The Indian Institute of Management,Ahmedabad (IIM-A) may find itself having a say in the policies of the new UPA government if recommendations drawn up by students of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the institute,find favour. Kalam himself will vet the recommendations by students of the Globalising Resurgent India through Innovative Transformation (GRIT) course next week before they are submitted. These will be put up to different Parliamentary standing committees,after they are slightly tailored according to the general policies the Centre plans to pursue, said Professor Anil K Gupta,adding that the recommendations would be ready by mid-June. GRIT is a one-year course at IIM-A modelled on Kalams 2020 vision. According to Prof Gupta, the students have come up with several good ideas concerning corruptionthese include a suggestion to mandatorily paint the corrupt officials houses in a different coloureducation,employment programmes,health and anti-terrorism initiatives. These are the proposals that I find to be very good,and Dr Kalam would have his own favourites,too, he said. In education,policy change recommendations include doing away with segregation in schools and establishing neighborhood schools that every child in the vicinity will attend; calling Indias best 500 teachers (chosen by students) together for a month to design course contents for schools across the country; and reforming vocational education by bringing in professionals to teach. Prof Gupta said: When jobless diamond cutters were returning from Surat,I wondered why were they not inducted at least informally,into vocational education programmes as they have spent their lives manning high precision machines and could probably teach it to students. The students have recommended agricultural knowledge and folklore to be included in the employment programmes,while NREGA should be extended to the poorest districts,with a higher pay,instead of extending it to districts where people can find well-paying work outside the scheme. Recommendations to the Ministry of Health will include pleas to give more money to ayush or preventive healthcare. At present,it receives only 4 per cent of the health budget while 60 per cent of the population lives by it, said Prof Gupta. He said the faculty plans to lobby for these recommendations for adoption by the Parliamentary committee this year,adding that next years course and proposals will be tested at the grassroots by introducing them to panchayat leaders and district collectors. A one year course is not enough, he said. But students who were part of the course,like Srijan Pal Singh,who was also IIM-As Best All-Rounder and Gold medallist,are hopeful. One of Srijans proposals concerns moral education,which,he said,will not be limited to books. It will rather let children engage in community services to understand each other better. Our fieldwork has revealed a huge alienation among the youth of different communities,and thats exactly what community service will target, he said. Srijan is also confident about the proposals finding their way to the Centre. I have been very busy following up the proposals we drew up,but Im very sure Prof Gupta and Dr Kalam are going to take care of that part.
