Kaustuv Ghosh's Profile
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Kaustuv Ghosh
, Singapore About me : Overview My name is Kaustuv Ghosh. I am a permanent resident of Singapore with more than 12 years of working experience in managing start-ups and business development, including 7 years of breakthrough work on the Pollution Watch, Asia’s pioneering urban air quality awareness programme. I have also been a visiting faculty at Mudra Institute of Communications, my alma mater, in the field of new media.I am now enrolled as a student in the Master of Environmental Management programme at NUS and seek to build a career in research and academia. Reason for seeking Masters in Environmental Management I hope to utilise my experience as a professional –seven of those involved in environment related projects- and the formal education gained here, to enter the field of consulting, strategic business and policy research. I have always believed that one needs to enhance one’s formal education at some stage and move into the aspirational and intellectual phase of one’s career. I consider this to be the right time for me. Areas of Interest i)Habitat loss and policy implications due to global warming. ii)Environmental poverty and environmental refugees. iii)Sustainability economics. iv)Political economy of the environment; political economy of mobile commerce. v)Communications as a critical tool in the drive for clean energy sustainable development. vi)Urban ecosystems; highrise farming; public transport. vii)Community, neighbourhoods and communication. Of course, these areas of interest are at best indicative and I am keen to see if I could find work in adjoining areas of relevance as well. My professional work so far i)The Eureka Forbes Pollution Watch In 1998, I was asked by the NDTV management team to set up a network of environment monitoring stations across all news bureaus in India. The data would be aired every day on the news channel. I struck an unique collaboration with Eureka Forbes, whereby Eureka Forbes provided the equipment, space and daily reports. Reports of air quality would be aired everyday on NDTV, with data from 8 cities(later gradually expanded). This remains a pioneering effort for Asian media and Eureka Forbes gained significant corporate mileage for it’s involvement. The pollution watch remains on air today, 11 years hence, as a successful collaboration between industry and media in building public consensus behind the need for clean air. I singlehandedly managed the entire project for 7 years, till my departure from NDTV. MY work included strategic planning for a larger environmental media thrust with a three way collaboration between NDTV, Eureka Forbes and TERI. I worked with multiple stakeholders, including scientists and managers at Eureka Forbes, television producers in NDTV and the key leaders at TERI. Key Takeaways i)Media can play a critical role in creating the public space for environment consciousness to grow. This can act as a positive motivation tool for key stakeholders. ii)There is significant scope for convergence between the communications industry and the environment industry to build new media practices and properties. iii)It is possible to work on further areas of research involving policy, media and audience attitudes. I believe these would be critical towards the sustainability of green companies and institutions in the years to come. ii)The Win FM Timesaver Traffic Update In a first-ever for Indian radio, I set up a collaboration between NDTV, Eureka Forbes and Win FM, a start-up radio station in Bombay- to develop and deliver a live traffic update everyday. It would provide updates every 15 minutes from key points in the city, with housewives being the traffic monitors. Eureka Forbes provided the network of housewives through it’s non-profit arm, and they were trained in providing data via mobile phones to a traffic desk in the station. This scheme also included the provision of noise pollution levels from key points in Bombay. The service ran successfully for a year till Win FM folded up due to financing difficulties. This was NDTV’s first ever programme on radio. Key Takeaways i)Public transport is multi-faceted. There is a need for research and work on various dimensions to address the issues arising out of urban transport. ii)Industry and academia can collaborate to create new value in this domain. iii)The added dimension of clean energy makes urban transport a very exciting area of critical inquiry as well as of business and policy analysis. iv)There is tremendous potential as well as the need to unlock funding for new areas of public transport and urban habitation. Academic research will be critical in doing so. iii)Doctorndtv.com I was responsible for managing NDTV’s not-for-profit website. This aimed to make medicine easy to understand for the common educated citizen. I was responsible for a successful launch and product management. Key Takeaways Building a non-profit concept from scratch and popularizing it among audiences is challenging but rewarding. It creates a useful base to carry out research in the environmental field, which is closely related. iv)Global Business Development in Mobile Commerce working across Asia,US and European markets. I was responsible for mobile commerce and natural language business development globally, with a focus on Asia, for Sybase 365. This job exposed me to many dimensions of the financial world and associated technological domains. It also made me aware of the complex interlinkages between banks, migrant and rural communities and microfinance. I received considerable exposure in Phillipines, India and Malaysia. Key Takeaways Microfinance and remittances are areas which will benefit considerably from technological interventions such as mobile commerce. The flows of money from these sources across borders are opportunities to help people invest in housing, urban micro-agriculture and other dimensions of sustainable living. There is a direct implication for policymaking and it ties back to the fundamental question- if a man has a hundred dollars, how will he spend it and how can you influence that decision. The sense of ownership in property and community across countries as well as the interplay of influence between locals and migrants, rich and poor, in how neighbourhoods and transport usage as well as government policies are shaped, can be areas of research. My written work so far I have recently written two articles on technology in the area of banking and the larger implications for industry and consumers. Over the last few years, I have also presented papers at a conference in London on Response TV as well as on Post Modernism at a MICA international seminar on Ahmedabad. In course of my recent work as a business development individual, this activity was somewhat constrained. As a graduate student and hopefully a researcher, I wish to spend more time in this area. I continue to write almost daily in my blog http://kaustuvghosh1972.wordpress.com. All my writings are driven by personal inquiry in the areas of clean energy, entrepreneurship in technology, popular culture, history and gender. As a descendant of immigrant people with a complicated ethnic heritage, I am also motivated by the cultures of mixed races and the interplay of related languages. I have a particular fascination for trams, trains and buses and their future. My work as a teacher I have taught modules on new media to graduate level students at MICA. My aim has always been to present management of business and media in a different light, encouraging critical inquiry into processes as well as creating the motivation to look for new areas of work. I would be very keen to continue teaching whenever the opportunity comes across. Of course, I wish to become a full time teacher on completion of my PhD. Education Post Graduate Diploma in Communications, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad. Degree in Commerce, Calcutta University. Schooled at St Xavier’s,Durgapur. Personal Interests Cycling, walking. Mobile commerce. The neighbourhoods of Singapore. Clean energy. Intepreting cinematic text. Gardens and neighbourhoods. Steam trains. |
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