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The business of social change

A. Roy Chowdhury

THE hi-tech Indian School of Business in Hyderabad is a golden feather in the cap of Andhra Pradesh and, perhaps, the entire country as well.

On Sunday, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh inaugurated the first post-graduate programme in management at ISB which has on its rolls 130 fortunate students.

According to Prof Sumantra Ghoshal, founding dean of ISB, business has a social, economic and moral role to play in society and a change in the concept of business leadership is essential. The ISB aims to produce global business leaders with such orienta tion.

Such ambitions are heartwarming. For they might make the world a better place for the likes of Jagan, Durgappa and Madhav, migrant labourers from Mehboobnagar who have constructed the massive complex.

This was not for altruistic reasons, though. They had been compelled to leave their drought-prone villages and undergo hardship in the city's neighbourhood, sweating it out every day for an amount which some of us might spend on pizzas, films or ice-crea m. Men got a daily wage of Rs 100 and women got Rs 50. With Rs 150, these rural families led a relatively happy life in their make-shift homes, children and all. They have built a glamour school which might one day achieve fame. But can their children ev er hope to enter these hallowed gates?

Pic.: Women workers homebound after a day's work.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury