Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Career Management in India

I very much liked this post by Mrityunjay Kumar, who writes about career management in India , great insight, have a read....

Mrityunjay Kumar:
In this post, I want to explore what career management means to people in India and the reasons behind why it has evolved this way. Understanding a bit of history can help us understand future trends. In a subsequent post, I will explore how this has proved detrimental to career management/counseling as an industry. I will also provide some ideas on how to do well in spite of such advice not being readily available.

Most of the job growth in Indian industries has happened in the last 10-15 years (post-liberalization era). This has largely been driven by services and export expansion and growth, which has fueled a knowledge-driven economy. Most of this growth has benefited the Indian middle class families who have long invested in their child’s education. Growth in ‘knowledge-based jobs’ created great opportunities of these educated youths, creating a ‘new middle class’.

Given that this economic phase is so new, there are very few success stories and role models for these new careerists, and hence they resort to their parents’ experiences, including the fact that Indian culture places lots of emphasis on respect for elders and their experience. Friends and family have acted as career counselors for most of the youngsters in this era and continue to do so (more on this here). However, this means careers and choices of the current economy get compared to those of the old economy. Also, the previous generation has seen poverty much more closely, creating a survival instinct and craving for economic stability that kicks into every advice they give to these new economy careerists.

Here are some characteristics of Indian career model as shaped by these realities:

1. A large number of young job seekers come from middle class which has valued steady stream of money over any kind of risk-taking. Hence stability of jobs and brand name of the company play a big role in how they choose their first job and when they change jobs.
2. Career roles for parents have been derived from the government and a few manufacturing companies, where laborers work and managers direct work. Therefore, being a people manager is a bigger achievement and growth indicator than being an expert programmer for most parents (this mind set creates a strange problem in IT sector which I will talk in my next post).
3. There is very little job diversity and a large number of aspiring candidates, all of whose resumes look alike because of cookie-cutter nature of Indian education (very little flexibility). This means intense pressure for getting a job quickly, there is no time to manage career.

Of course, there are some ‘new careerists’ who avoid this career model:

1. Some are very intelligent, getting into India’s world-class educational institutes, which mean they leapfrog the competition entirely and never have to worry about the job again because they have a brand they can reuse. Remember, brand counts a lot because of stability it provides. (I’m reminded of graduating from Harvard here in the States — Scot)
2. Some are very ‘informed’ in that they know about the latest job trends (either because they live in tier-A cities or know others who do) and join the queue which others don’t even consider joining, and hence get the jobs quickly and easily.

In an ideal world, such distinctions between ‘new careerists’ and other workers wouldn’t be as acute as is seen in India. Career management/counseling services can also help bridge such gaps by aligning strengths to jobs and enabling information access.


Friday, January 11, 2008

IIT to connect 2,000 engineering colleges through EDUSAT

2008 witnessed a new chapter in India's endeavors towards distance learning as Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) successfully launched the live telecast programs of its courses through ISRO's educational satellite, EDUSAT. Hundreds of students across the country attended the session by just sitting in their respective colleges.

IIT-B has already set up 50 Student Interactive Terminals (SIT) in the country. The premier technological institute is now planning to attract many more students to its programs by connecting the facility to over 2,000 engineering colleges across the country. Students of these colleges would be able to study the same course just as their counterparts in IIT Mumbai.

"The most important thing about this programme is that these courses are transmitted free of cost to the colleges with the help of free bandwidth provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation," Professor Kannan Moudgalya told reporters.

"We began this programme from January 2 with 12 courses, out of the 500 courses offered in IIT Mumbai through EDUSAT for undergraduates and postgraduates. We will be transmitting five additional courses through WEBCAST," he added.

Prof Moudgalya also clarified that the quality of teaching through EDUSAT is same as what IIT students study in the campus. But IIT will neither hold exams, nor do any evaluation or give grades for the students from remote locations, he added.

The main objective of this programme is to help engineering students in the remotest places to receive quality education at par with the IIT standard. They can get absolute benefit from the IITsyllabus and standard and also interact with IIT professors and students live and offline.

Batch'82 gifts Rs 4 crore to IIT Bangalore

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has received a value Rs. 4 crore from the 1982 batch students as a special New Year gift. The alumni handed over a cheque of the same to the premier technological institute on Sunday.

The corpus will be utilized to bring in more talent into the faculty. Besides, with the interest earned on the corpus each year, 25 incoming faculty members at IIT-B will be offered a bonus of Rs 1 lakh for the next three years.

The batch had decided to raise Rs 6 crore in all, planned to mobilize the remaining Rs 2 crore and give it to IIT-B for its Legacy Project in 2008. Every year, the Legacy Project sees alumni celebrating its silver jubilee reunion by pledging to take up a project for the Institute.

This initiative was announced earlier this year at a New York alumni meet when director Ashok Misra and senior faculty members including Deepak Phatak, professor at IIT's Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, visited the US to drum-up enthusiasm among NRI ex-students for the ongoing IIT-B golden jubilee celebrations.

While disclosing the fact IIT-B Director said, "the institute has been coming up with various measures to retain and attract faculty. The idea behind offering Rs 3 lakh to faculty members is to make their life a little more comfortable when they join the institute, said a member of the alumni. This money can be utilised to buy some furniture or a car. The money is given to make them feel comfortable till they settle down and then start getting consultancy projects,'' added Misra.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

11 from IIT- Delhi hostel score 99 percentile in CAT

IIT-Delhi's Jwalamukhi hostel erupted in joy on Tuesday after 11 of its residents belled the tough CAT exam securing 99 percentile and above this year. All 11 cracked the entrance test to IIMs in their first attempt.

"Five of us stay in the same wing of the hostel," said Arun Kapoor, final year electrical engineering student, who secured 99.25 percentile and got offers from IIM Kolkata and Bangalore. "Our friends, who had not appeared for CAT, came and sat with us to let the joy sink in. We did not scream in joy as we expected to crack the test," he said with a cool, confident air.

The top CAT scorer in the hostel was Amit Mittal with a 99.99 percentile, but he was not seen during the celebrations.

Sachin Dikshit, who secured 99.82 percentile, believes his power to analyze his weaknesses was his winning mantra. "I took various mock tests before CAT, and in each of them, I analyzed my mistakes and improved on my weaknesses," he said.

source: timesofindia

CAT results: Over 3,500 students make the cut

More than 3,500 students, who have had a crack at the Common Admission Test, can expect a call from at least one of the seven Indian Institutes of Management.

The results of CAT, which would be used by the IIMs and 124 other management institutes to enrol students, were released on Tuesday. Over two lakh B-school aspirants appeared for the examination for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other B-Schools across the country. "The scores can be accessed by keying in the test registration number and either the date of birth or the CAT application number," states the information given on the IIM's website. For accessing the results via SMS, one should send a message to 57333. The text should be as follows: CAT - a space, the registration number, one more space and the date of birth. The CAT, considered as one of the world's most demanding entrance examination for any graduate institute, was conducted on November 18th, 2007 to short list only about 5,000 candidates for admission to the IIMs. The short-listed candidates would be called for group discussions and personal interviews within a few days after the publication of the result. They would be individually communicated by post for the venue and date of interviews. The CAT score forms basis for about 110 B-Schools in the country for short-listing students for various management programs

But senior IIM faculty members themselves could not throw any light on the exact number of successful CAT aspirants. Confusion reigned as the website - supposed to tell 2.3 lakh candidates the CAT results - crashed, unable to take the load of queries from every corner of the country.

Thousands of students could not view their percentile scores as they logged on at the stroke of 3 pm. ''The entire exercise was an anti-climax. Even if some students got to know their percentile scores, they had no way of knowing which IIM would be giving them a call as the website had crashed by then,'' management institute TIME-Bangalore director Ajay Arora said.

The CAT admission committee decided to have a dedicated website this year after all the individual IIMs' websites crashed on result day last year. ''But this, too, does not seem to have helped. We will upload the results on individual IIM websites if the problem persists on Wednesday morning,'' a senior IIM official said. Though no trend was clearly discernible in all the confusion, faculty members said results varied widely across the three sections: English, Data Interpretation and Quantitative Analysis. And, for most, English was apparently the toughest section to crack, teachers said.

So, if a student has not scored well in English despite faring well in the other two sections, s/he may still not get a call from any of the IIMs. This is because IIMs - unlike other B-schools - insist on a minimum level of competence in all the three sections.

''The sectional cut-off for English seems to be on the higher side at 25 this year. Quantitative analysis, which was tougher, saw a drop in the cut-off (from 40 to 30) this year. The Data Interpretation section, too, as always, was easy,'' Arindam Lahiri of Career Launcher, a Delhi CAT coaching centre, said.

Faculty members also said there was a wide variability in performance across the three sections. And all these factors may prompt IIMs to relax cut-offs this year.

But some things have remained the same. About 90% of the successful candidates across most IIMs may again be engineering students, say senior faculty members.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Virtual Learning Environments

With the coming of the internet, communication techniques have been modernized greatly and this has had a very positive impact on education. Online learning, also referred to as e-learning is today a very prominent means of exchanging knowledge and information for educating students. It has been revealed that in the united states of America, a whopping amount of about 3.5 million students today subscribe to online learning programs. This has also facilitated the growth of various online educational institutions which offer a variety of courses to the interested students and at the conclusion of the course, online degrees are available. There are several software programs which have been devised specifically for the purpose of aiding the imparting of information and encouraging education online.

A very significant software tool in this respect is known as the Virtual Learning Environment or VLE. The software is a prominent software and while it has been designed for use in case of online education, it is also at times used in traditional classroom environments. This software is extremely beneficial for the teachers and students alike as apart form aiding in tackling course management, it also allows the teachers to check the progress and performance of the students and keep track of it from time to time. The software functions on servers communicating information or even in web pages.

The VLE makes widespread use of the internet and computers and is very vital for the course coordinator and aids considerably in providing the course design to the interested students. There are certain basic requisites of the virtual environment software tool. It is more in the form of an online prospectus providing details regarding the various nuances of the course, its topics and syllabus, the duration of the course, sessions, notice boards, help desks, student's registration facilities.

A very important component of the virtual environment is that it provides the introductory study materials and also states an elaborate account on the course. In addition to these, the software also undertakes the responsibility to notify the necessary links to important internet sites and libraries which would be required by the student. It is also necessary to note that the software must be efficient and capable of handling more than one course so that it is possible for the students and tutors to make an easy transition from one course to another.

All India Engineering Entrance Examination - AIEEE

Do you know how many students appeared in 2006 All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) in 2006? Well, about 525,000 to be precise, out of which about 45,000 were called for counseling.

What is AIEEE?

AIEEE is a engineering entrance examination and the students willing to make it to the top notch engineering colleges in indianite is an All India Common Entrance Examination for Admission to undergraduate degree Programs in the field of Engineering, Technology, Pharmacy and Architecture in various colleges in India. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India had taken a policy decision to conduct an All India Engineering Entrance Examination in 2002 (AIEEE-2002) with a view to minimize the difficulties being experienced by the candidates and their guardians arising due to a large number of entrance examinations being conducted for admission to undergraduate degree programme in the areas referred above. It is normally conducted in the month of May every year.

AIEEETop Rankers are called for counseling for admission to 19 National Institute of Technology (NIT's). All candidates are eligible either for central counseling or state-specific or category-specific counseling on basis of their All India Ranking (AIR). Counseling for SC/ST candidates and SC/ST physically handicapped candidates is done on the first two days of counseling. Then the physically handicapped in the Open (OP) category are counseled. Candidates are ranked on an All India basis and also according to their state. Thus, they have an All India Rank (AIR) and a state rank. A central analysis structure is offered for filling up the accessible seats all over India. For the convenience of candidates, provision for on-line submission of Application Form has also been made.

Who is Eligible to appear for AIEEE?

In 2006, the minimum academic qualification for admission through AIEEE was a pass in the final examination of 10+2 (Class XII), or its equivalent, referred to as the qualifying examination. Those appearing in 10+2 (Class XII) final, or equivalent, examination with results not declared could also appear in counseling. Such candidates were admitted provisionally, subject to the submission of proof of passing in qualifying examination latest by September 15, 2006 at the allotted institution. In case they could not comply with this deadline for providing the proof of passing in the qualifying examination, their admission will stand cancelled.

AIEEE Test Pattern

Students opting for B.Tech are tested in physics, mathematics and chemistry. The test duration is 3 hours with maximum marks 540, with equal weight age of 180 for each of the three subjects. Students opting for B.Arch are tested in mathematics and an aptitude test. Most of the questions are based on fundamentals & their applications. So, the first step is to establish a solid base by mastering the fundamentals. For mastering the fundamentals you have to be focused.

AIEEE Test Preparation

There are many Coaching Institutes in India providing coaching for AIEEE. Brilliant Tutorials, PACE Academy, Career Point, Kota are some of them. There are a few institutes which provide Correspondence Courses also. Online sites offering AIEEE mock test have also been launched recently. AIEEE Test Preparation Question Bank CDs for Practice are also in huge demand.

For more information on aieee visit www.goiit.com

Monday, January 7, 2008

Kerala village where the entire population has passed class IV

A Kerala village has become the first in the country where the entire population is educated at least till Class IV.

Nilambur panchayat (village council) in Malappuram district in north Kerala is the first village to have achieved the feat under a Kerala State Literacy Mission programme called Jyothirgamaya, aimed at spreading non-formal education in the state.

Kerala Governor R.L. Bhatia will make a formal announcement in this regard at Nilambur in the presence of top political leaders and officials on Tuesday.

In January 2007, the mission conducted a survey and found out that nearly 1,608 people in the village - out of a population of 39,000 - had not passed Class 4. Of these nearly 900 were illiterates.

"We conducted classes at 142 study centres with the help of 350 teachers to educate the identified students and the classes began in March last year," Aryadan Shoukat, president of the Nilambur panchayat, told reporters here on Saturday.

Classes were held for Maths, English, Malayalam and Environment, for two hours every day. "Examinations were conducted under the supervision of the mission officials," said Shoukat. With the Nilambur experiment a success, the mission is planning to replicate it in at least three other Kerala villages.

"We have already begun this programme in select villages in the state and we propose to have it in every village council with financial support from the council and funds from the centre," said mission director D. Jayadevan.

"We plan for the next phase of classes till the seventh standard and all those interested can participate," said Shoukat, who is an award winning filmmaker and son of Congress legislator Aryadan Mohammed.

IITs reduce number of credits to give flexibility to students

Students of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) - Delhi, Mumbai and Roorkee, now have a reason to smile in this New Year as the three institutes have reduced the minimum number of credits from 350 to 250 in four years that are essential to become a graduate.

Similar efforts are also being taken by the two other IITs - Kharagpur and Madras for granting the same flexibility to students. However, IIT Guwahati and Kanpur have no such plans in near future.

The main idea behind the plan is to - "break out of the rigidity of courses and curriculum, to ensure graduates are prepared for the demands of a new global economy and, in some ways, to ensure IITs still attract and retain India's brightest students who might be wooed by foreign universities and more open educational philosophies".

"The BTech (bachelor of technology, the graduate degree awarded by IITs) education has so far been quite straitjacketed, but now we are making efforts to address that," said Deepak Phatak, a senior faculty member at IIT Bombay. "This change in the course format will provide students some flexibility and freedom to structure their education," he added.

IIT Bombay has reduced the total number of mandatory credits that a student requires to complete his/her degree, from 350 in four years to 250 in four years. Also, students who opt to do the full 350 credits in their chosen fields will be awarded an honours degree when they graduate.

The flexibility in credits would help students use the extra time to pursue research or study another area of interest. With this decision, the students will not only have the freedom to use their time to participate in events hosted by the institute, such as campus festivals and the like but also get a degree that reflects the major specialization as well the minor studies.

IITs are among the best technological universities in the world offering highest standard of technical education in India. Each year, more than 60,000 students sit for the IIT-JEE test to gain admission to any of the seven IITs, out of which only about 4,000 make the entry.

It is worth noting that an increasing number of students are discarding the test due to its rigid academic structure. The recent move is expected to attract those students who are heading abroad for pursuing technical education in search of more flexibility.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Online Education in India

What exactly is online education? As per definition on the web, it is basically credit-granting courses or education training delivered primarily via the Internet to students at remote locations, including their homes. The Online courses may or may not be delivered synchronously. An online course may need that students and teachers meet once or periodically in a physical setting for lectures, labs, or exams, so long as the time spent in the physical setting does not exceed 25 percent of the total course time.

Online education encompasses various degrees and courses. Through online education, one can opt for many online degrees or online courses from various online universities that provide this facility.

On this page, we have tried to list those institutes and universities providing online learning. We have infact decided to have two sections- online education in India and online education abroad.

Though online education in India is still on its way in gaining popularity, we have listed those few online degree courses and online universities in India that provide online education.

While online education in India is still in its infancy, online education abroad is quite a hit among the people. The main attraction of online education is the flexibility through which education is imparted – through the Net. And more appealing is the fact that a person can pursue an online course within the comfort of his home or any other place that he chooses.

E-Learning in India:-
E-learning or electronic learning in India is gaining prominence slowly, but indeed steadily. This is due to the fact that more than half the population of India today is below 25 years of age and the number of Internet users are growing continuously. The tremendous growth of the economy in the recent past has also helped in the growth of online education in India. E-learning in India is specially popular with the young professionals who have joined the work force quite early but still would like to continue their education that may help them move up their career ladder quickly and safely. They find online education in India very convenient, as the nature of the course work does not require them to attend regular classes. Moreover reputed institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade are today offering e-learning courses.

Thus e-learning in India makes it possible for the learners to pursue their education from reputed institutes without much hassle.

Scope of online education in India: The scope of online education in India is actually much wider. Apart from proper course works, some E-learning portals in India are also conducting mock tests for various competitive examinations like engineering, medical, management etc. For example, the Indiatimes group has introduced the Mindscape test center where one can appear for mock IIT-JEE exams online for making self-assessment. GOIIT.com apart from providing various engineering entrance online assistance, they also provide various engineering entrance mock tests, which provides career enriching courses via eLearning. They also offer Virtual Classroom connectivity. Some E-learning portals in India are also providing tutorials for school students. Thus the reach of E-learning in India has expanded from adults to teenagers.

The future of E-learning industry seems to be very bright in India as number of Internet users is growing in the country at quite a satisfactory pace and more and more reputed players are showing their interest in the e-learning business. In fact, if prices of computers become affordable and Internet speed becomes tolerable, e- learning can work wonders for the country. Therefore, on this page, we would be providing information about all the online courses in India and the key players that are providing e-learning solutions in India.

MBBS in different countries

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery or MBBS, as it is known in some countries, is the degree that is required to become a doctor in allopathic medicine. Thus MBBS is not the universal degree that is offered after completion of undergraduate medical courses in all the countries as there are various branches of medicine and medical degrees in different countries are known differently. For example, while most medical schools in Australia offer MBBS degree after completion of undergraduate medical courses, the University of New Castle offers B.Med after five years of undergraduate studies. In England also MBBS is only one of variants of range of medical degrees that are offered by different universities.

MB ChB, BM BCh, BM BS, BM, MB Bchir are some of the other degrees that are offered in UK. The system of medical education in USA, on the other hand, is very different and one needs to complete first a bachelor degree before undertaking medical studies.

MBBS is most popularly known as the degree required for becoming a doctor in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Therefore in this article we will discuss in brief the method of obtaining the MBBS degree in these countries.

MBBS in India:
Although MBBS is not the only degree for becoming a doctor in India, as there are other branches of medicine like Ayurveda and Homeopathy, it is still the most coveted of all the medical degrees in India. For pursuing an MBBS degree in India one needs to complete 12 years of study and admission to most medical colleges in India are done on the basis of medical entrance test of various medial colleges. The Central board of Secondary education also conducts an All India Pre Medical Entrance Test for admission to 15% of the total seats for medical and dental courses in all medical and dental colleges run by the Union of India. For pursuing MBBS course in India, one needs to pass the higher secondary examination or its equivalent in the science stream with biology as a subject.

MBBS in Bangladesh:
For pursuing MBBS in Bangladesh also one needs to complete 12 years of study and admission to MBBS courses of most medical colleges in both public and private sectors in Bangladesh is done through an entrance test.

MBBS in Pakistan:
The Medical and Dental Council of Pakistan rules that for pursuing MBBS degree one needs candidates should have passed the Intermediate Science (F.Sc.) Examination (Medical Group) securing at least 60% marks in aggregate, unadjusted, from a Pakistani university or an equivalent examination.

MBBS is thus one of the most serious and toughest courses that one needs to pursue for being a medical practitioner. But as mentioned earlier it has many equivalents and it is known differently in different countries.

source: indiaedu.com