On 1st March 2023 the Union Minister taught a session on ‘Job Analysis’ for the HR class for students of the MBA Program. She also took three back-to-back sessions (of 75 minutes each) in the Core Course “Human Resource Management” of IIM Udaipur’s flagship MBA program. Irani engaged the MBA class through Case Method wherein she discussed the Harvard Business School’s case “ClubMed.” She based the class on four Ds – Do, Discuss, Debate, and Deliberate. The class ended with the students doing the Job Analysis of a Minister. Prof Kunal and Prof Soorjith, who attended the sessions, were all praised for the teaching style of ‘Prof’ Smriti Irani. According to them, the classes were insightful, inspirational, and very well received by the students.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, donning the hat of a ‘Visiting Professor’ engaged in two academic activities central to an IIM Professor’s life – Research and Training as a Guest Faculty and was invited by Prof Kunal Kumar, a full-time faculty member at IIM Udaipur in HR Area.
Irani presented a Research on “The Necessity and Pitfalls of Ranking Management Institutions: The NIRF Experience”. She was the lead author of this research paper with Prof Kunal Kumar (IIM Udaipur) & Prof Sushanta Mishra (IIM Bangalore) as co-authors. In their research, they explore the importance of having a National Ranking framework that takes care of India’s huge diversity (ex: regional and linguistic diversity) and rewards institutions for doing their bit of ‘care’ for those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. The presentation clarified the necessity of the framework, what it tries to achieve, and its current challenges. The Research Seminar was engaging, insightful, and nuanced.
The minister also inaugurated a series of month-long activities by the IIM Udaipur that began with the Celebration of International Women’s Day. The miister, in her Inaugural speech, spoke about various government initiatives directed towards women’s empowerment and appreciating the multi-tasking facet of women and also highlighted a lot of important work being done at the global level. The event was followed by a Panel Discussion on the topic ‘Forging Gender Parity’. The diverse panel of women leaders from Udaipur consisted of Nandita Singhal- Director, Secure Meters, Smriti Kedia- CEO, Sadhana, Maharaj Kunwarani Sahiba Nivritti Kumari ji Mewar of Udaipur, Preeta Bhargava- Ex DIG, Dolly Taldar- Director, Ramada Hotel & Resorts and moderator Priyanka Sangani- MBA first-year student.
In the ensuing discussion, the Panelists spoke about their challenging yet inspiring stories, views on gender balance and bringing that change in the mindsets to make society more equitable.
