Decent Work and Economic Growth

Technology and women’s entrepreneurship

Faculty research examines technology adoption by Indian women entrepreneurs and its role in enabling or differentiating businesses. Digital capability can influence market access, competition and growth. The research connects entrepreneurship with the conditions that allow more people to participate in economic life.

Productivity in agricultural systems

Research examines the ecosystem supporting agricultural-technology adoption in emerging economies. The work connects farmers, technology providers, finance, policy and supply-chain institutions with productivity and rural enterprise.

Managing market uncertainty

Faculty research published in Production and Operations Management in 2025 examines commodity processing and trading under random supply and inventory-conversion flexibility. The study contributes to understanding how producers and firms make operating decisions under uncertainty, with implications for resource allocation and economic resilience.

Connecting research with economic participation

Alongside technology adoption and operations research, the faculty portfolio examines working conditions in global supply chains, high-performance work systems, workers’ participation in management and new-venture governance. They complement practice-led learning in which students encounter the systems through which businesses create income, employment and economic value.

Dr Garima Chaklader wrote Service Sector Dynamics and Role in the Indian Economy with Rupa Chanda of UNESCAP and Sudeshna Ghosh of IIM Bangalore. The chapter appears in the Springer volume Growth, Development and Productivity: 75 Years of Indian Experience and examines the part services play in India’s economic development.

Dr Kunal Biswas presented his paper on fiscal-monetary interaction and the business cycle at six venues across 2024 and 2025: ISI Delhi, the SERI doctoral workshop at IIM Calcutta, the India Management Research Conference at IIM Ahmedabad, the Delhi School of Economics, IIT Bombay and Shiv Nadar University. Dr Vipin Sreekumar’s paper on FDI and global value chain participation in Indian manufacturing appeared in the 2024 Academy of Management Proceedings, and Dr Kashika Sud presented a poster on investor participation in startup funding decisions at the American Psychological Association meeting in 2024. Dr Rochak Khandelwal’s paper Illusion of Specialization: How Being Good Turns Out to Be Bad, written with Hyun Chul Maeng, was published in the Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy after the 2025 EMAC Spring Conference in Madrid.

Fair pay and workplace rights

Our approach to decent work starts with the employment conditions we create ourselves. Masters’ Union's employment framework covers remuneration, pay equity, non-discrimination, outsourced workers, freedom of association and the right to raise concerns or appeal employment decisions. Our Living Wage and Fair Remuneration Policy recognises that statutory minimum wages do not always reflect the actual cost of living. Pay for directly employed faculty and staff is therefore assessed against an appropriate local living-wage benchmark. Where a formal benchmark is unavailable, the assessment can consider essential costs including housing, food, utilities, healthcare, education and transport. The benchmark is calculated both as a monthly and as an hourly wage, so it can be applied to part-time and hourly employees, and it is never lower than the government-notified minimum wage. Pay is also benchmarked against comparable roles across the industry, with a pay scale set to attract the people who teach and support students.

Pay equity is reviewed across salaries, bonuses and workforce levels under the Pay Scale Equity and Gender Pay Gap Policy, which provides for equal pay for the same or substantially similar work, objective and gender-neutral pay criteria, periodic measurement of gender pay gaps and investigation of unexplained differences. The 2026 gender pay assessment recorded a median gender pay gap of 3.40% and a median bonus gap of 0.00%. Employment decisions including recruitment, appraisal, promotion, remuneration, training and termination are expected to be based on professional and role-related criteria. The Equal Employment Opportunity Policy prohibits discrimination on grounds including religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, nationality, disability, family status and caste. The Prevention of Sexual Harassment policy sets out how harassment is prevented and addressed.

Benefits beyond pay

Employee benefits have widened beyond pay. Recent additions include exclusive Swiggy rewards, an NPS awareness session and a global immersion at SDA Bocconi in Milan.

Protecting people who work through external partners

Decent work also extends to people who support the institution through contracted services. Security, housekeeping, catering, facilities, transport and other functions may involve workers employed by external providers. Masters’ Union's Equivalent Rights for Outsourced Workers Policy covers lawful and timely wages, applicable overtime, statutory benefits, safe working conditions, protection from harassment and discrimination and access to grievance mechanisms. Vendor checks can include wage records, attendance, statutory contributions, labour-law compliance and health and safety arrangements. The Modern Slavery Policy adds a commitment against forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour. The framework states that outsourcing an activity does not remove the institution’s responsibility for lawful, fair, safe and dignified working conditions, and it applies across security, housekeeping, catering, facilities, maintenance, technology support, transport, event operations, temporary staffing and construction, including subcontractors.

The right to organise and raise concerns

Under the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining Policy, employees have the right to form or join lawful employee associations and trade unions, choose representatives and raise collective concerns. They can also seek review of decisions affecting pay, appraisal, promotion, benefits and employment rights. Formal appeals are reviewed independently where required, and employees raising concerns or participating in an appeal in good faith are protected from retaliation. Masters’ Union does not currently have a registered employee trade union or a collective bargaining agreement, which does not limit employees’ right to organise or to seek collective representation.

Entrepreneurship education across Punjab

The Punjab Entrepreneurship Mindset Programme, which Masters’ Union built for the Government of Punjab from curriculum to app, brings practical entrepreneurship education to students across the state's higher-education system. The programme has engaged 101,884 students across 47 universities and 1,695 colleges. Participants have created 20,226 businesses, of which 15,341 are recorded as active. Together, these ventures have generated INR 44.15 crore in reported revenue through 43,605 business transactions. Punjab students explore opportunities across e-commerce, professional services, retail, content creation and other forms of enterprise, while Masters’ Union contributes entrepreneurship frameworks, mentoring approaches and practical business-building tools. The programme gives young people access to entrepreneurial learning at a scale far beyond the Masters’ Union campus.

Supporting young founders

Masters’ Union also supports young people who choose to build businesses of their own. Up to 2025, Masters’ Union has provided ₹1.36 crore in institutional venture grants and approximately 4,500 hours of one-to-one mentoring. More than 30 ventures built and launched in the wider entrepreneurship report have collectively created over 500 jobs.

The Founders’ Fellowship gives selected founders who build full-time ₹50,000 per month for up to one year, alongside mentorship and fundraising support. Masters’ Union Ventures extends this support to founders under 25, including coders, creators, self-taught builders, school and university dropouts and entrepreneurs from Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations. Student ventures were also presented at a startup summit with the Chief Minister of Haryana on World Entrepreneurs’ Day.

Supporting artisan livelihoods

Student enterprise also creates opportunities to work with community producers. Through the Kalaghar Dropshipping Project, students worked with handcrafted home decor produced by artisans from underserved communities. Students supported marketing, sales and customer access while learning how stronger connections to markets can support existing livelihoods. Food ventures extend the same approach. Students work directly with farmers, food producers and manufacturers to source products and ensure quality, which gives these producers a direct buyer and supports farmer livelihoods.

Preparing students for work

Career preparation begins well before recruitment. Students receive support with resumes, professional profiles, interview preparation, domain knowledge and company-specific preparation. Once an interview opportunity is secured, Last Mile Prep provides more focused support for the role and organisation.

For PGP-TBM Cohort 2025, the Careers Report records a 100% employment rate, an average CTC of ₹33.39 lakh per annum and a median CTC of ₹27.78 lakh per annum. The cohort also recorded 30 international or remote offers, 64 campus drives and 55 new recruiting brands. These experiences give students repeated opportunities to understand different roles, work with employers and prepare for the transition from education into professional life. Employment outcomes for earlier cohorts are public as well. The PGP Cohort of 2024 employment summary sits alongside the PGP-TBM Placement Report 2025.

Learning business by running one

Through OutClass, students experience what it takes to build and operate a business while they study. The Dropshipping Challenge takes students through product selection, sourcing, pricing, storefront development, digital marketing, customer acquisition, fulfilment and financial management. More than 500 students have participated, creating over 150 student businesses and generating more than INR 10 crore in cumulative revenue.

A recent cohort generated more than INR 3.3 crore in approximately two and a half months. The experience moves entrepreneurship beyond a classroom exercise. Students have to find customers, work with suppliers, make commercial decisions and respond when those decisions do not work as expected.

Taking a venture from idea to market

Students who want to continue building can move into the Venture Initiation Programme, a nine to ten month venture-building journey. They begin by identifying a real problem and validating it with potential users. From there, they build an early product, take it to market, acquire customers and continue improving the venture based on what they learn. More than 35 students from PGP-TBM Cohort 2025 started ventures, supported by ₹1.36 crore in institutional grants and approximately 4,500 hours of one-to-one mentoring. Selected founders present their ventures at Demo Day to more than 150 venture capitalists and angel investors.

Learning how work is organised across India

PGP immersions introduces students to very different ways in which businesses, workers and communities participate in the economy. At Meesho, students see how digital commerce can create opportunities for smaller sellers. At Infosys, they learn about workforce development in the technology sector. At Addverb, they encounter robotics and automation in logistics.

With the Mumbai Dabbawalas, students experience a large informal delivery network built around coordination and reliability. At Amul, they study a cooperative model connecting rural producers with organised markets. Through SEWA, students encounter women's collective enterprise and artisan livelihoods, while the Swades Foundation immersion introduces them to rural livelihoods and community development. Together, these experiences give students a wider view of what decent work and economic opportunity look like across formal employment, entrepreneurship, cooperatives, informal enterprise and community-based livelihoods.