Aug 27 2014 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)

IITs Propose Internship to Promote NE Integration

Ritika Chopra

New Delhi





To host 2,016 schools students from northeastern states on their campuses during vacation

In a move prompted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for integration of northeastern states, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have now collectively proposed to offer internships and exposure trips meant exclusively for students of this region.The country's premier engineering schools made a presentation to Modi and HRD Minister Smriti Irani last week in which they proposed to host 2,016 schools students from northeastern states on their campuses during vacation and also offer internships to 250 college stu dents for a monthly stipend of Rs 8,000.
According to sources, the programme, tentatively titled `Ishaan Vikaas', has the approval of both Modi and Irani. The presentation was made by director of IIT Guwahati Guatam Biswas.
“There is an imbalance between the educational facilities available in the northeastern states and the rest of the country. Students here not aware of the opportunities in higher education and therefore lack the ambition to succeed. The proposal made on behalf of the IITs is aimed at helping them spend time at the country's best institutes to hone their approach to academics and life,“ said an IIT director, who did not wish to be identified. Integration of northeast states is one of the main thrust areas of the HRD Ministry and the programme has been proposed by the IITs at the behest of Irani. “In June the minister has asked the IITs to come up with a proposal for northeast students.This is a stop gap measure till the government can improve the education standards of the region,“ said a government officer, who did not wish to be identified.
Under Ishaan Vikaas, the 16 IITs and 5 IISERs will host 2,016 students of classes IX and XI selected from 504 schools (63 schools from each of the seven states) in one academic year. Each of the 21 institutions will invite two batches of 32 students each during the summer break and one batch during the winter break.Each batch will have an equal number of class IX and XI students.During their stay, school students will attend lectures, discussions, visit classrooms and laboratories and they will also have senior students as their mentors.
Students from 25 governmentfunded institutions will be invited to intern under the mentorship of the faculty members of IITs.

Aug 27 2014 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)

If You're Thinking Social Innovation, Think Hubli

Pankaj Mishra1

Hubli:





Gururaj Deshpande's sandbox model identifies and incubates ideas and help them scale up

Last Saturday Phanindra Sama, the founder of bus-ticketing portal Redbus, was engrossed in a huddle discussing the challenges of developing services for those living in villages.He had made a small fortune developing a service for the tech-savvy and had come to Hubli in northwestern Karnataka to understand how to spend some of that fortune on stimulating entrepreneurship where it is needed the most.
“I'll not attempt building roads or tanks like the government does.What I can do as an entrepreneur is help people experiment and scale ideas that matter,“ said Sama, who had made a 400-km journey to the Deshpande Foundation, the social innovation hub of India, from Bangalore, the country's technology hub.
Emulating the work of Gururaj `Desh' Deshpande, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who once was India's richest man, Sama is looking to replicate the `Hubli Sandbox' in his hometown Nizamabad in Telangana. Sama, 33, has teamed up with Raju Reddy , the founder of IT services company Sierra Atlantic, to sponsor the `Kakatiya Sandbox'. Kakatiya Sandbox is named after the progressive dynasty that ruled presentday Telangana between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. In Hubli with Sama and Deshpande that day was Lalitesh Katragadda, the former Google India head of products and the brain behind Google Maps. He had joined a group that was discussing how technology could play a role in solving the problems of ordinary folk in the Hubli region. “A day spent here with the users is equal to a year of research,“ said Katragadda after field trips across Hubli to understand hardships of people in remote villages. At the centre of all this is Deshpande who, over the years, has built the `sandbox' as a space for free thinking, experimentation and innovation to find solutions to real-world problems. “Great ideas don't need to be patentable or the first in the world; they don't make any impact unless directed to a burning problem,“ said Deshpande, the founder of several Silicon Valley communication technology companies and a venture capitalist.
Over the years, Deshpande -he is related by marriage to Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and an adviser on innovation and entrepreneurship to US President Barack Obama ­­ has created a model that identifies and incubates ideas and helps them scale. One example of an idea that scaled thanks to Deshpande's sandbox model is Akshaya Patra, the midday meal scheme that feeds millions of school children everyday. He has been able to attract the finest talents and get them to pool their intellectual resources to incubate entrepreneurial ideas in the social sector. So that is why researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology travel halfway round the world to take up his challenge. And that is also why former minister Jairam Ramesh was attracted to Hubli. “This is entrepreneurship of a different variety. It is about creating pull, not push,“ said Ramesh.
So, where are the next Akshaya Patras? “There are 50 ideas that we now have, all in the process of scaling up. At least three of them could be the next ones,“ said Deshpande, who is in his sixties. For the `Kakatiya Sandbox,' Sama and his team have picked Srikanth Bolla as the first entrepreneur who will receive their help. Bolla, who is visually challenged and received a fellowship from MIT's Public Service Center in 2011, has built a training centre and digital library for the blind. “The Hubli model has been perfected through investments over many years: we could fund it to eternity here,“ said Sama, who sold his company to Ibibo group for about `. 600 crore.
In 2007, when Deshpande started the sandbox along with his wife Jaishree (she is the sister of Sudha Murty, the woman who provided seed capital for Infosys), Hubli offered more problems than he had imagined. But the biggest challenge was that several NGOs and self-help groups were chasing problems with their own versions of solutions.“Great ideas don't need to be patentable or the first in the world; they don't make any impact unless directed to a burning problem,“ he said. Since then, he's been investing about ` . 20 crore annually to fund focussed groups of NGOs, entrepreneurs and students to help create an ecosystem where new ideas could be tried without any fear of failure. It's almost like attempting to build a Silicon Valley for social innovation.
From a brake system for bullock carts that ensures that the animals don't get hurt while stopping to software-enabled machines that help producers automate the entire process of sorting cashewnuts according to their quality, the ideas have been getting incubated at a brisk pace. “We do see failure rates of 80%, but that's natural,“ said Naveen Jha, the CEO of Deshpande Foundation. Like Silicon Valley, Deshpande's sandbox has attracted some influential sponsors such as Ratan Tata. One of the projects adopted by Tata is Manuvikasa ­­ an initiative to build farm ponds for farmers, helping them to avoid installing water pumpsets that consume electricity. By storing rain water, the farmers are now also able to grow multiple crops in a year, save extra water for cattle and household needs, and improve groundwater levels. Another entrepreneur, Sasisekar Krish, a computer chip designer who worked at Wipro for eight years before starting up, found an interesting problem to solve. Many cashewnut producers in the Hubli region were facing a shortage of workers who could grade different varieties of the nuts according to their quality. Krish developed a machine with an embedded software application that helps do the job.So far, he has sold around 40 machines and hopes to earn nearly ` . 10 crore in revenue this year. For Deshpande, entrepreneurship is a subtle yet clear idea. “When somebody else gives you a problem to solve, it's homework. But if you pick a problem yourself to solve, it's an entrepreneurial opportunity.“

Aug 27 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

TREND INC - Cos hire only women if female talent quits

NamrataSingh

Mumbai:





Adopt New Rule To Improve Gender Ratio

Making up for the loss of a woman talent with another woman hire is the new mantra at India Inc, which is going all-out to improve upon its gender diversity ratio at the workplace. Sodexo India, Fluor, an engineering, procurement and construction maintenance firm, and Pitney Bowes, a global technology company , follow such a practice of replacing a woman employee with another woman employee.Gender ratios are currently skewed towards male employees even in some of the most progressive organizations today . There appears to be a sense of urgency with which companies are adopting new practices to improve their gender ratios.
“We have come up with a new practice of replacing a woman with only a woman. If we lose out on a woman employee, we will ensure that she is replaced by another woman employee so that we maintain our gender diversity . We will, however, not compromise on quality ,“ said Rohini Anand, senior VP & global chief diversity officer for Sodexo.
With a focus clearly on recruitment of more women employees, Sodexo India has set atarget to take the total percentage of women employees from the current 16% to 20% by the end of this financial year.
Fluor, according to Shachi Irde, executive director of Catalyst India women's research center, follows the practice of hiring women to fill vacant positions when women employees leave the company or take a break. Another company that Catalyst (a global non-profit organization with an objective to expand opportunities for women and business) works with is Pitney Bowes, which has similar hiring practices for women. “Pitney Bowes identifies job roles and positions exclusively for women across departments and levels, and has job postings that specifically target qualified women for certain roles,“ said Irde. However, there is no reservation of roles or positions for women. Both, Fluor and Pitney Bowes follow the said practice in India as well.
Some companies have adopted a role-based approach to seek out women candidates.“We have identified women friendly roles across AFS (automotive and farm equipment sectors) and, hence, while recruiting we first look for availability of women talent for these roles. Considering the dearth of experienced women candidates -specifically in mechanical/electronics engineering fields -we have initiated hiring of fresh female candidates from the campus as graduate apprentice trainees,“ said Emrana Sheikh, VP (HR, international operations AFS), Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).
As against the current 5% women employees, the AFS division of M&M plans to further enhance this number over the next three years depending on the business scenario.
Not everyone agrees with the mechanism of replacing a woman's position with another woman. SHRM, a global association focused on human resource management, believes a practice of replacing women employees with women negates the whole idea of diversity .“This practice is a short-term approach to ensure diversity within an organization since it only looks at meeting numbers but not inclusion. If the hired woman candidate does not have the required credentials or skill-set, her team will not be supportive in her role, leading to mediocracy to creep into the system as well as impacting the business and team engagement levels,“ said Dedeepya Ajith John, knowledge and research consultant, SHRM India.
Tarun Katyal, chief human resources & admin officer, MTS India, said, the company does not simply replace a female employee with another female employee unless the role requirements demands so.
“However, if there is any potential female employee who deserves the role then, as leaders, we do promote the replacement and ensure no biases are creeping in to refrain a deserving candidate from getting what they deserve,“ said Katyal.

Aug 27 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`50% of road deaths at traffic junctions'

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi





Study Stresses Need To Redesign Crossings

Better be alert at every traffic junction. Numbers show India’s traffic junctions as the most dangerous spots, accounting for a large number of fatalities.The annual accident report also highlights the need for better designing of such junctions and proper monitoring of traffic flow.
The latest data show at least 75,200 people lost their lives in crashes at traffic crossings in 2013, which is over 50% of the total deaths on Indian roads. While more than 60,000 such deaths were reported at road crossings, another 15,000 died at roadrail crossings.
According to the figures, 56,868 deaths were recorded at uncontrolled junctions having no traffic light or traffic police. For the first time, the report also highlights how bad road conditions, particularly potholes, caused 9,700 crashes and claimed 2,600 lives. Maximum such deaths were reported in UP where 760 people died. Though MP reported a maximum of 2,888 crashes due to potholes, but the number of fatalities was 383. The report shows about 25,800 people died at T-junctions while 13,500 fatalities took place at Y-junctions.
Four-arm junctions registered nearly 10,800 fatalities and about 7,800 people lost lives at staggered junctions. But traffic expert Rohit Baluja questioned the credibility of such data as there is no scientific data collection and investigation except just relying on police reports.
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com

India Fastest Growing Source of International Students to NZ: Report - 

India is the fastest growing source of international students to New Zealand, a recent report has revealed. The number of Indian students seeking student visas to New Zealand has witnessed an increase of more than 80 per cent between January – July 2014 as compared to the same period last year.

According to the latest figures released by Education New Zealand, India is the fastest growing source of international students to New Zealand. Student visas issued to Indian nationals seeking to study in New Zealand also increased by a staggering 123 per cent between January-July 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013.

Commenting on the report, New Zealand High Commissioner to India, Grahame Morton said, “New Zealand’s economic future is very much tied to our key relationships and India is a key export market for New Zealand and is one of the fastest growing large economies in the world. New Zealand’s success over the next 20 years will be determined by our level of connectedness with the rest of the world. One of the best ways we can make these connections is through the people-to-people links that international education offers”.

In a move to attract more students to New Zealand, Education New Zealand (ENZ) is conducting education fairs in major cities like Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi and also other parts of the country. The fairs will offer students an opportunity to talk directly with New Zealand education institutions and find the programme that is right for them.

According to Immigration New Zealand Area Manager Nathanael Mackay, New Zealand has put in place policies to make the country a top choice for international students. A range of scholarships are available to students interested in studying in New Zealand, including the New Zealand India Sports Scholarships which were recently announced by High Commissioner Morton and well-known cricketer Stephen Fleming. The New Zealand government has also made changes to its work rights programme which allow more international students to work while they study, enabling them to gain valuable first world business experience.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/india-fastest-growing-source-of-international-students-to-nz-report/#sthash.fYKsGltw.dpuf

Poor Quality of Higher Education Disappointing: President - 

President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concern over the poor standards of higher educational institutes in India as compared to international standards.

Saddened with the absence of any Indian institute in the list of top 200 universities prepared by grading organisations, the President said that despite the presence of  over 720 universities, 37,000 degree colleges and 11,000 polytechnic institutes, the standards of higher education institutes remained ‘abysmally low’.

The President said that a culture of excellence must be promoted in higher academic institutions and core competencies must be nurtured. He also laid emphasis on the industry and academia tie up to create the right synergies and environment for industrial growth and industrial excellence and said that academic cooperation with institutions must also be encouraged.

He was addressing a gathering at the inauguration of the first Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) of the country at Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal on August 24.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/poor-quality-of-higher-education-disappointing-president/#sthash.KYUtJCWJ.dpuf

Post Matric Scholarship for Assam students Wednesday, August 20, 2014 Kolkata: Applications in the prescribed format are invited from the students belonging to SC/ST categories for Post Matric Scholarship to be awarded by the Govt. of Assam for the year 2014-15.  Students belonging to SC/ST categories of the state of Assam admitted to the 1st semester of different programmes may collect the prescribed application forms...