It Pains...
>> Monday, December 28, 2009
DO YOU REALLY KNOW YOURSELF??
Why do people need to run to find a job? I believe the employees should be employable enough to make the job seekers run after them.... and yes with a hefty amount of money.
I love to put things in this way but the question is where to start from? Shouldn’t every prospective employee start with picking the right job? Or should this quest go back in history when he has to decide about his career path, skills and inventories. It has widely been acknowledged by pundits that a man (I am not gender biased and I believe the statement should be man and woman) should know his strength, weakness and interest in the process of knowing himself. We all keep saying that an interviewer wants to see how much the interviewee knows himself, but do you really give a damn on self realization. I have been there and listened to HR specialists talking about how the employees get stuck in a regular job exercise when they are asked to write a page on themselves. So we need to ask the question once again- are we sure we know ourselves?
Here is where the issue of employability or the issue of being rightfully employed for a job arises. I would like to share my experience with one of the best career assessment tests I had known and took up-The Dheya Career Assesment test. I have to admit that I know myself better now and I am confident about what I speak of myself. Not only the test helped me realize my strong areas but in the process I came to know about my weaknesses as well. The test is scientifically made and will really give your brain a good exercise. It revolves around discovering every aspect of one’s personality, interests and abilities. It’s not just a test but an overall experience of knowing oneself. As a prospective HR manager I keep stressing on the words know thyself and be employable, I suppose that it is even a bigger problem faced by the youth of the country than unemployment. And I would like to stress on the subject that it is not the first assessment I took up. The Dheya report is an exhaustive one giving a complete overview of aspects mentioned above. Many of us would agree on the poor quality of report provided with other test providers who promise to be very effective and suck large amount of money from the customers. The write up might sound like an extremely happy and contended customer but then again, yes that is me, blissfully contended. I would recommend that every person should have a great philosopher or a mentor to them who guides their career path and other fields in life successfully. But when a person can’t find one, he learns from his experience. He tries and fails, he tries again and fails and then he decides to move on. The journey may not be always the right path. The third alternative is taking up an assessment to know yourself better from a quality provider just like Dheya did for me. I am pursuing my MBA degree from Symbiosis. I would also like to share how my friends took some test and ended up yet undecided on their future course of action in their second semester. But I boast that I got an edge on them. I know what I am good at, I know my limitations and I know the area I am not supposed to venture into.
I just regret one thing. There was a time when I wasted one precious year of my life trying to aim for the AIIMS or the other prestigious medical schools. Only if I had gone through my test or I had a real mentor, I would not have been lost. The second mistake I did was by taking B.Sc as my graduation subject. Had I made the corrective measures in time I would have been at ease and better-off in my B-school now. I share my failures because I want the readers to take a note and may be a lesson from them.
When in doubt ask questions, when you don’t know yourself make an attempt. The attempt might be feeble, but it makes sure you take the first step to improve your own employability. And yes there will be a world running after you. That’s how business leaders evolve - by taking the right decision for themselves and then for their organization.
Posted By: Anisha(Dheya Assessment taker)
IIM -A Falls in line.. Changes the Placement Process
Placement season for the batch of 2008-10 of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad (IIM-A), could stretch over a month with the institute scrapping the existing Day Zero, Day One system.
The new system — cohort placement system — will be spread over continuous weekends (Friday to Sunday), beginning second week of February next year. Each of these cohorts would host firms offering similar roles and opportunities. The decision of which cohort would be invited and in what sequence will depend on the preference of the students from the batch.
"The cohort-based process is a longer placement process but with significant advantages. The move essentially aims at a better match-making process, ensuring a better fit between the students and the firms," said professor Saral Mukherjee, faculty chairman, IIM-A placements.
This is an excellent move on the part of IIM – A, the rush of acquiring talent on day ZERO left the employers very little time to make a choice. Same was the case with the students. With IIMs doing away with the day ZERO system its actually the first time it has tried to emulate what other institutes like SIBM or XLRI have been doing to manage their placement process.
Reinventing Education.. but will the educationists listen..
>> Saturday, December 26, 2009
A wonderful article written by Sudhakar Ram, published in Economic Times on Dec 17th 2009, displaying his passion towards the education reforms. While Sudhakar Ram has asked some serious questions on the current education which Dheya shares, it’s important for the regulators/ educationist who advice the government to listen and understand what we would like to say and contribute..Read on…
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. Albert Einstein
Nobody can argue that the world has changed dramatically in recent years, and continues to change with amazing speed. Yet, we have not changed the basic approach to educating our children for the past 200 years.
Think about the changes our children will face before they retire from the working world in 60 years. Will our current approach to education be adequate to equip these children to face the emerging world?
Can we continue with our assembly-line approach to teaching our children, rather than acknowledging and nurturing the unique gifts and talents that each one of them represents? Should education be restricted, primarily, to the first 20 years of our lives? Or should the focus shift to life-long learning?
Alvin Toffler, in ‘The Third Wave’, describes mass education as being built on the Industrial Age factory model to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects — the overt curriculum. Beneath it was the covert curriculum that was far more basic. It consisted of three courses — punctuality, obedience and repetitive work — the basic training requirements to produce reliable, productive factory workers. Will the 21st century world require just these capabilities?
Howard Gardner’s Project Zero at Harvard discovered that up to age four, almost all children are at genius level, in terms of the multiple frames of intelligence — spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, mathematical, intrapersonal, and linguistic.
But by age 20, the genius level proportion of the tested population dropped to 2%.
We are educating the intelligence out of our children. Instead, we need to nurture and develop the multiple frames of intelligence within our schools and colleges. We need to fuel imagination, which Einstein said is more important than knowledge.
The current system of education — both at the school and university level — assumes that a finite amount of ‘knowledge’ is available. The emphasis is on cramming as much of this knowledge as possible into the available years of education.
But this paradigm does not work for the 21st century; the quantum of knowledge has become so vast that it would take several lifetimes even to master a single discipline. What we need is children learning how to learn and provide facilities for life-long, just-in-time learning. In our era of super-specialization, we’re developing groups of people who understand their own fields extremely well, but tend to be challenged
when it comes to communicating and integrating with groups in other disciplines.
Everyday people tend to think we don’t have the ability — or even the right — to understand, let alone challenge, the specialists. In this quest for ‘know-how’ we are losing the ‘know-what’ — the meaning and purpose of life, the context for applying all this knowledge.
Our rapid depletion of Earth’s resources may well be due to an emphasis on technology or know-how, rather than wisdom — deciding whether it is the right thing for us as humanity.
The challenges in India are even more acute. Of the 200+ million children of school going age, 35% drop out after primary school and another 50% after upper primary. Of the 20 million youth of graduating age, only around three million actually make it through college, and less than 500,000 are deemed employable. We have an urgent need to rethink education on many fronts.
First, we need to nurture love for learning in primary schools. There are well-researched systems — like the Montessori Method — that are completely child-centered and make the learning process joyful and effective. Newer methods of teaching can combine video-based learning with teacher-facilitated games that develop the child’s natural talents.
Primary schools should equip children with basic life skills — reading, writing, arithmetic, environmental science, health and hygiene and social/inter-personal skills.
Second, the focus of upper primary schools should be (a) to teach kids how to learn and (b) to support them discover their natural aptitude. It is critical to offer a good grounding in the scientific approach to learning. Learning should go beyond knowing facts and figures. Children need to be shown how to be self-aware, and to examine their own lives: their life stages, life purpose.
Third, high school curricula should focus more on building concrete skills and capabilities in multiple disciplines, rather than stressing exam results. For example, a team could take on the design, construction and installation of solar-based power systems in their own schools — addressing the technical, financial and social aspects of the project — under expert guidance. Another team could focus on reducing child abuse in their local area.
In the process, teams would understand the theoretical constructs and develop the critical thinking skills
needed.
Fourth, universities of the future should offer life-long learning modules that allow people to acquire knowledge just when they need it.
Given the need for organizations to continually learn and evolve, we need to change work patterns to combine learning and working — for instance, by having a four-day work week with another day or two a week devoted to learning and experimenting with new ideas.
University professors should be encouraged to pursue research in multiple disciplines and to act as facilitators in their students’ learning process. Practitioners from industry should be encouraged to act as guides and mentors to students taking on specific courses.
Education is a pressing problem across the globe. However, the challenges in India are so great that it presents us with the greatest opportunity to innovate. Our size and variety are an ideal platform to try many new models of education that would help us take the lead in the 21st century.
It is up to us as parents and educators to make this shift happen. Let’s have the courage to move ahead — the future of our children and our country is at stake.
Long live the earth.
Read more...
DHEYA the 4th Idiot – 3 Idiots evolved it!!
Contributed by our Jharkhand Associate : Rajeev Ranjan (rajeev.ranjan@dheya.com). Rajeev Puts Dheya as the 4th Idiot trying to help students turn successful…read on…
People always say movies are always unrealistic and it’s a drama but the Irony is they always tend to follow what movies show cast. Following the latest hairstyles, the costumes, even the look alike it’s all about what people go on crazy to adopt. The funniest part is they miss or ignore the inspiration and teaching which movies try to showcase. Whether it be Lakshya or 3 Idiots they make lots of sense for both the old gen and the young blood.
What Aamir khan says in 3 idiots “ Don’t run after scoring marks or getting a degree or do things for sake of doing or being successful, just believe in excellence in whatever you do and then Success will itself run for you” . Doesn’t he justify his words by being an excellent, top league actor for whom success is immaterial as it follows him automatically because of his excellence? The essence of his real flick is to follow the Career path which makes you feel happy and where your interest lies. Just don’t go on follow the conventional Careers what your parents decide right at the time you are born and they dream about you, your relatives and friends suggest or what the latest trend is. Believe me the reason is you can excel in the career path you choose for yourself not your parents. The root cause of all the failures or drop outs in education or jobs is the selection of wrong Career path. And you won’t believe it is the only reason which is making the so called workforce “Unemployable”.
It is there where the 4th Idiot “Dheya.com” comes into picture. Why the term 4th Idiot you all will be thinking so? The reason is 3 Idiots revolve around making the right Career choice which automatically evolves the 4th Idiot “Dheya.com” as it is the only Organization operating with the mission of making the young generation choose the right and sensible career choice to improve employability and their productivity. It’s high time that they must go and follow Mr. Madhavan(the 2nd Idiot) and just out spoke about the career they feel is appropriate for them. But it’s a big truth that it is quite difficult to decide the right Career choice both for the child and parents and it is where “Dheya.com” acts as a facilitator to suggest you the right Career path on scientifically proven and technical grounds. They don’t only suggest that but also plan and draw the path to achieve it. If you don’t believe it I am sure a try with them will make you change your preconceived notion. The 4th Idiot is the only one who does it Idiotically(as Aamir khan does) but really!
Posted by Rajeev Ranjan Dated- 26th December 2009 Read more...
Dheya In News: Guiding Light
>> Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Telegraph – Career Graph – Hemachaya De – 3rd Dec 09 
Pramit Mukherjee loved physics and wanted to become an astrophysicist. That was until he took an online career assessment test.
Of course, he still loves the subject, but this 15-year-old student of South Point High School in Calcutta now knows that he will do best as an entrepreneur.
Mukherjee was chivvied into taking the test by his parents who felt that his academic performance was not satisfactory.
They realised he needed to be clear about whether he had an aptitude for basic sciences.
Not surprisingly, the test brought about a sea change in the boy's manner of thinking. He learnt that he needed to assess his strengths and weaknesses before setting his career goals. "The programme helped me realise that I can think independently and that I should concentrate on becoming an entrepreneur," says Mukherjee. "I may not take science in Plus Two as planned earlier."
Abishek Datta, a Class XII student of another city school, is also a lot more confident after taking the test. "I am studying commerce. But I was never quite sure that I would do well in finance," he says. His online assessment test results, coupled with one-on-one career counselling, have shown that he would be much better off if he took up BBA (bachelor of business administration) after school and followed it up with an MBA.
Mukherjee and Datta are not alone. A whopping 98 per cent of boys and 96 per cent of girls in India are estimated to experience difficulty in making career decisions at the school and college levels.
Only 4 per cent of students receives some sort of expert guidance in this regard. Sometimes career choices are based simply on market demands without taking into consideration whether or not one's skills and personality suit the profession one is opting for. This is where career assessment programmes like Aavishkar hope to make a difference.
The first-of-its-kind online career assessment programme is helping hundreds of students choose the best suited career. The programme has been launched by Pune-based career guidance portal dheya.com in association with the Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika.
Targeted at students aged between 13 and 26 years, Aavishkar has been designed by career experts and social scientists on the basis of psychometrics, mind exercises, simulations and questions to enable students realise their potential. "I have travelled across the world. In most developed countries, much emphasis is laid on career guidance for school students. In India, however, it's a neglected area. This is one of the reasons a large number of students do not opt for higher education," says Anand Desai, director of dheya.com. "In our country, only 12 out of 100 eligible heads enroll in colleges. According to the government, this needs to be raised to at least 60 to make the nation more productive.
"
Career experts also feel that such as- sessments should be made a mandatory part of the school curriculum. "Parents should be involved in these events because most often they are the ones who cause most often they are the ones who finance the children's education," says Salony Priya, a counselling psychologist who is part of the counselling teams in schools such as the Heritage School and DPS, Megacity.
Priya suggests that schools set up permanent notice boards on the premises disseminating career information for students. "I deal with hundreds of cases where students are depressed because they have taken up subject combinations for which they have no aptitude.
And also because parents exert pressure on them to follow conventional career paths such as medicine and engineering," she says.
However, academicians would like to put in a word of caution; they warn against bulldozing students into choosing a particular career path. "Perspectives change with age. And students should give themselves room to accommodate those changes. So although career assessment tests are welcome at an early stage, they should be done in a responsible manner. 
We shouldn't straitjacket students into a particular mode of thinking," says Devi Kar, principal of Modern High School who is also a member of a central panel on school reforms.
So if you need some advice on which path to follow after school or college, you know which way to go.
Read more...
CAT couldn't catch the mice…
>> Sunday, November 29, 2009
Online CAT day 2: 23 centers cancel test(
The
online Common Admission Test in around 23 centres across the country was cancelled on Sunday to allow necessary repairs to be completed at the labs where technical glitches disrupted the exams on Saturday. ...
This was expected. Issues to do with bandwidth and the administration were not handled properly. Its unfortunate that Prometric an American company has been awarded this program. Why doesn't this happen to SNAP, XAT which are online exams with no crashes.
Even, we at dheya have manage simultaneous logins of more than 1000 and have never faced crashes.
This I guess is an immature way of handling by Thomson Prometic. Its exactly what we call as THE WHITE SKIN EFFECT, overconfidence on firangi companies and no confidence on Indian companies.
The importance of the CAT exam has got diluted and a funny situation has cropped up where the Education minister has to embarrassingly answer to the media.
Its important to re-look at the technology partner like Prometric and may be helping Indian companies build capacity would be a solution. Prometric earlier also had no good record for their conducting various certifications anyhow.
My worry is about how blindly our government, administration lay their faith on agencies like Prometric. Could it not be tested before its launch. Every software/ website does that.
Now this is funny: Prof Satish Deodhar, Convener of the CAT exams from IIM Ahmadabad says…..
"This is the first day of the first on-line test. Such an attempt to take an on-line test of 2.41 lakh students in the span of 10 days is being carried out for the first time in the world,"
"We must understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day of such a huge exercise, but the exams are going on and it will go on for the next ten days".
Its really painful to the students. I am sure there are better ways to manage this.
Lets hope we learn from this
Read more...
75% Indian engineering students unemployable: Report
>> Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Discussing a report by software industry group Nasscom which says that 75 percent engineering students in India are unemployable, education experts here on Saturday said that the Indian higher education system must give skill building and practical training equal importance as academics to give them an edge.In their latest report released in the last week of October 2009, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said that Indian IT firms reject 90 percent of college graduates and 75 percent of engineers who apply for jobs because they are not good enough to be trained.
We have been talking about unemployability and education. the mismatch between the academic processes and the its true application. Today we are teaching students in subjects that will not be required in future. Today with a gross enrollment ratio of Higher Education being 12. ie .. out of 100 eligible people (18 yrs to 24 yrs) only 12 take up college education, other 88% don't. among this 12% the employability ratio is 10% to 25%. Its sad and is a reflection of the effectiveness of the Indian Education System.
Its not important just keep approving central universities and colleges or just increasing the education infrastructure, its highly important to work on the effectiveness of the outcome of education towards economic and social goals of the country.
I guess we as a nation will never learn. We will keep doing superficial stuff and actions just to show that we are doing something. The quality of education need to improve. Youth need to appreciate the value of education. Majority of the youth do not see value in education. So do not opt for higher education. The condition is even worst when we see the figures relating to female enrollments in higher education.
Then whats the solution. Here is some action points suggested by Dheya to the Government of India:
- A substantial effort needs to go into revamping the curriculum from Grade VIII onwards to link the curriculum and the occupations and jobs of the future.
- Help the students to understand themselves and plan their careers for a horizon of 10 years
- Equip the students with skills that would make them focussed and employable starting from the age of 13.
Hope they listen...
Anand Desai
Founder - Dheya
Placement & Education: Wake up Call …
>> Tuesday, October 27, 2009
“The purpose of a B-school is to impart learning and not just to place a student. But come placement season and students’ attention is taken away from learning,”........K Mamkoottam, new dean of Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University.
This is true and valid for each institute may it be the Engineering college or a management institute. This is a catch 22 situation for all. On one side their admissions depend on the placement record and placement record depends on the quality of education and students. Many institutes are doing many things to build the placement record leaving the academic side of education aside.
I have seen institutes using their entire female student force to make calls to various corporate houses just to invite them for placements and the male student force to drop placement brochures. I remember I received 30 or more calls from the same institute and 12 brochures. The entire last six months starting from the mid of the 3rd sem is focussed on placement. This is a story of a B-/ C grade institute which takes more than 1000 students in different institutes (under the same group). Students are promised a placement with god knows what figures of past placements. Ultimately the placement record is dismal. The average salary of whatever mentioned at the time of placement is nowhere there and the numbers are bad. I guess this the same story across.
I sympathise with Mr. Mamkoottam, but i sympathise more with the students who keep a blind faith on the HUGE color adverts of the institutes for admissions.
Unfortunately our education systems hasn't got it yet. There seems to be no or limited linkage of academics to the job/occupation and a career. Outcome of education is just shelved under the carpet and shown as degrees earned and not employment. Very few institutes do talk occupations, careers, employment, life long learning in real sense. Its not understood by student what waiting for them at the end of their education. Educational institute have become a degree churning factories. By the way they also agree.
Why are we unable to do anything. Today's news was a sad one. Over 100 students of the Air Hostess Academy (AHA) gathered in front of the institute office on JM road, Pune on Monday protesting against the management for not providing them employment and certificates on completion of the course. Large number of police guarded the premises of the academy to avoid any untoward incident. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) also came to the academy and demanded action against the management. Parents of students, also present on the spot, demanded action.
I guess this shouldn't happen to the so called management institutes/engineering colleges who charge
Sometime back we wrote about how admissions are done in Pune, people are waiting in queues to get their kids admitted with even paying below the table money. Institutes boast of people waiting in queue for admissions, but this may not be for long. Thanks to my favourite Mr.Kapil Sibal, theres going to be a flurry of institutes and central universities lined up to increase access for education all over India. Tomorrow if its IIT Ranchi Vs Sinhagad engineering college, it will obviously be the choice of IIT Ranchi than any xyz college in Pune.
Wake up institutes.Take these actions before its too late.
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LiveJournal Tags: Dheya,Employability,Placement,Management Institutes,Protests,FMS,Engineering Colleges
Diwali & stories..
>> Friday, October 16, 2009
May this Diwali bring loads happiness, growth and success. Wish you and your family a HAPPY DIWALI. Have a safe and pollution free Diwali.Here is something about the origin of Diwali. Enjoy Reading..
The Origin of Diwali.
The origins of Diwali lie in ancient India as a festival celebrated after an important harvest. It was a good time for the cultivators to celebrate. The granaries were full at the end of a long monsoon, and winter was still to come. They paid off their debts, celebrated and started afresh.
Gradually, the cultivators became landowners and traders and Diwali became a time for them to change their annual accounting books. Their new year started with Diwali. This is the reason why Diwali is also the festival of Goddess Lakshmi, who personifies prosperity and wealth. Lakshmi pujas are held in most Hindu homes, especially in the north…
The legend of Dhanavantari: physician of gods
According to mythology he was the physician of the gods who is believed to have emerged with a pot of 'amrit' (nectar) during the 'samudra manthan' or the churning of the ocean, when the gods and the demons fought with each other. It is also believed that Lakshmi emerged from the churning of the ocean and, therefore, her worship forms a big part of the Diwali celebrations.
South India:
the myth of Narasimha In South India, the story linked to Diwali is that of Narasimha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, who is known as the God of Preservation among the Hindu Trinity that is made up of Brahma (the God of Creation) and Shiva (the God of Destruction).
According to legend, Vishnu incarnates himself as Narasimha (man-lion) to rid the earth of an evil king Hiranyakshipu. The king had received a boon from Brahma that he could not be conquered by either god or human for the simple reason that he could be killed neither by beast nor man, neither inside nor outside, neither during the day nor at night.
When Hiranyakshipu's atrocities became unbearable, the gods turned to Vishnu for help. Vishnu reincarnated himself as Narasimha, half man and half lion and, therefore, neither man nor beast.
As Narasimha, he killed Hiranyakshipu with his claws at the threshold (which is neither inside nor outside), and just before daybreak (a time when it is neither day nor night). That way he managed to get around the boon given to the king.
Source: Pitara.com
2,600 Seats Lying Vacant In Orissa’s Pvt Engg Colleges
>> Monday, October 5, 2009
Financial Express – 4th August 09.
This makes me wonder, if we really need a JEE. I guess JEE is creating a great barrier for aspirants. I guess its a competitive exam to define grading of students abilities. However there has been no proven correlation to the students career success and such grading. The solution to this is each institute conducting their own short entrance approval test using more psychometric testing tools. At the same time working on their own branding with a positive display of academic and placement successes.
Bhubaneswar: : Chaos and uncertainty have proved disastrous for the promoters of private engineering colleges in Orissa. With the tussle going on between the newly formed Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) during admission time over seat quotas and fee fixation, students and their parents have become more cautious about admissions t
As many as 2,600 seats in private engineering colleges are lying vacant as students who qualified in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) refused to take admission. While about 21,000 students were called for counselling, only 6,176 students turned up. Besides this, 1,500 students have taken admission under the management quota.
With the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) increasing 1,500 seats in engineering colleges this year, the number of seats in 37 engineering colleges in the state has gone up to 10,500.
The tussle between BUPT and OPECA started when the latter resolved to conduct separate entrance tests for admission into management seats. However, BPUT insisted that no merit list, except JEE, would be entertained for admission into the colleges.
This led to confusion and thus marred the admission prospects of these private engineering colleges. Moreover, the fee hike this year in private colleges has also made students rethink about taking admission. “The students are shying away from engineering courses because there are not enough job opportunities and the overall expenses have gone up” admits state industries minister, KV Singhdeo, who is also the chairman of the JEE Board.
He, however, said that seats lying vacant was not a new trend in the state. About 2,000 seats were vacant in engineering colleges last year.
This year, the worst hit are colleges imparting Master in Computer Application (MCA) courses. The uncertainty in information technology job market has reflected the mood in during the admission season. Only 650 of the 2,622 seats in the engineering and MCA colleges in the state were filled up this year.
Meanwhile, looking at the seat vacancy position, OPECA has urged the state government to allow it to admit students outside the JEE list.
The government and BPUT should relax the JEE guidelines to take more and more students in the professional courses, says OPECA president Kaminikanta Patnaik. “If the admission norms can be relaxed for MCA, why can’t the same be done for all other engineering subjects”, he adds.
Read more...
Set the campus free
>> Saturday, October 3, 2009
by Ila Patnaik
Kapil Sibal, the new minister for human resource development, has his first task cut out for him. He acquires a portfolio so ill-served by his predecessors and one that has such a critical bearing on India realising its social and political aspirations that he must hit the ground running.
The HRD minister needs to bring about a new policy framework for higher education in India. Thousands of young Indians, unable to find a decent university education in India, are flocking to universities abroad. Of the multitude of students coming out of schools, a substantial fraction want a university education. The license raj in university education has stalled the growth in university seats of even a minimum acceptable quality. The affluent struggle to find the money to send their children to study abroad, and the poor struggle to access the 10,000 seats at the Indian Institutes of Technology. Sibal’s focus must be to create a policy framework whereby a large number of high quality universities spring up.
The existing framework for running universities in India has been tried for many decades, and has been shown to have failed. In striking contrast, China has been able to get far ahead of India in building universities. If progress has to be made in India, every assumption of the HRD ministry now needs to be questioned. In addition to removing entry barriers against new private or foreign universities, the four new ideas that need to be brought in are: autonomy of universities (including on budget); reduced core funding combined with more competitive research grants; a flexible salary structure; end of government interference in recruitment of staff and students.
The best universities in India, those that we are particularly proud of, are not well rated by international standards. The Times of London’s Higher Education Supplement ranks universities around the world. In 2008, their data showed IIT Delhi at rank 154 and IIT Bombay at rank 174 globally. No other university in India made this top 200 list. By way of comparison, China has universities at ranks 50, 56, 113, 141, 143 and 144. In other words, China has six universities which are superior to IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.
Last week, the NBER Digest carried an article by Linda Gorman summarising a research paper by Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Caroline M. Hoxby, Andreu Mas-Colell and Andre Sapir which investigates the sources of success in building universities. The paper is immensely useful in thinking about how to build universities in India; it should be on the top of Kapil Sibal’s reading list.
The paper finds that the first element that pulls down the rank of a university is the process of budgetary approval from the government. The average European university that sets its own budget has a rank of 200 while the average European university that needs approval from the government has a rank of 316. In other words, giving a university autonomy to set its own budget on average yields an improvement of 116 ranks. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give universities autonomy.
The second important feature is the role of government in funding universities. They find that each percentage point of the university’s budget that comes from core government funds reduces the rank of the university by 3.2 points. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give them less money through core funding from the government.
The third issue is inequality in wages. European universities which pay the same wages to all faculty of the same seniority and rank have an average rank of 322. Universities which vary wages for each faculty member and pay different salaries to two people of the same seniority and rank, have an average rank of 213. In other words, flexible HR policies yield an improvement of 109 ranks. The message for India: freeing up HR policies is essential to building high-quality universities.
The fourth issue is the recruitment process for students. Universities which are free to recruit undergraduate students as they like have a rank 156 points higher than those where the government determines the composition of students. The message for India: universities should have full freedom to recruit students as they like, without interference from the government.
The fifth issue is competition. Each percentage point of a university’s budget that comes from a competitive research grants process yields an improvement in its ranking by 6.5. The message for India: the “core funding” money that is taken away from universities should be turned into a competitive process through which a panel of Nobel laureates choose which universities are the most deserving for getting research funding. Defence, space and atomic energy contracts are also ideal sources of meritocratic research funding, because these customers care about results and will not throw money towards a process of political patronage.
Variation across state governments in the United States shows that the best universities come up in states which allow more autonomy, such as independent purchasing systems, no state approval of the university budget, and complete control of personnel hiring and pay.
There is only one university in India which has autonomy on budget setting, recruits its own students, has flexible HR policies, etc., and this is the Indian School of Business. It is perhaps logical that, in 2008, ISB was ranked the 20th best MBA programme by The Financial Times, and in 2009 this rank was improved to 15. None of the IIMs feature anywhere. This is a striking contrast between enormous state expenditures on the IIMs failing to yield measurable results when compared with an alternative which has landed India in the top rankings of the world.
Universities will not be built overnight. But the framework that can lay the foundations for this change can be laid under UPA II over the next 100 days.
The writer is a senior fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi express@expressindia.com
Career Planning – An Overwhelming Experience
>> Friday, September 25, 2009
Posted By Aditi Bhattacharya.
| that I dream of being an Ophthalmologist or a Radiologist. A Scientist , Doctor who owns a restaurant……Rajiv Roy, Class XII |
Career planning, the second phase program of Aavishkar, a joint initiative of ABP and Dheya, took place in Kolkata on September 13, 09. The career planning was conducted by career planners, trained and certified by Dheya. Children between age group of 13 and 24 were helped to define their careers and career for next 10 years has been planned for them. Dheya also takes the initiative to track the children for next ten years and guide them as and when required.
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The career planning session was an overwhelming experience by itself. It was not only a happy moment for the children but also for the parents who were extremely satisfied with the whole procedure. Before the session started, parents were bit sceptical about the program, but after going through the two hours rigorous session along with their children, they were immensely pleased and delighted.
A few of the parents commented that such sessions were not their in their times and hence, they remained confused through out their academic career and lacked confidence even in their professional career, further, it also made them unhappy about their career choices to some extent. One of the parent said that this kind of program should have been conducted a few months earlier, so that whatever wrong career decisions their kid has taken so far, could have been avoided, nonetheless, it was never too late, as further damage has been avoided, henceforth. 
The parents also expressed their gratitude to ABP and Dheya for taking such path breaking steps in the field of education. The children were benefitted multi-fold. There were certain complex cases too where Dheya has taken initiative to help the respective children to build their lives in more than one sitting without any additional charges, helping them first with counselling followed by career guidance and career planning.
In a nutshell, career planning session has helped the children in the following way:
· To choose the correct line of education in congruence to their personality and ability and to their interest to some extent.
· Facilitated them with sound decision whether to invest in particular stream of education/certification.
· Assisted in setting their goals in life.
· Created a focus in their lives.
· Made them confident about their future career decisions.
· Helped them to walk towards their dreams.
· Helped them to have a vision in life.
The careers planning program was a wonderful experience for the Career planners too and they are thankful to have got the opportunity to shape the future of Indian youth.
… By Aditi Bhattacharya. Head – Content
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Be Wise in Choosing an Educational Institution...
>> Sunday, September 20, 2009
Source :http://thetoteditor.blogspot.com
May 10th 2009
By A Concerned Citizen
For more than a month and a half now, Icfai institutes in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and other places have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In fact, on Thursday, many students turned violent and ransacked the Icfai Institute of Science and Technology (IcfaiTech) at Bangalore after learning of its legal status. Today, these students face criminal cases against them and their future is in jeopardy. Students need to be extra careful before joining any institution, especially for pursuing a course leading to their first degree. They should not merely go by advertisements and promotional campaigns. They need to check the legal status of the institution that they are planning to join.
A student should ask four crucial questions before joining an institution of higher learning. These are regarding the status of affiliation and the legal status of the institution awarding the degree, the status of approval by the concerned statutory professional council, the status of accreditation, and the acceptance of the degree by other universities in India and abroad.
Is the Institution awarding the degree, either a valid University or Deemed to be University? If yes, is it operating within its authorized jurisdiction?
In India, valid degrees can be awarded only by a University set up either by an Act of the Parliament, in which case, the University is popularly known as a ‘Central University’ or by an Act of a state legislature, in which case, it will be known as a ‘State University’. Central and state universities come under section 2(f) of the UGC Act. There is also a provision for Central Government to grant 'Deemed to be University' status on institutions of higher learning on the recommendation of the UGC. Such institutes become known as "Deemed Universities" and come under section 3 of the UGC Act. They can also award degrees to their own students, provided their courses have been recognized by the UGC. However, deemed universities cannot affiliate other colleges and institutions.
While Central Universities can have an all-India jurisdiction, subject to the provisions of the Act of the Parliament under which it came to existence, state universities cannot have jurisdiction outside the geographical boundaries of the state. In fact, for several state universities, the jurisdiction might be limited to a few districts within the state. Deemed Universities are unitary universities, which cannot affiliate other institutions. However, as per the 2003 UGC private universities regulations, after five years of their existence, private universities, including deemed universities, under exceptional circumstances, and with the permission of the respective state governments and UGC, can have off-campus centres outside their main campus. BITS Pilani, which now has a legally valid campus each inHyderabad and Goa, is the best example for this.
Keep this in mind! No university is ordinarily allowed to have campuses or study-centres outside its jurisdiction. So always check which university is going to award the degree after the completion of the course. If the university does not have jurisdiction over the geographical area where the institute one is joining is located, then any degree awarded by the university on successful completion of an undergraduate/post graduate program in such an institution would be legally questionable. The only exception to this rule is when it is a legally authorized off-campus centre of an established deemed university like BITS Pilani, in which case the institution is a constituent of that deemed university, and not an affiliate. If your institution claims to be an off-campus centre, and hence, a constituent of a valid university elsewhere, first check if the university in question is more than five years old and whether the campus you are planning to study has been officially notified by the university as an off-campus centre after taking prior permission of the UGC and the concerned state government.
In case, the course you are pursuing is a distance learning course or a flexible learning program as some institutions would call it, irrespective of where you are attending contact classes and writing exams, the course has validity only if its approved by the Distance Education Council (DEC) and the UGC. In all cases, it is advisable that one check with the UGC if the University under question is in the list maintained by it under section 2(f) of the UGC Act.
Does the course/ programme have the approval of the relevant professional council ? In India, we have various statutory professional councils which have regulatory powers in their respective domains of education. For instance, the DEC that was mentioned above is the concerned professional council when it comes to distance education or Open University system. When it comes to technical education (courses in the field of engineering, computer applications, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Hotel Management, etc), the statutory authority is the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE is the standards maintaining authority and so all institutions of technical education have to maintain the minimum standards prescribed by AICTE. While universities and their constituents legally do not need to take AICTE's prior approval for running technical programmes, even they are expected to maintain the minimum standards prescribed by AICTE, failing which UGC can take action against them. It is mandatory for most deemed universities, colleges and other institutes to take AICTE's permission before running technical courses. Even a seat cannot be increased without AICTE's permission. Exceptions are there: IIMs, IITs etc do not need to take AICTE's permission as they are run directly by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and hence are sister institutions of AICTE. IIT, IIM degrees are, therefore, automatically AICTE approved. Also, long established deemed universities like BITS Pilani, (BITS Pilani became a deemed university in 1964) legally needn't take AICTE’s permission to run technical courses because they were established and were running popular technical courses long before AICTE Act of 1987 was passed.
Analogous to the role performed by AICTE in technical education, is the role performed by Medical Council of India (MCI) in medical education; Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in agricultural education and research; National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in teacher education (B.Ed, M.Ed etc);Dentists Council of India, Pharmacy Council of India, Indian Nursing Council and Bar Council of India in the fields of dental education, pharmacy education (up to graduate level), nursing education and legal education respectively;
Does the institution have valid accreditation? If it is an institution approved by the UGC and if its credentials are good, the institution is likely to go for National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation. NAAC accreditation, therefore, is an indication that the institution has send out at least two batches of students already and that it has nothing to hide. In addition, if the NAAC has awarded a high grade (A, A+ etc) then that is official recognition of the quality of education that such an institute provides. For instance, the University of Hyderabad has been awarded the highest possible rating given by NAAC. If it is a technical institution approved by the AICTE, then the accrediting body is the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). NBA after its examinations merely gives an 'accredited' or 'not-accredited' status to institutions. NBA accreditation is again an official recognition that the institution meets or exceeds the stipulated minimum standards for technical education prescribed by AICTE.
Is the institution awarding the degree a member of the Association of Indian Universities? It is not a legal requirement that all universities and deemed universities in India should be members of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). However, all traditional universities and deemed universities in India are members of the AIU. Several universities, when considering students for higher education, insist that their previous degree should be from a university, which is a member of the AIU. Even some of the reputed non-Indian South Asian universities are associate members of the AIU. Since AIU is authorized by the member universities to determine the equivalence of various degrees across different universities in India, it is always good (from a mobility perspective) to earn your degrees from universities/deemed universities which are members of AIU.
It is important that students know the regulatory environment in the field of higher education in India. Knowing the legal requirements and taking reasonable care in these matters can help the youth of this country avoid losing money and precious years to well marketed, money-oriented educational business empires. It is certainly better to be careful than to be sorry!
TOT Editor's note: It is a timely message. The Opportunistic Times would like to place on record our thanks to the concerned citizen who wrote this and has shared it for publication. Also, please note that the usual disclaimers apply. The author has taken reasonable care while collecting and presenting the information contained above. This is posted here for information purposes alone, in the spirit of a public service message. Any erroneous reporting of factual details, if pointed out with evidence of the correctness of the claim, will be rectified with due acknowledgment within reasonable time. Needless to say, any act of accessing and reading information here does not create any relationship, including a solicitor-client relationship, and the author and the publisher takes no responsibility of actions taken on the basis of information provided in this blog.
Posted by JMG at 12:05 AM
Labels: AICTE, DEC, Deemed University, Icfai, IcfaiTech, MHRD, UGC, University
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Great Job Mr. Sibal, you kept your promises !!!
>> Monday, August 31, 2009
Class X board exams optional
The government on Monday announced that it will introduce grading system in all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools and make Class X board exams optional from coming academic year (2010-11). Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal during a press conference in New Delhi ,said: "Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) supports making Class X examination optional in CBSE system." . "There is a pan-India consensus over the issue. So we have decided to go ahead with this," Sibal said.The Class X board exams will become optional in all CBSE schools from the coming academic year (2010-11).The CBSE has prepared the format of an aptitude exam, which schools can use to test Class X students on their level of understanding in each subject. The emphasis, however, will be on continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) through the year instead of a single public exam at the end of Class X.
This is a REAL GOOD move by the education minister. What ever so called educationist may argue, this is a right move in the long term. The crazy race from marks-marks-marks, has been killing the true potential of the individual. the worst is MARKS in class X have no correlation to career success.
Are parents making vegetables out of their kids for the craze of marks-marks-marks???
I met the Chatterjee family in Kolkata, they were concerned with their sons low marks, what more 
But there are many such parents doing many things and killing the energy and talent of their kids in the race for marks. I want to challenge the so called educationist who oppose this move to track down the merit list holders and their careers, i really doubt whether they have done something substantial in their careers.
Are Coaching classes really effective???
Even worst is the coaching classes have their business due to the race of marks. Its a lobby that is enjoying huge political support. I want to share these thoughts which may not be liked by the coaching class owners..
Every year the well known highly publicised coaching classes release adverts about their students who earned 95% of the marks and above. Many times the same student appears in adverts of three or four different classes. does that mean the student never goes to school and only attends coaching classes??
More over lets do a straight comparison.. the school / college have on an average 50 students. Only 5% raise their hand in the class to clarify doubts. Also there are 50 students in a coaching class which is cramped for space and over there only 5% students raise doubts to clarify concepts. In a school, which as the law of normal distribution says there would be 5% toppers and rest below them, the same goes with the coaching classes too right..
In the craze of marks parents invest in the coaching class fees and expect that t
Thank you Mr. Sibal
I want to thank Mr. Sibal for a good move… keep going Mr. Sibal.. let us see some more good reforms and get a OUTPUT oriented education than just an input oriented education.
Anand Desai, Founder -Dheya
.
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Law and Freedom: Learning from Swami Vivekananda.
>> Friday, August 14, 2009
The struggle never had meaning for the man who is free. But for us it has a meaning, because it is name-and-form that creates the world. We have a place for struggle in the Vedanta, but not for fear. All fears will vanish when you 
If we could get rid of the belief in our limitations, it would be possible for us to do everything just now.
This life is a tremendous assertion of freedom; and this obedience to law, carried far enough, would make us simply matter — either in society, or in politics, or in religion. Too many laws are a sure sign of death. Wherever in any society there are too many laws, it is a sure sign that that society will soon die. If you study the characteristics of India, you will find that no nation possesses so many laws as the Hindus, and national death is the result. But the Hindus had one peculiar idea — they never made any doctrines or dogmas in religion; and the latter has had the greatest growth. Eternal law cannot be freedom, because to say that the eternal is inside law is to limit it.
Happy Independence Day….
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A TIME BOMB waiting to burst :Education VS Employability
>> Wednesday, August 12, 2009
While reading TOI, I am really concerned with the future of our education system. Let me explain ..In a place called Solan a PhD, an MBA and many one have registered under NREGA. What's NREGA?? Its National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Every unemployed citizen in the rural area in entitled to employment under 
This raises some tough questions. With the HR managers and the India Inc always shouting on top of their voice that – there are NO GOOD PEOPLE…where have all the good people gone??
While the education system is churning out PhDs, MBA, Masters, and Bachelors like a mass manufacturing products, the utility and the quality of those products are in question?? … Mr Sibal, Mr. education minister are you listening?? Tough Mr. Sibal has taken some great steps in reforming education, he needs to look at more of OUTPUT or RESULT oriented education policy.
With new education bill passing in the parliament, its even funny, the government has legitimised the private education system. Now these people are free to charge what ever they what without being accountable for the quality of education. Today, where the students and the parents invest on an average Rs 8 Lakhs for an engineering degree, Rs. 25 Lakhs for a medical degree and Rs.7 Lakhs for an MBA. The whole of investment is done for supposedly the better future of their kid, and when the kind lands into a job that pays miniscule salary and offers him a menial job, the onus of kids success is dumped solely on the student.
While making sales calls I happened to be meeting the President and the Owner of a large education society which has approx 35000 students studying in it. I was made to wait for 2 hours and then an arrogant chief of the institution arrived, he called us inside. It was admission time, this man from any angle did not look like an educationist but called himself Prof. He said he is very busy, so we waited. He had people walking in and out of his room. TO everyone he was quoting a figure.. if you need admissions, 3 lakhs for this campus, 2 lakhs for another and 1.5 lakhs for a distant campus… ALL IN CASH, no receipt , plus fees..??
People with no background in education are owners of large education institutions. Obviously there is no education imparted in colleges.. hence the business of coaching classes is booming. I fail to differentiate between the college and coaching class of tutorial classes.. both have the same number of student yet people go for it.
Ultimately… only 23% MBA are employable, 15% of grads are employable… majority take menial jobs.. and India as a nation is moving towards a HIGHLY QUALIFIED UNEMPLOYABLE nation with LOW PRODUCTIVITY???
Apart from their brilliant academic track records Ankit Chaudhary, Rajinder Rana, Anchal, Devi, Anjali and a bunch of others like them in Nauni, a picturesque town nestled in Solan, 45 km from Shimla, have one more thing in common. They are all workers labouring under NREGA.
“Some work is better than no work,’’ said Ankit, a PhD from the prestigious Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan. “And work is worship. Haven’t we been taught that? Moreover, I think all of us have another agenda in that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds should keep flowing into our village and should never ever be returned unutilized.’’
Its time we wake up and do something about it…. its a TIME BOMB waiting to burst
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New Tax code: Pay 10% tax for salary up to Rs 10 lakh
This is amazing. This would certainly make the salaried population happy. The only concern is the Tax Payer should also see the benefits of paying the taxes. As a tax payer we don't get to see the benefits of paying the taxes, neither the infrastructure like roads, sanitation , health care, security or anything that comes from the government is well organised… read on the news item that appeared in ET 12th Aug 09 New Delhi
In what could provide a major relief to income tax payers, the government on Wednesday proposed to tax only 10 per cent of income up to Rs 10 lakhs while under the existing regime this relief is limited to people with income of Rs three lakh only. Income between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh would be taxed at the rate of 20 per cent and earnings thereafter would attract a rate of 30 per cent, as per the draft of the new Direct Taxes Code which is aimed at radical direct tax reforms. At present, 20 per cent rate is imposed on income between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. Income beyond Rs 5 lakh attracts 30 per cent tax.
The Direct Taxes Code was released by the government for public discourse and when approved it would replace the Income Tax Act of 1961 and other related laws. However, the draft proposes to retain the present ceiling of income tax exemption at Rs 1,60,000 in a year.
It also suggested an increase in tax deduction on savings of Rs 3 lakh and wanted all perks to be added to income for taxation purpose. In what could make India Inc happy, the code also recommended lowering corporate tax rate by 5 per cent to 25 per cent from the present 30 per cent. Besides, the draft proposed a change in methodology for computing the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), which is levied on those companies not paying any tax due to various exemptions.
The companies are at present levied surcharges and cesses besides corporate tax. Foreign companies attract a tax rate of 40 per cent.
As regards foreign firms, the draft said, they will have to pay 25 per cent corporate tax. In addition, they will have a liability of 15 per cent branch profit tax.
The draft also suggested two per cent MAT on gross asset value of a company, instead of the current levy of 15 per cent on book profits. In case of banking companies, the MAT should be 0.25 per cent on the gross assets.
The tax code also suggested abolishing the controversial Securities Transaction Tax (STT), but wants long term capital gains tax to be reintroduced. Releasing the Direct Taxes Code, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said if reasonable level of discussion happens on the code, a bill on Direct Taxes Code could be placed in the winter session of Parliament.
Discover your calling
>> Friday, July 24, 2009
Campus Buzz Careergraph The telegraph, Kolkata Jul 22,09, Thursday
NEWS, VIEWS AND TRIVIA STRAIGHT FROM SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
Statistics reveal that only 4 per cent of students in India receives expert career counselling. Not surprisingly, according to a Nasscom report, just 15 per cent of graduates in the country are employable.
To address this problem, Anandabazar Patrika and Dheya (www.dheya.com) — an educational services company — have started Aavishkar, an online assessment programme for students. The programme provides around 700 career options and the methodology comprises mind exercises, simulations and questions to help one discover his or her true calling. Those interested have to fill in a form, published in Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph, and submit it along with a cheque for Rs 600 to any ABP classifieds office.
The programme will also include an hour-long career planning session, which will be held on Saturdays and Sundays. Candidates will have to register for this separately. For details, write to aavishkar@abp.in.
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MID CAREER CRISIS...
>> Thursday, July 16, 2009
We are in touch with several senior and top executives in the corporate. What is heartening to know is that each one has a deep desire to move out and do something worth while. BUT the feel is I CANT becauseeeeeee....
I have some serous questions to ask all these execs.. does your 10- 20% hike Y
This is a serious trap executives fall into. To get of the trap either have a phenomenal growth or just step out get in to become an entrepreneur who create value. The mid career crisis is so grave that people have moved job, take up education or just stepped out to take up something on their own. Some succeeded and some failed miserably have landed into a worst situation than before..
We at Dheya are working with several executives caught into a midcareer crisis and are helping them get out of the same with scientifically developed processes.
Here's an interesting article i read about excuses senior executives give when they are unhappy and facing a mid career crisis and are unable to breakthrough...
Read on...
If you’re unhappy at work, I’m sure that the thought “Man, I really should quit!” crosses your mind occasionally. So why don’t you?
Even if you long desperately to quit, to get away from your horrible workplace, annoying co-workers or abusive managers, you may hesitate to actually do anything about it, because right on the heels of that impulse come a lot of other thoughts that hold you back from quitting.
Each of these excuses may sound to you like the voice of sanity, offering perfectly good reasons why it is in fact better to stay and endure that bad job just a little longer, but look a little closer, and they don’t really hold up. What they do instead is keep you trapped in a job that is slowly but surely wearing you down. Here are 10 of the most common bad excuses for staying in a bad job.
1 “Things might get better”
2 “My boss is such a jerk but if I quit now, he wins.”
3 “I’m not a quitter.”
4 “I’ll never get another job”
5 “If I quit I’ll lose my salary, status, company car, the recognition of my peers, etc.”
6 “Everywhere else is just as bad”
7 “I’ve invested so much in this job already”
8 “I’ll lose my health insurance.”
9 “My job pays very well”
10 “Quitting will look bad on my CV” Many of us would be much happier at work if we quit bad jobs sooner.
Source: http://positivesharing.com/
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