Monday, August 8, 2011

What Indian students should not expect from their institutions and need to develop in themselves


It is unfortunate that those who manages institutions and universities in India do not think about the future of students and they feel by delivering outdated university curriculum in very old fashioned bookish and spoon feeding way of teaching and talking about the glorious past of our country, and finally by giving away a piece of paper called "degree" they have done their duties as so called "academicians" !

It is even more unfortunate that these 'academicians' only emphasize on studying theories over applications and feel 'scholarly activities' and so called 'research' in educational institutions much more than imparting Employability skills among students although neither those 'scholarly activities' nor those 'researches' had any innovations that will benefit mankind other than just talking about those. This debate gets dangerous and the academicians take the names of few institutions of India where only India's finest students get admissions based on their IQ and numeric skills but not based on their emotional intelligence!

Where is the vision about life, career, future and society among the students which should ideally come from the teachers, where is the innovation, self confidence, exposure, openness of mind and global vision ?

Many scholarly research endeavors have been made in the area of knowledge, education and learning within the context of a institute. The debate about the role of an academic institution is rich and revealing. An education expert, Robert Wolf proffers four models for the ideal university which is also applicable to any academic institution:

  • the academic institution as a sanctuary of scholarship
  • the academic institution as a training camp for future industry professionals
  • the academic institution as a social service center and
  • the academic institution as an assembly line for established 'men and women.'

In-depth research also indicated several gray areas in the recruitment process conducted by the companies which was reconfirmed by the recent actions by several leading IT & ITES giants when they retrenched over 800 employees across the country on the basis of 'non-performance' including those who were 3 to 4 years old. This also focus on several other hard facts

  • Academics is yet to impart with the career related skills.
  • A large number of students are conceptually unclear about career issues.
  • High marks and getting job do not guarantee that one can retain it.
  • A more holistic approach and learning beyond 'employability' training.

Till date, most of the higher education institutions in India ignored a very important area of enhancing the skills of the gurus, the Faculty development programs. Many institutions feel this to be 'waste of time and resources' and most of the gurus feel that once they are teaching in such higher level, there is 'no need of further training'!

As a result what are really missing in our education

—  -The market reality (so not really market driven)
—  -Vision (except in prospectus or on display in reception)
—  -Contemporary curriculum with focus on developing professional skills
—  -Standard teaching practices
— - Most of the "global" practices
—  -Inability to think rationally and act differently
—  -Inability to impart vision  (self-development/ self-learning/ attitude/ grooming)
—  -Academic leadership & quality faculty
—  -Dynamism and long term thinking

What Indian institutions do not teach ...

—  -Lessons on Time management and Priorities.
—  -Lessons on commitment, hard and smart working.
—  -Lessons on common sense, gut instinct, confidence and foresight.
—  -Lessons on managing stress, depression, crisis and change.
—  -Lessons on honesty, communicating, negotiating and interviewing.
—  -Lessons on people management, practical aspect of dressing.
—  -Lessons on art of networking and entertaining people.
—  -Lessons on entrepreneurial attitude.
—  -Lessons on global vision, process mindset and balancing EQ & IQ.
—  -Lessons on holistic thinking and growth.

Importance of Employability skills training for the Indian students

After years long research and analysis our associate consultants with extensive global competency and employability training experience have developed the integrated training program suitable for Indian and South Asian engineering and management students based on the following list of employability skills lately referred to as 'soft skills' which is different by far from what people used to refer as 'soft skills', even a year back. To be precise, it's based on Competencies Framework and featured an Employability Skills Framework identifying nine key Employability Skills :

These refer to one's ability to do the job and are sometimes called 'hard skills'. They might include such things as :

  • Technical ability
  • Knowledge
  • Qualifications

The assumption is sometimes made that discipline specific skills are more important than employability skills. However, in today's world where knowledge (discipline specific) rapidly becomes obsolete the ability to identify, access, network and communicate new information (employability) is vital for career success.

  • Initiative
  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Problem solving
  • Initiative and enterprise
  • Planning and organizing
  • Self-management
  • Learning
  • Technology

Initiative

- Adapting to new situations
- Developing a strategic long-term vision
- Being creative
- Identifying opportunities not obvious to others
- Translating ideas into action
- Generating a range of options
- Initiating innovative solutions.

Teamwork

- Working with people of different ages, gender, race, religion or political persuasion
- Working as an individual and as a member of a team
- Knowing how to define a role as part of a team
- Applying teamwork skills to a range of situations eg, crisis
- Identifying strengths of team members
- Coaching, mentoring, and giving feedback.

Problem Solving

- Developing creative, innovative solutions
- Developing practical solutions
- Showing independence and initiative in identifying problems and solving them
- Solving problems in teams
- Applying a range of strategies to problem solving
- Using mathematics including budgeting and financial management to solve problems
- Applying problem-solving strategies across a range of areas
- Testing assumptions, taking the context of data and circumstances into account
- Resolving customer concerns in relation to complex project issues.

Planning

- Managing time and priorities - setting timelines, coordinating tasks for self and others
- Being resourceful
- Taking initiative and making decisions
- Adapting resource allocations to cope with contingencies
- Establishing clear project goals and deliverables
- Allocating people and resources to tasks
- Planning the use of resources including time
- Participating in continuous improvement and planning
- Developing a vision and a proactive plan to accompany it
- Predicting - weighing up risk, evaluating alternatives, applying evaluation criteria
- Collecting, analysing, and organising information
- Understanding basic business systems and their relationships.

Communication

- Listening and understanding
- Speaking clearly and directly
- Writing to the needs of the audience
- Negotiating responsively
- Reading independently
- Empathising
- Using numeracy effectively
- Understanding the needs of internal and external customers
- Persuading effectively
- Establishing and using networks
- Being assertive
- Sharing information
- Speaking and writing in languages other than English.

Technology

- Having a range of basic IT skills
- Applying IT as a management tool
- Using IT to organise data
- Being willing to learn new IT skills
- Having the occupational health and safety knowledge to apply technology
- Having the appropriate physical capacity.

Self-Management

- Having a personal vision and goals
- Evaluating and monitoring own performance
- Having knowledge and confidence in own ideas and vision
- Articulating own ideas and vision
- Taking responsibility.

Learning

- Managing own learning
- Contributing to the learning community at the workplace
- Using a range of mediums to learn - mentoring, peer support, networking, IT, courses
- Applying learning to technical issues (eg, products) and people issues (eg, interpersonal)
- Having enthusiasm for ongoing learning
- Being willing to learn in any setting, on and off the job
- Being open to new ideas and techniques
- Being prepared to invest time and effort in learning new skills
- Acknowledging the need to learn in order to accommodate change.


( This article is contributed by(Prof. (Dr.) Sudhi Ranjan Dey.He  is a graduate of Calcutta University and DBA in Consumer Behavior and MBA in Marketing & HR from Europe. He is the CEO of Gurgaon based Global management Xperts which is a pioneer training organization in India in the field of Academic leadership, Employment Enhancement and Professional Efficiency and Effectiveness Enhancement among freshers. Sudhi has over 30 years of global industry experience, held senior positions with Toyota, Nissan, General Motors, Sony, Ford, Sony Music, etc., lived across 17 countries, worked in 33 countries across 4 continents and visited 69 nations.)
( This article is contributed by(Prof. (Dr.) Sudhi Ranjan Dey.He  is a graduate of Calcutta University and DBA in Consumer Behavior and MBA in Marketing & HR from Europe. He is the CEO of Gurgaon based Global management Xperts which is a pioneer training organization in India in the field of Academic leadership, Employment Enhancement and Professional Efficiency and Effectiveness Enhancement among freshers. Sudhi has over 30 years of global industry experience, held senior positions with Toyota, Nissan, General Motors, Sony, Ford, Sony Music, etc., lived across 17 countries, worked in 33 countries across 4 continents and visited 69 nations.)

It is unfortunate that those who manages institutions and universities in India do not think about the future of students and they feel by delivering outdated university curriculum in very old fashioned bookish and spoon feeding way of teaching and talking about the glorious past of our country, and finally by giving away a piece of paper called "degree" they have done their duties as so called "academicians" !

It is even more unfortunate that these 'academicians' only emphasize on studying theories over applications and feel 'scholarly activities' and so called 'research' in educational institutions much more than imparting Employability skills among students although neither those 'scholarly activities' nor those 'researches' had any innovations that will benefit mankind other than just talking about those. This debate gets dangerous and the academicians take the names of few institutions of India where only India's finest students get admissions based on their IQ and numeric skills but not based on their emotional intelligence!

Where is the vision about life, career, future and society among the students which should ideally come from the teachers, where is the innovation, self confidence, exposure, openness of mind and global vision ?

Many scholarly research endeavors have been made in the area of knowledge, education and learning within the context of a institute. The debate about the role of an academic institution is rich and revealing. An education expert, Robert Wolf proffers four models for the ideal university which is also applicable to any academic institution:

  • the academic institution as a sanctuary of scholarship
  • the academic institution as a training camp for future industry professionals
  • the academic institution as a social service center and
  • the academic institution as an assembly line for established 'men and women.'

In-depth research also indicated several gray areas in the recruitment process conducted by the companies which was reconfirmed by the recent actions by several leading IT & ITES giants when they retrenched over 800 employees across the country on the basis of 'non-performance' including those who were 3 to 4 years old. This also focus on several other hard facts

  • Academics is yet to impart with the career related skills.
  • A large number of students are conceptually unclear about career issues.
  • High marks and getting job do not guarantee that one can retain it.
  • A more holistic approach and learning beyond 'employability' training.

Till date, most of the higher education institutions in India ignored a very important area of enhancing the skills of the gurus, the Faculty development programs. Many institutions feel this to be 'waste of time and resources' and most of the gurus feel that once they are teaching in such higher level, there is 'no need of further training'!

As a result what are really missing in our education

—  -The market reality (so not really market driven)
—  -Vision (except in prospectus or on display in reception)
—  -Contemporary curriculum with focus on developing professional skills
—  -Standard teaching practices
— - Most of the "global" practices
—  -Inability to think rationally and act differently
—  -Inability to impart vision  (self-development/ self-learning/ attitude/ grooming)
—  -Academic leadership & quality faculty
—  -Dynamism and long term thinking

What Indian institutions do not teach ...

—  -Lessons on Time management and Priorities.
—  -Lessons on commitment, hard and smart working.
—  -Lessons on common sense, gut instinct, confidence and foresight.
—  -Lessons on managing stress, depression, crisis and change.
—  -Lessons on honesty, communicating, negotiating and interviewing.
—  -Lessons on people management, practical aspect of dressing.
—  -Lessons on art of networking and entertaining people.
—  -Lessons on entrepreneurial attitude.
—  -Lessons on global vision, process mindset and balancing EQ & IQ.
—  -Lessons on holistic thinking and growth.

Importance of Employability skills training for the Indian students

After years long research and analysis our associate consultants with extensive global competency and employability training experience have developed the integrated training program suitable for Indian and South Asian engineering and management students based on the following list of employability skills lately referred to as 'soft skills' which is different by far from what people used to refer as 'soft skills', even a year back. To be precise, it's based on Competencies Framework and featured an Employability Skills Framework identifying nine key Employability Skills :

These refer to one's ability to do the job and are sometimes called 'hard skills'. They might include such things as :

  • Technical ability
  • Knowledge
  • Qualifications

The assumption is sometimes made that discipline specific skills are more important than employability skills. However, in today's world where knowledge (discipline specific) rapidly becomes obsolete the ability to identify, access, network and communicate new information (employability) is vital for career success.

  • Initiative
  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Problem solving
  • Initiative and enterprise
  • Planning and organizing
  • Self-management
  • Learning
  • Technology

Initiative

- Adapting to new situations
- Developing a strategic long-term vision
- Being creative
- Identifying opportunities not obvious to others
- Translating ideas into action
- Generating a range of options
- Initiating innovative solutions.

Teamwork

- Working with people of different ages, gender, race, religion or political persuasion
- Working as an individual and as a member of a team
- Knowing how to define a role as part of a team
- Applying teamwork skills to a range of situations eg, crisis
- Identifying strengths of team members
- Coaching, mentoring, and giving feedback.

Problem Solving

- Developing creative, innovative solutions
- Developing practical solutions
- Showing independence and initiative in identifying problems and solving them
- Solving problems in teams
- Applying a range of strategies to problem solving
- Using mathematics including budgeting and financial management to solve problems
- Applying problem-solving strategies across a range of areas
- Testing assumptions, taking the context of data and circumstances into account
- Resolving customer concerns in relation to complex project issues.

Planning

- Managing time and priorities - setting timelines, coordinating tasks for self and others
- Being resourceful
- Taking initiative and making decisions
- Adapting resource allocations to cope with contingencies
- Establishing clear project goals and deliverables
- Allocating people and resources to tasks
- Planning the use of resources including time
- Participating in continuous improvement and planning
- Developing a vision and a proactive plan to accompany it
- Predicting - weighing up risk, evaluating alternatives, applying evaluation criteria
- Collecting, analysing, and organising information
- Understanding basic business systems and their relationships.

Communication

- Listening and understanding
- Speaking clearly and directly
- Writing to the needs of the audience
- Negotiating responsively
- Reading independently
- Empathising
- Using numeracy effectively
- Understanding the needs of internal and external customers
- Persuading effectively
- Establishing and using networks
- Being assertive
- Sharing information
- Speaking and writing in languages other than English.

Technology

- Having a range of basic IT skills
- Applying IT as a management tool
- Using IT to organise data
- Being willing to learn new IT skills
- Having the occupational health and safety knowledge to apply technology
- Having the appropriate physical capacity.

Self-Management

- Having a personal vision and goals
- Evaluating and monitoring own performance
- Having knowledge and confidence in own ideas and vision
- Articulating own ideas and vision
- Taking responsibility.

Learning

- Managing own learning
- Contributing to the learning community at the workplace
- Using a range of mediums to learn - mentoring, peer support, networking, IT, courses
- Applying learning to technical issues (eg, products) and people issues (eg, interpersonal)
- Having enthusiasm for ongoing learning
- Being willing to learn in any setting, on and off the job
- Being open to new ideas and techniques
- Being prepared to invest time and effort in learning new skills
- Acknowledging the need to learn in order to accommodate change.


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Is The Standard Of Indian Engineering Colleges Deteriorating?

Above is the question that is bound to emerge in everyone’s mind after reading the news today. AICTE or The All India Council for Technical Education has lowered the eligibility criteria for engineering college admissions from 50% in Class 12 (in physics, chemistry and math or PCM group) to 45% for general category candidates and 40% for reserved category candidates.


Students who are eligibile can apply between July 6 and July 8. About 10,000 engineering aspirants who satisfy the new criteria have applied. Although the provisional merit list for engineering is up on the website, students eligible under the new rule will be accommodated on the final merit list.


The reason behind this move is said to be a response to a huge demand. Kapil Sibal (Union Minister for Human Resource Development) said, “We have to ultimately relax the norms because the demand is huge. It all depends on the market. For instance, this year, people have moved to mechanical engineering courses. Seats in colleges are vacant due to poor standards. We have to address the demand issue.”


I am sure most of you will agree that, Engineering is a coveted profession in India, but at the same time we must not forget that it’s a much respected career. An engineer is ultimately held responsible for the technological advancements in a country. If the process of getting inside an engineering degree course is made so easy, students may not feel the importance for this career.


It has come down to the rift between ‘quantity’ of engineers and ‘quality’ of engineers. Seeing the current state, one feels that India could use some technical torch-bearers to surpass new frontiers of engineering. Do we need thousands of average-rated engineers churning out of the factory-like colleges or a few really talented and worthy engineers would suffice?




Sunday, June 19, 2011

Sabjiwaala.com, a website launched by 3 IIT-B boys




Sabjiwaala.com, a website launched by 3 IIT-B boys, delivers fresh and clean vegetables to Powai residents



The bright 21-year-old, studying civil engineering at the country’s top engineering school, is no more interested in structure and aesthetics of buildings. Rather, he is pre-occupied with how to deliver the next pack of fresh and clean vegetables to a resident of the elite Hiranandani Complex on time.



Rohit Goyal is one of those three IIT-Bombay boys who decided to tap the vegetable vending market as a career choice, but with their technological twist. The other two are Siddharth Kataria (24) who passed electrical engineering last year and Anshul Singhal (27) who was teaching at a coaching class after graduation. Sabjiwaala.com, their website that caters to over 1,000 customers on a daily basis, is just six months old but is already a hit amongst residents of Powai.

click below to know more about them.
sabjiwaala.com

Saturday, June 4, 2011

One sixth of world population to be on Facebook by 2012




ALTHOUGH COMPETITOR sites are trying tooth and nail to attract more users, Facebook dominates the market. The number of Facebook users is expected to reach a record 1 billion by next year, according to statistics site Social Bakers. The US boasts of the highest number of Facebook users in the world - 149 million - which stands at around half the country’s population.
 
There has been a significant growth in the number of Facebook users in Brazil as well. Over 1.9 million users joined the site in May. Countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico and Argentina have also seen a tremendous growth in the number of Facebook users in the last few months. The increasing popularity of the site comes as no surprise to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Last year, when number of site users reached 500 million, Zuckerberg said that he was very happy with the figures, but saw no chance of reaching the 1 billion mark. However, he added that it was “guaranteed” to happen.
 
Around 80 million new users joined Facebook in the first quarter of 2011, increasing from 585 million to 665 million. The young internet entrepreneur stressed that he was quite pleased with the way Facebook was progressing with only four countries left where growth was still required, including Russia and China. If Facebook continues to grow at the current pace the day is not far when Zuckerberg’s dream of floating the site on stock market would come true.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

9 Things Never to Say to A Girl !!




9 Things Never to Say to A Girl:
(Bracket Me Mere Inputs hain) :D

1. Referring to Her Enemy and Saying:
"She’s Just a Friend..." !!
(Ab Enemy ki Gossip Shuru Karegi..=P)

2. I’ll Call you Tonight at 8pm..
(1 Minute B late huya to SAZAA-E-MAUT..)

3. *Seeing another Girl n' Saying:
She’s Hot...!! :O
(Gaya kaam se, =P )

4. I Love you..♥ =)
(Aqal Ghaas Charne chali gayi hay kya..!
ALL D BEST Lol..)

5. Did you gain Weight?? :O
(Ab Poore Din Dimaag Chategi,
Kahaan se Moti Dikh rahi hoon Batao naa...
Please Urghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!)

6. My Ex always/never/used to…etc..
(Pichli ko Chhoro, Is ki Tareef karo aur Be Safe..=D)

7. You Remind Me of My Mother..
(Ame Gf mein Maa dekhege to;
Romance ki to Aisi ki Taisi ho jayegi na..=D)

8. Did We have Plan of Going Out Tonight??
(Yaad kyun Dilaaya??
Ab bhugto *kharcha hi Kharcha* =D)

9. How Old are you??
(Haan Haan Aur Poocho,
Jaise Tumko Woh Apni Asli Umar Bata hi to Degi..
haan Nahi to....=P) 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Best Quotes about Sachin Tendulkar


Sachin Tendulkar - GOD of Cricket



Sachin Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders- Virat Kohli after India won the 2011 World Cup


"I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 in Tests for India"- Matthew Hayden

"There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others"- Andy Flower

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin" -Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player- Shane Warne

I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he's 99.5% perfect- Viv Richards on Sachin Tendulkar

He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling-Richie Benaud

If I've to bowl to Sachin, I'll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard-Dennis Lillee

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal- Brian Lara

Don't bowl bad balls he hits the good ones for fours-Michael Kasprowicz

Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it- Hashim Amla

Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson- Martina Navratilova

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing us to breathe the same air as you do- Shahrukh Khan

The thing I like the most about Sachin is his intensity. After being in the game for so long, he still has the same desire to do well for India in any international match. I tell you what, this man is a legend¬- Sourav Ganguly

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also- Waqar Younis

Sachin Tendulkar is, in my time, the best player without doubt - daylight second, Brian Lara third-Shane Warne

Sachin is cricket's God- Barry Richards



 "Cricket is our Religion" "Sachin is our GOD"

Thursday, April 14, 2011

20 things common to all engg colleges:






1_The lecturers dont teach.The students dont study.The only guy who benefits is the one who owns the 'dhaba' next to the college.

2_Rules are made to be broken.

3_Promises too break

4_Deadlines are made to be extended...ALWAYS!

5_Guys always think the chics in the college next lane are more beautiful.

6_The geeks are the most pampered lot during the internal exams.

7_The lab assistants are the most respected people(during the lab exams i.e)

8_The watchmen are the people most bribed.

9_The HOD is the person most respected(heights of sycophancy here).

10_The principal is the person most abused and insulted(behind the back i.e)

11_Dropping subjects is 'cool'.(arre yaar..drop the idea of dropping subjects plzz).

12_There is always a lecturer in the college who cant speak proper 'english'.

13_Night-out is the second most important tool to ace the exams.

14_The most important tool..the bhramastra..is the 'chit' in which the words can be understood only by the person who wrote them(in most of the cases i.e)

15_The freshers are the most sought after..be it in the canteen,the 'free' periods or for completing the records,assignments.

16_The second-years are the ones with the 'I am the don-of-the-college' feeling.

17_The third years are the ones with the 'so-many-backlogs' feeling and the poor souls get down to studying after bossing around in the college for so long.but the fun still continues.

18_The fourth years have no connection with the college whatsoever...with no interest in ragging,pulling each other`s legs,the bday parties,the bday bums et al which they enjoyed so much till now.All they want is a good placement and a '1st-class' tag attached to their memo.

19_The first three years are spent in cursing the college,the people there,the system et al.

20_But towards the end of the fourth year,people tend to feel nostalgic abt the pure unadulterated fun they have had for 4 years.Now the very system they disliked,the very canteen they cursed,the time that they spent there,the bday bums they suffered..all these seem like heaven to them.