Mythology Vs Science





Creating a better climate for research and innovation is a must for India's development

Vice-President Hamid Ansari has highlighted the dearth of scientific temper in the country . His comments come just as the 2016 Indian Science Congress has drawn many laments on the state of Indian science. In fact, for the last two years presentations on topics such as the invention of airships in ancient India have created a disappointing, disturbing image. In a damning indictment, Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has described the congress as a circus where very little science is discussed.While it can be argued that the congress should be open to diverse streams, such openness can't come at the cost of a genuine scientific ethos. As Ansari has observed, intolerance towards attempts to separate belief from scientifically verified facts leads to the occult being dubbed as scientific. Plus, there's empirical evidence to sug gest that the roots of Indian science are worryingly weak. The country is yet to achieve its goal of spending at least 2% of GDP on scientific research. Around 59% of secondary schools don't have an integrated science laboratory . And according to 2013 figures Indians filed only 17 patents per million population compared to 4,451 in tiny South Korea.
These metrics stand at odds with government policies like Make in India. As pointed out by Nobel winning physicist David Gross, attempts at manufacturing high-end products in India won't yield the desired benefits unless backed by sustained investment in basic science ­ right from school level to higher education. That not a single Indian institute of higher learning figures in the top 100 ranking of world universities is a poor comment on the quality of education and research in the country . An even greater tragedy is that most Indian students today consider the sciences only as academic streams to high-paying corporate careers. Overall, the science pedagogy is poor and the scientific temper diluted.
The state of Indian science is actually a direct reflection of India's general education woes. Lack of meritocracy in educational institutions shows up in poor research. Focus on producing degree holders kills innovation. Against this backdrop, a framework for audit of scientific departments as suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is just the first step. What's required next is an overhaul of science education to create an environment that encourages research and innovation. Only then can Indian scientists meaningfully contribute towards the development goals of the country .

Source: Times of India, 12-01-2015

Assam's Minority Report

Sanjoy Hazarika





As the state readies for polls, it would be dangerous to abuse the highly emotive `Bangladeshi' card

For five hours, the body of the 15-year-old girl hung on the barbed wire fence, blood streaking her clothes in the Janua ry chill, her hair hanging down in a macabre flow. She was shot while climbing over from the Indian side in West Bengal to Bangladesh and was going for her own wedding. Her father had managed to get over unscathed but the child, whose name was Felanee did not make it.That was in 2011. That Felanee was Bangladeshi was uncontested but the killing of an unarmed child sparked a furious outcry against shootings of civilians by BSF on the international boundary .As a result of this incident, Indian border patrols were instructed not to fire live ammunition on suspected intruders (mind you, BSF failed to tackle the real infiltrators, those of armed groups who had skipped across for years, creating mayhem, until the Bangladesh government cracked down and handed over Ulfa, NDFB and Manipuri insurgent leaders to India). Nearly 1,000 persons had been killed in a 10 year period or one death every four days.
Those who died included Bangladeshis and Indians, cattle rustlers, petty criminals as well as people who were shot while going about their daily business.Cattle smuggling is a major business along the border; so is human trafficking.Criminal gangs which flourish on either side of the border are unlikely to do so without official connivance.
Illegalinformal migration from Bangladesh into India is substantial but there are other interlocking issues. I will focus on two here. One is the scale of the migration ­ most of the figures i have seen are simply assertions and `analysis' based on assumptions. The other is the impact that such perceptions are having not just in eastern India, especially in Assam and West Bengal, but also across the country , with antipathy growing against Muslims of Bangla origin.
The latter is important especially as Assam is going to the polls in a few months. There appear to be few issues, barring the anti-incumbency factor against the Tarun Gogoi government. That is why one must be extremely careful that the highly emotive `Bangladeshi' card is not used as a weapon of rhetoric.
As far as numbers are concerned, the truth is that decades after the `Bangladeshi' campaign began in the late 1970s, few have been detected and deported despite many promises. Not even the Centre has a clear idea of how many illegal migrants are in India, not just Assam. For years there has been a sense of fatigue on the issue in Assam.
Thus, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi correctly chose statesmanship over local politics by settling the IndoBangladesh land boundary issue, a problem that had been unresolved for decades, he piquantly created a challenge for the Assam unit of his own party which had opposed the deal, claiming it would increase illegal migration.
Such complexity is deepened by sweeping media reports which posit a future where `Bangladeshi Muslims' will be a majority in the state and ignore the fact that it has three major groups of Muslims: Assamese speaking Muslims whose ancestors go back to the 13th century , Muslims of Bangla origin, many of whose ancestors came over 100 years ago, and the post-1971 Bangladeshi Muslims. Indeed, this last point is also conveniently forgotten: those who moved from East Pakistan before 1971are not Bangladeshis.
Also ignored is that there is a high fertility and birth rate among Muslims groups in western Assam where large families are the norm. This is a key factor in demographics ­ especially if one consi ders the fact that Assam has smaller border with Bangladesh than Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram or West Bengal! There is hostility to in-migration in Assam and the northeast. Most migrants ­ as the recent movement from Syria shows ­ seek safe havens. In addition to that, there is greater economic security as Bangladesh's economy has grown to a near middle economy , making risky out-migration less attractive.
The combination of selective facts, selective memory and rhetoric can be a deadly combination as seen in 2012 after incidents in western Assam where both Bodos and Muslims were victims. Hate mongering triggered an exodus of lakhs of workers from the region, from places such as Bengaluru. Few locally there would make the distinction between a Bodo, a Naga, a Sikkimese or a Mizo. The `northeast' is lumped together.
What happened in February 1983 should suffice as adequate warning about the vulnerability of this complex area: Over 36 years ago, Aasu launched a powerful anti-immigrant movement that brought successive state governments to their knees, stalled the economy , shut down educational institutions and markets and even blocked oil transportation; in February 1983, the central government forced an election in the state, in the teeth of opposition from Aasu and other anti-immigrant groups. In the ensuing violence, thousands were killed ­ no one still knows the final toll, but it is said to be well above 3,000 ­ including Muslims of Bengali origin, members of tribal groups, Assamese and other ethnics.
The worst massacre was at Nellie, which i covered as a young reporter, in which nearly 2,000 Muslim men, women and children were killed. The sight of hundreds of corpses, of infants, women, old men, huddled on dry rice fields are images which i can never forget. Those who died were certainly not Bangladeshis and had lived there for generations.Their survivors struggle futilely to get justice for the murdered and maimed.
The writer is director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia

Source: Times of India, 12-01-2015

Kerala becomes 1st state in country to achieve 100% primary education

Vice-President Hamid Ansari will officially declare the 100% primary education status achieved by Kerala here on Wednesday .“Kerala has become the first state in the country to achieve total primary education. This has been achieved through the primary education equivalency drive of the state literacy mission -Athulyam. The equivalency programmes have proved a huge success and the ultimate objective is to achieve total PlusTwo education in the state,“ education minister P K Abdu Rabb said here on Monday .
The declaration will be made at a function at Kerala University Senate Hall. The second phase of Athum was carried out across lyam was carried out across the state as part of the Mission 676 of the government, launched to mark its third anniversary . The programme offers a chance for those who failed to get primary educa tion due to various reasons to achieve the education qualification equivalent to fourth standard.
Those aged 15 to 50 were beneficiaries of the programme and were identified through family registries prepared by anganwadis under the social justice department and also through ward-level surveys carried out by instructors in continuing education programmes.
Around 2.6 lakh candi dates appeared for the 4th standard equivalency examination in June 2015 and 2.2 lakh candidates qualified.The equivalency examination was held in 6,613 centres across the state and those who scored 3075 in English and 2050 in other subjects were declared winners.

Source: Times of India, 12-01-2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 2, 09 Jan, 2016

Editorials

Certify, Not Censor

Killing Children of the Middle Class

Once Again a Poor Record

50 Years of EPW

50 Years of EPW

Margin Speak

Brahminical Arrogance

Anand Teltumbde

Commentary

Road Rationing and Economic Gains

Kaustuva Barik

How the Most Vulnerable Countries Fared at the Paris Meeting

Sujatha Byravan

Compulsory Licence for Diabetes Drug

B N Pandey, Prabhat Kumar Saha

Queering the Narrative

Kishalaya Mukhopadhay

Understanding Juvenile Crime

Malvika Tyagi

Bandung's New Global Agenda

Manoranjan Mohanty

Book Reviews

The Right to Property

Surajit C Mukhopadhyay

The Lokavidya Standpoint

Aseem Shrivastava

Insight

Climate Change Battle in Paris

Meenakshi Raman

Special Articles

Urban Infrastructure and Governance Mission under JNNURM

Vidhee Kiran AvashIa, Amit Garg

Determining Growers' Participation in Contract Farming in Punjab

Nivedita Sharma

Closing the Policy Gap

Radhika Khosla

Notes

Strident Politics and Grey Economics

Shobhna Kunwar

Economic Notes

Some Puzzling Features of India's Recent GDP Numbers

J Dennis Rajakumar, S L Shetty

Discussion

Men Doing Feminism

Arnab Chatterjee

Current Statistics

Current Statistics

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

Letters

Release G N Saibaba

Aahwan Ek Sanskritik Muhim, All India Students Association, All India Students Federation, Ambedkar University Delhi Faculty Association, Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association, Bhor, Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch, Collective, Communist Party of India, CPIML (Liberation), CPIML (New Democracy), CPIML (New Proletariat), and others

Joining the Debate on Caste

Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

Dow + DuPont = ?

Tomas Mac Sheoin

Web Exclusives

Rhodes Will Not Fall Alone

Abhijit Sarkar

Reports From the States

Third Gender and the Crisis of Citizenship

Anzu Augustine

Caste Discrimination in Relief

J Balasubramaniam

The strange death of Indian Communism

From the Fifties to the Seventies, there was serious debate on how imminent the Communist Revolution was in India 

CPI LEADER leader A B Bardhan’s demise reminded us how little the Left matters today. The Communists are the most honest, decent people in Indian politics. They are also the most irrelevant.

Few can imagine how unlikely this is. From the Fifties to the Seventies, there was serious debate on how imminent the Communist Revolution was in India. The future was red. Now of course no one takes Communists or even Communism seriously. The Soviet Union collapsed without anyone firing a shot. Leninism proved to be a delusion which could not survive the 20th century.

Even so, the reputation was that the Communists were a disciplined party whose members followed the line laid down. They were going to start the Revolution with mass support. Nehru would be exiled like Chiang Kai Shek was.

Why did Communism fail so abysmally? Marx had a fascination with Capitalism and admired its immense productive potential. He and Engels advertised the advent of globalisation in their youthful Communist Manifesto. His ideal of Socialism was timed for well after the maturity of Capitalism.

It was Lenin who changed the argument. He was shocked by the breakdown of working class internationalism in the First World War. He saw the future as dark. He bet that Capitalism would blow itself up due to increasing crises. His lucky victory in Russia established his idea as the Marxism for the Twentieth century.

Communism’s luck continued and Capitalism suffered the Great Depression. It looked like the Revolution was imminent. Lenin had conflated Imperialism and Capitalism. This enhanced the appeal of Communism for the colonies. Stalin consigned millions to concentration camps but the idea that the Soviet Union was the hope of the world remained strong. Victory in the Second World War and then taking over Eastern European countries enhanced the reputation of the Soviet Union. China had its own Revolution which confirmed Lenin’s wisdom that the Communist revolution would start in the backward countries, not developed ones as Marx may have thought. India was supposed to be the next ripe fruit to fall. The CPI had blotted its copybook by supporting the British rulers during the war, as for them the fight was for defence of the Soviet Union. They denounced independence as illusory and launched a premature Revolution in Telangana. Stalin thought India was not ready for a Revolution. So the Communists began to play the democracy game under orders waiting for the signal to revolt.

Alas, they never understood the Indian society and the salience of caste. They romanticised the working class, small as it was, employed in the few large factories. But economic growth stagnated due to distrust of the private sector. India failed to industrialise. The working class remained small.

Then Indira Gandhi cleverly bought out the communists by giving them patronage. The Communists abandoned any critique of the Indian political system and only criticised imperialists. Alas, for them Capitalism proved more robust than Lenin had thought and it revived while Leninism lost the battle of economic power.

The Rao/ Singh government abandoned the failed model of Socialism in 1991 and liberalised the economy which began to grow. Then the Communists challenged Manmohan Singh on the nuclear issue and Congress ‘unfriended’ the Communists. Communism became an irrelevant sideshow. Indian Communism, RIP.

Source: Indian Express, 11-01-2016

How to write a successful SOP

Eight Ps that make a statement of purpose special.

Students who want to pursue higher studies abroad in the next academic session will soon be busy applying for colleges and universities of their choice to secure admission. A number of students who decide to study overseas approach me with requests to get their statements of purpose (SOPs) edited, to offer them tips on how to write a good SOP, and, sometimes, to ghostwrite their SOPs. I say ‘yes’ to the first two categories of requests but a firm ‘no’ to the third category as it is unethical to write an SOP for another person.

When such students approach me, even before looking at their SOPs or offering them any tips, I ask them a few questions such as: Why do you have to write an SOP? Why have you chosen a particular country? Why have you chosen a specific university? In which field do you want to specialise in? Why have you chosen it? When did you develop your interest in it? How passionate are you about the field you are going to specialise in? What is your career goal? After the informal interview, I tell the applicant to write in a coherent manner whatever they shared with me during the interview. I also tell them that their SOP should be between 500 and 700 words. The informal interview breaks the ice and prepares the applicant to write it well.

What is a statement of purpose? It is an application essay a student applying for a graduate programme at a foreign university is required to write in order to be admitted to the programme. This important document is also called ‘personal statement’ in the U.K. Though it is not common in most institutions of higher education in India to require students to submit an SOP, it may be required to attend a personal interview to secure admission.

Why do universities ask for an SOP? Applicants are required to prepare and submit it along with other forms while applying. It helps colleges and universities to test whether the applicants are really interested in the programme that they have applied for, whether they are capable of pursuing the programme and completing it successfully and whether they will be able to contribute significantly to the institute.

Just like a good job application letter helps candidates project themselves successfully in the job market, a good SOP helps applicants to highlight their strengths during admission. There are over a hundred different products in the market but consumers choose a particular product because they think it is better than others for various reasons. Similarly, a good SOP stands out and attracts the admissions committee which wades through hundreds of applications. The 8 Ps that make an SOP special are personal touch, purpose, passion, preparedness, potential, planning, plain English and positivity.

Personal touch is the quality of being personal. An SOP is rightly called a personal statement because it is a statement prepared by the applicants to give an indication to the admissions committee what type of a person they are and to express their suitability for a particular programme that they wish to apply. An SOP, being a personal account of the applicant’s academic performances and wishes, reveals the applicant’s attitude.

If the statement is ghostwritten by someone, the candidate’s personal touch may not be reflected in the application essay. This is why it is considered unethical on the part of the applicant to ask someone to prepare the document. The personal document can be given to someone for editing.

Purpose is the keyword in the statement of purpose. The applicants should state why they wish to specialise in a specific field, why they have chosen a particular university/college, what their career goal is and so on. The applicants should demonstrate their clarity of thought and clarity of expression in the personal statement.

Passion is an important characteristic of a great SOP. The applicants should show their aptitude for the academic programme they have chosen. Only those who have a passion for something can excel in it, and, therefore, it is important to express it in an interesting and convincing manner.

In the extract of an SOP below, an applicant explains how passionate he is about in the field he has chosen:

“Ever since I started watching Fast and Furious movie series, I developed an interest in automobiles. I decided to opt for the mechanical engineering branch even when I was a pre-university student. I developed my interest in automotive engineering after I joined the college in many different ways…”

Potential is one’s capacity to excel in something. The applicants should state clearly whether they have the potential to pursue the programme they have chosen, in a successful manner. The applicants should list some of their achievements that will make their SOP stand out. In the extract of an SOP below, an applicant highlights one of his achievements.

“During my third-year undergraduate programme, I was involved in a project “SAE BAJA 2015” organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers, India. This project involved a complete fabrication of an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV). Our team cleared the virtual round by making innovative designs as per the rules framed by SAE. Then we started the fabrication process that is followed by many automobile manufacturers. It was a great experience for me as I was involved in the complete fabrication process. It enhanced my passion for manufacturing technology…”

Preparedness is the state of being ready to take off. It is not sufficient to have passion alone. Willingness to translate passion into action is important. Preparedness indicates how the applicants sustained their passion for the field they intend to specialise in. The applicants should demonstrate their preparedness for the academic programme by listing what they have done and how they have prepared.

Planning is the process of making plans for achieving something. The applicants should mention briefly why they have chosen a particular university. Recently, an applicant asked me whether she should mention in her SOP that she contacted a professor in the university she is planning to apply for admission and enquired about her field, research facilities and so on.

Yes, it is good to mention whether the applicant visited the website of the university and went through the profiles of the professors of a department to contact them and know more about the programme, research opportunities and so on.

Plain English is characterised by easy-to-understand language, clarity, brevity and avoidance of flowery words and phrases. The language should be simple, direct and free from clichés. Some applicants think they should use pompous words and phrases to show that their English is good. No. Use of flowery language in an SOP will have a negative rather than positive impact on those who go through it.

Positivity is the sign of showing hope and being optimistic. It is important to end an SOP with a positive note as in the example below:

“I feel that TU Dortmund’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with its rich blend of competent faculty, intense curriculum and the cherished history of success, would be an ideal place to shape my career.”

A great SOP speaks to the members of the admissions committee and makes them smile and say, “Here is the guy I am looking for.”

The author is professor of English and head, higher education at KCG College of Technology, Chennai. Email: rayanal@yahoo.co.uk

Keywords: statements of purpose, study abroad, overseas education, personal statement

Source: The Hindu, 11-01-2016

HRD Ministry to provide 12,000 free e-books on mobile app

The Union human resource development (HRD) ministry is set to provide 12,000 books in e-format for higher education in the next month under its prestigious e-Pathshala initiative.

According to HRD minister Smriti Irani, this study material in the form of books will be available free on a mobile app.

Irani was visiting the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) here to lay the foundation stone of a women’s hostel. Addressing the gathering, she said, “The study material would be related to various subjects and topics for higher education.”

The ministry has already made available all NCERT textbooks, from class 1 to 12, in e-format for students.

Irani also said that under the ministry’s ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’, all higher educational institutions would now have to adopt 10 villages, instead of five, in their vicinity.

Under the scheme, institutes like the IITs, IIMs and central universities have to adopt villages to educate children who do not have access to education.

“The institutions must make sure that they mention in the academic record of every student about his or her participation in the abhiyan,” Irani said.

She also assured all financial aid to BBAU and other institutions in implementing the scheme.

Irani also appealed to students to help one needy person each after passing out from their institutions. “After getting their degrees, students are busy searching for a job. This is justified as they have to secure their future and serve their parents. But they must also make sure to help at least one needy person each,” she said.

Source: Hindustan Times, 11-01-2016