february 2014
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magis
05
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and excellence as the prime concerns of the
HRD ministry. Expansion from both govern-
ment and private sector is vital in empowering
human resources of the country he said.
“Equity is about reaching the unreached,
including the excluded — people left out of
education because of their gender, because of
distance, caste, religion, language,” empha-
sised Dr Raju. He pointed out the importance
of RTE and its ability to bridge the discrimina-
tion gap. He also assured that in coming years
his ministry would focus on imparting quality
education. The HRD minister accepted that in
the process of fulfilling expansion and equity
in education excellence was often overlooked.
Achieving quality education is a step-by-step
process and considerable emphasis needs to be
laid on each of the indicators, he added.
“Holistic education grounded in ethics is
what we need to make JRD’s dream — of In-
dia becoming a happy country — come to frui-
tion,” he stressed. Higher education must pay
more attention to helping students understand
how to lead ethical, reflective and fulfilling
lives.
Moving to ethics in business, Dr Raju
opined that to have just financial integrity
was not enough. Bearing social and ethical
responsibility should be an essential prac-
tice in the corporate world. “Even in busi-
ness education, a strong ethics education
can help counteract a narrowing world view
that often accompanies a student’s progres-
sion through business school,” he said. In
many B-schools the subject is not treated
as a serious responsibility by faculty and
administration. The HRD minister praised
XLRI for being the first B-school in the coun-
try to introduce a core course on Managerial
Ethics for its programmes. The institute also
awards the best student in the course at its an-
nual convocation.
Taking a leaf from MK Gandhi and Jawa-
harlal Nehru’s teachings, Dr. Raju insisted that
politics should be a branch of ethics too. Nehru
always laid great emphasis on the importance
of right means to achieve right ends.
The HRD minister called for the creation
of not mere managers but leaders that will
help India achieve its rightful place in the
world. The next generation of leaders, whether
in education, politics or business, must en-
gage their passion in the direction of India’s
growth to create a society that promotes ethical
leadership.
Please write to us at
Dr Pallam Raju Mallipudi, Minis-
ter of HRD, Government of India,
graduated with a Bachelor of Engi-
neering from Andhra University, Vi-
sakhapatnam, India. He completed
his MBA from Temple University,
Philadelphia, the USA. He has been
the first minister in the Ministry of
Defence to fly the frontline fighter
Sukhoi-30 MKI in March 2011.
He was conferred a Fellow by the
Institute of Electronics and Tele-
communication Engineers (IETE) in
2006 and an Honorary Doctorate
by the Jawaharlal Nehru Techno-
logical University, Hyderabad in
2008. He was conferred the
Doctor of Humane Letters by
Temple University in May
2013.
Dr Pallam Raju Mallipudi
Equity is about
reaching the
unreached,
including the
excluded —
people left out of
education because
of gender, caste,
religion, language
