5education-pg2-0.qxd (page 1)argument): look at prices; mineral water is more expensive than crude...

Mumbai, Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Karan: I am against nationalisation. Tilldate whatever has been nationalised hasnot succeeded. An example can be bankingand other nationalised industries thatbecome underperformers and wasteresources. Water is most precious andshould not be wasted. Look at agro-basedindustries; the number of suicidescommitted by farmers are indicationenough that nationalisation is not a goodidea. Nationalisation leads tomismanagement and bureaucracy. (A veryheavy beginning; too many points togethermay reduce the efficacy of some of themand of course the usual problem ofstarting with a conclusion is also there.)

Nirmal (cuts in): Considering the globalpolitical position, India has an advantage

over Pakistan. If they have the Iranpipeline we can use the Indus waterpipeline as a hold. If they cut off gas linewe can cut their water supply. Both areequally important. Moreover,nationalisation may make senseconsidering the number of water disputesin India — currently these tiny disputesare blown up as political issues.

Karan (replying to Nirmal): If thesouthern States’ water issue is importantthen we can interlink rivers;nationalisation may not be the only solution…

Sanket: Interlinking rivers may soundeasy but there are a lot of concerns. Itinvolves a lot of implicit cost.

Karan (interrupts Sanket): Interlinkingof rivers is not happening because of thegovernment and the bureaucracy. Isn’t thisa good indication of how nationalisationwill actually be more negative thanpositive? (Good point)

Nirmal (continuing with interlinking):Interlinking is quite valid but it won’thappen overnight. It will take time — whatabout now? There is ecological imbalanceand water scarcity. A state or national

authority in place will ensure no wastage.(The argument is good but findingauthority doesn’t necessarily mean no wastage.)

Karan: How can you say that? Haven’t wealready seen a lot of mismanagement?

Sanket (changing the flow of theargument): Look at prices; mineral wateris more expensive than crude oil. Bisleri ismore expensive that crude oil. (Wrong tocompare crude with mineral; crude oil isfar more expensive than crude water)

Karan: With nationalisation we’ll moveaway from market economy. Interlinkinghas been in the pipeline since 1980 butnothing has been done so far.

Nirmal: But in the current scenario,states are fighting against one another.This isn’t good.

Sanket (cuts in): With interlinking, weare talking about cutting forests. You thinkthat is a good idea? (The statement seemsto be addressed to Karan.)

Poonam: Let us analyse it by weighing thepros and cons involved. (Good idea.) Theremay be some disadvantages, but the biggestadvantage is that all states will get water.(Not a good listing of pros and cons.)

Sananda: Yes currently states like Punjaband Haryana have no water.

Karan (refuting Sananda): There isample water in Punjab and Haryana;places like Marathwada face waterproblems. But nationalisation willinevitably lead to corruption.

Sananda: How are nationalisation andcorruption related? I don’t thinknationalisation leads to corruption.

Manish (changing the issue underdiscussion): Nationalisation will ensurethat someone is answerable for waterscarcity problems.

Karan: But nationalisation makesindustries non-competitive. Ournationalised companies cannot competewith MNC’s.

Nirmal: That may be generally true butthere are exceptions like Indian Railways— they have come around for the better.There are other methods to handle water,like having better irrigation facilities

around monsoon. This can be a bettershort-term project than interlinking.

Ritu: If no work has been done on theinterlinking project since 1980 then theremight be other reasons than inefficiency.Maybe the plan is not a feasible enough.

Nirmal: Two points need to be looked into— firstly; will the state government do agood job? Secondly, should a resource likewater be given to industries like defenseand railways?

Karan: We have spoken a lot why don’t you say something? (This was addressed toa non-participating candidate who didn’trise to the bait. There was an awkwardsilence here. Avoid doing this to candidateswho have not spoken. In a way you re-iterate their non-participating nature tothe panel. Nobody likes to be singled outlike this so you go against the spirit ofgroup discussion.)

Manish: Who do you think will pay for theinterlinking project?

Karan: It should be a public private partnership.

MINDYOUROWNBUSINESS

Want to participate in our GD? Write-in at management.dna@gmail.com or management@dnaindia.net and wait for our call!

COMMENTS ON THE GD:

What happens if you have no knowledge about thetopic under discussion?

–Poonam MehtaIf you do not know much about the topic then listeningbecomes paramount. You could provide some sort ofcoherent structure on how to evaluate the topic fromscratch. Sometimes not knowing much is goodbecause then you question basic issues which a lot ofpeople who are knowledgeable will ignore. Another wayto look at the topic is to focus on what you know. Ifyou have no idea about nationalisation but knowabout uses of water which are needed for the country

as whole then that could be a good starting point.

What if you are the only person in a Group Discussionwith a different point of view from the group?

–Karan GandhiOnly one person against the group is a very unlikelyscenario but if that occurs and you have good pointsthat explain your individual point of view then ofcourse, you do get noticed. But at the end of it, this isa group discussion; try to understand the group’s pointof view and explain your own. Avoid extreme argumentin such cases.

AN IDEAL GD:The group should have started by discussing thefollowing aspects:1. Most nationalised industries fall into one of these

categories:a. Defence Industriesb. Infrastructure Industriesc. Natural Monopolies2. The group could have discussed whether water

falls into any of the above categories with reasons.Mentioning characteristics of each of the above

industries would help in recognising whether waterbelongs to one of them.

3. Looking at nationalised industries in the past andthe kind of advantages as well as disadvantagesgained from nationalising.

4. Mentioning deregulated industries and the growththere would also act as an argument againstnationalisation.

These issues should have been the backbone on whichthe conclusion could have been reached.

Let us analyse itby weighing prosand cons. Abig advantage ofnationalisation isthat all states willget water.

–Poonam

This GD as usual began with the conclusion without providing sufficient reasons for arriving at theconclusion. In spite of the number of students the GD didn’t turn into a fish market because a lotof students didn’t participate. With a group size of 14 more participation was expected.

ADVICE:For any topic, look at the past and see whether any similar activity has alreadytaken place. This will be like empirical data that will be difficult to argue against.In this case, looking at the past for any nationalised industries and mentioningtheir effects and side-effects would be advantageous.

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SHOULD INDIA'S WATER RESOURCES BE NATIONALISED?

PARTICIPANTS: (The GD was conducted at HR College and participating students were from the same college.)

Karan Gandhi, Parth Shah, Sanket Gandhi, Kunal Sonaiya, Manish Shah, Jainish Surana, Poonam Mehta,Shabnam Kanchwala, Sananda Bhattacharya, Nishita Jain, Ritu Taparia, Monish Navlani, Varun Thakur and Nirmal Maktani

MODERATOR: Munira Lokhandwala

TOPIC OF GROUP DISCUSSION (GD) : Should India’s water resources be nationalised? (Comments in RED are by the moderator)

I am againstnationalisation. All

nationa-lisedindustries becomeunderperformers.

–Karan

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Interlinking is validbut won’thappenovernight. A state ornational authority inplace will ensureno wastage.

–Nirmal

I’m a class 12 (commerce)student. I had originally plannedto go for a Company Secretarycourse or ICWA after class 12.However, my father thinks there’sno scope in these. He’s asking meto opt either for an MBA from anIIT centre or for IAS. Pleasesuggest which of the two will bebetter and has more scope as acareer option.

–Sakshi MittalThere is definitely lot of scope for CSand ICWA. Both the courses are verygood and the prospects are extremelybright. Since the average time taken

to complete these courses is four-fiveyears, these courses require a lot ofhard work and patience. Thecompetition for these courses islesser compared to that of MBAentrance exams. CS and/or ICWAgraduates climb the corporate laddermuch faster. In order to pursue anMBA programme, you need to be agraduate whereas you can pursue CSor ICWA along with yourgraduation. You can always pursueMBA after your CS or ICWA anddoing this will make you a ‘soughtafter’ candidate in the corporateworld. If you decide to take myadvice and pursue CS or ICWA alongwith your graduation and also planto pursue MBA thereafter, it isadvised that you take up Law atgraduation level (instead of BCom)

and pursue CS or ICWAsimultaneously.

I am 26-year-old workingin a BPO. I wish to pursueMBA. I thought ofenrolling for a distancelearning programme butfound that the life of peoplepursuing MBA throughdistance learning is

miserable. I completed mygraduation from Utkal

University, Bhubaneshwar andhave been staying in Mumbai

for the past three years. If I gofor MH-CET, will I be considered

among the 15 per cent quotaallotted for outsiders? What aremy chances of getting into MH-CET if I join a good coachingclass like TIME? I am good atreasoning and English but not sogood at Maths. Please Help.

–Ziauddin Quazi Don’t worry or get upset. Try and getrid of all the negative thoughts andemotions because they will come inthe way of your decision making.Examine options with an open mind.It is quite possible that your jobprofile is causing all the stress.Consider a change in your jobprofile. Chances are that majority ofstress will get alleviated. You mustdefinitely try for the MMSprogramme. At the same timevarious reputed institutes like MET, Welingkar,K J Somaiya, SIES amongs othershold autonomous programmes thathold equal value in the corporateworld; you must try for these too.Right attitude and adequatepreparation will surely help you sailthrough. Your views about distancelearning programmes are incorrectas there are many reputed institutesthat conduct these programmes and their students are known to have climbed the corporate ladder successfully.

The author is the founder trusteeand vice chairman of

MET League of Colleges.

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DISTANCE MBAHOMEOPATHY

Homeopathy focuses on treating specific physical andemotional symptoms to give long lasting benefits.

INSTITUTES: ● Smt Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Homoeopathic Medical

College, Mumbai.● Dhondumama Sathe Homoepathic Medical College,

Pune.● Anand Homoeopathic Medical College and Research

Institute, Bhalej Road, Anand.● Government Homoeopathic Medical College, Bangalore.

FUTURE SCOPE: ● Private practice● Teaching assignments in colleges● Ministry of health and family planning

ELIGIBILITY: HSC with PCB. Entry is via the MH-CET. Duration: four yearsand six months followed by an year long internship. MD/ MSwould be the next step followed by PhD., which are of threeand two years duration respectively.

–Researched and developed by Disha Counseling Center

Continued from page 1

NEED OF THE HOURThe first initiative towards getting Homeopathy itsdue recognition should be taken by the government.Public health centres need to be opened in the cityand the government needs to run programmes forgeneral awareness about the long lasting benefits ofHomeopathic treatments as opposed to Allopathy.

(With inputs from Dr NO Goyal,Principal, CMP; and Dr Bina Wadhawan,practitioner Homeopathy and Alternative

Medicine.)

Email: a_shanya@dnaindia.net

PILL DOCTOR

ANSWEROFTHEWEEKAnswer: CSince the two circles are touchingeach other at a point, both thecircles will have one endpoint oftheir radius common. And so, x-y will

be equal to the distance betweentheir centres, d. So, d=x-y in thiscase and so C is the correct relativeposition of the two circles thatsatisfies the given condition.

THEWINNER

Srinidhi Bheesette

Although I'm not a regular reader of your paper, I make it a point to peek through DNA Academy every Tuesday, especially for the 'Campus Connect' section. I need information on 'Correspondence studies for primary and secondly school level' as one of my family friends, who's in class four, is severely ill and cannot attend regular school. He’s a brilliant student and we don't want his education to suffer. Correspondence learningseems the only available option.

Thank you, Anuragya Sinha

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LETTERSTOEDITOR

Navy Children School, Mumbai