Nishant Kumar, a lecturer and researcher at Stockholm University of Business, Sweden, on Monday spoke on “Bihar Model of Development” at Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna (CIMP).

Nishant, the first Indian to receive the Palgrave Macmillan Best Research Paper Award, was here to explore academic tie-ups between the CIMP and the European B-School.

During his speech, the researcher showed his concern towards knowledge creation instead of achieving high literacy rate. “Literacy and knowledge are two different things. The government should focus on knowledge creation rather than making records of listing themselves among high literates,” said Nishant, quite disappointed with the casual approach of the government on initiatives towards knowledge creation.

Commenting on the political blame game over foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, he said: “Definitively at the end of the day, we will not get net profit but at least it will lead to market innovation and entrepreneurship. We should not take retail giants as our competitors. They are superior in terms of technology, quality and experience. What we need to do is to motivate people and collect information.”

He added that students should focus on creativity and not marks in examinations.

About the academic collaboration, CIMP director V. Mukund Das said: “I really feel honoured to be associated with Stockholm University and Nishant. I will not consider this to be a tie-up but an initiative with innovation.”