Few days ago I wrote a blog titled Rotten PhD. Given my battles with schizophrenia, these kind of dark ideas do come to me time and again. But then one thinks about it. And after prolonged thinking, it is clear to me that doing a PhD at one of the best business schools in India has been terribly good for my professional career and personal growth.

Doing a PhD is a tough experience. You are expected to be a subject matter expert. The biggest issue is that one is alone. Doing the work in a field in which nobody else is an expert in. It is a lonely battle. But it is an interesting and a fulfilling one.

I worked on the very interesting and the exciting field of carbon taxation on the Indian freight sector. Climate change is a burning issue in today’s world. Global temperatures are rising and the human ecosystem is being harmed. Examples of it are everywhere, the recurring hurricanes in the US, the loss of biodiversity on the Himalayan region, the rising seas, the melting of glaciers and so on. Carbon taxation is widely regarded as an effective tool to combat the perils of climate change.

Unfortunately I fell ill with schizophrenia during my PhD times. It was a trying and a testing time for me. I had delusions and hallucination which were terrible to the least. Yet the system allowed me to work and helped me achieve what I wanted to do. This shows the effectiveness of the system and reiterates the fact that it is one of the best in the world. I am thankful to be a part of that system.

The PhD program is world class. Students go to all over the world after studying from this program. Staying in the program fills you with a certain kind of energy and a will to make it big in the world. Of course one is expected to work hard. But working there is full of fun and frolic, not the mundane kind. This is what cheers you up.

My thesis brings out some interesting themes in the field of carbon taxation. It is one of the early works on the effects of carbon taxation on the Indian freight sector. The results clearly point to the need for a shift from fossil fuel based energy sources to renewable based energy resources. It also touches upon the effects of different values of carbon taxation on this sector. The value of carbon tax is still debatable. And it is a very interesting field to work on.

As I have already written, I am happy to have done my work in this field at the business school. I am sure works like these will be coming out of the school to expand the knowledge base and add to the truths of science.