AS P D RAI, IIT-IIM CLUB MAKES ENTRY INTO LOK SABHA OF INDIA

NEW DELHI:1st june 2009

It is Indian education system's ultimate ticket to the corporate boardroom. According to one study, around 50% of all CEOs in India have Prem Das Rai those magic letters on their CVs — IIT-IIM. But for all their brilliance and achievement in the corporate world, not a single member of the IIT-IIM club had so far entered Parliament as a member.

Now, Prem Das Rai, elected to the 15th Lok Sabha as the lone member from Sikkim, has the unique distinction of being the first ever IIT-IIMer in the Lok Sabha. Rai, 54, hopes to contribute his bit in changing the way Parliament and MPs are viewed in the country. For the moment though, this IIT Kanpur (chemical engineering) and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus just wants to familiarize himself with the new job.

As he puts it, ‘‘First, I need to look at the benchmarks of what constitutes a good MP. We are at a crossroads. People this time have voted for stability but they have also voted for better parliamentarians and parliamentary processes,’’ says the Sikkim Democratic Front MP, who early in his career chucked a cushy job as a multinational banker and later gave up opportunities in the US in favour of returning to his home state, Sikkim. And what does an IIT-IIMer bring to Parliament? ‘‘I look at the entire IIT-IIM community as part of my support system. We have a very strong network. Through it I would be able to funnel a lot of intellectual capital. Then there is the skill set. In IITs and IIMs, you develop a certain way of learning, analysis and presentation. These would be handy in Parliament,’’ he says.

Rai, however, admits he is entering uncharted territory. ‘‘These are, as yet, just hypotheses. I don’t know how it will actually play out. Down the road you would be able to find out how I add value to governance.’’ Rai had been marked for brilliance early in life. As a boy growing up in the then sovereign kingdom of Sikkim, he was sent to an elite school in Mussoorie by the king as part of the royal policy of promoting bright kids. After school, he cracked the JEE to go directly to IIT and then to IIM. ‘‘Life in Sikkim was very feudal but in Mussoorie I learned that you are no more and no less than anybody else. That’s a value I imbibed early,’’ he says.

In the midst of his BTech course, Sikkim merged with India and Rai become an Indian. After completing his MBA in 1978, Rai landed himself a ‘‘great job’’ at the American Bank in Calcutta. A meeting with B B Lal, the then Governor of Sikkim, changed the course of his life. ‘‘Lal told me, ‘Young man what are you doing in Calcutta? Come back, Sikkim needs you.’ That finally helped me make up my mind and I returned to join a state government enterprise with a three-fourth cut in salary.’’
( sOURCE:TOI)