Before the course starts, the Tata Fellows travel on a 9-10 days Yatra with the faculty members of these courses, which acts as a precursor to building a perspective on development through the two courses. The course content has changed the perception among the Tata Fellows and other students, and has helped bring in familiarity to development challenges.

About MNG 629 and 630:

The two courses are Institute Electives – MNG 629 and MNG 630 – designed to acquaint the Tata Fellows and other students with perspectives on developmental issues, and equip them with the requisite skills and methodologies, emphasizing both on problem identification and solving. Thus, these courses are built on three focus areas: perspective building, skill building & application (frameworks, theories and models applied to real-time projects) and social entrepreneurship.

Learning Objectives:

The courses intend to enable Tata Fellows and other Master’s and Doctoral students to

1. Build a perspective on development and BoP communities;
2. Learn different problem-solving approaches and research designs (both qualitative and quantitative) for need identification and need validation;
3. Understand broad frameworks used in Development using Technology and Design and Social Entrepreneurship (like Stakeholder Analysis, Diffusion of Innovation, New Product Development process, Systems Thinking Approach, Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas for Social Organizations, Go-to-Market Strategies) using documented & real case studies & industry interactions.

The course pedagogy is interactive with a combination of project work, along with seminars, discussions, and workshops. Overtime, it has evolved to encompass a unique blend of lectures by the Institute faculty members and industry professionals, case studies of failed and successful innovations targeted to the BoP segments which are followed by interaction with the respective companies, and in-class and field activities.

About the Lab Course:

Students are exposed and trained on various mechanical and electrical fabrication tools and machines. The course emphasizes on project-based learning and students are required to build gadgets with the desired functionality. This lab course on technology and design (CL 724) aims to help students understand the challenges of designing and implementing technology solutions in the BoP segments.