XIMBians have a session with Seshan
 

Bhubaneswar, March 10, 2007

"Despite all evils the democracy in India has succeed. The country has done fabulous progress in the last 20 years and I am very optimistic that India will become a knowledge centre in the next 10-15 years," said Tirunellai Narayanaiyer Seshan, former Chief Election Commissioner during an interactive session with students at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

He suggested- dharma, deshbhakti (patriotism), kushalta (outstanding skills), nirbhay (fearlessness), sahanubhuti (empathy) & tyaga (renunciation) to become better human beings. According to him to succeed in life it is important to become a better human being besides being a good manager. "The bigger thing is integrity than the placement. Learn and practice integrity and don't walk over the body of your colleagues. It is better to travel than to reach to a destination," said Mr Seshan.

Introducing Mr. Seshan, Dean Academics of XIMB, Dr.Brajaraj Mohanty recalled his earlier visit when he was accompanied by several commandos and huge crowd huddled around him for meeting him. "It is an honour and privilege for the students to interact with such personalities. Perhaps they will take some lessons form him to achieve their goal of becoming better human beings," said Dr.Mohanty.

He started the session in the XIMB auditorium with the history of India followed by his stints in the government. He recalled his tenure as an IAS officer, and said, "It is absolutely possible to be honest in the bureaucratic systems. I don't have a single rupee in my account earned by illegal means. I did many things from driving fully loaded buses to drafting the environment law."

Mr. Seshan particularly talked about education, health and governance issues. He expressed deep concern that about 215 million students have no school, forget about good school. He pointed out that in a knowledge based economy, HR (Human Resource Management) is more important than marketing and finance for any organisation.  He expressed satisfaction over the growth of industry and manufacturing, but rued about the condition of agricultural and villages. He suggested improvements in seed quality, weed management, and cultural practices as some of the measures for improving productivity of the agriculture.

Talking about democracy and governance he said, "Despite all chaos, the democracy in India has not collapsed as it did in the neighbouring countries. The state of affair was that I was transferred to five departments in a single day on June 2, 1962. But I am very hopeful that we shall overcome." He further elaborated his statement and said, "Democracy is the bad form of the government and the rest other systems are even worse than the democracy. The fundamental of democracy is not the right to vote but the right to disagree. Election Commission in our country is doing an excellent job. It is not because I headed it for six years but we suggested changes in the extremely complex systems of elections. So far army has never been used for elections in our country which is quite common in many developed countries of the world."

He termed reservation as a political gimmick to be used just before election which is fuelled by the TV channels. According to him, people should not be worried as it has been given to underprivileged people and it does not affect others in the current situation anymore.

Mr. Seshan showed keen interest in the Rural Management programme of XIMB and he spent over three hours understanding and exploring the different dimensions of it. He was very enthusiastic about the rural issues as he had worked in different positions in the government as an IAS officer. After retiring about 11 years ago, he has been associated with different institutes and has agreed in principle to take up some elective courses at XIMB.

Team IlluminatiX,
Media & PR Cell,
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar
E-mail: media@ximb.ac.in
 

Source: By E-mail (March 11, 2007)

published on IndianMBA.com on March 12, 2007

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