and cultural places in the country and try to learn their culture and exchange ideas and values which will be beneficial to both the countries. I too got an opportunity to be part of this program and be privy to this enriching experience.

On 9^th June we started from Delhi airport to Hong-Kong. The first thing we saw being in Hong-Kong Airport is the scenic beauty, surrounded by beautiful mountains and seashore. We spent some quality time exploring this beautiful place and started for Beijing. We reached Beijing in the afternoon where we had a warm welcome by Chinese youth.

On day two, we left to explore the Great Wall of China, Juyung Pass. It was a great experience to visit the place and see the wonder of how they maintained that wall in a great condition. After this visit, we all went to Embassy of India, Beijing where officials welcomed us with a great speech. On this occasion, we got an opportunity to have a discussion with officials and interacted with them on various issues.

After that, we went to China Youth Center for international exchange where we learned different Chinese cultural things including Calligraphy and Taijiquan.

After this, we left for Heifei by flight and checked in at Hongrui Jinling Hotel. On the third day, we visited the Hui Park at 9:30 in the morning where we explored the various cities’ important attractions explained by sculptures in the garden. Also, we got a chance to attend the Huangmei Opera singing.

After that, we visited Anhui Museum of Historical Notables. Here we saw how their culture evolved and who were the famous personalities made China develop in various aspects. We also visited the Binhu Wetland Forest Park.

On day four we visited SUNWIN UAV and IFLYTEK technology innovation industry and got to learn how within short time duration the industry leaders of this company achieved massive growth. A visit to Qingwang Technology Park further enhanced our understanding of technology for growth aspect of Chinese industries.

13^th June morning started with a visit to University of Science and Technology of China. Here we communicated with students and visited various labs and explored the environment of the campus. After this visit, we started for Shanghai by flight and arrived at Shanghai City Hotel.

On day six, we left to visit different cultural places. At first, we visited an old age home where we interacted with old people and got to know how their daily activities are performed. Next, we visited a cultural center where they welcomed us with an Indian song. Here they encourage people to follow cultural things like dance and other activities. Not only this, but they also have fitness gym to encourage elderly people to remain fit.

We then visited waste management system governed by a private company. We explored and learned how they function and how they are able to help nature by doing waste management of various electronic stuff.

On the seventh day, we visited Deep sea lab in Tongji. After this visit, we went to Oriental Pearl Tower of Shanghai and went up to 230 meters. Here we had great opportunity to look at the city from heights. After this visit, we went to do the street shopping to buy various souvenirs and see various cultural stuff.

On day eight, we visited Shanghai Youth Centre in the morning and found out how students of age 10-16 are taught. They are taught to handle various machines including 3-D printing. Not only this, but they are given counseling about how to avoid drug intake. Following that, we visited SSRS physics lab we got to know the various radiations and how they use this for different medical and technical studies. Medicine museum visit after this was a great attraction of our visits. Here they explained to us how they evolved in the medical field and how they are still learning from the old ancient practices. After this visit, we left for India with the great experience of this youth delegation.

It was a great opportunity given by Youth Ministry of India to explore and learn the foreign culture. The most important thing that I learned on this trip was the importance given to cleanliness by the general public of China. The transportation system and rules and regulations imposed by government are respected by all people and all follow it rigorously. Because of this quality, it is easy for the government to implement new policies.

Also, the infrastructural growth of China is marvelous and everywhere we can see tall buildings properly maintained. Also, the ancient culture of China is respected a lot and they modernize their things by taking into account their old cultures. Because of this unique thing they have developed a lot with the essence of having cultural touch.

We, the youth, should be open-minded and ready to accept good ideas. We should not only learn new things but also should be on the front line to implement the philosophies and concepts for the betterment of the society. Students and young generation are the biggest asset of the country. So we should feel responsible for the growth of our country and take initiation to make our country grow.

Author :

Sonali Phapale

Class of PGP 16-18

IIM Raipur

Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official view.

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Keep Calm and Visit South Korea

Marcel Proust, the French novelist, observed that "the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new lands but in seeing with new eyes".I understood the significance of this statement as a member of the Youth delegation from IIM Raipur.

The delegation to South Korea was my first international experience and it couldn't have been better. Be it the arrangements regarding the journey or the stay, kudos to Indian Ministry as well as the South Korean Government. The entire 9-day programme gave us an opportunity to meet and interact with South Korean students, officials in the Ministry as well as South Korean families. The diversity of experience was enormous. Not just in South Korea, but also within the Indian delegation, students had come from diverse backgrounds which further enlivened the experience of being a part of the team.

My favourite part throughout the trip was 'stay with a Korean Family', as we got a chance to observe their lifestyle and way of living.We got a chance to grab bites of delicious South Korean home-made food and also share our own tastes from India. Besides, the organized and beautiful streets, their usage of high-end technologies motivated us to bring similar changes in our country. The people were quite friendly and had very calm demeanour. The beaches were serene and the pleasant weather complemented the feel.

We visited multiple cities in South Korea via bus and also got to experience the traditions at a South Korean village. Be it the joy of posing in native outfits or the awe of visiting High-tech Samsung Innovation Centre, South Korea had it all.

The Indian and South Korea governments are open to strengthening the Indo-South Korean relations beyond just diplomatic efforts. The two governments have taken sincere efforts in revitalizing the historical relationship through people-to-people contacts, which is an effective initiative. The complete programme was meticulously planned and seamlessly executed and the hospitality, friendly attitude and the affection shown to us throughout the 9-day trip will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life.

Author :

Monika Vasvani

Class of PGP 16-18

IIM Raipur

Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official view.

Consequences of using English as language of education in India

India, which was the richest country on earth and a great country in each term till 17th century, today is in no way comparable to its previous position. Apart from looting trillions of rupees from India, British did destroy our knowledge base and tried to make us forget our great Indian cultural heritage.

Historical Facts:

How the seeds of intellectual slavery were planted in us can be seen by this historical fact:

When British were trying to sustain their rule over India, British parliament sent historian/politician "Lord Macaulay" to figure out how it can be done. He came to India for the analysis and gave the following statement in British parliament in 1835.

“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture,……for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own,……they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

When I see myself & around me, I find that he became successful in his dream of dominating our country. Because our generation’s mentality is "Speaking english is cool. Western culture is better than ours. Whatever is western is better."

English education was imposed on us to attract us towards western culture (so that we forget our culture & consider it inferior and subsequently lose our self-respect), and western products.

How Language affects our development:

Does education in English (foreign language) affect us?

Yes. Language experts say that speaking a foreign language influences how we interpret the world. It attracts you towards that culture and subsequently changes your thought process.

If you do your primary/higher education in foreign language, your knowledge base becomes very weak. If you gain education in your mother tongue your knowledge base becomes very strong (because you are emotionally attached to that knowledge), which is very necessary for fundamental research.

This is the reason that India is far behind in doing inventions/innovations and fetching Nobel prizes. While other smaller countries are way ahead of India, because they get education in their mother tongue.

Many bright students who could to better in research/invention/innovation are denied opportunities of higher education because of lack of knowledge of English (which works against India’s development).

And because of lack of depth in fundamental knowledge of science and technology, India is not able to come up with innovative products. And this is the reason; Indian consumer market is majorly dependent on products of MNCs, which is big loss to our economy because billions of Indian money goes into the country of origin of those MNCs every year.

Comparison with other Countries:

If we judge a country's richness by per capita GDP, you will see all the countries which are richer/more developed than India use their mother tongue as the official language.

Following are a few examples:

Germany, France, Italy, Japan, USA, China, Canada, Russia , Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Taiwan, and Singapore.

There are many other countries who use their mother tongue as their official language and language of education and even then are way ahead of many English speaking countries.

Among top 10 economies of the world (by their nominal GDP) India is the only country which provides higher education in a foreign language (English). And India which uses English as language of education is at 140^th rank in per capita GDP.

What could have been better:

There is a misconception that Indians get jobs because they are educated in English. The fact is that crores of Indians are considered unemployable because of lack of knowledge of English.

Had we used Sanskrit/mother tongue as the language of education since 1947, we not only could have given jobs to all our people but, would have created jobs for whole world as well, because then we would have been leading the world with our knowledge power. We would have been leading in research/inventions/innovations in the same way as we were leading before British invasion.

 

Need of the hour:

Because of poor leadership and lack of visionaries in politics we could not do it in 1947, but it is high time we start educating our children only in our mother tongue/Sanskrit (other countries have already started teaching Sanskrit to children, as it has been found most suitable language for development in all fields) to become the world leader, otherwise India will always remain a follower and will be in intellectual slavery for centuries to come.

Jai Hind.

Contributed By: Rahul Khedkar, PGP2012-14. He can be reached at pgp12033.rahul@iimraipur.ac.in.