India’s First Virtual Technical  University

India's first virtual tech university taking
shape
Seven IITs, Indian Institute of Science team
up for the project
Seven Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs)
have teamed with Indian Institute
of Science (IISc) to set up India's first home-grown virtual
technology university. The IITs involved are those based in Mumbai,
Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee.

Officials of these IITs have said they will meet in Delhi next month to firm up
the details of the project, which could be a reality in the next two-three
years. "This will purely be an effort of Indian technology institutes. We
have learnt a lot from our international counterparts; we have also been
running NPTEL (National
Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) successfully for all
these years. This is a step forward for us," said Kushal Sen,
professor, IIT-Delhi.
The virtual
university could work at two levels -provide a degree directly and second, tie
up with other universities to transfer credits for a degree.
Initially, the
online NPTEL content delivered by the IITs (on the website
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in) could serve as the base for the proposed university.
NPTEL is a joint venture between the seven IITs and IISc. The programme offers
web- and video-based course material for basic sciences, engineering and
humanities. It was started along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's OpenCourseWare programme.
Students from
887 engineering, technology, science and management institutes in India use
NPTEL courses. As of June this year, NPTEL had 372 web courses and 398 video
courses. These courses are accessible freely through the YouTube channel.
So far,
students across the world could download NPTEL courses, without the IITs being
given any credit for this. Now, students can seek credits, certificates and
degrees for all that they learn on the NPTEL platform. The virtual university
will allow engineering students who cannot make it to the IITs to have access
to these premier institutions' learning material and bag online engineering
degrees.
The IITs are
also in talks with information technology and engineering companies for them to
provide employment value to the degrees offered by the proposed university.
"In India, the problem is when you give degrees, there is an employment
value attached to it. We are thinking we should have on board some employers to
give weightage to the degrees and certificates provided," said an IIT
professor.
To support the
project, the IITs will seek grants from the ministry of human resource
development.
Source | Business Standard | 18 July 2014

Jul 21 2014 : Mirror (Mumbai)

Jumping right to it!

MUDAR PATHERYA





ALAPSED SPORTS WRITER WHO'S FOUND FAITH IN INDIA'S CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY Century Plyboard has an interesting CSR model. It doesn't just give an NGO a cheque, but helps it with planning and a process-driven management outlook

The general CSR approach in India is for someone in the senior management to sign CSR cheques and employee teams to address community issues.At the Kolkata-based Century Plyboards, arguably the country's largest plywood manufacturer, the reverse is true. The chairman of the company, Sajjan Bhajanka, has largely divested the cheque-signing function to executives so that he can drive the CSR function virtually single-handedly. He holds posts in six public welfare organizations, investing no less than 120 days annually to public philanthropy, which is equivalent to the time he spends in businesses that generate no less than Rs 200 crore in annual cash profits.
One of the organisations with which Bhajanka is actively associated is Friends of Tribal Society -funding, navigating and implementing strategy with the express objective to address the cause of tribal education, a space largely overlooked by planners and NGOs. The cause is in the numbers: about 8 crore tribals in 100,000 villages (North East India, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan) suffer a literacy rate of only 12 per cent against the national average of 65 per cent.
FTS is unique for some good reasons. One, FTS has extended to the rural; almost 99 per cent of its schools are 75-100 km from the nearest rural centre and therefore usually unconnected to a motorable road; the locations suffer deep subsistence issues with per capita income not more than Rs 15 per day (I almost refuse to believe it) and where the living standards are much like people have lived for the last few hundred years, no difference.
Bhajanka could have been the usual chequewriting type; on the contrary, he is someone who selected to tour remote rural India to introduce himself to nitty-gritty before he wrote that first big cheque. The result became a multi-decadal engagement during which Bhajanka has visited dozens of tribal homes to be able to report firsthand the guilt on his temperature-controlled existence and the stark tribal reality the locals being so poor that women in the family need to share clothes in turns if someone like him dropped in; people who would think they had a good day if they managed one square meal; his own experience of breaking bread (no bread really) over a husked wheat meal that he found challenging to masticate.
Bhajanka could have disengaged and moved to the next CSR preoccupation; he stuck on with the subject of free tribal education because of the vastness of problem at one end and smallness of the collective national initiative at the other; because a contribution by his company (among others) could improve the life of thousands; because he was convinced that the effort required to make this change was not significant (low hanging fruit); because FTS had finally cracked a model that was practical, economical and scalable, needing only companies like Century to back it; because FTS' intervention extended from education to healthcare services and agricultural training.
What makes the FTS model effective is its `one teacher school' concept; the teacher needs to be a local resident; the school is run under trees or a room provided by villagers; the education covers three years following which the student is mainstreamed into a government school; its assetlight educational approach costs no more than Rs 20,000 per school per year (lower than the monthly salary of an urban teacher); its multitiered operational architecture makes it possible for responsibility and authority to be delegated downwards so that the organizational apex can then focus on quicker school rollout.
The result: what started off as a pilot project has grown to 46,966 villages and more than 51,000 schools educating 13,35,078 tribal children (December 2012) across 25 states. FTS teaches 15,00,000 children at any moment, has graduated 25,00,000 students in its existence and takes in no less than 600,000 students each year. One would have relaxed after having set this furious pace; instead, FTS intends to establish 100,000 Ekal Vidyalayas throughout the country's tribal belt by 2014-15.
Century's association represents an interesting CSR model whereby the company has selected not to reinvent any wheel, prefers working with existing NGOs or institutions, would rather get in on the planning, bring its process-driven management outlook to the NGO's table and leverage the value of its association across similar wellwishers to mobilise funds.
The validation of this strategy lies in the numbers: Century puts down Rs 1.5 cr annually in helping FTS launch 1,000 schools annually on its own account (among other expenditures). An equivalent but standalone spending by Century could at best have helped build one school in urban India; by selecting to associate with an ongoing movement, the hydraulic impact has translated into what is possibly the largest educational movement anywhere in the world. Likedhated his column! write to Mudar Patherya at mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com

Jul 21 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Empowering Indian youth

By Madhu Khatri





More young Indians need the right infrastructure to develop skills

By 2020, India's population is expected to become the world's youngest; more than 500 million Indian citizens will be under 25 years of age and more than two thirds of the population will be eligible to work. This means that a growing number of India's youth need the right educational infrastructure to develop skills and adequate opportunities to get employed or become entrepreneurs.
However, the wide gap between those who have access to education and skill development opportunities and those who do not, is a challenge that has to be overcome.In a bid to bridge this gap, Microsoft launched a series of programmes and initiatives that focus on developing the potential of the youth. Microsoft's YouthSpark Programme, a company-wide, global initiative, aims to provide opportunities that will impact 300 million youth over three years. In India, the programme will train 80,000 youths, help 65,000 in acquiring employment and aid 15,000 of them in starting their enterprise. Similarly, Project Oorja and Sakshartha are two youth-centric platforms that aim to cultivate the spirit of innovation by equipping Indian youth from the ITIs, polytechnics and marginalised sections with essential IT skills.
Unemployed youth, marginalised women and rural communities have also been impacted by the company's input -imparting IT skills training and in stilling basic computer literacy.
These skills enable the marginalised demographic to explore employment opportunities and sustainable livelihood options. Microsoft's partnerships with governments, non-profits and businesses have resulted in such initiatives, which connect young people to greater education, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities. The project works to make them eligible for jobs that were not open or available to them earlier, while also encouraging entrepreneurship to foster the creation of additional jobs in their communities. Since 2004, through 1,425 learning centres in India, more than 4,70,000 youth have been trained under it and over 70% placed in jobs. Since December 2012, the project has helped start more than 600 youth enterprises.
Cultivating and encouraging innovative entrepreneurs is the ultimate goal of these initiatives. One revealing example is of 22-year-old Vasanti, from western Gujarat, who enrolled in the YouthSpark -iLEAD (Institute for Livelihood, Education and Development) programme run by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, a partner organisation. The programme taught Vasanti the basics of operating computers after which she enrolled in the advanced course. However, Vasanti realised that the lack of jobs in areas near her home would be a problem. She decided to acquire a computer, under a government scheme, with which she opened a computer training centre in her single-room house, creating access to computer education for other local women.
Says Vasanti, “Why should the girls in our villages suffer because the training centres are far away? If they cannot travel to the centre, then I will make sure that the centre travels to them.“ She now plans to acquire more computers and expand her training centre to other villages.
Technology has a potential to change the world and improve people's lives. Vasanti's story demonstrates the incredible spirit of a youth-led enterprise and initiative, demonstrating how being empowered and encouraged can help an individual realise their full potential.
Vasanti not only created an opportunity for herself, but also impacted the lives of others in her community.
(The author is associate general counsel, Microsoft India)

Jul 21 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

STRANGER THAN FICTION - Which actress is tallest, asks govt exam

Sukanya.Satyan @timesgroup.com

Kochi:





Incredible Stories From Incredible India

I was a focused threequarters of the way into the Combined Graduate Level exam conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) on Sunday when I was distracted by this gem: Q: Who among the following actresses is the tallest in height [sic]?
A: (a) Huma Qureshi (b) Katrina Kaif (c) Deepika Padukone (d) Preity Zinta Well, I ruled out Preity right away but the remaining three posed a problem.Anyway , I finally ticked (c) Deepika Padukone as the tallest of the four ladies, though I did tiptoe for a moment thinking of Huma. The moment of truth, of course, came after the test.
I love my Bollywood but my feminist sensibilities -not always on a sure footing, I must admit -were ruffled: how could an all-India examination, attempted by about 10 lakh people and purportedly meant to create efficient pub lic servants, be judged on the basis of such trivia? As a proud, self-respecting south Indian woman, I am neither size zero nor a walking advertisement for Fair & Lovely and that added to the insult.
What took the cake, how ever, was the question that ap peared in the General Intelli gence and Reasoning section.
Two statements were given.
: First: All women are cats. Second: All cats are rats. There fore, the two possible conclu sions are: (a) All women are rats or (b) All rats are women. There is a fine difference between the two but neither is exactly complimentary to women. “Comparing women to animals is unjustifiable,“ said Kerala Women's Commission chairperson K C Rosakkutty .
But Kerala PSC chairman K S Radhakrishnan defended the `rat' question. “It is to check the candidate's logical reasoning,“ he said. “It has nothing to do with the gender sensitivity of the person who prepared the question. Such questions are generally directly taken from textbooks.“

Jul 21 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Camel milk: Can’t get over the hump

Anindo.Dey @timesgroup.com





Globally, camel milk is getting superfood status. But back home, its sale is still illegal. Lifting the ban may be the only way to save the ship of the desert

During a malaria outbreak, members of Rajasthan’s Rebari community have a unique remedy: camel milk.“Ten to twelve days of camel milk cures the person,” says Anand Singh Bhati, a member of Rajasthan’s camelrearing community of Rebaris who owns about 200 of the ungainly animals.
Even as the world gets pumped up about its health benefits – Time magazine recently reported that packaged camel milk is now available at Whole Foods supermarket in the US, while Dubai has been marketing everything from camel lattes to camel chocolates – the Rajasthan government has only now woken up to its potential. After giving the camel the status of state animal, it is now trying to get the sale of its milk in India legalized. The Bikaner-based National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC) has approached the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to authorize its sale. Abhay Kumar, principal secretary, state animal husbandry department, says, “We have decided to extend our support to NRCC so that camel milk is recognized by the law. It is surprising that
Rebaris have been consuming it for decades but it still hasn’t been legitimized,” he adds.Hanwant Singh Rathore of Lokhit Pashu Palak Santhan, a Rajasthan-based NGO that promotes the camel and
its produce, is confident that demand for milk will go up with the certification. “People are aware of the therapeutic value of camel's milk and want to buy it but we are bound by the law not to sell,“ says Rathore. “Currently, 3,000 to 4,000 litres of camel milk end up with roadside tea stalls or milk producers in Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Bhilwara regions who mix it with cow and buffalo milk as it's cheaper.“While camel milk was once popular for its therapeutic qualities, things soured in the late 90s, when the Rajasthan High Court ruled it wasn't fit for human consumption. In 2000, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling but despite efforts by various milk co-operatives and self-help groups to promote it, the FSSAI refused to legitimize its sale.
But the Rebari community has continued to consume the milk, which it claims has kept them free of diabetes. While they earn a living out of camel hide and handicraft items made of camel bone, they have never sold the milk because of an ancient superstition which says the camel will die if they do. However NRCC, which has its own camels, not only sells milk from the premises of the institute in Bikaner, but also items like flavoured milk, tea, coffee, kulfi, milk powder, soft cheese, peda, barfi, paneer, butter, ghee and gulab jamun made from it.
Legalizing sale of milk may also boost the declining camel population which experts say has fallen from 500,000 to 200,000 in the state.
With demand for camel transportation dwindling, herders no longer find it economically viable to raise these animals except for meat, says Rathore. “The Rajasthan government has taken the first step by giving camel state animal status but that may not be enough. It is imperative that the milk is recognized by the law so that it can be sold. Only then will the animal survive.”

Jul 18 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

HOW TO FIND INDIAN LOVE - Emotional Efficiency

BY PAROMITA VOHRA





Love has never been a very submissive character, but perhaps we might be in an era where it is being tamed. And its potential vanquisher is a new way of being: Emotional Efficiency.Are you cautious in romance to the point of being constantly guarded? Do you always leave a situation before it gets messy? Do you carefully calibrate your romantic interactions to ensure things go smoothly for you and you are not drawn into uncomfortable situations? Do you often say -I don't want to make any false promises? Are you quick to move on? Then, I guess, you are an emotionally efficient person.
Most conversations about love nowadays seem very sensible.
For example, K, a 28-year-old designer is seeing a woman from another city. When we meet I demand details. I get a matter-of-fact account followed by a risk assessment. We're taking one day at a time. We'll see where it goes. We're so different you know. There is no fanciful talk of fantasy, foolish smiles, heartache, missing and longing, but instead, a kind of admirable control, understanding and well, sensibleness.
I run into A, a 23-year-old software professional, and ask her how things are going with her new boyfriend. “Oh, we're not seeing each other,“ she tells me -we enjoyed really different things, so we thought it's better to part ways.
What fault can one find with such amicability! Looks like here's a sophisticated generation, which is going to be friends with all its exes. No scenes, no fuss, no false expectations, less hurt, less baggage, less toxicity. It's enviable compared to the complete loss of control and dignity, frequent encounters with humiliation and unfairness that once were part and parcel of the love thing.
No wastage here, only efficient composure. Where has this efficiency come from? My friend S, a 55year-old filmmaker, thinks it's because the relationship between the genders today is much more collegial and friendly -more `matey' he calls it. His 24-year-old daughter has been staying over at various male friends' houses to watch the recent football matches, and parents feel it's no more loaded than any old-fashioned pyjama party. So perhaps this friendship has translated into kinder romantic relationships? Also, we no longer think love happens just once, and is for keeps, so perhaps we enter and exit relationships without too much hoo ha, which is obviously A Good Thing.
But some of this being sensible about relationships also comes from a world of self-preservation, rather than kindness and fairness. We live in times where we think constantly of our progress in the world -networking, moving ahead in one's career, success of a certain type. We don't want to waste time on what does not present its immediate usefulness in these linear goals. Relationships too must conform to the imperatives of this new world.
We think -will this relationship destabilise me in some way and make me lose focus? In that case better to get out before things get sticky. We efficiently slice and dice our emotions till they add up neatly so we can insure ourselves against every risk.
The flipside of emotional efficiency is that we become increasingly unable to deal with emotional challenges. We grow more spiritually secluded, become less emotionally resilient. Love's so-called inefficiencies are a lesson in regeneration. They show us that it is possible to feel devastated -to become decomposed in a sense -and yet renew and reinvent ourselves in glorious ways, whether together or alone. In protecting ourselves from expected hurts, we may deprive ourselves of unexpected joys. You can write to Paromita Vohra at punemirror.feedback@gmail.com

Jul 18 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

GENERAL AWAKENING - Political Science A Big Draw Among Students Aspiring for Civil Services

ANUMEHA CHATURVEDI

NEW DELHI





Ranchi resident Shruti Das had been patiently waiting for Delhi University's (DU's) premier college Lady Shri Ram (LSR) to release its first cut-off list for political science honours. Das, fixated on the course, had been tracking DU cut-offs for the past few years.With a 96.75%, she hoped to get through, as by her calculation, the college would increase the percentage figure by about 1.5% to 2% only once every two years. LSR's cut-off for political science shot to 97% this year from 95.25% last year. At 97%, the cut-off for political science at the college is almost at par with the other popular DU course, BCom honours which was pegged at 97.5%.
In the history of LSR, the difference between these two distinctly different courses, hasn't been lesser, and with both commerce and science students vying for political science, the top scorer getting admitted here is a non-humanities student with 99.3%.
“We got many students from streams other than humanities like science and commerce.
They feel studying political science would give them a holistic understanding of Indian society and politics in order to become world citizens and would hone skills for pursuing careers in civil services, law and management later,“ said Dr Krishna Menon, associate professor, department of political science, LSR.
Students and faculty members at Delhi University and other Indian institutions are amazed at the rising demand for a bachelors in political science. Rising general awareness due to this year's general elections and a participatory approach among the youth on governance and political issues, a desire to pursue civil services and journalism have all contributed to a significant demand for the course.
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi has received 1,600 applications for a total of 400 seats this year. The institute usually gets around 800 applications. “The demand has caught us by surprise, and it'll be tough admitting students. This year's elections have been historic and have been led by the youth, and Narendra Modi's political campaigning and elevation as prime minister (Modi has studied political science) over economist Manmohan Singh, could have also piqued the interest of students for the course,“ said professor Kaushal Kishore Mishra, head of department, department of political science, BHU.
In spite of the steep cut-offs almost matching other popular options like BCom Honors and Economics, the surge in demand for the course has led DU colleges to expand seats and close admissions early on. Political science honors was closed in the very first list at Hindu and Kirori Mal College, while admissions for courses like Economics and BSc Mathematics were still on. Hindu has had to admit about 90 students for a total of 39 seats, Kirori Mal College 150 students on 59 seats, and Miranda House 90 students on 59 seats. “The demand was high in the reserved category as well. We had 11 OBC seats and got 22 candidates,“ said professor Ish Mishra from the department of political science at Hindu.
“There is a general awakening among the Indian youth around policies and politics, and they are interested in understanding and participating in issues of governance and corruption. The syllabus also prepares them for applying for competitive exams,“ said Dr Jaishree Pillai, associate professor for political science at Miranda House.
The DU curriculum according to Dr Rupak Dutta, an associate professor of political science at Kirori Mal College is appropriately updated and includes content on public administration, global politics and political economy.
“From an employability perspective, students are better equipped as compared to other social science courses,“ he says.
Demand for the course is also rising in South India, feels professor Ramu Manivannan, department of politics and public administration, at University of Madras. “There is huge interest among students wishing to study Political Science in southern regions, where the interest has usually been focused on technical science education. Students hope to get into public administration and civil services and consider political science to be a good platform,“ he says. University of Madras, which only offers post graduate programmes in the subject, has around 23 students under the MA honors course this year, up from 3 in 2009.
anumeha.chaturvedi@timesgroup.com