Pranab Mukherjee to teach IIM Ahmedabad students

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 8: The Former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, will teach ‘Public Policy for Inclusive Development of India’, a new course on Public Policy to the students of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). The students across different programmes including Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM), Food and Agri-Business Management (FABM) and Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives (PGPX) will be attending the course. The course is housed within the JSW School of Public Policy at IIM-A and Mr Mukherjee to be the faculty for at least 12 out of 22 sessions.

Prof Vijaya Sherry Chand, Chairperson of JSW School of Public Policy and Prof Anil Gupta will be the other professors teaching other sessions of the course.

The course will deal with a broad overview of the interplay between the desired end of inclusive development and the system of parliamentary democracy in India.

The pedagogy draws on the experiences of the Former President of India to reflect on the theory and practice of public policy for the inclusive development of India. During the last five decades, Mr Mukherjee has not only had a ringside view of Indian politics and governance but has shaped many public policies and triggered off institutional innovations to execute many of these.

The course provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from the deep insights that Mr Mukherjee alone can share with complete authenticity and conviction.

What will the Former President teach?

The Former President, Mr Mukherjee will be teaching the following papers –
Constitutional Provisions for Socio-economic Inclusivity: Theory and Parliamentary Practice
Policy and Institutional Intervention for Financial Inclusion: A Legacy to be Built Upon
Articulating Policy and Institutional Agenda for Future Transformation of India
Out of these, certain sessions will also include presentations of selected student projects that address developmental and institutional challenges identified in the beginning of the course.

Talking about this new course, Prof Vijaya Sherry Chand said, “Listening to Mr Pranab Mukherjee, our students should develop a better understanding of the politics of inclusive development. In a complex democratic society such as ours, technically ideal solutions to public problems have to be balanced by the management of conflicts that are inevitable when there are multiple and contradictory pulls. This should also help in understanding why the idea of inclusion goes beyond narrow economic perspectives on poverty and its alleviation.”

After leaving his office as President, Late APJ Abdul Kalam had also taken up teaching positions at three IIMs, including IIMA. At IIMA, Shri Kalam taught a course titled ‘Globalising and Resurgent India through Innovative Transform’.