Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
More B-Schools take up lessons from Ramayana

More B-Schools take up lessons from Ramayana

Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 17, 2007

As the controversy over the UPA Government's affidavit in the Supreme Court has seen Indian politicians vacillate between bland denial to reverent assertion of Lord Ram's existence, management gurus in the world's premier educational institutions have been telling their students to take a lesson from Ram to succeed in the present environment of globalised economy.

Lessons of Hindu epics Ramayana have formed part of teaching on leadership, management and governance at prestigious institutions like the Wharton Business School of the USA, the Indian Business School of Hyderabad and many Indian Institutes of Management.

The recent controversy over the existence of Ram notwithstanding, many educational institutions in India and abroad are including Ramayana and other Hindu epics as part of their curriculum.

Professor Rajeshwar Upadhyaya, for instance, has included examples from Ramayana and other Hindu epics in a course on "Leadership lessons from world literature" that he has taught as a member of the visiting faculty at the Wharton School and the Indian School of Business.

"We have designed a course on public administration and management which is based on relevant aspects of Lord Ram's advice to Bharat on good governance," Prof V Kutumbshastri, Vice-Chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthanam - an autonomous body under the Union Human Resource Development Ministry told agencies.

The institute has set up a committee, which is looking into the study material and course structure. The course will be initiated in the distant education format. The course will also contain Bheesham's advice to Yudhishtir, described in the epic Mahabharat.

The Bodhananda Research Foundation for Management and Leadership Studies (BRF-ML) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, is also developing courses to develop management theories and suggest management practices based on Indian philosophical and mythological literature - the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Panchatantra, Arthasastra etc, informs PN Subramanian, its chief executive.

"Students of business and administration can learn a lot from the Indian epics," says Prof C Panduranga Bhatta of IIM, Calcutta, in his research paper on "Management of Power: Lessons from the Ramayana", published in a book on Leadership and Power Ethical Explorations published by the Oxford University Press.

Dr Jinesh Panchali of the Indian Institute of Capital Markets, agrees. "In India, governance has been extensively discussed in our epics like Ramayana, Mahabharat, and Kautilya's Artha-Shastra highlighting the relationship between society, polity and business," he pointed out in a paper on 'Corporate Ownership and Performance' read at the Seventh Capital Markets Conference held in Mumbai.

The importance of Ramayana was highlighted by Sudhir Sharma, managing partner Chromosome advisory and consulting at a workshop on Strategies that transform Brands" held at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee this month.

"Marketing strategies and branding existed in India way back in 7383 BC when Valmiki wrote the Ramayana," he said, adding that 'Ram' is the biggest brand that is sold in India and will continue to be so.

A Balakrishnan, another management guru, feels that the lessons from Ramayana can also be applied in modern management of organisation, especially the leadership qualities of Lord Ram in administration of Ayodhya.

"There are many modern management concepts such as EQ, MBO, Kaizen, strategic planning, organising principles and etc where its origin can be traced from Valmiki Ramayana," he asserts.


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements