10 Tips For Stress Management Before Exams

Exams, Stress, Management

Studying is not only an exciting experience but at times stressful too, especially at the time of exams. Exam times are definitely one of the most stressful periods and cause great anxiety amongst most of the students. Though being stressed out is totally ok before exams, but being overly anxious or stressed can be surely avoidable. Stress even though gives one a motivation to work hard and study more, but it can affect the performance and retention of knowledge gained while studying. Lot of people have this common question before the exams as to how to deal with stress. Here are top 10 tips to control anxiety and stress management before exams:

1. Don’t Cram

Though cramming may seem one of the best ways to remember all the points of the topic, but at times it can prove to be counterproductive. By cramming not only one will be exhausted the morning of exam but the fatigued brain won’t be able to recall all the information learnt. A fix to this problem is studying around a month before the exams and get good sleep a night before the exam. So when you feel stressed out, talk to a friend, watch TV or read few pages of a novel.

2. Drink lots of water

Drinking lots of water can be one of the best solutions to tackle the insane stress that exams can cause. While most of the students rely on coffee or energy drinks, it can have a dehydrating effect which would not help in getting you through to long study sessions. Even mild dehydration can impair cognitive functioning and mental performance. So make sure you keep a bottle of water and some juice next to you when you sit to study.

3. Take a break while studying

Studying for longer durations together is not always helpful or advised by the doctor. One should always go for a 10 minutes walking break after few hours of studying. Studies have shown that walking for few minutes can refresh your brain and can increase the efficiency of the brain for another 2-3 hours.

4. Try meditation

Studies have shown that meditation can improve mental focus and brain activity by manifolds. It has proved to be one of the best relaxation techniques. Studying day and night makes your brain tired and decreases its concentration levels. A 5 minute morning and evening meditation can help in improving the focus and perform better. All you need to do is sit in an upright position and breath in and out focusing on the breath.

5. Eat well

Eating a nutritious diet before and during your exam days can help in academic achievement. A well balanced diet not only helps in maintaining focus but keeps the energy levels intact for better working and retention. Therefore a good breakfast on the day of the exam is a must.

6. Move locations

Moving locations can help refresh your studies when the mind starts to lag. So if you notice yourself studying in your room all this while, try to sit in the kitchen or a library or any other quiet place when you start feeling de-motivated. A change of environment can refresh your brain and can help in better retention and increased will for studying.

7. Listen to soothing music

When you mind starts feeling fatigued and goes blank, switch the activity to listening to soothing music. Music has proved to change people’s moods and can help a wandering mind stay focused.

8. Hand-write on paper

When you feel tensed or while revision, avoid taking notes on your laptop. Instead use pen and paper to write down the notes and all the topics you are tensed about. Studies have shown that holding a pen and creating shapes on paper sends feedback signals to the brain, making it easier to recall the information. It also helps in releasing the tension and can make the process of studying more fruitful.

9. Test yourself

Giving yourself a practice test can help you identify the gaps in knowledge before the exam and can help in reducing pre-exam jitters. Studies say that taking a practice test is more efficient way of learning than summarizing or highlighting.

10. Sleep well

Staying up all night before the exam is the worst thing you can do. There comes a point when yourproductivity absolutely declines, that’s when sleeping can help your refresh for next morning. Regular sleep is the best way to reduce stress during exams. Students who have a regular sleep patterns have proved to perform better in their exams as well. So have a good sleep before the D-day and remember to fix an alarm.

https://www.voniz.com/articles/10-tips-for-stress-management-before-exams/

Let us not essentialise the village

Despite the presence of caste in the globalised world of Indian modernity, the belief that caste consciousness is a rural occurrence persists. ‘Urban’ and ‘rural’ continue to be treated as contrasting categories as terms of reference for policy.

Several years ago, I witnessed a key moment in a rural primary school in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. It was defining in that it revealed how casual educational planning in India is in the pursuit of long-term social aims. I was in a Class V room, sitting at the back and watching an old, experienced teacher and the children. The class strength was at least 50. It was a cold morning and many of them had neither shoes nor socks. I knew that while the government distributes a free uniform to schoolchildren, shoes are not a part of it. And in any case, socks are a complicated matter. Somehow, planners have never accepted socks to be a basic need for children.

The lesson that morning was a poem. It was a patriotic piece of verse with plenty of scope for explaining difficult words and their spelling. That is what the teacher was doing when he noticed that someone was standing at the door and holding a piece of paper. The teacher went over and looked at the paper. Then he turned towards the class and said, “All the SC [Scheduled Caste] children, stand up.” Ten to 12 children stood up. The teacher told them, “Go to the office. Your scholarship has come.” They left and the lesson continued.

‘This is a village’

As far as the teacher was concerned, there was nothing unusual in calling some of his students as “SC children”. Highlighting their caste background was part of a routine necessity. It was official work — that’s all. What about the rest of the children? When I put forth this question to the teacher during the half-day break, he smiled and said, “They are general.” That did not answer my question, so I repeated it. He said, “This is a village. Everyone knows everybody’s caste here.” And then he added, “This is not a city where no one worries about caste.”

A recent visit to Allahabad revived the memory of the incident, the teacher and what he had said. This time I had some work in the university. On the way from the station to the guest house, my host updated me with some news. He told me that the process of filling up the hundreds of vacant teaching posts had again stopped because the vice-chancellor had resigned. Many key departments were functioning with less than a third of their sanctioned staff strength. This was a familiar story — a sort of national dirge. But something else my host said that morning reminded me of my visit to the village school in Allahabad district. He said that the university functions under the pressure of three main lobbies: the Brahmin group, the Thakur group and the Kayastha group. They actively compete for influence over every major decision, and, most avidly, over the process of selection for new appointments. After all, their future depends on continuous recruitment and proof of success in keeping up their pressure.

If there is one city in north India where one might expect caste consciousness to have diminished as a result of modernisation, it would be Allahabad. There are several historical reasons. To begin with, the university located at Allahabad is among the oldest in India, and it was not merely an examining university. Set up in 1887, it had existed earlier as the Muir Central College. With special patronage given by the British to several modern institutions in Allahabad, the university progressed rapidly and it became, in popular perception, the “Oxford of the East”. As the historian, Christopher Bayly, who passed away recently, has pointed out, the town area of Allahabad had a higher proportion of literates in English than any other town west of Calcutta. With the establishment of the Indian Press in 1884, Allahabad became a major centre of publishing and literary activity in Hindi.

The Indian Press launched Saraswati in 1900, a monthly magazine that became Hindi’s foremost platform for social and literary debates. As the new century progressed, other journals were born, such as Premchand’s Hans and Mahadevi Varma’s Chand. Remarkably different in their concerns and discourses, these, and other magazines, deepened the reach of modern ideas in every sphere of social life. The university flourished in the middle of a vast amount of dynamic, intellectual, literary and political activity.

Resurgence of caste

While the decline of Allahabad University has a wider, systemic context, the rise of strong caste-based groups inside it is a more specific phenomenon, demonstrating the resilience of the caste system and its identity-giving role. The popular assumption that urban modernity will weaken the power of caste was apparently based on a narrow view of the many functions it serves. Caste continues to be a major social force governing matrimony, socialisation of children, social status, and, in many cases, occupation. Political measures such as universal franchise and reservation were expected to make caste hierarchy irrelevant. Perhaps that did happen, but only to a limited extent and not in every region. Modern living, travel and communication were also supposed to usher in a social order where the individual could practise and enjoy the freedom of choice in all matters. When we look at the growth and number of caste and sub-caste communities that inhabit the Internet, we realise how innocent our great expectations from modernity were.

Caste mobilisation on the Internet reminds us of the desperate search for identity that Indians continue to make, tapping every possible resource — from nation and religion to caste and sub-caste. Apparently, virtual localism provides the same kind of solace in a globalised environment that a visit during the holidays to one’s native village provided to earlier generations. It can also be seen as solace for the physical loss of the village where one’s grandparents once used to live or perhaps are still living.

Urban-rural polarity

Despite this pervasive and vigorous presence of caste in the globalised world of Indian modernity, the belief that caste consciousness is mainly a rural phenomenon persists. “Urban” and “rural” continue to be treated as contrasting categories, not merely in popular parlance but also as terms of reference for public policy. The growth of education seems to have strengthened the view that caste — as a system of values and beliefs — now prevails mainly in villages. This stereotyped perception privileges the urban over the rural, making the former a symbol of progress, and the latter a symbol of stagnation. This simplistic division has distorted public policy and distribution of financial outlays. Towns and cities claim a disproportionately larger share of attention and money. They represent the future of the nation. On the other hand, villages are believed to represent the past. Occasionally treated as objects of reverence and concern, they receive mainly subsistence or, at times, compensatory grants from public funds.

Whether it is caste or any other marker of continuity, the ideology of associating it with rural life is highly problematic. This ideology has imparted an ominous ring to the term “rural development”. As practised today, rural development means pushing the village to copy the town. This vision has no other image of the future to offer to a village except to become urban-like. This kind of mono-modernism is doomed to fail as indeed it already has. The persistence of caste and its resurgence in modernised spaces proves that policies based on rural-urban polarity are mistaken. Such policies are likely to exacerbate the wider crisis that we can witness across towns and villages in various forms, both in the natural and the social environment. It is a false belief that caste-based identities are a rural preserve. It would be equally erroneous to think that gender bias is found mainly in villages. Such ideas are remarkably popular among those responsible for shaping and implementing state policies, such as civil servants and teachers.

If the only future we can see for villages is to turn them into towns, it would be no future worth aspiring for, considering the shape our towns are already in. The late Raymond Williams, a historian of culture, had pointed out that the country and the city are not two rival states of human reality, but rather a continuum with many intermediate forms and overlaps. By essentialising the village, we merely display the limitations of our capacity to acknowledge a general crisis that the agenda of modernity faces.

(Prof. Krishna Kumar is Professor of Education at the University of Delhi and a former Director of NCERT.)

Four Indians among world’s 100 most powerful women’

This year’s class has 15 billionaires with cumulative net worth of nearly $75 billion.

SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia are among the world’s 100 most powerful women, according to the Forbes’ annual list which is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Two women of Indian-origin PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi and Cisco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padmasree Warrior also make the list.

Forbes’s 12th annual list of the 100 most influential women feature extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary CEOs, politicians, celebrity role models, billionaire activists and pioneer philanthropists who are “transforming the world” and have been “ranked by dollars, media presence and impact“.

The top 10 include US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (2), philanthriopist Melinda Gates (3), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (3), GM CEO Mary Barra (5), IMF Chief Christine Lagarde (6), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (7), Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (8), YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (9) and US First Lady Michelle Obama (10).

The 59-year-old Bhattacharya has been ranked 30th on the list, followed by Kochhar on the 35th spot, Mazumdar-Shaw (85) and newcomer on the list Bhartia is on the 93rd spot.

On Bhattacharya, Forbes said she oversees 2,20,000 staff members in 16,000 branches and services 225 million customers at the country’s largest lender (assets $ 400 billion) with offices spread over 36 countries.

“Recognising the multiple roles of working women, Bhattacharya pioneered a two—year sabbatical policy for female employees taking maternity leave or give extended care to family,” it added.

The SBI Chair-Managing director was ranked 36th last year and moved up six spots in the 2015 list.

Kochhar also moved up eight notches in the rankings, from the 43rd spot last year.

Forbes said the 53-year-old ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director has been credited with “leading a remarkable transformation” at India’s largest private sector bank, which experienced major setbacks after the 2008 financial crisis.

“Her focus on ‘mobile banking’ in rural areas to reach more clients has been praised as a model for low cost expansion in a country with a burgeoning middle class,” it said, adding that Kochhar has also been an outspoken proponent of clearer banking laws.

Mazumdar-Shaw moved up from the 92nd spot last year to 85 in the 2015 rankings.

The 62-year-old founded Biocon in 1978 and turned it from a small industrial-enzymes company to India’s largest publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, which had $460 billion in revenue last year and distributes its products in 85 countries around the world, Forbes said.

Forbes said Bhartia, who makes her debut on the list this year, is a “media baroness” who chairs and runs listed HT Media, publisher of English daily Hindustan Times, a Hindi daily of the same name, and business paper Mint.

India—born PepsiCo Chief Indra Nooyi is among the seven “Hall of Fame” women, who had appeared on the inaugural list in 2004 and are still making to the list. Nooyi is ranked 15th on the list.

“The 59-year old PepsiCo CEO rang in PepsiCo’s 50th anniversary by throwing a bone to an activist investor threatening to ruin the party. By handing a board seat to Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, who thinks the food and beverage giant should split up, Nooyi avoided a messy proxy fight,” Forbes said.

India-born Warrior, however, dropped in rankings this year to 84 on the list from 71 last year. Forbes said in her seven years in the USD 138 billion technology company, Warrior has helped Cisco grow in influence through acquisitions, including six in 2014 and 10 in 2013.

The 54-year old Cornell-trained engineer mentors other women in the tech industry and “believes a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education informs creativity,” according to her Forbes profile.

The 2015 Most Powerful Women list features eight heads of state (plus one monarch) who run nations with a combined GDP of USD 9.1 trillion with over 600 million citizens.

The 24 corporate CEOs control nearly USD 1 trillion in annual revenues, and 18 of the women founded their own companies or foundations.

This year’s class has 15 billionaires with cumulative net worth of nearly $75 billion. The total social media footprint (Twitter, YouTube) of all 100 Powerful Women is nearly 475 million followers.

Merkel has made the list ten times over the past 12 years — nine times as No 1. She was first elected in 2005 and won a historic third term in 2013.

The list also includes media mogul Oprah Winfrey (12), singer Beyonce Knowles (21), Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (22), Vogue Editor—in—Chief Anna Wintour (28), Queen Elizabeth II (41), TV personality Ellen DeGeneres (50), actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie (54), Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed (59) and singer Taylor Swift (64).

Forbes added that as of January 2015, 10 women served as heads of state and 14 as heads of government. Women currently hold 23 (4.6 per cent) of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.

Of a total 1,826 global billionaires, 197 are women — 11 per cent of the total. Only 9 per cent of executive officers in Silicon Valley are women.

“That these wretched stats continue year after year is a serious and pressing issue. But there’s hardly a void of powerful women — and the numbers are growing. That is, if we enlarge our focus from just who owns the greatest wealth or the heaviest corporate hammer to include the women whose influence and impact may be greater than the sum of their title,” it said.

Nearly half the women featured are “female firsts”, such as GM’s Barra, the most world’s most powerful businesswoman, and Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the top global state banker.

Drew Gilpin Faust is the first female president of Harvard, and Folorunsho Alakija is the first self—made African billionaire.

More than half of the women (59) on the list are American, including immigrants such as von Furstenberg (Belgium), Weili Dai (China) and Warrior (India).

Asia-Pacific citizens make the second strongest showing at 18. Latin America and the Middle East have four regionals on the list, and there are 12 Europeans and three Africans with a slot.

Keywords: Forbes list, most powerful women list, four Indian women

Vedanta - Hate Hurts Hater Too

ASIF JALAL





According to the social psychologist Erich Fromm, the first step in understanding our destructive disposition is to recognise the two kinds of hate inherent in humanity .One, `rational hate', which is expressed in reaction to a threat to one's own freedom, life or ideas. It has a biological self-protecting function and isn't against life but for life.This type of hate is manifested in the cry of a baby who is hungry . Two, `irrational hate', which is a trait inherent in some people and is marked by the readiness to be hostile to others. This is a passion to cripple life and its practitioners don't wait for an incident to occur, they create it.
Destructiveness is the outcome of the unlived life. A destructive person violates the principles of life in himself as well as others. This truth was revealed to Esarhaddon, the king of Assyria, when he intended to execute King Lailie after destroying his kingdom.
A wise old man told Esarhaddon, “I have let you see that in doing evil to others, you have done it to yourself also. Life is one in all, and yours is but a portion of this same common life. You can only improve life in yourself by destroying the barriers that divide your life from that of others, and by considering others as yourself. You injure your life when you think of it as the only life.“ Indeed, a destructive person is unhappy even if he has attained the aims of his destructiveness.

second opinion - Caste one's lot

Jug Suraiya





How India marches ahead by going backwards

India is a unique country in many ways. And one of the uniquer ways that it is unique is that in order to get ahead it goes backwards, literally.The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) has asked the government's permission to sub-categorise OBCs ­ other backward classes ­ into three separate divisions: the merely backward, the even more backward and the most backward.
The reason is that there is growing apprehension that the so-called `creamy layer' among the OBCs are benefiting disproportionately from the 27% job quota reserved for backward castes at the expense of the most backward. So if all goes according to the NCBC's plan, the country will see a multiplication of OBCs: the backward, the backwarder and the backwardest.
Similarly, among dalits there are the regular dalits and then there are the mahadalits, who are supposedly more dalitical than the ordinary dalits. Ever since Mandal, the politics of what might be called competitive backwardness has gained momentum with not only more and more people wanting to claim backwardness, but more and more people claiming even greater backwardness.
Backwardness has become a prized commodity, like gold or diamonds, and everyone wants a chunk of it. For instance, the Jat community ­ which is known for its assertive forwardness in getting its own way in all manner of things ­ is aggressively pressing its demand to be classified under the OBC rubric. Demands have also been raised that Muslims and Christians too should be given backward quotas within their respective folds, which is all the more intriguing in that many converted to these faiths in order to escape the caste system.
With everyone racing in reverse gear to get backward ­ and then even more backward ­ status, India will witness a boom in backwardness, which will become one of the fastest growing industries in the country . Indeed, backwardness has made so much progress that in some places so-called upper castes, like brahmins, are laying claim to be designated as backward.
If this trend continues, we can pride ourselves on having devised the world's only society that is truly back-to-front.

India gets its 1st transgender college principal

Priyanka Dasgupta

Kolkata:





India, or probably the world, will get the first transgender college principal when Manabi Bandopadhyay takes charge of Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal on June 9. Manabi is currently associate professor in Bengali at Vivekananda Satobarshiki Mahavidyalaya.“This decision was taken by the College Service Commission. I don't interfere in their decisions. They are aware of our open mind. I am happy with this decision,“ state education minister Par tha Chatterjee said.
Technical educa tion minister Ujjal Bis was, who is chairman of the college govern ing body , said: “We were in need of a principal with a strong personality to run the college smoothly .“
Welcoming the decision, Rattan Lal Hangloo, vice chancellor of Kalyani University to which Krishnagar Women's College is affiliated, said, “Manabi is a fine human being, a good academician and an able administrator. We are hopeful her appointment will empower other members of the transgender community.“ On Tuesday morning, Manabi visited the college, sporting Ray-ban sun glasses, curly hair done up in a careless coiffure.
Accompanied by her adopted son Debasish Manabiputro and transgender friend Jyoti Samanta, she was untouched by the ex citement around her. “It is not the post that I sought after. My 92-year-old father lives in Naihati. I took up this offer because I knew it will help me stay close by and look after him. My new colleagues had seen me on tele vision but I had only heard their voices. I wanted to meet them personally before joining,“ she said.
A beaming Debasish said: “Maa wanted to pay a surprise visit. So, we tagged along.“
Colleagues and students are excited.“Manabi Bandopadhyay is a strong individual. She has faced many upheavals. We are optimistic about the development of the college during her tenure. She is a celebrity and her sexual orientation isn't an issue for us,“ said Jayasree Mondal, assistant professor, geography .
Bengali assistant professor Prakash Mondal said: “She is free-spirited. She has a good command over her subject. This college has not had any principal for long. We are happy to have her as our principal.“
Student Payal Mallick considers her an inspiration. “She is a celebrity . It is good news that we are getting her as our principal,“ she said.
Manabi is flooded by calls and friend requests on social networking sites. Jyoti, who ekes out a living playing women in jatras, said, “Manabidi is an inspiration for us. Today , people back home have accepted my identity . I have even portrayed my own fate in a play that dealt with the plight of transgenders. Manabidi's news is a great boost for me. I am taking her help to undergo sex realignment.“ Manabi realizes that problems are aplenty and a lot remains to be done.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani attends World Education Forum at South Korea 

New Delhi: The Press Briefing on Union Human Resource Development Minister Smt Smriti Irani attending the World Education Forum (WEF) organized by UNESCO in Incheon, South Korea was held here in New Delhi today. The Union HRD Minister was in South Korea from 19th May to 22nd May 2015. The Press release was issued during the Press briefing which was addressed by the Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Ms. Vrinda Sarup. The Press Release on the World Education Forum organized by UNESCO which was attended by the Union HRD Minister is as follows:

The Human Resource Development Minister Smt Smriti Irani attended the World Education Forum (WEF) organized by UNESCO, in Incheon, South Korea. The WEF was a landmark of world education leaders, as they met to draw up the world’s education goals for 2030. The efforts of the world community to provide education for all which began at Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 and then in Dakar in 2000, had now gathered at Incheon, South Korea to shape the next stage of education agenda for the time frame 2015 to 2030. 

Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all is the 4th Sustainable Development Goal as part of the new SDGs to be finalized by the UN in September 2015. The WEF expressed its vision to transform lives through education recognising the important role of education as a main driver of development and re-affirmed education as a public good, a fundamental human right and essential for peace, tolerance, human fulfilment and sustainable development. 

The significance of the WEF 2015 is in that it seeks to focus the efforts of the nations on access, equity and inclusion, quality and learning outcomes within a lifelong learning approach, which recognises education as key to achieve development and poverty reduction. India through its Human Resource Development Minister played a key role in including in the Incheon declaration two very critical elements for further implementation of the Education 2030 goals. First, the Human Resource Development Minister played a leading role in ensuring that the Incheon Declaration and the Framework For Action emerging from it includes flexibilities for UNESCO member states. Smt Irani’s lead won resounding support from majority of the countries present and was duly adopted by the WEF i.e the member states have a contextualised strategy based on their national priorities, resources, capacities and challenges to attain the global benchmarks of Education 2030 in an incremental manner. The Framework of Action would respect the autonomy of member states to plan for and progressively develop annual, intermediate and accelerated targets for meeting the global benchmarks. 

The Indian leadership and endorsement of the funding arrangement for the 2030 education goals through a commitment from the developed countries to contribute additional resources (0.7% of GNP) as development assistance to developing countries, especially the least developed countries won wide support and acceptance. 

The Minister also participated as a panellist on the thematic debate -- Innovating through technology: Shaping the future of Education wherein the initiatives taken by India to integrate technology in the educational system for ensuring transparency and ease of delivery of educational services were highlighted. The Minister also informed about the portals like Know Your College and School Report Card that provided free critical information regarding educational institutions. The recent initiative of Shaala Darpan that leverages mobile technologies to ensure parents are connected to schools, enabling them to monitor the progress of their children was mentioned along with SWAYAM, the Indian MOOCS platform, and the e-Library and availability of IT-broadband infrastructure in Universities to ensure availability of free world class education for free to anyone interested in learning. 

Smt Smriti Irani held several key meetings on the sidelines of the conference in support of the effort to build consensus on the Education 2030 target setting implementation arrangements and monitoring systems. Her initiative saw successful meeting of minds with the E-9 group of the most populous countries, the SAARC group of south Asian countries and the powerful emerging economies in the BRICs group. 

With a view to jumpstart India’s commitment and resolve to the new global education agenda, she also held bi-lateral meetings with carefully selected countries with proven success in improving quality in education and learning outcomes, ranging from Japan, Norway, Finland, Brazil etc. for improved science and technology learning, research, teacher education, learning assessment systems and ICT for quality education.