Why I feel IIPM Case has a Major Difference or Two from the Sony Case
It seems Sony has invited the ire of bloggers these days. I became aware of it from Desipundit and then of course one has to just follow a few more links. What Sony did? Well, there a few of their CDs came with something of a spyware (and don’t ask me what they are, beyond that they are not good for your computer) and their consumers (and others) didn’t like it. They blogged about it and later the company withdrew the product. The story can be followed from Information Week. And there are already three court cases against Sony for this incident!
Now let me take you back to the IIPM story. Well, one minor difference is that a print magazine broke the story (as Srijith said on Desipundit) but the drama was enacted in the blogshpere. But to me, there are two more substantial differences.
One, there is no court case against IIPM and two, they are still coming out with full page ads instead of taking their product back. Regarding the court case, at some point in life (and I am not going to tell you when) I started looking at how to file a PIL (public interest litigation) in
http://www.corecentre.org/faq011
“Q.4. Against whom a PIL can be Filed?
A PIL can be filed against a State/ Central Govt., Municipal Authorities, and not any private party. However, “Private party” can be included in the PIL as “Respondent”, after making concerned state authority, a party. For example- if there is a Private factory in
The way things are going in this country I wish they could include the knowledge on how to file a PIL in the school curriculum in
Anyway, as I was saying there are no court cases filed in IIPM vs. Bloggers case whereas there are three filed already in Sony vs. Bloggers. I know the legal system works very differently here but still.
Coming to the second difference, Sony took the product back and IIPM is coming out with full page ads, and you know what I feel? I feel that there should be statutory warning with educational institution’s ads, like the cigarette ads. They should be forced to say in clear visible way ‘This is an Advertisement Only, Students are advised to Verify the Claims before taking Admissions.’
I will just quickly point out two things in the new IIPM ads. One is repeated reference to something called ‘Business Barons’ for their rankings (Business Today and Indian Today ranking that they claim is for 2004 and not 2005). Search for Business Baron on google without IIPM (and if you do ‘business baron IIPM’ search, well you get blogs as top links) and the links take you, as usual, NOWHERE. Not even google cache has anything on this. Now the site might be down, but then let us see, if it comes up I will update these words.
Second, IIPM has started giving dates of the people who visited their campus from abroad. Quoting from their ad”
“The following shortlist of International faculty members visiting IIPM to take classes (emphasis mine), will also be taking MDPs and training programs for India Inc. as per mentioned dates.*”
One name is of Professor Jane Collier from
Here is a conversation that I had with her on email:
“Thank you for telling me all this. I do know that their degree courses are not validated, which means that their quality is not assured. They are quite open about the fact that they beleive they can teach what they like. Unfortunately in a non-regulated environment institutes can do what they like. Discerning parents and students should not patronise them, but maqny do because they see that their gradutes gain employment. I have spoken to them about these matters, and they know what I think. HOwever, so long as they do not actually do anything illegal there is little that can be done. When I get back to
not students of the institute. Jane Collier.
Judge Business School
Trumpington St
Well, you can see that the professor wrote in hurry but she is clear that she is not teaching the students. And this conversation took place while she was in
Well, you now know why I say that there should be statutory warning with educational institution’s ads, like the cigarette ads.
Labels: IIPM
posted by Mridula at 9:15 PM
8 Comments:
Well, you now know why I say that there should be statutory warning with educational institution’s ads, like the cigarette ads.
Nice one there :-)
caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. It's as true in education as it is in shopping!
Well Mridula
Somebody who has the time and the
resources should sue IIPM in the courts
I am confident they will win
Unfortunatly my bank balance though
decent cannot support it and time is also a factor
Maybe IIPM will go unpunished
for the time being at least
Really nice work, Mridula. Thanks. It is the blogposts such as yours that will keep the heat on the not-so-transparent institution that we all love to hate. I am sure they will be forced to change, if committed bloggers keep up the pressure.
i came to knw abt the sony incident frm ur blog...i think that sony had to withdraw b'coz they had a clean brand image to keep...i wonder abt iipm though. they are providing misinformation and the public can do nothing about it.one of my friends had this idea of joining iipm after seeing the ad they put out some days back.he was aghast when he was told about the shady underpinnings of these 'glorious' institutes.
i hope that the professor will take some stance against iipm when she reaches england.
I haven't checked blogs of late - so, am not sure what happened with the defamation threats against Rashmi Bansal, Gaurav Sabnis and Varna.
But from what i read at your space, it feels teh whole issue is dying. It was the talk of blog space, then there was mud slinging, and things move on as if nothing ever happened. The IIPM folks seem to have chosen the wiser option of carrying on with their Ads rather than wasting time in courts (or threats). Looks like bloggers are too insignificant for them to bother about.
However, if this is what can be achieved after all the drama, this is mockery. Clearly, a "statutory Warning" as you suggested is very much needed. And this warning wouldn't be as useless as in the case of tobacco. It will make sure that students, and more importantly, parents know that what are published as Ads are merely claims and not facts.
If blogs can not stop the Ads, if the Main stream Media puts business before ethics (I dont believe none of the media really know that all that is claimed in Ads is not true), and if PIL's aren't all that easy an option, your suggestion could well be the next course of action to be taken.
WHo is to take the initiative? How is this to be brought about? Will people put their brains into action? I wonder if you could invite suggestions from bloggers in this direction (or to propose any other solutions), in your space.
Kamesh, thank you.
You are absolutely right Teri.
ICW, I guess PIL cannot be filed directly against a private body, but only against a govt. body and a private party can be made a responsdent. So there are a lot of ambiguities there.
Abi, I read on your blog that copies of Business Baron cannot be found on stands too!
Posion, whatever little information we can spread through our blogs, if it comes to any good, makes me feel happy.
Krish, I am as clueless as the next person about what to do next. I am so sorry.
Sony bashing is pretty popular here, and I bought the latest Fiona Apple CD but they made her re-record it because supposedly it wasn't commercial enough, and I don't like at all.
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