Aside from core courses, students at the Academy also get to take elective courses to give them additional training or to give them a chance to specialize in a particular area. For PDM 7, one of the courses we offered as an elective was “Audio/Visual Communication for Development”—a course in which students can learn how to plan, film, and edit short films.

Seven students enrolled in this elective when it was offered to PDM 7: Bharathi S, Balu I, Karthik Chandra Prushti, Lalitha R, Rani O R, Shyamal Santra, and Vinod Kumar Pandey. They created a short video, Towards…, which was designed around the following Albert Einstien quotation:

Every day, on hundreds of occasions, I remind myself that my mental and physical life depends on the toil of other persons—living and dead. The food that nourishes me is grown by other people. My dresses are all made by other people. Likewise whatever knowedge that I have gathered since my childhood days—has been acquired from other people. So I must try and repay whatever I have received and am receiving.

I hope you enjoy the video!

Students of Tata-Dhan Academy follow a unique tradition of organizing ethnic dinners themed to represent one of the states represented by any of the participants in the batch. This time, it was the turn of state Bihar, and students of PDM 8 organized a cultural event in which students from Bihar shared information about their cultural, religious, and social practices; of course, regional food was also provided. It is the only event organized at the Academy where the students are the hosts and faculties and other staff members enjoy the supper.

more about “BIHAR ETHNIC DINNER“, posted with vodpod

Here are a few photos from BUD Lab 2, PDM 8, Term 3. More coverage of the two-day lab—and possibly more photos—to come later.

Discussions regarding PDM 9 have been somewhat quiet, and I think that many people are uncertain how to interpret this silence. The series of comments at the “About this site” page—comments which come from a TDA faculty, a current PDM student, and a PDM 9 student—are an indicator of this uncertainty. In this post, I will present a few of my views on the admissions situation; I welcome a lively discussion on this topic!

Students of Tata-Dhan Academy, apart from their regular academic curriculum, also initiate and organize development related debates and discussion among the students and the faculties. The event is termed the “Development Dialogue” and was started by the PDM-VI batch. Generally, (1) the Academic committee chooses the topic of discussion with the consensus of other students and faculties, (2) the editorial committee prepares a concept or background paper for discussion, (3) students and faculty comment on the paper for about a week, and finally, (4) two students prepare a presentation and initiate the discussion.

Last week students of PDM-VIII organized a Development Dialogue on the status of sex workers in India. A summary of the discussions and proceedings (along with the presentation) will be posted soon, but in the meantime, we invite others to share their views on the topic. Also, please share some ideas for forthcoming Development Dialogues!

By Sumit Vij

The cultural difference between people makes them behave differently, and analyzing this difference can sometimes be useful. The people sometimes like other’s behavior and sometimes it is a taboo for them and their society. My room partner really enjoys eating beef, and I readily accept his behavior; but when it comes to my other classmates, they are against eating of beef, as it is a taboo in Hindu religion. Cows in the Hindu religion are symbols of piety and they are treated as dieties. This difference, a result of culture, differs from country to country. V. Raghunathan, in his book Games Indian Play: Why we are the way we are has brought this difference in a different perspective—different in the sense of how an Indian behaves when it comes to their own personal interest and how much they co-operate in the name of philanthropy and humanity. It is a brilliant attempt to understand the Indianess of an Indian using the properties of game theory and behavioral economics to provide an insight into the difficult conundrum of why we are behaving in this way. The author clearly explains the attitude Indians have, giving appropriate examples of their rationality and characteristics like co-operation and collaboration. The other impressive component of the book is that the examples are taken from everyday Indian life and retold in a way to relate to the behavior of Indians.

The courses are currently offered on our local intranet

One of the exciting new developments at the Tata-Dhan Academy—to me as a faculty member, at least—is the addition of a few online courses and online assignments.

To do this, I have been using Moodle, a web-based course management system, to host online discussions and facilitate assignment submissions and exams. I have been using it for three of my courses this term—Managerial Oral Communication, Written Analysis and Communication, and Academic and Professional Writing—and I really have to say thanks to the PDM 8 students who have been very flexible in adapting to the new system. They have been so accommodating, in fact, that when I informally polled them to find out if they preferred a paper-based midterm or a computer-based midterm, the majority of the batch opted for the computer-based exam.

One of the courses that Academy students have to take is “Managerial Oral Communication.” I rarely (almost never, actually) use PowerPoint in my classes, but for a change, I decided to deliver this presentation to them. (I’ve included notes below so you can have an idea of what was discussed in the class itself.)

Students at the Academy often come up with interesting ways to present their information to their peers. Rani (PDM 7) made this short video with clips taken on her digital camera to highlight her experiences during her development practice segment work.

{Note: Video playback may not be smooth on slower internet connections.}

Farmers in the field transplanting rice

This term, PDM 8 students at the Tata-Dhan Academy visited several villages around Natarampalli as part of their first “Building People’s Organisations for Development” (BUD) lab. The three-day programme is designed to let students observe—and practice—some useful techniques for organising communities around a given theme.