In an economy experiencing the pains of double-digit industrial growth in terms of an acute shortage of skilled manpower, industry professionals ready, willing and able to lend a helping hand to academia by volunteering to assume the additional responsibilities of visiting faculty are more than welcome. Alekhya Talapatra, director sales (government and public sector) of the India subsidiary of the US-based computer hardware giant Dell Corporation Inc (annual sales: Rs.232,000 crore) is one such volunteer. “Unlike developed countries where universities proactively engage in industrial, economic and societal research, ours is more a theoretical academic culture. Therefore there isn‚t much scope for industry professionals to engage with academia. Moreover, monetary incentives aren‚t attractive,” says Talapatra who has signed on as visiting faculty at Delhi‚s Fore School of Management, where he lectures on sales distribution and B2B marketing. A practising professional in the IT industry for more than a decade, Talapatra an alumnus of St. Xavier‚s College, Calcutta and XLRI, Jamshedpur‚ invests a wealth of knowledge and experience into his three lectures per month at the Fore School (estb.1981).

“Initial government and industry resistance to IT is history and now there is widespread acceptance of its benefits. Therefore my lectures at FSM focus on IT-driven marketing innovation and creativity,” he says. As an IT industry professional well aware of the power of technology to raise teaching-learning standards, Talapatra is disappointed with Indian academia‚s reluctance to use new ICT (information communication technologies) to bridge the academic gap between India and the West. “There is complete lack of understanding as to what use computers can be put to in academics. Rather than computer education as a showpiece subject, ICT needs to be integrated into pedagogies at the elementary, high school and university levels,” advises Talapatra.

According to him, there is growing awareness of the potential of IT and ICT in areas such as distance education and research. “The incremental use of ICT in distance education offers the hope of quality school and tertiary education reaching under-served students in the remotest parts of the country. This is the best argument for accelerating India‚s IT and management education revolutions. And with it, issues of PC affordability, broadband connectivity and penetration will be resolved expeditiously,” says Talapatra.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)