Prof. Kaushik Sahu's Weblog

7 BILLION STRONG? ....?

2011-11-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

"Some say our planet is too crowded. I say we are seven billion strong. But we will only be able to use that strength for the benefit of all if our societies are built on mutual respect and understanding," …Ban Ki-Moon UN Secretary-General. [News report, TNIE, 1.11.11]

And that is a big if….to be strong….

As rightly stated by Mr. Moon, collective strength requires mutual respect and understanding which is clearly missing under the various global imperatives. Since weaknesses abound, there is a distinct lack of “unity of purpose”. Weaknesses abound because of our strong domain dependence. Domains come in various forms….religion, nation, state, caste, creed, class, school, departments, areas, specializations, and so on…..just name a turf (and it is there). This detracts the individual entity from supporting the inclusive growth challenges because the individual prefers to be within the comfort zone of the domain-specific boundaries.

Another extract from the same report reads…

[Quote] UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said actions taken now will decide whether the future of the seventh billion baby will be healthy, sustainable and prosperous or marked by inequalities, environmental decline and economic setbacks. "The world must seize the opportunity to invest in the health and education of its youth to reap the full benefits of future economic development or else face a continuation of the sorry state of disparities in which hundreds of millions of people in developing nations lack the most basic ingredients for a decent life," Osotimehin said. [Unquote]

According to Osotimehin, “planning and the right investments in people will empower them to make choices that are not only good for themselves, but also for a world of seven billion.”

Is Indian education sector investing accordingly? While transcending the borders is the need of the hour, we have regulatory bodies that continue to pursue policies of yesteryears that drive the entities into various impermeable disciplinary silos. While “design thinking” and “systems thinking” philosophies have been promoting concepts of the whole being actually larger than the part, we continue to participate in a fragmented (read parochial) education system that would much rather promote the part being larger than the whole. As a result, professional higher education (particularly in India) is not geared to think differently.

Design thinking is the next competitive advantage…yet in most B-School placements, it is made to appear that the industry is still interested in the “specialization tag”. This confuses the students who are then later supposed to work with a “unity of purpose”. [Earlier blog post: Story of Strong Areas and Weak Areas”]

Related link: Kakodkar Committee Report

Neuromarketing and virtual products

2011-11-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from this article by Raja Mohan Tella titled “Neuromarketing targets the brain” [TNIE, 1-11-11]:
[Quote] Neuromarketing can loosely be defined as the efforts of marketers to understand how the human brain processes images and various marketing stimuli. How, for instance, does the brain collect and filter information while making decisions related to buying. The brain retains some of this collected information; it recalls and re‐associates it when exposed to the corresponding stimuli. This information‐collection process is an ongoing one. We may assume this is done unconsciously, spontaneously and speedily. Ponder over this when you make your next buying decision. What attracted you? What were the colours you liked? How did you react to the words around the product and the images? How did you associate the words with the colours and the propositions the product sets out? These questions will give you a sense of what neuromarketers are attempting to do. [Unquote]

Our new course on Consumer Response to Manufactured Products attempts to elicit human response to products even before they are manufactured. It is part of the PLM courses under Technology Management. The course page is under development (click here for the course descriptions).

Kakodkar Committee Report

2011-06-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

The report released recently is available at http://www.education.nic.in/tech/KakodkarCommitteeReport-05132011.pdf

The report reaffirms what has been mentioned earlier in this blog regarding Indian education failing to promote design thinking in engineering and management schools.

The report comments on the academic stucture and acknowledges the fact that IITs have always enjoyed greater academic autonomy. What is puzzling is that the IITs could not exploit their academic autonomy in breaking free from the department silos to encourage cross-disciplinary interactions. The needs of twentieth century coupled with the industrial focus on mass production, perhaps, prompted them to overemphasize the role of specialists. Unfortunately, this ultimately resulted in unhealthy competition between departments which make it difficult now to encourage inter-disciplinary work. The needs of the 21st century are different. [Related blogposts: (i) A Necessary Condition, but is it Sufficient? (ii) Should we specialize?].

Here are some excerpts from the Kakodkar Committee Report [Source: Chapter-7 Innovation and Entrepreneurship] which highlights the need for a change to meet the challenges ahead.

(Quote)
The IITs have built their departments as silos. Little inter-department work is done and, in fact, when faculty from different departments start working together, they are often even discouraged. Inter-disciplinary programmes have therefore rarely come up and even if they do, they are finally one or the other department's baby. [Page 145]

The curriculum for B.Tech/M.Tech students follows the decades old traditional structure. It progresses from basics of the sciences, to basics of a particular discipline to advanced topics in that discipline. There is some flexibility to take electives, but these are often towards the end of the degree course and are carefully restricted to fit students into a predetermined mould. This well-structured curriculum does not allow a creative student the freedom to do courses across departments, take off for a semester and try participating in a start-up and come back, or take up some project work instead of a course. The curriculum is designed for a mass of ordinary students; it does not cater to exceptional students. The structure goes against the promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation. [page 146-147]

There are exploratory attempts to change this. For example, IIT Delhi has a course on design in the first year which gives students hands-on experience with designing and building useful products. The new IITs have the chance to quickly develop much more flexible curricula as they are not weighed down by decades of tradition and cumbersome processes. IIT Mandi is extending the IIT Delhi approach to give students hands-on design-oriented mini projects throughout their programme. This is patterned on the curriculum in Olin College, Boston, and the conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) approach being popularized by MIT. [Page 147]
(Unquote)

Related links:
Collaborating by Design
http://ksahu.blogspot.com/2010/03/school-of-design-iit-bhubaneswar.html
Design Thinking in the Upcoming IITs, IIMs, NITs

Bottomline:
64% feel that IITs must play a role in shaping technical education in the country [Page 186].

That being so, in my opinion, their biggest contribution will be to bring back the “Voice of the Faculty (in general)” which is presently lost in the academic hegemony of our education system that stifles creativity and innovation [There are good teachers outside the IITs and IIMs as well]. Click on the figure below to see whose autonomy has been always endangered.

PLM and GSLV Failure

2010-12-28T00:10:00.000-08:00

This refers to the Indian Express editorial “No space trials, please” [TNIE; 28-12-2010, Tuesday].

India, saddled with its own developmental challenges, is not in a position to face such costly failures during space trials. It just cannot afford to make such “trials” in the real space. Virtual Space trials (coupled with methods powered by design thinking) would be affordable and beneficial for preparing more reliable “launch ready” vehicles and satellites. Further, virtual simulations will help accelerate the time-to-launch and significantly reduce the costs that are involved in real space trials.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions are, therefore, an imperative for India. This need is also articulated in the paper by T V Joseph who is with the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram. [Source: www.ieindia.org/pdf/91/91AS104.pdf accessed 28-12-2010]

Related links:
Technology Management Program

O2O – Orissa’s lessons from Ohio

2010-09-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

I agree with Vir Sanghvi, The New Indian Express columnist, who says: “Ideology aside, all nations will do whatever it takes to further their own interests – a lesson we would do well to remember” [Here is the full article TNIE dated 12 Sep 2010].

After all America is only meeting its own local challenges while balancing with global priorities. The same is expected of states and nations the world over.

Lessons from Ohio are needed for states like Orissa. Policies are needed that will attract green investments while safeguarding the interests of local productive resources. Few related posts:
Throw more light
Use Brain Power in Manufacturing

e-Governance and PLM in Orissa

2010-07-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

Orissa fares worse than many African countries in terms of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). {Refer TNIE 20 July 2010; Tuesday} According to this report, 64% of the state’s population has been categorized as poor. Yet another report in the same newspaper tries to extol the attempts made under the national ICT program in association with UNDP for bridging the digital divide and expanding livelihood options. It highlights the establishment of Rural Knowledge Centers (Gyan O’ Soochana Kendras) in the most backward and remote pockets of the State.

With reference to the above, there are several similar e-Governance initiatives undertaken by various departments of the State with the support of the National Informatics Center (NIC). All such initiatives are meant to bridge the digital divide for empowering the citizen. However, here are some of my views and suggestions:

Despite several initiatives undertaken by NIC, Orissa has a long way to go in terms of true Citizen Empowerment. Till unbiased citizen satisfaction surveys are undertaken, most e-initiatives will be perceived as being merely ornamental.
Good governance is a necessary pre-requisite for efficient “e-Governments”. It is often cited that decades of welfare governance has not helped us in alleviating poverty. In my opinion, more than welfare governance, Orissa needs clean and transparent Governance in delivering public service [thereby boosting e-Governance initiatives in HEALTH, EDUCATION, INFRASTRUCTURE & ROUTINE ADMINISTRATION]
A good governance track record will help the State in attracting greater support from the center [despite political differences as can be seen in case of Bihar]. Instead of linking all our failures to the lack of support from the center, the State Government needs to ensure clean governance for empowering the citizens.
There seems to be a lack of sincere intent to bridge the digital divide. Even if the intent is good, many programs have failed to deliver the desired end results. Sincere intent expects us to embrace technology wholeheartedly for delivering effective and efficient people-centric services. Quick ramp-ups of people-centric projects from concept-to-delivery are urgent necessities if Orissa has to counter the negative advances of exploitative influences.

Thus, e-Governance initiatives launched by NIC (and allied departments) need to be supported throughout the “program’s lifecycle” (PLM with a different connotation). There is a serious bottleneck here, which is perhaps being addressed by the Bihar government for alleviating its “multidimensional poverty”. Resurgent Bihar wants to spring back.

Can we not do something similar in our state?

Collaborating by Design

2010-06-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

“Collaborate or die” says this ET column dated 2 June 2010. According to Mr. Suresh Nair, Director, Global Strategic Planning, Grey Group: “……Right now, we have an opportunity to make advertising all about ideas, integrate processes, and make planners, creative and servicing all accountable for the idea. It is the age of the C word—collaboration. We can’t pay lip service to that. Collaborate or die! It’s that kind of a world right now. Because you can’t crack a problem by yourself locked up in a room. The agency business is uniquely creative, slightly weird and lateral thinkers come here in every department. So, why aren’t we doing even more to tap that collectively brainpower? But as an industry, we believe in the cult of the personality so much that we forget some of the fundamentals.” [Click here for the full interview]

Talking of collaborative ties, we (in the academic world) have been receiving visitors from Europe and America quite regularly. Here is one interesting anecdotal experience with one such visitor. The person happened to be from USA and was under a short visiting program facilitated by USEFI. His talk was good - revolving round global collaborative models using Web2.0. Yet, after the talk, when we got down to a reality check I could see his limitation in strengthening local collaborative capabilities (around his own Institution). This was indirectly weakening his global initiatives. I could also see him being a hapless entity in the turbulence created around him through the winds of globalization sweeping over his state under the global diktats of some unseen “Universal strategic intent”. Perhaps we all are similar entities under such powerful forces. Closer home we find umpteen cases having similar characteristics. We want to go for global (read distant) collaborations by downgrading the local (read neighborhood) ties. As a result we see unhealthy competition between and within Institutes. The attached document (titled “story of strong areas and weak areas”) could well be the story of most Indian B-Schools as they continue to fail in “Collaborating by Design”.

At the same time, however, there is hope for a brighter future. It is quite interesting to see “The University Design Industry Partnership Scheme” taking off in UK. Their aim is “Profit through Collaboration, not Competition”. Initiated by the British Design Innovation (BDI) here are some excerpts from a news clip:

“….The BDI mantra is that no product, service, process or proposition ever comes to market without the knowledge and skills of several expert parties. With that precept firmly in mind, in February BDI and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) co-hosted Propositions into Profit through Collaboration, not Competition, the first national conference of its kind attended by 37 universities and 30 directors of leading strategic design companies. What transpired was a mutual realisation that they share different but complementary experience, expertise, skills and values.”

“….UDIPS aims to reinforce the value industrial and service designers can bring to discovery-led university research results by acting as a bridge between the technology and consumer-focused market applications.”

“…It is recognised that the design and higher education sectors need to re-discover one another, because the innovation landscape is changing and its boundaries are becoming ever more blurred. It is no longer possible to simply describe universities as being ‘about research’ and industry being ‘about innovation’. Research, innovation, R&D and knowledge transfer are no longer exclusive to any single sector, if they ever were.”….[Click here to read on]

Unfortunately, India has other challenges (read this article by Francois Gautier) that prevent active collaborations. Nevertheless it is time we “collaborated by design” to handle the several inclusive growth challenges because "There is no such thing as a free lunch".

Related links:
Year of Creativity and Indian Education
Academic freedom with a reason
Intelligent cause for academic freedom
There is no such thing as a free lunch

Promoting Design Thinking in Indian Professional Higher Education

2010-04-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

It is hypothesized that Indian manufacturing organizations have a certain firm-level design deficit. We define design deficit as a deficiency that inhibits a firm from absorbing technology. While design deficit can be measured, organizations having such deficit find it hard to absorb even soft technologies (i.e., not-so-hard technology). While research efforts are on to explore the above hypothesis, attempts have been made to identify deficiencies in the Indian engineering curriculum. It is observed that our curriculum is weak in promoting design thinking. India needs to integrate engineering design thinking to reduce the firm-level design deficit.

Our research has been governed by the philosophy and methodologies that promote concurrency during the conceptual stages of design. Earlier research has highlighted the potential of adopting concurrent engineering practices in the conceptual design stages. Concurrent engineering, while reducing the lead time, has the added advantage of creating robust designs that can be easily manufactured. This guiding philosophy, when applied to the engineering education domain, holds great promise for the future engineers of India.

Students can be seen from three perspectives – as products (that are being transformed), as customers (receiving the academic services) and finally, as stakeholders (with a stake in the academic processes). We need an education system that continually encourages them to think from all three perspectives. To that extent, Indian engineering education needs a fundamental transformation – that of developing engineers who can transcend borders. The engineering curriculum, therefore, needs to emphasize the importance of prospecting beyond the disciplinary boundaries for promoting greater interdisciplinary interactions right from the first year. Most engineering colleges, including the well established IITs, have not been able to undertake significant curriculum changes in this direction - that too during a time when global competition is mounting.

Efforts made by developed countries in preparing engineers for a flat world are becoming noticeable under the globalized environment. Views of Prof. Clive L. Dym (who directs the Center for Design Education at Harvey Mudd College since 1991) and his collaborative partners for preparing freshmen have been well articulated in the literature. In India, several notable changes were proposed by the former AICTE Chairman (Prof. R. Natarajan, Former Director, IIT Madras) to foster design thinking early in the engineering curriculum. However, a regulatory framework for exploiting related opportunities is yet to be in place.

Design thinking, as we know, promotes exploration of space beyond the stated needs. Sustained efforts are needed to develop manpower with such desirable attributes. The current regulatory framework for engineering education does not provide an atmosphere for promoting interdisciplinary interactions. Consequently, therefore, most engineering schools restrict themselves within domain-specific disciplinary silos. Even the new engineering schools, which have the advantage of adopting clean-slate academic designs, are unable to adopt such modern practices. Only IIT Madras has been able to bring “Concepts of Engineering Design” into the first year with “Engineering Ethics” in the final year. As a result the mentee school (i.e., IIITD&M Kancheepuram) has been able to develop along these lines. The other mentor IITs need to create similar ambience. The above courses need to be facilitated by a leadership that thinks and acts differently by fostering team work.

Design thinking is being seen as the new competitive advantage. We advocate the need for promoting design thinking early in the engineering and business school programs of the country.

Footnotes (extracted from e-mail Jan 2010):

The KIIT-DS PLM initiative is driven by design thinking. The following blog post titled "Design thinking in the upcoming IITs, IIMs and NITs" might be of interest to readers. Read on: http://ksahu.blogspot.com/2010/01/design-thinking-in-upcoming-iits-iims.html

Also, the following information from the Harvard Business Online web site showcases a book titled "The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage" by Roger L. Martin (26 Oct 2009). Read on: http://hbr.org/product/the-design-of-business-why-design-thinking-is-the-/an/12176-HBK-ENG

Further, the attached article is for readers interested in having a design thinking perspective on strategy. [Read article: TOWARDS AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL MERGER OF DESIGN THINKING, STRATEGY AND INNOVATION by Ulla JOHANSSON and Jill WOODILLA; 8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland]

A School of Design @IIT Bhubaneswar

2010-03-19T01:29:00.000-07:00

IIT Bhubaneswar will have four more schools with interdisciplinary approach (TNIE; 19 March 2010). The inclusion of a School of Design and Creative Arts is a welcome step forward. However, one needs to ensure that design thinking permeates beyond the boundaries of the school into the other schools of “engineering sciences” (the following blog post partly articulates the related concerns).

Let us hope that IIT Bhubaneswar will be able to set examples to promote design thinking from Orissa.

Design Thinking in the Upcoming IITs, IIMs, NITs

2010-01-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

This refers to the news report “Liberate Indian Science from Red Tape: PM” (TNIE 4 Jan 2010; Mon). Our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has rightly articulated the need for liberating Indian science by providing autonomy to the Indian scientific community. He has underscored the importance of fostering greater interdisciplinary interactions for finding solutions germane to the needs of developing countries in a world facing serious environmental issues. Here is an excerpt:

(Quote) He also called for dismantling compartmentalization of scientific endeavours to realise India's ambitions of promoting world‐class research. "We need to concentrate on strengthening the linkages between academic institutions, research institutions and industry. Today each operates within its own silo," he said. "Unless we close those gaps, our research and development sector may report high performance in terms of published papers but our challenges of the 21st century may still remain unsolved," he added. (Unquote)

While Dr. Singh’s concerns revolve round Science and Technology, here is a related report titled “Want to Engineer Real Change? Don't Ask a Scientist.” (The Washington Post dated 25 Jan 2009) by Professor Henry Petroski. Dr. Petroski is a professor of civil engineering and history at Duke University. He is at work on a book about science, engineering and global challenges. Here is an excerpt: (Quote) Obama should keep his promise to "restore science to its rightful place" -- and put engineering on at least an equal footing. (Unquote)

He highlights the distinction between science and engineering and here I quote from papers by Professor Clive Dym who has paraphrased the following thoughts and words of Albert Einstein and Rober F. Kennedy:
Scientists see things as they are and ask, Why?
Engineers see things as they could be and ask, Why not?

Indeed, Professor Dym has articulated the need for preparing engineers for a flat world – that is, prepare engineers to embrace the inclusive growth challenges of the world. He and his research associates represent a school of thought that promotes design thinking in the engineering curricula and upholds Herbert a Simons views as articulated in his landmark lectures on “The Sciences of the Artificial” (1969): “…Engineering Schools ought to focus on design as their central activity, rather than being schools of applied science…”

India has its own inclusive growth challenges and the Government of India is doing its level best to expand the capacity of its premier institutions to promote access to education. Yet the institutional mechanisms and the cultures need to change for promoting access without compromising excellence. Till that happens MHRD-GoI will be saddled with a legacy system that views engineering as “the schools of applied sciences” and values compartmentalization more than looking for opportunities beyond disciplinary boundaries. It is not strange, therefore, when one sees the new IIT Bhubaneswar (in Orissa) naming its engineering schools as “schools of sciences”.

A possible limiting factor could be the policy framework that supports design in technical education. Quoting Professor Dym (2005) “Design is what engineers do, and the intelligent and thoughtful design of the curriculum should be the community’s first allegiance.”

Fortunately, India also has its own unsung gurus who also believe in design thinking. Attempts were made by some of them in the past to bring changes in the technical education system of the country. They had proposed policy changes to infuse design thinking early in the education system. Accordingly the draft National Design Policy had been formulated (early part of this decade). It was being spearheaded by NID, CII and DIPP-GoI. Here is an excerpt from the draft policy:

Draft recommendation emphasizes: “Encouraging the teaching of design oriented to the needs of Indian industry, especially small scale and cottage industries in tertiary educational institutions such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Universities.”

Here is what has finally happened:

Abridged policy document states (DIPP Website): “Encouraging the establishment of departments of design in all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) as well as in prestigious private sector Colleges of Engineering and Architecture.”

This could be a possible limiting factor that prevents India from ramping up its capacity for quickly meeting the inclusive growth challenges. Note how IIMs have been dropped from this policy. Also, design teaching has been de-emphasized and design has been restricted to yet another silo (a department). This restraint needs to be removed and the changed policy has to be adopted wholeheartedly by the upcoming IITs, IIMs and Universities if India is serious about meeting its inclusive growth challenges.

Related blog posts (with models for improved public-private partnerships):
Realizing Prof. Yashpal’s Vision

Dassault Systemes PLM Center @KIIT

2009-11-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

The Center for Building Competence in Product Lifecycle Management was established @KIIT in partnership with Dassault Systemes on 21 October 2009 (Wednesday) Read on….

This is a step towards fostering sustainable growth initiatives in India. Here is a related report from the PLM Summit held at Mumbai on 6 Nov 2009 (sun). Read on… Sustainable Innovation in the Spotlight at Dassault Systèmes' 3rd ... (the pdf document).

As the KIIT-DS PLM Chair, I would like to draw the attention of readers to the following blog post titled “Godspeed to SPEED” for a brief background leading to this partnership. This center will most likely boost our earlier efforts to promote design thinking in the Engineering and Management Schools of India. Please see this statement of purpose (.pdf document) for some hints about our future plans.

VVIPs - Victims of VIP Syndrome

2009-08-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Arun Bothra’s article “Real Victims of the VIP syndrome” is worth reading[TNIE; Wed; 26 Aug 2009]. The author is an IPS officer in the Orissa cadre. The full article is enclosed herewith.

If this is the fate of the Indian government security apparatus, imagine the fate of the individuals subject to private policing. Unfortunately, the academic world in India is also not immune to such “VIP syndromes”.

Vitalizing PLM initiatives in India

2009-07-18T05:11:00.000-07:00

The news item “Cognizant, Invensys forge alliance” (18 Jul 2009; Saturday; The New Indian Express) shows how manufacturing and technology management is gaining ground as a strategic alternative for driving growth in many verticals. While Cognizant has forged an alliance with Invensys, it is yet to be seen how they are going to create an ambience for Indian manufacturing to absorb PLM solutions wholeheartedly.

Being a strong believer in design thinking, here is my view about “Why PLM initiatives do not take off smoothly in India?”

It has been hypothesized that most Indian firms (educational institutes included) have a certain design deficit. As proposed earlier [see the research proposals by K. Sahu and B.P.Panda (2007, 2008)] the design deficit makes it hard for organizations to absorb soft technology. While research is underway to prove this hypothesis, PLM solution providers have to cover significant extra mile in developing viable partnership programs. Doing business through VARs (value-added resellers) as business partners may not be the right solution for most developers of PLM solutions. One key ingredient missing in these partnership programs is healthy collaborative-leadership governed by design thinking. As a result MoU objectives are pursued more in letter than in spirit. Hence they don’t yield the dividends that are expected.

The framework suggested in this paper titled “Using Meta Objects for Enhancing Supply Chain Collaboration” (Sahu et. al. 2002) can be extended to capture the Voice of the Stakeholder (VoS) and then subsequently augment the quality function deployment (QFD) process by facilitating collaborative involvement of the supply chain partners. This will vitalize the PLM initiatives for effective outcomes.

Realizing Prof. Yashpal’s Vision

2009-07-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

While the Yash Pal committee has been quite candid in highlighting the ground reality in the Universities of India, the Government cannot and should not think of doing away with the upcoming Deemed Universities. Rather it should create a conducive environment to promote the higher level thinking made explicit in the Yashpal committee report – that of encouraging multi-disciplinary interaction with greater autonomy for free academic thinking. It is important to have greater autonomy in a self-regulatory framework with a competitive environment taking care of the quality needs of the education sector – independent regulators will help to a certain extent in ensuring transparency.

Reengineering the academic processes in old Universities would invite a lot of resistance. The old regulations have always inhibited schools, departments and individuals from looking beyond their parent disciplines. Having created water tight disciplinary silos, it is difficult for the old Universities to adapt to the new mindset of promoting multi-disciplinary interactions.
Unlike the old Universities, however, the new Universities are like clean slates where the idea of a University (as espoused by Prof Yash Pal) can be genetically coded right from the start. Thus instead of making them conform to old regulations, a new innovative regulatory framework should be quickly put in place for promoting free and unfettered academic thinking.

Each individual academic entity in such a University should have the autonomy to look beyond disciplinary boundaries in support of the larger University objectives. Resources ought to be deployed accordingly. The old regulations never encouraged individuals to be growth engines – their ideas were never appreciated. Click on the figure alongside. People with ideas have either left or have withdrawn into their shells. Such situations should not arise in the future Universities of India.

In this connection I would like to highlight the IFEES-GEDC declaration which is a reflection of the changing times where engineers have to proactively participate in promoting a flat world. While this body is promoting the role of engineers beyond borders, there are similar bodies in other disciplines as well (e.g. doctors without borders).

Here is an excerpt from the Paris Declaration of the Global Engineering Deans Council:
1) To provide a world-wide forum for exchange of information and discussion of experiences, challenges, and best practices in leading an engineering school.
2) To provide a means for engineering deans to partner with one another in curriculum development and innovation, and to collaborate with industry, government, and other stakeholders.
3) To build a network that would support engineering deans to play a leadership role in developing regional and national policies to advance economies.
4) To participate in the development and maintenance of a global system of quality standards for engineering education.
[The GEDC’s Paris Declaration]

Professor Yash Pal on Higher Education

2009-06-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Professor Yash Pal committee recommendations vindicate my stance on several aspects related to academic processes – particularly on issues related to granting greater autonomy to the individual for various creative pursuits. Here is one article titled "Creating an enabling environment for fostering creativity" written in 2007 for young deemed universities, such as KIIT. Here are few others:

[2006] Invited article titled "Sensitizing beyond the Science Discipline" Vigyan, The Science Magazine of KIIT Science College, First Edition (April 2006)
[2006] Invited article titled "Multiskilling the Craftsman" for KUSHALI - The Technical Magazine from ITI, KIIT (February 2006).

I have been articulating many of these views even before I joined KIIT in 2005 (some of them are archived in my blog posts: http://sites.google.com/site/kaushiksahu/Home/Weblogs )
The following views (classified under education) were articulated to break the “socio-politico-economic stalemate” that I was sensing in the education sector while at KIIT: http://ksahu.blogspot.com/search/label/Education

I hope India will be able to exploit the opportunities embedded in the Yash Pal committee report with MHRD playing the role of the facilitator.

Here is the full report & The 100 days action plan

Reengineering Indian academic processes

2009-06-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

Professor Damodar Acharya’s viewpoints expressed in an article titled “On Growth Mode” (ET Supplement dated 15 June 2009) makes interesting reading - particularly the ones on creating opportunities up in the value chain and a strong bottom-line recommendation for scratching entrance examinations of all kinds. In his capacity as the Director, IIT Kharagpur he says: “Time is ripe to scratch the entrance examination of all kinds, be it for admission to prestigious technical and medical institutions or leading universities in the country.” While it would be interesting to know the details of his recommendations for the admissions process, here is one “out-of-box” suggestion that I had articulated earlier in my blog post titled: “Year of Creativity and Indian Education”

When I was pursuing some links in the Harvard Business Review (June 2009 issue), I came across the following two papers – a must read for these tough times.

As also pointed out in an ET article (by T T Ram Mohan dated 11 June 2009), the first paper titled “The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School” by Joel Podolny highlights some shortcomings in B-School teaching: (a) Inattention to ethics and leadership (b) A tendency to teach management in “disciplinary silos” instead of offering a holistic view (c) A focus on theoretical models that do not clarify how organizations actually work and (d) An obsession with school rankings that, in turn, leads to a focus on jobs and salaries in place of the greater good of society. Some of these points I had highlighted earlier in my own blog post titled “Value-Oriented B-School Curriculum”(http://ksahu.blogspot.com/2009/03/value-oriented-b-school-curriculum.html)

The second paper titled “How to be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy” is a good one for creating a just and humane work environment. The author, RobertI. Sutton, is a professor of Management Science and Engineering atStanford University, where he cofounded the Hasso Plattner Institute ofDesign. Interestingly, though my proposal for establishing the “KalingaInstitute of Design (KID)” brought me close to KIIT in 2005, it is yet to be a vibrant reality in the erstwhile state of Kalinga (Orissa).

Musings of a foreign returned Oriya

2009-05-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Today’s editorial titled “Buffalo’s gain, Bangalore’s loss” in the new Indian Express (7 May 2009) took me down memory lane. Read on..

When I moved out of US in 1992, it was because of some early recessionary trends that I found quite disturbing. The trends were based on a few perceptions that I had picked during my stay. One was that of my grandfather who was vehemently against Indians underselling themselves in the US job markets. The second was my experience as a research scholar. Though I eventually got a full assistantship, my first one was a shared one (I don’t remember whether it was a half TA or 1/3rd TA). I silently worried – is this not underselling? Subsequently, thereafter, I worked hard to earn my full assistantship so that I could finish my doctoral research in four years (with the fourth being the most productive in terms of papers). This year also got me a job prospect with GE Kentucky sending me air tickets to finalize a possible job offer. However, before I could proceed, there was a hiring freeze. The GE official was profusely apologetic in requesting me to return the air tickets - which I did immediately. I heaved a sigh of relief because of two reasons – the first one related to my concern for Americans being sidelined in their own country and the second, my own low hassle tolerance limit in going through the immigration formalities for staying in USA on a work permit (which might have tempted me to go for a green card). I badly wanted to return to India. The first reason, however, was more significant. More so because I had seen the emotional conflict faced by some quite tolerant American graduate students during campus recruitments (where Indian students on study visas were taking away the jobs meant for Americans). Corporate America was not showing any concern for these job losses.

Postscript: Some may want to know – How does a person with such a low hassle tolerance limit continue to handle the hassles in a state like Orissa? A state which loves to ignore its own talent for outsiders?

I don’t have the answers yet. Perhaps a meet with the incumbent chief minister will unravel the answers (his late father was my late grandfather’s acquaintance and the above experience was possible because of their respective powerful personalities). Like any other common man of the day, it is not easy to meet the chief minister - more so when our political ideologies are so different [BJD taking a left turn definitely can’t have the same ideologies as that of a BJP supporter (i.e., moderate though progressive right-of-center and not the extreme right)....Please see the footnote inserted on 26 Aug 2009]. However, the only thing apparently common is transparency – but then TRANSPARENCY is a relative term. [Read my blog on Transparency in the Private Sector & How transparent is Transparency International India]

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NB (26 Aug 2009): The recent happenings in BJP are rather quite disturbing. They must be open to dissent and agree to disagree. Accepting constructive criticisms is healthy in a democracy.

Year of Creativity & Indian Education

2009-04-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

The Year 2009 has been dedicated as the Year of Creativity by some nations. For instance "The goal of the European Year 2009 is to promote creativity and innovation among the general population". (Click here for the details). Similarly, in Australia: "In 2009, the Department of Education, Training and the Arts is focusing on celebrating and developing creativity within Queensland schools". (Click for details)

Our country needs to do some serious out-of-box thinking to foster creativity in the Education sector. Though Government of India sponsors several Technology Business Incubators to promote creativity, it needs to be even more imaginative with its education system. Here is one suggestion mooted @KIIT University before the visiting DST representatives in February 2008. The e-mail communiqué (dated 28 Feb 2008, Thu) to Prof. Phatak, IIT Mumbai, has been reproduced here:

Dear Professor Phatak,
It was indeed a pleasure meeting you along with the others from DST. It was quite heartening to note your observation about our current rigid educational framework which builds diffidence into the system and does not recognize failures. Also about an examination system that destroys team work and leaves hardly any scope for adopting innovative methods of pedagogy. I am myself a supporter of radical reforms in education.

The efforts taken by Mr. Mittal and his team in setting up TBIs are quite commendable (i.e., by looking at the returns). Since time was short I could not sharpen my suggestion related to "scaling-up" of TBIs. I want to place it here in perspective for consideration whenever possible.

The suggestion for "scaling-up" does not call for any additional financial support. It only requires providing "SEZ" (Special Educational Zone) status to some Universities/Institutes. Under SEZ status their educational environment could be reengineered to overcome the difficulties cited in your talk. This would not be possible in older Institutes as they have spent decades in establishing their several "core competencies" within a rigid framework. As a result it becomes difficult for their faculty to move freely out of their own turf. Young start-up Universities (like KIIT) have the advantage of providing clean-slate design opportunities for trying out various models of coopetition with active industry participation. It may be, therefore, possible for DST to get greater returns by considering the whole University/Institute as a single TBI.

This, however, requires the Ministry of Science and Technology recommending policy changes through the MHRD for some of these Institutions. Even though it is a difficult alternative, it has the potential of unleashing creativity by ensuring that innovation becomes an integral part of the academic process.

My other suggestion was related to reengineering the admissions process for one of the IITs (which can come under this SEZ). That is, select interested applicants at random (not through JEE) and then develop them into engineers. I chose IIT-Kharagpur (i.e., IITK) because it has years of experience which could be utilized for coming up with innovative pedagogic models that the country can use for meeting the inclusive growth demands for quality higher education. Please take your time to send your response.

Regards.......K. Sahu

Value-oriented B-School Curriculum

2009-03-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

An American B-School student posed a question to one InternationalAdvisory Board of a well known European B-School: "Whether B-Schools had caused the economic mess that America and the world was in?"

This refers to the editorial opinion by Arun Maira titled “Reorienting Business Leadership” (ET, 19 March 2009, Thu). He says: "The global economic meltdown and erosion of trust require business schools to examine the fundamentals of the education they provide". Access the following link for the complete article: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Editorial/Reorienting-business-leadership/articleshow/4284491.cms

We certainly need to do something in our own respective B-Schools and examine the values we are imparting to our students. The existing curriculum regulated by AICTE is highly domain specific (locked within self-centred functional areas) and is driven towards the goal of "making more money using other people's money". As Maira says: "The financial services industry ballooning into a world of exotic derivatives.......unfortunately bringing the global economy down...".

Courses like Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility are important subjects that need to be over-emphasized. And, if I may suggest once again, we need to do something about de-emphasizing the role of specializations in B-Schools. However, a balanced "value-oriented" core course foundation is an absolute must for the MBA program.

Holistic measures of goodness are needed to counter the media hype surrounding wealth-oriented “lifestyle statements”. This requires B-Schools reengineering their academic and placement processes. Here is another related link written long ago (I wish timely steps had been taken by the stakeholders): Corporate Governance.

Godspeed to SPEED

2008-12-22T02:43:00.000-08:00

Karmic conscience guided me to some interesting sessions coordinated by IFEES officials at the 38th ISTE Convention hosted by KIIT University from 19-21 December 2008. The student forum was just about to conclude and the industry forum was to begin.

With ISTE acknowledging IFEES leadership in being a “flat-world facilitator”, the convention was of enormous symbolic significance in terms of meeting India’s inclusive growth challenges in technical education.

The student forum coordinated by SPEED was eagerly committed to mixing and mashing of global ideas on a local platform made available at Kalinga (Orissa). SPEED is short for Student Platform for Engineering Education Development. These students want action more than talk. Godspeed to their action plans. Hopefully, policy makers would be able to provide them the necessary ambience to take their plans forward.

The industry forum was moderated by Mr. Xavier Fouger of Dassault Systems who emphasized the urgent need of changing the industry focus from “Growth” to “Sustainable Development”. Highlighting WEF’s focus on “the power of collaborative innovation”, his talk was governed by the ideals guiding product-lifecycle-management (PLM) issues. He set the stage for the industry panel members to articulate their views on the theme: “Industry Expectations of Institutions and Industry Obligation to Institutions”.

The panel was represented by Infosys, L&T, Tata Technologies, Autodesk, Safran Aerospace, and Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd. Though the panelists articulated their expectations of Institutions, they fell short of committing their obligations to the Institutions. Notable among them were Infosys and Tata Technologies who represent companies having significant business interest in the state of Orissa. They failed to take the cue from a QFD framework presented by Mr. Fouger for deploying the voice of the industry in shaping the University curriculum. The industry reps were evasive in their response for supporting an actionable initiative to establish a “Center for Product Lifecycle Engineering and Management” in an upcoming University (such as KIIT). An idea was mooted to take the campus connect programs of Infosys to higher levels through formation of consortiums around Universities. Mr. M. P. Ravindra’s articulation, however, leaves much to be desired from a company which claims to be guided by a certain value-based doctrine.

During the policy session, Dr. Hans Hoyer rightly observed the lack of maturity in most Universities in enabling cross-functional teams for breaking disciplinary boundaries to handle multidisciplinary projects. During the IFEES Overview he highlighted the importance of “Globalish” for promoting effective global interaction. Dr. Krishna Vedula, UMASS Lowell, promoted his IUCEE initiatives. However, his presentation was not backed by adequate suggestions for meeting the challenges currently faced by India. Their Train the Trainers program was banking heavily on overseas experts with support from companies like Infosys. Prof. N.R.Shetty, the ISTE Chairman, however, drew the panel’s attention to the indigenous capabilities being currently deployed to enhance the capacity and quality of technical education providers. Mr. Ravindra from Infosys did support the idea of having cross functional student teams (including students with a liberal art background) for undertaking student projects. However, he could not place any prescriptions in this regard for overcoming the limitations imposed by regulators such as AICTE.

Hopefully, policy makers would be able to develop actionable strategies for deploying the voice of the stakeholder into the University curriculum through active industry-institute participation spread across the globe. I wish IFEES & ISTE all the best in synergizing their efforts.

After all there is indeed an Intelligent cause for academic freedom (please click)

Criticisms and comments may be directed to kaushiksahu@gmail.com

Engineering better engineers

2008-12-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

Our country has been slow in creating an environment for academics to engage in free thinking. Most academics are, therefore, constrained to operate within various narrow confines. Similarly, the academic engaged in technical education is no different. As a result, we fail to create true technical professionals. The country needs “engineers who should be allowed to engineer” and “managers who should be allowed to manage”. Till that happens, the value of free and independent professional thinking cannot be fully realized by our country.

Professional bodies (such as ISTE) need to work harder in removing the existing constraints on the professional engineer.

Here I reiterate my stance to ISTE Orissa chapter made in the early-to-mid 1990s. I hope ISTE office bearers of the Orissa chapter will be able to set good examples and lead the way in attracting greater resources to the state.

The ISTE membership drive in this part of the country will yield effective results only when the office bearers undertake genuine pains to attract (not coerce) membership. They need to first spread awareness of their good work in order to attract life time members. Lifetime membership cannot and should not be coerced. A person can continue to work in the best interest of the profession even without being a member of such societies.

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Here is the prelude to this post: The following message by Mr. Ajit Mohapatra (President, Orissa State Productivity Council) was given to Engineers in one event held at KIIT (back in 2006):

“E is equal to M into C square”
[where E = Engineer, M = merit and C = communication]

I wonder how many from KIIT University have been allowed to internalize the context and the depth behind this message. I may be corrected if I have misreported the above event

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Academic Freedom with a Reason

2008-12-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

KIIT University is going to host the 38th ISTE National Convention from 19 – 21 December 2008. The theme is “Autonomy and accountability of technical education in changing scenario”. I hope the participants representing the private sector will champion the cause for greater freedom.

Read Kiran Karnik’s article on “Restructuring the education system” [Economic Times; 10 December 2008; Wednesday] . Karnik says:
“Institutions like UGC and AICTE are not needed and the effort of transforming them to a new role is unlikely to work. It is best that they are wound up. The National Knowledge Commission has recommended an independent regulatory body.” He adds: “The stifling oversight of government, of which the UGC and AICTE have become willing surrogates, needs to be removed and replaced with a helping hand.”

Here is my view:
[On Public] The government-funded Institutions (including the “elite” ones) have enjoyed substantial taxpayer support over the decades and it is time for payback. The elite ones also enjoyed greater autonomy but did little to empower the less privileged ones during the protectionist era. One way to payback now is by participating actively in various inclusive growth initiatives. Government oversight is, therefore, essential for such Institutions to ensure proper payback.

[On Private] The private sector, however, needs a free and independent regulatory framework. They need regulatory bodies bringing superior standards to make the education system “glocally” competitive.

Public-Private-Participation is worthwhile only when pains and gains are properly shared. In the current disposition, however, the public seems to pass on the pains to private without fixing much accountability on the self.

As I espouse for greater academic freedom, I am cautioned by William Wordsworth’s poem “Ode to Duty” (click).

Autonomy under AICTE

2008-10-20T04:22:00.001-07:00

In the tussle with MHRD during 2003-2004 the B-Schools were complaining about autonomy on the fee hike issue. Click on this image to observe whose autonomy was really at stake then:

The story is no different even now (circa 2008). A teacher's voice continues to be choked.

KIIT University hosted the one-day national seminar on “Role of Teachers in Professional Education in the Changing Scenario” on 19 October 2008 (Sunday). The event managers did what they are good at – hosting the event at a very short notice. However, while severe faculty shortage was identified as the key issue, little moderation was done in terms of consensus building with positive outcomes for the 200 odd participating teachers.

The AICTE Chairman, Prof. Yadav, cited the imbalance in our higher education system highlighting the brand equity of IITs and IIMs over the others. Perhaps he could have acknowledged that these brands were built over decades of government support with huge funding and much greater academic autonomy. The less privileged institutions which are being regulated sans any significant government fund are struggling against regulatory pressures to impart quality education. With global pressures mounting, we did see some references about dissolving the boundaries to accommodate interdisciplinary nature of academic activities. However, we are a long way from achieving the necessary conditions (let alone sufficiency).

The former Chairman, Prof. R. Natarajan’s earlier efforts in placing Design and Innovation courses in engineering schools is yet to be accepted wholeheartedly. Schools and colleges under AICTE still need to appreciate the fact that design is a multidisciplinary activity. To foster the design culture, therefore, we need to catch students young. This calls for some changes in the engineering and management courses. It is yet to be seen when AICTE will bring back its focus for a greater emphasis of design in engineering education. Engineers and managers should be able to assume ‘multi-partite roles’.

The AICTE representation was distinctly absent after the inaugural session, leaving the house open to the other speakers for sharing their views. Prof. Binayak Rath, Vice Chancellor of Utkal University and Prof. Omkar Mohanty, Vice Chancellor BPUT, seemed to be ventilating their frustrations with the Indian regulatory bodies. While the VC-BPUT went to the extent of labeling the teachers as “TEA CHERS”, he did suggest the use of quality assurance models for education. His suggestion for going through the models of ABET and MBNQA would have been more apt if it were made to the AICTE officials. The participating teacher was left to wonder if the theme of the seminar should have been “Role of Regulators in Professional Education in the Changing Scenario”.

Prof. Devi Singh, Director-IIM Greater Noida, did make some valuable suggestions about teachers taking a holistic view of the education system and regulators creating a competitive environment for improving the quality standards. Prof. Balaveera Reddy, Former VC, VTU, made an interesting presentation extolling the virtues of Computer-Based Teaching. He came close to convincing the audience about technology solutions for overcoming the capacity constraints. He suggested models for enabling the faculty to participate in meaningful content building exercises with technology aiding the process of dissemination and evaluation. He wondered why universities (such as KIIT) were not taking the lead in replicating such models within the existing boundaries of autonomous freedom.

With constructive moderation being distinctly absent, this platform could not be used for making recommendations to AICTE for creating the much needed framework for enabling teachers to perform. The idea of suggesting the teacher to first learn and then teach was not being seen as a bottleneck for inhibiting the progress of learner-centric models where the teacher becomes a facilitator (as well as a learner). The most important role of a teacher is to be able to articulate freely. AICTE’s role, therefore, is to create an enabling environment for the teacher to be a self-starter in enlarging this role further. The suggested models of “Training the Trainers” or “Mentoring the Mentors” are dated ideas which detract the system from being proactively learner-centric. An eager learner (be it a teacher, student or an administrator) needs a conducive technology-enabled learner-centric academic environment to be a self-starter.

Unfortunately, the voice of the teacher continues to be choked – even in the new millennium!! The participating teachers were hapless observers and found little scope for interacting with the speakers to develop a shared vision. They preferred to remain mute spectators till the end.

Finally, taking a cue from the well proposed vote of thanks by the Registrar, KIIT University – no one really seems to care about what a teacher “MAKEs”. I have dedicated this blog to make people see yet another viewpoint.

Bubbles of positivism

2008-10-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

Positive thinking needs to be supported by negative thinking. Otherwise it may lead to the formation of bubbles which hurt when they burst.

Please click on the image to enlarge the cosmic uplink by Vithal C. Nadkarni titled “Too positive for one’s own good” [Economic Times dated 18 October 2008, Saturday]. He quotes from Prof. John Mayer’s blog post titled “Was Financial Caution Undone by Positive Thinking?”

Like the financial sector, the education sector is no different. The education sector in India needs to be careful in its expansion pursuits by taking lessons from the US meltdown. Keeping ears open to the dissenting voice (read negative feedback) is a must for any organization wanting to be on the path of continual improvement.

The same holds true for academic regulators who need to create an enabling environment for the changing times. After all, who will regulate the regulator?

Grid computing yet to energize the physical world

2008-10-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

(Click) The seven challenges (01 Nov 2001), in general, continue to be real for us in Orissa. Are we ever going to be able to overcome these challenges? Challenge #6 still poses the question: How to make the virtual space complement the physical space? Though technology is making rapid advances, organizations are lagging behind in terms of realizing the potential benefits.

The global computing grid has been unveiled by CERN to handle real-time data related to particle physics research. Click this link for details (Oct 03, 2008) titled "Computer grid links 7,000 scientists around the globe"by Jonathan Lynn, Reuters. Here is an excerpt:

[Quote]
The data flow will be about 700 megabytes per second, or 15 million gigabytes a year for 10 to 15 years – enough to fill three million DVDs a year or create a tower of CDs more than twice as high as Mount Everest.

“To analyze that amount of data, you require not only a lot of computing but a new computing paradigm – that's what we call the Grid, and that's what we're here to celebrate today,” CERN spokesman James Gillies told a press briefing.

Just as the Worldwide Web – invented in 1990 at CERN – allows users to share access to information over the Internet, computer grids allow the linking of computing resources such as data storage capacity and processing power.

CERN has only 10 per cent of the computing capacity needed for the LHC experiment, which will allow scientists to observe sub-atomic particles and probe the nature of gravity and matter. The grid will provide the rest.
[Unquote]

(Academic) Corridors of Power

2008-09-25T05:21:00.001-07:00

Persons interested in behavioral studies must have come across Stanley Milgram’s experiments on “behavioral study of obedience” (1963). Refer this Spiritual Quotient by Mukul Sharma titled “Power of authority is in ourselves” (Economic Times dated 13 October 2006, Friday) for the experiment. (Please click on the image to enlarge)

Academic administrative functionaries wearing similar “white coats” (read designations) ought to take note of what their roles ought to be in the emerging knowledge economy.

The serious academic (in India) should be asking whether he/she belongs to the significant majority 2/3rd or the significant minority 1/3rd. Or maybe to the unspecified “minority within the minority 1/3rd” who would like to bring reason into the way things are currently being done.

Indian education sector has to move away from the unhealthy influence of such (academic) corridors of power. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) of India has been making recommendations incessantly for drastic reforms in the education sector – almost down to the level of granting greater academic autonomy to the individual. The moot point to all Academic Functionaries: Are they interested in changing their old mindsets?

Building an Educational Institute is becoming the order of the day in Orissa (as in India). However, dedicated Institution builders are becoming a rare breed. Is it because of the existing models of Educational Governance that do not promote "out-of-box" thinking? Or, Is it due to our legacy that values blind obedience over constructive dissent? Do we really need these legacy systems where orders are to be obeyed without questioning the possible outcomes?

A Law on Hope

2008-09-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

There should be a “Law on Hope” said Justice S.B.Sinha, Judge, Supreme Court of India, while delivering the 1st H.M.Seervai Memorial Lecture organized by the KIIT Law School on 20th September 2008.

A Law on Hope – seems to be quite an apt proposition for our times. We live in times when there is deception all around us – be it health, education, industry or plain governance. Raising expectations of people without doing enough to meet these expectations creates frustration and an environment of hopelessness.

Here is an excerpt from Dr K P Prabhakaran Nair’s article titled “The real India is getting poorer by the day”

(Quote)
When the World Bank says that four out of ten Indians live below the poverty line, one could quarrel with the methodology used, but, there is no disputing the cause — pathetic governance.

According to the September 30, 2007 status report of the Ministry of Programme Implementation, out of 897 projects, 276 suffered cost overruns with an anticipated cost of Rs. 1,42,227 crore, against the original estimate of Rs 95,913 crore, a colossal 48 per cent increase. This shows that for more than 30 per cent of the projects, the accountability factor is of a very low order
(Unquote)

It is time we moved away from extolling the practice of celebrating foundation stone laying ceremonies. It is important for India to ensure successful completion of projects.

Big Bang to Big Crunch - Going back to future

2008-09-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Note the following excerpt titled Big Crunch from http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Crunch.html (last updated prior to September 2000)

[Quote] If there is enough matter in the Universe eventually gravitational forces will stop its expansion. When this happens gravity will cause the universe to reverse its direction and begin to collapse under its own weight. This phase of the Universe's life is known as the Big Crunch.

Eventually all of the matter in the Universe will collapse into a super dense state and possibly even collapse into an unimaginably massive black hole. Some theorize that the Universe could collapse into the same state that it began as and then blow up in another Big Bang. In this way the Universe would last forever but would continually go through these phases of expansion and contraction, Big Bang and Big Crunch and so on...[Unquote]

As the world gears up for the biggest physics experiment tomorrow (10 September 2008) to re-create the Big Bang forces, I pause again (my last was on 26/10/2004) to reflect on Mother Earth’s journey and its bearings on groups and organizations created around us.

[Our Past] "The Big Bang" gave birth to cohesive masses and solid groups.........
[Our Present] Human aspirations are forcing groups to stretch and expand….(repulsive forces are also having similar effects)
[Our Future] "The Big Crunch" will be shaping the future (as some theorize)……
Human society, being a part of the Universe, is also on this theoretical path of going back to the future....
It seems to have developed a need to disintegrate in order to fully integrate....
There are umpteen examples in the socio-politico-economic environment around us that drive home this message time and again.
We are all hapless entities under the diktats of some unseen "Universal strategic intent"

Nevertheless, Mother Earth’s journey from Big Bang to Big Crunch offers uncountable moments of joy and sorrow to earthlings.

Intelligent cause for academic freedom

2008-02-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

This has reference to the express editorial titled “Closed openings – HC underlines the gag in education” (TNIE; 13.02.08). It is true that innovative programs are either unrecognized or are in the process of being de-recognized. While UGC has been mandated to promote education systems for handling the challenges of inclusive growth, ironically the very same regulators (such as AICTE) who have been constituted to enforce quality tie its own hands. Our regulators comprise of faculty members and scientists belonging to elite institutions, which have often enjoyed greater autonomy and large government grants. Their recommendations for growth in education infrastructure have always supported models that promoted the “trickle down effect”. Naturally, therefore, most non-elite institutions governed by the UGC were kept languishing for government grants (a scarce resource). Nor were they given the freedom to develop their own capabilities outside the government’s purview.

One remembers how UGC’s move to launch new courses in astrology was vehemently resisted by some of these elite institutions. One of their arguments was that government funds are meant for “scientific pursuits” only. As we know, “practice without theory is blind and theory without practice is lame”. Yet we fail to encourage new ventures being adopted by some institutes interested in understanding (or perhaps rediscovering) the theoretical base governing some ongoing practices and rituals. We are contented to label them as “blind faith”. It is more disheartening when we see the same educated elite vigorously supporting programs on Artificial Intelligence in the name of scientific discovery. Yet, as they must know, sciences of the artificial are due to our deeper understanding of the natural. Should not we encourage efforts aimed at developing theories and methodologies for re-discovering our past?

Recently, when Harvard University embarked on a research project to uncover the origins of life, proponents of alternative theories cited that initiative as proof that science has yet to disprove alternative theories. One alternative, the Intelligent Design Theory, suggests that nature is so complex that it could not have occurred by random natural selection as held by Darwin in 1859. The proponents hold that our existence is perhaps the result of an “Intelligent cause” and would like this to be taught in schools along with Darwin’s theory of evolution. While this is just one example of where the globe is headed, I hope our elitist regulators will pick up some lessons for creating an enabling environment for greater academic freedom.

Today, while IITs may be embarking on an online project with Carnegie Mellon, the UGC is faced with the uphill task of ramping up its infrastructure to meet the competitive challenges spurred by the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission. Instead of gagging higher education, it would be heartening to see the regulators (the educated elite in particular) lending greater support to UGC for adopting bolder and innovative models using technology for reaching out to educate the masses. That also includes giving recognition to various learner-centric programs promoted by the Open University system or, for that matter, by the Foreign Education Providers.
Comments (if any) may be mailed to kaushiksahu@gmail.com

There is no such thing as a free lunch

2007-11-30T01:11:00.000-08:00

“There is no such thing as a free lunch” reminded the Nobel Laureate Professor Rolf M. Zinkernagel in his recent Convocation address to the graduating students of KIIT-University at Bhubaneswar. He was highlighting the value of women in society and how their efforts have often subsidized economic growth of communities, states and nations. Most societies, in return, have not done enough to recognize this valuable support extended by their women folk. Nations that have realized this, however, have given ample opportunities to their women folk and are on the path of rapid development. At the same time, cautions the Nobel Laureate, challenges related to accelerated development have to be handled carefully by balancing the cultural sensitivities of civilizations. Like Prof. Zinkernagel, his associates from Switzerland have been articulating similar messages during their several visits to this part of the globe in recent times. These are important messages in a world going global and supposedly with ingrained democratic values.

At the same time we see accelerated development luring young minds towards lucrative ventures promoted by “academics-turned-businessmen” in and around Cambridge, USA. Reports indicate how biotechnology companies have sprouted up around MIT and Harvard University spending billions of dollars for promoting research and development. [See report: Biotech Topples the Ivory Tower]

Thus, while scientists in Switzerland are reaching out to the masses (local as well as global) to justify their research spend; Corporations in America are trying to lure academics out of their ivory towers for boosting their profits.

India needs to be careful with its own compulsion of facing challenges related to inclusive-growth. Weighed down with a legacy of caste-based politics, it has failed to create structures to exploit greater global opportunities - leading to economic commentators ridiculing us of our fatalism and slow “Hindu-rate-of-growth”. This in part is, perhaps, due to our several social redundancies which are the result of ill-understood customs and traditions taking the form of ritualistic proportions. Blind adoption of rituals may lead us to dark alleys of yesteryears and mindless acceptance of global adventurism may force us into situations of ideological conflict. I urge the Indian community (at the basic level of the family) to consider what is socially relevant in participating in a healthy global economy.
It is time the Indian community faced religion with reason for accepting global opportunities with grace. The first step in this direction is a caste-less society which should internalize the Nobel Laureate’s message - “There is no such thing as a free lunch”.

Use Brain Power in Manufacturing

2007-10-31T03:49:00.000-07:00

The Chief Secretary of Orissa has rightly articulated the need for industry participation in the development of the state. Value addition near the raw material source is a desirable objective from the perspective of development within the state. Further, the Industry department is suggesting the establishment of plant level advisory committees (PLAC) for facilitating ancillary industries around the mother plants. While these moves are welcome, it remains to be seen how Orissa-Inc responds to these expectations. The TISCOs, POSCOs, NALCOs, and upcoming BPOs need to reflect on the past mistakes and see that there is balanced stakeholder participation in sharing the benefits of competitiveness. Benefits cannot be shared properly without creating conditions for enabling manpower to move up the value chain.

There are evidences where the state has not been able to protect the stakeholder interest after the investors have moved in. Mainly because the MoUs (if not well formulated) are open to interpretation and the investors try their level best to push their own hidden agenda. The ongoing tussle regarding POSCO needs to be settled properly by developing a robust MoU through proper stakeholder participation. Otherwise, “Mineral Resource Discrimination will lead to Human Resource Discrimination”. However, with a robust MoU in place, Mineral Resource Development can lead to Human Resource Development.

Quoting B.Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel, from a Wall Street Journal article titled Indian State Digs In Over Iron (11 May 2005): (Quote) "India needs to be careful with our iron or we will run out in less than 50 years. Exporting iron ore is a national crime." (Unquote) The Gopalpur project of Tata was shelved because it was made to appear that the environment lobby was against the industry lobby. However, did the industry do enough to promote green manufacturing concepts? Isn’t it possible to develop products and processes keeping good design-for-environment principles in view? Further, as some may say, the unfortunate Kalinga Nagar incident has put industrial development within the state on reverse gear. However, did it stop the Industry (such as Tata) from not exploiting the existing mineral resources of the state?

The PLAC concept has been adopted by NALCO since the mid-1990s. However, has it allowed real brain power from moving into the manufacturing activities in and around the mother plants? The committee’s functioning has been dictated more by the surrounding power-hierarchy than by the stakeholder expectations. I have come across interesting initiatives from the ancillary promotion cell often being ignored by the higher officials. Should this mistake be perpetuated?

Captains of Orissa-Inc have often suggested that the lack of a world-class golf course detracts serious professionals from moving into the state. I hope they are not making it as “the” cause. Have they done enough to see that the employees (knowledge worker or otherwise) are not asked to keep their brains outside the factory gates? World-class manufacturing requires promotion of world-class thinking.

Professor Shoji Shiba was in Mumbai to make middle and senior executives unlearn the “need to produce and produce more.” While the go-east policy is moving industry into our state, I hope India Inc. will be encouraging greater brainpower in manufacturing. The results can be even more striking if it is adopted in a poor state like Orissa. However, sustained development through innovation would not be possible if an environment tuned to measure efficiency is adopted. Rather, Orissa needs manufacturing to be more responsive. The upcoming initiatives in the state should, therefore, focus more on boosting the brainpower in manufacturing.

India needs to go beyond being a back office to the globe. Quoting Michael Dell (ET; 31 Oct 2007): "Technology users in the western world benefit every day from the work of bright, talented Indian employees and their constant innovation. But more than serving as the world’s software writer or back office, India is harnessing the productivity, efficiency, and innovation benefits of IT as a foundation for global economic competitiveness. I see industry working, with great commitment, with India’s government to build on this progress, and to help further democratise access to technology, so that more Indian citizens enjoy even more of technology’s benefits with an ever-decreasing impact on our environment. That is our shared responsibility. By harnessing these forces — the democratisation and simplification of technology, we can make a positive impact not just on our economies, but also our planet."

{An edited version of this post appeared in the "letter to the editor" section of The New Indian Express}

Year-back issue @BPUT

2007-09-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

Here is my take on the “year back” issue.

I start by assuming that everyone associated with the education sector is genuinely interested in handling the challenges related to inclusive growth and believes in healthy globalization.

Given the above assumption, in my opinion, the “year-back” system should not be seen in isolation. If BPUT wants to retain “quality control” over all the constituent/affiliated colleges, then it has to work on holistic measures to enhance the process-capability of a centralized system of education delivery. In such a system, “year-back” will be meaningful only when there is a collective ownership of the process (from admissions=>academic-delivery=>evaluation=>placement). This will require a lot of cooperation and coordination between the promoters of private colleges and the government functionaries. Efforts should be taken to involve the other stakeholders as well by balancing their expectations. With Orissa taking steps to welcome the industry, it would be essential to have the corporations participating actively in manpower development. Opportunities need to be availed for better Industry-institute interaction. Surprisingly, corporations have been left out of this entire debate as of now. The industry department of the GoO should be looking into this aspect.

As reported in today’s newspaper, BPUT is considering deployment of resources for (a) Developing a cadre of centralized faculty (b) Implementing smart-cards for monitoring student attendance (c) Monitoring faculty activities through e-systems and (d) Developing a question bank with solutions. I doubt if these measures are going to bring collective responsibility in administering quality. We do not see much scope for active participation of either the promoters or the corporations. To meet the needs of the industry we need to factor in the requirements of the industry. Further, technology should be used to re-engineer the existing processes and not for merely monitoring the same old processes. Case in point is monitoring of classroom attendance - it will not give the much needed fillip to the creative world of academics. Rather, technology should be used for creating innovative modes of interaction between the stakeholders - certainly for the young generation (of students and teachers). Moreover, it could be used in enabling the corporations to participate in the academic development process. Finally, if the stakeholder community decides to adopt “year-back” as a mode of controlling quality output, then all attempts must be made beforehand (in the upstream process) to ensure that the students are given a fair chance to clear the various “quality check points” to be able to qualify as “industry-ready”. Here also technology could be deployed and it has been perhaps partly suggested by BPUT.

The stakeholder community of a centralized set up (as you know) would be definitely large and it would not be easy to allow individual freedom and creativity. Therefore, it would be better to decentralize and provide distributed process capabilities at the level of the schools and colleges with their own inherent set of stakeholders. Thereafter, if the stakeholder community of (say) College-X decides to have “year-back” as a means of ensuring quality, then so be it. Let them be allowed the freedom to decide their own quality parameters. BPUT can use its resources (instead) to setup benchmarks, provide constructive guidelines and develop various knowledge resources to support the autonomous colleges. In addition, it can continue evaluating the students of those colleges who express their desire to be governed by a centralized system of evaluation.

It is surprising to see the oldest college of the state (i.e., UCE Burla) still not enjoying the autonomy that it deserves. Please check if this is true. In my opinion, colleges both in the private and public sector should be given the freedom to develop their own capabilities should they express the desire to be fully autonomous.

Corporate Social Responsibility @BPUT

2007-09-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

The BPUT authorities are trying hard to bring sanity into the higher education sector that is growing at a very fast rate. Under the 11th five-year plan this rate is bound to grow even faster with greater private participation. With corporations worldwide trying to seek out opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid, India is becoming aware of the challenges related to inclusive-growth. Under these circumstances, the state should be careful in exercising controls. Excessive non-market oriented controls fail to meet the expectations of young minds driven by aspirational goals. Such ineffective controls then give way to unhealthy aspirational politics. Hence a regulatory framework, designed to balance stakeholder expectations, needs to be put in place.

Majority of parents and students want good placements and are, therefore, willing to pay for private education. Most academic administrators want to ensure “quality in education” albeit using outdated experience from a protected economy. They use evaluation systems that are just not good enough for the new economy. While companies need “industry-ready” engineers, it is yet to be determined that the performance in the BPUT exam is strongly correlated with post-placement job-performance. To counter the deadlock with the students, instead of suggesting holistic solutions, the Academic Council has formed a 7-member panel to assess only the exam system.

It is time we became the trendsetters instead of emulating what other states are doing. BPUT is well placed under a Vice-Chancellor who understands the various quality models that can be used to develop distributed process-capabilities. Implementation of these models would ensure greater responsibility and autonomy with built-in accountability at the level of the schools. The schools have their own independent stakeholder community to guide them in their development. Such an arrangement would also ensure greater involvement of the placement company at the level of the school.

BPUT needs to develop the regulatory framework to create the necessary competitive environment with the schools given the option of self-certification of quality. It is time the industry department and the state government supported the VC in thinking and implementing out-of-box solutions to our existing problems. Academic administrators need to create effective learner-centric modules leveraging the power of information technology to hold the interest of creative young minds. They cannot afford to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. For instance, use of smart cards for monitoring attendance may result in a tinkering effect that may lead to stifling creativity in the academic environment. Finally, when corporations are poised to virtually rule the state, it is time we engaged the companies into some serious corporate social responsibility.

Allow Academic Adventurism

2007-08-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

This refers to the article “The 100% guarantee for 9%” (TNIE, 31 August 2007). The authors have rightly pointed out the lacuna in our educational system. Adopting a one-size-fits-all approach through state controlled regulatory bodies does not bode well for an economy preparing to face growth-related challenges. We do need to encourage drastic educational reforms for supporting creativity in professional education. Adopting concurrency to reduce the lead time in developing industry-ready professionals is indeed a very good suggestion. One can also uphold their suggestions for developing creative learner-centric programs through a more inclusive capacity building exercise involving participation of small towns. These suggestions can be taken forward through a more progressive educational policy that promotes free thinking beyond limiting geographical boundaries.

However, we have to be cautious with the idea of faculty exchange between top-rung institutions such as IIMs and IITs with other institutions of the country. Faculty members in these elite institutions have seldom experienced the harsh conditions under which most institutes in India have to grow. Nor has their involvement as nominees and experts to the various boards and committees given any relief to the faculty wanting to promote creativity in a less-privileged school of India . Even if some of them are prepared to face the harsh conditions, their ability gets stifled by the statutes currently governing most “non-elite” educational Institutions/Universities of the country.

Faculty members in elite institutions enjoy much greater autonomy than their less privileged counterpart in other colleges. Moreover, unlike US faculty, they don’t have to compete for funds as these are planned in the form of grants (read taxpayers’ money) by the MHRD. Naturally, therefore, they don’t have to spend much energy worrying about support to bring quality into the classroom meant for the elites. Further, their proximity to MHRD made it easier for them to be in most policy making bodies. However, did they ever use this opportunity to create more IIT/IIM like Institutions in the country? Did they create conditions to encourage pluralism in the faculty community? IIT Kharagpur has more than 40% of faculty who are the products of their own system. In some departments it is as high as 90%. Will it be healthy to make them the role models for the less privileged Institutions?

Finally, the authors have given some promising facts about the huge manpower potential that is locked in students below 14 years of age. Are the elite Institutions doing enough in helping them realizing their dreams for a future? The most important area where they can create a difference is by promoting greater freedom to the individual entity through formulation of progressive policies. I strongly support their bottom-line – “we need to think of new solutions to face the approaching challenges”. If I may add, we need radical reforms to promote academic adventurism.

Radical reforms

2007-08-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

This refers to the express headline “BSE rot stinks, top to bottom” (TNIE, 23 Aug 2007). It has nicely exposed the rot in the examination system leading to “mark-fixing scams”. With the Chief Minister appointing a committee for suggesting reforms, we should take advantage of the situation in creating better systems for the future. It is time we suggested some radical reforms in our boards and councils.

The current examination system, controlled by BSE, is a result of our distrust for many. Perhaps the single most objective of the existing system is to negate the “internal biases” in our various schools. A closer examination of the existing evaluation process, as highlighted in the express report, shows that it cannot even fulfill this objective properly. Rather it adds a lot of non-value adding activities that distances the teacher/evaluator from the students. Moreover, several individuals fall victim to this system unknowingly. The end-result: BSE’s credibility has been severely undermined.

Further, the existing system of student evaluation is detrimental to the growth of young minds. It stifles their creative ability and does not provide enough motivation to the schoolteachers to create interesting learner-centric modules.

The most radical step forward would be to empower the schools to evaluate their own students. Models could be adopted whereby the teacher is encouraged to bring various creative methods of delivery and evaluation into the classroom. Teachers belonging to the region need to be supported to take the responsibility of evaluating the students in a transparent manner. The ultimate level in transparency is when students are allowed to compare their answers and the teacher/evaluator is allowed to respond to the student seeking re-evaluation. The board can only play the role of a mentor in developing the capabilities of these distributed centers. With the education sector poised for rapid expansion and competition, it is going to be extremely difficult to have the boards/councils undertaking the task of examining students without revamping their existing processes.

I urge the educators and legislators to shed their conservative outlook and make a bold step forward in devolving greater power to the schools.

Collective responsibility

2007-08-20T06:01:00.000-07:00

This has reference to the article titled “Health, education scams in Orissa” (TNIE, 17 Aug 07). The author rightly suggests overhauling of the entire system through sweeping changes in policy and implementation.

Unfortunately we find key members in both the sectors over-emphasizing the role of the “controller” – be it drugs or examinations. Controllers are human-beings and are themselves quite susceptible to the various corruptive influences. Even if they are not, ensuring quality through “control” (i.e., inspecting somebody else’s work) is an archaic form of quality assurance model as compared to the one that enforces a discipline of self-control (quality at source). This requires collective ownership of processes designed to provide individual autonomy as-well-as accountability with the sole aim of ensuring high process capability. Capable processes ensure quality output. This also makes the system less-amenable to malpractices.

Apparently, the role of the controller is defined by the existing statutes. However, instead of emphasizing the need for statutory compliance, it would be heartening to see the legislators being supported to make important legislations to foster collective responsibility. We need a paradigm shift.

Holistic solution

2007-08-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

This has reference to the editorial “Toys R’nt Us” (TNIE; 6 Aug 2007). Not wanting to lose the trust and confidence of its customers, American toy-producer Mattel went for worldwide product recalls. Toxic substances found in their Chinese-made toys prompted this action. Further, the falling share price will force Mattel to go for immediate supply chain corrections.

As rightly mentioned, India must learn a lesson from this episode and support its own manufacturing hubs with proper safety protocols. However, even though our system may be attuned to the concept of the consumer, there is a lot left to be desired. Case in point is the health sector of the state of Orissa, which has witnessed some horrific tales in recent times. We have seen gross negligence by some health-service providers and drug manufacturers that severely undermine the confidence of the consumers. Unfortunately we don’t see much urgency in seeking holistic corrections.

The pharmaceutical industry seems to be supported by an out-dated supply chain whose focus seems to be merely on warehousing, inspection and distribution. While these are important activities needed from a logistics perspective, there is a lot left to be achieved in terms of a robust supply chain. We need world-class domestic supply chains that would give “cradle-to-grave” support to the medicine manufacturing hubs of the country. That would mean greater involvement of our manufacturers from product development to delivery and beyond.

The Pharmaceutical associations have to take aggressive proactive steps in regaining the trust of consumers. To begin with, they have to share their expertise in identifying fake drugs and other supply chain delinquencies. I urge the Government and the medical fraternity to find a holistic solution rather than getting into a witch-hunt of nabbing the “culprits”.

Throw more light

2007-08-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

This has reference to the letter titled “Rupee appreciation” (TNIE, 3 August 2007). The letter is justified in demanding an explanation from the policy makers. Given the UPA’s current disposition, I doubt there is anyone in the Government who will be brave enough to recognize the intrinsic worth of the rupee (read “Indian/local entity”) vis-à-vis the dollar (read “US/global entity”).

Also, historically speaking, the “swadeshi model” of self-reliance was rarely considered as the “in-thing”. Our post-Independent leaders in their eagerness to appear “socialistic” brought in regulations that stifled healthy and competitive enterprise. It was in the interest of these “socialite-elites” to then promote slogans such as “brain drain rather than brain in the drain”. Controls were exercised in a manner that finally resulted in the rupee depreciating drastically against the dollar. Along with it declined our standards of living.

According to management guru, Michael Porter, “devaluation causes a nation to take a collective pay cut by discounting its products and services in world markets while paying more for the goods and services it purchases abroad. Exports based on low wages or cheap currencies then do not support an attractive standard of living.”

Yet, our country has some fairly articulate economists who would like to see the rupee depreciate. No wonder you see some of them in the boards of IT companies that are heavily dependent on export earnings. The 21st century BPO industry, as some say, is akin to the 19th century Bombay Mills that exploited cheap labor to boost exports. [See Business World 21 July 2003 Book Review section: "The Global Competitiveness Report 2002-2003: Peter Cornelius, Michael Porter and Klaus Schwab as reviewed by Ajit Balakrishnan]

A firm having good corporate governance standards, however, should never aim for competitive gains at the expense of others. Is this happening? I doubt. These very economists would be respected more if they helped their firms find better methods of enhancing competitiveness. They ought to be riding the global “business process outsourcing” wave to create better “business process opportunities” for the local markets. That would then mean diverting greater attention to the domestic markets and enhancing domestic productivity in a manner that would make both our buyers and sellers more sophisticated.

If this had happened earlier, we would not have seen the horrific tales that we are currently witnessing in the health sector of our state. I urge the Government of Orissa to promote policies that would recognize the intrinsic worth of its “domestic entities” and enable them to face “healthy” global competition.
{This post appeared in the "letter to the editor" section of The New Indian Express}

What Orissa needs

2007-07-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

This has reference to the letter titled “Donate for a seat” (TNIE; 23.07.07). The letter unjustifiably holds all Indians as being poor - so poor that they all need subsidy to send their wards to Institutions of higher learning. Further, it raises pertinent questions about exploitation and accountability.

We have seen the outcome of the highly subsidized education in few elite government-run Institutes with limited-seats. In fact, the “not-so-poor” extracted the maximum benefits from this subsidy. These were, in effect, seats “almost-donated” by the taxpayer for transforming “bright” students into bright Engineers and Managers who should have perhaps served their country. However, many left the country for better prospects abroad. So who has been exploited?

Faculty in these elite Institutions never faced much competition while securing research grants. The five-year plans ensured substantial funds for them to maintain “quality” (at the cost of quantity). Without any “right to information”, taxpayers were not given any account of how these funds were utilized. So who is to be held accountable?

Post-liberalization, India is facing global competition in its own territory and we need to create conditions for reversing the brain drain. The first step in that direction is capacity expansion and infrastructure building through private participation. Today, many Indians want to come back because of the prospects brightening in India. Some NRIs want to send their wards to schools in India because of its “affordability”. Parents in India, who don’t like the infrastructure in the Govt-funded Institutions, look for alternatives in the private sector. They look forward to better material comfort while sending their wards to these Institutions. Moreover, these Institutions also provide placement – an important attribute of “quality in education”.

While these are the changed market conditions, it is unfortunate that educators of the bygone century are not doing enough to support the entrepreneurs in creating better “IIT-like” institutions in Orissa. They promote their superannuated views from a regime of “unhealthy-control” that almost always failed to fix accountability on the individual.
I respectfully urge these educators to be mentors and create the next generation leaders for taking the education sector forward. They need to encourage young “edupreneurs” to handle greater autonomy with accountability. That is the essential first step towards Institution-building in Orissa. Once that happens we would be on the path of attracting intellectual-capital while extracting even better price for meeting various social obligations (including high salary for the faculty). In the absence of subsidy, knowledge-resources will command their own right price in the new economy. The donor would not mind paying as long as he/she is satisfied.

Autonomy more important

2007-07-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

The bottom-line of this news article in Telegraph reads => “Fewer students from Bengal in the IITs and IIMs mean fewer decision-makers of tomorrow from Bengal.” It expresses “parochial concerns” for not being included within a certain “pedigree”. It seems to suggest that decision-makers of tomorrow have to be from the existing IITs and IIMs. And, therefore, it is a do-or-die situation for the students. At the same time, it is oblivious of the outcomes of globalization in the education sector. Emulating Bengal will not definitely bode well for Orissa.

Today, while other states get away (with almost anything) by expressing their parochial sentiments, Orissa’s rightful demands are being neglected. The answer, therefore, lies in “making” our own IIT rather than “begging” for an IIT. Effort will be needed to inspire students and teachers to join these new IITs in the making. Some entrepreneurs (or “edupreneurs”) have already started on this road. The moot point, will the “regulators” allow enough autonomy to make such enterprise reach the level of an IIT? I don’t see that happening till education in India faces “free and fair” global competition. I hope that day is not too far.

Decision-makers in Orissa often seek the counsel of faculty members from IIT Kharagpur in matters related to higher education. However, thanks to the long prevailing “hierarchical control” in the system (MHRD => IITs => RECs => UCEs; somewhere along we were saddled with AICTE), technical education in Orissa has suffered to a large extent. It is not that the erstwhile engineering colleges of the state, UCE and REC, did not have the potential to be one amongst the IITs. As some of us know, there was a somewhat healthy relationship between the faculty of UCE, REC and IIT-Kgp. However, while IITs enjoyed a huge share of the taxpayers’ money along with the “autonomy” to use it the way they wanted, REC and most importantly UCE were left to fend for themselves with the scarce resources from the state. The least that could have been done was to grant academic autonomy to the individual faculty. Even that could not be granted because of this urge to “control”. Aspiring for the IAS, therefore, has instinctively been considered more important than to aspire for an IIT.

Instead of urging the students to work hard to get into these IITs/IIMs (read “limited capacity”), I would urge the educators to create systems that would grant greater autonomy to the individual in the upcoming Institutions of learning.