Karl Marx & Mckinsey: Thought Leaders?

I am no fan of jargons as unlike simple words they don’t focus on the meaning i.e. clarity of thought. But one term mainly used in B-schools, firms or you can say the business world has been intriguing me a great deal. In fact if you go deep into its meaning, you would find that its influence lies beyond the corporate world. The term that I am referring to is “Thought Leadership”.

The Five steps to Success

We all want to be successful. Isn’t it? But how many amongst us feel that we have achieved success? They say that success is relative. True, but even when we feel good about an achievement on a given day , someone else’s opinion may make us ponder whether it was worth the effort? As they say in a famous ad we keep asking ourselves, “have I really made it large?”

In this blog, I’ll discuss the five simple steps that can help you judge whether your achievement comes into that premium category that we all know as “success”. But if my personal experience is anything to go by, I must warn you that though the steps are simple but implementing or imbibing them isn't.

Leadership is about making an impact

Due to a busy schedule saketvaani couldn’t come up with any post in the month of January to ignite the discussion. So this is the first blog of the New Year and even though a bit late, I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a happy new year. In this blog our point of discussion will be leadership. I’ll share some of my learnings from a course on leadership which I must say has been a very enriching experience.

Let us first define leadership. Leadership is about doing meaningful things or making your people see meaning in things. If you ask me the single biggest thing that’s important to leaders then my answer would be "their ability to make an impact". This is the parameter on which they are judged. So we may debate whether Hitler was a success or a failure but what we can say with certainty that he had an impact.

Entrance exams: Are they asking the right questions?

The last decade has been a decade of changes and reforms. You can also include the entrance or competitive examinations to that fold. In this post I’ll discuss some changes as well as existing gaps in various competitive examinations.

There was an era when three posts were considered to be the most prestigious in the Indian set up. They were the PM (prime minister), the CM (chief minister) and the DM (district magistrate). When it comes to competitive examinations, three of them stand out for their rigor. They are IIT-JEE (for entry into the IITs), CAT (for entry into the IIMs) and civil services exams conducted by the UPSC. Let’s consider the changes in the formats of respective examinations one by one and consider the likely fallouts.

Akshaya Patra - "Feed the children" initiative

This post is a bit different from my past ones as it’s my humble attempt to espouse a noble cause. At the end of the blog, even you would come across an opportunity to make a difference. So let’s begin. By the way your mere click has ensured that 50 underprivileged children would be fed today.

IIT & IIM: Do we really need to expand?

As India looks to outpace other countries in terms of economic growth - higher education, because of its criticality, is in the limelight (better late than never). With the focus being on higher education, two of the best known Indian Institutes, IIT & IIM find a mention in our day-to-day discussions. As efforts are being made to increase the number of IITs & IIMs , questions are being raised whether that's leveraging the brand or diluting it?

We do know that India needs more quality educational institutes. With the claim to fame of many IITs & IIMs being “one of the toughest institutes to get into”, it’s more a commentary on the paucity of seats rather than intellectual rigor. So doing nothing is not an option.

Before I start putting down my views, I would bring to your attention a group that opposes expansion of IITs & IIMs even if brown-field i.e. increasing capacity of existing institutes. They argue that it might commoditize the brand (make no mistake quality is not their concern). Such arguments make no sense as IITs & IIMs are not Guccis & Armanis. IITs/IIMs stand for quality not exclusivity. 

Let us now look at some pressing concerns that justify the “need to expand”.

“During 1955 to 1975, the growth rate was high (10.5%) as the IITs were being set up and establishing the UG programme. In the next twenty years, there was a slight increase in the output (less than 1% per year). Since 1995 the growth rate increased to 4.2% per year mainly due to the addition of IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee.”

Source: ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN INDIA (2007)

The above data clearly shows that we need Greenfield investments i.e. open new IITs & IIMs as they mainly power the growth in intake. In fact IITs that accounted for 5-8 % of total output of engineers in 1980s now account for less than 1%. 

Many feel that expansion might lead to quality of education being compromised with. It’s a valid concern and needs attention (I will try to come up with remedial steps in the later part of the blog) but do you feel that the quality of new colleges will be worse that the existing private set up where students are forced to join if they can’t make it to the sought after colleges. I don’t think so as the “quality gap” is so enormous that we would certainly find the new ones, in terms of quality, somewhere in-between.

Even though IITs & IIMs might be under funded by global standards but they are still much better off than their Indian counterparts. So the question is whether we would be better off opening new colleges under new names rather than using the umbrella of IITs & IIMs? My answer would be that the name provides them greater attention and care which a new institute desperately needs. NITs have been greatly benefitted by the tag.

We all have great faith in the brand name of IITs & IIMs. Are these brands that weak that expansion would dilute them to the extent that it threatens their existence? That’s not the way, great brands operate. In fact, if properly carried out, expansion would only strengthen them. Greater student & alumni base would mean greater reach, influence and impact. Mind you, it would come in handy when we face the onslaught of foreign universities. By the way these are the outputs of some well known international engineering institutions: Urbana-Champaign 1950 degrees, Purdue 1840 degrees, Georgia Tech 2300 degrees, Tokyo University 3000 degrees, Tsinghua university about 4000. (Source: ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN INDIA, 2007)

Let’s now look at some of the methods that can expedite quality enhancements at the new colleges:

• With increased intake, we must aim at increasing the bandwidth of well known professors i.e. number of students that s/he can address at a given time. This can be facilitated by ICT based live or recorded lectures. Technological intervention would also help in facilitating better educational aids or resources. The Masters as well as Fellowship programmes need to be strengthened as well.
• We have buddy system in place where an old IIT/IIM mentors the new IIT/IIM but that doesn’t include student set-up. Peer learning and mentoring by seniors can help students at new IIT/IIM catch up faster. We should provide online platform to facilitate such exchange of information. Student exchange programmes can also be incorporated to facilitate co-operation. 
• At least for the first few years, mentor IIT/IIM should help out their new members with their placements. It might seem unthinkable given the sort of competition but modalities can be worked out as new IITs/IIMs have relatively fewer intake.
• Private sector, both India and abroad, have been the biggest beneficiary of the outputs of IITs/IIMs. PPP model for faculty development where industry provides visiting faculties or funding can be looked into. The academic exposure would benefit the employees as it could be a welcome break or “going back to basics” for them. It would be a win-win situation for both as private sector stands to gain through quality output and colleges through quality faculty.

Some reach out only for the riches whereas some reach out to help each other out. So if alumni and students of established IITs/IIMs reach out to their newer counterparts, they can certainly consider themselves better IITians if not prouder. Else a caste system in the intellectual and educational set up is in the making as there is a very thin line between being elite and being elitist. Please avoid it.

Bihar: The road-map to prosperity

For the past few weeks, I have been going through various panel discussions, books, blogs & news articles, both national and international that had some relevance or relation to Bihar. Through this blog dedicated to Bihar, my focus will be on laying out a roadmap for a prosperous Bihar. I will include the findings from the above exercises as well as inputs from discussions that I had with my Bihari as well as non-Bihari friends. Let us now start our expedition.

The Theory of Relativity

Friends, just like most of us, even I am not fascinated by the complexity of Science. So you can be rest assured that this post is not about scientific applications of the theory of relativity. But the essence is derived from it. That’s why this theory assumes so much importance as it touches us every day. Let’s explore how?

Einstein's theory of time and space, special relativity, proposed that distance and time are not absolute. The ticking rate of a clock depends on the motion of the observer of that clock; likewise for the length of a "yardstick.” So if you haven’t guessed yet, this post is about Relative Grading. A much used term in academic set up especially in the past few decades. As the common saying goes, “Nothing is absolute, everything is relative.”

This is how IITK introduces Relative Grading, “Many ideas and things were shipped from Washington DC to Kanpur. When a packet from one of these shipments was opened, a brilliant proposal of adopting "relative grading" emerged. And IIT Kanpur was amongst the first, in the country to adopt this relative method of evaluating performance.” Their inputs have been used in the following paras to shed more light on this topic.

A peep into "Peepli-Live"

"सरकार मरने का पैसा देती है!” This line pretty much forms the basis of the storyline of Aamir Khan produced film: Peepli Live. In other words, "a farmer in need of money would prefer to commit suicide if the government gives him muaawzaa (compensation)". You all might be wondering if I am trying to do a movie-review in this blog. Well my answer would be a Yes as well as a No. Yes because I will discuss the different realms touched by this movie and a No because this blog is not a commentary on the quality of filmmaking or acting or for that matter the music of this movie.

The side-effects of Campus Placement Process

In my previous blog, I tried to jot down some of the benefits that the campus placement process has brought. Most if not all of us would agree that campus placement has been one of the most positive development in the field of education and has increased the purchasing capacity of the Indian youth with its wide reach.

The Campus Placement Process

Scene 1: The setting, early 1980s. Rakesh has done his father proud. He has made it to the coveted government engineering college. He is the first engineer from his locality. Well-wishers have made a beeline to his home. They have garlanded him and the sweets are being distributed to one and all. The boy, who was better known by his nickname “Raju”, has a new name now; “engineer sahib”. There is glint in his eyes. This glint symbolizes excitement. He knows that the road ahead is not easy. He will have to fight it out for the few available government jobs when he passes out after four years. But he is least worried rather he is excited about joining the engineering college. He has heard great things about it. It’s a temple of learning to him. He is keen to learn under the guidance of a few well known professors as well as eager to quench his thirst of knowledge at the institute’s library and laboratory, two things he sorely missed at the district schools and colleges.

The Need for Indian Case Studies

After a hiatus of almost three weeks due to the academic projects, exams and the launch of The Money Manager-the pan-IIM finance magazine, Saketvaani is back with you to ignite the discussion. This time the focus would be “the case for Indian case studies”. Though all of us may not be familiar with case studies but you can use words like journals, research papers etc. interchangeably for cases. First let me tell you the reason behind choosing this topic.

I have finished almost 70% of my MBA education in an Indian B-school and most if not all the cases that I have come across are prepared by foreign B-school (read Harvard Business School: HBS). Should it really be a cause of concern as haven’t we been brought up mainly on books by foreign author? So why complain now, that too in a B-school clamouring for global recognition?

ICT based distance learning programme - IV

In this fourth and last blog of this series, I will share the framework that I have developed for a model distance learning institute. 

The learner centric model for a Distance Learning institute

Note: C&A:Curriculum & Assessment, LR:Learning Resources, Infra:Infrastructure (Technical and Physical)

ICT based distance learning programme - III

In the third part of this series,I will present the consolidated findings of some of the breakthrough research done in this field.Please refer the First part for Introduction and Second part for the Importance of ICT.

ICT based distance learning programme - II

After introducing ICTs and some common terms associated with it in my last blog, in this part I will enumerate, why ICTs are assuming greater importance in the field of education.

ICTs are a potentially powerful tool for extending educational opportunities, both formal and non-formal, to previously underserved constituencies—scattered and rural populations, groups traditionally excluded from education due to cultural or social reasons such as ethnic minorities, girls and women, persons with disabilities, and the elderly, as well as all others who for reasons of cost or because of time constraints are unable to enroll on campus. With advancement in technology, not only the robustness has increased but so has the cost involved in its deployment.

ICT based distance learning programme - I

(This is the first of the series of posts that I am devoting towards creating awareness about the distance learning programmes which,if implemented effectively,could play a crucial role in democratizing education. The Second Post will be on the importance of ICT in distance education and the Third will be on the findings of breakthrough researches in this field. In the fourth and the last one, we'll develop a framework for a Distance learning programme.  Looking forward to your comments.)

Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the pedagogy, technology, and instructional system designs that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site" in a traditional classroom or campus. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both." The University of London was the first university to offer distance-learning degree in 1858. Almost all the countries have at least a distance teaching university and many countries such as UK, Australia, Canada,USA and India even offer DE programmes within on-campus universities.