Interview with Prof. DR. Chandan Singh Adhikari
Q. When did you join the teaching profession? Why did you choose to be a professor?
A. I joined teaching profession in 1978 as a lecturer in a Degree college in Manila, Almora, Uttarakhand and since then shifted to Socio-economic research in Giri Institute and IIM Lucknow and again went back to teaching for last 15 years. I choose to be a professor because I love teaching and interacting with young minds and this profession has given me the same in plenty.
Q. Tell us something about yourself and your institute?
A. I am a thorough and thorough academician with more than 35 years experience in teaching, research, consulting and working with NGOs. By education, I am an economists having Ph.D in economics. Love writing besides research papers, Hindi poems too. Love teaching and interacting with young students and mingle with them in various activities: curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular.I have worked with institutes of repute like Giri institute of development studies Lucknow and IIM Lucknow and have been with ITM- Business school for last 14 years. ITM B-school has been ranked among the top 50 B-Schools in India.
Q. What about teaching at B-Schools inspire you the most?
A. Interacting with young students. Be in the class room or outside the class room. Ask them about their hobbies and career objectives and the plans and preparations thereof. Counseling and mentoring them in their moments of crisis; applauding them on their achievements and participating with them as one of them in various activities that they do in the campus. Above all telling and motivating them about human values and essence of being a good human being.
Q. Which subjects do you teach? Which ones do you like the most?
A. I teach various courses related to the area of economics and business environment. I like Macro economics and policy environment as it gives you enough scope to discuss the performance of the economy and analysing the various policy measures undertaken by the government in terms of various parameters such as growth, equity, stability, sustainability etc.
Q. What is your teaching philosophy?
A. My teaching philosophy is to ensure that a student at the end of the course gets knowledge and skills about the course. Besides, I also emphasize about the attitude. I design the course in such a way that besides knowledge, students develop communication skills, writing skills, presentation and analytical skills, group skills and IT skills through various assignments and activities. Debates and discussions also become a part of padagogies. I also use poetry, mythologies and scriptures as part of my class room discussions.
Q. Do you believe teaching should be more application based than theory? If yes, then how do you support it?
A. These two do not compete with each other, rather they complement to each other. Conceptual clarity is very important to understand without which you cannot learn application. For example, computing inflation is not possible unless you know what is the concept of inflation, how it is computed, how many goods comprise the WPI basket, how weightages are assigned to broad categories of goods, what is base year and so on so forth. Once you know these fundamentals, you can give an assignment where all these concepts are used.
Q. Who in your life has influenced you the most?
A. Not one but many. Some living some dead. Some with whom I met and some who I know by their deeds. Gandhi influenced me the most in terms of simplicity, selflessness, humanity and foresightedness. I also love mother Teresa for her compassion. I am very fond of Tatas for their integrity and corporate social responsibility. My Ph. D guide Dr. T.S. Papola former adviser Planning commission and top labour economist influences me in terms of his wit, research aptitude and child like demeanors.
Q. What suggestions would you like to make in the courses you teach?
A. The structure of PGDM program should be such that there is nice blend of general management by class room interventions and practical problem solving skills through extended internship or concurrent projects with the companies during the tenure of the program. This will enhance the employ ability of the students in a big way. However, this kind of arrangement is possible in metropolis and big towns with lot of corporate offices and industries.
Q. As a faculty, what kind of projects do you expect students to work upon?
A. Research, analytics, exploratory, practical problem solving projects can be given to the students through various modules. During the course of the semester secondary research based projects can be given and some small projects which involve primary data collection in the local vicinity can also be given. Practical problem solving projects could be a part of internship. In addition capstone and CIS courses can also be given to the students in lieu of some electives.
Q. How are current technological advancements changing your teaching style?
A. Technological advancements are coming handy. Moodle is a platform in which we can upload all our interventions and modules related to a particular course which can be accessed by the students. In addition, we can also conduct internal tests through Moodle.
Q. What is the impact of mobile technology boom influencing your area of specialization?
A. Mobile technology boom has improved the accessibility and connectivity in a major way. Personal mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have made it easy for learners to access content for learning anytime, anywhere - not just at school. New and innovative apps are appearing almost daily. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) content has become very effective source of learning.
Q. How is social media influencing your discipline?
A. A lot. It have improved the connectivity with your professional colleagues, your alumni and your current students in terms of exchange of ideas and exchange of fun and this kind of connectivity refreshes you and enhances your emotional quotient and gives you some sense of nostalgia.
Q. How does the economy story of India change your discipline?
A. There is a visible positivity in the environment about India story in terms of achieving higher rate of growth and this positivity has translated into more demand for management education particularly in top 100-200 B-schools in India. In addition, new start ups in the field of e-commerce, digital media, logistics etc., have given impetus to better placement and better salary to the student which has further given boost to the demand for management education in good B-schools.
Q. What changes do you see on the horizon in your area of discipline?
A. Lot of churning is going to take place in the space of management education. I foresee more and more tie-ups between the B-schools and companies to happen in terms of teaching and training of students as these tie ups are going to prepare the students industry ready whereby the companies can cut down their training and development costs. There could be concurrent projects on a part time basis wherein students spend 3 days in the company and three days in the institute to meet the academic requirements at different points of time during the course of the program.
Q. One touching incident that happened to you in your teaching career?
A. There are many moments which have touched me in my teaching life and the most remembered one is the one when my past students come to meet me in my office and tell me how much instrumental I was in shaping their lives one way or the other. Likewise students send me mails and express their gratitude. "Very good for others to emulate you, Sir. Economics and poetry connect, which seems to be impossible, you have established. My best wishes" said Arjun Naik on my poetry on economics. "Feeling blessed… to have you here sir" wrote Saket Verma a student of PGDM on July 18, 2014 in my blog. There are umpteen numbers of such touching compliments in my life as a teacher.
Q. There is a shortage of eminent professors at b-schools. With more and more institutes offering the MBA course, do you think MBA will become just another degree?
A. It has already become a commodity and hence many B-schools have been closed down during the last 3 years. There is a great need to invest into augmenting intellectual capital of B-schools by training the faculty members by top class B-schools in India and abroad, earmarking funds for research and development of faculty which will help faculty members become quality faculty. Sadly, this aspect is conveniently ignored by the private B-schools, by and large.
Q. Do you think the course curriculum is at par with industry expectations?
A. No, it is not in general. However, we have introduced I Connect Radically Different PGDM program in ITM by extending the industry internship duration to 5 months and emphasizing on soft skills interventions based on the extensive feedback received from the first hand interviews with the corporate honchos.