दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Technology can solve many of India’s problems easily and effectively. Most of the universities are functioning with fewer than desired number of teachers. Even among the available ones, many are poorly qualified and can hardly meet the desired standard of teaching of their subjects. How can then India’s education standard equal that of the developed countries? Similar situation prevails even in school education. Internet can help in mitigating the problem to certain extent.

More and more Indians now find learning made easy and interesting by their tutors online. Subjects may be anything, be it physics, electronics, or French or Japanese. I have written about Salman Khan who has done a great work to teach mathematics through video clips on You Tube. Huge number of students is getting benefitted through similar endeavours of many enthusiast teachers. Do-it-yourself learning is becoming a trend through Internet connections with broadband in increasing number of houses. Today an engineering student of any college across India can get access to whatever the teachers in IITs are offering to their students without going to IIT. The student might have failed to get admission into the elite institutes. But nothing stops him to get access to the lectures that IIT and IISc professors have posted on YouTube in a project funded by the Indian government. Following US universities, teachers of IITs have begun posting course content on YouTube. Already 40 streaming hours of IIT teaching video is available free for anyone, be he in Nagpur or New York. Even with huge shortage of teachers, the project will give engineering students a chance to access quality peer-reviewed course content for free. It’s been quite a success judging from the fact that one lecture on basic electronics has been viewed by a whopping 100,000 viewers. Under Phase 2 of the project, quality teachers from other institutes besides the IITs and IISc will also be roped in to prepare lecture videos. Potentials are great.

The growth of broadband Internet must reach in every nook and corner of India. The scope for the entrepreneurs to create contents of every subject, be it language, mathematics, or science, and provide to millions of students in schools and colleges of India, is really wide.

According to Akamai Technology’s Quarterly State of the Internet Report for the third quarter of 2008, India had 2.6 million Internet protocol (IP) addresses-up 23 per cent over the second quarter this year. However, most Indians continued to use the internet for e-mail and social networking. Again, India ranks a lowly 153 in the number of IP addresses per capita, with around 2.3 IP addresses per capita, compared to 30 for China and 360 in the case of the US.

According to the report, only 5 per cent of browsers surveyed had connection speed of 2 mpbs or more, compared to 64 per cent for the US.

India is at number 4 among the top 10 nations of the world with 81 million Internet users as against United States with 220 million, China 210 million and Japan 88.1 million

The internet emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news in US presidential election. It has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. For more than a billion people on the planet, the Web today is an alternate, digital universe that is gradually overtaking the analog, physical world as a source of information and connections.

Shopping in India is also going online in big way. More than a billion hits were registered on the top online buying and selling site eBay in 2007 with shoppers bidding on everything from phones and diamonds to stamps and lingerie. I bought Imagining India of Nandan Nilekani while I was in US from online. The book was waiting when I entered my premises. It is already helping the youngsters in match making or searching for homes for rental or purchase. There are many more areas where Internet will be of immense help.

Internet penetration and the number of its users will be a good measure of the development index of a country in years to come.

I came to know of Salman Khan through a report in Times of India. He is a hedge fund manager of Indian origin in California, USA. His 700 videos on You Tube have become quite a hit with students abroad and in India.

I visited the site of this math tutor, and then to the site of his Khan Academy. It is a great work done for the student community. American students and their parents, rather the whole lot of student community over the world that can understand English should be happy to know and use his endeavour to teach different topics of the subject. One can check it by going to the site.

It’s often embarrassing for a student to ask a teacher too many questions, especially when it is about something basic that he or she is expected to know. On Internet, the student can choose his own time that he finds best to learn better. He can also pause a video or watch it as many times as they like.

Salman Khan has established a not-for-profit Khan Academy. Educated at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Khan developed his tutoring hobby when a younger cousin was having trouble with sixth-grade math. As word of his knack for teaching spread among relatives and family friends, Khan got tired of explaining the same things over and over, so he created videos and posted them on YouTube. He formed the Khan Academy.

Khan’s video clips have developed a following far beyond that immediate circle of relatives and friends. Internet has made him a global guru for maths. He gets e-mails from around the world – including requests for videos on specific topics and help solving particular problems. He now claims about 600 videos on subjects spanning math, physics and even the tanking economy.

A YouTube tutorial on calculus integrals has been watched almost 50,000 times in the past year. Others on angular velocity and harmonic motion have gotten more than 10,000 views each. Khan keeps churning out the clips for which he works on for about three hours a night. According to University of Miami education professor Walter Secada, who specializes in how math is taught, ‘The Khan videos he reviewed are accurate.’

I am sure the media of You Tube and Internet will make the learning easy for billions of children all over the world. I wish Indian teachers use this medium to spread the knowledge. Let many more Salman Khans come forward to spread the knowledge about the various subjects. Should we still worry of the shortage of teachers?

It was interesting to hear Ravi Kant of Tata Motors suggesting that ‘India should focus on producing cheap, efficient and small electric cars over the next five years’ at Pan-IIT Global Conference 2008. Why didn’t Tata Motors, the only Indian car manufacturer in real sense, take that initiative? Why was it left to Maini and its Reva?

Ravi Kant and the whole lot of auto enthusiasts globally understand this global necessity in the interest to cut down the global warming. The same is true for all the IITs and many nationally known institutes such as Central Mechanical Engineering research Institute at Durgapur. Don’t the scientists, technology researchers and the policymakers in India know how successful has been the Toyota Prius in US? American Big Three missed on the opportunity because of the powerful oil lobby and the world knows why the US has lost the lead in auto business to Japanese. However, very lately all the three are working hard for developing a viable hybrid, more so electric cars. GM perceives its Chevorlet Volt as savior in competition as well as for its survival. Ford is also in the queue for electric cars.

I don’t know if the three will continue with the focus or give up as the price of oil has come down again, as one report says, it has gone cheaper than even mineral water.

Interestingly, the Chinese have already launched their electric car that is technically competitive with the other available product. The Chinese company has a superior battery technology.

With almost very little fossil oil of its own, India would have done a serious work on alternative energy sources for auto application. Indian policy makers must appreciate how automobiles decide the economic growth and employment of a country. Every car produced generate on average employment for at least two persons. Today perhaps the country must be getting a large number of semiskilled persons engaged as drivers every year. Here are some alternate technologies at which Indian industry and policy makers must focus.

1.Plug-In Hybrids. Plug-in hybrids, with 40-mile all-electric range and the ability to recharge from standard house current, will be on the market in the next two or three years. The leading (and only) mainstream players are General Motors (which plans on introducing a Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid) and Toyota (with an adapted Prius). Ambitious startups (Fisker, BYD) are also planning to field plug-in hybrids. All of them are developing lithium-ion battery packs that can stand up to repeated discharge and recharge cycles and still demonstrate the longevity that today’s nickel-metal-hydride hybrid battery packs have had.

2.Battery Electrics. Lithium-ion is the current leader, but is it ready to carry four passengers in a fully featured, crashworthy sedan more than 200 miles? Nissan has plans to bring an electric car to the U.S. by 2010. Chrysler has also surprised the world by suddenly announcing a concept car known as the Dodge EV, a sports car. It claimed 150-mile range and blistering acceleration of zero to 60 in less than five seconds. The sports car was clearly aimed at the Tesla Roadster, a California-built $100,000 exotic which (like the Chrysler) sports a Lotus-designed body.

3.Range Extenders. General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt, with production slated for the end of 2010 is something new: an electric car with a gas motor whose only function (it’s not connected to the wheels) is to keep the electric motor spinning after the batteries are depleted. As with plug-in hybrids, 40 miles can be enjoyed in battery-only mode, but the gas engine extends that to 400 miles or more.

4. Very Small Cars. High fuel prices have created a strong market for very small cars. Tiny, fuel- and space-efficient cars once relegated only to Europe or Asia will enter US too. Toyota iQ, the minuscule car is just 118 inches long, but can carry three adults (plus a child) and reportedly achieves 60/51 mpg fuel economy. Tata Motors’ Nano can join the competition.

5. Fuel Cells. Hydrogen can be the fuel. The possibilities are endless, since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Big drawbacks now are the cost of the fuel and, of course, the cars themselves. Manufacturers are General Motors ( Sequel and Equinox SUVs under test) and Honda (FCX Clarity).It is interesting to know that ISRO is working on fuel cells for auto application.

6. Salad Oil. Companies such as Massachusetts-based Greasecar have found a niche converting diesels to run on 100 percent biofuel.

7. Liquid Hydrogen. BMW’s Hydrogen 7 can run on a tank full of energy-dense liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen is expensive to begin with, and it liquefies at -423 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning a super-cooled cryogenic tank is obligatory. If a car left alone for too long, much of the hydrogen will return to a gaseous state and vent out. The big challenges: affordable hydrogen production and liquification; easy refueling; and answering safety questions.

8. Ethanol. GM and Ford are world leaders in producing “flex-fuel” vehicles that can run on ethanol or gasoline. While America is stuck with a “food vs. fuel” controversy, Brazil has become pioneer in using ethanol from sugarcanes. India can and should go Brazil way

font color=”#FF0000″ size=”3″>Tata set to clinch Jaguar-Land Rover deal: Indian conglomerate Ta><tas are the top choice for buying the US auto giant Ford’s iconic British brands Jaguar and Land Rover, according to a media report here.

L&T in power business: L&T has entered into a joint venture agreement with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for setting up a manufacturing unit in India for super-critical steam turbine and generator facility, investing about Rs 880 crore and having a product configuration catering to plant capacities ranging between 500 Mw and 1,000 MW. L&T also has a joint venture with Japan’s Toshiba to manufacture power plant equipment in India.

L&T to pump in Rs2,000 cr in 3 shipyards: Engineering and construction company Larsen & Tuobro has shortlisted three locations for its next shipyards on which the company will invest up to Rs2,000 crore.

LG India to invest over Rs 1,100 cr: LG Electronics India Ltd, the local unit of South Korean consumer durables maker, will invest over Rs 1,100 crore in the next three years.

Tatas world’s 3rd most accountable group: The Tata Group, easily India’s most respected business house, has been named the world’s third most accountable and transparent company by Britain’s One World Trust. The report ranked GE number 1 and GlaxoSmithKline number 2 among the most transparent and accountable companies.

India Inc signs deals worth $68.32 b in 2007: India Inc was on a shopping spree in 2007, striking deals including merger and acquisition (M&A) and private equity investment worth $68.32 billion against $28.16 billion last year, a rise of 142.61 per cent, according Grant Thornton’s Dealtracker.

Boeing signs $1 bn outsourcing deal with HAL: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed a $1 billion (Rs3,949 crore) manufacturing outsourcing contract with American aerospace major Boeing over ten years.

Danone enters Indian market: French dairy giant Group Danone kicked off its joint venture with Yakult of Japan to manufacture probiotic drinks in the country and has already invested Rs 136 crore in setting up a dairy product manufacturing facility in Sonepat, Haryana.

India sees 10% growth by 2012: Economy could be growing by 10% a year by 2012 with the right set of policies, but the US sub-prime crisis might trim exports and capital flows.

Welspun acquires Portuguese bath rug firm: Welspun India, a home textiles firm and a part of Welspun group, has acquired 76% stake in Portuguese bath rug firm, Sorema-Tapates e Cortinas de Banho at an enterprise value of Rs 60 crore.

Direct tax mop-up rises 42.5%: The Centre’s tax kitty continues to swell. Direct tax collections grew 42.5% for the period April-December to Rs 1,64,407 crore, compared to Rs 1,15,377 crore during the same period last fiscal.

ONGC joins Fortune’s most admired list: Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) has become the first Indian company to feature in Fortune magazine’s annual list of the world’s most admired companies.

Tata Motors to display Rs 1 lakh car next month: The four-door car, which will have a rear engine and seat at least four passengers, is expected to go on sale in the later part of 2008. According to the company chairman Ratan Tata, the car will be the least polluting vehicle on the Indian roads and meet necessary safety standards.

Tata Motors` Rs 1 lakh car a trendsetter: Tata Motors’ Rs 1 lakh car would represent a paradigm shift in the low-cost transport segment, not only in India, but across the whole world, said R A Mashelkar, the former chief of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

ISRO plans colony on moon: In what may well be the first step towards establishing the first “human colony” on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is examining the possibility of establishing a robotic set-up or unmanned mission on the moon.

Wal-martisation of healthcare: Narayana Hrudayalaya performs close to 30 open heart surgeries and almost an equal number of catheterisation procedures a day, which is eight times the average at other Indian hospitals.

Taj expressway: The Rs 2,250-crore Taj Expressway project, which envisages a six-laned 165 km stretch connecting Greater Noida to Agra, would reduce travel time between Delhi to Agra from the current four hours to around two hours.

Auto part investments to treble in 3 yrs: Domestic auto component companies are investing Rs 30,000 crore to cash in on the automobile boom. Automobile capacity in the country will double from 2.2 million unit per annum to 4.4 million by 2010.

India Pistons to invest Rs 200 cr: Following the announcement of its 50:50 joint venture with the Germany-based Mahle GmbH, auto component manufacturer India Pistons is drawing up an expansion programme involving an outlay of about Rs 200 crore over the next 2-3 years.

Aurobindo to invest $1billion: Hyderabad-based pharma company Aurobindo Pharma, which has plans to emerge as a billion dollar company by 2009-10, is enhancing its presence in Europe by investing $100 million in phases.

Mahindra World City: New Chennai, one of the first private SEZs to come into operation in the country, expects to attract investments to the tune of $1-1.5 billion over the next five years. It also expects to generate job opportunities for over 50,000 people during this period and houses three sector-specific SEZs – information technology and electronic hardware, apparel and fashion accessories, and auto components.

India ‘rules’ IBM: IBM Corp’s expansion in developing countries shows no sign of relenting. The technology company revealed that it now has 73,000 employees in India, almost a 40 per cent leap from last year.

India growing as preferred destination for clinical trials: India is growing as a preferred destination for global clinical trials and research, with the market being estimated to reach $1.5 billion by 2010, which may trigger a shortage of around 30,000 to 50,000 clinical research professionals by then.

PC market grows by 25%: IDC The Indian notebook PC market grew almost 85% to cross the 500,000 shipments mark in a single quarter, according to IDC’s India Quarterly PC Tracker, Q3 2007.

CII to pool in India Inc`s education initiatives: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is bringing all industry initiatives in education on one platform.

Israeli firm to invest $2 b for building township in Jaipur: Fishman Holdings, a leading Israel-based firm is planning to invest $2 billion in a project in Jaipur to build a four million square metre township.

Dupont’s R&D centre to conduct crop research: DuPont’s first research & development centre in India, which is coming up in Hyderabad early next year, will for the first time see basic research in areas like crop genetics head to an offshore centre. The Indian centre, which has some 300 scientists, will deal in developing biotech traits and technologies that will be incorporated into multiple crops for the global market.

Indians key to next billion mobile users: Although only about one in 20 of the world’s first two billion mobile subscribers live in India, as many as one in every four of the next billion subscribers will be an Indian, a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said.

Under the shadow of slowdown, Indians are moving ahead to bloom. Let the new year bring a new drive to move faster towards the goal of ‘propsperity for all’.

Economist in its latest edition has an unusual story of IRFAN ALAM, a 27-year-old from Begusarai in Bihar and his typically Indian thirsts of entrepreneurship exhibited through his company SammaaN Foundation that he established in Patna in 2007.

Irfan Alam, the founder and chairman, SammaaN Foundation came out with an innovative idea and transformed it into a business model. It relates to the cycle rickshaw pulling business where the men engaged hardly made a respectable earning. Alam’s idea made it profitable and honourable with small but innovative changes. In Alam’s business plan, rickshaw puller makes the ride for the commuter more comfortable and enjoyable with provision of music, magazine/news papers, and even first aid. He designed the rickshaws in such a way that it gives ample space to put the advertisement on the side, front and back panels of the rickshaw. Rickshaw puller additionally earns from various value-added services such as sale of mineral water, juices, mobile recharge, courier collection, bills collections. The company intrudes for the first time prepaid rickshaws in India.

This is the story of one of the 30 Indian enterprises shortlisted in a competition to find the country’s “hottest” start-up. The contest attracted over 500 nominees. The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) and the Tata group have promoted the contest to catch up with the spirit of enterprise on India’s campuses.

Is it not heartening in a country where media keeps on providing stories of depressing political terrorism such as one of promoting another Rabri Devi in Rajasthan or mischievous move of AR Antuley?

PS:
I see the entrepreneurs in India all around; in Sunday bazzar, on the footpaths and highways, around malls and multiplexes. The stories of many entrepreneurs of India are interesting and may inspire many more. It appeared in one recent ‘India Today’s special issue. Open the link and see under the main caption ‘The lotus in the swamp’. Some that I got impressed with are:

The spice king Sadananda Maiya (MTR Foods) , medical device manufacturer, flower seller S. Ramakrishna Karuturi ( Karuturi Global) , household baker Rajni Bector (Cremica), Education service provider Shantanu Prakash (Educomp Solutions), Alok Jalan (Laqshya Media), Deepak Puri (Moser Baer), R K. Sinha ( Security and Intelligence Services), Porus Irani (Handiman Services Limited), Bangaruswami Soundarajan (Suguna Poultry), Sushil Kanubhai Shah ( Metropolis Health Services), VG Siddhartha (Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company), Mahendra Vinayak Vichare (Vichare Courier Services), Snack charmers Haldiram, Vandana Luthra (VLCC), Panda Rajan (MA FOI Consultants) , Natesan Murugan (Rajathi Group), Goutam Adani and beekeeper Jagjit Singh Kapoor (Kashmir Apiaries).

Teji Bachchan, wife of the late Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and mother of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, died yesterday (Friday) at the age of 93.

I was a fan of Haribans Rai Bachchan, the famous popular poet of Hindi. I remember one of my schoolteacher Sahodar Pandeyji singing his ‘Deen Jaldi Jaldi dhalata Hai’ from Nisha Nimantran. I kept on buying his books from Rajpal Sons. At many a time, I found a real joy in reading his poems. The language is so simple that anyone could enjoy it. Later on a cassette of Madusala sung by Manna De became my loving possession for quite some period. But believe it, when I bought and went through the autobiography of Haribans Rai Bachchan, I found his prose better than even his poems. As an engineer, hardly any one will believe that I went through the book in three volumes at a stretch. I had not done that even for any interesting novel. Haribans Rai had married Teji. It was his second marriage after the death of her first wife Syama.

However, in the meantime Amitabh became the superhero in Hindi films. All my family- kids and wife became his fan. However, I remained fan of Senior and poet Bachchan.

Death of Teji has again raised some questions about the cordial relation between Gandhis and Bachchans that got soured. Sonia would have certainly visited Teji in hospital or participated in the last rite. Even if she had some difference of opinion with Amitabh, she would have remembered of Teji’s role in her life and paid the respect to her. Here are some stories about the relation of Teji and Sonia.

As per one report, “Teji acted as her godmother and schooled her in Indian customs when she arrived in Delhi as Rajiv Gandhi’s fiancee in 1968 and was put up at the Bachchans’. “I came to learn a lot from them. Teji aunty is my second… no, my third mother (after her own mother and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi),” she had said as per one report in a 1985 interview. ” Amit and Bunty (Ajitabh) are my brothers.” Several wedding rituals like Sonia’s mehendi ceremony were held at the Bachchan home.

Another media report said, “When Rajiv Gandhi was courting Sonia Antonio Maino, the shy young Italian girl. It was Teji who acted as a gentle mediator when her friend, the powerful Indira, was reluctant about her pilot son’s wedding to the Italian girl from a middle-class family. When the Rajiv-Sonia marriage was finally fixed in 1969, Sonia and her family had nowhere to stay in New Delhi. As per Hindu customs, a betrothed girl cannot enter her in-laws’ house before marriage. Once again, Teji came to the family’s help. Sonia and her family moved in briefly and stayed at the Bachchan’s New Delhi residence at 13, Willingdoon Crescent, all through the wedding.

Yet another report said, “The families were so close once that Tejisang at the Congress chief’s wedding and “introduced her to the Indian way of life”.

“Rajiv Gandhi’s fiancée Sonia (Maino), visiting from Italy, was put up at our house.. She was so taken with our openness that she began to look Teji as a mother and Amit and Bunty as brothers. Rajiv and Sonia were married in February, with some part of the ceremony being held at our house,” recalled the late Haribans Rai in his memoirs.

I am sure Sonia would have improved her image by just visiting Bachchans to pay her homage to Teji. Sonia claims herself an Indian. This act of her is not in line with the Indian tradition and social norms. But perhaps, Maino (Sonia) is following her Italian norms about which we hardly know.