In one my earlier blogs (27/06/09), I had suggested the following to be introduced:
01. Getting students industry-ready
02. Making education boards agile to change patterns, content and education modes to drive employability of students
Yesterday, three of the leading Science Institutes have suggested scrapping of market-driven streams in BSc. These specialized courses like any other graduation courses have their limitations, but were certainly a step towards increasing employability of students.
However, with the onus of the students’ success slowly moving to the institutes and the faculties, reality has struck. It is difficult for our institutes to provide growth of a student to meet the industry, hence, the best option for them is to scrap the course.
Yes, if you can’t dance, there is something wrong with the dance floor. Break it down!!!
How about, making the courses more laser focused? How about getting industry involvement in developing students and giving them a career? How about driving a real world learning that represents the industry of today and tomorrow? Shouldn’t we be looking for these solutions?
I think the need of the hour is scrapping the institutes rather than the courses. Introducing new-age, quasi government institutes that can give a real feel of the industry and give students a pathway to jobs.
And this is only training/education that am talking about!
To convert students’ passion into a livelihood, there are three aspects other than just training:
01. Real industry Introduction
02. Talent marketing
03. Preparing a platform to succeed
Instead of thinking of generating we are thinking of degenerating. And this is the state of education in India.
No wonder the top 3 Science Institutes want market driven streams scrapped!!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Mindful. Straight. Dhoni.
Yesterday after a harrowing traffic experience between Sion and Bandra, I had the opportunity of meeting MS Dhoni. Yes, our very own Dhoni.
When you meet people of his stature and with his kinda success, you would imagine an air around them of being a superstar. Interestingly, in a span of 2-3 minutes, he makes you feel as if you know each other for ages.
Going through with him on a certain future path, I was surprised to see his extreme involvement in a very short span of time (actually a couple of minutes). Extremely focused, you can see his mind working out strategies and plans that are relevant to the discussion. And each point picked up by him was relevant to the core – extremely mindful.
I liked his decision making style. His clarity on 'WH' questions on things he would want to do or get associated with – logic for each one clear in his mind. There are no mincing words. You almost see a Wall Street financial executive, an advertising executive and a school teacher at heart, all rolled up into one.
If Indian cricket is doing well, a good part comes from this thinking mind that has a focused goal in vision and agile strategy to change with times and adapt to situations – maintaining the core value of ‘respect for every other person’.
MS Dhoni. Very mindful. Straight. Of course Dhoni.
These are actually the signs of a true leader! How long will it take our politicians to lead India in the true sense?
When you meet people of his stature and with his kinda success, you would imagine an air around them of being a superstar. Interestingly, in a span of 2-3 minutes, he makes you feel as if you know each other for ages.
Going through with him on a certain future path, I was surprised to see his extreme involvement in a very short span of time (actually a couple of minutes). Extremely focused, you can see his mind working out strategies and plans that are relevant to the discussion. And each point picked up by him was relevant to the core – extremely mindful.
I liked his decision making style. His clarity on 'WH' questions on things he would want to do or get associated with – logic for each one clear in his mind. There are no mincing words. You almost see a Wall Street financial executive, an advertising executive and a school teacher at heart, all rolled up into one.
If Indian cricket is doing well, a good part comes from this thinking mind that has a focused goal in vision and agile strategy to change with times and adapt to situations – maintaining the core value of ‘respect for every other person’.
MS Dhoni. Very mindful. Straight. Of course Dhoni.
These are actually the signs of a true leader! How long will it take our politicians to lead India in the true sense?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Brainless in Maharashtra
In the wake of state elections, the Maharashtra Government played dirty politics to be one-up on the Sena. To ensure vote banks, they were ready to play with lives of students, introducing the 90:10 principle.
“How brainless can you get? You are ready to forego a set of students as they are from ICSE or CBSE or any private board? You are ready to leave that talent that could have helped your state and the citizens of the state?” They are forgetting that you are playing with the future for very short term gains!
They tried to make it a law, and certainly, there is taxpayer’s money involved in the futile time spent. Why should we bear this cost? I think the party/organization that wanted to woo vote banks should pay for this. They should also pay for the time spent by the courts to negate their decision. Also, to the multiple families who have lost sleep over their child’s education. On top of all this they should pay at least INR 50 crs to the govt. for fooling around and misusing their power so that no party can ever think of taking cheep and dirty steps to get voters into their fold!
Brainless in Maharashtra, that’s what these politicians are.
I like the courts as they do have their brains in place.
“How brainless can you get? You are ready to forego a set of students as they are from ICSE or CBSE or any private board? You are ready to leave that talent that could have helped your state and the citizens of the state?” They are forgetting that you are playing with the future for very short term gains!
They tried to make it a law, and certainly, there is taxpayer’s money involved in the futile time spent. Why should we bear this cost? I think the party/organization that wanted to woo vote banks should pay for this. They should also pay for the time spent by the courts to negate their decision. Also, to the multiple families who have lost sleep over their child’s education. On top of all this they should pay at least INR 50 crs to the govt. for fooling around and misusing their power so that no party can ever think of taking cheep and dirty steps to get voters into their fold!
Brainless in Maharashtra, that’s what these politicians are.
I like the courts as they do have their brains in place.
Thanks for the LEFT being left out!
I was watching the post budget analysis and surfing channels to see how industry stalwarts and the common people are reacting to the budget and there were multiple reactions to Pranabda’s budget. Some good and some not so good to some ugly. I do not completely like the budget although there are few small steps taken in the right direction, where, possibly I expected long leaps.
Interestingly, a spokesperson from the left felt that the common man was missed out in this budget. There could be three reasons why he said so:
01. He was sleeping through the budget,
02. He does not understand the needs of the common man and
03. He does not understand what a budget is.
My take on the gains for the common man are many:
a) Reduction in personal taxes
b) Reduction in cost of a host of products
c) Emphasis on the agro sector (with incentive to pay up on time)
d) Investment in infrastructure, power, rural and urban development
I am sure there are many more that I have not mentioning here.
Good budget, or bad budget, it’s a sigh of relief not to have the left at the helm of things.
Cheers India, we left them out!
Interestingly, a spokesperson from the left felt that the common man was missed out in this budget. There could be three reasons why he said so:
01. He was sleeping through the budget,
02. He does not understand the needs of the common man and
03. He does not understand what a budget is.
My take on the gains for the common man are many:
a) Reduction in personal taxes
b) Reduction in cost of a host of products
c) Emphasis on the agro sector (with incentive to pay up on time)
d) Investment in infrastructure, power, rural and urban development
I am sure there are many more that I have not mentioning here.
Good budget, or bad budget, it’s a sigh of relief not to have the left at the helm of things.
Cheers India, we left them out!
Plan for reducing our budget deficit
With the new budget being announced, we see a well identified challenge of sustaining GDP growth of 9% (my gut feel is 7-8%). There are multiple areas announced in the budget that lay the foundation of to sustaining the GDP growth rate – infrastructure, power, agriculture and urban development. This benefit to the common man comes at a cost – higher fiscal deficit – approx INR 400,000 crores.
Here are three ways of bringing down the deficit if not completely neutralizing it:
1. Tax ‘productivity-hurdles’ for the nation (target INR 500 crores +)
a. For every political party / organization that organizes a bundh which affects productivity of a state, city or country with or without violence does it at a cost – INR 15 crores + cost of property destroyed
b. Labour groups calling for bandh at a production facility or service outlet – INR 5 crore + cost of loss of revenue
c. For over shooting of project deadlines, the contractors / vendors should be charged a part of their fee – it always happens in the private business world
2. Tax corruption (target INR 100,000 Crores +)
a. People taking bribes pay 10 times the bribed amount presuming that they have done this at least 10 times earlier and need to cough it up
b. Misuse of national property or funds – example Mayavati’s statues campaign – charge 5 times the amount spent from public money or a la Deve Gauda taking multiple trips in a month to Bangalore when he was the PM.
c. Non-payment of government dues – charge unsecured personal loan rates of interest (18-22% PA) for offenders beyond a crore of rupees, e.g., Reliance Industries not paying electricity bills to the board
d. Vote bank corruption should be charged at cost + INR 10 crores from the party resorting to such politics, e.g., 90:10 education policy of Maharashtra govt.
e. Infrastructure project revaluation midway, after lowest bid wins – the contractor pays for the increased value (surprisingly this has become a norm today)
3. Private participation in spends (INR 200,000 crores +)
a. This is at a conceptual level. Private companies earn revenues from the society pay taxes to the government. They expect rules to be changed to suit their company or industry. What about doing their bit for infrastructure, healthcare, well being of the society? I am not talking of lipstick-on-a-pig CSR initiatives. I think we have a role model in the form of Tatas as a group. Can each large corporate of over INR 100 crores of PAT contribute 10% of their profits (post tax) for a better India? Remember this 100 crores of Profit is gained from your country – India, a key stakeholder in your company
This sounds achievable and real. I am sure it will take a lot of beating from the corporate world, the babus, and politicians. But what the heck? If this is what the country needs, we got to do it.
Is India listening? Here’s over INR 300,000 crores recovered from the deficit!
Here are three ways of bringing down the deficit if not completely neutralizing it:
1. Tax ‘productivity-hurdles’ for the nation (target INR 500 crores +)
a. For every political party / organization that organizes a bundh which affects productivity of a state, city or country with or without violence does it at a cost – INR 15 crores + cost of property destroyed
b. Labour groups calling for bandh at a production facility or service outlet – INR 5 crore + cost of loss of revenue
c. For over shooting of project deadlines, the contractors / vendors should be charged a part of their fee – it always happens in the private business world
2. Tax corruption (target INR 100,000 Crores +)
a. People taking bribes pay 10 times the bribed amount presuming that they have done this at least 10 times earlier and need to cough it up
b. Misuse of national property or funds – example Mayavati’s statues campaign – charge 5 times the amount spent from public money or a la Deve Gauda taking multiple trips in a month to Bangalore when he was the PM.
c. Non-payment of government dues – charge unsecured personal loan rates of interest (18-22% PA) for offenders beyond a crore of rupees, e.g., Reliance Industries not paying electricity bills to the board
d. Vote bank corruption should be charged at cost + INR 10 crores from the party resorting to such politics, e.g., 90:10 education policy of Maharashtra govt.
e. Infrastructure project revaluation midway, after lowest bid wins – the contractor pays for the increased value (surprisingly this has become a norm today)
3. Private participation in spends (INR 200,000 crores +)
a. This is at a conceptual level. Private companies earn revenues from the society pay taxes to the government. They expect rules to be changed to suit their company or industry. What about doing their bit for infrastructure, healthcare, well being of the society? I am not talking of lipstick-on-a-pig CSR initiatives. I think we have a role model in the form of Tatas as a group. Can each large corporate of over INR 100 crores of PAT contribute 10% of their profits (post tax) for a better India? Remember this 100 crores of Profit is gained from your country – India, a key stakeholder in your company
This sounds achievable and real. I am sure it will take a lot of beating from the corporate world, the babus, and politicians. But what the heck? If this is what the country needs, we got to do it.
Is India listening? Here’s over INR 300,000 crores recovered from the deficit!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
‘Education’ in India – a new buzz word
With Kapil Sibal’s new found interest in education, I am sure we will see changes. Changes that he will be hailed for and changes that he will be booed for. Either way, I believe this is a start of a new chapter in Indian Education.
Although I am not privy to the changes being made at a grass root level, I still believe these are too small steps coming too late. The issue we face in education is a little more than ‘to have exams or not to have exams’.
Are the students trained to do something in a practical ‘big bad world’? Let’s look at what science graduates Zoology do. Or for than matter what do engineers do? A mechanical engineer goes ahead and becomes a software professional. A Zoology graduate becomes an advertising professional handling FMCG accounts. So is it about just being a graduate or actually learning to do something that is required in the industry.
Unfortunately, the pace at which the industry grows, is not the same as the pace at which our education changes. In fact, we need to look at education from two critical aspects:
01. Getting students ready for what they can do in parlance to the industry
02. Making education boards agile to change patters, content and education modes to drive employability to students.
Hope Mr. Sibal is seeing it from this perspective
Although I am not privy to the changes being made at a grass root level, I still believe these are too small steps coming too late. The issue we face in education is a little more than ‘to have exams or not to have exams’.
Are the students trained to do something in a practical ‘big bad world’? Let’s look at what science graduates Zoology do. Or for than matter what do engineers do? A mechanical engineer goes ahead and becomes a software professional. A Zoology graduate becomes an advertising professional handling FMCG accounts. So is it about just being a graduate or actually learning to do something that is required in the industry.
Unfortunately, the pace at which the industry grows, is not the same as the pace at which our education changes. In fact, we need to look at education from two critical aspects:
01. Getting students ready for what they can do in parlance to the industry
02. Making education boards agile to change patters, content and education modes to drive employability to students.
Hope Mr. Sibal is seeing it from this perspective
A traffic cop that the nation should be proud of
The other day I was moving around Andheri West in Bombay, trying to navigate my way in the overtly crowded roads. Cars kept zipping by, BEST buses hogged the roads, Rickshaws kept swinging lanes to avoid hitting and being hit, but mostly to avoid picking up local passengers as it would result in low fare earnings.
At a traffic junction, I saw a traffic cop literally pulling a rickshaw off the road to allow an old couple get on and move. Not a single rickshaw was stopping to pick them up. Just as we got our green signal to move on, I saw him stopping another rickshaw to accommodate a mother and child standing on the road.
I kept moving trying to navigate the traffic and my chores. But the face of the cop and the acts kept smiling at me. On my way back I asked a shop owner there about the cop and him stopping the rickshaws for passengers who wait and do not get a ride. He said that this cop (still do not know his name) does help out people keeping the ‘spirit of the law higher than the law itself’.
Amid all the corruption we see in the police cadre, acts like this change the mindset of people. This is truly where protectors act as protectors and are seen the same way.
A bright light of hope. I sincerely want to see that cop being given recognition for what he is doing.
At a traffic junction, I saw a traffic cop literally pulling a rickshaw off the road to allow an old couple get on and move. Not a single rickshaw was stopping to pick them up. Just as we got our green signal to move on, I saw him stopping another rickshaw to accommodate a mother and child standing on the road.
I kept moving trying to navigate the traffic and my chores. But the face of the cop and the acts kept smiling at me. On my way back I asked a shop owner there about the cop and him stopping the rickshaws for passengers who wait and do not get a ride. He said that this cop (still do not know his name) does help out people keeping the ‘spirit of the law higher than the law itself’.
Amid all the corruption we see in the police cadre, acts like this change the mindset of people. This is truly where protectors act as protectors and are seen the same way.
A bright light of hope. I sincerely want to see that cop being given recognition for what he is doing.
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