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Babudom was not for him
Prof SUSHIL Kumar was jobless on October 1, 2004. Jobless, by choice, that is. For, he could have easily become a bureaucrat or settled down as a successful NRI in Canada. Just before chucking up his job, he had served the Indian Forest Service (IFS) for 16 years and had been selected for the restigious $40,000 postdoctoral fellowship by Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and had been selected for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), besides.
Prof SUSHIL Kumar was jobless on October 1, 2004. Jobless, by choice, that is.
For, he could have easily become a bureaucrat or settled down as a successful NRI in Canada. Just before chucking up his job, he had served the Indian Forest Service (IFS) for 16 years and had been selected for the restigious $40,000 postdoctoral fellowship by Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and had been selected for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), besides.
He didn’t want to continue as a bureaucrat for he wanted to become an academician. Having completed his PhD on ‘Resistance to change in bureaucracy’ he perhaps knew the pitfalls of settling for a bureaucrat’s life for the rest of his life.
He didn’t settle abroad, for his heart longed for India.
Still, when he tendered his resignation as an IFS officer (he was posted in Ambala then), everybody was surprised. For Sushil Kumar—BSc in Agriculture, MSc in Genetics and PhD in management—however, the decision was made.
“Actually, my PhD supervisor and co-supervisor both asked me when I was in Canada on a two year study leave what I wanted to do next. Even as I contemplated, they suggested, that I join academics. Since, that was what I also desired, I guess, that was it,” Prof Sushil Kumar told HT WE.
At IIM-L, where he applied immediately after returning from Canada and was selected in its Agriculture Management Centre (AMC), Prof Sushil got an opportunity to realise both his dreams—come back to India and take to academics. In April, 2005, he joined the Centre and soon, became its chairman.
With his experience, he immediately started making a difference. The placements took place soon after he joined. And, though he wasn’t the chairman then, many on the campus here admit that it was Prof Kumar’s “brilliant rapport” with the industry that resulted in some top recruiters making a beeline to lap up the Agriculture Management grads.
For the next placements that would be due on March next, Prof Kumar has already started receiving calls from various corporate houses expressing a desire to come over for the placements.
“We are expecting a good placement season this time. Last time was very good.
This time we hope to better our performance,” Prof Kumar said. Besides, he is already thinking of how to send his students abroad to get the exposure they would require early.
“In Italy, next year there is a symposia being organised by the International Food & Agri-Business Association. I have asked my students to write papers and send them. If their papers are accepted, they may travel to Italy. I have assured the students that I would raise the funds for them to travel,” he says.
What’s more, based on his extensive field experience, he started an entirely new course in AMC.
“The course titled ‘Emerging Issues’ deals with those issues that are not bookish in nature. You learn a lot from books but then you learn best through practice. And, that is why we have kept this course open ended in nature. Anything and everything that is relevant is taken up as it is not a structured course,” he added. But then, he is not just the chairman of AMC. He is also the Prof in-charge of Corporate Communications & Media Relations.
Tough task? He smiles.
In this role too, Prof Sushil Kumar has started making a difference.
The two-page black and white IIM-L newsletter was revised and now it’s an 11-page colour publication. It is sent to the faculty, staff, students besides all global business schools.
The IIM-L website too has been updated. “It would be restructured further so as to incorporate all relevant details,” he adds.
