BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY

Area: Centre for Public Policy

Term 3: Core Course
Faculty: Arnab Mukherji
Course Objective
Business success depends significantly on managers’ understanding of the environment and
context in which business is conducted. The course is designed with the following main
objectives:
a) Provide an overview of the political, social and institutional context in which business
rise, grow, or die.
b) Reason critically when presented with multi-layered contexts around business,
government and society

Pre-requisites (if any)

No pre-requisites. Please bring your scepticism to class.

Readings
Cases will be provided in a binder.
Session specific readings will also be assigned and circulated via Moodle.
Pedagogy
This is a multi-disciplinary and ever evolving course. While relevant concepts and some
historical narratives will be provided in class, this will be augmented with, case scenarios to
juxtapose contemporary issues, historic evolution of conflicts across groups and how markets
navigate them in the context of different levels of government and governance in India. The
core reading will constitute the minimum required reading. Additional pieces, video and news
items, will be uploaded on the parallel Moodle micro-site for BGS.

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 Grading and Evaluation
Grading and evaluation will involve four components – midterm exam, end-term exam (2
hours, closed book), weekly group submissions, and a team project.

Table 1: Grading Components and their Evaluation

S. No. Component Weightage

1 Weekly Group Submissions 20%
1 Mid Term Exam 30%
2 End Term Exam 30%
3 Team Project Report 20%

*Attendance is mandatory for 3 Guest Lectures. Non-attending students will get drop of 0.5
grade for each missing guest lectures.
Preparing for Weekly Group Submission: In total, there will be four group submissions. Each
section will be assigned a question from the readings in the course outline one day prior to its
discussion in class. Students are required to write a 1 page response to a question and submit
it before the class starts. The same will be discussed on the class.
Some details on the Team Project: The project gives students an opportunity to examine
issues involving Business, Government and Society arise in real-world settings. Groups of
around 5-6 students will be constituted by PGP Office. Topics will be finalized after
consulting instructors.

Project Theme Clearance:
Interim Project Report:
Presentation of Projects:
Final Project Deadline:
Dates to Remember
7th January 2019 (Monday)
30th January 2019 (Wednesday)
1-page non-graded submission; Non- submission will get drop
of 0.5 grade.
6th and 7th March 2019 (Last two sessions)
18th March 2019 (Monday)

Business

Session No. 1 Evolution of the Corporation

Readings:

Transcending Economies, Transcending Economics, MS Sriram summarizing Edmund S.

Phelps, (2015) Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and
Change, Princeton University Press.

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Session No. 2 Pre-Market structures facilitating business
Readings:

Multiple Authors, (2013) Special Issue on “The Glivec Precedent”, Economic and Political
Weekly, Vol. XLVIII No.32, pages 41 – 57.

(Read pieces by Graham Dutfeild, Amit Sengupta, Anand Grover, Carlos M Correa, Leena
Meghaney, and K. M. Gopa Kumar)

Government

Session No. 3 Democracy and Society

Readings:

Chang, H. J. (2010). How to' do' a developmental state: political, organisational and human
resource requirements for the developmental state. Constructing a democratic developmental
state in South Africa: Potentials and challenges, 82-96.

Session No. 4 Classic and Current views on Market Failures and Regulation
Readings:

Case: Avjeet Singh and Henry Lee (2009). “New Delhi Water and Power”, HBS Case No.
HKS103

Session No. 5 Growth and Development

Readings:

a) Chapters 2 and 3- Arvind Pangariya and Jagdish Bhagwati. (2014). India’s tryst with
Destiny. HarperCollins.
b) Breaking the Silence – Why we don’t talk about inequality – and how to start again by
Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Society
Session No. 6 Media
Readings:

Gupta, S. (2005). Post-liberalisation India: How free is the media? South Asia: Journal of
South Asian Studies, 28(2), 283-300.

Summary: A Propaganda Model, Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky (Excerpted from
Manufacturing Consent, 1988)

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Session No. 7 The Flashpoints – Land
Readings:

Case: Alfaro, Laura, and Lakshmi Iyer. "Special Economic Zones in India: Public Purpose
and Private Property (A)." Harvard Business School Case 709-027, December 2008.
&

Alfaro, Laura, Lakshmi Iyer, and Namrata Arora. "Tata Motors in Singur: Public Purpose
and Private Property (B)." Harvard Business School Case 709-029, February 2009.

Session No. 8 The Flashpoints –Labour

Readings:

a) “What Really Happened at Maruti” http://www.tehelka.com/2013/06/first-on-tehelka-

what-really-happened-at-maruti/
b) Nike in Indonesia Sweatshop Video

Session No. 9 & 10 Diversity in India: Gender, Caste and Religion: Cleavage and Bonds
Readings:

Gender: Jayachandran, Seema. 2015. “The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing

Countries.” Annual Review of Economics 7: 63–88
Caste: Desai, Sonalde & Dubey, Amaresh. (2012). Caste in 21st Century India: Competing
Narratives. Economic and political weekly. 46. 40-49.
Religion: Varshney & Ray book review

Sectors of the Economy

Session No. 11 Sectoral Narratives for Agriculture

Readings:

a) Beyond the green revolution - M. S.Swaminathan. No.589, September 2008

b) Contract Farming for Agricultural Development- Sukhpal Singh, The Center for
Management in Agriculture (CMA), Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Session No. 12 Sectoral Narratives for Education

Readings:

Chapter 5 - Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. (2013). An Uncertain Glory: India & its
Contradictions. Allen Lane.

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Session No. 13 Sectoral Narratives for Health
Readings:

Case: To Rx or not - Mainstreaming Informal Providers. Arnab Mukherji, IIMB and Althaf
Shajahan, NIT Calicut.

Sen, Gita & Iyer, Aditi. (2015). Health Policy in India: Some Critical Concerns. 154-170.
10.1057/9781137384935_10.

Session No. 14 Sectoral Narratives for Environment

Readings:

Porter, M.E and Linde C (1995) Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate. Harvard
Business Review

In context: the world and wrap-up

Session No. 15 Globalization and Changing Contexts and Wrap-up

No readings

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