IIT Teachers’ Demands-My Views

Posted on August 28, 2009 by indra

Pandey and I were in IIT, Kharagpur on the same day in 1957 for final interview to get the department of our choice. While I was with my grandfather, Pandey was with his father. Both the elderly persons were in teaching profession. It was a chance meeting with Pandey, as we both were staying in Rajendra Prasad Hall that night. Pandey is the only with whom I am still in communication. He was till last month in Kharagpur as faculty in civil engineering.

After graduation, Pandey decided to remain in teaching. He joined Patna Engineering College (now NIT, Patna) as lecturer, and then shifted to IIT, Kharagpur. He kept on adding qualifications, Master, and then Ph.D. He published papers, addressed conferences, and also kept on working on some innovations in road construction that got him patent too. He was Emeritus professor in IIT when I had asked him last time.

What should I write about myself? I joined industry and went up to a level in the company I worked. I knew Pandey might have been earning less as remuneration. He had some grievances too. But I had a lot of respect for him. I remember one incident that he narrated. When he went to his native village in Bihar, the neighbours were surprised that he decided to be teacher as his father was also the same. They had dreamt that Pandey would earn a lot of money from all the sources quite usual for a civil engineer in Bihar in PWD or irrigation and in turn he would also be of some help to them or their children too. Pandey didn’t do that. I respect his decision and dedication for teaching. In 1992, I had met Dr. Kamal Dutt, our senior of Presidency College in Delhi University, where he was a professor. Kamal da was all along rank holder in all examinations and so respected among us during the college days. He was also in Eden Hindu Hostel in 1955-57. I found Kamal pretty happy and satisfied as teacher in DU.

I don’t know if Pandey or Kamal da went for any agitation for better salary during their time.

Recently I read about the agitation of the teachers of IITs for getting higher remuneration/ compensation based on certain rationales. One of the arguments appeared very interesting to me. As reported, some leaders of the agitation, must be out of the IIT faculty, “calculated Rs 23,80,321 as the total financial loss of a student who today decides to pursue higher studies necessary to teach at an IIT in six years based on present government salaries. Spread over 35 years – the average career span of a teacher at an IIT – this amounts to Rs 12,114 a month, which the faculty argue should be paid in addition to the IIT teacher’s salary.”

Let me assure the faculty that I am for a higher salary and incentive for the community. I know the salary and perks of the teachers in the institutes for higher professional education are pretty low when it is compared with the faculty in the developed countries. As reported, “The average annual pay for professors in U.S. public universities is $115,509. The professors of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) get annually – a paltry $12,000.” However, I disagree with the industry’s trade union style of their agitation such as mass casual leave and the rational for the higher pay as compensation to the years for getting master and PhDs. There can’t be sillier argument than that. Perhaps the amount of research done for this argument would have gone for some better national problems.

I and many have some distorted perception and related questions about those who are today in teaching profession and particularly for those in IITs.

Were they the best of the students at the undergraduate level when they selected to join teaching? Was it not that they went for masters and then PH.Ds as they couldn’t get entry into industry?

How much are the contributions of the teachers of IITs in the success stories of the IITians who were the cream out of a big mass of students trying to get entry into IITs? If the teachers do contribute significantly, then the teachers in IITs must not complain against the poor performance of the students taking entry in IITs through reservation.

I wonder if IITs are having some reliable system to keep a watch on the performances of its teachers and the proper incentive or disincentive based on some periodical appraisals. I wish the IITs would have been letting the people know about it. The system must stand robust with regular external appraisals of the performances of the teachers.

Let me confess I and many have not very high opinion about most of the teachers that taught us. Many still keep on teaching something that is obsolete in industry since long time. I wonder if the things have changed. The professors of engineering must be as good as those in medical professions where each professor is a good doctor too.

IIT professors must take initiative to let the people at large and those in industry know more about their achievements to clear many perceived misconceptions.

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India’s Agro-sector: Encouraging Trends

Posted on August 25, 2009 by indra

Indian industrialists are increasingly ready to invest in Bharat, term getting popular to represent the rural India. Many philanthropic wings of today’s industry leaders such as the Azim Premji Foundation, the Akshara Foundation and Arghyam Trust are doing wonderful work. Other initiatives such as ITC’s e-Choupal, Hariyali Kissan Bazaar of DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL), or Tata Chemicals’ Tata Kisan Sansars are equally impressive.

Many companies and entrepreneurs are getting straight into agriculture business:

1.Global Green, part of Gautam Thapar’s Avantha Group, has already become the third-largest gherkins player in the world.

2.Bharti Del Monte India, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific has become the largest exporter of fresh baby corn.

3.Abhiram Seth, a former Executive Director of Pepsi Foods, has set up Aquagri Processing to tap opportunities in sea plant agriculture. Seth aims to grow a particular variety of seaweed used to make carrageenan, an edible jelly-like ingredient used in foods, cosmetics, pet food and toothpastes. He has already organised 800 small farmers for this.

4.Global AgriSystem is working with 400-500 small farmers in Bulandshahar to produce European carrots for the domestic market, but has also bagged orders to export pomegranates, mangoes and grapes.

New thrust is to encourage the farmers for producing what the consumer demands rather than the consuming whatever is produced by the farmer.

New technology is going to collapse the supply chain (earlier, there were up to seven intermediaries between the farmer and the actual buyer).

The Agriculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC Act) permits contract farming, direct marketing and private mandis to improve the linkages between the farmer and the agri-business companies.

Hyderabad-based Sri Biotech Laboratories India makes biological and bioorganic products for crop improvement and protection.

Technology partnerships have led to uniformly ripened fruits such as apples and bananas. Safal from Mother Dairy is setting up a plant to sort, ripen and package bananas.

PepsiCo pioneered contract farming in India and has been able to reach out to more than 20,000 farmers in eight states. Global Green is working with 25,000 farmers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, providing them with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, technology and a fixed price for the output. Let us see the roadmaps of some companies:

Jain Irrigation bagged a Rs 27 crore order for dehydrated onion from a European retailer. Frito-Lay is investing Rs 250 crore in its existing plant in West Bengal, making it the largest plant in Asia. Freshtrop Fruits is planning to set up a fruit juice venture near Nashik. Himalya International is setting up an agro-processing unit at Mehsana. Mahindra ShubhLaabh has tied up with the Netherlands-based HZPC for potatoes. Citrus International, a Swiss firm, has inked an MoU with the Maharashtra state’s marketing department to set up a Rs 170-crore orange processing plant. Fresh Del Monte Produce has signed banana production and purchase agreement with Rise n’ Shine Biotech. Nature Fresh Logistics India, in partnership with Fruit World Breda B.V., will set up a Rs 9.5-crore pomegranate processing plant at Someshwarnagar.

Macfries served by McDonald’s India requires Shepody potatoes that were once totally imported. By 2010, all the potatoes will be from India and Indian fries may well be travelling the world. Interestingly, the master crop of Shepody potatoes is grown in the Lahaul-Spiti valley in the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, where the weather is conducive. After harvesting in September, they are rushed 1,000 kilometres to farmers in Kheda district west of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the tubers are replanted. In March, the now massive Shepody potatoes are harvested and sent to the McCain factory in Mehsana to become MacFries.

It is all so much encouraging, but still remains some drops from the ocean of opportunity. Can one think of Chennai growing broccoli and India becoming the largest producer of pomegranate next only to Iran and exporting 35.2 thousand tonnes of fruits valued at Rs 911 million? Six decades on, the dream long cherished by India’s milkman Dr Verghese Kurien to see that India one day exports dairy products to New Zealand is coming true.

Potential of India’s agriculture sector and rural India even after 62 years remain hardly tapped. I wish along with NREGA and food security act, the government works on aggressive empowering of the farmers, field workers, and entrepreneurs in food processing and its infrastructure to bring real prosperity in rural India.

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India Finds Answer for Clean Water

Posted on August 25, 2009 by indra

Water has been the basic necessity for a good quality of life. Over the years, I found drinking water as popular bottled commodity available in almost all corners of the country, be it Badrinath or Nalanda. Is it one of the visible indicators of the India’s stepping in the twenty-first century? All coming from the developed countries today feel relieved with the easy availability of the bottled water.

Bharat Nirman also has a plan to provide drinking water in every habitation. Will that be a safe drinking water or just the water from hand pumps?

Interestingly, K. Anji Reddy, founder-chairman of Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories thought of providing safe drinking water to every Indian household by 2020. Business World has his story.

Reddy pumped in $1 million in a California-based company called WaterHealth International that was in business of water purifying plant – licensed from University of California – that used ultraviolet light to kill harmful organisms in water. A study conducted by Naandi. Reddy’s not-for-profit organization, in the districts of Andhra Pradesh had shown that farmers were drinking water contaminated with faeces.

WaterHealth’s plants were perfect for the job, but expensive – $50,000 each. Reddy arranged the finance from ICICI Bank agreeing to loan another $30,000 for each plant. The balanced was paid by the villagers. Some NRIs also contributed to set up plants back in their village.

The first water plant was set up in February 2005 in Bomminampadu in Krishna district. Water was pumped from the ground, processed by the plant and stored in 5,000-litre tanks, from where villagers came to collect it every day. For every 10 litres, Naandi collected Re 1, which went towards repaying ICICI Bank’s loan. Today, Andhra Pradesh has 350 plants.

Reddy was trying to expand the project to Giddarbah in Punjab, the constituency of Punjab’s finance minister that. The project team faced a different challenge. WaterHealth’s ultraviolet technology only killed pathogens, and could do nothing about pesticides and fertilizers that were present in the water there as the farmers used a lot of it in the cotton fields. Solution came from Tata Projects and that too for just $20,000. The plant could eliminate chemicals as well as pathogens.

Today, Punjab and Haryana have 300 and 50 water plants, respectively. Naandi has also set up 20 plants in Rajasthan, with another 20 plants planned in Karnataka. The families used to pay far more to the doctor every month than what it pays now for the purified water.

While Tata Projects provide the plants, Vadodara-based Permionics and a Norway-headquartered firm, Malte Winje service the plant. Reddy is hopeful of covering 2,000 villages within 12 months and, in another 11 years, the rest of India.

I wonder instead of discovering the wheel again and again, why can’t the Reddy’s solution of pure water be supported by all the states and the centre. Let some more philanthropists or industrial houses or the NRIs come forward to solve at least the critical problem of drinking water in the rural India.

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Drought Proofing

Posted on August 24, 2009 by indra

The government has assured having sufficient food stocks for next 13 months, and resolves to import grains if required. Some have also suggested using NREGA to handover more money in the hands of the deprived ones and opening of Janata hotels to provide cheap food. Is it the right approach? How can a human being predict what can happen with the next monsoon or ensure that it will not fail. How can a government and its administrators keep on overlooking the reports such as one from Nasa: “A team of hydrologists led by Matt Rodell of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, found that northern India’s underground water supply is being pumped and consumed by human activities, such as irrigating cropland, and is draining aquifers faster than natural processes can replenish them.”

It is unfortunate that hardly any have come out with some action plans to take some measures to minimize the loss of production of grains or maintain it in the next drought. Has the government and NGOs taken steps to educate the farmers and the public about saving water that has become so important in this drought? What can be done to improve water availability for future? How can the underground water level over the regions under farming be maintained and improved? Are we creating or taking care of the existing water bodies to store rain water? Are we going to incorporate water harvesting and water recycling as essential built-in features for all our development projects everywhere in the country? Can we keep our water resources desilted and maintained on regular basis? In many parts of the country, even the irrigation canals are hardly maintained.

Can the farming community go for some self regulation and constraint even if the electricity is free? Is it not a shame that in many states such as Bihar the seasonal rivers create sudden flood and flow away. After few days, there is no water for irrigation. Why can’t we learn from our ancestors who had created huge water reservoirs such as Jaishmand and Rajasmand even in Rajasthan and that is much easier today with mechanical equipment? Suggestions of linear reservoirs in Bihar to control flood and drought must be weighed or a serious attempt must be made to find the best technically feasible solutions.

What can be done to use less water such as drip irrigation? Can we discover or develop better farming processes or seeds requiring less water? Can we skip water guzzling crops and go for less thirsty rice? Can we switch over to other crops that can fetch same or better earning with less water? We have examples of these endeavours. An erstwhile grower of water-guzzling sugarcane in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, now grows bananas. Tha grower sells bananas to corporate buyers and earns Rs 67,000 per acre. Kharif crops are largely rain-fed, the use of drip irrigation measures has reduced water requirement by 50 per cent.

I wish the government channels as well as experts agriculture scientists and technocrats work for and come out with some technical solutions to minimize the effect of such droughts in future. First thing first, the Indian farmers and their patron politicians must appreciate the need of water and the seriousness of the prevalent misuse by almost everyone in the society. And the technocrats must provide a checklist for everyone. We can’t neglect it any more.

It requires sustained media efforts to create awareness among rural people about the importance of water. I wish the media would provide a page for the rural India in their bulky newspapers full with commercial advertisements.

A columnist in Hindustan Times rightly points out, “It is time to launch a thousand new revolutions. It is time to address the weaknesses of a system that keeps India dependent on the vagaries of the rains – especially in a world beset by the meteorological uncertainties forced by global warming. It is also time to find someone to lead this grand agricultural overhaul.”

Unfortunately, there are people in the country who have way out for the drought proofing the investment but no one to drought proof the farming sector that employs 70% of the population.

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PS: Interestingly, the reputed environmentalist, RK Pachauri also has similar viewpoints: “Solutions lie in managing the uses of water rather than focusing only on enhancement of supply. In this regard, pricing of water for a range of uses including agriculture is of critical importance. Highly subsidised electricity tariffs not only promote inefficient pumpsets but also overexploitation of groundwater resources.”

“In towns and cities there is substantial wastage in transportation of water, and in the domestic, industrial and commercial sectors. Industrial recycling of water could be achieved through appropriate regulations as well as price incentives and disincentives. Research on new crops and practices should also be undertaken to make agriculture drought proof.”

Government must shake off its lethargy. No one knows what happened to the setting up of the Rainfed Authority of India that the Prime Minister had announced some years ago. More than 400 irrigation projects are stuck due to lack of funds. Except for some significant investments by Andhra Pradesh, the media never reported any major investment in the irrigation sector. The irrigation departments require complete overhaul to stop leakages and improve water-use efficiency. Indian agriculture remains hostage to the monsoon.

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Improving Education: What is to be taught up to 14 years?

Posted on August 20, 2009 by indra

I didn’t like rote learning. That was the main focus in education when I was a child. In the village school, some of the boys were very good in that, particularly with the arithmetic tables of different types. The teachers as well as the parents used to take pride in the talents of those boys. Unfortunately, they all dropped out. I don’t know where they are today.

I kept on moving between the remote village school in Bihar and the school that my grandfather founded at the small industrial town of West Bengal near Calcutta. I didn’t have the regular schooling up to class VI. It helped me. Even in this school where the medium was vernacular, the questions in examinations expected one to memorize many unnecessary things. Why should one memorize the poems and the questions based on the text for the language papers, be it Hindi or English? Even many had to memorize the answers of probable questions in subjects such as history and geography. It was just a torture. Many a times, for good scores on subjective questions, I had to memorize many things that I really hated. But most of the students had to memorize from help books just to score pass marks. It was certainly a poor teaching and almost no learning. It was just education for passing examination and getting certificate. One’s merit got rated and differentiated by the division or class scored in the final examination and not by the knowledge.

I wish it would have changed or will certainly change with the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2009 and the crops of model schools coming up at the block level. I have some opinion on what the children must learn up to class VI before they move over for four year secondary education.

The main thrust must be on learning of a minimum of two languages, the Indian language such as Hindi or Tamil and English, both with equal importance. It should be just learning and no memorizing without almost any home work. The teachers of the language must himself be good in communication skill in the language with good stock of vocabulary. The teacher must not make the students understand literature aspects. As a rule, the language class must prohibit the use of any other language than the one being taught in the class. The class must be small. It must use technology such a compulsory 10 minutes video and audio in the language to make the students proficient in the language and grammar. The students must be encouraged to converse and discuss in the language. He must start expressing his ideas in his own language and write in fairly good handwriting. A systematic vocabulary building plan must be pursued. The student must go to the language lab to record his conversation and must be helped to improve his presentation and style. Why should it not be possible to have good proficiency in communicating in both languages in almost 6-10 years of education in school, if the teaching and learning has been seriously systematic? In later years, the students will keep on adding in his vocabulary.

Naturally, the second subject of importance up to the age of 14 must be basics of mathematics with thrust on arithmetic. The aim of the teachers must be to arouse the interest for mathematics. While certain amount of rote learning of arithmetic tables may be essential, but the child must understand the application. He must start loving the exercises of questions and creating new exercises on own. The thrust must be clearly on the concepts and applications in real world. The school must develop a good mathematics laboratory. The progress of each student in the language and arithmetic must be constantly under watch.

Rest of the subjects be it history, geography or hygiene must be taught in stories and experiments in laboratories with no examinations or grading. Every student must compulsorily spend some time in work such as fine arts music, painting, sculpture and some in games, sports and physical exercises.

Naturally, even the rural school must have good teachers with aptitude and missionary zeal to impart the knowledge to the children. The community or panchayat must get involved in the operations of the school and in the selection and appointment of teachers. It may select and appoint some retired, educated, and interested honest senior citizen to be the mentor for the rural school.

I wish the real education gets universalized for all by the next decade. Let there be dawn of light over darkness.

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Nitish’s Initiatives Need Punch

Posted on August 18, 2009 by indra

If I believe media, Nitish must be credited with many firsts initiated from Bihar, be it RTI on line, 50% reservation for women in panchayats, direct subsidy on diesel for farmers or huge employment of primary teachers. With stalwarts such as Lalu and RamVilash opposing everything that Nitish or his government does, the initiatives deserve additional credits. Even the central government is trying to block what Nitish plans for taking the state out of its dismal situation.

Some of the requests and approvals that are pending with Manmohan’s government in Delhi are worth consideration.

1.Nitish has proposed an interlinking of rivers in North Bihar to fight the menace of flood and drought. Why should not the centre take a quick decision on it? On its own Manmohan’s government could have helped Bihar by engaging one of the best consultants on flood control in world to come out with the most feasible proposal and taken Nitish’s assistance to get that executed. I suggest this because of the state’s poor financial condition to spare the hefty charges of an international consultant.

2.Nitish has also requested the centre or the ministry of agriculture to facilitate the setting up of ethanol producing facilities with sugar mills in Bihar that has one of the most conducive conditions for it. The integration of co-generation with the plant would have also helped to improve power situation. I wonder why the centre is holding up the proposal.

3.Nitish has forwarded an urgent legislation to take up the cases of corrupt individuals who amass disproportionate wealth in fast court, convict them quickly and attach their properties. Why should the centre delay such path breaking initiatives?

4.Nitish has been seeking a special status for the state so that the entrepreneurs setting up enterprises can get some concessions encouraging them to invest in that backward state. Unfortunately, the Manmohan government is not ready to comply with Nitish. How long the people of Bihar can tolerate the injustice? Is not the Manmohan government failing in niti as well as nyay both that Nobel Laurent Amartya Sen has propounded in his latest book, ‘The Idea of Justice’?

Nitish has been able to impress the former President Kalam, Amartya Sen, and even Manmohan in principle. Nitish is also among the 25 great faces of India as presented in ‘The Week’. But with Manmohan getting reputed for inaction, the state keeps on suffering. I only expect the people of India to appreciate the unique situation of Bihar. Bihar with its great past must overcome the problematic present and move to future with raised head. If the centre doesn’t listen to its requirements, it can’t wait any more. Nitish or its other honest leaders must lead people’s movement to get the long pending issues such as drought and flood solved by the centre in a time frame.

Big businesses shying from investing in Bihar are working against their social responsibility of bringing equitable development in all regions. Can’t the big private companies such as Tatas and Birlas, Bajaj or Maruti set up at least educational institutes in Bihar? Why are the big names in education sector hesitant to come in Bihar with so much of commercial potential? Are they not aware of the large number of the students from Bihar that are migrating to far-flung states for education? Why should not they discuss their apprehensions if any with Nitish or Modi and get assured?

Interestingly, Nitish has started involving and encouraging the people of Bihar to participate in building of the state. I wish the state issues a development bond and appeal the people to invest in the fund for some critical projects related particularly to water resource management, education and healthcare.

I expect a grassroots movement to improve the quality of education at the primary and secondary level as well for the water storage. The panchayats must play a big role in universalizing education, disciplining teachers, or engaging some honest educated teachers to supervise the school or even arranging funds and resources from all private and public sources to develop the village school complex as a landmark of the village. Unfortunately, the panchayats are not shaping up well. Instead, it is becoming a playground for politically backed individuals with vested interests with no concerns for the social fabrics that it is supposed to build, support and strengthen. Nitish with so much of grassroots contacts must try to make panchayats work for the locals effectively. Only that can bring prosperity right up to the last man that he wishes.

Nitish must succeed. But he requires some real punch in his initiatives to succeed.

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Human Development- necessity of grassroots approach

Posted on August 17, 2009 by indra

Human development is a basic necessity, and need not be only through formal education system. If I look back down the memory lane, I find many instances of informal human development.

In my village, I had come across an old man with hardly any education, but whenever he talked about the finer points of Ramcharitmanas, he was an authority and I have not found anyone like him till date.

In my college, some teachers with much lesser qualifications stunned me and many.

During my professional career, I found dozens who were almost like Viswakarma so far the mechanical trouble-shootings were concerned. I remember Naidu, Patra, PC Sharma or TP Ghosh to name a few, who could translate any new idea that I wanted to get implemented into machining operations. In every areas of automobile manufacturing that I was concerned with, I found great brains. I used some to get trained newcomers. But the formal system hardly recognizes this potential. I kept on working hard and going up the ladder, but kept the educating my subordinate as one of the prime interests. I used to write troubleshooting checklists on different machining processes and circulate among the subordinates. And that was my way of developing the people. Ultimately, it got published as book through Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

Unfortunately, the system doesn’t allow and encourage the real skilled persons in industry or in the social groups to train new recruits or the unskilled one that are in plenty all around. The country such as India needs skilled hands in millions that can go straight to work in housing industry, or many other service and manufacturing sector. However, it is difficult to find employable young men and women who can straight be put to work.

The country produces near million commercial vehicle including heavy, and light such as autos. Passenger cars are additional. The country needs at least a million drivers. Are we having sufficient number of institutes to cater to this requirement? Unfortunately, what we see in form of cars displaying the name of the driving schools in every locality of the country hardly does a right job of training. And have you tested any of those new drivers yourselves? If you employ one, you can see him learning driving at your cost after damaging the car. The country requires huge number of motor mechanics, electricians, plumbers, and masons. And the country hardly does have the facilities. Let the best of the skilled hands be used as trainers as an additional responsibility and with extra remuneration or allow them to do that as profession with some fee. Let there be many independent but honest certifying agencies to issue the certificate of skill after proper examination and practical tests so that the successful ones can join the job straight in a day or two with productivity level of the average older employees.

Many of us would have read about Lalmuni Devi, the woman who started growing mushrooms in her shanty or Anita Kushwaha, the bee-keeping girl. Why were not these entrepreneurs used to train many more like them to get them out from the curse of poverty? Perhaps it is because of the mindset of those who wish to perpetuate the poverty of such persons for vested interest.
Let me confess even after completing mechanical engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, the best of the time, I was hardly of any worth to the company. I took years to learn my lob, as I wanted that. I did contribute on every machine that came under my jurisdiction. But I have seen many who get retired without learning anything of engineering. Those days have gone and today with heavy competition the employer can’t afford to spend so much of time and resources on new employees. Specializations have increased. Employers seek ready stuff.

It certainly means that the level of interactions between the academic curricula and industry are hardly proactive to take care of the gap. The education needs reengineering. The sector requires innovative leaders and full autonomy with accountability. Here too a ranking by some regulatory authority may be essential with tremendously growing crops of the private institutes.
Industrial enterprises have also failed in shouldering this responsibility. Infosys boasts of making 20,000- Rupee millionaires, but why should not it come out with data on furthering education levels of its employees? How many of its employees who entered as ordinary science graduates could get qualified as graduate software engineers or computer scientists with Master or PH.D while working in the company? How many of office assistants could get qualified as cost accountant or chartered accountants? How many of the employees could be encouraged to hold some patents? How many of its employees could become entrepreneurs because of the encouragement from the company? I wish if even the 100 top companies of the country take up the mission to developing the human resources with right earnestness, the economic scenario in the country will change considerably for innovation and entrepreneurship.

As I knew from nearer quarters both TELCO (present Tata Motors) and to a smaller extent Hindustan Motors had set up good training scheme with facilities for various trades. Unfortunately, over the period the importance of the training got diluted. In HM, the management and the union, both were the killers of a scheme that could have provided constant flow of already trained workforce.

Even the educational institutes fail in pursuing this task of human development. Why an institution can’t transform its teachers and even its ordinary employees into best educated talents? I wish even IITs could have taken initiatives to upgrade the teaching skills of its teachers. At least in my time, there were just few teachers who could command respect for their knowledge or for the content they taught.

Let us agree that the formal education must demolish its set pattern and innovate to work differently to meet the requirements of the society that it serves.

PS: published in Biharbrain’s Manthan July 2009 issue

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Manmohan’s Promise Prism

Posted on August 15, 2009 by indra

Manmohan and his government are mesmerizing the people with the promises of reforms, performance, and unheard of targets since UPA began its second inning. With the last win, it knows who matters for them and how they must be kept on its side. It will be only the time that will tell if they are right.

Prime Minister’s speech on Independence Day from the Nehru era has significance. Even in the good old days of radio broadcasting, the people of India attentively heard it with hope.

Today, it was raining. I did not know the exact time. And then as usual because of power outage around that time, I couldn’t hear Manmohan’s speech. Further, with maids on holiday and Golu with us because of his long week end, I got engaged in household work. As such, Manmohan hardly impresses while speaking rather reading the prepared speeches. But I got the glimpses of the highlights of the speech with the first opportunity to get on my laptop and then went through the full speech.

I couldn’t understand why Manmohan today didn’t come out a single new idea for the country. I wonder if he and his men have run out of them. He repeated only all that were presented in President’s address to joint session of parliament, the budget speeches, the right of education act passed and even what his minister such as Kamal Nath’s 20 km a day road building promised in media. His speech was stale but listed all that his men require for the people going for election in different states, particularly to allure minority, deprived and the so-called ‘aam aadami’ who are prone to be fooled.

I am sure the people were expecting something drastic on price rise, or steps to avoid the dependence on monsoon. I don’t know why Manmohan is hesitant on river-interlinking or some projects that can give a long term solution to North India’s drought and flood that is awaiting political will for last 62 years. I also wondered why he didn’t mention the new tax reform that his present and former finance minister announced recently with so much of fanfare and that impacted the Sensex so positively the next day.

I wonder if Manmohan as a professional has reviewed what he had promised on last five Independence Days and realized the futility of making these promises. Why should he promise something if he can’t get it executed? And perhaps that is the reason that his speech today didn’t have any mention on the acute power situation in the country. How can a country reach 9% GDP growth with no energy to start industries and services?

How long the prime minister and ministers keep on living on the false promises?

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Higher Education: A Dream Super Knowledge City

Posted on August 12, 2009 by indra

August was never so hot. It’s blazing and suffocating with high temperature and horrible humidity. The media is busy creating panic for swine flu. My friend dropped going to movie. The government fails getting bad news of the Indian students in Australia. Inflation is negative but the prices are unaffordable. The Prime Minister as well as Agriculture Minister publicly predicts further price escalations encouraging hoarding. It’s really getting dull. However, I keep my dreams going.

The news of IIT, Kharagpur going for its big plan was just exhilarating. I wish Sibal or some education enthusiast such as Rajat Gupta or Sam Pitroda initiates a project to have the world’s biggest university campus somewhere in India, may be on the Mumbai-Delhi Industrial Corridor coming up with assistance from Japanese or somewhere around Haridwar to be in better climatic surroundings and greenery.

The dream university may aim to bring the best from all over the world and be a real International one. Can each of the 100 or 200 of the best educational institutes or universities of the world be brought together set up a college of a discipline in which it is the best? It must cover all the subjects of importance, be it space science and technology or economics, the medical science or management, the finance or trade and commerce, the fine art or sports. The campus must house the largest library and auditorium, the best hospital, sport complex, laboratories and art studios surrounded by world-class residential facilities for a really global community. The university must get the best faculty and the students from all over the world. And it grows to have a million teachers and ten million students living in it. Everywhere in the world when one, the student or his parent, starts thinking of going for higher education, the first name to their mind must be of this international university.

Let the dream university be the attraction for all who visit this country where Vedas were born and are still chanted in some remote institutes.

Can some dream big and get it on mother earth? Who will take it?

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Higher Education: Benchmarks for IITs

Posted on August 11, 2009 by indra

Every policy maker, be it Manmohan or Montek, India baiter Amartya Sen or Jagdish Bhagwati, educationist Yaspal or Sam Pitroda wishes to use India’s demographic dividend to transform it into a global knowledge power. Sibal wishes to transform IITs into creators of knowledge from its present practice of producing under-graduates. Some expect IITs to produce Nobel laureates and some to compete with MIT and other great institutions. Some expect IITs to expand its researches, apply and get more patents and produce larger number of research papers for the reputed technical journals of the world. Some suggest IITs to increase its intake in Master courses and research. Some others wish to see its professors on demand from the professional institutes all over the world to share their knowledge with their faculty and students.

IITs are following the same goal, may be a little slowly. According to the director IIT, Kharagpur, the institute “plans to have 30 per cent of total student strength in the Ph.D programmes, up from 15 per cent at present.” The institute conferred 228 Ph.Ds this year, of which more than 60 per cent were in engineering. But none talk about the quality of researches and preference for the research works that can get translated into some unique products.

Increasingly, Indian enterprises as well as international companies are getting associated with IITs for funding research programmes. And this gives hope for some useful rather purely academic output. For example, scientists at IIT Kanpur are working on research aimed at reducing the price gap between solar power and energy from conventional sources.

It is also heartening that IIT-Kharagpur has big plan. Other IITs must also be doing the same. Khargpur will increase its student strength to 11,000 by 2011-12 at an investment of Rs 800 crore and to 20,000 by 2020 entailing an additional cost of Rs 1,000 crore as against its current student base of 8,000. I wish it focuses on increasing the output of Masters and PH.Ds rather undergraduates. Unfortunately, the undergraduates from IITs hardly pursue Master or PH.D at IITs itself, though most going abroad go for their Masters there. IITs must think over the reasons. Is it because of the quality of courses or the necessity for getting better and ensured employment that pushes them to do Masters there?

The industry did not encourage the higher education in professional courses with significant differential in entry remuneration in past. However, with large number of MNCs setting up R&D centres in India, the scenario is getting better today. Today most of the students going for Masters and PH.Ds are from the institutes other than IITs. They go for Masters as they fail to get good jobs after graduating from those hardly known colleges. The situation can’t bring good results.

The students doing undergraduate courses at IITs are the best brains of the country and the country can get the best returns out of them if they take up Masters and PH.Ds at IITs. The government and the industry must provide lucrative attractions for them to pursue Masters and PH.Ds at IITs so that they don’t hanker to join IIMs straight from the IITs after getting intense training and knowledge in engineering and technology. I wish Sibal could find the way out. He can certainly get CII and other industry’s associations to help him in this mission.

A major problem against attracting the students for research may be the lack of real reputed teachers at IITs. The institutes require a mindset change and allure the prospective talents from industry to pursue PH.Ds. I still remember Professor Rajendra Misra who had left a good job in industry and joined IIT, Khargpur. And over the period, Misra became a respectable figure in teaching community. I myself was pretty much interested in academic career, but I could hardly get good enough response.
As it appears the incumbent director at IIT, Kharagpur has some big dreams. I am sure other directors of the institutes of excellence with help from the reputed members of the governing body start thinking big in similar manner.

It gives hope.

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