Professional Dishonesty & Plagiarism of Rekha Jain, IIMA in USOF Project: Part I

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Rajanish Dass

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Nov 10, 2013, 3:30:03 PM11/10/13
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Dear Dr. Rai and Aniljee,

 

Thanks for pointing out the USOF report and also providing a link to the report that has been put up on a publicly available source by the project sponsor USOF ~ clearly showing that it had been submitted by Prof. Rekha Jain to USOF as a project end report as this is the only report that has been uploaded by USOF (and there isn’t any version of the report in USOF website and/or any other public domain to believe otherwise).

 

Yes, it is unfortunate (and indeed sloppy) to see such a reference about auspices bias in the report like the one that has been provided by Prof. Rekha Jain. The marketing research text is full of such descriptions, she should have at least referred to one of them, albeit she is not a trained management researcher and doesn’t even have an MBA/PGDM, so personally, I am not surprised at the sloppy referencing. I am refraining from commenting on the quality of the report and the analysis, which is majorly a descriptive analysis (these days college students can also do this), evident to any reader of this report. Given the substantial national interest of USOF, the recommendations should have been based on much more solid footing by a deeper dive into finding the reality!

 

I am also surprised to see my name as a passing by line in this report ~ it would have been better if my name had not been mentioned at all in the report, as per my wish, given the rampant plagiarism and professional dishonesty, misappropriation and cheating that had happened in this project, which I had pointed out to her very clearly in writing. Albeit, I should have ideally been made a co-author of the report given my involvement in this project for more than 87% of the project, right from the proposal writing to the finalization of the assessment frameworks and the analysis plan. However, I had consciously taken a call to disassociate myself from the project for reasons which I describe later in this email and had not been part of any data collection, analysis of the data collected or the recommendations thereof. 

 

Being an insider for this project, I would like to point out clearly here that the sampling bias as mentioned in the report is not by chance, but by design. There is no evidence the data that this report has analyzed are real and hence, the recommendations that have been put forth in this report appear completely based out of false, fabricated and cheated data. I do not know why it was done in this way, but I am hereby launching a formal complaint to the respective authorities, as this group should deem fit, for a detailed inquiry as to whose vested interest this report caters to such that this critical project of national interest has been skewed to fit in the interests of the concerned parties as recommended in this project report. It’s a shame to see such third grade work and falsified reports carrying the logo of a great institute like IIM Ahmedabad. In the same breath, I would also urge a detailed inquiry into the functioning of Idea IIMA Telecom Center of Excellence (IITCoE) about its functioning and fund utilization with an independent audit report as to what extent the funds are utilized solely for the purpose of travel, salary of the RAs of Prof. Jain and other such expenses of Prof. Jain instead of making it a research center in true sense for telecom related research. How many research projects have been done in this center by faculties other than Prof. Jain, how many research project reports are reported other than Prof. Jain are critical to understand.

 

While the pointer to the report that you have provided has been an eye opener for me, I thought of bringing to the notice of the group members about the insider aspects of what had actually happened during this project, through a detailed description along with requisite evidence (as attached in the zip file with this email in 2 parts...part 1 is attached with this email and part 2 is a followup email containing exhibit 17 only), as I believe that academia is for candor and pragmatism.

 

I had been part of a research project funded by the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India along with Prof. Rekha Jain. The project was on Improvement in Monitoring of USOF Broadband Scheme And Impact Assessment.

 

In fact, I wrote the proposal for the project and had sent it to Prof. Rekha Jain for discussing and finalizing the same [see 1_Oct 10_2010_Proposal Writing]. Following that, the proposal was submitted to USOF [see 2_Oct_15_2010_Email by Rekha Jain to USOF].

 

The project was for a period of nine months starting from January 2011 as per agreement document sent by the respective department [3_Agreement with IIMA Idea]. The project was divided into four phases as follows a.) Phase I: Understanding the Wireline Broadband Scheme b.) Phase 2: Status and Review c.) Phase 3: Data Collection and Analysis and d.) Phase 4: Recommendations. The details of the manpower section of the attached agreement mentions two faculty members from IIMA, indicating myself and Prof. Jain for the aforesaid project.

 

Initially, I was actively involved in the project right up to a major part of Phase 3 of the project, where in I had done the background study in understanding the wireline broadband scheme (phase I), participated in actively in the status of broadband scheme status and review (phase 2) and had finalized the data collection, methodology and the analysis strategy that led to the data collection and analysis (phase 3) of the project. Hence, you will find that I had been involved in more than 87% this project for more than a year before I decided to withdraw myself from this project. During this one year of my involvement in the project, I had heavily contributed through my original thinking and work in this project and given substantial ideas for achieving the target of the project leading to the desired national impact for such a crucial intervention.

 

To justify my claim, I can provide a plethora of email communications that happened with Prof. Rekha Jain, Kavita Tatwadi (RA to Rekha Jain) and myself. However, for the purpose of brevity, I will only refer to a handful and the critical communications through this email.

 

·        Post background study, while the RAs of IITCoE had gone for field visit, I was part of the status review [see for example: 4_Aug 2011_accepted meeting for review of the USOF pilot study findings].

 

·        Email communication from Prof. Rekha Jain to USOF administrator highlighting the problems faced in the pilot study keeping me in loop. [see: for example: 5_Aug 26_2011] post discussion.

 

·        On 29 August 2011 Kavita (RA at IITCoE) asked my inputs regarding response to USOF based on their observations [see 6_Aug_29_2011_Kavita to Rajanish]

 

·        Similar emails exist showing my substantial contribution in the questionnaire design, modus of data collection, finalizing the impact assessment framework and report that covers my contributions up to the middle of Phase 3 (references follow). For example, on Dec 19, 2011 I had reviewed the data compilation and analysis methodology [see 13_Dec 19_2011_Methodology finalization email]

 

However, with passing of time, I found a very peculiar change in approach of Prof. Rekha Jain, which started making me very uncomfortable clearly showing that she had started doing things in the project without my knowledge/consent and was trying to hide what she was doing in some very critical parts of the project.

 

For example, after the first pilot survey was done by the research associates at Sawa, Chittourgarh [see 5_Aug 26_2011_Pilot Study report] both Prof. Jain and I had gone through the major findings and had clearly highlighted that

 

“1. USOF assumes that CCAs will do the survey while in field BSNL personnel have to assist….” and

“2. When the BSNL personnel accompanied the surveyors, the respondents were not very forthcoming with the problems faced by them. They weren’t complaining (which they did on the next day when the BSNL personnel were not accompanying)”.

 

Similarly the suggestion A(1) in that report of email [5_Aug 26_2011_Pilot Study report] had also strongly mentioned that “the data collection has (to) be carried out by a third party marketing research agency…else we will not be able to ensure authenticity and integrity of the data…”.

 

I had been vehemently raising this issue that if USOF itself does the data collection through its own Controller of Communication Accounts (CCA), then it impacts the very point of doing an impact assessment study and we should not agree to such scrupulous activities, rather should consider moving out of the project, in case independent third party data collection under our direct supervision does not happen.

 

One thing, of course needs to be admitted that an impact assessment exercise is more like a third party audit. The use of interested parties and direct beneficiaries like CCAs for getting the data collected will not even provide the rarest of the pointers if any data was collected at all, let aside the accuracy of the data.

 

I had never received any response of this pilot report either from USOF or from Prof. Jain. However, Kavita, had mentioned to me over an email that “Please find below the note we are sending to USOF office. Please let us know if you wish to add something…” [see 6_Aug 29_2011_Kavita 2 rajanish]. Clearly,  “they” had taken a decision without my notice as to what will be sent to accommodate the need of getting the surveys conducted by CCAs. Importantly, this letter stated, “Based on your assessment of the situation in Rajasthan is a rare one”.

 

The same email, in verbatim, was sent to USOF by Prof. Rekha Jain on Aug 30, 2011 [see 7_Aug 30_2011_Rekha Jain to USOF] in which, it must be pointed out that she wrote in point 2 that “As per your discussion with me… Kavita will train the CCAs how to deploy the survey”. Also, notably in this email, she had also mentioned about the schedule for the second pilot study in Gujarat.

 

Most interesting part is that, I was never informed about the whereabouts of the second pilot happening, till one day, on Sep 19, 2011 I got an email from Rekha Jain to USOF enclosing the report for the second pilot in Palanpur, Gujarat [see 7A_Sep 19_2011_Rekha to USOF_Second Pilot Report]. As expected, in this pilot report, she was very very positive about the experience in this second pilot study mentioning, “This was good. Hope we can ensure similar profiles of CCAs for the sudy”.

 

Thus all necessary ground work that was needed to be done to bring in bias in the overall study got finally designed and executed. Clearly Prof. Jain did not want me to keep raising this issue of possibilities of getting false data and analyzing such data to cater to the vested interest of some parties.

 

There were multiple such instances ~ for example:

 

·        Although I had been the major contributor in the questionnaire design for the primary research of the project, on Sep 29, 2011 at 10:12 AM an email arrived from Kavita about changes in the questionnaire that she had incorporated following the instructions of Prof. Rekha Jain alone. This impacted all the questionnaires that we had initially designed [see 8_26 Sep 2011_Kavita_10_12 AM attachment]. Within around 30 minutes of this, exactly at 10:48 AM, Prof. Rekha had sent those changed questionnaire to USOF (as they had to send them to their field offices for data collection) [see 9_26 Sep 2011_10_48 AM as attached], without even asking me once if those changes were acceptable. Later with in 15 minutes of sending this email, she wrote to me at 11:05 AM that she had sent the changed questionnaire while waiting for my inputs and in the interest of time [see 10_26 Sep 2011_Rekha to Rajanish as attached]. Clearly, there was some hurry in changing the questionnaire without my knowledge.

 

·        Post this, there was a long lull on the project front and I had no idea about what all had been happening in the project (as I had raised my issues and concerns right from the point I understood the data collection plan through CCAs where USOF itself was the interested party) till I received an email on Dec 19, 2011 with a report that captured lots of my original contribution in the project and asking for review the same day for submitting [see 11_Dec 19_2011_report from Kavita as attached &15_USOF background writeup]. To this I had replied to Kavita that same day seeking more time as needed, given the volume of the report and that quality should not be compromised [see 12_Dec 19_2011_Response to Kavita]. I got baffled with the hurry that was being shown to hide things detailed in the report and decided to do a proper review. My reply to Kavita stating that I was completely kept in dark about the report submission. There had been a false hurry from the side of Rekha so that some of the major omissions and commissions done by her goes unnoticed in the hurried review of the report.  Also on Dec 28, 2011 I got another updated report [see 14_Dec 28 2011_kavita as attached & 16_USOF_background as attached].

 

After I completed the review of the report sent on Dec 19, 2011, I raised issues about the quality of the report and the way it was getting positioned, incomplete parts in the report which was intentionally kept hidden so that I remain unaware of the same, plagiarism in the interim report which I had reported along with a report from Turnitin, and had also mentioned that if the quality of the report is so bad along with the plagiarism, then I refuse to put my name in the report, as I had always kept an interest in the project keeping in mind the national impact of the report.  By this time, I had made substantial contribution to the project (as vivid from the draft report dated Dec 19/Dec 28, 2011) where all the data collection & assessment frameworks, methods to analyze such data etc. had been formulated.

 

On January 5, 2012, while we met at her office, there was a huge disagreement between Prof. Jain and myself because of the way the data collection had been decided to be done by the CCAs and not by any independent third party agency, thus making the very foundation of this intervention completely flawed. Moreover, she was absolutely clear in her mind and tried to convince me about the results and recommendations that she wanted to put forth in the report. I was shocked and surprised as how can we decide the recommendations even before the data collection has happened and such data has been analyzed. She also told me that if I agree to her, she would help me in resolving all the pending issues that I had been facing in the institute by “talking” to the right people.

 

I got a clear indication that everything in this project had been pre-decided, the whole project was only an eye-wash and that she only wanted a second person as a defense at later stage, if any problem comes up. I also got a clear indication during that meeting as why I had been kept away while she had agreed to collection of the false data and also the report for the second polit.  Undoubtedly, this was a huge academic and professional dishonesty as per my standards and I decided to move out from the project only at this point.

 

Prof. Jain seemed to be very happy and contented with my decision, and now when I find my name in the report mentioning that I have been involved only in the initial part of the project, clearly points out her intent to plagiarize.

 

Following this incidence, I gave a formal note to Prof. Rekha Jain on January 9, 2012 mentioning my withdrawal from the project [see 19_Jan 9 2012_Email to Rekha_Withdraw from USOF]. Prof. Jain had replied to me on the next day stating that she would immediately settle my credits for the project [see 20_Jan 9 2012_Email from Rekha]. However, till date (which is about 20 months now), I have not got my dues from IIMA (including payments for this project) including my dues towards PF, Gratuity, Consulting fees, Extra teaching dues etc. Given the clout that these power mongers have with the “right people” in the institute, I am not at all surprised!

 

My apprehensions got converted into reality when I then reflected back in analyzing why she was in such a hurry to get rid of me from this project and without even requesting me once to come back and complete the project. I thought that may be simply out of professional courtesy ~ given my tremendous contribution to the project, right from writing the project proposal to finalizing the primary research and analysis frameworks, she will respond back. I came to know about a conference on the same topic at Vigyan Bhawan on March 23, 2012 on the same project, in which I was never involved by Prof. Jain or by USOF (although the agreement between USOF and IITCoE was for 2 IIMA faculty members working on the project and that there was no second IIMA faculty who had got involved) and all my inputs, ideas, work and contributions to this project was stolen by Prof. Rekha Jain and was passed on as her own work as is clearly evident from the report uploaded on the USOF website.

 

Following that, neither I have ever been updated about the status of the project, nor any output from the above said project (report/paper/case/analysis etc.) been sent to me for my information or any notification related to the above said project. While I now see the recommendations in the report submitted by Prof. Jain, it reflects exactly those points that she had expressed on January 5, 2012 at her office leading to my decision of withdrawal from the project. I doubt about the recommendations in the report and how of these recommendations are genuine and are based on the “real” data representing “actual” respondents. In fact, in the report, to cover this up, she has also mentioned about the “unusual findings” in her report and vividly tries to defend her stance in the name of “auspices and interviewer biases” (see page 12 of the report). Had such biases been the actual hindrances, then no research on this earth and frameworks created by professionals and academicians that could hold ground.

 

After these incidences I decided to resign from the services of my institute given the bad academic environment due to such power brokers that had got created in the institute to the extent of violation of high court orders and providing false evidences in the court of law.

 

Although I am aware that my paper criticizing UIDAI as miscalculated heroism was not appreciated by some key sponsors of the institute along with some low quality paper tigers with in our institute who work as power brokers ~ giving in to “paid research” to suit the agenda of the vested interests of the sponsors (refer for example to the turnaround story of Indian Railways which later led to the withdrawal of the Railway Chair from the institute the moment the Union Railway minister (now in jail due to fodder scam) was changed, several TRAI consultation responses including 3g auction methodology, power sector reforms etc.). I have high disregard, disrespect and disbelief in such “paid research” and have never given in to such dishonest acts for the sake of economic/social benefits. The funniest part being that some of these unethical power brokers also teach courses on managerial ethics in the institute!

 

This was the same reason why an independent study sponsored by UNDP on the topic of “IT Enabled Financial Inclusion for India” led to a false and fabricated complaint lodged by Prof. Rekha Jain on the ‘final report of the project” on September 1, 2010 (while there was no such report in existence till that date), which was encouraged by the then power brokers of the institute. The final report got published only the following year on January 15, 2011. Although this had been brought forward to the then administration and the rubber stamp committee of Errol D’ Souza and Tathagata Bandopadhyay (who I have now learnt have been avatars in their past lives at University of Bombay and University of Calcutta respectively), but had fallen to deaf ears as they were part of that same group of high ended power brokers promoting “paid” research. Incidentally, all the project materials and findings related to the project on financial inclusion (which spoke of a new approach towards addressing the real issue of financial inclusion) got removed from the institute website immediately after I had resigned on April 2, 2012.

 

It is undoubtedly extremely unfortunate to see instances of such dishonesty and plagiarism being carried out by a group of power brokers in this globally recognized iconic institute that the founders that dreamt to build.

 

Its also very painful to see how the hard work of a large group of high caliber faculty members and non-teaching staff, who work day in day out in the institute, not caring for a moment for holidays and after office work hours for the betterment of the students and trying to hold the flag of the institute fly high, going down the drain because of a group of such dishonest and criminal minded power brokers in the institute who work only for their self interest of immediate economic and social benefits. It is not only unfortunate for the institute, but also for all its stakeholders ~ like the bright minded students who come here for learning, the global base of alumni who over the last decades have proved to the world what India stands for, academicians who come from around the world perceiving this as a Mecca of management education (but very soon realize the money making game that goes inside), non-teaching staff who keeps on working hard despite the fact of complete zero transparency about promotions, variable pay and their career, family members of students and alumni, family members of teaching and non-teaching staff who agree to sacrifice a better standard of living for the institute and most importantly India ~ as an Indian Institute stands for India and Indians!

 

Being a die-hard fan of the IIMs, which I believe have created impeccable impact till date, I think it is my duty as an Indian to bring forth reality to public domain. I am aware that people holding positions of power at IIMA will continue to target and malign me personally and professionally, using the financial and social muscle power based on the global recognition of the institute and create social/legal/political wrath for me (and my family) with many more false and fabricated allegations, but my mind is without fear. 


I am sure that career academicians like us can only get our education system cleared off the corruption and such power broker parasites who, by promoting unethical and immoral practices, are holding back our country to the eternal era of darkness and making fools of our students and their families. 

 


List of Exhibits

 1_1_Oct 10_2010_Proposal writing

 2_Oct 15_2010_Email by Rekha Jain to USOF

 3_Agreement with IIM-Idea Telecom Centre for USOF wireline broadband scheme and impact assessment

 4_Aug 20_2011 - Accepted_ Meeting for USOF pilot study findings from Sawa, Chittourgarh

 5_Aug 26_2011_Pilot Study report - Problem identified during pilot survery at Sawa, Chhitourgarh

 6_Aug 29_2011_Kavita 2 rajanish_11_55 AM- Reply to USOF

 7_Aug_30_2011_Rekha Jain to USOF_Survey Plan

 7A_Sep 19_2011_Rekha to USOF_Second Pilot Report

 8_26_Sep_2011_Kavita_10_12_AM_Changes made in the Questionnaires after the Pilot survey for Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of USOF Broadband

 9_26_Sep_2011_Rekha_10_48_AM_Changes made in the Questionnaires after the Pilot survey for Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of USOF Broadband

 10_26_Sep_2011_Rekha to Rajanish_11_05_AM_Changes made in the Questionnaires after the Pilot survey for Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of USOF Broadband

11_Dec 19_2011_Report from Kavita - The report that we have to discuss today and the points incorporated in it according to the agreement with USOF

 12_Dec 19_2011_Response to Kavita - The report that we have to discuss today and the points incorporated in it according to the agreement with USOF

 13_Dec 19_2011_Methodology finalization email

 14_Dec 28_2011_Kavita- The USOF updated report soft copy with updated tables

 15_USOF_background-writeup-19dec11

 16_USOF_background-writeup-28dec11

 17_Turnitin_USOF_Report_1-1 (in part 2 of of this email trail)

 18_Dec 31_2011_Email to Rekha Jain

 19_Jan 9_2012_Email to Rekha_Withdraw from USOF

 20_Jan 9_2012_Email from  Rekha_to settle credits




--

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Prof. Rajanish Dass

President, Catallyst Constellations
Former Professor IIM, Ahmedabad
Fellow in Management, IIM Calcutta

www.catconglobal.com

Chamber No. 421, Galaxy Mall
Opposite Ocean Park
Nehrunagar
Ahmedabad -- 380 015

Contact
Mobile: +919913895555; +919825309048;
Email: raja...@catallysts.comraja...@catcon.in
Executive Assistant (Ms. Neha Khatri): +919725846158ne...@catcon.in

Ahmedabad | Gurgaon | Dubai | Bangkok

Disclaimer: This Email and its attachments (if any) may contain confidential or privileged information and is meant only for the intended recipient(s). If you are not (one of) the intended recipient(s), please do not use, disseminate, store or copy the information given in this email in any form whatsoever; please notify the sender and delete it from your system(s). Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be timely, secure, error or virus-free. Catallyst Constellations or Rajanish Dass does not accept liability for any errors or omissions.


Exhibits to email_dishonest plagiarism in USOF project by Rekha Jain_IIMA.zip

India News

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Nov 11, 2013, 11:56:01 AM11/11/13
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Dear Dr Das,
I could speak to your EA today, and would like to confirm some points with  you regarding the details you've posted. Please contact me when you are back in India
Thanks
B Ramani

On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 2:00 AM, Rajanish Dass <rajani...@gmail.com> wrote:

BLK SOMAYAJULU

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Nov 11, 2013, 2:19:57 PM11/11/13
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Thanks
-
-----------------------------
BLK Somayajulu, Ph.D, F.N.A.
CSIR Emeritus Scientist,
Physical Research Laboratory,
Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad - 380009
Tel: 079-26747807(R)
-----------------------------

kr db

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Nov 11, 2013, 2:39:07 PM11/11/13
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I do not know who are all on this email group.  I do know that I am not interested in receiving any of these emails that have been sent around recently.  Everytime I get one, I put it to spam, but this stream seems endless.  I went to IIMA long ago and perhaps that is why I am being copied now.  If anyone has the power to do so, please remove kr...@yahoo.com from this email list.
 
Thanks you very much
 
Some of the emails that have been sent around that use words that I hope never to have to use, that I would not put in writing, but would prefer to discuss only with the person involved and finally would not copy everyone on emails and use up their time.  Please take this email off this mailing list.  Thank you.

shweta...@gbu.ac.in

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Nov 11, 2013, 11:58:16 PM11/11/13
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I agree with the mail below. This is stooping too low in academics. 

Academicians are the most qualified and maintain maturity and dignity in their behavior.

These kind of mails leave a bad taste.

Pl spare me these mails and remove my mail id.

 

Regards

Shweta 

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Rajanish Dass

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Nov 11, 2013, 11:36:51 PM11/11/13
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Dear Mr. Ramani,

 

At the outset, please accept my gratitude for your kind interest and concern in this matter. My email sent to the group was an initiative to bring forth the truth, launch a public grievance, complaint of plagiarism against Prof. Jain and ignite an internal dialogue between various stakeholders/faculties @ IIMA and academia at such b-schools, majorly other IIMs/other institutes of higher learning and not is not intended for media consumption please.  Anyways I will call you once I am back on 17th of November please.

 

Warm regards,

 

Rajanish Dass


camp Dubai: +971561361071



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Prof. Rajanish Dass
MD & CEO, Catallyst Constellations (India)
Ex-Professor IIM, Ahmedabad
Distinguished Professor and Director (Research), Great Lakes Institute of Management

Chamber No. 421, Galaxy Mall
Opposite Ocean Park
Nehrunagar
Ahmedabad -- 380 015

Contact
Executive Assistant (Ms. Neha Khatri): +919725846158ne...@catcon.in

This Email and its attachments (if any) may contain confidential or privileged information and is meant only for the intended recipient(s). If you are not (one of) the intended recipient(s), please do not use, disseminate, store or copy the information given in this email in any form whatsoever; please notify the sender and delete it from your system(s). Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be timely, secure, error or virus-free. Rajanish Dass does not accept liability for any errors or omissions.

subb...@patriot.net76.net

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Nov 12, 2013, 12:09:31 AM11/12/13
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Dear Professor Rajnish

Arent you that Rajnish Das who forged emails against Rekha Jain and others
and was arrested by Cyber Cell after your home computer was seized. Yours
seems to be a bad case of sour grapes and tit-for-tat to tarnish the image
of IIM Ahmedabad, which deservedly enjoys the reputation of being India's
No.1 B-school and is fast on its way to becoming one of the top 10
B-schools internationally when our own Ashish Nanda executes his plan to
market the IIM PGP program to sheikhs in Jordan, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia etc.

V Subramaniam, PGP IIM
CEO Intelliquest Holdings LLC

India News

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Nov 12, 2013, 1:11:11 AM11/12/13
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I too find myself on this invited list for my academics (economics)
and not for my present job(media).

Now that Dr Dass has clarified that his is a mission to ignite
academics and not for publicity, I think we should respect his wishes
and play the ball rather than the man.

Personally, I think l Dr Dass has done a brave thing by going public
and detailing his complaint against Dr Rekha Jain along with
circulating his evidence to his peers. The evidence is compelling and
IIM Ahmedabad will surely be compelled to respond to it if Dr Dass
chooses to pursue this formally, as I really hope he does.

I've also seen some objections to Dr Dass using terms like plagiarist,
dishonesty, criminals, sloppy research, misappropriation, cheating,
etc. I disagree, Dass has clearly substantiated his harsh descriptors
with equally hard evidence. Having only got 1 side of the picture so
far, the IIM team should definitely respond to Dr Dass publicly and
clarify if the emails between the 3 authors of that report, which Dass
has attached to his emails are also forged and fabricated.

Let us not deny that education in India today is a vast money making
"racket". Appointments to posts of Vice Chancellors are openly sold,
with the incumbents quickly recouping their investment from the
affiliated colleges. Quality research is tossed out of the window and
international journals are simply meant to provide the raw material
for bogus theses reports or working papers and case studies at IIMs
and IITs or other scientific institutes .

B Ramani
www.indianewsco.com

Sarbajit Roy

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Nov 12, 2013, 5:40:31 AM11/12/13
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Dear Mr Subramanian

Your email is factually incorrect and overtaken by events. So let me reply to you point-wise even though most of this was already.covered in a previous email by me.

1) Prof Rajanish Das was never arrested by police. This is a false and mischievous planted article ("paid news") in Times of India Ahmedabad edn. to exert pressure in Das to withdraw a petition he had filed for non-compliance of High Court orders, inter alia, to reconduct the inquiry into plagiarism allegations against him brought by Prof Rekha Jain in Aug 2011. From media reports it seems the court was not impressed by the in-house enquiry conducted by 2 IIMA Profs and ordered it to be reconducted, which was never done.

2) From seeing the timeline provided by Prof Das it is self-evident that Prof Rekha Jain had initiated the plagiarism complaint against Das (for a draft UNDP presentation she was supposed to give) as a result of the increasing friction between Jain and Das over the BSNL/WirelineBB monitoring report which is crucial to BSNL's financial revival package. Being faced with a DoT mandated collaborator (Das) who was proving highly inconvenient to Prof Jain's motivated and paid research agenda to starve BSNL of  funding (probably at behest of a certain private telco) so that telecom services could be provided in Naxalite affected areas etc. it is not surprising that the entire power of the IIMA was used to bring Das to heel and when he did not to fabricate allegations of cyber crime against him,

3) The IIMA cunningly used the cyber crime complaint against Das as a stone to kill 2 birds with. By this not only was Das got out of the way but the serious allegations of plagarism against Rekha Jain, Ajay Pandey, Sebastian Morris G Raghuram etc were also diverted and ignored.

4) FYI the persons who made the complaint against Rekha Jain et al are not anonymous (as IIMA said in the FIR) and have already deposed to the police that Rajanish Das had no role in instigating them to make their complaint and the email accounts used to send the emails were nether opened nor operated by him but by some other persons. The High Court has also acknowledged that there is hardly anything on record against Rajnish Das but the law will take its course when it comes for the police to submit their closure report and the court cannot quash the FIR at this stage.

5) Now that the complainants against Rekha Jain, Ajay Pandey, G Raghuram  Sebastian Morris etc have appeared, IIMA cannot take refuge behind the fig-leaf of "anonymous complainants" anymore. Where is the enquiry report into serious allegations of plagiarism made against them for the serious allegations of plagiarism ? Is IIMA scared that Rajanish Das will get another judgment that this enquiry also be reconducted (2 of the 3 members are already previously indicted by the court for their unprofessionalism). The excuses of "intentional" plagiarism versus "innocent" plagiarism simply won't wash in their case.

6) The fact of the matter is that certain members of the IIMA Board of Governors (with Chairman Mr. A.M.Naik of L&T first among them) have outside business interests which are directly at conflict with IIMA's research interests.The resistance of the staff and faculty to Naik reached its flash point in April 2013 with more than 50% of them calling on the staff and faculty notice boards for formation of a new trade union with Prof Jerome Joseph as President. They were ruthlessly put down with Nazi methods, the appointment of the Director was postponed by Naik so that Ajay Pandey could crush the revolt. At that time Anna Hazare's group withdrew and IAC has stepped in to carry on the fight for equity and transparency in IIMA and to prevent the export of IIMA's brand (which is an Indian brand financed and built with public funds). from being sold off overseas to those noveau-riche camel herder sheiks you think so highly of.

With best wishes
Sarbajit Roy
India Against Corruption

subb...@patriot.net76.net

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 2:03:47 AM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
The only intention of Professor Rajnish Das is to tarnish the image of IIM
Ahmedabad at a time when it is going international and expanding its
revenue by monetising its existing programs, publications and research in
the Middle East under the dynamic international leadership of Director
Ashish Nanda. There is nothing wrong with taking money from sheiks if we
are already taking their oil. Such activities are nation building and
shall help reduce india's BoP crisis. By attacking the credibility of IIM
A's research with a highly motivated and personal attack, Das wants to
limit and confine IIM Ahmedabad to Gujarat where it will be under constant
threats of trade unionism by faculty and staff. Your comments about trade
unionism in IIM A is baseless calumny and the campus is an oasis of peace,
harmony. and functions on extended family values. It is hard to swallow
that India's best management institute and its academics would stoop to
concocting research.

V Subramaniam
> 4) FYI the persons who made the complaint against Rekha Jain *et al* are
> not anonymous (as IIMA said in the FIR) and have already deposed to the
> police that Rajanish Das had no role in instigating them to make their
> complaint and the email accounts used to send the emails were nether
> opened
> nor operated by him but by some other persons. The High Court has also
> acknowledged that there is hardly anything on record against Rajnish Das
> but the law will take its course when it comes for the police to submit
> their closure report and the court cannot quash the FIR at this stage.
>
> 5) Now that the complainants against Rekha Jain, Ajay Pandey, G Raghuram
> Sebastian Morris etc have appeared, IIMA cannot take refuge behind the
> fig-leaf of "anonymous complainants" anymore. *Where is the enquiry report
> into serious allegations of plagiarism made against them for the serious
> allegations of plagiarism ?* Is IIMA scared that Rajanish Das will get

gurc...@gmail.com

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 3:00:51 AM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com, subb...@patriot.net76.net
I agree with Subramaniam. If the objective of Dr Dass is only to create awareness then can you explain why Dr Dass has created a fake website of IIM-A for pushing forward the agenda of this mailing list?

The actual website of IIM-A is www.iimahd.ernet.in

The fake website is www.iimahd-ernet.in

Note how the dot has been replaced by a dash in the fake domain name. On the fake website they have even replicated the IIM-A website with complete disregard for the law (violation of Copyright Act, IT Act - civil and criminal)!

Worse - On the description of this mailing list on google groups website, they have given a link which reads as www.iimahd.ernet.in but actually hyperlinks to www.iimahd-ernet.in

If the intentions of Dr Dass are transparent, can he explain why the means for the end are so colourful?

Utterly shameful!

Regards,
Acharya

CP

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 3:28:57 AM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
Guys !
PLEASE carry on your grievences and personal thoughts in your one to one emails.
Its not good to see such bickering, accusitions and cross accusitions between learned people on this forum.
Moderator, Can we please exit the topic?
Thank you
Dr (Col) CP Ramchandani



Sarbajit Roy

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 4:31:45 AM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
Dear Gurcharya

I don't know how you have (erroneously) concluded that website has anything to do with Dr.Dass, or that this mailing list is to promote his agenda.

FYI, the concerned ERNET "website" is "http://ernet-iima.rhcloud.com" . It has repeatedly been clarified boldly on the website (at several places) that it is NOT the official website of IIM-A.

Whatever you are alleging has been previously disclosed to this entire list (except perhaps to a few recent entrants, I don't know if you are among them)
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/indiamanager/SbyHpwzY-nw

For ease of access, a 2nd level domain name (easily recalled) ie. http;//iimahd-ernet.in was booked by me for India Against Corruption to "point" to the aforementioned 3rd party ERNET website, quite openly (see the whois for it), and after the IIM-A's CAO Cdr Manoj Bhat had clarified in writing (ie. by email) IIM-A's internet policy to me. Both IIMA as well as IAC profess to transparency and openness. It was only due to IAC that on 03.Oct.2013 (after Ashish Nanda took over) that IIMA belatedly published (under RTI Act ) its hitherto hidden Memorandum of Association, its Rules and  that it follows the CCS Rules. This is a great victory achieved by IAC for the harassed staff and faculty who after labouring like slaves and dogs in the Institute now have a modicum of dignity .

You will be reassured to know that this domain name was booked by me after intensive correspondence spanning many months between myself and senior  persons in IIMA concerning Information Technology related issues, fake degrees and doctorates, cyber crime, ethical issues like plagiarism etc. In all instances IIMA was/is unable to reply to me.

Some of these instances are also well known to eminent persons like Dr. Kiran Karnik (formerly with NASSCOM) who advised me to await the IIMA's formal reply (which I am still awaiting) about the cyber offences and multiple cyber defamation carried out from IIMA against me and my organisations.

AFAIK this is a unique 2nd level domain name, created and composed by me for the first time in the history of the internet to reflect the philosophical work being carried out by victims of IIMA's brutally repressive policies to suppress the rampant ethical violations carried out against researchers, and also shameful denials of basic human rights and fundamental rights to hundreds of IIMA employees (for which I shall be opening a separate discussion thread).

In comparison the IIMA website is merely operating off a sub-domain of Ernet.in.(ie the erstwhile National Education and Research Network, which is now known as "Trans Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3)")  - which is owned and registered by somebody else - to market its doubtful "MBAs".and "doctorates" to innocent students/candidates

Nobody has replicated the IIMA website. Ernet-iima is a "web portal" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_portal] "A web portal is most often one specially-designed Web page at a website which brings information together from diverse sources in a uniform way" and includes a "Mashup" (to integrate internal and external content). No content from IIMA's website is hosted on ERNET-IIMA, all links go directly to the concerned websites (internal or external) and there is no deception - what u click is what u get.

Finally, ERNET-IIMA website has significant original content which is not on IIMA's website, (and vice versa).

Sarbajit

India Against Corruption
>> > <subb...@patriot.net76.net<javascript:>>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Dear Professor Rajnish
>> >>
>> >> Arent you that Rajnish Das who forged emails against Rekha Jain and
>> >> others
>> >> and was arrested by Cyber Cell after your home computer was seized.
>> >> Yours
>> >> seems to be a bad case of sour grapes and tit-for-tat to tarnish the
>> >> image
>> >> of IIM Ahmedabad, which deservedly enjoys the reputation of being
>> >> India's
>> >> No.1 B-school and is fast on its way to becoming one of the top 10
>> >> B-schools internationally when our own Ashish Nanda executes his plan
>> to
>> >> market the IIM PGP program to sheikhs  in Jordan, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi
>> >>
>> >> Arabia etc.
>> >>
>> >> V Subramaniam, PGP IIM
>> >> CEO Intelliquest Holdings LLC
>>
>>
>

iimahd ernet

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 6:11:14 AM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
MODERATOR INTERVENTION

All members are required to STRICTLY confine themselves to discussion
of thread, ie. "Professional Dishonesty & Plagiarism of Rekha Jain,
IIMA in USOF Project" and not wander Off Topic on this thread. Dr.
Dass has clarified that he considers this to be an matter to be
internally discussed and resolved between academics and stakeholders
in higher management education.

It would be useful if members critically examine Dr. Dass' claims as
quickly summarised below. Prof Rekha Jain had already got herself
unsubscribed from this list shortly before Dr.Dass sent his email.

The SYSOP

extracts

1) " .. all my inputs, ideas, work and contributions to this project
was stolen by Prof. Rekha Jain and was passed on as her own work as is
clearly evident from the report uploaded on the USOF website."

2) ".. There is no evidence the data that this report has analyzed
are real and hence, the recommendations that have been put forth in
this report appear completely based out of false, fabricated and
cheated data."

3) " .. Thus all necessary ground work that was needed to be done to
bring in bias in the overall study got finally designed and executed.
Clearly Prof. Jain did not want me to keep raising this issue of
possibilities of getting false data and analyzing such data to cater
to the vested interest of some parties. "

4) " .. I raised issues about the quality of the report and the way it
was getting positioned, incomplete parts in the report which was
intentionally kept hidden so that I remain unaware of the same,
plagiarism in the interim report which I had reported along with a
report from Turnitin, and had also mentioned that if the quality of
the report is so bad along with the plagiarism, then I refuse to put
my name in the report, as I had always kept an interest in the project
keeping in mind the national impact of the report."

5) ".. On January 5, 2012, while we met at her office, there was a
huge disagreement between Prof. Jain and myself because of the way the
data collection had been decided to be done by the CCAs and not by any
independent third party agency, thus making the very foundation of
this intervention completely flawed. Moreover, she was absolutely
clear in her mind and tried to convince me about the results and
recommendations that she wanted to put forth in the report. I was
shocked and surprised as how can we decide the recommendations even
before the data collection has happened and such data has been
analyzed. She also told me that if I agree to her, she would help me
in resolving all the pending issues that I had been facing in the
institute by "talking" to the right people.

I got a clear indication that everything in this project had been
pre-decided, the whole project was only an eye-wash and that she only
wanted a second person as a defense at later stage, if any problem
comes up. I also got a clear indication during that meeting as why I
had been kept away while she had agreed to collection of the false
data and also the report for the second polit. Undoubtedly, this was a
huge academic and professional dishonesty as per my standards and I
decided to move out from the project only at this point. "

6) ".. While I now see the recommendations in the report submitted by
Prof. Jain, it reflects exactly those points that she had expressed on
January 5, 2012 at her office leading to my decision of withdrawal
from the project. I doubt about the recommendations in the report and
how of these recommendations are genuine and are based on the "real"
data representing "actual" respondents. In fact, in the report, to
cover this up, she has also mentioned about the "unusual findings" in
her report and vividly tries to defend her stance in the name of
"auspices and interviewer biases" (see page 12 of the report). Had
such biases been the actual hindrances, then no research on this earth
and frameworks created by professionals and academicians that could
hold ground."

7) ".. It is undoubtedly extremely unfortunate to see instances of

subb...@patriot.net76.net

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 10:52:23 PM11/13/13
to rama...@bijapurkar.com, iimaf...@googlegroups.com, indiam...@googlegroups.com
Dear Rama,
Thanks for your email. No,
I hope IIMA's Governing Body takes serious steps to counter these solid
allegations being circulated by Rajnish Das.
V Subramaniam

>Is this subbu from batch of 76 D 14 or 15 ??
>With regards,
>Rama
>www.bijapurkar.com
>314 Nirman Kendra, Dr.E. Moses Road
>Mahalakshmi,Mumbai 400011
> 91-22-24937243 / 24932053

subb...@patriot.net76.net

unread,
Nov 13, 2013, 10:43:19 PM11/13/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
After going through the moderator's email, I concede I misjudged Rajnish
Das and his motives. I relied upon the wrong document to verify Das's
claims by using
http://usof.gov.in/usof-cms/GagendaPdf/IITCOE_Prof_Jain-WLBB_Imact_Assessment.pdf
accessed though IIMA's website instead of the final report on the USoF
website
http://usof.gov.in/usof-cms/GagendaPdf/Report%20on%20Impact%20Assessment%20Study%20of%20Rural%20Wire-Line%20BB%20Scheme.pdf
Rajnish Das has done a valuable public service by blowing the whistle on
such blatant academic misconduct, and Dr Rekha Jain ought to respond to
his allegations on this group instead of unsubscribing herself to avoid
doing so.
V Subramaniam

Sarbajit Roy

unread,
Nov 14, 2013, 3:36:50 AM11/14/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
I concur its important that stakeholders (directly or indirectly) in IIMA concentrate solely on the factual matrix of the academic issues instead of bringing up the personal allegations and muck which is being thrown against people like Prof Dass to suppress and divert from these very ACADEMIC issues.

The IIMA has seemingly gone to extraordinary lengths (by misusing local police - and Gujarat has one of the most repressive Police regimes which India has ever had) to extract false confessions to portray Das as a psychotic person under psychiatric treatment etc. The cops even compelled Das to "apologise" before some faculty that he has sent some fake emails from his residence. Later the Institute followed this up with what is claimed to be some internal IIMA server logs to show to the police by their letter dt 13.7.2012 that during certain time slots the only computer accessing the internet from within IIMA was the one in Rajanish Dass's residence (The IP address they cited incidentally, as per APNIC, is an IANA special use one "PRIVATE-ADDRESS-BBLK-RFC1918-IANA-RESERVED" used as a proxy by millions of computer networks worldwide).

The issue of whether Dr Dass is a brave, brilliant and honest whistle-blower researcher fighting a regime of systematic intellectual dishonesty, or else is a deranged individual under psychiatric treatment hellbent on tarnishing the IIMA's reputation must be decided ACADEMICALLY by his ACADEMIC peers.

Who knows who will be targeted next by Nazi institutes
fortuitously situated within fascist states !!!

Sarbajit

Sarbajit Roy

unread,
Nov 14, 2013, 11:34:55 PM11/14/13
to indiam...@googlegroups.com
Dear Dr. Rajanish Dass

Please see the text below from your email.
The following aspects are not clear to me:-

Did Ms. Rekha Jain complain against you about the UNDP "IT Enabled Financial Inclusion for India" report on Sep 1 2010 or Sep 2011 ? And when was that UNDP final report published and where is it now ?

Incidentally, all I find about this "eagerly waited IIM-A report" is that 2 workshops were held in Feb and April 2011 at IIM_A co-sponsored by UNDP and NABARD, and some PTI reports saying this report will be published by June 2011. This report does not seem to be available online. However, in Ms. Rekha Jain's home page on IIMA website she mentions a paper "“Business Model Innovations and ICT based National Financial Inclusions Programs: An Indian Case Study” paper presented at the 22nd European Regional ITS Conference, Budapest, September, 18 -21, 2011." which is also not accessible easily in public domain.

The entire basis of the controversial AADHAR scheme seems to be based on such bogus / mythical research papers of IIMs.

Can you throw some light on these issues ? From what I can see the only reasons these papers are being "published" is so Ms. Jain can be at exotic overseas locales at the same time as powerful people in the DoT also are.

Sarbajit Roy
Independent Researcher
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