Before joining IIM-A, I had heard about Prof Anil Gupta's yeoman work in the Honeybee network, Shodh Yatra and traditional knowledge. All these issues being related to 'rural India', I'm sorry to say that I imagined him as a do-gooder fuddy duddy, who espoused the traditional way of Indian life.
But when I got to know more about him(he has given 2 TED talks and takes 2 electives at IIM-A), I was quite stunned at his extent of tech savviness. Be it his Blackberry, netbook or extensive use of online databases, Prof Gupta really leverages technology to the fullest to achieve his objectives. And while others give lip service to open sourcing, Prof Gupta believes in using students/academic associates to the fullest to help his National Innovation Foundation, update course material, co author research etc.
And when you hear him speak or lecture, the extent of erudity is simply amazing. Not that other IIM-A faculty are any less, but simply he's in a different league altogether. Instead of launching into another anti West tirade, he backs up his arguments with logic and facts. And his philosophy to learning is more the Socratic way-that the students critically question their peer's presentations(instead of mutual back slapping).
So why do I annoint him the true face of modern India? As we immerse deeper into the modern technologies, the risk of losing touch with our traditional language, values, customs etc increases. But the ideal way is to use modern technologies to enrich the rich cultural heritage. For instance, Geodisic purchased the rights of the famous magazine Chandamama, and plans to leverage various platforms to fully monetize it. Likewise, Prof Gupta uses novel approach to keep traditional knowledge from dying, and straddles the new world and old India with equal ease.
No comments:
Post a Comment