In view of the above backdrop this section lays out the critical objectives the academy must meet in developing leadership capacity of individuals and organizations; during the initial period (the 5 to 7 years) the academy should serve three essential functions:
Leadership programs for undergraduate and graduate students
For undergraduate and graduate students the curriculum will ensure every year student during his/her stay at IIT KGP takes at least 1 week of leadership workshops/exercises:
During the first two years of undergraduate curriculum and first year of graduate curriculum, students will be offered workshops on (i) systems engineering thinking to connect multiple dots from multiple perspectives (ii) structuring and analyzing socio-economic and technological issues facing the nation and (iii) creative problem solving and communication skills, - to develop the confidence in addressing complex problems and evolve unorthodox solutions
During the third and fourth years of undergraduate curriculum and second year of graduate curriculum students will be offered mini- leadership projects at least for 1 week to test and develop the 3PIs[ 3PIs include three powers Power of Intellect, Power Intuition, Power of Interconnectivity to enhance the power to influence positive outcomes. Partha S Ghosh developed the 3PI leadership model which has been tried, tested, refined and proven-in various environments across the world] through class room sessions and team activities on fundamental issues that effect peoples lives at the base of the pyramid
In addition the academy will organize projects (length and content of the projects to be determined later) focused on base of the pyramid (BOP) issues of the nation, which students could participate as electives; at the beginning it could focus on couple of rural areas such as Lakhikantapur where Partha S Ghosh along with The Boston Pledge have a plan to develop Rural Innovation Center of Enterprising (RICE)
Corporate Development Programs
For working executives in the subcontinent eventually the world from technology based businesses, the academy will organize 2 days to 1 week long leadership development workshops on self-reflection and self discovery to be more effective in their work environment – particularly in addressing strategic issues & in inspiring organizations towards higher level purpose
In addition to develop strategic relationships with industry, the academy will conduct Innovation Olympics to solve problems and address frontier issues offered by industry. Third year and/or fourth year undergraduate students will be encouraged to work with local high school students to prepare for the Olympics. It is hoped that this approach will help IIT students to – (i) test the lessons they have learnt during the first two years in the process refine their understanding of themselves, (ii) connect with local high schools, while developing creative solutions (products, services) for companies who will sponsor the Olympics
Furthermore in order to enrich the above programs the academy in association with industry will promote research on leadership by exploring how knowledge resident in ancient philosophies could be resurrected and fused with new thoughts emerging in leading business schools and centers of leadership development, including the IP available at the academy & IIT Kharagpur in general. This will ensure that on the long-term the academy becomes an important partner to industry and society in general.
Leadership support (Macro economy): Country Strategy
The academy will develop and renew (every 3 years) country strategy to offer to the leadership of the nation – government, industry and academia the basic strategic direction the nation must consider to follow in securing competitive advantage in specific industries
In view of the country strategy, the academy will present to the nation white paper on how Indian industry and academia will pursue advancement of emerging technologies (in partnership with leading centers of higher learning or indigenous development) – such as AI led agro productivity, bio/genome sciences, renewable energy, smart low cost transportation etc.
