2016-12-16 15:12
Everyone, it seems, loves an Org Chart. The little boxes of power, those straight lines of responsibility, that one page definition of the hustle of start-up life - neat, tangible and reassu… Read More
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Books; People; Ideas : These are few of my favourite things. As I live between day-to-day compromises and change-the-world aspirations, this is the chronicle of my journey, full of moments of despair and of discoveries, of connections and creations, of the quest of knowledge-as-conversation.
2016-12-15 12:00
Massimo d'Azeglio is usually credited with coinage of the expression "We have made Italy, now we must make Italians" (though scholars have now indicated that he never did write this, and the… Read More
2016-12-12 12:55
I am something of a veteran being on the losing side of elections. And, with interests in politics globally, I am on the losing side more often than normal. I have indeed no business taking… Read More
2016-12-11 19:08
Whenever I speak about Universities As Networks, it smacks of being the 'cool new thing': I am immediately hit with the tradition - that universities have been in their form for hundreds of… Read More
2016-12-05 10:59
If we follow the talk, the future of jobs is bleak. Software is eating the world, as Marc Andreessen loves to claim, and he means it literally. Economists are now studying the probability th… Read More
2016-12-02 18:24
There are things we know: That as technologies change rapidly, there is a hollowing out of the Middle Class jobs. Some jobs, like the Telephone Operator, have become extinct; some others, li… Read More
2016-11-28 14:09
For those who felt change is always slow and cumbersome in India, the recent move by the Indian government to annul the Rs. 500 and Rs 1000 notes overnight should be a clear sign that things… Read More
2016-11-26 11:49
Coffee shop chains are cool, but are they?
That Starbucks, Costa and Pret are everywhere in the neighbourhood, offering us a standard experience - of space, coffee and everything - is sig… Read More
2016-11-24 11:09
Lots of odd things happened in 2016, and I wrote about them, almost reluctantly, as they happened. And, yet, while I could not keep myself from commenting on Trump's victory, I refrained fro… Read More
2016-11-22 10:55
I wrote earlier about How To Build An University to argue that our current paradigms are flawed. My essential point was that the university, more than its buildings, curriculum and facilitie… Read More
2016-11-21 11:25
The current mood in Europe can be summed up as Waiting for Le Pen. If Brexit was shocking, and Trump's victory was sobering, that Le Pen will triumph in May is something to be expected. It w… Read More
2016-11-20 12:39
The above title is a red herring: This is no how-to guide on building universities. Indeed, I am no expert, and not pretending to preach. Rather, as I could not possibly title something like… Read More
2016-11-18 11:27
I usually measure my life not in terms of what I have, but what I have learned. This approach works for me, particularly as I have very little except a pile of books, but there is one proble… Read More
2016-11-12 19:35
This post is, as may be obvious, not just about Donald Trump, elected to be the 45th President of the United States.
This is also about the 45-odd percent of the American voters who… Read More
2016-11-03 11:31
One of the big advantages of studying again is that I can let the assumptions that I lived with be questioned, and even discarded, with much qualms. Sure, this would make some of my older po… Read More
2016-11-01 13:43
India is the fastest growing major economy, is the persistent claim. There may be some statistical truth (which some may consider an oxymoron) in the statement, Indians are definitely one of… Read More
2016-10-24 12:25
It is perhaps quite obvious that Universities are communities at the core, but perhaps not. While we may pay leap service to the idea of a community, from the language we employ, we mean the… Read More
2016-10-23 12:41
As I mentioned in the last post, a recent conversation about a deal threw me into a mini existential crisis. A mid-life crisis was indeed due, but I perhaps postponed it with my refusal to g… Read More
2016-10-22 14:04
The last week - or slightly longer may be - was a period of great reset for me.
I have been thinking closely what I am going to do moving forward. Indeed, there is plenty for me to… Read More
2016-10-15 18:24
The role of social elite within a democratic society is usually resented, because of the republican ideals. It is a problematic concept, as most of those elites in our societies come down fr… Read More
2016-10-13 10:05
There is so much being spoken (or written, or broadcasted) about US Presidential Election! I kept quiet, because I knew how embarrassing it is for my American friends and colleagues this dis… Read More
2016-10-02 12:04
Time is different at different places.
I am not restating the Theory of Relativity, but speaking more in social context. In fact, in the more practical sphere of business, this is a relat… Read More
2016-09-29 13:57
War is only bad for those who have to fight it, but it is good for everyone else.For governments, war is a good way to remain in power. Every President or Prime Minister wants to be a war le… Read More
2016-09-28 11:09
The unacknowledged symptom of middle-class midlife when personal arguments and political choices converge into a farce. So was last week for me!
For me, with a 9 year old, it is that time… Read More
2016-09-20 10:14
B-Schools had their day. There was a time when we thought we knew how to do it - capture the future in a web of models and processes - and created the big, successful institutions charging t… Read More
2016-09-19 12:44
Over the last several months, I have made one significant change in my work. I have pivoted to China.
It is fashionable to do so, and my own little project has nothing to do with the geop… Read More
2016-09-16 12:07
There are many possible ways of looking at history. One could be a pessimist or an optimist, see progress or decline, and believe in either preserving the past or reinventing the future.&nbs&hell…Read More
2016-09-14 09:54
Among various projects that I am considering doing is one that involves creating a global programme for Entrepreneurs.
As always, things that I do represent a coalition of interests… Read More
2016-09-13 22:29
I have always maintained that Start-ups and established companies, small, medium or big, are two kinds of organisations. Rules that make one thrive at Start-ups do not necessarily hold in la… Read More
2016-09-12 15:11
I resume the rest of my life today.
That sounds good. All it is, though, is a return to work, after a forced break of two weeks, as I had to go away to India to attend to my father… Read More
2016-08-29 13:32
The problem of connecting educators and employers is not a new one. There are many organisations and institutions working at creating this interface, some more successfully than others. The… Read More
2016-08-24 11:14
I have been working on Projects-Based Learning, and recorded my experiences and reflections on this blog as I went along.
Through this engagement, I have learnt the following things:
1. C… Read More
2016-08-23 11:56
A lot of conversations about Kolkata is about its past; I want to talk about its future.
Most conversations about Kolkata is about its decline - its golden moments and how times changed;… Read More
2016-08-20 21:43
That India has a secular constitution, seems to be a great progressive leap for many people. India was, and is, the world's largest Hindu country, with a long history and heritage. Hinduism… Read More
2016-08-19 17:45
One can, and often does, read history as a narrative of conflicts. The school-book history is designed as a sequence of wars and winners, its causes and aftermaths. Even when one wants to ge… Read More
2016-08-19 10:05
To me, democracy, of late, has been a disappointment. Or, to be precise, I have been on losing side of the argument all too often in the last couple of years. For example, the Indian elector… Read More
2016-08-18 10:47
How to create a model of global Higher Education fit for post-recession world?
This is not about private equity initiatives spanning the world, the kinds that the American majors such as… Read More
2016-08-15 10:55
Martin Reeves' TED talk, below, makes an important point: That there are other ways of thinking about strategy, business strategy, than the usual, mechanical, pursuit of efficiency. Whether… Read More
2016-08-08 08:49
Here is a paradox that I see: There are too many powerful, smart, successful people who declare their love for the Capitalist, Free Market system, and yet, tries to rig its rules to their ow… Read More
2016-08-07 14:25
I have followed the conversation about T-Skills, that a modern professional needs at least one 'deep' skill and several other interests and abilities to complement this - for several years (… Read More
2016-08-03 10:39
Accounting, as a profession, is as iconic of the middle class as it could be. Its making had all the classical elements of emergence of a profession: Granting of a monopoly of a practise to… Read More
2016-08-01 13:45
Whether one is a technology utopian or a skeptic, everyone seems to agree that we are seeing some revolutionary technological breakthroughs and that these would change our lives inalterably… Read More
2016-07-31 10:57
The University Grants Commission (UGC) of India has made news recently by ordering the closure of Pearl Academy, a popular fashion school with more than 4000 students, because they were offe… Read More
2016-07-29 10:52
Islamic Terrorism has made news and focused minds in the recent weeks. It did not help that a section of the Turkish Military tried a coup against its Government - perhaps in the Secular cau… Read More
2016-07-28 11:42
The most misunderstood thing about 'soft' skills is that they are, well, soft!
Soft as in not tangible and demonstrable the way we understand skills to be. Skills, derived from the old En… Read More
2016-07-22 11:21
I have been through quite a bit - big companies, small companies, failed start-ups and successful ones, big companies pretending to be start-ups and start-ups pretending to be big companies… Read More
2016-07-21 13:39
The conversation about Education Innovation should go beyond Education Technology, and try to address fundamental questions: Do we need schools? What should the teachers' role be? How do we… Read More
2016-07-20 11:00
There is a certain role of 'degree' and 'diploma' in our society.
These, supported by a generally elaborate regulation structure and recognition from Governments, are not unlike the… Read More
2016-07-20 08:27
I took a 'Political Coordinates Test' on Facebook. This is about answering a few superficial questions on a scale of 5, and then you are placed on a strange Communitarian-Liberal-Left-Right… Read More
2016-07-13 12:05
Or, 20 days that shook Britain, one could say!
With the Prime Minister moving out, and the most xenophobic and incompetent Minister of his Cabinet earning the job by an astonishing double… Read More
2016-07-11 16:16
Just after the new Government in Delhi was installed in May 2010, I was asked, while speaking at an event in London, how I saw its choice of Human Resources Minister, of relatively inexperie… Read More
2016-07-04 13:38
It is important to recognise that the form and the vector of globalisation is changing. The expression 'deglobalisation' is in vogue, and provides a handy framework to explain outlier events… Read More
2016-06-30 21:20
If Marx missed the mark with the Proletariat achieving a deep political consciousness, he was prescient about how history happens: First as a tragedy, then as a farce!
So, the recent hist… Read More
2016-06-29 10:13
It may seem I am making contradictory statements when I say that learning has to change and that humanities must be back in agenda. This is my attempt at a clarification.
Humanities is no… Read More
2016-06-27 12:47
In 2012, I set up a small company with a few other people. The essential idea behind this venture was to create an International Education proposition, a 'pathway' programme that could be de… Read More
2016-06-24 10:02
So, it is out now: The Little England has spoken, decisively, clearly, xenophobicly. This morning is when the penny drops, the Islamophobia triumphs in undoing the post-war understanding tha… Read More
2016-06-23 20:42
1.
What religion are you, I was once asked at a dinner table.
I am an atheist, I said. The conversation stopped. After the pause, someone asked me whether I am a militant and whether I… Read More
2016-06-23 10:28
Indian Government is in the process of drafting a New Education Policy, which is expected to bring about significant change in education at all levels.
This would be the third time… Read More
2016-06-22 21:41
1. What religion are you, I was once asked at a dinner table.I am an atheist, I said. The conversation stopped. After the pause, someone asked me whether I am a militant and whether I g… Read More
2016-06-22 09:26
People in Britain will vote tomorrow in a referendum on whether to exit the European Union. Whatever the outcome, it would be a historical decision: If Britain votes to leave, it would not o… Read More
2016-06-21 10:57
When Francis Fukuyama claimed History has ended, in the aftermath of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, he was wrong, because history came back with a vengeance on 09/11. However, the idea… Read More
2016-06-20 12:48
The rational human being exists somewhere inbetween the matrimonial advertisers flaunting their caste and income and property, and the pathetic spectacle of Brock Turner, a swimmer and a stu… Read More
2016-06-15 12:28
There is a philosophical justification for learning from experience: That it connects us to real life with all its complexities and detours, and allow us to escape the 'one size fits all' as… Read More
2016-06-13 20:57
Buzzwords have disadvantages. Right now, experiential learning is one, and that means we put the label on everything and it stops to mean anything. Also, this means reasonable conversation a… Read More
2016-06-13 18:28
Buzzwords have disadvantages. Right now, experiential learning is one, and that means we put the label on everything and it stops to mean anything. Also, this means reasonable conversation a… Read More
2016-06-11 12:35
The current conversation about Education Technology (or, Education Technologies, we should claim) is both poised with possibilities and depressingly limited.
Despite all the billion… Read More
2016-06-10 21:55
Evocation of Hamlet is intended: The choice Britain faces on 23rd June needs deliberation of a solemn kind, involves an existential question and yet, not acting and letting evil carry the da… Read More
2016-06-08 17:42
Higher Education as a business is an American idea, mostly! The American For-Profit Education companies are the largest in the world, and they are no longer American. They have assets - univ… Read More
2016-06-08 14:15
Of the books I read recently, Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity made a lasting impression. Despite my deep aversion to the simplistic and formulaic style of business books, and this book is… Read More
2016-06-07 09:48
I have done various things in my career, from selling to teaching, from developing products and campaigns to designing courses and raising money. But, then, all of it was really around one t… Read More
2016-06-06 14:53
The big news on my side is that I have now enrolled to study History at Birkbeck College. Something I always wanted to do, but in the late 80s India when I was entering college, this was con… Read More
2016-05-25 11:00
Sometimes manic workdays provide the best opportunity to reflect: Why am I doing all this?
Today is one of those, and I am pausing to write this post after a few crazy hours of clea… Read More
2016-05-24 11:47
In the last 24 hours, I had two very contrasting experiences with air travel, which, I believe, illustrate how to (and not to) compete globally.
The first event happened around yesterday… Read More
2016-05-22 18:50
I have an aversion to the word Great! This is one of the words in English language, employed to describe a little island, which has taken an altogether new level of superficiality in the usu… Read More
2016-05-19 11:19
The conversation started with a question: What would you do if you have to re-imagine Skills Training in India? It was prompted by, no doubt, my posts in the past regarding the trajectory of… Read More
2016-05-18 10:09
My whole project of 100 days, which, by the way, I am doing well with, is about changing my life. However, changing my life to what is still perhaps unresolved. The overall goal, to go beyon… Read More
2016-05-14 08:55
India is set to face a jobs crisis.
One needs to look at three things to understand that a crisis is imminent.
First,
the numbers. On average, 69,000 people turn 25 every single… Read More
2016-05-13 11:24
India is set to face a jobs crisis.
One needs to look at three things to understand that a crisis is imminent.
First,
the numbers. On average, 69,000 people turn 25 every single… Read More
2016-05-12 09:14
Today is the first day of rest of my life. I have written this line before, and write it again now. This quote, whoever it is from, is some kind of tag line that describes how I live fairly… Read More
2016-05-11 19:25
The new Digital Economy demands new sets of competences and abilities, enterprise being the most critical. While one may think of Enterprise as critical for those who set up and run business… Read More
2016-05-09 10:04
I was asked recently in a NDTV interview: What do you think Tagore would if he was alive today? My answer was that he would remain, first and foremost, a poet. That was indeed the safe answe… Read More
2016-05-08 17:08
In discussing a global education business, someone asked me why one should do India if India is complex and one of the most difficult in the world.
This echoed my own position as it… Read More
2016-05-06 21:50
Lean has come to Education too, but it needs some special consideration.
Education Start-Up is no longer an oxymoron, but a real thing. Venture Capitalists do invest in education, and som… Read More
2016-05-02 16:15
There is this lovable term used in England - The Flat White Economy! For the uninitiated, this comes from the variety of coffee the twenty-something geeky youngsters working in the 'creative… Read More
2016-05-01 12:19
If this blog needed a purpose, I have one now. I started writing just for the sake of writing, and later, used this space for reflecting on my experience as well as exploring ideas and conne… Read More
2016-04-29 09:28
I came across a deeply insightful article by Vivek Wadhwa pointing out that the most successful companies in Silicon Valley are not focused on selling products. They are instead creating ena… Read More
2016-04-27 14:13
That Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali Polymath, Nobel Laureate and thinker, is one of the key influencers behind the idea of Modern India, is often a contested topic. Tagore is known… Read More
2016-04-25 10:22
'Skills' is big on government agenda, particularly in countries like India where 69,000 people turn 25 every day. Given that only a few hundred thousand new jobs are being created in India e… Read More
2016-04-19 09:00
I have spent the last four years working exclusively on the faultline of education and employment, and it is time to take stock.
I could perhaps claim that I have been doing this fo… Read More
2016-04-14 13:41
When I ran out of money in 2014, I decided to take a two year break, to revisit my ideas and see if I still feel them after a while. Sure enough, some ideas died down as their immediate cont… Read More
2016-04-12 20:16
H G Wells' point, that civilization is a race between education and catastrophe, is still valid. A hundred years may have passed, and the context may be different, but we are still just one… Read More
2016-03-30 08:41
Start-ups are fashionable. They conjure up the image of brilliant teenage founders creating billion dollar businesses from scratch, magically finding the confluence of perfect technologies a… Read More
2016-03-29 10:46
Of the life's two great certainties - death and taxes - we have not been doing very well with the latter. For an increasingly squeezed Middle Classes, facing declining real income, uncertain… Read More
2016-03-25 11:44
Over last several years, I have worked to find that Holy Grail of Education: A degree that leads directly to a Job!
I did write about this search on this blog, all the dead ends, disappoi… Read More
2016-03-21 13:41
Of all the strategies a company could conceive to win hearts and minds on social media, nothing is perhaps better than what its employees can do, if they engage socially.
Usually, t… Read More
2016-03-21 11:25
Whether we call it the 'Second' Machine Age or the 'Fourth' Industrial Revolution, the idea that we are at some kind of technological tipping point - that moment in history where society wou… Read More
2016-03-18 08:37
I think about dead people. Not because they are dead - this is not about any maschoistic exercise thinking about deadness - but of their ideas. I seek my intellectual stimulation not just fr… Read More
2016-03-16 10:29
I did stop writing personal notes on this blog. I wanted to make it more professional. But that made me, as I realised on reflection, write long, rambling posts on ideas that are personal, w… Read More
2016-03-15 11:21
Global Higher Education is good business. Over the last five years or so, billions of dollars worth of investment has gone into it, and it has become, if not the next thing, at least one of… Read More
2016-03-01 12:33
College Education may indeed change as the social demands of it transform radically. We can debate whether this is good or bad - I have argued elsewhere that there is little objective discus… Read More
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