Education Insider by MK Menon

RNI No: 114514 KERENG/2012/41957

EXPERT INTERVIEW: V K Mathews, Founder, IBS

‘Artists must go beyond ideologies’ Charu Nivedita

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COUNTERPOINT

Rajiv Malhotra

CAMPUS FOCUS

AIM, Manila

PERSPECTIVE

Sanjit Bunker Roy

Scan and read online

Civil Services beckon A promising career option for the talented and intelligent youths to show their mettle

Volume 1 Issue 4 | July 2012 Editor Ravi Deecee Associate Editor T N Shaji Deputy News Editor Sanjeev Neelakantan Chief Sub Editor Dipin Damodharan Sr. Reporters Lakshmi Narayanan Prashob K P Shani K Sreekanth Ravindran

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EDITOR’S NOTE

DC Media Publication

A constructive career option

t is a generally felt emotion that today’s world is becoming ruthless in its ways and that the feelings of goodness and social responsibility are fading away from the minds of people. Our young graduates and postgraduates are migrating beyond the Indian borders in search of greener pastures. This tendency is heavily criticised owing to the ill-effects it has on the Indian economy due to loss of valuable manpower and intelligent brains. The youngsters are also being brought under the scanner for their lack of commitment and will in contributing towards the betterment of their homeland. We criticise our youngsters for displaying such tendencies, but at the same time, we fail to analyse the reasons behind such massive brain drain and lack of social responsibility. Only if the young brains are provided with jobs within the country which can enable them to maintain a decent standard of living and also help them contribute towards their society at the same time will make them stay back in India. There are many such career options which give ample opportunity for the talented and intelligent youths to show their mettle while earning a handsome amount of money. The civil services offer such a platform, and in this issue, we are fixing our focus on the possibilities and strengths of making a career in the civil services in India. Joining the civil services is a career option for those who are driven by their social commitments, well aware of their societal atmosphere and capable of implementing innovative ideas to bring about positive changes in society. It is also a very stable and secure career choice which provides the aspirants a handsome pay package, along with all auxiliary facilities, and helps them earn respect and dignity in society. Besides, it opens up tremendous opportunities to help the common man in whatever small ways possible and to make constructive interventions in various burning issues faced by the community in general. It also gives them a chance to work with international diplomatic agencies like the United Nations. Above all, it is a chance to be a part of the societal change that one has always been dreaming of.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

Safe, secure and stable career

What makes the civil services the most sought after career? How can one clear the civil services examination? What are the attributes one should cultivate to become a civil servant? How can civil servants take on the menace of corruption? Find answers to these and many more queries

30 74

COUNTERPOINT Rajiv Malhotra

Rajiv Malhotra, a strong advocate of Indic traditions, is known for waging a lone battle in the US against wrong perceptions about India

An encounter with a man on the mission Raju Narayana Swamy IAS

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES African countries

The educational systems of many African countries are in a pathetic state. Find out the areas where one can invest in the education sector

A NOBLE MISSION

Sanjit Bunker Roy

Founder, Barefoot College

OPINION

Sudhir Kakar

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

CAMPUS FOCUS

AIM, Manila

Winner of the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for promoting international understanding, Asian Institute of Management, Manila, has faith in the Socratic way of learning

48 58

BRAINWAVE Anita Nair

EXPERT INTERVIEW

Writer Anita Nair tells how to encourage innate talent

V K Mathews, Founder, IBS

EDUPRENEUR

Shahal Hassan Musaliar

TKM Educational Trust

Columns 50 I Sajeev Nair 73 I Snehaj Srinivas

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

MAIL BOX

Scan the QR code with your smart phone to reach us online”

Column on Civil Services very helpful The column of Dr B Ashok, IAS, on the civil services is very helpful for those who dream of getting the top jobs in India’s bureaucracy. Thank you for carrying such an insightful column. Azad Mohammed, Kochi

Cover story interview quite informative The cover story, ‘Space boom bonanza’, in the June edition of Education Insider was very informative. It would have been really helpful had you given some more specific information on the kind of courses one can pursue at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST). The interview with the IIST Director gave me ample information on the opportunities in the space sector. I hope you will keep up the good work.

Down memory lane Education Insider’s special feature on Vishva-Bharati reminded me of my good old days at the campus. I also had an occasion to meet Dr Uday Narayana Singh, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University, at Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. It was my privilege to translate Tagore’s Chokher Bali into Konkani, at the behest of Sahitya Akademi. Prof Anandan NN, Centre for Cultural Studies and Research, Kochi

Cover story on Space interesting Education Insider’s cover story, ‘Space boom bonanza’, in the June edition was interesting and informative. It has covered all aspects relating to space education. Arjun, Chennai

Arun Narayan, Delhi

Please through light on GRE, GMAT I am a regular reader of Education Insider. As a student who is keen on pursuing education overseas, your articles on foreign campuses are both interesting and informative. We, students, will be really grateful if you can provide us some more information on exams such as GRE and GMAT as they are very crucial for overseas studies. Kavitha Nambisan, Kozhikode

Khushboo is an inspiration The Brainwave section of Education Insider, which featured actress Khusboo in the June edition, was an eye-opener. Not many people know that Kushboo is an eighth standard drop-out. Her achievements in the film world and the political arena are enough to silence the best of critics. Her new role as an inspirational speaker has only cemented her reputation as a responsible celebrity. Aditi Iyer, Coimbatore

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EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

NEWS PICS

Manipal University eyes China BEIJING: Manipal University is in talks with Chinese officials in connection with its plans to open its campus in China. If the talks come to fruition, this will be the first time for an Indian university to open a campus in China. The university is exploring a tieup with Tianjin University and Shanghai’s Tongji University for assistance in training in information technology and sciences. Manipal University already has overseas campuses in Dubai, Nepal, Antigua and Malaysia.

UK’s loss, Australia’s gain LONDON: British universities have experienced a fall of more than 30 per cent in Indian enrolments. At the same time, the percentage of Indian enrolments and visa grants for Australia is reported to be in three figures. The number of Indian student visa applications for Australia has gone up by a whopping 120 per cent in the last nine months, while the number of visa grants has also improved by nearly 80 per cent in the same period. Indian students seem to be reacted negatively to the denial of work rights in the UK as the number of applications for British student visas from India and other South Asian countries are on a sharp decline. Australia and other countries under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are much more liberal as far as work rights for international students are concerned.

ISB becomes largest B school in India BENGALURU: With the addition of a new campus in Mohali, Indian School of Business (ISB) has become the largest premier B school in the country, with an annual intake of 767 students. This academic year onwards, lectures for ISB’s postgraduate programme in management (PGP) will be delivered in both the Mohali and Hyderabad campuses. The new campus has enabled ISB to increase the intake of women students. Around 28% of the students are women, while 63 students come from families with an entrepreneurial background. The class of 2013 has also seen a rise in students from tier I and II cities.

First batch of Project Sparkle graduates KOCHI: Project SPARKLE, an initiative of SB Global Educational Trust, recently conducted the graduation ceremony of the first batch of its teachers at Kochi. Speaking on the occasion, Raju Hormis, the Head of CSR, Federal Bank, said, “Education is one of our focus areas. We are glad that we could support the efforts towards transforming the first batch of Project

Royal College membership exam now in India MUMBAI: India has emerged as an examination centre in Asia for Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, with city-based Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital being appointed as the centre for clinical examination. With this development, Indian doctors will no longer have to go to the UK. They can now obtain an international qualification in India itself. A team of senior consultants from the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, led by Dr Ramesh Mehta, the Principal Regional Examiner of South Asia for the Royal College, together with the Education and Assessment Lead, Graeme Muir, will oversee the examination in partnership with a team of senior consultants from all over India. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Sparkle teachers, who come from economically weaker segments.” R Balachandran, Managing trustee of SB Global Trust, said that the formation of the next batch was in progress and interested candidates could file their application. The next batch will be trained at Kochi, Kottayam, Trichur and Kannur.

NEWS PICS

Dubai school shows the way

DUBAI: The Elite English School in Al Mamzar is leading the way in integrating specially-abled children with the mainstream students. The school, with a total strength of more than 900 regular students, also has 42 children with special needs. Though the school had no previous experience in special education, it had obtained permission from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority to admit children with special needs following a promise to engage a good number of special educators for the mission.

‘Indian schools fleecing students in Qatar’ DUBAI: It has been alleged that several Indian schools in Qatar have been charging fees much above the rates permitted by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE). While the CBSE has fixed Rs 3,000 (195197 Qatari riyals at current exchange rates) as the examination fee to be collected from overseas Indian students appearing for the Class 12 board examinations to be held in March next year, MES (Middle-East Education Society) Indian School is levying a whopping Qatari Riyal 500, according to local sources.

IIM-B in pact with Singapore varsity

IBA to fund vocational education MUMBAI: The Indian Banking Association (IBA) has decided to start a new Model Education Loan Scheme to provide educational loans for students opting for vocational education. The loans will be offered by all banks which are associated with IBA. According to the government estimates, India would require 10 to 15 million skilled workers every year to support the country’s economy.

Vedanta to assist schools in Bihar

BANGALORE: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singapore Management University on management research and education. The two would jointly conduct research, seminars and workshops and support projects in areas of mutual interest, as per the understanding. There are also plans to invite doctoral students and junior faculty members to participate in summer/winter courses co-hosted by both institutes.

Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal PATNA: Vedanta Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Education and Bihar Education Project Council to assist 1,000 Government Upper Primary Schools in the state under the group’s E-Shiksha@Schools Programme. The MoU was signed between Ravi Krishnan, CEO of Vedanta Foundation, and Rajesh Bhushan, Principal Secretary (Public Relations) and state Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

NEWS PLUS

Eight Indo-US projects get nod WASHINGTON: Indo-US relations are set for a major makeover, with the two sides deciding to take up eight institutional partnership projects awarded under the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative. The projects will cement Indo-US ties in the field of higher education. The objective of the Knowledge Initiative is to further strengthen, through faculty exchanges, joint research, and other collaboration, partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education in priority fields, including food security, climate change, sustainable energy, and public health, the US State Department has said. Each project will receive an award of about $250,000 that can be utilised over a three-year period to foster mutual understanding, educational reform, economic growth, and development of junior faculty.

Indian-led partnerships

The awardees on the Indian side are Mahatma Gandhi University, Banaras Hindu University, and the Kanpur and Delhi centres of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Mahatma Gandhi University: It will partner with Brown University, Duke University and Plymouth State University to evolve an interdisciplinary and community-oriented approach towards sustainable development. Banaras Hindu University: It will partner with University of Pittsburgh for a paradigm shift in the energy scenario for the 21st century towards renewable energy sources. IIT, Kanpur: It will partner with Virginia Tech University on an international programme for sustainable infrastructure development. IIT, Delhi: It will partner with Drexel University with focus on resource building for ecosystem and human health risk assessment with special reference to microbial contamination.

US-led partnerships

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey: In partnership with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, this university will focus on “Capitalising on the Demographic Dividend: Enhancing Talent Development Capacity for India and the US in the 21st Century”. BEIJING: Hindi, one of the foreign languages gaining popularity in China, will be making its debut in South China as Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in Guangzhou is set to open a Hindi chair to teach the language. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a Hindi Chair at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies was signed EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the University. This is the first Hindi Chair established by the ICCR in South China. A number of Chinese universities including the prestigious Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as colleges in different parts of China are teaching Hindi.

University of Montana: In partnership with Bangalore University, this varsity will study the impacts of climate change and changes in the socio-economic structure on traditional agriculture and the development of sustainable communities among indigenous populations. Cornell University: In partnership with University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, this university will focus on implementing reformed curriculum in emerging areas of agriculture and food security. University of Michigan: In partnership with Maharashtra University of the Health Sciences, this university will develop a Master’s degree in education for health professions in the US and India.

Hindi set to make debut in South China

NEWS PLUS

Education for transgender communities NEW DELHI: Education will no more remain a far-fetched dream for transgender and hijra communities as the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has widened its reach by throwing open its doors to such people through its distance education programmes. While speaking at the national consultation programme in Delhi recently, Himadri Roy, associate professor from the School of Gender and Development Studies, IGNOU, said: “We are the first university to start this in the country. There are courses for drop-outs to finish their class XII studies and then opt for higher education through distance learning.” The consultation programme brought together over 100 representatives of transgender and hijra com-

munities and stakeholders from the government and policy bodies. Community members demanded equal rights at the event organised by Pehchan, a five-year programme aimed at strengthening the capacity of 200 community-based organisations in 17 states to advance HIV prevention. Gauri Sawant, General Secretary, Transgender and Hijra Welfare Board, Maharashtra, said: “In India, cases of violence go unreported as the social and legal environment is oppressive towards transgender persons and hijras. Due to their different gender identity, they are denied opportunities to earn a living, to study, and to access health services. Even changing their names and sex in official documents is not easy.”

$314 m WB grant for Lankan education COLOMBO: The World Bank has agreed to grant $314 million for Sri Lanka to help it fast-track the development programmes in the education and urban development sectors. The aid agreement was after considering the long-term benefits of the development projects presented by the Sri Lankan government. Of the $314 million, $100 million will be allocated for “Transforming the School Education System as the Foundation of a Knowledge Hub Project” (TSEP) under the Education Sector Development Framework and Programme. The project has three objectives: (a) promoting access to pri-

mary and secondary education; (b) Improving the quality of education with the development of a system for the regular and continuing assessment of cognitive skills; and (c) Strengthening governance and delivery of education services. The initiative under the third component will lead to the establishment of a balanced control model of schoolbased management called the Programme for School Improvement (PSI). TSEP will support PSI. Under PSI, school officials, such as principals, teachers and administrators, will be joined by stakeholders in the local school community, such as parents, past pupils and wellwishers, in the management and administration of schools. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

YOUNG ACHIEVERS

Teenager thrills with a thriller

eresa Sabu, a 15-year-old from Kerala, has entered the world of English literature with her debut novel, The Gusty Escape. She became popular among the Indo-Anglican writers soon after the release of her novel. Teresa, a 10th standard student, had managed to work on the novel during the study leave before her board examination. The young talent has a great passion for writing. In fact, she had started writing poetry at the age of eight. Educated in Delhi, Kolkata and Gwalior, Teresa tells the story of an 11-year-old girl, Kathreena, who shifts from a school in a bustling city to a remote area. Branded a thriller, the novel then goes into the sufferings of Kathreena and her friend Nikita, when they are kidnapped by some strangers. Adventure and suspense are the main themes of this novel. Eminent writer Ruskin Bond has appreciated the upcoming novelist by writing the preface.

There’s a Kahaani behind her success

emember the enigmatic character of Vidya Bagchi, the main protagonist in the Bollywood blockbuster Kahaani? The character was the brainchild of 29-year-old Advaita Kala. The film explores Vidya’s conversation with herself and the loneliness of her predicament. Not many people know Advaita as the scriptwriter of Anjana Anjani. After all, the film was a moderate box office success. But now, Kahaani’s success has brightened her prospects in the film industry. Before entering the film world, she had established herself as a prolific writer with her first novella Almost Single. With the sale of more than 100,000 copies of the book, experts say that the scripts of this new generation writer have high potential for the future growth of both literature and the film industry. Now, the entire film industry is looking forward to her new projects in Bollywood, including two with Director Siddharth Anand.

Delhi writer wins Ondaatje Prize

t is party time for Rahul Bhattacharya, a Delhi-born writer, whose debut work The Sly Company of People Who Care has won the £10,000 2012 Ondaatje Prize for “brilliant” evocation of the history, inhabitants and landscape of Guyana. He spent a year in Guyana before writing his novel. In this novel, he tells the story of a 26-year-old Indian journalist who gives up his job to live in a country where he can “escape the deadness of life”. The author is well-recognised in the world of literature. He had won the Hindu Literary Prize 2011 and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Bhattacharya is the author of the cricket tour book Pundits from Pakistan, which came fourth in the Wisden Cricketers’ list of best cricket books of all time.

PERSONALITIES Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Scripting a life

‘between the headlines’ The power of the written word and the stark depiction of reality on television can facilitate fresh breakthroughs in humanitarian missions and other noble initiatives that aim at the progress of society. That’s what a young journalist thought until the disempowering side of news commercialisation dawned on her, making her quit the world of bytes and wield the might of the pen as a self-motivated writer By Lakshmi Narayanan

here was a time when the news world excited the 27-year-old Shweta Ganesh Kumar, a journalist-turned-writer and author of Between the Headlines, which was released in May, 2012. The Fourth Estate’s unrestrained power to transform the society through its sustained focus on promotion of humanitarian missions and other noble initiatives had inspired her to pursue her interest in developmental journalism. After gaining employment in the electronic media as a trainee, Shweta had worked on the ticker, the thin strip on television that gives out news at a glance. In due course, she was promoted to the post of desk editor. Later, she tried reporting as well. But soon, she started sensing the yawning distance between the high ideals of media journalism and the reality of television. Nevertheless, she wholeheartedly took up her passionate subject, developmental journalism, hoping to do stories on civic issues that our country is facing today. Unfortunately, she was not allowed to do such stories. That made her quit journalism and step into the role of an activist at the famous NGO Greenpeace India. Alongside, she nurtured her passion for writing, which made her think about the dreams weaved by youngsters seeking an entry into journalism. She wanted to share her experience with the youth so that they do not feel at sea while facing oddities in this field.

Her experience as a TV reporter at CNN IBN proved to be the real inspiration behind her debut work, Coming Up On The Show… The Travails Of A News Trainee. The sequel, Between the Headlines, tells the story of the ones at the bottom rung of the TV industry. “There have been no stories on how the industry treated new entrants. I wanted to tell such stories. Another reason why I wrote two books on Indian television news channels is simply because I have worked in the industry. My experience has motivated me to write on the subject,” says Shweta. Between the Headlines is essentially about the grime behind the glamour and the pain behind the camera smile, says Shweta, adding that while women in the TV industry hold eminent posts, the fact remains that they have a long way to go in terms of securing significant beats. Shweta’s education at Symbiosis Institute of Communication, Pune, has played a vital role in her career. “Education should equip a person with the practical tools required to navigate through life,” she says. Shweta is currently working on an urban fiction. It is a modern day interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. “After that, I will start working on my third and final novel on journalism in which Satyabhama Menon, a fictional journalist, will once again feature as the protagonist,” says Shweta. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Shahal Hassan Musaliar EDUPRENEUR

Upholding a rich legacy

Noted entrepreneur, writer, philanthropist and educationist late Thangal Kunju Musaliar is the man behind the establishment of the first private engineering college in Kerala at a time when there was only one such institution in the state. Today, his son is working ceaselessly on his father’s dream of empowering students from the backward section of society through a number of institutes that are collectively vying for a deemed university status By Sreekanth Ravindran

he genius of a civilisation lies in the competence of its great visionaries in creating a society of equals. Having lived through the revolutionary days of the freedom movement, the uncertainties spawned by the World Wars I and II, the personal travails that took him as far as Sri Lanka, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Malaysia, and the hard social and economic realities of a newlyindependent country, Thangal Kunju Musaliar knew a great deal about what it takes to shape the destiny of a nation and its humble citizens. The first signs of his foresightedness came to the fore when he had transformed himself from a small time cashew nut trader to the owner of 26 cashew nut factories that employed about 25,000 workers, a feat that earned him a mention in the US business magazine Fortune as the largest single employer in the world. A prolific writer and philanthropist, Musaliar had understood the importance of higher education and the need for non-governmental initiatives in the field of education, especially in the backdrop of a nascent system of learning in Kerala during his times. That noble intent to do something for society made him venture into the education sector. His efforts and dreams did not go in vain. Today, Musaliar’s progeny is nurturing his dreams. “My father always believed that a society can be awakened only through education. It was his social commitment that resulted in the forma-

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Shahal Hassan Musaliar, Chairman, TKM Educational Trust

tion of TKM Educational Trust in 1956,” says Chairman of TKM Educational Trust Shahal Hassan Musaliar, the eldest son of Thangal Kunju Musaliar and one of the successful edupreneurs of South India. Today, the Trust runs a college of engineering, arts and science college, a management institute, a technology institute, a school of architecture, a school of communication and information technology, and two higher secondary schools. Tracing the beginnings, Shahal says that the professional education scenario in Kerala was in a primitive stage about five-and-a-half decades ago. “During the fifties, there was only one engineering

college in Kerala, which was at Thiruvananthapuram. It was very difficult for engineering aspirants to get admission as the seats were very limited. Affluent students used to move to Orissa or Kolkata to pursue engineering programmes, while poor students were forced to give up their dreams as it was unthinkable and unaffordable for them to travel outside Kerala in order to fulfill their ambitions. The prevalence of such conditions would have influenced my father to start an engineering college catering to the needs of meritorious students from humble backgrounds,” Shahal reasons. A post graduate in engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Shahal followed his father’s footsteps and started many educational institutes of repute. According to him, education is a continuous process of learning that gradually develops a student’s power of reasoning and judgment. “When we look at it from an individual perspective, the travail of being in an Indian education system is that the learning process is linked to economic opportunities. This is not a good trend. An individual born into our society is subjected to many variables including parental pressure. These pressures force them to either become a doctor, engineer or a management expert that will make them rich or be part of the upper class. Parents also see children as instruments for this upward mobility. As a result of this, our education system is failing to produce good scientists, artists, teachers and so on. Unless we have to put an end

EDUPRENEUR Shahal Hassan Musaliar

to these trends, the quality of our education will bear the brunt,” says Shahal. He maintains that the major drawback of the Indian professional education system is the lack of uniformity and integration between universities in the country. “A third semester engineering student of one particular university cannot join any other university for his fourth semester. This is highly unfair. Students should be able to move from one university to the other. Only such a move would help us transform our country into an educational hub offering flexibility and wide choice. “In developed countries like the US, students can transform their credits and continue their education in whichever universities they opt for,” he adds. Expressing stiff opposition to the present methods of student evaluation, he says, “As of now, it is the final examination that seals the fate of a student. Internal assessment is not given due importance. Hence students, despite having several degrees to their credit, know little about the subject in which they are supposed to be experts.” Appreciating the methods of student evaluation in developed countries, he asserts that it is high time for us to adopt such methods. “In the West, internal assessments are more important than semester examination. Every hour of class ends with an assessment test. The main advantage of these tests is that students will be thorough with their subjects by the time they finish their graduation.” Shahal suggests that India should em-

brace a planned education system without any hesitation. “Germany is the perfect example for a planned educational system. Students in Germany are channelised in tandem with their aptitudes even during the school days. There are career consultants at the school level who may advise some students not to pursue higher education. Instead, such students are encouraged to take up courses in carpentry, plumbing and other vocations that don’t require a degree in higher education. Such an educational system will only bring about more innovation and practical applications,” he adds.

In the West, internal assessments are more important than semester examination. Every hour of class ends with an assessment test. The main advantage of these tests is that students will be thorough with their subjects by the time they finish their graduation Shahal, who considers himself to be an integral part of the great Indian dream, says India’s corporate sector will see a phenomenal growth in the years to come. Therefore, the focus should be on quality while imparting EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

EDUPRENEUR Shahal Hassan Musaliar professional education. “All corporate jobs require creativity and skills enabling problem solving, decisionmaking, persuasive argumentation, and smart management. So, unless our professional education system wakes up to the Thangal Kunju Musaliar, Founder, demand of TKM Educational Trust time, we will not be able to realise our great dreams,” observes the edupreneur, who is also a successful businessman running cashew nut units in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Uniqueness of TKM Engineering College

Being the first private engineering college in the state, TKM has ensured that its infrastructure facilities match up to the best in the world. Shahal explains, “Each department has its own computer centre. The departments are networked and have an internet facility through BSNL’s leased line. This facility is made available to the staff and students.” The college has an excellent central library with over 50,000 books, about 100 technical journals and

dation. Students themselves manage the hostel mess. According to Shahal, one of the remarkable features of the college is its advisory system, which ensures close contact between the staff, students and parents. “The whole system is supervised by one chief staff co-ordinator. Each student comes under a staff advisor, who monitors and records his academic as well as non-academic activities. At TKM, we realise the value of the student-staff bondage,” he adds. Shahal says the real strength of TKM institutions lies in its faculty members. “We have well-qualified and experienced faculty members, who act as the backbone of TKM institutions,” he says, adding that many of the retired faculty members are presently working as principals or department heads in several engineering colleges within and outside Kerala. As conceived by its founder, TKM institutions have always been working towards the empowerment of students from the economically and socially backward classes. “The institutions are not led by profits but by the quality of education,” says Shahal. “By charging nominal fees from our students, we make sure that common men do have access to our institutions. Apart from this, we also offer several scholarships to meritorious students. We have a very powerful alumni association, which offers assistance to students from humble backgrounds.”

Future plans

On TKM Educational Trust’s expansion plans, Shahal says, “The roadmap is ready. We are planning to start many post graduate programmes at our institutions. Internationally accredited programmes

Germany is the perfect example for a planned educational system. Students in Germany are channelised in tandem with their aptitudes even during the school days. There are career consultants at the school level who may advise some students not to pursue higher education. Instead, such students are encouraged to take up courses in carpentry, plumbing and other vocations that don’t require a degree in higher education

periodicals. The computerised library is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm on all working days including Saturdays. It also has an internet facility. Separate hostels are provided for boys and girls, and students of the first year are also provided separate accommo-

are on the anvil. The Trust also has plans to set up more schools in Kerala. Though we have been seeking the status of a deemed university, the authorities did not pay any attention to our genuine demand. We still hope to secure the status very soon.” EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

VOICES

“The institutions we created 50-60 years ago are obsolete. They don’t work. Some are corrupt. We know it all, but we are not willing to accept this in public” “The gap between Australia’s best and worst students is growing as the education standards are going down”

Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Infrastructure, Information and Innovations

David Gonski, businessman

“One out of every four American students fails to get the high school diploma needed to join the military mainly because of inadequate levels of education” Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State

“Not everything can be achieved in one fell swoop. We have to focus on education, basic production and exports… education is the key to development ” Bill Clinton, former US President

“Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth” Acharya Vishnugupta (Chanakya)

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

COVER STORY Civil Services

Safe, secure and

stable career

Almost every academically brilliant student in India makes an honest attempt to crack the civil services examination at least once in his early days of struggle and search for a safe, secure and stable career that can not only enhance his social status, but also give him a chance to serve society in the best possible way. In this edition, we focus on the prospects of the civil services and related career pursuits in the international arena. For the sake of the uninformed, we have briefly touched upon the nature of the civil services examination. Acknowledging the need for reforms in the civil services, we also have identified certain areas that deserve attention EI Bureau

n March 8, 2012, while on patrol duty, Narendra Kumar Singh, an IPS officer posted at Morena district in Madhya Pradesh, tried to intercept a tractor purportedly transporting illegally mined stones. But the tractor driver allegedly refused to stop and knocked down the civil servant, killing him on the spot. Singh is one of those courageous civil servants who have lost their lives while serving their nation. Despite such life-threatening stories, about five lakh aspirants appear for the civil services exam every year. Becoming part of the civil services is a dream nurtured by most young Indians since they elevate the aspirants’ social status by making them an integral part of governance. But what attracts the aspirants the most is the clout they get to enjoy in the corridors of power. Even the booming private sector finds it difficult to wean away the best candidates who aspire to join civil services with the lure of high pay packages and perks. Such is the charm of a job in the higher echelons of bureaucracy. “More than social status, I believe what attracts the majority of men and women to the civil service is the promise of a meaningful role in establishing good governance,” says V Anand, an IAS officer of the 2009 batch from the Uttar Pradesh cadre. For successful candidates, especially those opting for IAS, life turns into a challenging and adventurous ride soon after they clear the interview, the last hurdle of the civil services examination, and make it to the final rank list. The candidates are taken on a “Bharat Darshan” under the tutelage of senior bureaucrats, familiarising them with the diverse social, cultural, geographical and historical aspects of the country. Initially, all civil service recruits are sent to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, for a foundation training. While IAS probationers continue their training there, other service recruits are sent to different specialised training centres across the country.

Functions of key services

Indian Administrative Service: The IAS officers are responsible for the management of various administrative departments and their respective functions. This includes framing of policies and acting as advisors to the ministers as well as executing governmental duties as the officersin-charge of the administration of smaller administrative units. An IAS officer begins his career as a sub-collector (additional district magistrate) as part of the district administration. Indian Police Service: IPS officers are responsible for maintaining law and order in states. IPS has various branches and associated departments like the Border Security Force, the Department of Home Guards, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Traffic Control, the Criminal Investigation Department, the Central Reserve Police Force, etc. Indian Foreign Service: If you love to travel, IFS will give you plenty of opportunities. Officials are responsible for framing of foreign policies as well as maintaining and regulating the Indian embassies in various countries. Railway and allied services: India has a huge network of railways. Therefore, the Indian Railway Service has been

Generalist and specialist services

Civil servants play a pivotal role in carrying out the day-to-day administrative affairs of the country. Our Civil Service can be classified into two categories: the generalist services and specialist services. Generalist services are those which do not require specialist skills or qualification. These include the IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IRS (Indian Revenue Service) and so on. On the other hand, Specialist services include the Indian Economic Service (IES), Indian Forest Service (IFS), Indian Engineering Service (IES) etc. While IAS, IPS and IFS (forest) are designated as All India Services (due to the cadre system), other services are categorised as Central Services. As of today, there are about 50 services administered by the Union government. While the generalists are recruited through the civil service examination, the Union Public Service Commission conducts separate recruitment examinations for specialist services in accordance with the vacancies. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

COVER STORY Civil Services testing their information base and memory. Apart from two optional subjects, candidates must prepare for two papers on general studies, an essay paper and a qualifying test, both in English language and a regional language. Candidates who clear the Main Examination are invited for a personality test, held at Dholpur Bhawan (UPSC Headquarters), New Delhi. The interview aims to assess candidates’ intellectual qualities, social traits, knowledge of current affairs, leadership skills and decisionmaking abilities.

Reforming Civil Services

For quite some time now, several committees, commissions and task forces, appointed by successive governments, have been trying to reform the civil services in tune with the changing times and needs. Following are some of the suggestions put forward by experts to build a world-class civil service for 21st century India. Officer Trainees of the IAS 2011 Batch with President Pratibha Devisingh • The recruitment process should include Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on April 25, 2012. various tests to assess candidates’ decision-making, critical thinking and managerial skills. divided into the Indian Railway Traffic Services, the Indian • There should be a fixed tenure for all civil servants as Railway Personnel Services, the Indian Railway Accounts the political executive manipulates the system by using Services and the Railway Protection Force. transfers as a weapon against civil servants. Indian Revenue Service: Those opting for this service • Instill professionalism among civil servants. will be posted either with the Customs and Central Excise • The government should ensure that all postings and Department or the Income Tax Department. They work under promotions are based on merit, performance and seniority. the Union Ministry of Finance. • The government should facilitate movement of civil Recruitment of generalist civil servants servants from public service to private sector and engage The power to recruit civil servants in India is vested with eminent personalities from the private sector in the the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which is a administrative process. constitutional body. Any graduate in the 21-30 age group is • It should be made mandatory for the officers promoted eligible to apply (relaxations are available for candidates who to the civil service to serve in other states. Then only the are eligible for reservation/special consideration) for the Civil idea of creating the All India Civil Service will bear its Services Preliminary Examination, held in the last week of fruits. May every year. The preliminary examination is a screening • The recent reform in the Hong Kong Civil Services, test for admissions to the Main Examinations. Hence the marks mandating that civil servants would be recruited on a obtained by the qualified candidates will not be counted while permanent basis but their continuation in the job would be determining the final rank list. The number of candidates subject to their performance indicators from time to time, admitted to the Main Examination is about twelve to thirteen should be replicated in India as well. times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled • Give more powers to Central Vigilance Commission in in a year in various services. Only those who qualify the order to check rampant corruption, which is disabling the Preliminary Examination will be eligible for admission to the government from functioning at the optimum capacity. Main Examination. And both these attempts should be made Career as an international civil servant during the same year. The United Nations and its subsidiaries recruit The Preliminary Examination consists of two papers international civil servants from its member countries. The of objective type questions (multiple choices) and carries a recruitment is based on a quota, allocated to member countries. maximum of 400 marks. The General Studies paper is held The United Nations follows the online recruitment method. A in the morning session. Its syllabus comprises the current candidate’s application is evaluated on the basis of experience, affairs, history of India, Indian and world geography, Indian education and skills. If a candidate meets the selection criteria, polity and governance, economics, social development and he/she is called for an assessment, generally a knowledgegeneral science. Paper two, held in the afternoon session, tests based test or a simulation exercise. These assessment exercises the candidates’ comprehension, logical reasoning, decisionare conducted in strict confidence and the candidate will making, problem-solving and general mental ability skills. be informed in advance of the time, type and length of the The Main Examination comprises nine papers, all of them assessment. Based on its result, he/she will be shortlisted of a descriptive type, conducted within a span of 20 days. It is for a competency-based interview over the phone, video designed to test not only the academic talent of the aspirant, conference or in person. The candidate is notified in advance but also his ability to coordinate and present his knowledge of the time, duration and means and/or place of the interview. in a clear and coherent manner. The objectivity behind the Main Examination is to assess the overall intellectual traits and Appointments are made on the basis of recommendations made by the interview board. depth of understanding of the candidates, rather than merely

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Civil Services

‘Civil servants should safeguard Constitution’ In an interview with Education Insider, Transparency International India’s chairman Paramjit Singh Bawa tells how civil servants can take on the menace of corruption and uphold the basic principles of the Constitution. An IPS officer of the 1964 batch, Bawa has held many senior positions, including that of the DGP of Sikkim. He was awarded the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, among other medals. Excerpts: By Sanjeev Neelakantan Given the high incidence of corruption in India’s bureaucracy, do you think the civil service training programme should include new modules and workshops on the ways and means to fight the menace? And how can the focus be sustained in the long run? There are three things that must be done to involve the civil services in the fight against corruption. One, they must be given conscious inputs on the

importance of values and their role to protect, preserve, and enhance the righteous ones. The current curriculum does not have any focus on these aspects. The Constitution of India is an ethical document and this ought to be emphasised. This must not be taken as a subject but one that inspires, as the preamble, the fundamental rights, the directive principles of state policy, and the fundamental duties are mandates that have an ethical content. Two, all services must be made conscious of red signals in their organisations and how the officers can stem the tide and initiate a culture of integrity and transparency. Three, they must accept the role and contribution of civil society organisations that operate to complement their efforts. Can you give us an idea as to what percentage of the bureaucracy in India is corrupt? Where do we stand in comparison with developing countries? This would be a dangerous hazard as this is not measurable. However, the position of India is just in the middle among the countries of world in the Corruption Perception Index, hardly securing 3.3 points out

Paramjit Singh Bawa, Chairman, Transparency International India

of ten, not even a pass percentage. This hurts the national image and our pride. Only good governance can stem the downward tide. How can we break the unholy nexus of politicians and bureaucrats? The role of a politician is inbuilt and accepted in the scheme of governance, wherein the head of the executive is political. All ministers, of whatever party, belong to politics. Whereas the political executive is in position for five years at a stretch, the civil servant is permanent with constitutional safeguards. It is thus imperative for the latter to be more accountable and responsible and guide the minister as per the rules, regulations, and law. He should have no stakes whatsoever as his position is secure. He has to negotiate through political interests and ensure that the politician adheres to norms, or else, the latter takes responsibility. If the bureaucrat indulges in a nexus type EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

of relationship (s), he is to be blamed. But for a small percentage of top performers, India’s civil servants are not rated among the best in the world. What are the areas where we are found to be lacking? On the contrary, Indian civil servants are the best qualified and capable of doing wonders, provided they work independently and People have to seek their entitlements by invoking the Right to Information Act, participating in the in accordance with social audit, holding the public officials accountable for outcomes. mandates of law. It is lack of adherence to politicians. The public pressure through these norms that diminishes their performance rather channels shall awaken those who are responthan innate capability. They are found wanting sible to deliver. The Mahatma Gandhi National in strengthening the rule of law that is the basis Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right of freedom and prosperity. If you read Hayek’s to Education must be made operational by an Road to Serfdom, you would appreciate that awakened public. the greatest failing of the bureaucracy is lack Secondly, the educational system must be of implementation of laws in true sense of the geared to teaching students ethical conduct and term. It is law that shall protect them. It is law how to be good citizens, keeping the national that shall put all on the right path. interest in the forefront. Is it high time for a fine-tuning in our reWhat are the main factors impeding the cruitment policy? Indian civil functioning of efficient bureaucrats? I do not see any flaw in the recruitment The only thing that a bureaucrat is scared servants policy. Any suggestion shall lead to compliof is transfer from one place to another or one are the best cations. The best persons join the services; post to another. She/he has to overcome this the only thing lacking, if any, is adherence to qualified and scare of transfer. All places in the country are a ethical norms. As says Aristotle, ‘Ethics can be challenge for a good officer who can contribute capable of dotaught’. Therefore, a conscious effort has to be in whatever place (s) he is and whatever be the ing wonders, made to create virtues of honesty, transparency, assignment, as things are far from perfect. They integrity, accountability, responsibility, and reprovided they can contribute irrespective of place or posting. sponsiveness, all meaningful attributes, among work indeThey have to continue with creative streak and the civil servants. They must be full of empathy passion with which they joined the profession. pendently for the indigent, the illiterate, the helpless, and They are well paid and have a social status. the deprived. It is for them that various schemes and in accorNothing should come in the way of their perforhave been contemplated and operated by the dance with mance. Their future is secure. Pensions are atgovernment. tractive. There can be no excuse not to perform mandates of How can corruption be contained in a counand no justification for complacency. law try like India? Should the government actively engage Besides the active involvement of civil retired civil servants to guide the new enservants, people have to assert themselves and trants? seek their entitlements by invoking the Right Yes. It is necessary and important. The to Information Act, participating in the social young entrants can start where the retirees audit, holding the public officials accountable have ended. I feel that if I had been given the for outcomes, and shaming the officials who same inputs as I am now capable of, one does can, and politicians who promise and do not, not have to invent zero. One learns from one’s deliver. We have been promoting the Developexperience and also from that of others. One has ment Pact so that the elected politician delivto proceed further. The cumulative wisdom and ers as promised by him during his campaign. experience of retirees should be utilised for a People must insist on such agreements in good start. Participation of good retirees, who writing and seek accountability from elected are known, can help give a good start. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Raju Narayana Swamy

An encounter with a man on the mission Education Insider’s search for a top-performing civil servant brought this correspondent in touch with an unassuming, kind man, whose excellence in academic, career and literary pursuits have already made him a darling of the masses and a role model of the youth By Sreekanth Ravindran

is relentless battles against corruption have earned him commendation from the general public and the media. He is being hailed as one of the best officers the Civil Services has ever had. A writer who has penned 24 books, he is a spirited speaker. In spite of all these attributes that can easily turn him into a celebrity, the man is known for his simplicity, honesty and social commitment. Born into a middle class family at Changanacherry in Kottayam district of Kerala, Raju Narayana Swamy’s compassion for the needy and underprivileged guided him to the coveted administrative service. Swamy, presently Commissioner of the Civil Supplies Department of the Kerala government, says that despite all odds, the Indian Civil Services is still the best avenue to reach out to the deprived sections of society. “I believe that the civil service has an important role to play in ensuring that the tryst with destiny, to which we redeemed our pledge on the midnight of 14th August, 1947, does not turn into a tryst with destitution, and that the locusts of despair do not destroy the harvest of India’s freedom,” he observes. A computer engineer from IIT Chennai, Swamy was offered scholarship from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He, however, declined the scholarship, citing his moral obligation to serve the impoverished sections of our country. A brilliant student who always stood first, including the civil services exam, Swamy never discontinued his quest for learning even after joining the IAS. He

Raju Narayana Swamy IAS

earned a PhD in Development, Ecology and Livelihood of Tribals apart from successfully completing a postgraduate certificate in cyber law. Swamy is the only civil servant in the country to complete all the ten online courses conducted by the World Bank. This accomplished civil servant has also served as an observer of the Election Commission of India for 17 elections spread over 14 states. Swamy defines an ideal civil servant as someone who ensures that the good policies of the government reach the poorest people of this country through effective use of the delivery mechanism. “Transparency, accountability, equity, efficiency and belief in the rule of law must be the hallmarks of an ideal civil servant,” he says, adding that a civil ser-

vant should strictly adhere to the Constitution and correct the political executive if they deviate from the path of truth. A Gandhian to the core, Swamy says that one should always strive to uphold values and principles, both in personal and official life. “I believe in the goodness of man, which gives me an inner strength to fight for truth and dharma,” he adds. His writings cover various genres, including travelogues, children’s literature, popular science and literary criticism. For him, writing is a passion, but it also provides him solace from the stressful situations of his administrative career. “I always feel that my 24 literary endeavours are just like fathering 24 daughters, whom I flood with unconditional love,” remarks Swamy, whose Santhimantram Muzhangunna Thazhvarayil had won him Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s best travelogue award in 2003. To those aspirants who pin their entire hopes on the civil services, Swamy’s advice is very simple. “Set a goal and work hard. Our aim must always be to perform our duties towards society and the civil service is just one of the several ways of achieving this goal. However, even if anyone fails in this attempt, it should not lead to dejection or demoralisation. As of now, there are ample avenues to serve society. What is important is the purity of heart and a clear conscience. As the Bible says, action is thy duty and fruit is not thy concern,” points out Swamy, who has found his role models in former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan and Kiran Bedi, the country’s first woman IPS officer.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

COVER STORY/CIVIL SERVICES Insider view Dr B Ashok IAS

It’s essential to know the ingredients of success Merely aspiring for the civil services is not enough. An aspirant must get into the psyche of a winner to understand the ways and means to achieve success in the highly competitive UPSC exam

ver the years, as a trainer, I noticed that there are two categories of aspirants who make it to the civil services. Category one comprises the natural aspirants, while the second category represents the late aspirants. The natural aspirants, either by selfmotivation or inspiration from parents, groom themselves early for an exam like civil services. They concentrate on acquiring language (English) skills and attain a good standard of expression early on. Good language skills, imbibed at a good school, are THE MOST VITAL link not only for the civil services, but a strong foundation for just about any career in the modern knowledge economy. If you are not fluent in the most common language of the world, remember, you can’t communicate with 60% of India, forget the rest of the world! If you are mono-linguistic and still aspire to join the civil services, do not be cajoled by the fact that some 15% candidates do make it to the IAS and other services through a regional language or Hindi. The reality is that the post-selection training and career advancement are intricately linked to dexterity in English. It may be possible for a Hindi speaker to be effective in a Hindi-speaking state during the initial years, but the moment you are in a position requiring close interaction with Delhi or UN and other international agencies, your linguistic skills in English are

put to test. Remember, this is not limited to drafting simple letters any more. In these days of super fast programming in nationwide flagship programmes, lack of expertise in legal and technical drafting would prove to be the death knell of a civil servant’s utility. Most state governments also interact with the World Bank or other such multilateral development agencies, where you need to hold highly skilled financial and projectoriented negotiations, which are possible only in English since the donor agents speak only English. So, the rule number one is, get cracking and become fluent in English! It is not good enough that you know how to read and comprehend; you must have the ability to hold a one to one, one to group, within a group and to a large audience, meaningful conversation in English. You may not be required to write like Shakespeare or Wordsworth, but your writing should be legible, clear, and precise and done with absolute economy of words. I hope this gives a clear idea of what to work on first in the long curve to reach the success stands in the civil services. The second key success point – something many experts rate much lower, but not me – is fitness. It is extremely vital that you look your age or younger. Every year, a few fatsos do make it to the services and realise that they are the laughing EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

stock in the training phase and even thereafter. Civil service jobs are partly sedentary in nature and require a lot of sitting down before files and computers. In addition to this, a generally rich diet may only add more flab. Many batch mates are unrecognisable after a few years, even those who work in a fitness-oriented service like the IPS. Many senior cops avoid wearing the uniform precisely since the belts do not come in suitable sizes, and a short belt makes the potbelly more obvious and even ugly. If you still have three-four years to appear in the exam do not miss the daily workout. A five-kilometre jog, workout in a gym, aerobics and a healthy diet can help you stay fit. Imagine yourself walking into the IAS interview with a Sumo wrestler’s body… it is just not going to work! So, the intellectual types who tend to ignore their vital body in favour of a virtual brain, please note, the board sees the body first and the brain well, if it is there, after a few minutes. I have always observed that the vocalising ability follows a first impression the body language conveys. Practice nice walking and sitting postures; learn to display a polite and confident body language. The third requisite which needs early cultivation is a positive mind in that healthy body. I have found maximum deficit in positivity even amongst successful candidates. Many suffer from low self-esteem, morale and lack of overall confidence. Believe in yourself. Keep increasing your own efforts. I know many candidates who would be upset or feel threatened on coming across a more confident or highly placed candidate. I remember the year when I took the exam. Almost everyone who appeared in my board had better connections. There were gun-toting security officers for at least two candidates, who were the son and daughter of highly placed officers. I had wondered and told myself that yes, since I am competing against the ‘who is who’ of India, I must give my best and not worry. It worked. I had the highest marks in that group. Remember, the UPSC is still an agency that looks beyond who you are; it is what you have in yourself that matters. Confidence comes only with practice, it is not good

enough that you are learning or practicing. Please go ahead and compete. Join elocutions, quiz, and writing contests and see what is happening. More than winning, make your point, speak out and be counted. The fourth criterion is a thorough reading habit. From newspapers to competition magazines, develop a very good reading habit. Do not limit yourself to subjects, read the leading literary works, the classics and the major Indian works in English. Reading makes you travel without moving a finger and makes you knowledgeable and well rounded in your experience. A fifth early success cue is to work for the community. Do not limit yourself to study, study and study alone. Engage yourself in some community concern, some general activity helping others. If you do not have any such opportunity in your given surroundings, join the NCC or the NSS. They really count in both creating a sense of community as well as leadership skills. Organising events linking several agencies and people with conflicting interests is a key skill every civil servant needs. So, develop these skills early. Finally, develop a positive outlook and smiling countenance while taking on insurmountable problems. Life in general and competition for the civil service is not for the chicken-hearted.

The moment you are in a position requiring close interaction with Delhi or UN and other international agencies, your linguistic skills in English are put to test

COVER STORY/Civil Services

We take a look at some former civil servants who are still remembered as the guiding lights of bureaucracy V P Menon

A civil servant who had played an important role in the integration of Indian states, Vappala Pankunni Menon’s meteoric rise from a humble clerical position to the influential post of Political Reforms Commissioner to the British Viceroy is a rare story of competence, initiative and tenacity. After India’s independence, Menon was made the Secretary of the Ministry of States by the country’s first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

K P S Gill

The “supercop” who is credited with bringing Punjab insurgency under control, Kanwal Pal Singh, the former DGP of Punjab, proved what a civil servant can do when the country is faced with the threat of disintegration.

Jyothindra Nath Dixit

An accomplished diplomat, Dixit was successful in improving India’s ties with South Asian countries. Known as ‘India’s Viceroy in Colombo’, Dixit had played an important role in redefining Indo-Sri Lankan ties during his tenure as the Indian ambassador to Colombo. This former National Security Advisor, who wrote ‘India’s Foreign Policy’, had also served as the foreign secretary.

P C Alexander

After Indira Gandhi’s assassination, PC Alexander, then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, had played an instrumental role in evolving consensus within the Congress to elect Rajiv Gandhi as the successor. He had pioneered many industrial reforms in the country during his stint as the Commerce Secretary. While serving as the head of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, he had initiated many programmes for the development of small and medium enterprises across the world. Before his gubernatorial stints in Maharashtra, Goa and Tamil Nadu, he had served the Indian High Commission at the UK.

T N Seshan

A civil servant who understood the real powers of the post of Chief Election Commissioner of India in letter and spirit, Seshan was a nightmare to politicians who wanted to manipulate the electoral process of the country. A member of the Planning Commission, he had also served as the Cabinet Secretary.

Kiran Bedi

A civil servantturned-social activist, Kiran Bedi brought about major reforms in the Tihar Jail, while serving as the Head of Prisons in New Delhi. The first woman IPS officer in the country is famous for having taken on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by having her car towed for a parking violation. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Asian Institute of Management, Manila CAMPUS FOCUS

For those who AIM for the best

Winner of the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for promoting international understanding, Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila, is a widelyacclaimed business school in the Asian continent By Our Special Correspondent

istancing itself from the widespread practice of cramming knowledge, Asian Institute of Management (AIM) has revived the ancient Greek ways of holding meaningful, thought-provoking discourses to enlighten, motivate and challenge its students in the multidisciplinary areas of business, communication and innovation. Established in 1968 at Manila in the Philippines, AIM has turned itself into a centre for excellence, which produces managers with skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to the world’s emerging markets. Though the institute is based in the Philippines, it has students from many Asian countries, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China. AIM is the first school in Southeast Asia to achieve accreditation from the US-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. AIM is a winner of the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for promoting international understanding. It is also the first graduate school of management in the world to be awarded ISO 14001 certification for its Environmental Management

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System. In 2010, AIM was placed 14th in The Economist’s “Which MBA?” rankings. Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey identified it as the best Asian Business School in 2011.

Programmes at AIM

W SyCip Graduate School of Business: This school offers two degree programmes — Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and Masters in Management (MM). While the MBA programme hones skills in business thinking, analysis, and decision-making, the MM programme focuses on building adaptive, transformational, and inspirational leadership skills, apart from developing students’ strategy formulation and implementation capabilities. Executive Education and Lifelong Learning Centre (EXCELL): EXCELL is AIM’s executive development arm. AIM’s executive education, first launched in the 1970s, comprises three programmes — (1) degree programmes (Executive MBA and Evening Executive MBA), (2) non-degree or certificate programmes, and (3) in-house or customised programmes. With an aim to fulfill the vision of budding Asian leaders and gain recognition as the leading Asian

CAMPUS FOCUS Asian Institute of Management, Manila

centre for executive education and lifelong learning, EXCELL has been widening its reach within the region through various world-class programmes and keen sensitivity to the needs of the corporate world. Centre for Development Management (CDM): CDM is AIM’s response to the challenge of sustaining Asian development. CDM works with emerging nations to build a national corps of public managers which can supervise public service delivery programmes, including poverty reduction projects.

CDM’s Master in Development Management programme and certificate programmes seek to produce development catalysts, who are capable of implementing projects that focus on building strong institutions for sustainability

Contact for admissions

Students seeking admission to various programmes should send their Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) score and resume, along with their photographs, to requirements. admissions@aim.edu.

Bringing the mean world of business to the classroom AIM is known for its action-packed programmes on skills development and entrepreneurship that are based on the Socratic model of questioning and answering. Instead of burdening students with loads of irrelevant knowledge, the corporate battletested faculty evaluates their skills in taking mature decisions in a challenging business atmosphere simulated for the occasion. In an interview with Education Insider, Dr Ricardo A Lim, the Dean of AIM, tells more about the institute’s unique features What makes Asian Institute of Management unique when we compare it with other premier institutes of the world? AIM is one of a limited set of schools in the world that still uses the case method as a predominant mode of instruction. It is one thing to teach using cases as readings, which many schools do. A few schools — and AIM is one of them — process students through 80 minutes of Socratic, questioning and answering. Professors merely facilitate; the students debate, argue, convince, build coalitions, negotiate, compromise, and come to conclusions and set directions for the future. Three times a day, five days a week, for 16 months. And students stay up half the night preparing for discussions the next day. It is

tiring, but it is rigorous. At AIM, we do this at least 800 times in the MBA. Imagine if you will, 800 cases, 60 students — that’s potentially almost 50,000 stories one hears Dr Ricardo Lim, Dean, AIM throughout one’s MBA. This is very much the real world. The case method prepares students not so much to memorise knowledge but rather hone and process their skills, build their skills in order to make

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decisions in complex contexts. We are also more practitioner, and less theoretical in nature. AIM believes that students should ultimately drive to action rather than just sitting on the fence. AIM impels students to make critical decisions under risk, uncertainty, and also push students to make contingency plans and operationalise, if things go wrong. The case method and the action orientation make us unique from other business schools in the world. We are probably the only school in Asia to use the case method in this way. Management students are expected to confront a variety of tasks as soon as they move from classrooms to boardrooms. How does AIM instil the required skills in students to tackle difficult situations? The case method requires students to process large amounts of information, a lot of which is irrelevant, what we call “red herrings”. This is the way the world works: too much information — especially now with Google — and a lot of it irrelevant. Knowledge and information are actually quite cheap and accessible nowadays, so these no longer differentiate — instead, we focus on skills building. Our students learn the skill of winnowing through such irrelevant matter, to be critical in deciding what information needs most attention. In an investment decision, perhaps, it is not so much the calculated profit that we generate, but rather the tax savings and cash flows — they are often different figures. Secondly, beyond information, we simulate the interaction of different interests of stakeholders, differing cost structures, differing resources. As Ratan Tata, I could afford to relocate my Nano plant for Rs 100 crore loss, because I might have Rs 10,000 crore in reserve. As the local government, where Tata will relocate away from, should I compensate Tata in order for him to stay? As the labour union that stands to lose jobs, do I back down on my demands? Like good chess players, students learn the skill of analysing positions from all angles. Thirdly, we simulate the context of a rapidly changing environment: individuals, groups, NGOs, cities, countries — even regions, make decisions that are independent and often interfering with each other. A business decision in a vacuum may be a simple matter; but you give it political flavour, or social flavour, then it becomes more dilemmatic. Students must learn the skill of negotiating this ether of complexity: I can make tremendous profits with medical tourism, given the prices of medical care in the Western world. But in a conservative country like the Philippines, will I provide services that clash with religion, such as sex change operations, abortions, and the like? Another example: we simulate your being a manager of a chemical plant, a few hours after it released chlorine gas and killed thousands in a slum. What would you do first? Second? Who would you call? What will you tell the TV stations? What response should your management team have for the families you just affected? So, those factors — information, interests, and complex changes — force students to develop the skills to make decisions under great uncertainty. They know there is no one right answer. Rather, they have to come up with a robust decision that can withstand complexities. We do a lot of live fire simulations where students interact with our corporate relationships — practitioners and business people. They do a lot of interaction in school and during summer internships. Students also participate in case competitions.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Recently, we were at the finals of the Hult Global Challenge in New York City. We also participate in competitions in the Middle East and in Asia. There are allegations that unlike Western universities, Asian management institutes have not been able to nurture entrepreneurship skills among management students. Will you elucidate AIM’s efforts towards cultivating entrepreneurship skills among its students? We are now embarking on a new track of entrepreneurship where we try to pair accelerator capital and venture capitalists (VCs) who will also coach and mentor students. So rather than just teach students about entrepreneurship, we also include in our package real financing, VCs who want to put money into ventures, and also people who can coach students through the process of entrepreneuring. The other thing that we do is we allow students with entrepreneurial bent to experiment during their time here at AIM with some entrepreneurial ventures. Typically, the ventures might be small, such as fresh yogurt delivery or organic farming, but it’s because the students have to balance their time

entrepreneuring with the demands of class. These are some of the ways that we encourage and cultivate entrepreneurial skills. Do you have a fixed quota for students’ intake from different countries? Can you explain the admission process? While we do not have a quota, we do try to have balance. We try to accept as many diverse countries as possible. Last year, we accepted almost 80 Indian students out of our class of 140 incoming students. We do make a subconscious effort to balance the mix, since we tend to overwrite on Indians. We do also try to compensate by getting more Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indonesians, etc. We do not have a quota. Since we are the ‘Asian’ Institute, we do want to have a diverse bunch of Asians and non-Asians in the class. This year, we have students from Indonesia, the US, China, Bhutan, the Philippines, India and a few other assorted countries. So that’s our core course offering. I want to add that for about four months out of the sixteen months, students get to go on exchange programmes to at least 35 institutions around the world. So, AIM students get to go to IIM A-B-C-K. They can also go

CAMPUS FOCUS Asian Institute of Management, Manila

to XLRI, Wharton, Pepperdine, and Case Western in the US, and schools in South America and China. We have exchanges with European schools such as HEC in Paris, EDHEC in Nice, and several German schools, such as Koln (Cologne) and the European Business School. Do you have industry interface programmes? Yes, we do. We try to have practitioner internships with corporate entities. Where are all your students placed today? The bulk of our graduates tend to return to India or the Philippines or to their home countries within Asia in order to work. They are placed in multinationals like the Monitor Group, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, etc. In the Philippines, we have placements with the Ayala Group, the Lopez Group, or JG Summit. Many of our Indians are back in India working for the large companies — Birla, Tata, Reliance, etc. We have a large number of Indian alumni in the US West Coast, Silicon Valley. For the past 15 years, at least 250 or 300 alumni have been working permanently in Singapore. A smaller number of students are based in Kuala Lumpur. A number of our Indian students decided to settle here in the Philippines because we have large BPO operations, a lot of which originated in India or are co-owned by Indian companies. So, there is a large BPO-ITES offshore business in the Philippines, which hire a lot of Indian graduates as executives because we have a lot of Indian principals and owners. We have small contingents working in London and New York in financial services. Are you planning to open more campuses in Asia? We have no plans for any physical co-location: we are concentrating instead on going online. Online might be more economical and practical too: professors and students can telecommute with lower travel costs. We are operating representative offices out of Thailand, Indonesia, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. But we do offer training

— either at the Philippines or off site at client locations in various countries. For example, we hold seminars on behalf of clients in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Jakarta, where we conduct a lot of in-house trainings. Tell us something about your faculty members. We are a diverse bunch. A good majority of us are practitioners, meaning we are not just teachers but also practicing executives. A number of them are former CEOs, CFOs, marketing directors, consultants, etc. I myself was a consultant from the IT industry. I was a programmer. This is embarrassing because I am a dinosaur, a mainframe programmer: young kids in Bangalore will laugh at this (though I know we are still in demand, to maintain all these legacy systems). But you know, as they say, a lot of the IT field is “old wine in new bottles”. The fact that I no longer know how to program a computer does not detract from the fact that I had to manage very high performance bunches of individuals: users, analysts, programmers. Programmers are very smart, but at the same time quirky and need special attention. So, my skill as a manager is probably more important than my knowledge of IT. I have to know the care and feeding of high performance assets like programmers — how do we motivate them? How do you address all their needs? How do you discipline them? All of those are important, especially in economies like India and the Philippines, where we have to balance productivity with quality. So, this is the type of skill I bring to the table — how to manage high performing individuals and teams. Another faculty member, Prof Tet Manalac, is a former CFO of one of the largest services companies in the United States. She’s got her MBA from the University of Michigan. She’s had a solid twenty years’ work experience in the corporate finance side. She knows what it means to manage resources in the billions of dollars, for thousands of employees. As the CFO, she had to make decisions on where she got funds in order to meet the payroll or next capital expenditure. She is not just a theoretical finance professor; she is a real live person who has had to make split decisions about borrowing overnight in order to fund some sort of expansion or trying to sort of cover for positions that were left short by their investment managers. This is a real person who’s had to make battlefield decisions. Students are not afraid to ask, “Did you ever do this or make this mistake?” She answers honestly. Most of my faculty members are battle-tested. They know not only theory, but also practice. They know what it’s like in the financial field, marketing field, IT field, and strategy field. I use the story of Prof Tet and myself in finance and IT, but you look around our faculty room, and you get similar professors from marketing, former brand managers, former marketing managers. My professors in operations ran production lines for Intel and Samsung. My HBO people are former human resource managers and consultants. So, my professors are practitioners, and at the same time, well-versed in theory.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

A NOBLE MISSION Sanjit Bunker Roy

On ‘Barefoot’,

with a golden heart Established in 1972 in Tilonia, Rajasthan, Barefoot College is a nongovernmental organisation providing basic services and simple solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. In an interview with Education Insider, Barefoot College founder Sanjit Bunker Roy tells us an inspiring story of empowerment and self-sustenance, far removed from the lopsided formal education system. Excerpts: EI Bureau What was your inspiration to establish Barefoot College? While at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, I went to volunteer in one of the worst famines ever seen in India, in Bihar in 1965-66. Several thousand people had died of starvation. It changed my life. I left college in 1967 and decided to leave the world I knew, to live and work in the villages of Rajasthan. I changed from a three-piece suit with tie and blazer to the simple kurta pyjamas worn in villages. I still wear it today in India and abroad. I still lead a simple, down to earth life and I still live and work with the poor. This is not a contradiction. When I started, I may have had a high degree making me LITERATE, but I was totally uneducated on how the poor survive in the villages and I wanted to go through an unlearning process and find out for myself. It has been a personal journey of discovery. I agree with Rudyard Kipling in his poem IF, “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch...” Have revolutionary ideas influenced your thinking? I never read Mahatma Gandhi in school nor did I read him when I started my mission in Tilonia. I read him 30 years later and he made such eminent sense. The motivation was to work with the really very poor people and see how best, with very little money, we could tangibly improve their lives – free from

hunger and want; free from fear, discrimination, exploitation and injustice. How did you manage to establish Barefoot College and what are its main thrust areas? Soon after leaving college, for five years (1967-1971), I had started working as an unskilled labourer, deepening and blasting open wells for water. That meant going down a 100-ft open well by rope and blasting it with explosives. I lived with very poor and ordinary people under the stars and heard the simple stories they had to tell of their skills, knowledge and wisdom that books, lectures and university education can never teach you. My real education started then. I saw amazing people – water diviners, traditional bonesetters, midwives – at work. That was the humble beginnings of Barefoot College. It was not Gandhi or Marx who inspired the work of the College but very ordinary people with grit, determination, and an amazing ability to survive with almost nothing. That too, with grace, dignity and self-respect. I had no projects, no programmes and no money to offer. Only my enthusiasm and my hands. I lived and worked with them as they did, with no promises made and nothing to offer. That is how very slowly, Barefoot College started. It is, I believe, the one and only college in the world built by the poor, managed by the poor and owned by the poor. Incidentally, what Barefoot College is putting into practice is not a new approach. It is an approach that has already EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

mission? Do you have a presence in underbeen followed by Mahatma Gandhi. The developed countries? Gandhian non-violent approach, incorporated Anyone who I do not believe in brick-and-mortar and institutionalised in the work culture and comes to buildings. There are far too many around that lifestyle of Barefoot College, strongly rejected the college are dead, with beautiful buildings but no spirit the classical arrogant top down development of learning, curiosity or risk-taking. They are approach of the “experts”, and instead, put into with a paper mechanical, structured and hierarchical. practice the following beliefs: degree or Every woman barefoot solar engineer • Identify, respect and apply existing qualification who has spent six months in the college is a traditional knowledge and skills and give walking-talking ambassador of the barefoot practical skills more importance than stands “disapproach everywhere in the world, including theoretical knowledge. qualified”. Africa. Today, there are illiterate women solar • Just because someone is illiterate, it does He/she has engineers (many of them grandmothers ) in The not mean that he/she cannot become to be a dropGambia, Mauritania, Cameroon, Mali, Sierra a solar engineer, architect, designer, Leone and Ethiopia who have solar-electrified communicator, data entry operator or out, cop-out their own villages. rainwater harvesting tank constructor. or wash-out, There are no students at Barefoot. Everyone There are many more powerful ways of poor, semiis a learner and everyone is also a teacher. learning other than the written word. • The demystified, decentralised, literate, What are the main obstacles on the community-managed, communitydevelopment front? perhaps controlled and community-owned approach The main difficulties that I faced in 1971 physically put the traditional knowledge and skills of when we started Barefoot College remain even the rural poor FIRST. challenged, today. By far the biggest threat to development • Taking people into confidence from the today and why the poor will always remain poor with no very beginning of the process of planning is the LITERATE MAN AND WOMAN, who hopes of getand implementation. are the products of the formal education system. ting any job What is so dangerous about this person is what Are there selection criteria at Barefoot he/she will become after leaving College? What kind of people come to you? Anyone who comes to the college with a paper degree or qualification stands “disqualified”. He/she has to be a drop-out, cop-out or washout, poor, semi-literate, perhaps physically challenged, with no hopes of getting any job. Only then he/she is eligible to join the college. No one comes for the money because no one can receive more than $150 per month. They come for the challenge, the desire to bring fundamental and lasting change, the need to try new ideas, the possibility of making mistakes and learning from that experience, instead of giving up and not trying at all. The boys and girls who come out of the Night Schools are given priority. Eventually, they become ‘barefoot’ doctors, teachers, solar and water engineers, architects, designers, and health workers. What’s the outreach of your African women being trained as solar power engineers at Barefoot College EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

A NOBLE MISSION Sanjit Bunker Roy college/university. The formal system makes you look down on the village. After graduating, anyone who goes back to the village is looked on as a failure. The formal system does not make you look back to respect and value your roots, if they are in the rural areas. So, people with degrees and qualifications would rather survive in demeaning city slums and pavements than go back to their roots. The response also is, “There is no work there, so why go back?” The formal system demeans and devalues traditional knowledge, village skills and practical wisdom that the poor value, respect and apply for their own development. Just because it is not “certified”, does that mean it is inferior or second rate? The fact is, it has stood the test of time and the knowledge and skills were used for hundreds of years well before the urban doctor, teacher and engineer turned up in the villages. What are the biggest difficulties you find with projects organised for women? In 2003, we took a decision to train only illiterate rural women as solar engineers. The biggest difficulty and challenge was to convince donors, policy-makers, planners and the male members of the village community to accept the impossibility that illiterate rural women who have never left their villages in their lives could be trained as ‘barefoot’ solar engineers. Barefoot College will not train anybody less

A solar cooker engineer of Barefoot College teaches a programme participant how to use a solar cooktop

than 40 years of age. Why do we need women only from the 40 to 50 age group? It’s because women who are older and more mature tend to stay with the families, while men, as soon as they are trained, leave to find work elsewhere. There is no point in training men because they are restless and have a tendency to use their training to find work outside the community and send money home. Women have more patience, are more skilled with their hands, and the older they are, they are more respected and listened to more seriously. The best woman solar engineer Barefoot College has trained is a 55-year-old grandmother from Afghanistan who is looking after 200 houses she had solar-electrified in 2005. They are still functioning without any problem. She is semi-literate and does not know how to read and write. But she is now training other women. The young ones can learn from the elders as is the case with all traditional skills. Why do they have to come from a poor family with little or no assets and with little or no educational qualification? It’s because this is not only about training a woman as a solar engineer but also about demonstrating that even the very poor have the capacity and competence to learn the most sophisticated skills and serve their communities. Once they are trained, they will never leave their communities because no one will ever give them such a chance to prove their worth before their own communities. This has worked with very poor women from Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Chad, South Sudan, Djibouti, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Jordan and Bhutan. Do you have plans to establish a Barefoot University outside the country? No, because it will not work in the so-called First and Second Worlds. Barefoot College will only work in poor, inaccessible traditional rural societies all over the world, where persons are judged by their ability to work with their hands with dignity and self-respect, NOT by the paper degrees they hold. The Barefoot approach will work where communities have been neglected or destroyed by the formal system. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

North-Eastern Hill University CAMPUS FOCUS

A learning centre par excellence

With eight distinct schools of learning, North-Eastern Hill University has emerged as a centre of excellence with a national presence. After all, its popularity has attracted students from different corners of the country. This Central University is also actively engaged in collaborative research projects involving international institutes and universities By Sreekanth Ravindran

hile successive Central governments have been regularly castigated for their continued neglect of the North-eastern region in terms of development and budgetary allocation, the powers that be can take consolation from the fact that one of their saplings has grown into a blooming tree sheltering thousands of students seeking qualitative and meaningful education. Today, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), located at Shillong in Meghalaya, has established itself as a centre for excellence and the best alternative in a region where developmental and infrastructural inadequacies are quite common. This Central University in North-eastern India was set up in 1973 by an Act of Parliament. Since its beginning, NEHU has been able to attract both talented students and well-qualified individuals for its faculty. As of now, students from different parts of the country are pursuing various programmes in this university.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

NEHU has two campuses, one at Shillong, and the other at Tura in Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. The university offers post graduate programmes in more than 20 conventional disciplines including science, social science, humanity, languages, management and law.

School of Economics, Management and Information Sciences

This school comprises four departments - Commerce, Economics, Library and Information Science, and Management. These departments offer

Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes. The major areas of specialisation include Economics of North-eastern India with emphasis on Upland Economy, Economics of Agriculture, Small Scale Industry, Rural Development, Human Development, Public and Financial Economics, Quantitative Economics and Econometrics, Accounting, Finance and Control, and Management of Small Businesses.

School of Humanities

This school consists of English, Garo, Hindi, Khasi, Linguistics and

CAMPUS FOCUS North-Eastern Hill University

‘Brilliant students prefer our university’ In an interview with Education Insider, Dr Eugene Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the North-Eastern Hill University tells that the university holds the potential to transform Northeastern India into an educational hub. Excerpts: At a time when most undergraduate students from the Northeast prefer to pursue their higher studies in big metros, how does your university manage to attract talented students? I do not agree with this observation. Though there are several students from the Northeast who prefer to go to the metros for higher studies, our university has been able to attract brilliant students from this part of the country. Of late, North-Eastern Hill University has started many specialised courses in environmental sciences, agriculture, technology, and management. We have begun such courses to attract best students from the region, who otherwise would have gone to metros simply because these lines of studies were not available here. What are the special programmes in your institute and how different are they from other institutes of excellence? We have several programmes that are unique in nature. For example, our postgraduate programme in linguistics is a special course as there are no similar programmes throughout the country. We are presently proposing to open the following programmes this coming semester: Information Technology, Nano Technology,

Electronics and Communication Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Energy Dr Eugene Thomas, Pro VC, Engineering, North-Eastern Hill University Computer Applications, Business Administration, Services Management, Agri-business Management, Food Technology, Tourism and Hotel Management, Journalism and Mass Communications, History, Archaeology, and Horticulture. Do you get students from other parts of the country? Yes, we have students from all corners of the country. There are also a substantial number of foreign students in campuses, pursuing post graduate and PhD programmes. How do you select students? Is it merely based on merit or do you have entrance examinations? The university has a uniform policy on admissions. It has been mentioned in its Ordinances. Besides the open category, there is a reserved quota for SC/ST candidates and for those from more backward areas. Admissions Philosophy departments. Except the Department of Garo, which is in Tura, all other departments are located in Shillong. This school also has innovative courses on Environment Education, Folklore of Northeastern India, Tribal Culture and Tribal Religion, Descriptive Grammar of the Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic of North-eastern India, Women’s Writing, and Indian Literature in Translation.

School of Human and Environmental Sciences

This school has four departments —Anthropology, Geography, Rural Development and Agriculture Production (at Tura campus) and Environmental Science. The departments have well-equipped laboratory facilities with well-qualified faculty members, actively engaged in teaching and research. With the help from University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Department of Science and Technology, the Geography Department has established a laboratory of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with software and hardware facilities, and two hydrological observatories. A pollution monitoring

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

to both the open and reserved categories are based solely on merit. However, it is up to the individual departments to conduct entrance examinations or go by merit when it comes to admissions. Do you have any special schemes or scholarships for students who come from humble backgrounds? We have a special scheme for admitting students from most backward areas, based on the literacy rate in that development block. There is also a scholarship offered through the state government(s) for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) students. How well are your students placed to take on the challenges in the job sector? I think our students today are well-placed for the job market. This fact is testified by many of our students who had taken up modern programmes, such as engineering, management and rural development, and traditional courses like English language. They have been picked up by several agencies and companies through our placement programmes. Do you have any tie-ups or partnerships with foreign universities? Yes, we have. More partnerships are on the anvil. Can this university play a pivotal role in transforming Northeast into an educational hub? Yes, I think it can. We are the first Central University to have been set up in the Northeast. Both the university and some of its departments rank high in the priority list of many reputable

agencies. What are the future plans for making North-Eastern Hill University a centre for international excellence? We plan to have stronger tie-ups with other universities and institutes, both within and outside the country, for faculty and student mobility.

laboratory and weather monitoring stations in the Department of Environmental Science have also been established. Several collaborative and consultative research works have been taken up by this school with several institutions of repute in the country and abroad.

School of Life Sciences

This school is an active centre for post graduate teaching and research in frontier areas of Biology. The major thrust areas of research include Immunology, Endocrinology, Reproductive Physiology, Limnology, Genetics, Forestry, Enzymology and Medical Biochemistry. The Departments of Biochemistry, Botany and Zoology are currently being supported by the UGC under the Special Assistance Programme. The alumni have been successful in obtaining good employment and are holding better positions both nationally and internationally.

School of Physical Sciences

This school comprises four departments â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Statistics. The faculty members are well-accomplished and nationally recognised. All the four departments have well-developed computing facilities and EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

well-equipped laboratories.

School of Social Sciences

This school has five departments â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Political Science, History, Sociology and Law, and Cultural and Creative Studies. Members of the faculty have been attending regional, national and international conferences. The departments of History and Sociology, brought under the Special Assistance Programme of the UGC, are engaged in individual and collective projects. The Department of Law was started in 2005.

School of Technology

This school offers BTech programmes in Electronics and Communication Engineering and Information Technology. It has a placement cell, which has been successfully helping students in finding appropriate jobs according to their aptitude.

School of Education

This school mainly offers two courses, MEd (Master of Education) and MA (Education). The school has a centre for adult and continuing education, which aims to create awareness on important issues at the grassroot level. It also has a centre for distance education targeting those who have not had the fortune of undertaking formal education.

BRAINWAVE Anita Nair

‘Natural talents must be encouraged’ Popular Indian-English writer Anita Nair’s books have been translated into many foreign languages, giving her a wide audience and canvas to experiment with the common threads of human emotion. Author of ‘Satyr of the Subway’, ‘The Better Man’, and ‘The Mistress’, among other books, Anita’s ‘Ladies Coupe’ was translated into more than 25 languages. In an interaction with Education Insider, the Kerala-born writer speaks about the importance of education in one’s life

T The current education system treats literature as a secondary subject rather than one of prime importance. In fact, literature continues to be the same jaded selection with which a contemporary child may fail to identify with

he most memorable incident of my childhood is about an essay I had written in class VIII, which impressed my English teacher so much that she read it out to the whole school. It was the first time that I had an inkling of my future. It also enlightened me about the power of the written word, transcending age, class, and such other barriers. Therefore, I believe, education should help a child in enhancing his/her potential by overcoming weaknesses. The education I had received during my school years laid the foundation of my life.

On the prevailing education system

I am not entirely sure about the prevailing education system and what it does in fostering the skill that a person needs to cope with real life. Our education system seems to veer towards an almost manic competitiveness, turning children into blinkered cart horses. The emphasis seems to be on academic excellence rather than personality development or character definition. It is left to the child to nurture all the other talents he or she had without any serious

encouragement from the educational institution. By this, I mean that while the conventional areas of sport, performing arts and fine arts are part of the syllabus, more niche interests/ talents are neglected.

Suggestions for improvement • • •

Focus should not merely be on academic excellence The natural talents of a child should be identified and nurtured There should be an advanced teachers’ training course, making teachers more aware in terms of subject expertise and practical wisdom so that they are wellrounded characters themselves

Education and literature

The current education system treats literature as a secondary subject rather than one of prime importance. In fact, literature continues to be the same jaded selection with which a contemporary child may fail to identify with. Hence, it is supremely important to ensure that there’s a healthy mix of classic and contemporary writing in the study of literature. As told to Shani K EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

LOOKING WITHIN Guest Column Sajeev Nair

A simple mantra for success The question is ‘what is luck’? Luck makes a surprise entry when a man with a prepared mind chances upon an opportunity to taste success in a difficult scenario. But for that to happen, one needs to have a prepared mind first

he success of any country, state, or organisation starts with an individual, that is, you. Somewhere I have read that ‘there is only a small difference between success and failure in life; and the thing that brings about this difference is ‘a decision’. Also, I have read somewhere that ‘for anyone, success is just a decision away’. Why I am quoting this is because your turnaround towards success in life can happen anytime. Whenever you take that bold decision to succeed, your journey begins. Most people say these words of encouragement are all good to hear, but not practical. They all emphasise that you can dream of success only if you have got some opportunity in your hand. And they believe that very few people in the world ever get good opportunities. I don’t believe in this philosophy. I believe that opportunities come and knock at everyone’s door. But very few people know how to identify an opportunity. Most people try to justify why this or that won’t work for him/her. They underestimate their own potential. They are well aware of all the things they can’t do and achieve. They are more confident about their incapabilities than their capabilities. They believe that they don’t have the capacity to utilise opportunities. Even out of the people who realise the potential of an opportunity, very few people have some powerful dreams or a strong reason to do something big in their life. Most people never understand what workable dreams are all about. They think that dream is a phenomenon which happens only while they sleep! They have no idea what they want to accomplish in their life. Many people think that successful people are born lucky. Is there a factor called ‘Luck’? Earlier, I used to tell people that there is nothing called luck in one’s success. Later on, I realised that it does have a major role to play. So, let me first define luck. Luck makes a surprise entry when a man with a prepared mind chances upon an opportunity to taste success in a difficult

scenario. But for that to happen, one needs to have a prepared mind first. Only then will you recognise the opportunity standing before you. A prepared mind means a mind which knows where you are going, what are your dreams and goals in life; it’s a mind which is in a receiving mode. Out of the people who dream of success, very few have the guts to hold on to it. Most people leave their dreams midway because they think it is not possible for them to actualise the dreams; some try hard to realise their dreams. But when nothing happens, others start laughing at them, making them abandon their plans. Out of the people who hold their dreams close to their heart, very few take necessary action. Only action-oriented people make history. We are living amid thousands of opportunities. We should be thankful to the almighty for giving us a chance to live in this period of time, in this part of the world. After all, our country is growing in every sector. Leading economists have predicted that India has the potential to become the most powerful economy in the world. This is the time to keep your eyes and ears wide open. Anyone who has got a powerful dream, a determination to hold on to that dream and the commitment to take necessary action will see opportunities everywhere. Sajeev Nair is a successful first generation entrepreneur, Life Coach, Author and Business Consultant. Your suggestions and comments may be mailed to mail@ sajeevnair.com. Visit www.sajeevnair.com and www. facebook.com/iamsajeev. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

VC SPEAKS Dr Paul P Appasamy

Make ‘service learning’ compulsory Dr Paul P Appasamy is the Vice-Chancellor of the Coimbatore-based Karunya University. In an interaction with Education Insider, Appasamy shares his views on the overarching power of education in transforming the prosperity index of the country

On education’s importance

Education is a pre-requisite for the social and economic development of any country. Sustained economic growth is possible only if we have a literate population, with at least 25-30% of the relevant age group in higher education.

On higher education system

Professional institutions have increased at an exponential rate, but the quality of education has diminished due to inadequate faculty, infrastructure and the poor quality of school education. The Indian higher education system has become rigid in terms of the subjects that students can take. Even the Choice-Based Credit System provides little choice. Electives are limited, and students have little freedom to cross disciplines to equip themselves.

On foreign universities’ entry It would be very difficult for good foreign universities to replicate the infrastructure, faculty and other facilities in India. Many of them may not agree to the stipulation of no repatriation of funds, observing Indian laws and other requirements imposed by the HRD Ministry. However, many foreign universities already have twinning arrangements, research collaboration etc which work well. Models of co-operation should be continued.

Role of university

Since knowledge is growing at a phenomenal rate, higher education institutions need to prepare students for productive contribution in a knowledge economy. Increasingly, colleges and universities are also being asked to train students in skills which will make them employable, particularly in the private sector.

Students as good citizens

Most colleges and universities focus on teaching and research, but tend to neglect extension. Students can learn about Indian society only if they are actively involved in extension. In some countries, extension is called ‘Service-learning’. When students actively participate in NSS, NCC, Youth Red Cross, and other organisations, they learn to appreciate the problems faced by ordinary people. Even after they graduate and get employed, they can contribute to the upliftment of the disadvantaged. Otherwise, we will produce a whole generation of self-centered youth. Secondly, students need to be taught values in a society which is becoming corrupt and lacking integrity. Thirdly, students must be taught to respect and abide by their institution’s rules and regulations.

Prepared by Shani K

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

OPINION Sudhir Kakar

‘Education should enrich students’ imagination’ Well-known psychoanalyst and eminent writer Sudhir Kakar says our education system is merely utilitarian in nature and lacks the objective to produce students with expertise in a given field and fair knowledge of other disciplines of equal relevance By Dipin Damodharan

We need to implement a T-shaped approach through which universities must strive to equip students with depth in a particular field of study and expand their breadth of knowledge to multiple disciplines Sudhir Kakar, eminent psychoanalyst and writer

hat’s wrong with the Indian education system? A debate on this question has been raging among the intellectuals for many years now. But again, even the most rational opinions only get entangled in a labyrinth of policy-making. For instance, the very exercise just acquires an even more complicated face when there’s no unanimity on the purpose of intervention. That brings us back to the original question, “Which aspect of education requires a relook?” Critics say there are fundamental problems with the exam-centric approach of the educational system, which makes curriculum the centre piece of a student’s quest. And quite often, such an approach only leads to absorption of knowledge that neither builds character nor career. The current system is jamming the thought processes of students instead of developing their skills. So, what’s the way out? “We should teach students how to look within,” says well-known psychoanalyst and eminent writer Sudhir Kakar. Education, he says, helps a person discover different parts of his own self. That answers our question from an individual point of view. But what about the system itself? Kakar says, “The basic problem with our education system is that it is too utilitarian, with its

focus solely on the usefulness in finding a job. Even that would have been fine, but our system, barring a few institutions such as the IITs, does not succeed even in this limited objective.” Kakar says that in order to create an atmosphere of free thinking in the higher education system, “we need to implement a T-shaped approach through which universities must strive to equip students with depth in a particular field of study and expand their breadth of knowledge to multiple disciplines.” He adds, “The objective should not only be to pass examinations, but also to develop independent, critical thinking that can equip men and women to live responsibly and reflectively.” However, our higher education system completely neglects this objective as well. “Most of the time, all it seeks to give is limited knowledge and some skills,” points out Kakar, who was a Lecturer in General Education at Harvard University and Research Associate at Harvard Business School. The author of more than 17 books of non-fiction and four of fiction, including the much acclaimed Inner World, laments that the subject of humanities has been relegated to the back seat. “It must be given priority in institutions of higher learning. Only then can we enrich the imagination of the youth.” EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

WORDS OF WISDOM Charu Nivedita

By T N Shaji

‘Artists must go beyond ideologies’ K Arivazhagan aka Charu Nivedita is a noted name in transgressive, post-modern literature. The Chennai-based writer began his sublime and creative journey at a very young age. For over 35 years, he has traversed a road that many fear to tread. His novels Existentialisamum Fancy Baniyanum, Zero Degree, Raasa Leela and Kaamarooba Kadhaigal, caused quite a stir within the Tamil literary circle for deviating from the conventional style of storytelling and shattering cultural myths and beliefs about the body and mind, subjects that were considered a taboo until then. Interacting with Charu Nivedita is an inspiring experience. His views are thought-provoking. In an exclusive interview with Education Insider, he shares his outlook on education, creativity, life etc. Excerpts:

What’s your opinion on creativity and education? Creativity and education are poles apart in the contemporary education system, which focusses on improving knowledge rather than wisdom, an integral element of creativity. Youths graduating from institutions are like plastic buckets getting cloned out from a moulding machine. This should alert every Indian. Do you think there is a general aversion among people to read fiction nowadays? Does that have anything to do with the technological explosion? Today’s youth lack the reading habit. The primary reason for this is that they have taken to the disadvantages of technological growth, instead of the advantages. They are addicted to video games, social networking sites, mobile phones and gadgets. Games like Rapelay, a molestation simulation game, are popular among the youth. The accusing finger here has to be pointed at the system of education, which has been turned into a horse race that gives them mental stress and physical pressure. The youth seldom read fiction in India. Only implementation of fundamental reforms in the education sector, as in the Western countries, can bring about a progression from this pathetic state. How would you describe your novel Zero Degree to someone who has not read any of your works? My novel Zero Degree could shock the readers who have not read my other works. But it can give them a sense of proximity if they are familiar with transgressive writings like that of Kathy Acker, and Cristina Peri Rossi. Also, the primary difference between the Indian novels and Zero Degree would be the universal nature of the plot, which surpasses the national boundaries. And it doesn’t possess any Indianness or the life of Tamils. Unlike the conventional course adopted by writers in India, where even anthropology and autobiography are considered to be part of literature, this novel takes the road less travelled. Will you explore existentialism, deconstruction etc. in your future books? I never create my fiction based on any existing ‘isms’. I like concepts and ideologies, like that of Jorge Luis Borges, whose works have the components of structuralism, though he never had the intention to create such components. An artist should go beyond ideologies and concepts. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes have made a great impact on me, and that remains EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

the undercurrent of whatever I have written and would write henceforth. What are you reading right now? Are there any authors (living or dead) that you would name as influences? In world literature, nobody attracts me like Shakespeare. I read him often. According to me, a master is one who can attract his readers time and again. There are indeed two authors whom I read frequently - Nikos Kazantzakis and the Serbian writer Milorad Pavic. If the writings of Kazantzakis can be categorised as modern epics, Pavic creates a maze in his writings. These are my two favourites. Apart from these two, the contemporary Arabian literature is at the helm now, surpassing Latin American and European literature. I could easily list at least 15 writers, who are well qualified for the Nobel Prize, from Morocco and Algeria. I have read the works of writers like Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco), recipient of the prestigious Dublin Impac Award, Mohammad Berrada (Morocco), Assia Djebar and Ghada Samman (Lebanon), to name a few. The best is Abdur Rahman Munif (Saudi Arabia), who can be called the Dostoevsky of the 20th century. But, it’s depressing to see the Arabic literature not getting its due, when compared with Latin American and European literature. I forgot to name a writer who had influenced me. I have been influenced by the European cinema, and anybody who is familiar with European cinema, can easily make out the influence of Jean-Luc Godard in my writings. Which is the book that influenced your life the most? And how? More than books, people influence me; everyday life influences me. Even today, I read in newspapers that a 14-year-old student murdered an old lady to buy himself a Playstation, which kindled many questions in my mind, probing our life today. Such an episode in a Western country would have caused chaos throughout the nation. But in India, such incidents are part of everyday life. Similar news gets published every day, which makes us question factors like our education system and the way the children are brought up. But nobody is worried here. India has become a country for the elites and the upper class. Name your five favourite books and tell me why you like them? 1. Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diary: The book made me think about living not just for myself but for the sake of others. 2. Zorba the Greek (Nikos Kazantzakis): The book made me realise that life as a genius isn’t as useful as enjoying life. This book made me a hedonist. 3. Dictionary of Khazars (Milorad Pavic): The book which taught me the limitless possibilities of fiction writing. One can keep reading the book for countless times. 4. The Mahabharata: The book makes me wonder if it is humanly possible to write such a book.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

5. Meeting with Remarkable Men (George Ivanovich Gurdjieff): The book proved to me that the modern thought process based on mere rational thinking was wrong and there are other ways of perceiving reality. Tell me about your first job, the inspiration for your writing, and any funny details that enlivened your page. In India, a doctor can live his life as a doctor. An engineer, a teacher, a goldsmith or any other professional can do his job and survive. But a writer is not that lucky. Literature would never give him his bread. Popularity — Yes; But food – a big no. This realisation made me take up a government job in my younger days. I worked for 20 years in three different departments. My tenure for 10 years with the Ration Department in Delhi was an interesting experience. I have written about these in my novel Rasa Leela, in detail. You said, “My writing is nothing but the brush strokes of a person trying to escape from hell”. Can you elaborate? Life is nothing but hell in Third World countries. I flee from this torturous nightmare only through my writings. In short, I could say that I am postponing my suicide through my writings. Do you make any conscious effort to break the rules of society? I do not have any agenda while I write. It’s an act of swinging between the schizoid state and creativity. I try to transform this schizoid state into art. Other than doing so, I neither think about society nor its rules. When I don’t think about them, how can I talk about breaking them? A writer is someone

In world literature, nobody attracts me like Shakespeare. I read him often. According to me, a master is one who can attract his readers time and again who transcends the boundaries of time, country and race – he becomes an immortal, and so is equivalent to God, which is why the social norms mean nothing to him. Once, at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, while answering to a question from a student about how I write, I replied impulsively that ‘I write as a bird flies’. You are a successful author. Do you think it is viable to be a full-time writer? Success doesn’t bring money. A writer’s job is one of the lowest paid jobs in the world. My friends take good care of me. Hence I am free from the problems experienced by Kafka or Rimbaud. I completed my 700-page novel Rasa Leela sitting in the bar of a five-star hotel in Chennai. One of my friends bore the expenses! As long as I have friends like these, I could simply concentrate on my writings without worrying about the miseries of the mundane life.

EXPERT INTERVIEW V K Mathews

‘Create innovative ideas to face global challenges’ A specialist in the domain of IT solutions for the aviation sector, IBS Software Services has a wide network across the globe. Based at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, IBS’s products help major airlines, airports, oil and gas companies, travel cruise and hospitality companies in managing their mission-critical operations across the world. V K Mathews, founder and executive chairman of IBS, is a specialist with over 15 years of experience in aviation IT systems. In an interview with Education Insider, Mathews shares his views and suggestions on the pre-requisites of a workforce in a globalised world and the need for improving the employability potential of the new crop of students

By Prashob KP As one of the leading recruiters in India’s IT sector, what is your opinion on the quality of our graduates? The new generation graduates are definitely smarter than the earlier generations. There are many good qualities I see in them, some of which are as follows: • They are much more aware of the opportunities • They have bigger dreams • They tend to focus on what they like to do, which makes them enjoy their work • They are very intelligent and smart Having said that, there are some areas where I would like them to improve: • They need to focus more on the behavioural skills. In this age of global economy, how you communicate and interact with global customers is as important, if not more, as the technical skills you have • Broaden the horizon of knowledge, rather than focussing on getting a job Do you think our graduates are industry-enabled? No. Students have to learn more about the real life scenarios. They need to make use of the opportunities to interact with the industry during their college days to get a perspective of how the industry works. The industry needs graduates with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. These skills can be developed during their college days. The infrastructural facilities in most of the new generation academic institutes are below par, so is the competency of the faculty. The curriculum too has not undergone any significant change over the years. Hence, the majority of the students who graduate are neither well-rounded nor abreast of the changing requirements, although they may perform well in examinations. How can we improve the curriculum in higher education institutions to develop employability skills of students? • Institutions should hold more interactions with the industry • Syllabus needs to be updated regularly in accordance with the changes in the industry • There should be emphasis on projects/case studies – just like it is done in management studies • Focus should be on development of soft skills – EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

communication, interpersonal, and intercultural skills What are the specific requirements the IT industry is looking for in graduates? • They should have strong fundamentals, and functional as well as subject knowledge • They should have taken part in good real time projects during their programme • They must have good logical and analytical skills • They should have abilities to translate theory into practice • They should have a passion for technology • They should have good communication, interpersonal, and intercultural skills The global IT scenario is undergoing many changes, both in terms of quality and quantity. What will be your and the industry’s staff requirement in the coming years? In spite of challenges, the IT industry will continue to grow in the coming years too because of the enormous advantages we offer to the businesses around the world. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, the Indian IT industry has not been able to recreate the magic of its golden period (2003-2008, when exports grew at 26%). NASSCOM has now predicted a growth of 11-14% in the coming years. The IT industry currently provides direct employment to around 25 lakh people, and if the growth guidance of NASSCOM is met, we should see an addition of approximately 2.5 lakh employees annually for the next few years. IBS is a product-led services company. Hence, the growth of our headcount is not linear to the growth in revenues. We also need around 400-600 additional people every year in the coming years. How much significance does IBS attach to employee satisfaction? I believe a satisfied employee is an employee who is meaningfully engaged. Such an employee helps create a community at the workplace and not just a group of workforce. An engaged employee has an emotional connect with the company. This positively impacts their attitude towards both colleagues and customers. For IBS, employee satisfaction is achieved the moment the workforce is able to meet its different drives of life: • Career Growth – Ability to build a career which offers them opportunities for growth and helps them meet their financial requirements • Learn – Ability to learn continuously on job and provide value addition to the customers • Bond – Ability to be in a workplace where they have good bonding with their colleagues Why does the IT sector always narrow down its search to engineering stream students alone? It is true. The IT sector gives priority to EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

engineering stream students due to the fact that students in this stream come with • Good analytical skills • Good technical skills, which enable them to pick up the skills needed for the industry • Good talent But, at the same time, the IT industry recruits students from outside the engineering stream as well. The industry recruits a large number of students who have done their postgraduation in Computer, Science, Commerce and other areas. In IT, like other sectors, margin cuts are looming in the face of intense competition. Do you subscribe to this view? How can a company prepare itself for this? Increasing competition and a weakening global economic order are bound to squeeze margins. This is a natural business phenomenon and there is nothing unusual about it. For a workaround, companies will have to add more value to its global customers by delivering more per employee. The need of the hour is a paradigm shift in approach -from doing what we are told to do by the customer to facilitating business transformation through innovative technology solutions. This would require • in-depth understanding of customers’ business and access to the best practices and processes of that industry • consulting skills to advocate and facilitate business process changes • vertical specialisation within their hitherto technology horizontal operation As the Chairman of IBS, how much thrust are you giving to talent hunt personally? I am very actively involved in shaping our recruitment strategy and defining the selection criteria on an ongoing basis. Once we set these in place, the recruitment process works like a welloiled engine. I have a very strong recruitment team that takes care of the granular aspects of campus recruitment. But I make it a point to get personally involved in the recruitment of all senior staff.

CAREERS & COURSES Aptech Aviation Academy

Give wings to your dreams at Aptech In keeping with the growing demand for specialisation in sector-specific skills, many reputed private institutes have come up with a host of courses familiarising students with the intricacies of key corporate operations. Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy is one such institute. In an exclusive interview with Education Insider, Suneesh Kumar, Director of Thiruvalla, Aptech Aviation Academy, a centre of Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy, explains the relevance of Aptech’s courses and their potential in finding appropriate jobs EI Bureau Can you give us a fair idea of Aptech Aviation Academy’s endeavours? Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy is Aptech Group’s educational wing training students in aviation, hospitality and travel and tourism sectors. We have a wide network of centres, where thousands of students have been trained for a successful career in these industries. This is the first academy to provide internship in airport management. A global retail and corporate training solutions provider, Aptech, which is headquartered in Mumbai, has presence in five continents. The company had commenced its IT training business in 1986. Over the years, Aptech has trained over 6.4 million students. What are the courses offered by Aptech

Aviation Academy? Aptech Aviation Academy offers postgraduate, degree and diploma programmes. We offer Master of Business Administration with specialisation in Aviation and degree programmes such as Bachelor of Business Administration in Aviation and BA in Aviation, Hospitality and Tourism. Our diploma programmes include Airport Management and Customer Services, Professional in Airport Management and Customer Care, Aptechcertified Professional in Ground Staff Services, Aptech-certified Professional in Cabin Crew Services, Diploma in Hospitality Management and Diploma in Travel and Tourism. Apart from these, we have personality development courses. What makes the courses offered by Aptech Aviation Academy distinct?

Quality education

Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy maintains a high academic standard.

ICAM: a great learning methodology

Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy has been using the ICAM curriculum, which focuses on both theoretical and

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

practical education by providing reference tools to students. Most institutes prefer to use only books or presentations to train students, while Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy relies on innovative teaching and training methodologies. The idea is to make the course material interesting as well as easy to memorise. At Aptech, boring textbook topics are converted to fun practical exercises in the classroom. Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy had worked with various experts from the aviation industry to create this kind of curriculum. Our efforts are aimed at setting high standards in education. We focus on providing updated course material, high-quality learning aids and speciallytrained faculty.

Well-trained and certified faculty

All trainers at Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy have to undergo rigorous training sessions, where they are taught how to conduct class and engage students in the best manner. These teachers are then subjected to tough assessment tests. Only on successful completion of the tests, they are certified by Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy and permitted to conduct training for students. Once the faculty starts teaching, students are asked to give their feedback about their trainers by rating them on a scale of 1 to 5. Based on this feedback, some teachers are given further training by Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy until they are able to conduct classes effectively.

Industry exposure

Most aviation courses of Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy include internships, giving students a chance to work at different airports so that they can gain industry exposure even before completion of their course.

Online examination

Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy uses the Randomised Online Skill Evaluation (ROSE) software to test students. Instant results are provided at the end of a given test. What career prospects are available for students? The aviation industry has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. According to various reports, India is poised to emerge among the top five aviation nations in the world in the next 10 years. Currently, India is the ninth largest civil aviation market. The entry of new players in the aviation sector, expansion of the operational base of existing airlines and EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

airports revamp and modernisation programmes have led to an increase in the demand for skilled manpower. I think, in the next five years, the industry would create employment opportunities for nearly one million people in Suneesh Kumar, Director, aviation and allied Aptech Aviation Academy industries. What about your industry interactive programmes? Through our hospitality and travel and tourism courses, we facilitate internships at leading airports, hotels, cruise resorts and travel agencies across India. Can you give us details about the infrastructural facilities at Aptech Academy at Thiruvalla? Aptech Aviation Academy has a full-fledged counseling room and mock â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;In-flightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; training rooms resembling the interiors of an aircraft. Apart from this, there is a computer lab facility that trains students in fares and ticketing. What about your placement facilities? Aptech Aviation and Hospitality Academy has placement assistance teams at all our offices across the country. The Institute had pioneered the concept of airport internships in India. We have a solid track record of placing trained, talented students in suitable jobs across India and overseas. We conduct inductions, counseling and mock interview sessions to prepare them for job interviews with airlines and airports. We also provide assistance to aviation companies (airlines, airports and ground handling agencies) searching for trained aviation professionals. We have tie-ups with dozens of airlines and airports.

INVESTMENT OPTIONS African countries

An El Dorado for prospective investors In the light of the appalling conditions of the educational systems in African countries, especially the Sub-Saharan region, edupreneurs, investors, donors and philanthropists from across the world can tap into the growth potential of the continent in the field of education and make a big impact by improving the flow of funds, infrastructure and curriculum of institutions at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels By Our Correspondent

on-availability of textbooks, cramped and overcrowded classrooms, acute dearth of qualified teachers, lack of basic facilities, poor funding and corruption in institutes of learning are some of the key problems facing the students of many African countries, especially those in the Sub-Saharan region. Most of the public schools in African countries are inadequately financed and the quality of education is directly affected because of the lack of resources. The condition is so bad that many of the African countries are struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goal of offering primary education to all by 2015. How can the African higher education institutions match the competitiveness of the knowledge-based global economy when its foundation itself is shaky? Although some governments in the continent have introduced free primary education to encourage enrolments, there are hardly any concessional packages at the secondary and tertiary levels. In addition to this, only a few countries have student loan programmes. All these have led to a rise

in the drop-out ratio. In countries where the majority of students come from impoverished sections of society, it is hard for the governments too to overcome this situation, as they themselves are troubled by funding problems. In such a scenario, the only option before African countries is to invite foreign investment in the education sector. “There are significant opportunities in Africa’s education sector at all levels, particularly at the tertiary level. The education sector is less vulnerable to economic shocks and tends to be one of the more stable sectors in an economy. Many governments are encouraging private participation in education, and IFC is ready to partner with investors who wish to invest in existing or new commercially viable models that make a difference,” says Guy Ellena, Director for Health & Education, International

Finance Corporation, Africa. The countries that have been blessed with private investment in education over the past decade include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda. In these countries, the enrolment in private schools has gone up from 15 per cent to over 40 per cent. But the picture becomes disturbing as we turn attention to the educational mechanism in other countries of Africa. A statistical survey of schools and teaching resources in the Sub-Saharan region by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics shows that many classes are multi-grade, grouping children of different levels of education. In most cases, classes group two grades, but in Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali and Niger, classes are reported to cover three or more grades, the survey added. The first grades are usually the most EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

overcrowded, the survey said, adding, “This is a source of concern considering that these are the most crucial years for the future of pupils. In Madagascar, Rwanda, Chad and Togo, there are at least 20 more pupils on average in the first grade than in the last. In Chad, first-year classes number an average of 85 students. The situation found in Chad is of particular concern since studies have shown that in the African context, classes exceeding 70 pupils have a negative effect on children’s learning.” Sub-Saharan Africa also continues to face a great increase in demand for teachers due to the steady rise in the number of pupils. Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger need more than double their teaching staffs by 2015 if they are to provide primary education to all children. The survey found out that more than two million additional teachers will have to be recruited to meet the growing demand in the region and replace teachers who retire or leave education. Among the 38 countries (of 45 in the region) which will need to expand, this represents an increase equal to more than three-quarters of the current teaching force. The survey presents data concerning the number of teachers who have received minimum training - these graduates are generally considered to be fully qualified. By comparing the number of graduates from accredited teacher training programmes with the total number in the teaching workforce in public primary schools, it is possible to assess the efficiency of education systems to train teachers while attempting to meet the rising demand for teachers. It said that efficiency varies considerably from country to country. In Togo, for example, new graduates barely account for 3% of teachers. The percentage rises to 22 per cent in Madagascar and 15 per cent in Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Malawi. As for textbook availability, the situation is particularly bad in the Central African Republic, where eight learners must share one reading and mathematics textbook. In Cameroon, there is, on average, one reading textbook for 11 pupils and one mathematics book for 13 children. The situation is no better when it comes to basic facilities in schools. Many schools in Sub-Saharan Africa have limited or no access to basic services such as drinking water, toilets and electricity. The absence of clean, safe and separate toilets for boys and girls tends to discourage children, particularly girls, from attending school regularly, the survey said, adding that 60% of schools in Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Guy Ellena, Director for Health & Education, International Finance Corporation

Madagascar, and Niger have no toilets. In Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Guinea, Malawi, Niger and Togo, 80% of schools have no electricity. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics said it collected data from 45 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of an initiative designed to better meet regional needs for education indicators and analyses. The survey was launched in partnership with the Pan African Institute of Education for Development and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

The survey found out that more than two million additional teachers will have to be recruited to meet the growing demand in the region and replace teachers who retire or leave education. Among the 38 countries (of 45 in the region) which will need to expand, this represents an increase equal to more than three-quarters of the current teaching force

MAKE YOUR CHOICE more merchandisers, designers and models as well as increasing the business prospects of fashion news media. One can become a fashion critic, a lifestyle host on television or a fashion blogger.

What is fashion journalism?

It is a new branch of journalism that reports on the revolution brewing in the fashion industry. Writings by a reporter in this field dwell upon the latest trends in fashion, the verdicts handed down by fashion critics on the marketability of budding models and new accessories of the merchandisers, the grapevine involving high-heeled personalities, the glitz and glamour of ramp shows and the dark side of showbiz.

The incentives • • • •

Outlet for creativity Socially stimulating Flexibility Profitable

Basic qualification

Some schools demand a minimum qualification of high school education, while there are others who merely seek proof of ability to read and write. But if you aspire to become a successful cosmetologist, you must have a fairly good understanding of fashion, art, and technical design.

Scope for growth

There is a huge demand for treatments for skin, nails and

Where to study? • •

Anyone with a fair knowledge of the fashion industry and a flair for good writing, editing and research can aspire to become a fashion journalist. An aspirant must have a degree or diploma in journalism.

Redefine the world of fashion by giving it a fresh meaning with a gentle stroke of your pen. From haute couture to beautiful models, you can size up the industry through your writings

It is a scientific study of cosmetics and their daily use in protecting and beautifying a person’s skin, hair, nails and so on. A general cosmetologist is proficient in all forms of beauty care.

A beginner can expect a minimum remuneration of Rs two lakh per annum. The pay package keeps inflating as you gain experience and go up the career ladder.

Basic qualification

Pen your way to the ramp

What is cosmetology?

Remuneration

Scope for growth

• • •

Though it accounts for a miniscule percentage of the international industry’s net worth, the Indian fashion industry has been growing at a rapid pace. Estimates show that its net worth will touch Rs 1,000 crore in a few years, creating demand for

•

NIFT, New Delhi Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore Asian College of Journalism, Chennai MICA, Ahmedabad BD Somani Institute of Art and Fashion Technology, Mumbai IIMC, New Delhi

Study abroad • • •

University of the Arts London, UK University of Kingston , UK University of Chicago, USA

hair among the youth. Licensed cosmetologists have immense opportunities in India and abroad.

Specialisation • • • • •

Hair Stylist Shampoo Technician Manicurist Aesthetician Electrologist

Where to study? • • • • •

Academy of Hair Styling, Mumbai Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore Community Polytechnic, Kapurthala, Punjab Government Polytechnic for Women, Chennai LTA School of Beauty, Mumbai

Study abroad • • • •

Aveda Institutes, USA Regency Beauty Institute, USA London College of Beauty Therapy, UK Oxford International College of Beauty, USA

Join the world of beauty Who doesn’t want to be noticed for his or her good looks? Well, there are some who love to give others a makeover through cosmetology

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

STUDY DESTINATION New Zealand

Earn while you learn According to the recent findings of various global studies, New Zealand is undoubtedly one of the most excellent education destinations in the world. Besides, students have the best opportunities to earn while learning By Our Special Correspondent

anked first in the UN Education Index and second in the Legatum Prosperity Index, a study of factors driving and restraining prosperity across more than 110 countries, New Zealand has ensconced itself in the minds of higher education aspirants from more than 150 countries, including India. In the case of 15-year-old school pupils too, New Zealand is considered to be the seventh best education destination in the world by the Programme for International Student Assessment, a study by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Recent statistics on New Zealand’s education sector show that the country earned more than $2 billion in foreign exchange last year. It attracted 98,000 students from more than 150 countries. Of this, more than 80% students were from Asia.

Factors making NZ unique • • • •

Good quality of education and living in an advanced, English-speaking country. Being able to work part-time while studying to support oneself for living expenses without having to call parents every month. Student-friendly policies to seek jobs and permanent residency. Safety in terms of racism and crime and a good economic landscape to find permanent jobs.

Higher studies at NZ

New Zealand’s tertiary education sector offers various graduate and post graduate programmes. Students from any country can apply for tertiary education in New Zealand either by meeting the eligibility criteria stipulated by various universities or by taking up foundation studies at a given university. Course fees may range between NZ$18,000 and NZ $25,000 per year.

Earnings & expenses

New Zealand offers students the best opportunities

to earn while they learn. A student can work up to 20 hours per week until the end of the year, and during the six-week Christmas and New Year vacation, one can work up to 40 hours. As of today, the minimum wage is NZ$11.25 per hour. So, a student can earn up to NZ$10,350 in 46 weeks and NZ$2700 in the last six weeks of the year.

Expenses per month: • • • • • • • •

Rent - NZ$350 (If you are sharing a flat with a couple of friends) Food - NZ$50 Travel - NZ$50 Phone - NZ$50 Misc - NZ$100 Tax - NZ$200 Total expenditure per month - NZ$800 Approximate savings per month - NZ$200

Check the basics before takeoff

Students must be aware of certain things before leaving for New Zealand. They should have an overall IELTS (International English Language Testing System) band score of 6, with no band showing less than 5.5, and qualifying marks in the New Zealand Bursary Examination, the General Certificate of Education ‘O’ level examination and TOEFL. A good command of English will help them fetch higher-paying jobs. Without proper communication skills, students will not be able to fulfill their dream to study in New Zealand.

Best Universities in NZ • • • • • • •

Auckland University of Technology Massey University University of Auckland University of Canterbury University of Otago University of Waikato Victoria University of Wellington EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Current Affairs One nation, one test

PM allays fears of IITs over autonomy The All India IIT Faculty Federation can heave a sigh of relief following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance that the Centre’s move to introduce a ‘one nation, one test format’ for engineering schools will in no way tamper with the autonomy of the IITs By Dipin Damodharan

or nearly one month, the All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) had been crossing swords with Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal over his controversial proposal to introduce a common entrance exam for admission to engineering schools in the country. Now, the issue has landed in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s court. Before giving out details of the Prime Minister’s assurances, let’s start with the bare facts of the controversy first. In the last week of May, Sibal had said that instead of multiple examinations, there should be a single examination for admission to the IITs, IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) and NITs (National Institutes of Technology). Sibal said the proposal had been given a green signal by the IIT Council. Significantly, apart from the common entrance exam, weightage would be given to the XIIth standard board examination results as well under the new proposal. AIIITFF apprehends that the ‘one nation, one test’ proposal would only lead to a dilution of the examination

and admission procedure and lowering of the academic standards of the IITs, the country’s best technological institutes. The proposal instantly drew negative reactions from the IITs, provoking some faculty members to sound an all-out war against Sibal. In fact, IIT-Kanpur has already decided to conduct its own entrance test from 2013. Other IITs, including the Delhi and Bombay chapters, have supported IIT-Kanpur. The Alumni Association of IIT-Delhi has said that the ‘one nation, one test’ policy will badly affect the quality of students entering the IITs. Armed with a memorandum containing its objections, members of AIIITFF had met the Prime Minister on June 15. They told the PM that the ‘one nation, one test’ proposal should not be forced on the IITs before a debate on the issue by the Senate of each IIT. The PM has assured AIIITFF that the autonomy of the IITs would not be tampered with and that the impasse could be resolved through dialogue. Sibal had ruled out a rollback of the proposal, but

I don’t think the new pattern is helpful in anyway. The new pattern will only prove to be stressful for students as they not only have to qualify the competitive examination, but also secure good marks in the board examination Pramod Maheshwari, Chairman and Managing Director, Kota-based Career Point

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

said he is ready to consider the IITs’ suggestions. He, however, had rejected AIIITFF’s demand for a debate on the issue by the Senate of each IIT, saying that the IIT Council is the supreme body to decide upon such matters. Many among the student community have hailed the ‘one nation, one test’ proposal since under the current system, they have to undertake three exams - one entrance for the IITs, one for AIEE and one conducted by states. According to the new proposal, students need to appear for two admissions tests on the same day - one for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and JEE Advanced. The final list will be prepared on the basis of the results of the XIIth standard board examination and the two admission tests. Every year, approximately four lakh students sit for IIT-JEE and more than 10 lakh students sit for AIEEE. “I think the new policy of the government is good for students,” says Rahul, a class XII student and engineering aspirant. While many students think the new proposal will give them some relief, some educational experts argue that it will only lead to more stress among students. “I don’t think the new pattern is helpful in anyway. The new pattern will only prove to be stressful for students as they not only have to qualify the competitive examination, but also secure good marks in the board examination,” says Pramod Maheshwari, Chairman and Managing Director of Kota-based Career Point, one of the largest coaching institutes in the country. Pramod says the new system will increase the dependence of students on coaching institutes and the financial burden of parents. There’s another problem: states have different kinds of grading and evaluation. Therefore, a good performance in the board examinations should not be misconceived as a sure shot entry into the IITs. As of today, IITs conduct their own examination.

Kapil Sibal

Boon or bane for coaching industry?

Though it is being argued by some academicians that the ‘one nation, one test’ proposal will make schooling more relevant and coaching institutes irrelevant, experts in the coaching industry see this as a golden opportunity for coaching institutes to mop up more revenue. For an ordinary student who only has had exposure to the the state syllabus, the competitive exams are going to be very tough. So, they have to depend on coaching classes, says Maheshwari. Career point now plans to make slight changes in its coaching methodology. “We are not changing our teaching methodology in a big way. So far, our teaching modules were based on the curriculum of classes XIth and XIIth. Sensing the importance of class 12th marks, we will structure the education delivery in such a manner that students may secure high percentage in the board examination as well,” adds Pramod. As the number of IITs has increased from seven in 2007 to 15 in 2012, there is a high growth potential for the more than Rs 10,000- crore IIT-engineering coaching industry.

Why the new proposal is fine?

Why it’s not fine?

1. Students need to take only one examination for admission to engineering institutes, including the IITs 2. It will make schooling more relevant 3. As XIIth standard examinations will become more relevant, students from rural areas will get more chances to get into national institutes

1. It will make students more dependable on coaching institutes 2. It will affect the quality of students getting into the IITs 3. It will affect the autonomy of the IITs

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

FOCUS Hindustan College of Engineering

Striving to explore new dimensions Hindustan College of Engineering (HCE), approved by AICTE and affiliated to University of Kerala, is committed to impart value-based education through its state-of-the-art facilities. With emphasis on research activities, continuous self-improvement and ethical practices, and commitment for service to society, HCE is striving to explore new dimensions EI Bureau

ituated at Arippa, Kulathupuzha, on the ThiruvananthapuramShenkottah state highway, Hindustan College of Engineering (HCE) began its journey in the 2009-2010 academic year under the aegis of the South East Education Trust and able guidance of its Chairman, M Shajahan, an eminent educationist. HCE offers BTech course in four core branches — Civil, Mechanical, Electronics and Communication, and Computer Science and Engineering. All these courses are the most sought-after specialisations at present. HEC has scaled new heights under the dynamic leadership of its founder principal, Dr Vijayan Baburaj, who has more than 30 years of teaching and research experience in India and abroad, including IIT Chennai and Nagoya University in Japan. HCE has adequate number of well-experienced professors as well as young and motivated teachers, supported by qualified and dedicated technical staff, to mould engineering aspirants. The infrastructural facilities, such as library, laboratories, lecture halls, transportation and accommodation help students in achieving their goals. The apex academic body of HCE consists of a team of well- experienced professors who were formerly principals of government engineering colleges, director/joint director of DTE, Govt of Kerala etc. This academic M Shajahan, body enjoys the support of Chairman, HCE a pro-active management.

To all the meritorious students entering HCE, sky is the limit. There are various scholarship and fee-waiver schemes for both regular and lateral entry BTech students: • Engineering entrance qualifiers who have secured more than 80% marks at the plus two level can avail of the Govt-approved merit seat fee option. • LET qualifiers shall be admitted to the second year BTech Programme under the Govtapproved merit seat fee and feewaiver/scholarship schemes. • Special classes are conducted in Engineering Mathematics I for both lateral entry and weaker regular BTech students. For further details, please contact: College Office (for direct enquiry) 0475 -2312588 Mobile: 9446966944, 9447093798, 9946841177, UAE 00971506147058 EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Snehaj Srinivas EX QUIZ ME

1. In the first week of June 2012, Jesse Honey emerged as the new world champion in which game? 2. Which American singer is nick named Snora since his/her singing makes people snore? 3. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he had booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November. He would scan each day’s newspaper, expecting an announcement of the prize, and toss it away if it did not carry the news. Eventually, he did win the 1930 Nobel Prize for his work, which is named after him. Who is he? 4. This river derives its name from Trisrota or three streams. The three streams were the Karatowa, the Punarbhava and the Atreyee. Identify this river, which also prominently features as the backdrop of the novel Anandamath? 5. This society is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational societies in the world. It was founded by a group of 33 explorers, including Alexander Graham Bell, in 1888 at Washington. Bell also served as its 2nd President. Which society is this? 6. Who became the first Indian to get 100,000 followers on Twitter…? 7. Magpie, Jay and Chough are members of which bird family? 8. Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on September 27, 1962. The book was widely read and inspired widespread public concerns on pesticides and pollution of the environment. This book led to the ban of which pesticide? 9. It is known as acetaminophen in the US and Canada. It was first marketed in the United States in 1953 by Sterling-Winthrop Co. The best known brand in US is Tylenol, owned by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. How do we know it? 10. Which drink is named after an enzyme discovered in 1836 by Theodor Schwann, who also coined its name from the Greek word which literally means digestion? 11. Which Italian city, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine’s day? 12. What happened for the first and last time at the Velodrome Municipal de Vincennes on August 19, 1900?

1.Quiz 2. Norah Jones 3. CV Raman 4. Teesta 5. National Geographic 6. Shashi Tharoor 7.Crow 8. DDT 9. Paracetamol 10. Pepsi 11. Verona 12.Olympic cricket match

(Snehaj Srinivas, Chief Coordinator, Dreamz is a Reader in Biochemistry at Annoor Dental College, Moovattupuzha)

Answers

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3. Who is portrayed here? by whom?

Monthly winners to get one year free subscription of Education Insider magazine and mega winner (once in six months) to get an exciting prize. Mega winner will be selected from those who furnish maximum number of correct answers in six months EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

Winner of last quiz Subin Gafoor

COUNTERPOINT Rajiv Malhotra

‘Indian intellectuals need makeover’ Noted Indian-American author, philanthropist, public speaker and writer on current affairs, Rajiv Malhotra has been engaged in the promotion of Indic traditions in America for more than a decade, changing misconceived perceptions about India. Author of the highly-acclaimed book Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines and founder of the New Jersey-based Infinity Foundation, Malhotra has been fighting the under-representation and undermining of India by the American academia. In an interaction with Education Insider, he laments that the Indian education system has a deep inclination towards the Western models. Excerpts: By Dipin Damodharan What’s your perception of the current education system in India? It is increasingly turning into a Western model using borrowed frameworks. Indian languages and way of life are rapidly losing out and disappearing. Do you think the Indian education system has been hijacked by the so-called Leftist intellectuals? Leftists are only one kind of the Western model. Note that Socialism and Marxism were Western inventions that got exported to the Third World. The current system is not just Leftist. It includes many Western ideologies. Indian intellectuals are in awe of the West, having lost their imagination. They are suffering from a serious inferiority complex. What about a complete Indianisation of the education system? I come across such talk regularly, but at the ground level, very little progress has been made. Basically, such initiatives tend to lack good leadership. Many are, in fact, self-serving for those at the helm. How can the system be improved? There needs to be a new kind of HRD (Human Resource Development) Ministry. Even Murli Manohar Joshi, the Union HRD Minister during the NDA regime, did not apply the right strategies. He had done nothing to leave behind a legacy (of development) for his successors. This (judicious development of the education sector) is not an easy task. As a matter of fact, the chances of optimal growth are only getting thinner. And time is running out. What’s your comment on Harvard University’s dismissal of renowned Economics Professor Dr Subramanian Swamy’s summer courses in December 2011? The decision was taken at the behest of a gang of the faculty who hate Hindu dharma. They have simply failed to take action against faculty members known for their open hatred for others. The decision against Dr Swamy may be politically motivated, given his actions against corrupt politicians. There’s a problem with the system itself. It should be of no surprise to us if Indophobic American scholars get Padma Bhushan type of awards and other patronage. Why is there an increasing tendency to polarise our academic education on the lines of leftist and Islamic policies? We have failed to produce quality intellectuals. Both political and religious leaders should be blamed for this. They have failed to develop valuable human capital. Today, many of the best educational institutions are run by non-Hindus and anti-Hindus, while others are pseudo-secular. Do you think India will regain its ancient glory as the jewel of the world? We have a grim scenario. Time has run out.

EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012

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MOTIVATION Taking a different path

An icon of hope for the poor Motivating oneself to dedicate life for a humanitarian mission isn’t as easy as it sounds. It requires a steely mental resolve, deep compassion and respect for the underprivileged, and a fervent commitment to stay the course. Here’s how a Zoology professor turned into an icon of hope for the lesser mortals By Shani K

n these days of abject materialism, our evolutionary cycle is badly hit by the misadventures of the misguided man. Yet, thankfully, we get to hear some soul-lifting stories that guide us into a safe and promising future. Here’s such a story of an ordinary person who has dedicated herself to the self-exhilarating cause of serving the lesser mortals. Seven years ago, Dr M S Sunil, a Zoology professor at Catholicate College in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, had visited Chalakkayam to take part in a meeting. While there, her gaze fell upon a group of tribes, called Malapandaram, giving her a first-hand, heart-rending impression of their pathetic living conditions and primitive lifestyles. Her interaction with the tribes proved to be the turning point of her life as she decided, then and there, to spare enough time for their welfare. “When I saw the tribes, I had realised that they were keeping a safe distance from the public fearing the repercussions of a close encounter. They were simpleminded, never feeling the need to cover their partially naked bodies. I spoke to them and gave them some essential food items and clothes. I met them two weeks later, only to find them partially naked yet again. Upon enquiry as to why they were averse to cover their bodies, they simply said that they did not know how to wash clothes. That called for my intervention, and I, along with my students, taught them how to wash clothes and made them realise the importance of maintaining cleanliness of body by bathing daily. It only made their

lives better,” says Professor Sunil. Today, she is an icon of hope for the lesser mortals, building houses for the homeless, donating books to libraries and wheelchairs to the physically handicapped, providing books and uniforms for school students and blood for patients. Professor Sunil’s entry into the lives of the tribes has also brought them the hope of social and economic empowerment. Following her advice, some of them have started sending their wards to schools. They have also learnt to use modern communication devices like the mobile phone. Twenty-four homeless families have been provided new homes, constructed by Professor Sunil and a team of volunteers. Professor Sunil, who is also the programme officer of the National Service Scheme of Catholicate College, says: “Each house is sponsored by different persons from various walks of life. I have studied the documents submitted by them to make sure they are eligible for the house. Construction work on the 25th house is underway.” Once, she says, a foreigner heard about my activities and offered me 100 hearing aids. “This gesture from an unexpected source shows that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Fame or money doesn’t matter to me. I just felt the need to serve society, and I am doing it in whichever way I can,” she says. She has earned recognition for her contribution to society. She has bagged the Best NSS Programme Officer Award of the MG University, a state award and the Vanitha Seva Samaj Puraskar. EDUCATION INSIDER I July 2012