99- 331/ INDIA TODAY: Innovation, Industry and Education
A Joint course of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh; 3 units/ 1 credit hour
October 31- November 2, 2008
October 31, Porter Hall 100, Carnegie Mellon University
November 1, Porter Hall 100
November 2, Baker Hall A51, Giant Eagle Auditorium
Instructors (responsible for grades and class organization):
Indira Nair and Ashish Arora, Carnegie Mellon University
Bopaya Bidanda and Siddharth Chandra, University of Pittsburgh
Faculty/ presenters on the topics and themes:
Patricia Beeson, University of Pittsburgh
Lee Branstetter, Carnegie Mellon University
Loren Brandt, University of Toronto
John Camillus, University of Pittsburgh
Rabikar Chatterjee, University of Pittsburgh
Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University
Smita Srinivas, Columbia University
Sunil Wadhwani, iGate
Class times: 5 PM October 31 to 1 PM November 2, 2008
Motivation: As global citizens, students need to have a working knowledge of other countries which are important in shaping the corporate, social and political world. As a rising state in the world economy, India’s status in the business and in world affairs is shifting.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. This course will educate you on the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context. (ABET outcome h)
2. The course will improve your knowledge of contemporary issues relating to the engineering and business profession (ABET outcome j)
At the end of the course, the students will:
1. Have a general understanding of the corporate, geo-political, cultural and social factors that define the Indian landscape at the present time.
2. Explore one of these factors in depth, through the paper.
DESCRIPTION:
This short course will explore how these three factors interact in India and in the perceived position of India as a world economy. It will explore questions such as:
- To what extent has India’s capacity to innovate and education been able to keep up with the industrial growth in recent years?
- Are the industrialized countries losing their monopoly on innovation? To what extent are the fears that they are, well-founded? Is this a zero-sum game?
- What are the major impediments to India’s economic and business growth?
- (Compare and contrast policy debates, environmental impacts etc. of economic growth between those of the U.S. and India)
- (What does the economic growth mean for:
- An economically well-off American citizen? An American of lower economic status?
- An affluent Indian citizen? A poor Indian citizen?)
- What are the current and future challenges of multinational firms in developing countries and what needs to happen to move towards the path of overcoming these?
The course will open with two keynote lectures on Friday evening on an overview of the issues. This will be followed by instructional lectures on Saturday on the various themes by experts in the fields. Sunday morning will be a discussion of two case studies and a panel discussion by the speakers on future challenges, and some possible projections/ recommendations.
Main text: Arvind Panagariya, INDIA: The Emerging Giant, Oxford, 2008.
ASSESSMENT
Due to the immersive nature of the course, students are expected to attend all sessions on all three days. Further, each student will be required to read the assigned book and develop a term paper on one dimension of modern India. The length of the term paper will be 5-10 pages, double spaced in 11 point font. Term papers are due by November 22nd and should be submitted through the Digital Dropbox for the course.
Sample topics for term papers include:
- The effect of globalization on Indian society
- Losers in the new Indian Economy
- Indian software Circa 2025
- An evaluation of the Indian university system
- Globalization & the Indian farmer
- Globalization & the caste system
- To what extent has India’s capacity to innovate and educate been able to keep up with the industrial growth in recent years?
- Are the industrialized countries losing their monopoly on innovation? To what extent are the fears that they are, well-founded? Is this a zero-sum game?
- What are the major impediments to India’s economic growth?
- (Compare and contrast policy debates, environmental impacts etc of economic growth between those of the U.S. and India)
- (What does the economic growth mean for:
- An economically well-off American citizen? An American of lower economic status?
- An affluent Indian citizen? A poor Indian citizen?)
- What are the current and future challenges of multinational firms in developing countries and what needs to happen to move towards the path of overcoming these?
