Sharing the Business Plan for 'University of Fine Arts in India' (proposed location - Raipur, Chhattisgarh). This is purely an academic work in the area of social entrepreneurship, which was submitted in the year 2010 as an assignment for course 'ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND GENDER' (ME2808 Entrepreneurship and Gender 7.5 credits) conducted by KTH, Stockholm. If you like the idea, please feel free to share it on your website or blog. Please do not put the business plan on any other server or provide a direct PDF download.
THE IDEA:
The business plan is to start a “University of Fine Arts” in the city of Raipur, India. This non-profit earning initiative is aimed at facilitating formal education in the area of Fine Arts in the Chhattisgarh region of India. Establishment of the university will help the cause of promoting awareness for different forms of human expression among residents of Chhattisgarh. It will also encourage a much focused study on way of lives of different tribes residing in remote areas of Chhattisgarh.
Art is a medium to express human emotions. Different forms of artistic expressions play key role in bringing sensitive social issues in public domain in true spirit of communicating the reality. Therefore, they present problems from perspectives, which are quite different from those being propagated through other accessible media (like electronic and print media) by influential agencies (may even include propaganda by different governments) for vested interests.
India is an ancient civilization trying hard to synchronize with the advanced countries in the on-going rapid changes sweeping across the globe. It is encountering many problems in different spheres. Democracy in India can be called a “Functional Anarchy” (as termed by John Kenneth Galbraith long back) to express the extent of irregularities in its governance and public administration. Identity politics, corruption, inequality and nepotism are not allowing representative social leadership to evolve. Indian society is highly fragmented in terms of social status and heavily divided on caste lines. In remote areas, many tribal communities are endangered to extinction and so are their traditional art forms. Crimes against women are consistently rising in India. India has a very poor record in gender equality (in 2009 it has been ranked poorly at 114th position). India is also lagging in other indices of human development. On the other hand, Naxal movement (an extremist movement in favor of communist school of thoughts) is fast catching up in different parts of the country, especially in the state of Chhattisgarh. Thus, a need for an honest and effective medium to express problems from different perspectives appears evident. Working towards developing an infrastructure for promoting art form as expressions of public voice could be one of the best possible ways to harmonize different sections of society with governance. It will help in maintaining critical equilibrium among different forces by accommodating the un-heard off voice, public voice, government voice and the voice of international community. This will be instrumental in making the democracy function in sensible way thus contributing to an inclusive and sustainable growth.
On the other hand, lead by the encouraging progress in economic front, developments in last couple of decades have brought about unprecedented changes in social order in India. Despite deeply rooted traditional values, the vibrant population of this culturally diverse country has by and large reacted positively to the changes. A multi-dimensional transitioning process has been underway, which will eventually result in an evolution. However, there has not been any significant change in the field of formal education. To meet with the demands of emerging knowledge based industries, formal education is generally supplemented by external trainings mostly offered through training institutes. Highly regulated education system needs reforms to be able to come up with institutions matching world standards. Moreover, there is a need for creating infrastructure to support education in those areas of academic excellence which may not be directly useful to be absorbed by existing industrial set up but which have deep association with society and with development of mankind.
Current educational environment is conducive for establishment of world class University for faculties of Fine Arts. There are many reasons to support this. First is educational reforms are round the corner. Secondly, there are not many schools of Fine Arts in India. Thirdly, there are clear evidences supporting an inclination of youth towards diverse areas of studies including Fine Arts. Fourthly, with rising standard of living of the middle class, most parents are now in a position to financially support students for higher studies. Finally, on-going rapid development is opening numerous avenues in all the fields both at home and abroad. Thus, there is good possibility for many avenues of livelihood getting opened for scholars of Fine Arts.
The Business Plan can be accessed at:-
BUSINESS PLAN - UNIVERSITY OF FINE ARTS IN INDIA
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