The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Beyond teaching management

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 17, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Beyond teaching management

K. Satyamurty

Known as `Cartman' Ramaswamy, he has been an advocate of scientifically designed animal carts

BANGALORE : He is a vegetarian who has been campaigning for a network of hygienic rural abattoirs as an alternative to the handful of outdated slaughterhouses in cities such as Bangalore.

N.S. Ramaswamy, a founder of IIM-Bangalore and recognised by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development as a national professor, has interests and activities that go beyond the teaching of management.

The rural abattoirs plan came to him because animal husbandry, he says, can generate more income than agriculture which is confined to one or two crop seasons a year.

"Most small farmers have no work and little income for almost nine months a year and there you have the `seeds of suicides' being committed by debt-ridden farmers. When you think of the 30,000 unlicensed slaughterhouses in our country under appalling conditions, right in the midst of cities, causing public health hazards, rural abattoirs gain significance,'' Prof. Ramaswamy says.

Known as "Cartman" Ramaswamy here, he has also been an advocate of scientifically designed animal carts. "All they need are better axles, a steel body to reduce weight, bearings and pneumatic-tyre wheels. The animals are less burdened and larger loads can be transported from villages to nearby towns and save millions of rupees because no petrol or diesel is needed,'' he says. Rearing cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, or even donkeys can empower rural women with extra income. The carts designed by him are now being drawn by camels in Gujarat and his donkey carts have found popularity elsewhere.

It was an easy transition for Prof. Ramaswamy from teaching management principles to designing donkey carts. As a professor, he found that the IIMs and B-schools were typically meeting the needs of the business and industry sector which employed 10 to 15 million of the total workforce of 360 million in the country.

The Government, public transport, and utility agencies had all been left out, he found. And these were the sectors that needed modern management methods because a vast section of people came into daily contact with them.

"I was among the first to take management principles to the vast unorganised sector of farmers, landless workers and cottage industries. They generate more jobs than even industries and can be streamlined, I felt,'' he says.

An additional dimension he has tried to introduce to management comprises ethics, morals, values, spirituality, and yoga and meditation drawn from his studies of Vedanta. Materialistic pursuits can be balanced by spirituality. As also respect for the environment and for the nation's pluralistic heritage, he says.

At his 80th birthday celebrations recently, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer said, "He is one of the noblest beings, and the whole country is indebted to him.''

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