I am a master in India

Chapter 406 The Soil of Deception

Ron arrived full of enthusiasm, but left disappointed.

He had originally planned to ask Alindam to help establish the North China University of Technology if he was reliable.

Little did I know this guy was a pyramid scheme leader!

Yes, North China University of Technology is the private school that Ron is planning to set up.

The name is very impressive, leading people to mistakenly believe that it is a national key university.

That's why Ron gave up names like "Sur University," which had a strong personal connotation.

He got a good deal, thanks to the convenience of Uttar Pradesh, which allowed him to settle on this name.

Since universities include the word "industry," their curriculum should naturally reflect this bias.

They mainly work in civil engineering, construction, materials, energy, and electrical engineering, specifically serving his real estate company, infrastructure company, cement plant, power plant, and Suer Electric Appliances.

The school's establishment has only just begun, involving a huge amount of work such as site selection, faculty development, qualification approval, and textbook selection and compilation.

Ron had high hopes for the school, which is why he made a special trip to Gurgaon to investigate it.

Upon returning, he ordered his men to thoroughly investigate the business school's information, and surprisingly, they obtained useful information from the Ministry of Education.

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management, a school personally managed by Arlindam, has never received official recognition.

Even today, government departments still frequently cause trouble there, as they do not allow business schools to use the title "India".

The Ministry of Education has never registered this school, and its operating qualifications and degree certifications have not been recognized at all.

Just two months ago, the government sent a warning letter to Arlindam and his group.

Ron was stunned when he saw the news.

That guy was bragging about something back then, saying that the school had a master's degree program and that he himself had earned that degree.

Well, he's issuing his own certificate, huh? Why doesn't he just get a PhD?

It has to be my great India. Ron is amazed; they have all sorts of eccentric talents.

This pyramid scheme leader actually managed to become a respectable tycoon.

But that's not all; someone has revealed the truth behind the business school.

They said the school's promotional advertisements were completely misleading, and that only the Delhi campus had the facilities shown in the pictures, from swimming pools to libraries.

However, these facilities are pitifully small, more like a formality, and not nearly as exquisite and luxurious as in the pictures.

The advertisements showed that other branch campuses only had a few cramped office buildings, with no campus, swimming pool, or library whatsoever.

The prestigious professors hired, including those from Wharton, NYU, Columbia, and Harvard, were merely "visiting professors." They mostly made a brief appearance or gave impromptu speeches.

The degrees awarded by these colleges are not recognized by the Indian government. They also fabricate data in their own magazines to obtain school rankings.

The claim that the school's graduates can work for multinational companies like McKinsey is completely unfounded.

It has also been discovered that Arindam's father, Chaudhry, did not obtain government permission when he started the college.

Choudhury called himself a "doctor," saying that the degree was awarded by the Berlin School of Economics.

He participated in the Indian Parliament elections, but received very few votes, so much so that he was unable to get his campaign deposit back.

In his application to the election commission, he sent his degree to Berlin, then part of East Germany, to request verification.

But how could a country that no longer exists possibly allow you to access its records?
The whistleblower asserted that the Berlin School of Economics did not exist at all, and that the so-called PhDs were fabricated by their family and company.

Arlindam's fraud was entirely a case of his son following in his father's footsteps.

Ron now even doubts whether those overseas branch campuses he mentioned actually exist.

What's even more bizarre is that when someone stood up to expose the scam, the most outraged people weren't the Alindam family, but the business school students.

Those who exposed the incident couldn't understand why the students would speak out for Arendam. In their view, the students had clearly been deceived.

That's because they underestimated Arlindam's deception. The products produced by his organization were intangible, yet they resonated more than many tangible consumer goods.

He convinced ambitious people that with a little money, and without much cultural or intellectual capital, they could fully integrate into the global corporate world.

Business school students can't be poor, because tuition is very expensive.

Many of them come from towns in large administrative regions or from families of small business owners. They have already accumulated a certain amount of wealth, consider themselves shrewd managers, and now need to further improve themselves to participate in global competition.

Alingdam offers students with these backgrounds the opportunity to leave IBM computers and dress in suits to visit and learn in Geneva or New York.

All of this involved a considerable degree of posturing, and the students were essentially spending the most vulnerable time of their lives in a “toy” managed school: mini-golf courses, mini-gymnasiums, and mini-libraries.

To put it bluntly, they are unwilling to admit that they have been deceived, because that would make all their years of study go to waste, and the sunk cost would be too high.

So what do we do? We'll make this a real show!
Pretend that you graduated from a globally renowned management school, and pretend that your MBA program and master's degree are real.

Whoever dares to expose them will be their greatest enemy.

In this country, all you need to do is learn to put on airs; nobody cares if it's genuine or not. Most of India's upper-middle class are also putting on airs, wandering around shopping malls and pretending to look at Tommy Hilfiger and Louis Vuitton products.

They are actually quite guilty because they are only half-baked, so they never delve into the details of others' work.

Otherwise, how could someone impersonate a doctor for years, consult thousands of patients, and not be discovered?

This country is a natural haven for fraudsters; its social environment provides such opportunities for criminals.

Like Arlindam, he is a trendsetter of this era.

He possessed splendor, courage, and wealth, all thanks to his audacity.

Can you believe that this mysterious person once received an oil painting from All India Television?

The painting depicts an Indian sheikh with a long beard and wearing a red robe; it was a tribute from the television station to curry favor with him.

Arendram's rise to media darling and public acclaim is partly based on the aspirations and resentment of India's middle class.

Without the admiration, imitation, and respect of those who yearn for it, and the wealth they contribute, there would be no trendsetters like Arlindam.

He exploited the market economy and the desire, recklessness, and insecurity that Indian right-wing elements instilled in his students to do business.

Arlindam understands very well the kind of unwavering belief that society instills in these aspiring individuals, and he also understands the resentment they harbor that is disproportionate to the challenges they actually experience.

It allows those who aspire to feel both empowered and marginalized, and lets the world witness the emerging petty bourgeoisie's eagerness to express their frustration and resentment at failing to become elites.

However, when faced with genuine poverty, they are unusually indifferent, even apathetic.

Every pyramid scheme leader is a psychology master.

Even Ron had to admire this; he was very good at winning people's hearts.

While both Arindam and Roy of Uttar Pradesh built their business empires through pyramid schemes, Arindam's methods were actually more sophisticated than Roy's.

Roy's Sahara Financial Company exploited a Ponzi scheme, which is based on people's greed.

This is relatively crude, and the traces of money are too obvious.

Alindam, on the other hand, relies purely on marketing, on the discontent of the middle class and their eagerness to make a name for themselves in society.

They wholeheartedly defend him, and any remarks detrimental to Arindam will provoke fierce resistance from them.

If Roy's Sahara Savings customers knew it was a scam, would they still defend him?
See, this is the essence of two master swindlers.

Ron, however, believed that Roy's Sahara would last longer because he knew how to make money work.

If Arindam fails to resolve the employment issue for his students, it wouldn't be surprising if his business empire collapses one day.

With more and more students graduating, it's impossible to cram them all into Pramman Corporation.

A system that only takes in resources and never gives out will cause labor costs to rise to an alarming level.

After confirming that the business school was a complete scam, Ron told Arlindam: pretend he never went that day.

Otherwise, in a desperate situation, this guy might use Ron as an advertisement for the academy.

Mr. Sue personally inspected it!
That one sentence is enough: Indians' blind obedience is fanatical.

Ron was too famous; he ran a real business that everyone could see and touch, and it had government backing.

With just a little effort, Arindam could turn his business school around.

Tsk, even Ron himself didn't expect that this rising star, Arindam, was a charlatan.

However, considering that this is India, everything makes sense, after all, there is the "beautiful example" of Roy in the Sahara.

Although the person Maya introduced was unreliable, Ron didn't intend to take back his promise.

On the one hand, he knew that the other party would not get what they wanted, and that the BJP leadership would not lift the alcohol ban in Gujarat.

On the other hand, it's also because Maya is much more important than Arindam, who is also involved in industry, albeit in the brewing business.

There's a reason why groups like Tata, Reliance, and Sur are more popular in India.

There are too many scammers, and many people simply can't distinguish between real and fake virtual assets.

A real factory is immediately obvious, and it receives more attention from the government.

With the end of the year approaching, Ron had no plans to return to Uttar Pradesh or go to Mumbai.

The child is still young, and Isha is also recovering, so she decided to stay in New Delhi for a few more months.

However, his absence does not mean that there has been no action taken in Uttar Pradesh.

Muna has made contact with Dwaram, who led a demonstration by red sorghum farmers in Lucknow.

He was indeed politically ambitious; after Ron made a slight attempt to probe him, he actively went to make contact with the Progressive Party.

(End of this chapter)