May 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

TOPPERTALK `No formula for success'





Nidhi Shah speaks to commerce student Aditi Toshniwal who scored 98.33% in her ISC exam without coaching

When Aditi Toshniwal's teacher called her up with the news of her results, the family jumped with joy. The commerce student scored 98.33% (best of four subjects) in her class XII Indian School Certificate (ISC) exam -without any extra tuition and coaching.She hit the bull's eye with the perfect score in accounts and scored 99 in economics, 99 in commerce, 96 in maths and 95 in English.
“There is no formula for success, you have to derive it your way,“ says the Hyderabad-based teenager who had no plan to make it to the topper's list. Her only mantra was `one milestone at a time.' “When I started preparing for my board exams, I just wanted to understand my subjects in a better way. I didn't set any percentage targets for myself. My only goal was to pay attention to classroom teaching and revise my subjects regularly,“ says Aditi, who attended a school affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.
“I was confident about my accounts score as I practised sufficiently throughout the year. Practical subjects are my favourite. I think theoretical subjects start like a cakewalk, but get tougher at the end of the syllabus.
However, no subject remains alien if we give it proper time,“ she adds.
Aditi topped in her previous school, too, where she completed class X. Her basic routine would include around two hours of extra study daily.
“Quality studies are more important than the quantity. A month before the exam, my study hours grew a little longer but I never locked my self in a room just to study. I believe we, as students, need holistic growth,“ she says.
Her mother Anjali could not agree more. “Apart from studies, Aditi actively took part in dramatics and extra curricular activities.“
A native of Maharashtra living in Hyderabad for the past seven years, she gives the credit of her academic performance to her chemical engineer father and homemaker mother. “Due to my father's transferable job (in a pharmaceutical company), we shifted many places, but my parents never allowed my studies to get disturbed.
They supported my choices. It has always been a study-friendly environment at my home,“ she adds.
Her decision to opt for the commerce stream aligned with her parent's choice. “I was clear that I want to get into the corporate world and I like number-crunching, so commerce was the perfect choice,“ explains Aditi, who plans to apply to Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), Delhi University, and take the Common Proficiency Test of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. She concludes by giving advice to her peers, “There is no need to panic if you cover a small portion of your syllabus every day.“ > For more tips on various exams and entrance tests, visit http://www.educationtimes.com

May 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`Walk-on-ceiling' shoes are here

Washington: AGENCIES





A British inventor has developed X-Men-style magnetic shoes that let users walk upside down.To create the shoes inspired by X-Men’s Magneto, Colin Furze drilled holes in an old pair and fitted the sole of each shoe with an electromagnet.
When the magnets proved to be too weak, he headed to the local scrap yard, located an abandoned microwave, and removed the transformer, CNET reported. Once the transformer was freed from its microwave, Furze sawed it up to get at the magnetic coil it contained, ran some current through it, and found that the coil could hold his 80kg frame.
Next, he created custommade plates attached to the magnets with straps that wrap
ped around his shoes. Then came switches for each shoe that could cut the current and allow him to move one foot in the front of the other.In a hilarious video, he demonstrates, unsuccessfully, his
attempts at learning to walk without crashing to the floor.
“The shoes will hold me with 12 volts of power, but it can really hurt your back,“ Furze said.
“My wife was a bit surprised when she saw me hanging upside down from the ceiling.“Magneto, the primary villain of the X-Men comic and movie series, can use his powers to manipulate electromagnetic fields and move objects around with his mind.
Furze has also created reallife Wolverine claws with 30cm stainless steel blades. The blades both deploy and retract automatically at the touch of a button held in the hand.
Some of Furze's earlier inventions include a turbojet engine and unique “vacuum shoes“.

TERI University introduces department of regional water studies -

TERI University in collaboration with Coca-Cola Foundation will launch the department of regional water studies. The department is to be name “Coca-Cola Department of Regional Water Studies”, It will examine water issues in an interdisciplinary framework, bringing cultural, educational and scientific factors as well as religious, ethical, social, political, legal institutional and economic dimensions towards a better and holistic approach in water management.

Arun Kansal, professor and head, Coca-Cola department of regional water studies, TERI, University stated that, apart from the academic value-addition, the department would help strengthen regional co operation around water resources by establishing networks of water management
The courses which will be offered are water quantity and resource assessment, water quality and treatment methods, water economics and financial management, water law, policy and governance and sustainability aspects.
After completion of the course students have the scope to serve in MNCs, NGOs, consultancies, grass root organizations and research institutes.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/05/teri-university-introduces-department-of-water-studies/#sthash.T0FOrrrm.dpuf

Nine Indian students win in Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2014 

In the world’s largest high school science research competition, i.e. the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, nine Indian students made their way out in the competition by winning awards. Abhishek Verma and Daksh Dua from Maharaja Agarsain Public School won the first award of $3.000 in the Animal Sciences category. The first position was awarded to Nathan Han of Boston with US$75,000 for developing a machine learning software tool to study mutations of a gene linked to breast cancer at this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science and the Public.

The other Indian students who won awards are Kopal Gupta and Shreya Nandy of Amity International School, Debapratim Jana of South Point High School, Deeksha Hebbar from Vivekananda English Medium School, Jaya Sagar from Government Senior Secondary School, Manali, Animesh Tripathi from Sanskriti School and Amit Sahu from DAV Public School

This year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair featured more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 435 affiliate fairs in more than 70 countries, regions and territories. In addition to the top winners, more than 500 finalists received awards and prizes for their innovative research, including 17 “Best of Category” winners, who each received a US$5,000 prize. The Intel Foundation also awarded a US$1,000 grant to each winner’s school and to the affiliated fair they represent. Additionally, the Intel Foundation presented a select number of students with experiential awards, including the new 11-day trip to China to attend the country’s largest national science competition, speak with researchers at Intel’s lab in Shanghai, and visit the Panda Research Base in Chengdu.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/05/nine-indian-students-win-in-intel-international-science-and-engineering-fair-2014/#sthash.XIsaGeJS.dpuf

May 23 2014 : Mirror (Mumbai)

TOP TEN SPECIES OF 2014





An appealing carnivorous mammal, a 12-meter-tall tree that has been hiding in plain sight and a sea anemone that lives under an Antarctic glacier are among the species identified by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's (ESF) International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) as the top 10 species discovered last year.An international committee of taxonomists and related experts selected the top 10 from among the approximately 18,000 new species named during the previous year and released the to coincide with the birthday, May 23, of Carolus Linnaeus, an 18th century Swedish botanist who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.
The annual list, established in 2008, calls attention to discoveries that are made even as species are going extinct faster than they are being identified.
Scientists believe 10 million species await discovery, five times the number that are already known to science. MM LEAF-TAILED GECKO Location: Australia It's not easy to spot this gecko, which has an extremely wide tail that is employed as part of its camouflage. Native to rain forests and rocky habitats, this gecko is a bit of a night owl. It is found on rocks and trees as it waits for prey. TINKERBELL FAIRYFLY Location: Costa Rica The tiny size and delicately fringed wings of the parasitoid wasp family Mymaridae led to their common name: fairyflies. Tinkerbella nana, named for Peter Pan's fairy sidekick, measures just 250 micrometers and is among the smallest insects. The new species was collected by sweeping vegetation in at LaSelva Biological Station in Costa Rica. KAWEESAK'S DRAGON TREE Location: Thailand Standing 12 meters tall, it's hard to believe the dragon tree went unnoticed this long.
Beautiful, soft, sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream-colored flowers with bright orange filaments are the hallmarks of this impressive plant. The dragon tree is found in the limestone mountains of the Loei and Lop Buri Provinces in Thailand. ORANGE PENICILLIUM Location: Tunisia Distinguished by the bright orange colour it displays when produced in colonies.
It was isolated from soil in Tunisia. It also produces a sheet-like extra-cellular matrix that may function as protection from drought. DOMED LAND SNAIL Location: Croatia Living in complete darkness nearly 3,000 feet below the surface in the Lukina JamaTrojama caves of Croatia is the Domed Land Snail. This snail lacks eyes and it has no shell pigmentation giving it a ghost-like appearance. Even by snail standards, it moves slowly, creeping only a few millimeters a week. Researchers suspect these snails, measuring only 2mm in length, travel in water currents or hitchhike on cave animals, to travel longer distances. OLINGUITO » Location: Ecuador The appealing olinguito, resembling a cross between a slinky cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear, lives secretively in cloud forests of the Andes mountains in Colombia and Ecuador. It is an arboreal carnivore, that weighs in at about two kilo grams. It is the first new carnivorous mam mal described in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. Its apparent dependence on cloud forest habitat means deforestation is a threat. CLEAN MICROBES ROOM Location: USA Found in frequently sterilised rooms where spacecraft are assem bled, this resilient mi crobial species could potentially contaminate other planets that the spacecrafts visit. SKELETON SHRIMP Location: USA This tiny shrimp, the smallest in the genus, has an eerie, translucent appearance that makes it resemble a bony structure. The male's body measures just 3.3 millimeters; the female is even smaller at 2.1. AMOEBOID PROTIST Location: Mediterranean Sea This one-celled organism is four to five centimeters high, making it a giant in the world of single-celled creatures. It gathers pieces of silica spicules and uses them like so many Lego blocks to construct a shell. ANDRILL ANEMONE Location: Antarctica It's a species of sea anemone that lives under a glacier in Antarctica. The creature is tiny, less than 2.5cms long with most of its pale yellow bodies burrowed into the ice shelf and their roughly two dozen tentacles dangling into the frigid water below.





May 23 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

UGC asks DU not to appoint ad hoc teachers





New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday dealt a severe blow to ad hoc teachers employed in Delhi University colleges by asking colleges not to appoint them as their salary is not admissible as per UGC norms/guidelines.The letter sent by UGC has caused alarm in the teaching community as this policy will affect, as per DU Teachers’ Association’s estimate, over
5,000 ad hoc teachers. The association has demanded that the letter be withdrawn and a clarification issued.UGC directions state that posts of teachers on leave (presently filled by ad hoc teachers) be given to “contract or substitute teacher” who’ll be given “full salary except allowances, gratuity and increment.” On posts falling vacant due to retirement, resignation or death, UGC says, “guest/ part-time teacher may be appointed against the sanc
does not satisfy laid down norms. In any case, the number of such appointments should not exceed 10% of the total number of faculty positions in a college or University. The fixed emoluments paid to such contract teachers should not be less than the monthly gross salary of a regularly appointed assistant professor,” says a statement from DUTA.Media coordinator of Delhi University, Malay Neerav, said, “The executive council of
the university hasn’t accepted or introduced appointment of college teachers on contractual basis. As regards the issue of ad hoc appointments, the university will take up the matter with UGC to protect the interest of teachers.” A group of DUTA members met UGC officials on Thursday to “apprise them of discrepancy between the letter and UGC Regulations. DUTA’s executing committee will meet on May 23 to take stock of the situation.





May 23 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Avatar is no Superhero





Expansion of capability transforms the hero into superhero, says Devdutt Pattanaik

There is a fundamental dif ference between the words `superhero' and `avatar' and it is critical to understand this if one hopes to be a good leader.
Unfortunately, today, no thanks to videogames and Hollywood, the two words are used synonymously. The inability of those who understand Hinduism to explain the difference has further contributed to this miscommunication.In the beginning, in Europe, there were no superheroes. There were masked crusaders though, like Zorro and Scarlet Pimpernel, men who pretended to be ordinary but secretly displayed their extraordinary talents only to help the helpless. Hiding their talent was necessary so that they could mingle with ordinary folk, and unsuspecting villains. In other words, they were skilled and clever.
The extraordinary became the fantastic in an America spellbound by outer space, radioactivity and modern technology. There was Superman who came from outerspace and so had X-ray vision and superhuman strength.
There was Spiderman who was bitten by a mutant bug that enabled him to create spider webs. And there was Batman who used his wealth to create fantastic gadgets like the Batmobile. All of them hid their true capabilities and lived unremarkable lives as Clark Kent, Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne.
Both the European and the Amercian characters were like Greek heroes standing up against cruel authority (the supervillains) on behalf of ordinary folk.
But that is not an avatar. The word avatar is derived from another word `avatarana' ­ to come down. This word is commonly associated with Vishnu, the preserver of the cosmos. From his abode, Vaikuntha, Vishnu watches over the world. And from time to time he descends either as animal or human to set things right.
At face value, it seems exactly the same. So what is the difference?
Both help the helpless. But in the case of the superhero, the hero has to secretly unleash his extraordinariness to solve the problem. But in case of the avatar, Vishnu has to make himself less divine, more mortal, to solve the problem.
Expansion of capability transforms the hero into superhero. Compression of capability transforms Vishnu into avatar.
Vishnu `comes down' in not to save people from supervillains as many cartoon versions of Krishna seems to suggest; he `comes down' to uplift or do `uddhar'.
Ram may fight Ravana, but he does not seek to destroy Ravan; he seeks to enable Ravan to discover his divine potential, his ability to outgrow the animal instinct to grab and dominate.
In the superhero's story, the people around him stay the same. In the avatar's story, the people around him are hope fully transformed. In the superhero's story, the world becomes a bet ter place thanks to the superhero's intervention. In the avatar's story, the world remains as it was ­ hurtling to wards pralaya, the end of the world, which is unavoidable ­ but hopefully people are wiser and see the world dif ferently. The superhero's world is physical, tangible, measurable. The avatar's world is psychological, intangible, notmeasurable. Superheros save the world.
Avatar seeks to provoke wisdom about the nature of the world and humanity, knowing fully well he may not succeed.
At work, leaders often exhort their teams to become superheroes, solve problems that no one else can by discovering latent extraordinariness. That is the purpose of motivational speeches and pep talks and role models and success stories.
The burden of transformation rests with the followers. If the leader takes the burden of transformation upon himself, he then becomes the innovator, the saviour who tides over a crisis.
But to be avatar means working with people who are not as capable or skilled as you are, but who you know can be much better, within their parameters, if they try. It is about being able to go down to their level and helping them break free from their limitations. The trick is not to intimidate them or make them feel insecure for not being as smart as you are. It is about making them comfortable with who they are and creating an ecosystem where everyone feels they matter. This is not easy, for the temptation to be condescending is difficult to resist.
The superhero hides his extraordinariness so that those around him do not feel threatened. An avatar who is aware of his divine potential strives hard as fish, turtle, priest, king and cowherd to reveal the divine potential in those around him. The superhero seeks to solve the problems of the world. The avatar seeks to help people appreciate dharma, their human potential to cope with a world that resists all attempts to control it. The superhero gaze is on that elusive target. The avatar's gaze is on the happiness of the employee. The former does not include the latter; the latter includes the former. CD The word avatar is derived from another word `avatarana' ­ to come down. This word is commonly associated with Vishnu, the preserver of the cosmos An avatar who is aware of his divine potential strives hard as fish, turtle, priest, king and cowherd to reveal the divine potential in those around him le The superhero's world is physical, tangible, measurable. The avatar's world is psychological, e intangible, not-measurable