'Insularity is dangerous'

Prabir Sengupta

CURRICULA: Bureaucrat-turned-academician Prabir Sengupta believes that external validation of the workings of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade is critical

He begins by asking about various Business Standard journalists in the economy bureau. But then, Prabir Sengupta's acquaintance with this newspaper goes back a long way.

Before he took over in August 2002 as director of the Delhi-based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Sengupta was the commerce secretary in the Indian government "" and a valuable source for the happenings in the ministry. How has the change been for him?

"When you are in a busy ministry in the government, it is a reactive existence. But when you are with an institute like IIFT, it is a proactive existence," Sengupta explains rather diplomatically.

He also talks about how it is a different and a stimulating challenge to "interact with bright young people who have a lot of expectations, but which come with a can-do attitude." Again, a pleasant change? Sengupta just laughs out loud in response.

Any traces of bureaucracy in the country's premier foreign trade institute? None whatsoever. In fact, the first thing Sengupta did after becoming the director was to conduct a detailed review of the entire curriculum.

Although such reviews were already conducted on a regular basis internally, this was the first external review, carried out by former Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research S L Rao and well-known academician N C B Nath.

It also set the trend for the future: the syllabus of each course at IIFT will now be regularly reviewed by two experts "" an academician and one from the industry.

Sengupta was also quick to make changes in the curriculum based on the recommendations of the expert committee: the courses were made more compact, overlapping of courses was restricted and more interrelation between different courses was promoted. For instance, synergy between a course on international markets and a course on marketing strategies was revved up.

"Insularity for any institute is dangerous. It is my belief that there should be an external validation of what we are doing," he says. His remark is particularly striking in the wake of the Indian Institutes of Management refusing to take part in surveys that rank B-schools.

Speaking of other B-schools, given that the gap between global and Indian business practices is fast disappearing, isn't IIFT's monopoly of a specialisation in international trade at risk now?

Sengupta believes the institute has a headstart, given its three-decade-long experience in the field. He offers proof. Even until four years ago, the recruitment process at IIFT was spread over three weeks. This year, it took just six hours, and the average salary was Rs 7.3 lakh a year. "After 40 years of working, I still earn less than that," Sengupta says in mock dismay.

And though IIFT became a deemed university in May 2002 (it remains to be under the ministry of commerce and industry), it still has the advantage of using the ministry's connections.

That shows up in the kind of research and consulting the institute does "" mostly at the Central and state government levels, various ministries and organisations such as UNCTAD, WTO, ESCAP, the Common Wealth Secretariat and so on.

In fact, at given time, as many as six to eight research activities are in process. Sengupta refuses to comment on the monetary returns from research and consultancy but adds that since most of projects are commissioned to the institute, that's where most of the fees from these projects goes.

IIFT manages to take care of 80 to 85 per cent of its expenses from its own earning. The balance still comes from the commerce ministry. And even before you can ask the obvious question, Sengupta quips, "I don't think that the ministry has interfered with the goings-on of the institute at any point in time."

Sengupta's tenure in various ministries "" he has worked with ministries such as defence, petroleum and natural gas and industry, apart from being the chairman of Maruti Udyog Ltd (1995-97) "" is guiding his plans for the institute. On the anvil is expanding the reach of the Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises, which was launched on May 10.

That's clearly an issue close to his heart: Sengupta rattles off numbers and statistics "" it contributes to about 49 per cent of the overall exports, over 40 per cent of the manufactured output, and generated employment for nearly 2.83 crore people.

The plans are big. One, Sengupta wants the centre to be the hub of knowledge for the SME sector and disseminate information regarding policies, procedures, markets within the country and abroad, and so on.

Two, the centre will train SMEs on the changing equations in the year of globalisation, through short courses. Small courses, The other aim is to provide a wide networking platform.

"So if there is someone looking for finances, I will have him approach a bank. We will act as a facilitator," says Sengupta, revealing his plans.

Sengupta is working on getting these plans implemented within the next two to three months. As we said, no traces of bureaucracy.