Cases and Stories

One of the elective courses sometimes offered to students at the Tata-Dhan Academy is “Specialized Writing”. In this course, students explore some of the different forms of written expression beyond the typical report, and one of the specific topics we usually cover is the overlap and differences between cases and stories.

This booklet compiles “cases” and “stories” from three students from PDM 10 (Dushasana Mahanta, Kunj Bihari Pratap, and Akhileshwar Singh), and includes illustrations by Seema Shastri of PDM 12.

Following is the Introduction to the booklet, by the course facilitator, Ananda Mahto.

Download the PDF to enjoy the cases, stories, and illustrations in their entirety.

Revisiting the Indicators of Women’s Empowerment

Women’s empowerment, as the term per se, has been hammering the Indian minds from the days of our struggle for freedom. Not to rule out that there have been initiatives during all stages of Indian history to establish the deserving position of women in the society, but changes gained velocity during (and after) the War of Independence from the British. The movement is mostly remembered for the likes of Sarojini Naidu, Gandhi, and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. That is the history. Besides the history, the culture makes India one of the few countries where a woman is worshiped in various forms and stages. Since Independence, there have been widespread discussions of the issues related to women such as dowry, female infanticide, foeticide, sex ratio, and female illiteracy. It has been artistically captured in a recent movie Matrubhoomi (2003), which shows the future of several districts of India if our culture does not improve.

Sex: Male / Female (circle only one): Transgenders in Contemporary India

At railway stations, bus stations, public places, and sometimes on trains we encounter some people who approach us saying “Bhaiya, give me ten rupees” or even more rudely, “Oye, take out some money.” Generally, we get scared and try to escape from such people. If it is not possible to escape, then we give them some money along with many verbal abuses. We know that they are also human beings, so why are we afraid of them and why do we abuse them? Why do they keep begging and asking for money even after been abused? These are the problems faced by transgenders today. Most people do not bear any compassion for them; others hate them.

Practicing Five Teachings from the Gita in Management

Painting of Arjuna and Krishna meeting Karna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra retrieved from http://bit.ly/gyfg4p.

Shrimad Bhagwad Gita is such a piece of motivation that every time I visit it, I find new things to ponder and practice. The Gita deals with management—not with the perspective of factors of production, but with a focus on self: the core of all management. This time, I have taken five sharp lessons from Gita, which can benefit us in our daily affairs, especially in the art of management. In the lessons that follow, familiarity of the reader with Shrimad Bhagwad Gita and the epic Mahabharata is assumed.

A Pinch of Politics with A Lot of Statistics: A Review of “Data Analysis for Politics and Policy”

By Edward Tufte | © 1974, Prentice Hall College Division | ISBN: 0131975250 | 179 pages | Available online at http://bit.ly/cNgsx7

Forecasting is an important word in financial markets, disaster management, and many other areas that involve extensive decision-making. The book under review, titled Data Analysis for Politics and Policy and authored by political scientist and statistician Edward R. Tufte from Yale University, is unique in its kind. It drives a reader to think of politics from a statistical perspective. To write this book, Tufte has taken advantage of his experience as a political science teacher, his education in statistics, and his [then budding] expertise in the field of visual presentation.

Spectrum: Issue 4

Click on the image to download a PDF version of this issue for offline viewing (4.26 MB).

Welcome to the fourth issue of Spectrum, the student newsletter of Tata-Dhan Academy. This issue comprises student articles on a diverse range of development topics as well as two faculty reflections originating from the Academy’s recent experience of working with the Kanyakumari district to prepare a district human development report.

We welcome you, the reader, to comment on the articles, and add your own reflection, criticisms, stories, links to relevant online articles, and so on.

In this issue:

• A Decade’s Experience in Development Management Education
• The Role of Non-Government Organizations in Development
• Ensuring Food Security in India
• The Question of Unemployment
• Young Leadership for Young India
• The World Toilet Tour
• A Problem of Development
• No to Plastics
• An Interview with Dr G Paran Gowda
• Lessons from the Gita

The World Toilet Tour: A Review of “The Big Necessity”

Author: Rose George | 304 pages, Rs. 339 | Metropolitan Books | ISBN: 978-0805082715

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a picturesque “world toilet tour,” or so I call it. At just over 300 pages, the book enlightens the reader with various facts about the yellowish-brown matter that some civilizations flush (and some do not) in the morning and several times during the day. The book, authored by Rose George, a young British writer, talks about shit—literally—and also about sewers and sanitation: the 3-Ss. Nonetheless, the philosophy goes beyond the 3-Ss.

A Decade’s Experience of Development Management Education

Early in August 2010, eight students graduated from the Tata-Dhan Academy to enter into their careers in the development sector. They represented our ninth batch of graduates. To date, more than one hundred students—117 students from 17 states to be precise—have moved on from the Academy to help to improve the lives of thousands of people throughout India. These graduates are working on diverse projects ranging from primary education to water management to self-help group promotion to environmental protection to… well… at the Tata-Dhan Academy, we like to think that our graduates would be able to handle anything that is put in front of them!