IIPM-an educational fraud?

A few days ago , Mumbai based youth college magazine JAM did an expose on Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) , a "renowned" management institute in India. Apparently, the institute is putting false claims over its credentials in the newspaper ads all across India and JAM exposure seemed credible enough to warrant attention. Another fellow blogman Gaurav linked to this particular story and questioned the qualifications of its dean Arindham Chaudhray, supposedly a "Management Guru". Now, as very eloquently put forth by Ashutosh, if the allegations of Gaurav and JAM magazine were true, all IIPM had to do was to provide a proof contradicting them, which should not be hard to provide if they really have the credentials which they claim. Instead, they resorted to bullying and threats resulting in Gaurav's resignation from his employer IBM (more about this here). From what I have read and heard of IIPM's conduct , they seem to behave more like a cheap gunda outfit than a "renowned" management institute. Arindham Chaudhary' s website, admittedly very snazzy, is full of tall claims for this economist(?), management guru(??), visionary intellectual(????) (more about it here). In my view, IIPM is shooting themselves in the foot with their conduct. IIPM would do their already suspect credibility some good if either they come out with the truth about their claims or else stop playing with the lives of kids who are looking towards them for a quality education and bright future.

Update: The whole matter seems to have evolved into a major issue against IIPM by the blogging community. Here is a blog detailing the latest happenings on the subject.

Indians 4th Happiest in the world?

A recent news item on Rediff quotes a survey in which indians were found to be the 4th "happiest",
in the world. I just wonder what sample population was chosen for this survey. Surely, it could not have been numerous victims of riots & terrorism, people living in abject poverty in Bihar, UP, MP among others, people living in the slums of Delhi & Bombay, people fed up with corruption or people caught up in the grind of life in India. That must cover almost all the people . I am still wondering who were the people in that survey or is it that we indians are still happy and content inspite of all the hardships we endure in day-to-day lives.