IIM Ahmedabad can’t wait for its new professor, Dr Kalam

“We will have students brainstorming on various issues of governance and policy-making, including synergy between the agriculture, industry and service sectors, reducing the rural-urban divide and poverty eradication,” Gupta said.

After the initial lectures, the students will be required to submit project proposals for creating scenarios based on multiple options for specific policy and institutional changes.

“We will share the outcome of our course with the Parliamentary standing committee as well, which they may in turn take up with the respective bodies to initiate any change they feel is plausible,” Gupta said.

“While Dr. Kalam will visit IIMA thrice during this term of the course, he has promised to give more time from next year,” Gupta added.

Speaking to The Sunday Express, Kalam said that while this will not be his first assignment for delivering lectures at a management institution, for IIMA, he will be actively engaged with the students in more ways than delivering lectures.

“I have sent the students a mail with ten pointers pertaining to my vision for India 2020, where from they will pick one area of their interest and think about the policy interventions, formal and informal organization structures, communication system and implementation methodologies needed for realization of the vision,” he said.

“The reason behind choosing IIMA has been that this institute produces leaders spread across sectors like industry, agriculture and services. So if we can spread the leaders with similar vision across the sectors, there will be synchronized growth, which benefits all,” he said. “Further, many of the students who could step into politics will have development as their priority, which is not the case with contemporary politicians guided mostly by their political priorities.”

“We are very excited about the course, said Srijan Pal Singh, General Secretary, Students Affairs Council, IIMA. “On the one hand, this is an honour to have somebody like Dr Kalam teaching us and on the other there is this feeling that through this we will be a part of the national policy making process, which is again a big incentive,” he added.

IIM-A has been reaching into the national political process in other ways too. It has devised another course where students across disciplines will work with Members of Parliament on constituency management. This year, the MPs roped in are Sitaram Yechuri, Rajya Sabha MP from CPM, BJP’s Harin Pathak (Ahmedabad) and Madhusudan Mistry, Congress, besides Union Minister Murli Deora. The students will study and prepare roadmaps and blueprints for effectively managing their constituencies.

“Working with the policy makers is not new, and, as it is, we cannot keep on being bystanders for eternity and wait for others to think for us,” said Gupta.