The HRD minister of
The most revolutionary idea of all is to scrap the class 10 board exam. I guess the word scrap is wrongly used here. Mr. Kapil Sibal has proposed to make the board exam OPTIONAL and not scrap it. The students who do not want to make a shift to other schools, may choose internal assessment and not appear for the board exam. This is done to reduce the trauma students have to go through who slog over the year to put in their best. There are many who are unable to perform to the expected levels and resort to suicide.
In my opinion, most of the Indian parents are obsessed with their kid’s performance and want them to excel. This obsession comes from their knowledge of the competition which awaits the kid after school. So, most of them (urban middle class) would want their kid to appear for the exam and try to get into a better school. The exam would be compulsory for the students (mostly in rural
Another proposal is about implementation of grading system in class 9th and 10th. This would decrease the pressure to get more and more percentages in the two classes. When I tried to find information about the grading system, I found that most of the countries follow grading system except a few like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education)
About
But mostly, percentages are used. A high percentage above 90% is supposed to indicate the excellent quality of a student.Students 'burn many a midnight lamp' to achieve the 90% benchmark.”
So the grading system may bring relief for many. But the proposal says it may be a grading system or percentile system. I believe the percentile system would not be able to correctly reflect the performance of the student. For one studying in a school with thousand pupils it would very tough to get a high percentile than one studying in a less populated school.
Both the proposals are revolutionary in their nature as they attempt to change age old pedagogy. These would apply only to CBSE as a pilot. Let us hope it could have the positive effects it is intended for.
After the first steps detailed above there is a lot more to do. With 20 different boards in
Also, we need to focus on increasing the number of higher education institutions which provide quality education. The number of applicants is increasing manifolds with the number of seats remaining the same. This demand–supply gap creates higher and higher levels of competition.
Other steps taken by the minister include pushing the bill for Right of children to compulsory and free education for children till the age of 14 should have far reaching effects. Besides increasing the penetration of education in the poor, it will also make education compulsory for girls in the rural
Proposal to set up an All India Madrassa board to impart secular education along with the regular teachings of a madrassa is also included in the agenda. It would make the students at the madrassas eligible for higher education institutions. But, wouldn’t this promote the existence of madrassa where primary education is about the religion?
Commenting on the issue of reservation, the minister said he wants to build a consensus before he takes any action. He said steps would be taken only after the current implementation is completed and after the private institutions have the infrastructure to provide reservation. I guess he made an equivocal statement just to be away from any controversy at least as of now.
An anti-ragging helpline would be setup for students across the country. Anybody can call on the helpline number and process to assist him would start within 15 minutes.
The enthusiastic movement by the education ministry leaves a positive impression of the new government. These are few steps towards reforms and there is a lot more to be done. Let us hope the enthusiasm doesn’t die down and it is realized in time.
In the time of recession, with a season of job cuts, each and every employee in the corporate world is building strategies to make him more valuable and irreplaceable. Nobody would want to lose the job and any strategy to save it is a fair strategy.
Being irreplaceable – Some people have the tendency to do tasks independently and not share any knowledge about it with the team. This they do, to always be an important member of the team without whose presence, the team cannot complete work. This would force the employer to retain him even in hard hit times.
But is this a prudent choice to make out of other wiser options available?
I believe the best strategy to avoid being below the hammer of a job cut would be to be the best and not be the only one. All employers are in a constant search of competitive, faithful and flexible employees. If you fit the criteria, you should be least likely to be fired. By making the first choice (being irreplaceable), one saves the job for some time, but would be the first one to be fired once the company doesn’t need his support. So why keep our hopes on something which is so short lasting. Instead, we should work to attain perfection in whatever we do and the rest is all done by itself. But having said that, I would also want to emphasize that one’s perfection should be visible (or MADE visible) to the right set of people. Without the visibility, perfection cannot take us the places we are worth of.
Also, if one possesses a skill which makes him irreplaceable, it also makes him less likely to get better roles. The company would not offer him better roles or positions as he is required to work for his possessed skill. And it is perfectly said:
“Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.”
Moreover, this is a scenario dependant situation. The above may not be working in a scenario and being irreplaceable may be the best choice available. Luck plays an important role in determining one’s future. So one should work the best in the available resources and leave the rest to luck.
Congress has sweeped a historic victory in two decades. With UPA winning 262 seats, it is just about majority in the Lok Sabha. The results show a trend of increasing confidence in the Indian National Congress beating the odds of the incumbency. But is it really an increase in confidence?
The 2009 mandate reflects that
Congress has increased its tally in the Lok Sabha from 145 to 206 but with a mere 2 percentage points increase in the vote share. This indicates a mere redistribution of votes which fetched them a winning combination rather than increase in their popularity. The vote share may have increased to keep the Left and BJP out of power. And the right number of votes in each constituency made up to a whopping number of 206.
This is not a sign of return to national politics. The national parties, Congress and BJP, contested more number of seats than 2004 but still saw a 1.3 percentage points fall in their combined vote share. Biju Janta Dal would be a good example of regional parties’ victory.
BSP, which is based on identity, has an increased vote share of 6.2% from 5.3% last time. Though, its vote share in UP is less than expected.
But, whatever be the reasons, UPA has a decisive mandate and is in a position to bring many long awaited reforms. It does not have any excuse for underestimated development in this term. It has a daunting task ahead and the road seems to be smooth.
Many schemes (NREGA, Bharat Nirman, NRHM) started by UPA seem to be capable of good development. It should try and take those schemes as far as possible. It is in a good position to bring the National Food Security Act, which ensures 25 kg of rice/wheat to people below poverty line at Rs 3 per Kg.
UPA also has the responsibility to conduct Commonwealth games 2010 successfully. This would exhibit
The large number of young leaders in the Lok Sabha represents increased expectations for a change. Young leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot need to take steps to bring about a change in the way
The mandate expects the new government to set examples and take
Are you happy with money, job and a good relationship? Samrat was not. A Yale valedictorian working in a Wall Street financial jumbo leaves his job and heads towards his roots in
He lands up into the ultra competitive IIM,
The story defines the state of confusion in the minds of American born kids of NRIs. It really made me think.
Where do these kids belong?
They would always lack the sense of belongingness to a place, a culture. They would always be seen as second class citizens in the country they have chosen as theirs; and now as foreigners in their own country. Away from family and friends to pursue a high paying career and in a foreign land, is it really a good deal? In my opinion, it is not.
Another thing which made me think was the author’s mention about happiness. Many of us think that happiness eludes us in our pursuit of life. But the fact is that happiness is always with us. It’s just when we find it. And we will find it as soon as we really look for it. It is we ourselves who elude happiness and not try to look for it.
The book very beautifully makes you introspect and know some good things about yourself.
The other day I read about another industry being impacted by the recession. The newspaper industry in the developed world is said to be hit hard. At the first look, I couldn’t believe that newspapers can also get impacted. Recession or not, people will need the news at all times.
But the revenue generators of any newspaper are the advertisements. With most of the industries hit by the recession, there are lesser advertisers, which mean lesser revenue. The newspapers have a huge amount of cost attached with them. They have reporters in many parts of the world, editors, printers and many more. With other industries in recession and no reduction in cost, revenues are bound to decrease. This decline signals reduction in jobs for news reporters. This would lead to a shift towards free lance correspondents to decrease the fixed costs.
The online media, in the same period has not seen the same decline. It proves a shift in the readership towards the online medium. With increased ease of access, online media does indeed serve in a better way. Someone interested in the stock market news would directly go to moneycontrol.com instead of digging for the information of his interest in a large business page of a newspaper. Same would be applicable for entertainment, sports news, etc. Also, with much more resources available on the net, the available content also increases dramatically.
I just hope the recession has bottomed out. The longer it is there, more and more industries would get affected and the spiral would never end.
Ravi Subramanian is an IIM alumnus. This is his first novel. I read this book for its attractive title but only to find that the title does not have any relevance to the story. It is a story of a couple of IIM alumnus who start their career with a foreign bank about two decades ago.
The story has two main characters, Sundeep and Swaminathan. The two have a completely different ideology and way of approaching life. Sundeep is an aggressive, intelligent banker who would take any path for success. On the other hand, Swami is a shy, introvert who has seen hard times in his life. He is an intelligent banker who always follows the ethics of the business.
Through the two characters, the author has beautifully elaborated the importance of ethics and principles in one’s life. He has shown how ethical and moral behaviour leads to a happy and content life. Shortcuts may be useful in the short term but mostly lead to problems and make one’s life turbulent. The author has put all the characteristics of a corporate professional in these two characters. He shows clash of values, desperation for status and power, love and lust.
The book has a fast moving gripping story with a flavour of Indian corporate environment. It is just like watching a Madhur Bhandarkar flick on Indian corporate life. I like those flicks and I liked the novel too.
I am in
The ballot system in the Indian elections has changed over the period of time. We have moved forward from the paper ballot system to electronic voting machines which have many advantages over the previous system. Now it is time to modernize other infrastructure related to the ballot system.
We have to device such a system where we can cast our vote from anywhere in the country. This would require modernizing the election cards and availability of an infrastructure which would allow crosschecking of voter details from a central database rather than manual paper lists.
Biometric cards are already becoming famous. These cards have 16 to 32 GB memory to store various details of the card holder. It can store the thumb impression and retina scan of a person. The card will be validated only when the card holder’s thumb impression matches the one in the card. This would be just like an ATM card with the pin as your thumb impression.
A biometric card would check bogus voting to a large extent. We should have such technology implemented where no two cards can have the same thumb impression. This would mean no bogus election cards. Also, we can centralize all our identification systems into this card. It can act as our driving licence, our PAN card, etc. If we implement a system where one can have his bank accounts linked to this card, it will also act as our plastic money. In future we may also make it mandatory to make all high value transactions through this card. It would help us check tax evasion to a large extent.
Coming back to the topic, we should make use of this kind of cards to modernize our ballot system. With the use of a biometric card we would not need to have our names in the paper lists. We should be allowed to go in to any polling station and cast vote for the constituency we belong to. This would happen if we have centralized vote recording systems. I can cast vote from
I believe
What is Democracy?
Wikipedia says, “Democracy is a form of government in which power is held indirectly by the citizens in a free electoral system.” Taking a 20000 feet view, it is the rule by the people themselves through a few elected representatives. But how would one ensure that the decisions taken by these elected representatives are for the benefit of the masses? Here comes the role of the guardians of a democracy.
In the phrase “Whistle blowers are the guardians of a democracy”, whistle blowers may take many roles. The roles may range from political opposition party to media to the judicial system. Let us examine the role of each of these as the guardians of a democracy.
The political parties which are not in majority in the parliament of a country are the opposition parties. As the word itself is descriptive, the role of these parties is to oppose the government’s decisions. These parties may be opposing to gain publicity by taking a more popular stand. But this allows a critical review of the bills proposed in the parliament and makes people aware of all the pros and cons of it. Also, the opposition is always on a hunt of facts and figures which may prove the government inefficient. These facts are useful for the public to get an indicative performance of the government. Recently we witnessed the debate on Nuclear deal in the Indian and US parliaments. These intense debates could unfold all the consequences of the deal before going ahead with it. Also, the
The media may also be seen as a whistle blower. With the advent of technology and satellite communication, media has taken more and more responsibility to bring truth to the people. Now people have become more aware of the happening around them. It helps to incite a widespread debate amongst the people on many issues. After the terrorist attack on Mumbai, increased number of discussions through the media resulted in more protests from the people which forced the government to take a strong stand against
Another whistle blower who guards our democracy is the judicial system. Through provisions like public interest litigations, courts make sure that the constitution is preserved impartially. The police, who are the whistle blowers in a true sense, also contribute to guard the democracy. Maintaining the law and order of the states, both courts and the police make sure people are able to exercise their fundamental rights as per the law.
The army may not be a whistle blower, but is definitely the guardian of any democracy. These are the people who guard a democratic nation against any foreign invasion.
The United Nations also plays an important role in preserving the democracy of many countries. It makes the governments answerable in the international arena. It preserves the global laws through International court of Justice and ensures rights to be implemented through organisations like the UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, etc.
A democracy would be “rule by the people” in a true sense only with all the above and many more whistle blowers which will continue to guard it.
Yes, 6 days to go for the start of one of
Indian Premier League with its inaugural session in 2008 is based on the Twenty-twenty format of the game. Eight city based teams with Indian and international players will participate in the tournament. These teams being owned by celebrity billionaires of the country including a few bollywood stars add to the glamour of the game.
The first season getting a push from the T20 world cup victory was successful in building on the craze. But this year it did not had a pleasant ride even before the start. Clash in its schedule with the Indian General Elections, forced Mr. Modi shift it out of the country to
A legal tussle between SET MAX and BCCI also made the news. Finally going for an out of court settlement, SET MAX would remain the official broadcaster of the tournament. Another controversy came into picture for the captaincy of Kolkata night riders. I just hope this is not another plan to bid Saurav adieu.
I believe the teams of IPL should not have been given the name of the city. It should have been a general name with a home ground from any one city. As all teams have players from all across the world and not only from that city, it doesn’t make sense dividing the teams on this basis. I being from
Kolkata night riders have come up with a cheer leader hunt show on television, hence trying to promote the cheer leaders concept further. The concept of cheer leaders had not been welcomed in the first season creating a lot of news for their western outfits. In my opinion, if we have divided the teams on regional basis, we should also have these cheer leaders promote the culture of that region. Dressed in their regional outfits and displaying their own dance of celebration would make people more aware of the country.
Making the news in the last few days with all the above reasons lets hope to see a power packed play which promotes Indian cricket further and helps in discovering new talent.
