The top
MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR are business schools with a difference. While it may
be fashionable for MBA students to aim for placements, CEOs to aim for ESOPs
and corporations to aim for shareholder value maximization and for business
school academicians to engage in academic research, the authentic truth is that
the habitat that shelters each of these stakeholder groups has been at the
receiving end of things. On April22, 2016 Ishan Institute of Management &
Technology takes a deep insightful look at the economics of climate change and
the rationale behind this negligence of gargantuan proportions. On Earth Day
the academicians, staff and students of the first business school of Greater
Noida come together to present you this insight on the economics of global
climate change.
The Free Rider Problem, Tragedy of Commons and Treating
Environment as a Waste Sink
A vast
majority of the literature available on the issue of environmental management
and environmental economics is driven by the exclusive focus on private goods
and invisible hand of the market. It makes enormous great sense to suggest that
the environment on local, national and even the global levels falls into the
domain of public goods and therefore cannot be streamlined by relying on the
invisible hand of the market unless it is strengthened by the visible hand of
the government. Public finance as an academic discipline is rarely ever taught
or discussed by business schools. Most MBA Colleges in the world and India do
not integrate this paper into the academic curriculum and academicians of the
highest stature who have the intellectual capabilities to break open the
shackles leave much to be desired in terms of serious academic efforts to bring
the subject into mainstream business education. It is worthwhile to recall the
famous essay of the legendary MIT academician Naom Chomsky –“The Responsibility
of Intellectuals” and thus seriously demand an explanation from academicians of
business schools on the colossal torpidity shown by them on something as
important as climate change.
Coming
back to the core issue of environment and its stature as a public good, we
bring into focus the properties of public goods. These are as follows:
·
Non-rivalry
·
Non-excludability
These
two characteristics features are applicable to the global environment. Being
characterized by non-rivalry implies that the consumption of the environment by
few does not leave any less of it for consumption by other consumers. Being
characterized by non-exclusivity implies that consumers who do not pay the
price in lieu of consumption cannot be stopped from consumption. These two
properties combine to give rise to the free rider problem and the tragedy of commons. In
the context of welfare economics these two phenomena can be viewed as negative
externalities that motivate business leaders, corporations, micro, small and
medium enterprises and governments to dump pollutants into the environment
without having to bother about paying the price. Of course this issue has been
tackled by some governments in the form of imposition of carbon credits and mandatory disclosure of carbon emissions, water
negativity and other forms of quantitative reporting in social audit reports.
Some corporations have also embraced green
accounting. The truth is that micro, small and medium enterprises that are
the lesser mortals in the world of climate change bear the brunt of these
government policies and bleed financially while the big fish are just too big
to be caught in the net of regulators.
Corporate Actions and
International Inactions: Data on the Robber Barons and Knights in Shining
Armour
A
research done by the Climate Accountability Institute shows conclusive evidence
that half of the quantum of carbon emissions have taken place in the last 25
years and that more than 2/3rd of the same has been a direct outcome
of the carbon emissions by just 90 companies worldwide. According to the
leading English daily from United Kingdom, The
Guardian this list of 90 companies includes 50 investor owned companies, 31
of them being public sector companies from Saudi Arabia, Russia and Norway.
There are 9 government-run industries producing coal in countries like China,
the former Soviet Union, North Korea and Poland. There are also comments coming
from Harvard academia like Prof. Naomi Oreskes, who assert that Mexico,
Venezuela and other Latin American countries that are not uttered and hence get
the benefits of doubt. Contrary to this statement, one is baffled at the
silence of these esteemed institutions on the fact that Mexico, Venezuela and a
host of other Latin American and African nations were enslaved and colonized by
west European nations for mining and resource expropriation as suggested in the
documentary The End of Poverty
featuring economists Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Raghuram
Rajan. The consequence is that the robber barons play knights in
shining armour while deploring the emerging economies.
International Community and
Climate Change
All
has not been lost and the paradise can be regained. Given that there has been
international action on deliberations at the highest level within the framework
of the United Nations Climate Change Conference suggests that there is light at
the end of the tunnel. The sad part is that despite the existence of evidence
and empirical data on corporate actions and colonial regimes of governments,
there is no consensus on achieving inter-temporal equilibrium with regard to
climate change. Despite the fact that most top MBA Colleges, business schools,
governments, corporations and business leaders knowing the history of science
and the inverted U-Hypothesis of Simon
Kuznets, there is a lack of organizational will to turn the clock back and
set the record straight. Here is the complete list of meetings that have taken
place under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
What Have We Done as a Top MBA
College in Delhi NCR?
At
Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, we have undertaken efforts to
be a part of the climate change campaign in letter and spirit. As an MBA
College in Greater Noida, we have included 3 case studies into the academic
curriculum of the paper of strategic management and discussed the solutions to
the cases on climate change and social audit report preparation. We have
integrated 2 case studies on free rider problem and tragedy of commons in the
paper of business environment. We have also streamlined and added 3 case
studies on carbon emissions in the paper of business ethics and corporate
governance. Beside this Ishan Institute of Management & Technology hosted
the first Global Value and Ethics
Convention that saw participation from150 delegates from more than 25
countries in the year 2014. As an education enterprise of the 21st
century we have made disciplined efforts towards reducing the usage of plastics
and non-recyclable materials, reusing stationary items and recycling processes
for higher energy efficiency and a lower carbon footprint. We have also taken
up the cause of animal activism and expressed our support for the ethical
treatment of animals.
On
a concluding note, as a top MBA College in Delhi NCR and the first graduate
business school of Greater Noida, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of
our students Himanshu Gurjar (Department of Arhcitecture), Sagar Singh Solanki
and Bhim Prakash (Department of Management), Mansi Verma, Praveen Kashyap and
Aril Wadia (Department of Commerce) for contributing their collage collections
themed on climate change in Delhi NCR during Kshitiz 2016-the annual fest of
Ishan.