Kayan Bharucha and his teammates from first-year MBA of the Manipal-based TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) do not just learn lessons in the classroom, but also visit rural areas to understand the problems being faced by local communities.

It is part of SEVA (Society, Environment, Values and Attitudes) initiative of TAPMI. This two-credit live project-based course makes students understand problems faced by the local communities, and plan possible business, operational and strategic solutions to help them.

Spreading awareness

Now Bharucha and teammates are working on a project to spread awareness on the use of solar energy, an important green energy source, in post-harvest farming operations.

Sharing his experience of visiting a mushroom grower who uses a solar-powered cold storage facility, Bharucha says visiting the farmer in Kundapura of Udupi district was a learning experience for the team. It will help in putting themselves in the customers’ shoes and try to understand what is important for them. Understanding the people from the bottom of the pyramid is important in a country like India, he says.

In this faculty-assisted project, his team is working with Selco Solar company and the mushroom grower.

Many farmers are still not aware of the use of solar-powered cold storage facilities during post-harvest operations to improve farm productivity, he said, adding, the Kundapura grower’s experience when presented to others will help them increase awareness about the facility. After getting the perspective of the farmer on the benefits of the facility, now the team is in the process of preparing an AV presentation to promote the use of solar-powered cold storage facilities to different crops. This experience helped his team members improve their communication skills with the local community too.

Purnima Venkat, Assistant Professor and Co-Chair of TA Pai Centre for Sustainability and Competitiveness at TAPMI, told businesslineoncampus that the business leaders being created at TAPMI will be working for the next three-four decades.

When the world was hit by Covid, it affected businesses throughout the world. The outcome of climate change such as floods and thunderstorms impacts businesses as well. “When we are creating business leaders, it is not enough teach them marketing, sales, strategy and finance alone. They should know how to work with the people, what are the environmental hazards and how to plan for them in the future,” she said.

A view of the cold storage facility powered by Selco Solar at a mushroom grower’s place in Kundapura of Udupi district

A view of the cold storage facility powered by Selco Solar at a mushroom grower’s place in Kundapura of Udupi district

Stating that there is a market for every segment of society, she said future business leaders should understand the business from all of these different aspects. “When you are working for different markets, you have to understand how small businesses work, how NGOs work, how farmer organisations work,” she said, adding, this two-credit course will give a holistic understanding to students.

In an interaction with businessline recently, Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director of TAPMI said, “As a B-school, I want every TAPMIan to be aware of the community in which they live and will work. Community building is very important for an MBA graduate, particularly when he/she becomes a leader.”

Terming it as a win-win situation for all those concerned, David Saldanha, Founder of Aion Health Solutions Ltd (a healthcare start-up from Manipal), said, students get to learn so many things through such projects, and it also motivates the stakeholders in the local communities.

SEVA JATRE

Purnima Venkat says TAPMI also conducts an annual SEVA Jatre (local fair in Kannada) where all the stakeholders come together and discuss the SEVA project. Students make presentations and experts review them. It is a networking platform for all the stakeholders of SEVA, she adds. Marks and assignments are part of the SEVA course. Even clients appraise the teams’ projects they are assigned with, she adds. It’s a SEVA that B-schoolers will be happy to do.

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