The French have told their Indian interlocutors that they could help create a 21st century technological institution in Jaipur with new vistas for the IIT concept, focusing on the study of aeronautical engineering and energy research, areas in which the French are proficient.
Although the French government is reeling from budgetary cuts as a result of the global economic crisis, especially its impact on Europe, Sarkozy has not allowed his countryââ¬â¢s support for the new IIT to wane.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101206/js...263963.jsp
In an under-construction school building in Chamanpura village of Biharââ¬â¢s Gopalganj district, children are learning algebra, chemistry, Newtonââ¬â¢s laws of motion. Thereââ¬â¢s no teacher in the classroom, no blackboard. The teacher is hundreds of miles away, and he is teaching via Skype. In this very unsual school, teachers mark their attendance using a biometric fingerprinter, and students log their attendance in a computer.
In powerless Bihar village, a school by innovation and Skype http://education.in.msn.com/features/art...id=4789724
The school is even more unusual because Chamanpura has no electricity yet. The computers are powered by two large generators. In an undeveloped corner of a state that has long been synonymous with underdevelopment, is unfolding a story of remarkable enterprise and innovation -- in several ways, a microcosm of the turnaround of Bihar itself.
Rao's checklist for higher education include:
Raising the bar: Provide all required support to 10 educational institutions to enable them to compete with the best in advanced countries
Look ahead: There's a manpower mismatch in many countries with too many professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision document which foresees the problems 20 years hence
Inclusivity: Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher secondary level in rural India to nurture rural talent http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india...977172.cms
ââ¬ÅOnly one video product per citizen should be submitted. The Duration of video lesson should be only 40 minutes as there were 40 minute periods in the school curriculum Syllabus could be downloaded from www.schooleducationharyana.gov.in,ââ¬Â he said.
He said that for the submission of video lecture, an account on www.youtube.com could be created and uploads the video with name, subject, class and chapter for sending the web-link for accessing the video product.
The video lessons which were finally selected to be telecast on EDUSAT would be awarded a cash award of `5,000 per video lesson or product from UTKARSH society, he added. http://www.dailypioneer.com/345205/Now-c...ryana.html
[size="3"][url="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/poor-quality-of-students-entering-iits-n-r-narayana-murthy-chairman-emeritus-infosys/articleshow/10217383.cms"]Poor quality of students entering IITs: N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys[/url] : ET, 3 Oct, 2011
[/size][indent] [size="3"]Quote:NEW YORK: Voicing his displeasure over the quality of engineers that pass out of the IITs, Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy has said there is a need to overhaul the selection criteria for students seeking admission to the prestigious technology institutions.
Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians at a 'Pan IIT' summit here, Murthy said the quality of students entering Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.
He said the majority of the students fare poorly at jobs and global institutions of higher education.
"Thanks to the coaching classes today, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower," Murthy said, receiving a thundering applause from his audience.
He said apart from the top 20 per cent of students who crack the tough IIT entrance examination and can "stand among the best anywhere in the world," quality of the remaining 80 per cent of students leave much to be desired.
Coaching classes teach aspirants limited sets of problems, out of which a few are asked in the examinations.
"They somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be.
"This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at."
Drawing a road map to put IITs among the top engineering institutes in the world, Murthy said it has to be ensured that IITs "transcend from being just teaching institutions to reasonably good research institutes" at par with Harvard and MIT in the next 10-20 years.
"Few IITs have done well in producing PhDs but in reality when we compare ourselves to institutions in this country, we have a long way to go," he said.
More emphasis has to be given to research at the undergraduate level and examinations should test independent thinking of students rather than their ability to solve problems.
Murthy said in order to produce good research at IITs, the Indian government has to be persuaded to create institutions that fund research projects.
In addition, faculty members should also be evaluated annually on their research performance by an independent committee, Murthy said adding that India must shift from the tenure system for its faculty to a five year contractual appointment system.
The Infosys mentor also lamented the poor English speaking and social skills of a majority of IIT students, saying with Indian politicians "rooting against English", the task of getting good English speaking students at IITs gets more difficult.
"An IITian has to be a global citizen and must understand where the globe is going," he added.
Murthy also stressed the need to have the governing council of IITs made up of its alumni.
The only way IITs can become better is if 80-90 per cent of members on their governing council are alumni.
"Nobody is bothered about an institution more than its alumni. We must somehow persuade the government of India to let go of its control and make sure majority of the council members is the IIT alumni."
Murthy urged IITians spread across the globe to work with their alma mater to ensure that IITs are among the top 10 engineering schools of the world.
He said while only a couple of IITs feature in the top 50, there should be at least five IITs in the top 10 engineering schools in the world in the next 10-20 years, he added.
[/size][/indent]
10-06-2011, 12:43 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2011, 01:01 AM by sumishi.)
[size="4"]^^^[/size]
[size="3"][url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Those-who-run-body-shops-should-not-comment-on-IITs-Chetan-Bahagat-to-Narayana-Murthy/articleshow/10233070.cms"]Those who run body shops should not comment on IITs: Chetan Bahagat to Narayana Murthy[/url] <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' /> : TOI, Oct 4, 2011
[Can you believe it -- more than 1,000 comments to Chetan's response!][/size]
[indent] [size="3"]Quote:...[/size]
[size="3"]Reacting strongly to Murthy's remarks, Chetan Bhagat has tweeted, "It is ironic when someone who runs a body shopping company and calls it hi-tech, makes sweeping comments on the quality of IIT students."[/size]
[size="3"]Bhagat furhter writes, "Mr Murthy had a point, but wish he wasn't so sweepingly high handed. Fix the system. No point judging students."[/size]
[size="3"]Referring to the contribution of IIT students in the making of Infosys, he tweets, "IITians have made a great contribution in making Infosys what it is. Hope people remember that."[/size]
[size="3"]...[/size][size="3"]
[/size]
[/indent]
I spent past 12 hours going over precisely these comments (I'll post my file, 200 pages in 12 point font)
One thing I noticed is that 2 critics of CB compared him to Arundhati Roy:
"Mr. Bhagat, you are annoyingly becoming more and more ArundhatiRoyisque everyday."
"Chetan Bhagat has followed this tactics from Arundhati Roy."
So, from this it would appear that Chetan is Arundhatying the establishment. This has to be a new phenomenon
[size="3"][size="4"]^^^[/size]
dhu ji, IMHO the "arundhati" comparisons are probably because it has become the "in-thing" among the internet warriors. It can be thrown around with abandon to put a "legitimate" stamp to disapproval. Also, so many anti-Chetan remarks smack of the Indian tendency to fawningly raise some to demi-god status (in this case NRM) and correspondingly bludgeon those who tend to present alternative viewpoint to the demi-god.
[/size]
[size="3"][size="4"]^^^[/size]
dhu ji,
Calling your attention to a post by Surasena in BRF in thread [url="http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3978&start=2720"]Distorted history- Causes, consequences, remedies[/url] (pg. 69) which quotes from [url="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RajivMalhotraDiscussion/message/1446"]this message[/url] in Rajiv Malhotra discussion. The message quoted below:
[/size][indent] [size="3"]Quote:I am looking for a source for the quote from Narayana Murthy that Rajiv-ji[/size]
[size="3"] mentions in the video.[/size]
[size="3"] Ref: [url="http://splicd.com/mhHQNrL_bkM/533/545"]http://splicd.com/mhHQNrL_bkM/533/545[/url][/size]
[size="3"] Timeline: 8:53 to 9:05[/size]
[size="3"] <quote>[/size]
[size="3"]According to Narayana Murthy, when he was asked why Indians were so good in IT,[/size]
[size="3"] rather than explain that we have a whole learning tradition, he said"Thanks for[/size]
[size="3"] the British for teaching us Maths and Science."[/size]
[size="3"] </quote>[/size]
[size="3"] Rajiv response: I heard this in his talk in 2003 at the Bangalore conference[/size]
[size="3"] organized jointly organized by Templeton and Infinity Foundation. I felt he was[/size]
[size="3"] impressing the western guests. The "scientific debt to colonialism" is a common[/size]
[size="3"] theme amongst many leftists. Gyan Prakash of Princeton has written a book on[/size]
[size="3"] Indian science during the British period in which the direction of influence is[/size]
[size="3"] onw-way from Europe to India as if the europeans learned nothing scientific from[/size]
[size="3"] Indians. (Mr. Murthy has said that he was rooted as a leftist in his younger[/size]
[size="3"] days but that he later turned into a capitalist. That kind of rejection of the[/size]
[size="3"] left is for its economic model only, but it does not automatically involve[/size]
[size="3"] embracing the dharma paradigm.) The key issue is: where lies the root of[/size]
[size="3"] Indians' competence in science? The west claims to have invented the scientific[/size]
[size="3"] method - a claim many Indians accept. Thats why I started the very ambitious[/size]
[size="3"] project of doing 20 volumes on the History of Indian Science and Technology, of[/size]
[size="3"] which 8 are published already. What is more troubling than a random remark is[/size]
[size="3"] that Mr. Murthy's foundation has given a multi million dollar grant to bring out[/size]
[size="3"] English translations of Indian classical works, and the editor in control is[/size]
[size="3"] Sheldon Pollock. A brilliant Sanskritist no doubt, Pollock's interpretations[/size]
[size="3"] have tilted towards things like: Aryan invasion theory, dalits being oppressed[/size]
[size="3"] by sanskrit under brahmin control, etc. In some of the volumes of Indian[/size]
[size="3"] classics which he did under a different series, such ideologies came through in[/size]
[size="3"] various ways direct and indirect. For the same amount of money, Mr. Murthy could[/size]
[size="3"] have re-ignited a whole India based Sanskrit scholarship and translation under[/size]
[size="3"] the guidance of pandits. Of course, its his hard earned money and we respect his[/size]
[size="3"] right to spend it howsoever he chooses. I am merely expressing my personal[/size]
[size="3"] opinion on how I wish our tycoons would back their own civilization in the same[/size]
[size="3"] manner as American tycoons helped build their civilizational foundations. The[/size]
[size="3"] Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie philanthropy did not go to foreign scholars to write[/size]
[size="3"] American history.[/size][size="3"]
[/size]
[/indent] [size="3"]Responses on BRF:
[/size][indent] [size="3"][quote name="acharya"]How by indoctrinating one generation of wealthy Indians and global Indians they can submerse an entire civilization.[/size]
[size="3"]No other large country has gone through this kind of experience.[/quote][/size]
[size="3"][quote name="abhischekcc"]... Even in India Mukesh Ambani, Narayan Murthy and Nanadan Nilekani types are being used to subvert the old system. IIRC and AFAIK, Mukesh Ambani and Narayan Murthy pressurised Indian government not to go to war against Pakistan suring Op praakram. Now, Nilekani's project will be used to gather data on India. Bill gates has already staked his claim on the project, and Infy has got a cut in the form of 3 year contract for exclusively providing customer service to MS.[/quote][/size]
[/indent]
[size="3"]From the Speak Out (vote) page on TOI -- [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/debateshow/10264049.cms"]Do you think Infosys is a body shop?[/url],
as of now,
YES - 886 (77%); NO - 250 (23%)[/size]
10-08-2011, 08:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-08-2011, 08:20 AM by dhu.)
[size="3"]Sumishi,
The list of "public service" organizations that Murthy has been "suckered" into joining is very "interesting", Of course, as always, no hard conclusions can be drawn, jai ho...
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._R._Narayana_Murthy#Board_memberships"]Board memberships[/url]
Quote:Murthy serves as an independent director on the boards of HSBC, DBS Bank and Unilever. He also serves on the boards of the [color="#0000FF"]Ford Foundation,[/color] UN Foundation, Indo-British Partnership, and [color="#0000FF"]NDTV[/color]. He is the chairman of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India
Some more on the last org:
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Foundation_of_India#The_Foundation"]Public Health Foundation of India[/url]
Quote:The Public Health Foundation of India is an autonomously governed public private partnership launched by the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on March 28, 2006 at New Delhi. ..
The Board includes senior government officials, eminent Indian and International academic and scientific leaders, civil society representatives and industry leaders. The chairman of the board is N.R. Narayana Murthy.[4] Board members include:Rajat Gupta (Chairman, PHFI), Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India), Amartya Sen (Nobel Laureate)and others. ..
..PHFI is supported by the World Bank, World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust and has acacemic linkages 30 international schools of Public Health from around the world.
Also, RM is wrong in placing any hopes in Indian tycoons. These jokers are tycoons precisely because they were carefully selected. Any native with dharmik sympathies would have been filtered out long ago with no contracts awarded.[/size]
[size="3"][quote name='dhu' date='08 October 2011 - 08:09 AM' timestamp='1318041117' post='113203']
[/size][size="3"]...
Also, RM is wrong in placing any hopes in Indian tycoons. These jokers are tycoons precisely because they were carefully selected. Any native with dharmik sympathies would have been filtered out long ago with no contracts awarded.
[/quote]
[size="4"]^[/size]
+1000
[/size]
[size="3"][url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/The-business-of-teaching/articleshow/10270473.cms"]The business of teaching[/url] : TOI, Oct 8, 2011
[/size][indent][size="3"][quote name="Chetan Bhagat"]Last week, the director of IIIT-Delhi wrote in these columns about the need to reform the admission process for engineering and other courses. This week, Narayana Murthy made a high-handed comment about the falling quality of IITians. While people seem obsessed about the IITs, other aspects of our higher education system deserve far more attention.
Barring a tiny percentage of elite colleges, higher education is of questionable quality. Ask corporates and they will talk about a serious shortage of talent. Ask students and they will say there are no good jobs. Clearly, students are not being trained properly to meet the demands of the globalised world.
Almost everyone agrees something needs to be done about the education system. Strangely, little is done about it. Money spent on education is never questioned, it isn't really a politically divisive issue and fixing it is a matter of a few right policies and reforms unlike far more complicated problems like corruption.
We have good, reputed colleges that, at best, accommodate 10% of the applicant pool of students. What happens to the rest? Obsessed with starting salaries and IIT-IIMs and DU cut-offs, we ignore that millions don't make it. Where do these students go? Do they have a shot at a good life?
Many of these students end up in private colleges. These private colleges have played the role of providing students with a chance to earn a degree of their choice. There is nothing wrong in this. It fact, it is even good that the private sector is playing a role in educating our students. But the quality of these institutions is an issue.
Thousands have opened up in the last decade. In NCR alone, there are over a hundred MBA colleges now. With such proliferation, quality standards vary widely across these institutes. While there is demand for them given our large student pool, what they are teaching and what students are learning is another matter. To ensure quality, the government has put in place procedures like elaborate approval processes and regular inspections. However, these are abused and corruption is rife. Many private college owners have personally admitted to me that they had to pay bribes at every stage of opening the college - from getting land and building approvals, to approving the course plan and to set fee structures. Corruption in the private education sector is such a norm that nobody in the know even raises an eyebrow anymore.
One big reason for corruption is the government's no-profits-allowed policy for private institutes. Every educational institution has to be incorporated as a non-profit trust. Technically, you cannot make money from the college. The government somehow believes there will be enough people who will spend thousands of crores setting up good colleges for the millions who need seats every year, just out of the goodness of their hearts. On this flawed, stupid assumption that people are dying to run colleges without ever making money rests the higher education of our country.
Of course, none of this no-profit business ever happens. What happens is that shady methods are devised to take money out from the trust. Black money, fake payments to contractors and over-inflating expenses are just a few ingenious methods to ensure promoters get a return on their investment. This ensures that none of the legitimate players ever enter the field. Ex-academics, world-class corporates and honest people will never touch private education, for they do not want to pay bribes at every stage and devise shady methods to bypass no-profit rules. Thus, people like local country liquor barons, sari manufacturers and mithai shop owners open technical colleges for engineering and medicine. And we hand over our kids and their future to them.
You don't need to be an expert to realise that what is happening is seriously wrong. However, policymakers are doing little about it. Perhaps, much like the bootlegging industry, so many regulators and inspectors are making money that nobody wants to fix it. However, corruption in the education sector is not to be taken lightly. When you have corruption in infrastructure, you have pot-holed roads. When you have corruption in education, you have pot-holed minds. We are destroying an entire generation by not giving it access to the world-class education it deserves.
I have nothing against commercialisation of education. Commerce and business are a good thing. However, when it comes to education, it needs a sense of ethics and quality. Good people must be incentivised to open colleges. Say, by a simple policy fix like allowing private institutes to make a profit. This would mean companies like Infosys and Reliance might open colleges, perhaps on a large scale, as shareholders will approve the huge investment required. If these companies open colleges, at least they will be of a certain standard. Competition can ensure that the ability to make profits never turns into greed. But if the business model is sustainable, many good players would be attracted to this sector.
This can be done. This needs to be done. Indians care about education. We can have one of the best education systems in the world. It is a matter of collective will and a few good leaders who will make this happen. It should not require a fast or dharna or yatra or anti-politician slogans. When something is sensible, it should just be done. For, that is what educated people do. And we would like to call ourselves educated, won't we?
[/quote]
[/size][/indent]
However, he said the participation was not mandatory. He also clarified that the exercise was not organised merely with an aim to get the feat registered in the Guinness Book of Records.
Large number of students took part in the sun salutation exercise in the entire state with ministers leading it at divisional and district headquarters.
Minority community heads had strongly opposed the move and issued a"fatwa" directing people not to take part in the Surya Namaskar exercise.
Main opposition Congress also termed the move as an attempt to please the RSS leadership as part of its saffron agenda. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...460844.cms
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