XIDAS is offering a unique programme in Business Administration, namely, a PGDM programme with specialization in Rural Management (PGDM-RM). The aim and focus of this course is that the students should learn to adapt the various principles of business management and apply these effectively in building up the rural society of India. The cardinal objective of offering the PGDM-RM course is to impart theoretical and practical inputs to the students so as to mould them into rural development facilitators, trained at professional levels, to penetrate into the problem areas and to assist the rural people to become capable and effective managers of their own resources and environment. More specifically, this course aims at preparing men and women who will become effective catalysts for rural development and the empowerment of a vast number of the marginalized people, living in the rural areas of India. On the whole, this is a unique Institute as only a small number of other Institutes offer such a PGDM course, with a specialized thrust on Rural Management.
After 70 years of trying to solve the problems of rural poverty through development blocks and anti-poverty programmes, the Government of India has become aware that to a considerable extent these efforts have failed to reach their objectives. Accordingly, the Government’s approach has gone through a sea change. Through the 73 rd and 74 th amendments to the Constitution of India in 1993, and other administrative measures, it has handed over resources and decision-making powers to the Panchayats and to the people (Gram Sabhas).
In this context, the people need to be escorted at least for some time by qualified men and women, such as, our PGDM-RM students, who are familiar with the newly acquired powers and responsibilities of the people. They also need to be helped to acquire skills to use properly the resources entrusted to them, for the welfare of all in their villages. Only then, will this experiment or approach succeed.
The PGDM-RM students are trained in different fields and they are capable of handling human resource development, rural projects, rural banks, rehabilitation projects etc. Besides, they are capable of interfacing between industries, power plants and mines and interacting with local inhabitants, displaced from their original villages. They also learn the art of facilitating rural industries, marketing federations, forest protection units, etc.
The two-year course seeks to weave a strong professional discipline out of three stands: 1) A management strand with the eight subjects associated with the discipline of management: Accounts and Finance, Marketing, Organization Behavior and HRD, Computers and Information Systems, Social and Economic Analysis, Basic Quantitative Techniques, Organization Policies and Strategic Management, Concepts and Values of Human and Social Development; 2) A thorough grasp of the rural reality and mastery of the tools to understand it, through exposure, direct involvement in rural development programmes and activities, and regular interaction with the rural people: 3) Skills and techniques to handle rural changes in such a manner that the rural people are brought to the stage where they grow into managers of their own resources. However, XIDAS believes that the only true rural mangers are the rural people themselves and hence the students are being trained to function as facilitators of this process, rather than as its managers.
The cardinal objective of offering the PGDM-RM is to mould rural development facilitators. trained at the professional level to penetrate the locus where problems range and to assist the rural people to become capable managers of their own resources and environment. The students who have undergone the PGDM-RM course should also be able to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills in a creative way in various rural development programmes and activities.
The other objectives are; a) To attract and select from a large number of young person’s aiming at a professional career, a small number of those, motivated already, or who can be motivated, to function as facilitators of the process of enabling the rural people to become effective managers of their own resources; b) To prove that management is not the handmaiden of only industry and business but can serve equally well as a tool to empower and improve the living standards of the rural poor; c) To train generations of rural facilitators who will help the rural people to acquire a strong bargaining position in the market – local, national and global.
In sum, the rural facilitators – PGDM-RM students – are expected to be multi-faceted innovators. For this reason, the Rural Management Course is distinct from other management programmes in the way in which it is structured to meet the specific requirements of the rural scene.
XIDAS is offering this two-year full-time PGDM programme in Rural Management since 2013. This course is approved by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi.
The PGDM-RM course trains postgraduate candidates to qualify as rural facilitators of the process in which the villagers themselves become effective managers of their own resources.
The PGDM-RM deals with all the subjects that cover the science of Management and also the skills that go with the profession, such as, the use of the computers, communication skills and a thorough grounding on topics related to the rural situations.
XIDAS is convinced that there is a bright future for Rural Management and that the demand for PGDM-RM will increase considerably in the years to come. The high rate of placement of the past batches of PGDM-RM graduates is an indicator in this direction.
On successful completion of their studies, the outgoing students of PGDM-RM will be absorbed in NGOs, Development Agencies, Government Services and also Commercial Organizations, through a systematic placement procedure of the Institute, provided the students are able to put in hard work in the subjects covered and are proficient in English.
For its successful student, XIDAS organizes their first employment with NGOs, and development organizations. The Institute also offers to the outgoing students research or fieldwork opportunities in its own projects, if projects require human resources at a particular time.
The above are moral obligations and not legally binding commitments. Moreover, the job placement opportunities depend very much on the performance of individual students, their conduct during the course, their hard work, etc. In other words, the Institute can play an active role in finding a suitable placement only to those who extend their full cooperation throughout the course.
Hence, while the Institute takes upon itself the moral obligation to find a suitable placement for all its successful students, this moral obligation is dependent on the level of cooperation and collaboration it receives from each student. This implies that student attends all the lectures, unless there are compelling reasons to be absent, is faithful and punctual in submitting the assignments, makes commendable progress in the written and spoken English language, conducts himself/herself commendably throughout the year, etc. The moral obligation to find a suitable placement is applicable only to such students. A student who does not fulfill these expectations of the management, will have to find placement by himself/herself and the Institute will not be responsible for his/her placement.
The PGDM-RM course has been a success as the placement record and the feedback from our Alumni clearly demonstrate. Since the inception of the course, the placements have been 100%. Some of these organization are as follows: CAPART, BASIX, MADHYA PRADESH RURAL LIVELIHOOD PROJECT (MPRLP), FES, AWARE, PRATHAM, PRIA, BAIF, WOTR, CASA.
