The Mandevian Blog

This post is about the Recent trip to Paris by Prateek Goel and Shubhi Gupta, where they went on become the runners up of the event-Go Green in the City challenge conducted by Schneider Electric.This post is written by one of the team members-Prateek Goel.

After days of struggle and thousands of calls, and e-mails we finally had our Visas in our hands. This was about 30 odd hours before we actually had to leave for the destination. Anyways, given the way the next 5 days went, it was all worth it!!
Our flight was via Dubai, the “feel” came at the Dubai airport, which I think has the best shopping zone I’ve ever known!!.. But the highlight of the journey was the AIRBUS 380 that took us from Dubai to Paris. Had always dreamt of being in A380 and Emirates fulfilled it. The latest and the most advanced, needless to say the biggest passenger plane is an experience to remember.
On arrival in Paris, we were welcomed by the Schneider Team, who then took us to the Hotel Suite Novotel, where the stay was arranged for all the finalists. The very sight of the grand rooms made us forget our jetlag. A high tea at Hive, the Schneider head office in Paris had been arranged for all of us. It was here that we met the other finalists from about 9 countries across the world for the first time. There were teams from Germany, Russia, Vietnam, China, USA, Turkey, Brazil, France and Korea. With 9 out of 25 teams from India, Schneider too acknowledged the immense talent of the Indians. A noisy introduction to each other ensued, which was brought short for a hectic next day.

The next day began early with everyone reporting to the venue at 8:30 am. We had three workshops on Networking works, Team Building exercises and Dress your Career. In between the workshops, teams were giving presentations of their idea to the two independent panels behind closed doors. Our presentation was immensely appreciated by all the panellists for our creativity and for the very simple yet innovative idea. The day was followed by an excellent boat ride on the River Seine, a must see Paris attraction. The breathtaking view of Paris from the boat will be an experience to remember forever.
Next day Schneider had arranged our internship interviews followed by a few more experiential workshops. The highlight of the day was the Schneider International Customer Lounge which displayed the latest technological innovations from Schneider. The best part of our trip was announced in the evening; we were declared runners up of the Schneider GoGreenInTheCity competition. What followed next was an experience in itself; best wishes poured in from all sides followed by our video and a photo session of all winners. It was an exhilarating feeling and a perfect end to a perfect day. Post celebrations at the Hive, we took leave and visited the Eiffel Tower. The view of the illuminated Paris from top of the Eiffel tower was without doubt the most breathtaking sight ever!!
Over the next two days we were on our own. We lived the French life. Loads of shopping, French croissants, street performances, more food, more shopping, and not to mention the “parade” (cannot be explored here), Travelling through the metros, visit to Louvre, finally checking out the MONA LISA, eating by the river, shopping on the world famous champs elysees aka Fashion Street, Notre Dam Cathedral, Arc de Triumph, Roadside Cafes, and roaming in the most beautiful weather and the most beautiful city.
By the time we were to head back we had just enough energy to do some last minute shopping at the Charles De Gaulle and later the Dubai Airport.
The 5 days that went in blink of an eye were without doubt the most memorable days of our lives. But we had little knowledge of what all good things were waiting to happen once we were back. The media coverage that we have received was the icing on the cake.
As they say in Paris: Paris pour un jour, Paris toujours

MDI had welcomed the 11th batch of its doctoral program through a induction ceremony attended by Director of MDI, Prof V.K Gupta and other faculty members. Prof. Asha Bhandarkar began the induction ceremony by providing brief history of the FPM and EFPM programs to the new entrants.

FPM began in 1999 with 1 student being selected to the program after rigorous selection process. EFPM program was designed to help the industry executives in their research endeavours. EFPM was launched in 2004 with 4 students being inducted. Current batch is the largest batch with 30 students belonging to both FPM and EFPM. There would be 69 fpm students and 71 EFPM students, inclusive of the 11th batch, doing their research thesis in MDI. 30 FPM and 4 EFPM students have completed their doctorate. All the 4 EFPM students have cleared in 2011. Average time for completion of thesis for EFPM is 5-6 years.

Academics has became a choice of career for doctoral students. FPM and EFPM students of MDI have became faculty members of IIT Mumbai, IIM Kozhikode, ISB Hyderabad, XLRI, NIRMA, ITM and other renowned institutes. Prof. Asha Bhandarkar had also emphasized on the importance of research with examples of Biocon and other initiatives. She pointed out  that research initiatives and endeavours in India are still behind many countries. Research aptitude needs to be generated among the students. Students who like to think beyond the scope of the standard course or work are best suitable to go into research projects.

Once Prof. Bhandarkar completed her speech, Honourable Director took over and welcomed the new students and wished them their best in their efforts. He too emphasized on research and mentioned how research is crucial for India’s growth. Incidentally, he himself had sacrificed his career in industry to do research and academics. These speeches motivated students and generated a belief in them that their efforts would, directly or indirectly, help India to improve its position in R&D field.

MDI is proud to have a music culture. It has an in-house band known as ManDolins. ManDolins, as the name suggests, had got its name from ManDevians, the name by which students of MDI are known. The exact date of formation of this band is not clear yet. The composition of ManDolins changes year after year with more and more music enthusiasts joining it. The best part about this informal band is that it doesn’t have an upper cap on the number of students joining it. The common thread that binds all of them is their unbridled passion for music.

The basement of the Change Masters Hostel offers a haven for the Mandolins, where the jam sessions would take place regularly. As quoted by one of the Mandolin, these sessions are like an oasis in the middle of deserts providing reliefs from standard B-school pressures.

Each Mandolin may have been influenced by different genres, and takes extra effort to reach a common point. In the process of reach common point, each member gets valuable knowledge on music through others.

At MDI, there is lot of opportunities for the band to showcase their talent. They play at competitions, fests, fundraisers, alumni meets, bonfire nights, freshers welcome party and the farewell party. Sometimes, if an elaborate set up is difficult to establish, all that is required is a guitar, and they are ready for a musical evening of acoustic guitar.

The junior batch has just begun settling down on campus and the Rangmanch has showcased a large number of music enthusiasts. They can be seen jamming every evening after classes get over. Batches after batches have kept the music tradition of MDI alive and reaffirmed the stance that music is intrinsic part of all the Mandevians.

New Members are busy Practising

For the uninitiated, SEED is the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation focusing on nurturing environment of entrepreneurship in MDI and beyond. It also facilitates incubation, mentorship and infrastructure support for budding entrepreneurs.

The session primarily consisted of invigorating pep talks from budding entrepreneurs who are studying in the college and also from those who have passed out. Firstly, there was Shrey Sehgal who belongs to the second year of the PGPM batch 2010-12 who talked about why he chose to be an entrepreneur and what it takes to be a successful one. Shrey, as he is fondly called by his friends, has already started a company by the name Floweraura.com which is into the business of online and retail business of flowers to different parts of the country which has recently opened a new branch office in Gurgaon. In the words of Shrey, it is not the money but the sheer challenge of starting something of your own, that drew him towards the path of entrepreneurship. Also, according to him how passionate a person is towards his mission decides how successful his enterprise can be.

Then there was Hitesh Kyal, who belongs to the batch of 2009-2011 and who has started a Bihar based-BPO company called Frugal InfoTech, had to add that when someone badly wants to become an entrepreneur, he has to direct all his energies towards it and not get into the trap of certification exams or placements. Then there was Puneet who passed out from MDI in the year 2007 and later on worked in Oracle for a few years before planning to start a firm of his own. He delivered some sagely advice to the students when he said that an Entrepreneur is someone who gets his head and heart straight and in sync with each other. He also went on to say that, Entrepreneurship is all about living by your own way which doesn’t just necessarily mean starting a firm of your own but could be preparing for an exam or doing something which you always wanted to do. He also quoted the example of his friend who quit his high paying job at a major Bank much against the wishes of his parents and prepared for the Civil services, which he was eventually crack it with an AIR of 73.

The whole session was monitored by Prof. Rohit Prasad who was hugely successful in keeping the attention levels of the audience high with his trademark sense of humor and spontaneity. All in all, the students felt that the session was very informative and insightful as they came to know about the different aspects of being an Entrepreneur and also were enlightened about the different services provided by SEED to the budding entrepreneurs of MDI.

– By Vivek Mogili

Already a lot has been written, spoken and heard about the triple disaster strike (Earthquake on Mar 11, 2011 that triggered a Tsunami which eventually led to the radiation leakage at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant) that wreaked havoc in Japan.

Even though it’s a tad too late to write an article on this catastrophe, I would like to share some reflections on the incidents that took place post the aftermath and how important is Japan to the global economy.

No one can deny that Japan is a very important cog in the wheel of the global economy. Some of the major Industries of Japan include the Automotives, Semiconductors and steel industry. There have been plant shutdowns for automobile giants like Toyota, Honda and Nissan and also there have been major disruptions along the global supply chain due to the frequent power shutdowns and major destructions to their manufacturing units. Japan which is the world’s fifth largest manufacturer of semiconductors with the presence of giants like Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshibha, also took a severe hit due to this earthquake which measured 9 on the Richter scale. In fact, it has been said that Japan has been experiencing the biggest humanitarian crisis after the WW II which saw the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the wake of this incident, the whole world got a chance to see in close quarters how the Japanese reacted to this incident. There was no squabbling for resources, people weren’t selfish to hoard the items (like food, clothes and other necessities) for themselves and their family members but were only taking things that were just sufficient for the next couple of days, thereby giving others a chance to got those things. There was no looting or rioting which is usually witnessed after any event of such magnitude. In fact during the distribution of the things like clothes, tents, food and other resources, people used to stand in queues and untoward incidents like squabbling, pushing or jumping the queue never used to happen. And when the resources were exhausted, the people who were still remaining and yet to receive anything used to leave the place without murmuring or uttering anything or showing the slightest sign of dissent. There were also reports of close to 50 workers working tirelessly and courageously in the radiation ridden plant and trying to alleviate the situation to the best of their efforts. All these things have only brought the impeccable work ethics of the Japanese to the fore. Well, if all these acts can be considered to be truly selfless by any set of standards, here comes the mother of all such acts-When there was wide spread speculation about the water being contaminated by radiation, the mayor of the Tokyo city along with his subordinates drank tap water in front of the public in order to dispel such fears. This symbolic gesture speaks volumes about the mayor him selves and also about the culture and social environment in which he has been brought in.

Japanese are a quintessential embodiment of what they call as “FUKUTSU NO SENSEI” which means never give up. They are known for their fortitude and perseverance. When the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place, every one wrote off Japan saying that it would take at least an hundred years for them to rebuild and get back to a position where they were before the bombing. But, the Japanese made all their critics eat humble pie by becoming the world’s second largest economy in a 50 years and becoming a superpower from totally devastated state, all with the help of their unprecedented determination and hard work. Mother Nature played havoc with their lives, she has taken away their homes, their livelihoods and their lives in some cases, but what she cannot take and to that matter no force can ever take is their SPIRIT. They have overcome Humanitarian crises of unprecedented magnitudes in the past and no one sees any reason why they can’t do it now.

If you are interested to know more about this topic, these are some of the links which I found to be very insightful and informative. Do check it if you have time.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-07/news/29392491_1_young-couple-japanese-master-ritual-suicide

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/04/23/a-strange-new-world-in-the-tsunami-zone/?mod=earthquake

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703858404576214994145507626.html

Do share your thoughts on this subject and any comments are most welcome and highly appreciated.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely that of the author and CorpCom neither approves nor disapproves the same.

Learning at MDI started before I could reach the campus for my Public Policy and Management (PPM) programme. Before reaching Gurgaon , I inquired about MDI from my local friends and all of them said that it is just near the ‘Ghora Chowk’. But on  D-day when I  reached the chowk, I found a statue of Maharana Pratap sitting on top of a horse. Puzzled by its name ‘Ghora Chowk’ I asked the autowalla spontaneously-”why is this chowk  not called Maharana Pratap Chowk?” He glanced at me quizzically and  smiled as if doubting my suitability to join MDI - “You seem new to MDI, No problem sir! Very soon you will learn that it is called difference of perspective.” Keeping my mouth shut will be the right strategy to fix his doubt - I decided in a hurry. But it is precisely then that  I  learned my first lesson of MDI which always proved to be the last resort whenever I encountered a formidable opponent - “sorry sir, it is a difference of perspective”.

In the first term itself I became virtuous in MDI. I acquired the much praised virtue ‘Empathy’. At first, I found myself very close to ‘Trishanku’- the mythical character trapped between heaven and earth. I began to feel his agony  when I found myself caught between so many binaries- PP and M, Public and Private, Efficiency and Equality, Governance and Management, Inflation and Growth, Assets and Liabilities and finally Nalanda and Kshitij. But somehow I managed  by adjusting my ‘self’ in between the two boundaries. When third term came by, I realized that my empathy was increasing at an increasing rate. Now I could feel empathetic to most lesser mortals also. For example, I could hardly distinguish myself from the washerman’s dog is discarded by both parties - the Ghar and the Ghat. In a desperate attempt to save at least my ‘Ghar’ I called my boss last Sunday evening.

“Good evening sir! How are you?”

“I am fine. How is your course?”

I realized it was a closed-end research question with only one option available - “fine sir”

“Ok! (Pause)… What are you learning these days?”

A quick search result popped up in my mind - ‘No item found’.

Then suddenly out of thin air came the response- “change management sir…we are learning how to manage change in organizations”

“Oh! That’s great. Many things have changed here. Your office has been ‘changed’- to the corner building, just in front of the toilet. See, how we care for your ‘conveniences’. We have changed your accommodation also. You requested for a bigger space so we have allotted you the biggest garage we could find. Come soon and manage them. We will keep on changing things. This will improve your implementation skills”

I was shocked. So far we have been taught that change should always be welcomed. We had removed the barriers of change so many times in the class. But this time I wished to put a big ‘No’ before this change.

“Why have you changed them sir?”

“You know, the only thing which can’t be changed is change itself”- appeared wirelessly.

“Another thing is MDI schedule” I wanted to utter, but could fumble only “Don’t worry. All will be well” My left hand moved to the chest suo-motu and felt the whisper rightly “All is well”.

The non-verbal communication achieved its goal very quickly because the verbal one ended abruptly. Sometimes we need network-failures too badly. When external noise ceases, internal becomes too chaotic to handle.

You can’t satisfy your wife’s inquisitiveness about your phone calls so easily. They always verify the empirical data to dig out the truth. That’s why when she asked about the recent call I admitted “it was from my second boss”. She acquitted me of my uncommitted crime with a frowned smile. But the acquittal came at a price.

“Go to the market quickly, otherwise it will turn costlier”  the first boss ordered. But this time none less than Krugman, backed me up.

“Don’t worry ,grocers are poor price takers. I will give them any price I want.”

“Keep these rubbish jargons to yourself and go soon” - She lost her patience.

I had to excuse her because the poor lady didn’t know the intricacies of competitive markets as I did. I rushed to the perfectly competitive market confidently.

Oh my God! At what profit margins were they selling their goods? I couldn’t even satisfy  my limited wants with the available resources. What went wrong with the theory? Then I realized that I forgot to factor in the fluctuation part of competitive markets. Demand had already outweighed the supply, well before I could reach the market. I decided to decrease my speed back home because I found formulating a counter strategy to my wife’s commonsense  a time consuming task.

This was not the first time I had  felt a commonsense-deficit in my life. In fact, learning commonsense was the primary reason for my joining the PPM program in  MDI. When I collected and analyzed the data of many successful officers in my service, I found ‘commonsense’ was the primary variable which decided their good posting and good relationship with their bosses. I was desperate to get this commonsense by hook or by crook. Hook came early so I didn’t wait for the crook and joined PPM at MDI. In MDI the most common method of teaching commonsense is the Case method. In this method they generally give us a case and then we are expected to ‘prepare’ and ‘produce’ the case in a given time and space framework. In one such case I didn’t dive deep in the meaning of ‘prepare’ and just came up with some simple apparent solution. I was over the moon to find out that I too have commonsense which was unknown to me till now, like gravity before Newton discovered it. But then came the lunar eclipse. They discarded my solutions like a band aid. - too simplistic, too superficial. I became sick as a parrot and had to consult the MDI doctor. The doctor prescribed a generic but potent medicine - ‘SWOT’. It worked wonders. I began to realize my ‘W’s clearly, which in turn lowered my ‘Ts’. Then I decided to work on my ‘S’s and started waiting for the new ‘Os’. The  ‘O’ came early when a new case floated into our limited cyber-space. This time I left no stone unturned. I came up with some highly uncommon solutions which one can never find with plain commonsense. I produced the case with greater warmth. But this time also, my luck didn’t favor me. They were heat-sensitive people who started throwing cold water as soon as they found the temperature increasing. After some evaporation, I became cold. One of my classmates came to my rescue. He raised the million dollar question- “After all, what is the answer?”

“There is no answer to a case problem” - they finally demystified.

This I couldn’t digest. My available meager sense revolted against this commonsense. If there is no solution then what the hell is the problem doing here.No way! I am not going to learn commonsense anymore - I vowed.

But this was not the end to my learning at MDI. Learning starts  with unlearning and then reaching to a stage of - ‘no more learning’. In between these two stages there exists a stage of ‘clear learning’. I am one of the fortunate ones who got the joy of this ‘clear learning’ though it happened accidentally. At that time I was struggling with the heavenly concepts of corporate governance like- Principal-Agent, Company-share/stake-holders, CSR etc. But then suddenly the Sun appeared in front of me.

“Look! Today we are going to Ambience Mall. Check your next salary on website. This will help us in making today’s expenditure plan” I mechanically checked my future income on the official website and agreed to get 10,000 from an ATM operation. With this capital of 10,000 we started our business of shopping. Unconventionally I started with CSR, though miserly. I tipped the guard 10 rupees who opened the glass door of the entrance. This initial propulsion gave a rocking start to our business. Saris, suits, cosmetics, parlor … I found more than half of my fuel burnt just to serve one stakeholder. The second stakeholders became impatient now. We had to diversify our expenditure. Toys, shoes, games, food…by the time I served my last stakeholder - the taxi walla- I had lost all my capital. The return journey from Ambience mall gave me a “Eureka” moment and  I suddenly realized why Prof. Rath always reiterated that “Company is Ram-Lala”. It serves all stakeholders but gets nothing in return.

Bimlesh Chandra Jha

Disclaimer: -The author is not responsible for any injuries to your emotional health on reading this article. You must visit your doctor for a surgery of your empathetic gland or else wait for the next episode which may work as an analgesic.

I woke up in the morning, thinking what do I need to do today??? No pitching for knowledge partners or sponsors, panelist bhi “Jam” Gaye hain, food baskets were also magically arranged. What do I do now? I have no work to do!! I am bored.

Well Delphique 2010 was extremely successful and bigger and better than ever before.
And the Delphique team is proud of it.

Even though we are all very happy that we managed a great event, I am now missing the preparations. The 3 hour meetings in the “Delphique war room no-1”, the running around to get little things like bouquets and name tags in place, preparing thank you speeches and the most tedious job of taking print outs.

But all this was the easier part of the work. What made all this actually happen was the hard work put in by the team for the past 5 months. Scurrying in autos and bikes on the bumpy roads of Gurgaon was a daunting task, with all the classes that we had to attend. Making innumerous calls to corporates, coordinating with our faculty.

All in all, looking back at it, it was a great experience, made many “contacts”
I met some great people, made some very good friends and shall miss being with the whole team .

On behalf of the entire Delphique team who “talked the walk”
Dude (Tarun), Yoyo (Hitesh), Chhota P (Rohan) , Poster boy (Sachin), Tokri waala (Piyush) , “T” sush (Sushma), Ravan (Vineet), Ra (Rahul Sharma) , James gujju patel (Deep), Harman ‘jamm gaya’ baweja , Flower waala (Rohit) , Vishwas (jispe amma ko vishwas nahi :p), Ritesh ‘entrepreneurship’ Nagpal , Pooja ‘communications’ Shrikhande, Himani , Nikhil ‘food’ sighal , Annapoorni (D&D speeches) , Deepika ‘printout’ Mangla , Jayneel, Kandarp, Madhur, Abhishek Singh, Shauvik (Taxi waala), Tanika, Urvashi, Pranshu , Swati ‘marathon’ Bhadada, Swathi Pasumarti

Signing off
Parul Malik

- Chhavi Gupta, PGHR 2010-12

This Children’s Day, I had the opportunity to be on the bus to Deepalaya School’s hostel with Team Samaritans and some of our student volunteers. Situated in Village Gusbethi, the place is just about an hour’s drive from MDI; but it seemed like it belonged to a different era altogether. The fact that it was a part of Gurgaon seemed unbelievable because for me Gurgaon was a ‘happening place’, a ‘corporate hub’, a ‘shopping haven’ et al. Deepalaya was way beyond all this. With echoes of innocent laughter, and the hustle & bustle of children playing around, the place had a soothing calm. It was serene.

As soon as the kids spotted us, they came running towards us, clung to us like we belonged there and called out to the familiar faces among us. First-time visitors like me weren’t left out. Kids clung to me with the same affection. That they were seeing me for the first time didn’t stop them from holding my hands with their little palms, pulling me into their hostel and introducing their friends to me. Then came an innocent question, “Didi, aap sab kitne din ke liye aaye ho? I said, “Hum toh aaj chale jayenge”. The little girl was so disappointed. She wanted to see more of these new faces. I explained to her that we hardly get any holidays and have loads to study, and diverted her attention to the fact that we were there to celebrate Children’s Day. She quizzed me on the activities for the day and was happy again!

I went there with the notion that those children were in need. I wanted to give them some happiness and make them smile for a while. I thought I enjoyed privileges that they didn’t. But it took me just a couple of minutes with them to realise how wrong I was. They have a twinkle in their eyes that I don’t witness too often. They have the ability to make themselves contented and happy with just about anything that comes their way. They know how to find joy in small things.

As Samaritans, we wanted to make Children’s Day special for those little angels and to a great extent we succeeded in bringing our idea to fruition. They thoroughly enjoyed all the activities we organised for them. Their happiness was so infectious that it touched us to the core. It takes most people a lifetime to gather as much love as these children gave us in a few hours.

We sure made them smile, we sure made their day but we didn’t give them anything that they didn’t give us back!

- Amit Papneja,  Sarcaustics (PJ10)

No matter how many birthdays we celebrate (read get our ass kicked),
No matter how many gray hairs we count on our head every day,
Or how many we lose every day,

No matter how cynical we become as the world around us gets more real,
No matter how hard life seems once we start slogging it out at work,

No matter how many times we feel low in life,
No matter how much we feel lacking in enthusiasm

(In short, no matter how old we get)

It is the innocence in us that makes us enjoy the little pleasures in life,
It is the childishness in us which makes us go wild,
It is simplistic, uncomplicated behaviour that makes us laugh out in joy,
It is the kid in us which exults as we meet old friends.

Sometimes, as we grow older, the little joys in life cease to matter. We start focusing on our career, relationships, and the world around us, rather than on the simple things that make life beautiful. But the beauty in life lies in laughing and jumping around for no reason at all, like we once did as children.

An author once asked a child why he was jumping. He replied “Because I am happy”. When asked why he was happy, the child replied, “Because I am jumping”.

Saluting the child in all of us, so that no matter how much we age, our spirit remains as pure, innocent, uncomplicated, and childish as it was when we knew little.

Happy Children’s Day !

- Rohan Pai, PGHR 2010-12

Indian currency coins have known for going out of fashion and out of circulation regularly. During independence we had the Rupee coin, Half Rupee coin, Quarter Rupee coin, Two Anna, One Anna, Half Anna and One Pice.

It was in 1957 that we moved to a metric coinage system and the Rupee was divided into 100 Paisa instead of 16 Annas or 64 Pice. Along with the existing coins, we then had One Naya Paisa, Two Naye Paise, Five Naye Paise, Ten Naye Paise, Twenty-Five Naye Paise ( in place of Quarter Rupee coin ), Fifty Naye Paise ( in place of Half Rupee coin ). To signify the change to public, the Paisa was termed ‘Naya Paisa’ (New Paisa) and the ‘Naya’ term continued to be printed on the coins for a decade. This was the age when our grandparents bought most daily necessities for less than a Rupee.

With commodity prices rising in the sixties, the Pice gradually started going out of fashion and ultimately out of circulation. In the coming decade the Anna faced the same fate.
The foreign exchange rates helps to decide which particular denominations of the currency should be minted more. For the existing denominations, when prices outgrow the face value of the coin, i.e even the cheapest of the products or items available in the market are priced greater than the face value of the coin, the coin starts getting redundant. As prices increase, the exchange of the particular coin becomes cumbersome because more of such coins are required to meet the increased price. Prices are adjusted in such a way that the need for this coin as transaction happens with the help of coin of higher denomination. People start avoiding or even rejecting the use of the coins and gradually it goes out of fashion and circulation.

Increase in metal prices have lead to a situation where minting costs for particular denomination is more that its face value. Instead of halting the production of coins of that denomination, there is an option of replacing that metal or alloy with cheaper alloys to reduce costs. In 1964, to counter the rising commodity and metal prices, the Aluminum version of paisa was introduced with One ( Rounded Square Shape ), Two ( Scalloped /Wavy edges ) , Three ( Hexagonal ), Five ( Rounded Square Shape ), Ten ( Scalloped /Wavy edges ) and Twenty ( Hexagonal ) Paise denominations. But the increasing prices and diminishing popularity saw the discontinuance of 1, 2 and 3 paise coins in the seventies. After a prolonged period in circulation, the Five Paise disappeared in the late 80’s.

In 1988, Stainless steel versions of 10, 25 and 50 paise (All Circular) came into being. In 1992, our current stainless steel version of One Rupee was first introduced. The 90’s also saw the introduction of Rs.2 (11 sided polygon) and Rs.5 coins (Circular).

The rising prices in 2000’s saw the decreasing popularity of the 10, 25 and recently 50 paise coins. The 10 paise coins have went out of circulation. The 25 paise coins are also heading towards the same direction. The denomination is no longer popular even for charity purposes. It won’t be long before all prices would be rounded to the nearest rupee making the 50 paise coin redundant.

Now the inflation seem to threaten the existence of the very integral unit of our currency system - The Rupee Coin. The question is how long will it take before we start finding the 2 Rupee coin or the 5 Rupee coin more convenient to use than the 1 Rupee coin. Or will we be able to maintain the prices of at least few commodities and services to levels that will ensure that the 1 Rupee coin would remain an integral part of our lives. We will be able to find the fate of the rupee coin in the years to come.