Education: The best of 2010

TGAC Education’s tribute to the heroes of the year

This was a year of ups and downs: On the upside, there was increased focus on the betterment of elementary education, with a slew of measures and resolutions making their way from Parliament to the thousands of schools in the country, but on the downside, India's position as a global education hub took a severe beating when the IITs and IIMs slipped several notches in the many 'best education' lists that made the rounds.In this column we pay tribute to the top innovations and innovators of this year. In their own way, these ordinary people have made a difference in the lives of thousands of people the world over. While some have simplified complex processes for the layman to understand well, others have provided educational opportunities to hundreds of deserving but financially poor students. And one person has changed the way the world looks at India.

Purnachandra 'Chandoo' Rao: MS Excel blogger

Purnachandra Rao Duggirala, more popularly known in the cyber world as Chandoo has several illustrious achievements to his credit. Not only did the simple Vizag boy get into IIM Indore's class of 2006, he wrote his story in a manner that it gained cult status over time.Four years after getting a campus placement at TCS, Chandoo quit his job in April 2010 to run a Microsoft Excel-training start up he had built on the side doing what many of us do non-seriously -- blogging. Last month, Chandoo's lean two-member blog 'Chandoo.org' recorded revenues of $100,000, justifying his decision to quit and be completely on his own.We caught up with Chandoo in a no-holds-barred interview. 

What made you make the choice of quitting TCS and doing this fulltime?

I used to spend about two hours after work on Chandoo.org and was writing almost regularly. For me it was never really about 'work versus job'. My job at TCS was pretty exciting all along. I was working and interacting with new people every day, traveling internationally and was quite satisfied.The reason why I made a choice was more because of family. I was traveling a lot, living alone in far-off places and missing my family during the job.Of course, I had the confidence that Chandoo.org would make enough for us to live a comfortable life. Since I run the operation from my home in Vizag with just me and my wife working on it, almost all the money less server costs and income tax is mine.

What would you advise others who want to make some this way along with their corporate jobs?

Many companies have a 'moonlighting clause' in their employment contracts. I am not sure if my company had one, but the money I was making was too little while I was employed. Also, I knew a handful of people in my company who were also making money online, so I knew this it was not that wrong. Plus I had let my managers know that I had a website where I wrote and shared my knowledge. My Microsoft 'Most Valuable Professional' award status, blogger status and product details were kind of known to key colleagues and bosses through my LinkedIn updates.That said, if anyone is starting today, it would be better to check with your HR policies to avoid conflicts. In most cases you can get an exception easily just by talking to the right people.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled a Rs.1500 laptop designed specifically for students. The low-cost device would be made available to students in 2011.When the ministry floated the concept of a low cost laptop some years ago, officials said it would cost Rs.500. It will now cost about three times the initial projections.The ministry expects the prices to drop to Rs.1000 and reach Rs.500 as innovations are introduced.The device, no bigger than a conventional laptop, is a single unit system with a touch screen and a built in key board along with a 2 GB RAM memory, wi-fi connectivity, USB port and powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power supply areas."This is real and tangible and we will take it forward. Sun will rise for Indian students in 2011," Sibal said."If more companies decide to manufacture a similar device, prices will come down automatically."

Indrani Medhi, Rikin Gandhi, Ranveer Chandra: On MIT Top Innovators list

Three Indians have made to the annual list of young innovators published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technological Review magazine. The list, called TR35, is a collection of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 in a particular year.Rikin Gandhi, an aerospace engineer from the US stumbled upon rural India for the first time in his life. He was so taken up by it, he decided to stay. The 29-year-old is CEO of Delhi-based Digital Green, which began in 2006 at Microsoft Research, Bangalore. The non-profit organisation aids farmers produce agricultural videos on their own. The videos, starring locals, are then screened before the community using a $100 hand-held, battery-operated projector.The others on the list are 34-year-old Ranveer Chandra, who has been recognised for delivering high-speed wireless Internet connections over longer distances in the US, and 32-year-old Indrani Medhi whose effort at building interfaces for the illiterate has been recognised.Chandra, for his part, made the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, his laboratory for the first large-scale network to show the potential of using white spaces to deliver broadband wireless as a solution to the problem that Wi-Fi uses frequencies that can't carry a signal more than a few metres.Medhi, based at Microsoft Research India's Bangalore lab, has done field research in India, South Africa and Philippines to design text-free interfaces that could help illiterate people find jobs.

D Udaya Kumar: The man behind the Re symbol

Have you ever wondered who designed the text in your mobile phone? Or what thought went into the clarity of a road signage? Chennai boy D Udaya Kumar wondered years ago, and went on to pursue an unusual career in typography and designs, becoming one of the first post-graduate students from IIT-Bombay's Industrial Design Centre.This year Kumar's name became part of Indian history, when his dynamic design for the symbol for the Rupee was approved by the Finance Minister as India's official currency sign.An overwhelmed Kumar said, "My symbol is an amalgamation of several ideas -- it signifies the Devnagri script, which is the only script in the world which hangs from top. The central line, cutting through the 'R', subtly standardises it with other world currencies like the $, £ and Euro. Its top and bottom line together form an equal to (=) sign, denoting our belief in equality and together it also gives an appearance of the tricolour. I tried to balance Indianness and international mood in the symbol."

Anand Kumar and Super 30

Super 30, if you haven't heard of it already, is an educational program that was started in Patna, under the banner of 'Ramanujan School of Mathematics', by Anand Kumar. Established in 2002, the program selects 30 meritorious and talented candidates each year from economically backward sections of society and trains them without charge for the IIT-JEE, the entrance examination for IITs. Time Magazine selected mathematician Anand Kumar's school in the list of Best of Asia 2010. Super 30 also received praise from United States President Barack Obama's special envoy Rashad Hussain, who termed it the "best" institute in the country. And Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron has hinted that he will make a film based on the unique school.Newsweek Magazine has taken note of the initiative of mathematician Anand Kumar's Super 30 and included his school in the list of four most innovative schools in the world. Anand Kumar was awarded by top award of Bihar government Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puraskar in November 2010.Fascinated by mathematics since early childhood, Anand always dreamt of becoming a mathematician. He started showing sparks of brilliance since early days. In 1994, Anand got an opportunity to pursue higher education in Cambridge University, but his poor financial health came in the way.Having witnessed extreme financial hardship since childhood, he felt the pangs of poverty so much that he decided to do something for the poor students, who invariably fade away without getting right opportunities. This led to the birth of new form of 'Ramanujam School of Mathematics', where he trained a small group of students for various competitive examinations without charging a fee. After a thorough screening, 30 poor, but talented students were shortlisted for the Super 30. Initially, making all arrangements for 30 students was not so easy, but Anand's family extended all help in his endeavour. Anand generated finances by tutoring students of other schools, while his mother, Jayanti Devi, cooked food for the students. For the students, there was only one goal - to study hard.In 2003, when Super 30 started its journey, 18 out of 30 students cracked the IITs. The very next year, the number jumped to 22. In 2005, it improved further to 26. Continuing the trend, 28 students made it in 2006 and 2007. However, the 'magic moment' came in 2008, when the result was an astonishing 30 out of 30. Super 30 had hit the bull's eye. In 2009 and 2010, too, all 30 made it to the IITs.

Wen welcomes Mandarin in Indian schools

New Delhi: Welcoming India's decision to introduce Mandarin studies in schools, China Thursday offered its help in implementing the programme.

"China will offer support for training Chinese language teachers and providing Chinese language training materials," said a joint communiqué issued by the two countries during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's India visit.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will introduce Mandarin starting from Class 6 from the new academic session of 2011-12.

The countries also announced the India-China Outstanding College Students Exchange Programme, whose modalities are being worked out, the statement said.

The two sides will also work on an agreement on mutual recognition of degrees to facilitate student exchanges.

However, while the growing economic and cultural ties with China may have spurred a demand for Mandarin, experts say strict visa norms are preventing teachers of the language in China from coming to India, affecting the quality of instruction.

This even as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has plans to introduce Mandarin as a foreign language in its 11,000 affiliated schools from Class 6 onwards next year. Ties between the countries are expected to get a further boost as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits India for three days from Wednesday.

"During the last few years teachers from China who were expected to come to our department have been effectively denied visas. This is a policy that must change if the Indian government is serious about introducing Chinese at the CBSE level," said Madhu Bhalla, head of the department of East Asian Studies in Delhi University.

"Currently we have no Chinese language teacher from China. In the past, our students benefited immensely from teachers from China. Chinese is a tonal language and native speakers, or Indian teachers who have spent a considerable time in China, are critical for training students," Bhalla told IANS.

With 75 students in three courses of Chinese language, Delhi University is among the few Indian universities offering such a course.

Other varsities include Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh and Visva Bharati University in West Bengal. JNU alone has around 190 students for Chinese language courses from undergraduate to PhD level and the authorities say the number of students has increased over the years.

In all, around 37 institutions teach Chinese in India, according to education website askedu.com.

"The growth of the Chinese economy and the movement of Chinese firms outside China definitely means that those who have a fair knowledge of the language increase their choices. The growth of economic relations between India and China also means that language skills will be an added asset for job seekers," she said.

"We find that all of our students get good placements in the tourism industry as well as in MNCs which are looking for people who know Chinese. In fact, we also find that students also find jobs while studying the language," she says.

The School of Chinese Language, Kolkata, the only Chinese teaching institute which claims to have an entirely Chinese faculty and which has over 80 students, agrees that shortage of teachers is an issue.

"The phonetics of Chinese language is different from Indian languages or English. At times, Indian teachers are not able to teach that properly," principal Madan Saraff told IANS on phone.

"Our whole faculty is Chinese. While three of them are from China, others are of Chinese descent. However, getting a work visa for a Chinese national is very difficult and even if a teacher is ready to come, most of the time, visas are not available," he said.

He also has an incident to narrate about the effects of such shortages.

"Once, a well known institute invited the consul general of China in Kolkata to an event where the best student, who had done a three-year course, made a welcome speech. The consul clapped at the time, but later said he did not understand a single word," Saraff laughs.

For Mandarin students, however, the scarcity is no joke as it affects their prospects.

Prashant Kaushik, who did a post-intensive advanced diploma in Chinese from Delhi University and also a general scholar diploma course in China, says a fresher can easily get a job at Rs.5-6 lakh per annum.

"However, it also depends upon the proficiency one has," said Kaushik, who is working as a freelance translator. "Besides phonetics, Mandarin has different tones which can be learnt only from the Chinese people," he says.

However, despite a growing demand, the number of students remain low.

"Fewer students take Chinese as the language is tough to learn," says Kunal Wadhwa, who got a job with J.P. Morgan bank on the basis of his Mandarin proficiency.

With few students and increasing demand, the Mandarin market in India can only grow, experts say. "The market for Chinese language will grow for at least the next 10 to 15 years.

TGAC Offering 

MBA - Oil & Gas Management

Programme Overview

With the oil & gas industry worldwide facing a critical shortage of engineers and, more importantly, professionals in other areas (e.g. accountants, human resource managers, economists, etc.) who are well-versed in the oil and gas business transactions, the University was inspired to take the initiative in training and producing future oil and gas professionals for both the engineering and the business management sectors. While the UCSI University campus in Kuala Lumpur focuses on engineering programmes, the Terengganu campus concentrates on the Business Administration (Oil and Gas Management) programmes.

Its uniquely-designed syllabus, the MBA (Oil and Gas Management) programme aims to train and produce graduates who have completed their first degrees in engineering, business administration, accounting, etc. and who wish to upgrade their knowledge and skills to embark on administrative and managerial careers related to the oil and gas sector.

Course Outline

• Scientific Thinking and Research Methodology
• Negotiation Skills
• Technical Communication for Oil and Gas
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Oil and Gas Accounting
• International Aspects of Oil and Gas Affairs and Agreements
• Petroleum Economics and Fiscal Policy Formulation
• Applications of Quantitative Techniques in Oil and Gas Management

For more details can contact: university@tusthiglobal.com

RBI against recast of study loans

Ballooning bad assets from education loans are forcing banks 
to restructure these loans. And, they want the Reserve Bank of 
India (RBI) to allow them to classify the restructured loan as a
standard asset and not a non-performing one (NPA).
The proposal however, has not found favour with RBI.

Any restructured loan has to be reckoned non-performing, according to 
the RBI rule. In 2008-09, during the global financial crisis, RBI allowed 
banks a one-time dispensation in which restructured loans could be 
considered standard assets.The move was aimed at providing support 
to genuine borrowers facing a cash flow problem because of the global 
downturn.

Given the unsecured nature of most study loans, RBI is not comfortable 
with the idea of a special dispensation here, bankers said.

According to estimates from bankers to the Union finance ministry, NPAs 
had risen above two per cent of the educational loan portfolio, which is about 
Rs 40,000 crore, as on March 31. Banks fear this would rise. These loans 
were an insignificant figure before 2004-05, when a set of more liberal rules 
gave these a boost.

In the educational loan scheme, it is possible to borrow up to Rs 10 lakh for 
domestic education and Rs 20 lakh for studying in foreign colleges. Borrowers 
need not pay during the tenure of the course plus a year after. The repayment 
period is five to seven years.

In addition, for loans up to Rs 4 lakh, banks cannot ask for any collateral. This 
particular clause is thought by bankers to have made loans more prone to turn 
sour.

Banks may extend the repayment period. "If a candidate takes a Rs 5 lakh 
loan, for example, it may not be possible to repay in five years. Hence, there 
is a thinking to increase the repayment tenure," said a bank official with a 
public sector bank. The repayment period may get extended to 10-15 years, 
as compared to five to seven years now.

In the segment, State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest, with around 25 per 
cent of the study loan market. It had Rs 8,900 crore of such loans on March 
31, growth of 35 per cent over the previous year.

Banks had earlier requested the government to create a credit guarantee 
fund for educational loans, on the lines of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust 
for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), jointly set up by the government 
and Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi). CGTMSE, in which 
80 per cent was contributed 
by the government and the rest by Sidbi, provides credit guarantees to banks 
and other financial institutions for facilitating collateral-free lending to medium 
and small enterprises.

Chhattisgarh to open schools in Maoist strongholds

Raipur: Chhattisgarh will open three residential schools for boys in areas worst hit by Maoist violence, a statement said Sunday.

"The government will construct three ashram (residential) schools for boys with 50-seat capacity each in Dantewada district with Rs.94.42 lakh (over $208,000) on expenditure," the statement said.

The ashram schools will come up at village Kasoli, Badepanera and Barsoor in the worst Maoist insurgency hit district of Dantewada. The public works department will construct the school buildings.

School education has been severely hit in tribal-dominated Dantewada. The state government allowed paramilitary troopers to station themselves in school buildings for carrying out anti-Maoist offensives and in turn rebels have bombed dozens of these buildings in forested pockets since 2005.

Obama-Singh knowledge initiative: IITs begin work

Mumbai: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and central universities will shortly begin work on sending an association of post doctoral students and faculty members to the US universities for training from the next academic session.

The training which is part of the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, will have around 100 faculty members to be trained initially. The numbers would be scaled up to 1000 later.

"Ministry of Human Resource Development will spend around Rs 130 crore on the entire initiative. We would be spending around Rs 13 lakh on each faculty member. The universities where training would take place, however, would be decided by each individual university and IITs," said a senior MHRD official University of Delhi (DU) Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh, told Business Standard that DU would certainly take advantage of this initiative and begin work as per MHRD's direction.

DU is already running faculty training programmes with four universities in the UK, namely -- University of Nottingham, University of Birmingham, University of Edinburgh and King's College London. University of British Columbia, Canada, is also receiving faculty from DU.

"We have already sent 16 faculty members for training this year. We are targeting a number of around 25 faculty members to be sent next year. These faculty members will be trained in Bio-technology, Mathematics and Computers, Economics and Commerce. We have an arrangement with the University Grants Commission where we get Rs 15 crore for training these faculty members," said a senior faculty member from DU.

As per data from MHRD till May 2010, Delhi University has around 51 per cent vacancy, out of the 1,500 sanctioned posts. The total vacancy is of around 763 posts out of which 729 have already been advertised and interviews are being scheduled.

IIT Kanpur is also drawing plans to firm up this initiative. "IIT Kanpur has tieups with large number of universities. We would be focusing on specific areas which we would soon decide. As part of the training programme, there is one component related to faculty development where young faculty members would be trained in research. Another component is academic leadership development where vice chancellors, directors and registrars would be sent for leadership development training," said Sanjay Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur.

At the IITs, number of vacancy has increased from 877 in 2008-09 to 1,065 in 2009-10. The vacancy in these institutions in 2007-08 was 971. There are 280 vacant posts in the eight new IITs.

On his visit to India last month, US President Barack Obama at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had launched the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative with funding from both sides to increase university linkages and junior faculty development exchanges between the US and Indian universities, including greater emphasis on community colleges.

"Building on our successful efforts to expand educational exchanges, including our Singh Obama Knowledge Initiative, we'll convene a summit to forge new collaborations in higher education. And we are announcing two initiatives to deliver progress to our people," Obama had said.

The initiative assumes significance as top 22 universities in India have 34 per cent vacancy in teaching jobs, with 11,085 sanctioned posts and 3,777 vacant posts.

According to the MHRD the situation is so bad that the new central universities have appointed guest faculty on contract to meet their immediate requirement.

Sikkim University is the worst hit with a staggering 84 per cent vacancy (169 vacancies out of the total posts of 201).

MHRD says all the posts have been advertised and many have been filled on contractual basis.

While Maulana Azad National Urdu University has 118 vacancies out of 248 posts; Aligarh Muslim University, has a vacancy of 235 posts against the sanctioned strength of 1,387.

 Azim Premji to transfer two billion to trust supporting education

New Delhi, Dec 2 (ANI): Azim Premji, chairman of India's third largest IT services firm, Wipro, will transfer Rs 8,846 crore (two billion rupees) equity shares of the company to a trust controlled by him, which will use themoney for charitable causes.
The transfer to Azim Premji Trustee Company Pvt. Ltd will be effective December 7.The Azim Premji Foundation, started in 2001, has worked on the quality of education with various state governments focusing on the underprivileged.The foundation will create district-level institutions with 50-70 people in each and these state and district resource centres will support improvement in education, especially in disadvantaged areas."We believe that good education is crucial to building a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. We want to contribute significantly towards improvement of education in India, and through that towards building a better society," Premji said in a statement. "Our efforts are focused on the underprivileged and disadvantaged sections of our society. Our experience of the past 10 years has motivated us to significantly scale up our initiatives, across multiple relevant dimensions," he added.The Wipro shares are currently held by certain private companies controlled by Premji. The voting rights of these shares will remain with Premji, even though his stake in the IT giant will come down as a result of the donation.The transfer amounts to over a tenth of Premji's total wealth from Wipro, which stands at Rs 80, 670 crore. He has given away 10.9 per cent of his holding as promoter.However, since he retains the voting rights of the transferred shares, Premji will need to dilute his holding further in order to meet public shareholding norms. (ANI)

Double MBA and world’s first visually-impaired trader to receive President’s award

Bombay boy Ashish Goyal who turned blind in his teens is in India to receive the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2010 from the President.

Years ago as an NMIMS undergrad, a corporate house told Ashish Goyal (during placements) to find himself a job in the government sector, since it has a quota system for the physically challenged. Having turned blind in his teens, Ashish did not take to the advice lightly. He not only got himself placed at ING Vysya but also stood second in his batch at NMIMS. Later, Ashish went on to do an MBA from Wharton, Philadelphia. Today, the Bombay boy has a plum job at JP Morgan's London operations.

Over the years, Ashish has not only earned milestones in his professional space but also done plenty in his personal life - from learning to play the Brazilian drums and learning the Argentine tango to boxing and performing on stage. He is currently in India to receive the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2010 from the President.

Uniform commerce curriculum for Class XII from 2012

A uniform core curriculum for the commerce stream at +2 level across school boards is expected to be implemented by 2012, the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) decided at its meeting on Tuesday in Ajmer. The draft of the curriculum has been readied by COBSE and will now be circulated amongst school boards for their views.

COBSE will also soon pass resolutions to alter the examination system in a way so as to allow an assessment of critical thinking in students. That apart, the school curriculum will be so designed as to help in the testing of critical thinking, COBSE decided at its 39th meeting held in Ajmer on Tuesday. Ways to award certificates in vocational education at the school level that are recognised at college level as well in order to mainstream vocational education were also discussed at Tuesday's meet.

Besides representatives from 33 state school boards, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and Rajasthan's Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also attended the meeting.

While all state boards have already agreed in principle to switch to a to a uniform 'Core Curriculum' in Mathematics and Sciences from 2011 for +2 level, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had asked COBSE to also help develop a Core Curriculum for Commerce.

The basic idea behind the concept of devising this curriculum is that a level playing field must be given to students across all state boards when they appear for competitive exams after their +2 — mainly IIT JEE, PMT, engineering entrance exams, AFMC etc.

COBSE has been working on this with teachers, principals and all state boards since August 2008. University professors were involved to ensure the curriculum for Mathematics and Sciences — which has already been readied and approved.