AIPMT topper Vipul thanks parents, says wants to help people

Haryana's Vipul Garg, who topped the All India Pre-Medical Test entrance examination 2015, said on Monday he has fulfilled his parents dream and will now strive to become a cardiologist or neurologist. "Without a doubt, it is a big achievement for me," Garg said.

Garg has managed to ace the examination by securing 695 out of 700 marks in the AIPMT retest, the results of which were declared earlier in the day.

Seventeen-year-old Garg, who has been undergoing treatment for a problem in his sinuses, said his medication made him drowsy while he was preparing for the entrance examination, but that did not deter him from studying hard.

"I used to get severe headaches during my preparation days and managed to study for a maximum of four to five hours at a stretch. But, I believe that if we study with a lot of concentration and focus even for such a short time period regularly, we can surely score well," said Garg, whose father, Vijender Kumar, runs a shop of suitcases in Jind.

Garg, a student of New Holy Public School in New Delhi's Uttam Nagar East, says his parents braved a lot of hardship to educate him.

"But they never made me feel the heat. I have been a pampered child. My parents have never denied me of anything I had asked for, even if there was a shortage of money."

Read: Jaipur students ace AIPMT entrance test

"I had obtained a 10 CGPA in Class 10. My merit helped me do my schooling by paying a considerably low tuition fee. I was also offered a scholarship for my medical coaching by a private coaching institute," said Garg, who scored a 90% in his Class 12 exams.

Commenting on the Supreme Court's decision to scrap the May 3 AIPMT examination after a question paper was leaked and the answer sheet was circulated with the help of electronic devices, Garg said he got a little nervous when he heard about the retest which was held on July 25.

"The retest was not a solution. My confidence level went low when I came to know that I need to write a re-test. I was confident about my performance in the initial exam and was expecting to score well. My parents and teachers boosted my motivation to a large extent."

Garg wishes to join the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi and go back to Jind and practice there.

"I worked hard for the AIPMT and now the top ranking will help me get an admission in Maulana Azad Medical College. I want to help the people of my area by providing them with low-cost medical treatment," he said.

Aug 18 2015 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)

Startups Tap IIT Students for Freelance Jobs

Rica Bhattacharyya & Anumeha Chaturvedi

Mumbai New Delhi





Akash Gaurav, third-year undergradu ate student at IIT Bombay, earns `50,000-70,000 a month by developing software for startups and devoting not more than three hours of spare time a day. Agniva Si, third-year metallurgy student at IIT Roorkee, manages to make `50,000 a month by graph ic designing and sketching for startups.With the rise of startups in India leading to a burgeoning volume of work, an increasing number of startups like Bewakoof.com, Venturesity, Jabong, TouchKraft, VanityCube are employing IIT students, mostly from the second and third year. The projects include app development, analytics and machine learning, modelling, graphic and visual design, growth hacking and content marketing work as they can be assigned and monitored remotely .
“Companies gain by getting solutions while the students gain by getting exposure of two to four months,“ said Ashu Malhotra, head, human resources at Jabong.
Around mid-July, IIT Bombay launched a cell for freelancers and co-founders for any startup looking for talent in mobile app, coding, designing, etc. In less than a month, the institute has received interest from more than 200 startups looking for talent to work with them on projects.Some of them include VanityCube, MobieFit, Flyrobe, TouchKraft, and Innovision. So far, the institute has connected about 150 students to startups. And 70% of the students are joining as freelancers as the main incentive is that they will be cofounders. TouchKraft made one of the highest offers so far of `1.50 lakh for freelance software development talent, said Gaurav , web manager of the cell.
It is a win-win for students and startups. Startups have to pay several times more to hire a professional with five to six years' experience. Early sta g e star tups, particularly , find students easier to afford. On their part, students can ear n between ` 30,000 and ` 1 lakh a month.
Also, startups find talent in their 20s to be more tech savvy, an essential. “The best talent is always in their 20s when it comes to technology and designing. With age most people are not able to evolve,“ says Prabhkiran Singh, co-founder, Bewakoof.com.
He said his reason for working with people from college is to also stay connected to know what skills people have on campus.
“There has been a rise in companies giving short-term projects to IIT students...The primary reason is that students are picking up these new and hot skills for free by learning from online courses and making them usefulup to the mark,“ said Subhendu Panigrahi, IIT Kharagpur alumnus and co-founder, Venturesity . He has given students projects primarily in two areas -product development and growth hacking, with salaries ranging from ` 15,000 to `50,000 per month.
Students are also open to spending their free time in a more constructive way and earn some cash while studying. Most of them picking up such work aspire to start their own venture. These engagements help them get to know the founders and learn the nuances of running a startup. Most of the work is either preceded or succeeded by a two-to-three-month internship, leading to more engagement. Zomato organises Trial Week to handpick top talent for its technology team. The recruits spend a week at the company , working with the tech team on live projects.
“We sift through the hundreds of applications for the programme and shortlist a handful of candidates to come and spend an all-expenses-paid week with our tech team at our headquarters in Gurgaon,“ said Deepinder Goyal, founder & CEO, Zomato. Projects typically include tools used in daily operations, or features that will be included in their product. “People are welcome to apply even if they have a few years of code under their belt. All we expect from candidates is a serious passion for code, and a desire to get things done,“ he added.
For some of the students it is more of a passion and helps them test their acumen. “I would like to take design as a profession at a later stage and these projects give me good exposure,“ said Si of IIT Roorkee.

ug 18 2015 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)

A DIFFERENT STAND A WEEK AGO - In U-turn, Russia Supports India's Entry Into UNSC

DipanjanRoy Chaudhury

New Delhi:





We support India and Brazil for permanent membership in Security Councils, says Russia

In a sudden U-turn, Russia has said it backs the applications of both India and Brazil for permanent membership in the UN Security Council, less than a week after opposing Delhi's entry into the powerful five-nation grouping.“We think that developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are under-represented in the UN Security Council. That is why we support the applications of India and Brazil for permanent membership in the Security Council,“ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told news agency Itar-Tass ahead of the General Assembly session on the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. “We think that the African continent should be similarly represented in the structure because, I will stress it again, developing countries are under-represented and their role is insufficient in the work of this main institution.“
Only less than a week ago, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's Permanent Ambassador to the UN, had written to UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa opposing India's entry as a permanent member of the Council. Both the US and China also resisted India's efforts to sit at the h i g h t abl e. C h i n a , France, Russia, the UK and the US are the permanent, veto-holding members of the UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security .
While the Chinese position was predictable, the stand of the US and Russia ­ close partners of India ­ did not go down well with the Modi government, officials here said. They are of opinion that these countries do not want to share their exclusive privileges. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may raise the issue when he meets US President Barack Obama on September 28 in New York and when he visits Moscow this December for the annual summit.
India has been hoping that the 70th anniversary of the UN this year would be an appropriate time to reform the Security Council to reflect global realities. France and UK have supported India's case.
Lavrov noted that it was important to promote such a reform “that will not make UN Security Council uncontrolled, exceedingly amorphous, overblown institution.The efficiency of its work is one of the key principles along with appropriate representation of all regions, all centres of global development. Somewhere around slightly more than 20 members -I think, that is the threshold that should be considered.“
In his letter to UNGA President Kutesa, Churkin had said that the “prerogatives of the current Permanent Members of the Security Council, including the use of the veto, should remain intact under any variant of the Council reform.“
Samantha Power, The US Permanent Representative to the UN, said in a letter to Kutesa that, while the US is “open in principle“ to a “modest“ expansion of both permanent and non-permanent members, it believes that consideration of new permanent members must be country-specific in nature. She also categorically stated that the US was opposed to “any alteration or expansion of the veto.“
China said UNSC reform is “multifaceted,“ covering not only issues such as enlarging the Council's membership and strengthening representation, but also increasing efficiency and improving working methods.

the speaking tree - Ways To Cross The River Of Maya

Kishor Kulkarni





A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction. In order for chemicals to react, the species involved in any reaction must undergo a rearrangement of chemical bonds. The slowest step in the bond rearrangement produces what is termed a transition state ­ a chemical species that is neither a reactant nor a product, but is an intermediate between the two. Energy is required to form the transition state. This energy is called the Energy of Activation, or Ea.Reactants with energy lower than Ea cannot pass through the transition state to react and become products.A catalyst works by providing a different route, with lower Ea, for the reaction. In any given time interval, the presence of a catalyst allows a greater proportion of the reactant species to acquire sufficient energy to pass through the transition state and become products.
So a chemical reaction can theoret ically proceed without a catalyst, but only too slowly. However, with a catalyst, it proceeds much faster. Likewise, a seeker's spiritual progress may happen very slowly without a sadhguru.
A seeker can always read up the ample spiritual literature available and try to proceed on the spiritual path. But it may take many lives. On the other hand, the same words when coming from a sadhguru, could have a different effect like a catalyst in a chemical reaction.Without a sadhguru, the spiritual reading merely sits together with our intellect, like the chemical reactants being put together without the catalyst.For the spiritual transformation to happen, a sadhguru as a catalyst helps greatly .
In the Bhagwad Gita, Chap ter 7, verse 14, Krishna says that it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, to cross the river of maya (delusion), except through surrender to Him. In his commentary on the Gita, Shri Bhavarth Deepika, Sant Shri Jnaneshwar, beautifully amplifies this assertion using many metaphors.
The river of maya gets filled by the rains in the form of three gunas that cause the flood of delusion. There are many dangers like whirlpools of hatred, big fish of arrogance, and waves of de sires in this river. Any means that one resorts to for over coming these dangers actually become counterproductive.
Someone plunges into the river trusting his intellectual strength, but vanishes without a trace.
Another one may try to ride a float in the form of the vedas, but he gets devoured by fish in the form of arrogance. Someone else may try to cross the riv er trusting his youthful energy , but he gets chewed by a crocodile in the form of sense pleasures. Some try the float of yajnas, but they get stuck in the rocks of heavenly pleasures. The boat of vairagya or asceticism does not help, nor can the stick of viveka or discriminatory intellect measure the depth of this river.
If a sage can understand an evil mind, or if a fish can swallow the hook, or if a ghost will be afraid of a timid person, only then living beings will be able to cross the river of maya on their own strength! So what is the way to cross this river of maya? Shri Jnaneshwar says further that only those who surrender to the Lord with an attitude of total nonduality can easily cross this river. Only those who have their sadhguru as the boatman in the boat of Self-realisation, who have discarded their ego and all the vikalpa or doubts, who have given up attachment to their wife and children, can cross this river of maya.

Aug 18 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

UNIV RANKINGS - Indian varsities fail global test

Kounteya Sinha

London TNN





A single Indian university has made it to the top 500 university rank ings. However, the lone In dian entry ­ Indian Insti tute of Science in Bangalore, ranks as low as between 301400, according to the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities (AR WU) released by Shanghai Jiao Tong University .Interestingly in 2003 and 2004, IISc was still In dia's only entry but its rank ings were around 200 which has fallen drastically .
More than 1,200 univer sities are ranked by ARWU every year and the best 500 are published. When rank ing world universities, AR WU uses key objective indi cators, which are the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Reuters, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science and per capita performance of a university . India fails miserably in almost all counts.
A recent Thomson Reuters study had found just 3.5% of global research out put in 2010 was from India. India's share of world research output in clinical medicine was a paltry 1.9% in 2010, with psychiatry at 0.5%, molecular biology at 2.1% and environmental research at 3.5%. In mathematics, India's share of world output stood at around 2% in 2010, while it was 17% for China.
“India has been the sleeping giant of Asia. Research in the university sector, stagnant for at least two decades, is now accelerating but it will be a long haul to restore India as an Asian knowledge hub,“ said the report.

Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

The Reserve Bank and the Government

Vol - L No. 33, August 15, 2015 

• Editorials

Is there a larger design in the disrespect this government is showing towards institutions?

• Read more
• 0 Comments

Politics of Immunisation

Vol - L No. 33, August 15, 2015 

• Editorials

The health ministry's move on HPV vaccine feasibility is ill-advised.

• Read more
• 0 Comments

Editorials Secrecy and Control Stay tuned for the continuing broadcast of Newspeak from the Ministry of Truth. Read more	Commentary The Yogi as a Pugilist Psychotherapy-cum-Martial Exercise in the Indian Armed Forces Sumanta Banerjee The way in which the secular practice of yoga is being saffronised by a government that has made it compulsory for the armed and paramilitary forces looks like yet another attempt to supplement colonial model-based recruitment on the basis of... Read more
Commentary Recent Trends in India's Merchandise Trade Warning Signs for the Economy Surajit Mazumdar The contraction of India's merchandise trade, both exports and imports, from December 2014 is a worrying development, even if it has led to a temporary improvement in trade balance. The substantial decline in international oil prices, and its... Read more	Commentary Falling Sick, Paying the Price NSS 71st Round on Morbidity and Costs of Healthcare T Sundararaman, V R Muraleedharan The decennial National Sample Survey on health and education provides useful information on the health and education of the population. The summary report on health from the 71st round conducted in 2014 allows us to make an initial assessment of... Read more
Commentary Swaminathan MSP Solution to Agrarian Crisis and Farmers’ Distress? Ranjit Singh Ghuman Farmers' unions and political parties have been demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan minimum support price (cost plus 50%) to address agrarian crisis and farmers' distress. But they have not raised demands for the... Read more	Commentary India and Russia in a Changing World Archana Upadhyay This article analyses the 15th Annual India-Russia Summit of December 2014. It situates the traditionally strong Indo-Russian strategic ties in a post-Cold War world in which multiple new power centres are set to emerge. Read more
Book Reviews Lines Drawn upon Water Neha Sinha Nature without Borders edited by Mahesh Rangarajan, M D Madhusudan and Ghazala Shahabuddin, New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2014; pp 270, Rs 535, hardcover. Read more	Book Reviews The Machine and Its Limits Iftekhar Iqbal Technology and Rural Change in Eastern India 1830-1980by Smritikumar Sarkar; New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014; pp 355, Rs 895. Read more
Perspectives Understanding Vyapam Krishna Kumar The Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh is not the familiar story of exam cheating. It is about the mutation of exam cheating into a service industry facilitated by the State. Understanding it requires a look at the political economy of a hollowed-out... Read more	Special Articles Culture and Life of Government Elementary Schools A R Vasavi Government elementary schools are layered institutions that are affected by a bureaucratic administration, the specificities of local societies, and the agency of teachers. Although promoted as an agency and institution of democracy, modernity... Read more
Special Articles Birth, Life and Death of Development Finance Institutions in India Deepak Nayyar This essay traces the evolution of development finance institutions in India from conception and birth, soon after independence, through infancy to adulthood and maturity, followed by a winding down at the turn of the century and closure in the... Read more	Special Articles Safe Abortion as a Women’s Right Perceptions of Law Enforcement Professionals Suchitra Dalvie, Alka Barua, Hemant Apte A study conducted among law enforcement officials in seven countries across Asia by the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership to measure the level of knowledge, attitude and awareness of women’s rights as well as safe and legal abortion shows lack... Read more
Notes J F Duff and the University Education Commission of India, 1948-49 Rakesh Ankit It has been a difficult period for university education in India, with the controversy around the four-year undergraduate programme joining the old complaints about lack of autonomy, political interference, financial ill-health, and deteriorating... Read more	Discussion Intersectionality Rejection or Critical Dialogue? Mary E John Two responses to Nivedita Menon's "Is Feminism about 'Women'? A Critical View on Intersectionality from India" (EPW, 25 April 2015) appreciate the article's attempt to initiate a debate on "intersectionality."... Read more
Discussion Struggles around Gender Some Clarifications Meena Gopal This is a brief critique of some of the positions put forth in Nivedita Menon’s article “Is Feminism about ‘Women’? A Critical View on Intersectionality from India” (25 April 2015). The paper covered diverse and... Read more	Economic Notes Gross Value Added Why Not the Double Deflation Method for Estimation? J Dennis Rajakumar, S L Shetty To estimate gross value added for the manufacturing sector, the 2011-12 National Accounts Statistics series follows the "single deflation" instead of the "double deflation" method. In this note, it is argued that the double... Read more
Postscript Yakub’s Tragedy Jyoti Punwani The hanging of Yakub Memon betrays the trust of the Indian state in his return of the wealth of information he had provided against the perpetrators of the Bombay bomb blasts of 1993. Read more	Postscript Believing Is Seeing Nada Faris Our biological propensity to fictionalise the world makes reality a shared belief, not a fact or a mere aggregation of experiences. Read more
Postscript Lab-Coat Glamour Neha Sinha The stereotypical image of women—including those in science—as sentimental beings with strong notions of sacrifice and duty is unquestionably heteropatriarchal.