Would this budget change anything at all? Part I: by Jayant Alagawadi

Recently the acclaimed finance minister of our country announced the annual budget for the year 2016/17 in the lower house. Many of us have wondered what does this mean to the common man and how should one interpret a budget of such mammoth proportions. On the outset this budget seems to be a massive change in plans for the present Modi Government, but when we dig deep into the realities one may argue that nothing much has improved since last year and the probability of any at all in the future also seems bleak.

To break it down let’s borrow a little (only graphs and charts) from an article published in The Hindu and authored by SAMARTH BANSAL (the graphs and charts used from the article are purely for educational purposes and the author of this article doesn’t intend to gain any commercial benefit from the same).

First lets have a look at the proposed Government spending for the upcoming year and allocation of the same across various sectors/ministries.

Let’s look at some of the most concerning aspect of this allocation and distribution:

à We don’t find a pie that is dedicated to Higher education explicitly, but according to the data the amount to be spent on the same in the upcoming year is around Rs. 28,756 crore. Which is a mere 13% increase from last year.

 

When we look at the above graph we get a sense of how much other BRICS nation are spending for education compared to us! A mere 3.5 to 4% of our GDP is being spent on higher education, which is even lower than that of Russia. This is quite alarming considering Make in India, Skill development and Digital India being the flagship projects of our PM.

à Women and child development ministry gets just 0.88% of the entire budget. Now why this is alarming shouldn’t be a question of compulsion but should be of one’s own choice. According to the supreme court of India every Indian city and town should house at least one “Nirbhaya center”. In the mid 2014 the WCD ministry had proposed to open 660 of these centers as a pilot project. When one glances through the proposal submitted by the WDC ministry to the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) it comes to light that these centers plan to hire retired police officers and lawyers to aid the victims. The centers would be run on rented premises and also provide shelter to the victims if needed. I don’t see a “Nirbhaya Center” in my city yet, or in my state. It’s been two years since the proposal has been doing the rounds of various ministries. Recently I read an article about the status of these centers (promised by Ms. Meneka Gandhi to be functional by August 2015) http://theladiesfinger.com/investigation-where-are-the-one-stop-centers-for-rape-victims-under-the-nirbhaya-fund/ and looking at the status of these centers anyone would feel that the WCD ministry could make use of some more funding.

àFew more areas of concern, according to the current allocations, seem to be with “New and Renewable Energy Ministry” with only 0.25%, “Science and Technology Ministry” with only 0.52%, “Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry” with only 0.37% and “Environment, Forests and Climate change” with only 0.11% allocation of the entire budget. We all know the importance of these ministries and why all of these could do away with more funding than what is allocated to them.

àLets talk a little about the subsidies for a moment. This whole budget is promoted as a poor man’s budget and pro-farmers. So subsidies for farm related products and equipment matter a lot.

From the above graph, one can make out that majority of our subsidy is spent on food and public distribution system of the same. For a budget to gain the title of being pro-farmers, the fertilizer subsidy is the one we should take a look at. Since 2009 there has been a gradual decline in the fertilizer subsidy allocation and a slight evening out from 2012 (from the graph). This year the government has allocated Rs. 70,000 crore, which is again less than previous year, towards fertilizer subsidy. Now this might seem a huge allocation, but lets have a look at the ground reality.  Satish Chander, director-general of the Fertilizer Association of India has told The Indian Express that Rs. 70,000 crore would be sufficient for the fiscal year per se, but it cannot take care of the built up arrears from the previous years. Lets have a guess; we will be starting the new fiscal year with outstanding subsidy dues of Rs. 45,000 crore payable to the industry (source:  Harish Damodharan, The Indian Express). This means we are left with only Rs. 25,000 as effective allocation towards fertilizer subsidy. There is also the issue of purchases related to urea, which has not been addressed by Mr. Jaitley. So calling this budget a pro-farmer’s budget seems like an after thought already.

PART II: To be Published soon

Research Initiative Workshop Phase III: organised by SMSR

From 23^rd to 25^th of this February, School of Management Studies and Research organized a three-day workshop on philosophy of research (both qualitative and quantitative). This workshop is a part of continuous process to orient the faculty members and students of SMSR towards research in their chosen areas. Phase II and I have already been conducted in the previous academic years, and phase III was an extension of the same. The resource persons for all three phases were from Tata Institute of Social Studies, Mumbai.

Phase III saw Dr. Samapthi Guha and Dr. Archana Singh from TISS, take the participants through various philosophies of research. The emphasis was given on directing one’s research through the research question and ontology and not by some predetermined methodology.

Each day was divided into various sessions, but on the outset it was laid out into a session of theory and one for activities. Qualitative and quantitative research philosophies were both touched upon and the participants were asked to work on the same during the sessions kept aside for activities. Literature review was also an area, which was emphasized by the resource persons a lot. Various techniques on reviewing and surveying the literature were discussed during the sessions.

The Phase III saw participation from different institutes like KLE’s IMSR and KLE Belgaum too. In total around 16 participants spent three days in SMSR honing their research skills. In the end it was a highly fruitful and productive workshop for aspiring researchers like us.

Would like to appreciate the trouble taken by Ms. Jayanti Belur in organizing the whole workshop and running the show for three days. Would also like to thank our H.O.D Dr. S.V. Patil for taking away our regular responsibilities for those three days so we could dedicate ourselves completely for the workshop itself.

General Assembly Concept by Swathi Maharajanavar,Semester 2

General assembly is conducted every Wednesday at 10.30am-12.30pm,as the name suggests it is a general assembly of all faculties, students of both seniors and juniors of present batches. It is a brainstorming session consisting of general mind triggering games, management aspects quizzes, puzzles, theme based team events, debate hours, group discussions and much more.

General assembly-SMSR 

Before the general assembly begins the students are clubbed into various river name based teams i.e., Brahmaputra, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Narmada and Yamuna. These team names indicate the significance of important rivers of our nation. Each team is allocated with faculty members. Every Wednesday one single team will organize the general assembly session.

As a fresher MBA graduates general assembly has helped us to know the meaning of team, team work and team building concepts. It has helped us to know how to manage and prepare ourselves during strategic games and discussion hours. While other teams play and perform we observe them, this helped us to know how to plan tactics to win the games, imbibe the seen ideas while organizing our team, think and analyze critically. It has also us given practical experience of event management in specified time.

It has improved our body language, mind consciousness, proper attire, right attitude and organization behavior. Finally after all the teams are done with organizing respective general assembly session, the high scored team ,best organized team, best anchoring is felicitated with mementos.

It is a great session helping the students to remove the gap of communication between the seniors and faculties and making students aware of their inner consciousness.

Last but not the least the motivation factor by our faculties and seniors boosted our energies, showcased the hidden talents and made a difference out of it.

Bee Hive 16 the alumni meet by Ms. Ranjeeta Kelageri (Assistant Professor)

Bee Hive 16 the alumni meet was conducted on 7th Feb 2016 at Hotel Kandi tree Bangalore.We had organized 4 alumni meets in Hubli. BVB –MBA most of the alumni work at Bangalore and nearby areas. Based on the request from alumni this time we had organized meet at Bangalore. 30 alumnus have come for the meet.

Bee Hive 16 the alumni meet-SMSR

It was a wonderful feeling to see all the passed out at a one place. Alumni were also very happy to see each other after long time.
The agenda of the meeting was-
- Introduction of other batch students with different batch students
- Academic structure changes sharing
- Brainstorming on how to stay connected
- Why we need to be connected
- What are the expectations of alumni from institution

Mr. Prashant Dhule the president of BVB MBA alumni initiated the discussion on how to stay connected and it was decided that we will create the face book page for BVB-MBA alumni and also what’s app group which consists of all the batch alumni.We also created linked in account for alumni to stay connected.It was very interesting and fruitful discussion.

Dr. S V Patil shared information about academic changes and new initiations. He also emphasized why it is necessary to be stay connected and what is expected from them.All the alumni are excited to share their experience with juniors and promised that they will contribute in polishing the skills of the present batch.   Most of the alumni took a ownership of being a point of contact for staying connected with other students.

The alumni thanked institution for organizing the meet at Bangalore. They shared due to their busy schedule they won’t find a time to meet their friends but this meet gave them the platform to meet their old friends and cherish the college memories.

BIG DAY @ BIG BAZAAR :Sangamesh R Vastrad & Joyson Bandi ,IV semester

First we would like to thank BVB- SMSR for giving this opportunity to be a part of this event (BIG DAY).

The concept of BIG DAY came into existence by Big Bazaar on four particular days of the year. They have started this with the intention to collect huge revenues by providing heavy sale offers.

Big Day - Big bazzar

Well the BIG DAY event which was from 22nd jan to 26th jan 2016. Since these days have a significance of their own for the retail market, huge footfall is expected in the big-day sales.

We have always been tempted to visit BIG DAY sales as volunteers.  But it was a great experience for us to be a part of BIG DAY, however, as far as our experience will go as retailers.

It  helped us to learn practically which was more easier to understand then theoretically, In real life this kind of practical learning will help the students and we can easily understand the classroom learning by doing practical things. In retail industry to reach targets in a particular time is a challenging task which we could achieve it in a given period, and it was possible only because of the learning that we got in our classrooms and which we implemented on the field. Through this event we also analysed different kinds of human behaviours and Etc

Being marketing students it helped us to acquire the on field knowledge about the retail industry and also made us to build our work network with the employees as well as the customers. 

National Conference 28-30th January 2016 at TISS,Mumbai by Dr.S.V.Patil

I was in Mumbai during 28-30 Jan at TISS to participate in National Conference and attend meeting of South Asian Network of Impact Masters (SANIM). It was a highly satisfying experience for the following reasons:

National Conference TISS. Mumbai

Time Management: Prof Majumdar is known for it and maintained that image. All the faculty members of Center for Social Entrepreneurship attended complete three days sessions.

Hospitality: TISS has given us an immense opportunity by extending the invitation for the conference and facilities were excellent.

Program schedule (9.00 am to 7.30 pm): Time allotted for expert speaker and paper presenters was optimal. There was a lot of scope for Q n A to clarify doubts and suggestions.

Expert Lectures: core to the conference theme and speakers were able to bring out there hardcore research experience. I learnt quite a few new and contemporary approaches in research.

Paper Presentations: Unlike in other conferences, papers were carefully scrutinized and called for presentation. Only 3 papers per session (90min), on an average 60 minutes to each presenter, scholar can explain his work better and at the end the whole process was justified with the investment of energy, time, and money.  In many of other occasions, after having invested resources and travelled 100’s of kms, scholars were given 5-7 minutes (including Q n A).

Meeting of SANIM (4th meeting) was also organized to discuss, as name indicates, to strengthen MBA program through the impact on society, economy and environment.  Many new South Asian members from Sri-lanka, Maldives,  and Nepal also attended the meeting.  The agenda was to revise curriculum by incorporating impact component in each course. Institute of Professional Education and Research (IPER) Bhopal did the initial work and it was a good beginning. Detailed discussions were held on the same. Finally it was decided to have special conference on the same and IPER will host it.

Mr Saikat of Arvindo Ashram, Pondicherry shared his experience of the newly designed course on “Self Governing Leadership” and delivered at TISS. Prof. Joy Mitra of Essex University, Colchester, UK urged  other organizations  who have promised similar projects to complete them at the earliest. It was decided to host a web site SANIM.ORG immediately. Prof. Mitra appreciated our Student, Institute and Industry Track (SIIT) and asked to present about the same in the next meeting. Others also appreciated and complemented the track as very unique one, at least in India.
My colleagues from Karnataka Dr H. N. Shivaprasad (JSS, Dharwad), Dr M.V. Alagawadi (Central University, Gulbarga), Dr Chennaveer (Central University, Gulbarga) were also part of the conference. Their presence also gave scope for regional cooperation among B-schools of North Karnataka.

It was an opportunity to understand ourselves better and learn more and more humility.

hubballi to tiruppur journey experience by Nayana Nanu, Semester 4

Madurai city is popularly known as “Athens of the East”,we started our journey from hubballi on 25th December 2015. Madurai is popularly known for its classical, traditional and historical importance.

SMSR KLE Technological University Hubballi

On 26th December 2015 we visited Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai.It is a hospital chain in India. It was founded by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy at Madurai, Tamil Nadu in 1976. It has many networks of eye hospitals and has a major impact in eradicating cataract related blindness in India. The model of Aravind Eye Care hospitals has been appreciated globally and has become a subject for numerous case studies throughout the world.

SMSR Hubli dharwad

On the same evening we visited the Meenakshi temple and we were thrilled by the elegance of the architecture.  Meenakshi Amman Temple is a historic hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai river. It is dedicated to Parvati, known as Meenakshi, and her soulmate, Shiva named as Sundareswarar. The temple forms the determined part of the 2,500-year-old city of Madurai and is a significant symbol for the residents of Madurai. It was selected in the list of top 30 nominees for the "New Seven Wonders of the World". The temple is regarded as the most prominent landmark and most visited tourist attraction in the city premises. The annual 10-days Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival, is celebrated during the month of April and May, attracting 1 million visitors globally situated.

On 27th December 2015 we left to beautiful Tiruppur city. There we visited Nethaji Apparel Park which is regarded as sole apparel park in the nation that has been successfully popularized and operated by the apparel industry under the former apparel parks for export scheme of the ministry of textiles. Later we left to NIFT TEA College of Knitwear Fashion, Tiruppur were we had a brief explanation about the functioning of the college and had a round visit of the campus.

The industrial visit to Madurai and Tiruppur was very enlightening and congenial. It also made us be acquainted with the traditions and food habits of Tamil nadu.