Mission Drift and Goal Diffusion Pushes IRMA into a Wrong Race 1

Mumbai, Jun 5, 2006 (PTI) Father of White Revolution in India Dr Verghese Kurien today announced his decision to resign from the Chairmanship of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in the wake of the growing dissent against him after occupying the post for almost 30 years. "The genesis of IRMA was in response to the need of rural producers' organisations for professional managers -- intelligent young men and women who are fired by the desire to transform rural India and equipped with skills and knowledge of management education combined with development orientation." "In this short period IRMA has become a pioneer in the field of rural management and a pathfinder. For more than 57 years that I have been involved with development, I have worked from a simple premise: the farmers know what is best for them, what they need is professional support to help them achieve full development potential," he said. "But now, there are some people who are restless to occupy the positions I have held and waiting for my exit. I wish them well. But I also hope they will not tinker with the fundamental principles on which the institution has been set up, nurtured and brought to 2 their present state," he said. (Excerpts from press brief JUN 05, 2006)

Recent announcements of current Chairman and Director, about IRMA set to expand its wings by starting new schools and centres of excellence need to be viewed carefully in the light of the above
statement of Dr Kurien. The pronouncement states: While IRMA will continue leveraging upon its core

strength and brand image to serve its classic audience the co-operatives, these new schools will create knowledge base for newer areas, including producer companies, public private partnerships and Panchayati Raj institutions, while the centres will come up in areas of food security, nutrition and rural poverty. This understanding and portrayal of IRMA is at best partial and selective. Almost since beginning, IRMA has embraced peoples institutions, civil society organizations including government and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Anybody who cares to read, Two Decades of IRMA and Silver Jubilee Souvenir will realize the wide spectrum of IRMAs work. The present step should not result in moving away from the core strength of ushering a new discipline of rural management. Imitating the ways of JNU or IGIDR or TISS poses such danger. Education, experiential background and comfort zones of the Chairman and Director duo currently at the helm of affairs usher IRMA in such direction. Perhaps this can be inferred from the ways in which the two days consultation institute had organised on "The Challenges of Negotiating India's Rural Transformation: Evolving strategies for IRMA's Response. The composition of the invited experts, who were to be reminded again and again that IRMA is a rural management institution unlike the institutions they come from, reveals the potent drift of mission and diffusion of goals. The trio- Chairman, Director and Steering Committee - who planned and conducted the two days consultation with faculty members politely restricted only to attending, are trying to push IRMA into areas of their comfort and interests. Publicity hungry Chairman and Director have a developed taste for cultivating power that amply explains the presence of Mr Rahul Gandhi during the two-day consultation and press pronouncements that ensued without following wider consultative processes.

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KV Raju, alumnus from the second batch of PRM and Faculty Member, IRMA. The views are personal, not against persons but about incongruities between the perspectives guiding current Re-visioning exercises and the founding principles and vision of IRMA.

Kurien quits as IRMA chairman http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/05kurien.htm IRMA to expand wings: Start schools, centres of excellence Times of India - Aug 13, 2010

One should never forget that rationale for setting up of IRMA and the founding purpose of IRMA is Transform Rural India by improving management efficiency and governance effectiveness of the development interventions unlike the purposes which JNU or TISS or IGIDR are expected to serve. It is unfortunate that IRMA is saddled with a Chairman and Director who needs to be continuously reminded of this. This can be gauzed from the composition of the Steering Committee they had set up for planning IRMAs Future. It is headed by a new entrant with little experience in management education or practice Current exercise to transform IRMA to emulate the ways of TISS or IGIDR or JNU is under their active guidance spear headed by the Steering Committee that is equally clue less about IRMAs uniqueness and its purpose. Consultative processes followed were ornamental and ritualistic rather than substantive. At present, IRMA is left with hardly a few faculty members with education and experience in practice of management. Its image as a premier rural management institute is getting fast eroded. The Steering Committees report should be commended for acknowledging the fact of such continual erosion in the focus on core functional areas of management in IRMA programmes. Most of the new entrants to faculty and board, joined IRMA without significant and relevant experience in management education or practice. The orientation of the new entrants including Chairman and Director lacks appreciation of and commitment to the founding principles of IRMA. All this will probably lead IRMA astray from the focused pursuit of professionalizing the management of rural development efforts by peoples institutions that later got extended to embrace the efforts of civil society organizations, donor agencies and Government. New initiatives by the incumbents steer IRMA away from founding principles about which Dr Kurien warned before bidding good bye and push it into a wrong race as one of the participants pointed out. What Made Kurien Angry: Plan to Revamp IRMA on IIM MODEL?
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A report that sought to change the character of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), and mould it into the IIM model, was at the centre of the earlier turmoil. The report was prepared by a consultancy firm commissioned after the IRMA Board approved a review of the institutes performance over the last 25 years as part of its silver jubilee celebrations. It hit at the soul of IRMA as it was conceived. It was condescending in tone and against the grain of the IRMA idea, says Kurien in his reply. Kurien adds: I left IIM, Ahmedabad, to set up IRMA in 1979. Now they want to disturb the very roots of the idea. The report recommends that IRMA should go for an IIM-like model, raise fee levels in some programmes, offer joint programmes with other agencies and through guest faculty, and seek removal of restrictions on placements and consultancy opportunities for its faculty which Kurien and many others saw as a wrong race to push IRMA into. What Should Make You Angry: Plan to Mutilate and Model IRMA after TISS or JNU or IGIDR Current Chairman, Director and Steering Committee have very limited horizon; and their interests, aspirations and priorities are not in consonance with the mission and the founding principles of IRMA. The faculty composition is changing not in tune to serve the core of its mission. If the designs of the current Chairman, Director and Steering committee are allowed to succeed, IRMA will probably further dilute its
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focus on managerial perspectives; erodes its distinction of being a pioneering institution in rural management education and eventually gets reduced to become another institute of social sciences. It is more likely that IRMA will drift away from its mission leading to inevitable diffusion of goals and unrelated diversification. It is unfortunate that those who are responsible for protecting the integrity of the founding purpose of institutions often exhibit small minded tendencies unworthy of the positions they occupy to derail and shape the institutions to serve their narrow interests, priorities and aspirations rather than rising themselves to serve the purpose of the institutions. This is a call to all well wishers including past, present board and faculty members; alumni and current participants to save IRMA from the agony of mutilation of its unique founding purpose that pushes into a wrong race and ensure its ecstasy by restoring it to its niche that inspired many to imbibe and emulate its founding principles and vison. Are you listening?

Imperatives of Ontology of Hope

The world is evolving toward and some may argue that it already entered a knowledge based global economy with intellectual skill replacing physical capital in the search for current and future sustained growth (bloom, canning and chan, 2006). Knowledge has been found to be a chief determinant driving success and growth through its ability to reduce poverty. Tertiary education imparts knowledge and produces professionals who then directly and indirectly impact on macroeconomic institutions, the information and telecommunication infrastructure, the national system for innovation, and the quality of human resources. IRMA was created to produce rural management professionals who make significant contributions in transforming the rural society. IRMA seeks to embody pedagogy of hope through knowledge pioneering scholarship, research and teaching, generating hope and optimism from and within India. The pedagogy of hope concept needs to be adopted as a guiding principle in teaching, research and learning. To many, even in academic circles pedagogy is a seldom heard word. It is nevertheless an important concept reflecting the art and science of teaching, or the how of learning. Hope therefore is or should be embedded in the skill of teaching and educating. It is a foundation from which the message of possibility over limitations, of opportunity over cynicism, of creation over destruction, indeed, of hope over pessimism is carried through to everyone in our community. Hope is something more than optimism; it is crucial imperative for human condition. You cannot have education in the absence of hope; learning cannot happen. Leaning is something more than just imparting knowledge through teaching; it is a special process where we absorb and adapt and question. Knowledge, in all its shapes and forms, is the vehicle through which future opportunities and future success is achieved the better the vehicle the more suited it is to individual needs, the better the journey and the destination. Generating hope from IRMA is thus a future oriented vision for rural management education in India. Dr. Kuriens belief that Indias destiny is positive and it gets shaped by placing instruments of development in the hands of rural people is urgently required for resurgence of hope to replace cynicism, despair and pessimism. This implies that we need professionals who work and partner with rural people rather than who work for them.

Kurien quits as IRMA chairman 5

June 05, 2006 20:00 IST

Dr Verghese Kurien, father of the White Revolution in India, on Monday announced his decision to resign from the chairmanship of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in the wake of the growing dissent against him after occupying the post for almost 30 years. "I have been at the helm for long. Time has come for me to make way for the younger blood to take over the reins and lead the organisation towards the future," Kurien told media persons in Mumbai. "It is not possible to hold on to an office for such a long time. Others too have the right to occupy the chair. I should have done it long ago. But better late than never," Kurien said. IRMA was set up to support institutions like Amul. Today there are more than 11 million cooperative dairy farmers all over India under the Amul-model dairy cooperatives. "I stepped down from the Chairmanship of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1998, after being its founder-chairman for 33 years. But I never drew any salary from NDDB as I always wanted to be an employee of the farmers, rather than the government," he said. Recently, Kurien resigned as the Chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) after being its co-founderchairman for 32 years, "but having elected unanimously every year." "The highest monthly salary I ever drew from GCMMF was Rs 5,000, that too I stopped drawing 24 years ago, when I reached the age of 60 years," he said. "And today I announce my decision to resign from the Chairmanship of IRMA Board of Governors. I will be sending my resignation when the IRMA Board meets on June 8," he said. In a media statement, Kurien said: "The genesis of IRMA was in response to the need of rural producers' organisations for professional managers -- intelligent young men and women who are fired by the desire to transform rural India and equipped with skills and knowledge of management education combined with development orientation." "In this short period IRMA has become a pioneer in the field of rural management and a pathfinder. For more than 57 years that I have been involved with development, I have worked from a simple premise: the farmers know what is best for them, what they need is professional support to help them achieve full development potential," he said. "I believe that the success of AMUL, which triggered large-scale dairy development efforts making India the top milk producing country in the world today, can be repeated in many other fields. What we need to do is to help rural producers build institutions owned and controlled by them. When farmers' wisdom is combined with professional managerial skills, you witness a development miracle," he added. "Unfortunately, barring a few, professionals from conventional management schools were neither willing nor had the orientation to work for rural organisations. IRMA was founded with this realisation and the two-year course in Rural Management was started to train young women and men to work for farmers and the rural poor. I believe that a co-operative -- an enterprise of, by and for users -- is the institution that can work best," he further said. "IRMA trains the youth to be multi-faceted innovators and catalysts of rural change in the broadest sense of the term. IRMA's engagement with the rural sector has brought in more partners, NGOs, development organisations, funding agencies, and other member-controlled organisations. More than 2,000 rural management professionals trained by IRMA are now working in wide ranging rural organisations across the country and beyond. Since Independence India has made progress in many areas, in agricultural production, in dairy industry, in science and technology, in telecom and several other industries. But a lot remains to be done to take the fruits of development to the rural people," Kurien said in the statement.
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"IRMA offers to train our youth for challenging careers in rural management, careers that would make a difference to the lives of the rural people. Careers in rural sector value the qualities of integrity, creativity and excellence in professionals while providing opportunities to build institutions and grow with them. Working for rural producers and the disadvantaged sections of the population is doubly rewarding for those who join IRMA and for the nation as well, and offers challenges. To those who have an enduring commitment and an earnest desire to equip themselves professionally to contribute to the cause of rural transformation, I would urge that they should consider joining IRMA," he said. "I came to Anand (Gujarat) 57 years ago, to be precise, on Friday, May 13, 1949. The Government of India sent me to the Government Research Creamery at Anand on my return from the United States after my post-graduate studies at the Michigan State University. Since the Government of India had sent me to the United States on a scholarship, I was under obligation to serve for five years anywhere the government sent me," he said. "Immediately after I came to Anand, I realized that there was hardly any work for me at the Research Creamery. And, Anand then was a sleepy small town with hardly any infrastructure. I could not get a place to stay; in fact being born Christian, a non-vegetarian and a bachelor, nobody was willing to rent me a house. I, therefore, had to stay in the garage of the dairy. I wanted to leave Anand. However, soon I was lucky to get in touch with great freedom-fighters like the founder-chairman of Amul, late Shri Tribhuvandas Patel and Shri Morarji Desai. Shri Tribhuvandas Patel for some reasons liked me and got me increasingly involved in the running of the Amul Dairy," Kurien said. "The rest is history. By 1997 India had become the largest milk producing country in the world, surpassing the United States. Unlike many of the present day leaders, Tribhuvandas Patel was a great patriot and was genuinely concerned for the well being of farmers. For him, the co-operative was an article of faith. He was my Guru. Very soon, the faith in co-operatives also grew in me. I believed in the power of our people . . . our farmers. All the institutions I have been fortunate to be associated with believed in the power of our people," he said. "Amul today is the largest food business in India, with an annual turnover of over Rs 3,500 (Rs 35 billion) crores. But, to me, Amul is a manifestation of what the small and marginal dairy farmers and landless labourers can achieve when they are given proper leadership and direction. Unfortunately, under the present liberalisation era, governments seem to give step-motherly treatment to peoples' organisations like co-operatives!" "IRMA was set up to support institutions like Amul. Today, there are more than 11 million co-operative dairy farmers all over India under the Amul-Model dairy co-operatives. Dairying has become the single largest contributor to the agricultural economy of India, besides being the largest rural employment provider." "I stepped down from the chairmanship of NDDB in 1998, after being its Founder-Chairman for 33 years. But I never drew any salary from NDDB as I always wanted to be an employee of the farmers, rather than the government." "Recently I resigned as the chairman of GCMMF after being its founderchairman for 32 years, but having been elected unanimously each year. The highest monthly salary I ever drew from GCMMF was Rs 5,000 that too I stopped drawing 24 years ago when I reached the age of 60." "And today I announce my decision to resign from the chairmanship of IRMA Board of Governors. I will be sending my resignation when the IRMA board meets on June 8, 2006." "To those who have not been so happy in my continuing in office, I only want to say one thing. Whatever positions I have held since my reaching the age of 60 were all honorary and elected positions. I enjoyed serving the organizations I helped to set up, because a large number of people wanted me to continue to serve the nation. But now, there are some people who are restless to occupy the positions I have held and waiting for my exit." "I wish them well. But I hope they will not tinker with the fundamental principles on which these institutions were built, nurtured and brought to their present stature," he concluded. With inputs from PTI