Digital Learning January 2014

10th anniversary issue

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 10

I issue 01 I january 2014 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

education.eletsonline.com

Ashish Dhawan Founder and CEO Central Square Foundation

person of

the year 10 Game Changers in Education

Dr Achyuta Samanta Founder KIIT and KISS

Ashok Mittal Chancellor Lovely Professional University

Dilip Chenoy MD and CEO National Skill Development Corporation

Shaheen Mistri Founder and CEO Teach For India

Dr Madhav Chavan Co-founder and CEO-President Pratham

Dr Pascal Chazot Head of School Mahatma Gandhi International School

Parth J Shah President and Managing Trustee Centre for Civil Society

Dr Sitansu S Jena Chairman National Institute of Open Schooling

Dr Jagdish Gandhi Founder-Manager City Montessori School

Sushma Berlia President Apeejay Education Society

Contents

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 10 issue 01 january 2014

10 Game Changers in Education P 29 policy matters 24 Why RUSA Might Fall Short on Hope?

Top 10 leaders 30 Dr Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT and KISS 32 Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University

36 Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO, National Skill Development Corporation

38 Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO, Teach For India 40 Dr Madhav Chavan, Co-founder and CEOPresident, Pratham

42 Dr Pascal Chazot, Head of School, Mahatma Gandhi International School

44 Parth J Shah, President and Managing Trustee, Centre for Civil Society

46 Dr Sitansu S Jena, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling

48 Dr Jagdish Gandhi, Founder-Manager, City Montessori School

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52 Sushma Berlia, President, Apeejay Education Society

feature story 54 How Foolproof are Placement Reports? course review 62 All You Wanted to Know About Hotel Management

corporate diary 50 Subramanian Narayanasamy, Managing

Director at TRS Forms and Services (P) Ltd

person of the year 70 Ashish Dhawan, Founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation

News 18 School Education 22 Higher Education 61 Campus

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education Volume

10

Issue 01

January 2014

President: Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta Group Editor: Anoop Verma

Partner publications

Advisory Board

WEB DEVELOPMENT & IT INFRASTRUCTURE Team Lead – Web Development: Ishvinder Singh

Prof Asha Kanwar, President, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen, Senior Adviser, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Executive – IT Infrastructure: Zuber Ahmed

Dr Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt of India

Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Executive Vice President, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment

Executive – Information Management: Khabirul Islam

Prof S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

Prof Parvin Sinclair, Director, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

information management team

Finance & Operations Team Sr Manager – Finance: Ajit Sinha Legal Officer: Ramesh Prasad Verma Associate Manager – Accounts: Anubhav Rana Executive Officer – Accounts: Subhash Chandra Dimri

Editorial Team education Sr Correspondent: Rozelle Laha Correspondent: Seema Gupta governance Assistant Editor: Rachita Jha Research Associate: Sunil Kumar Sr Correspondent: Ankush Kumar, Kartik Sharma, Mohd Ujaley, Nayana Singh, Praggya Guptaa

1 February 2014, New Delhi

Health Sr Assistant Editor: Shahid Akhter Correspondent: Ekta Srivastava SALES & MARKETING TEAM: digital LEARNING National Sales Manager: Fahimul Haque, Mobile: +91 - 8860651632 Associate Manager – Business Development: Amit Kumar Pundhir, Mobile: +91 - 8860635835 Subscription & Circulation Team Sr Executive – Subscription: Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 Design Team Assistant Art Director: Shipra Rathoria Team Lead – Graphic Design: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Sr Graphic Designer: Om Prakash Thakur Sr Web Designer: Shyam Kishore

Taking School Leadership to the Next Level

Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector 62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600 Fax: +91-120-4812660 Email: info@digitalLearning.in

digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

Owner, Publisher, Printer - Ravi Gupta, Printed at Super Cassettes Inds. Limited, C-85, Sector - 4, Noida, UP and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without publisher’s permission.

education.eletsonline.com | egov.eletsonline.com | ehealth.eletsonline.com Write in your reactions to Education news, interviews, features and articles. You can either comment on the individual webpage of a story, or drop us a mail: editorial@elets.in

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EDITORIAL

Your trust turns 10 It was amidst a host of leaders from over 70 countries and delegates of governments, businesses and NGOs in World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) phase II in Tunis (Tunisia) where digitalLEARNING was born in 2005.

With the surge of ICT enhanced lesson plans and process making technology increasingly useful for the pedagogy, it was unavoidable that education and ICTs were a fundamental basis for preparing for a knowledge society. With the aim of being a catalyst to spread this message in India, where at that time, there was little discourse about the need of ICT, the magazine was launched. ICT had already made remarkable differences in the banking, aviation and transport sectors at that time and role of ICT in changing the paradigms of education sector was well expected. We wanted to document this very change and walk the change with the pioneers, and early achievers in the technological segment. We also created platforms through mega international events like eAsia and national events like the eINDIA to encourage and highlight the key achievements of these game-changers to the wider education stakeholders; to set their achievements as a starting point for the rest.

While we continued to create an awareness about innovations in the field of education, we were invited by the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, a UN ICT Task Force founded organisation, to partner in coordinating, facilitating, and implementing the formulation of the ‘National Policy on ICT in School Education’. Through this policy, the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India aimed to address the needs and challenges of teaching and learning in schools using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools.

It has been an amazing journey to witness the country beat all odds of adapting to technology and it feels indeed great to see how the government has started encouraging use of ICT in education. Concurrently, there has been an incredible boom of non-government players in the education sector. Each of these players has been playing a tremendously important role in percolating the fruits of education to different segments of society, be it in the rural, urban middle class and urban sectors. Some of these organisations have also taken interest in doing policy advocacy. The 10th anniversary issue of digitalLEARNING magazine is a tribute to those who are transforming the education of the country in commendable ways through diverse initiatives. The issue highlights the government bodies that are investing massively in the sector to educate and upskill children, recognises innovative models of public-private partnerships in the sector, celebrates the achievements of non-government organisations and edupreneurs.

The issue also recognises Ashish Dhawan, the man who pioneered the idea of venture capital financing to non-profits in the sector as the ‘digitalLEARNING Person of the Year’ to laud his efforts in creating a new philanthropic culture in the education sector.

As we enter into a new year, we pledge to serve the education of the country by covering more stakeholders of the segment in the magazine through quality reporting and our specialised events.

Wishing all readers a Happy New Year 2014.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in digitalLEARNING / January 2014

17

nEWS

School

Education

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

Private schools slam nursery entry norms Criticizing the new guidelines for nursery admissions, the private schools of Delhi have decided to draft a letter to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung demanding modifications in the guidelines.

Delhi’s private schools are left with bitter taste in mouth due to the new guidelines for nursery admissions whereby all the private schools would follow a common criterion for admissions. With the doing away of management quota which carried 20% weightage, the schools are now left with no significant say on admissions.

Private schools associations across Delhi complain of drastic changes been made to the admission process without any former discussion with them. The new guidelines further ignore a 2002 Supreme Court judgment that says private institutions which do not receive any financial grant from the government must be allowed a certain amount of freedom in the matter of admission and fees.

The new guidelines include selection will be based on criteria including the neighbourhood where a child lives, and whether they have a sibling studying in the school. Especially the ‘neighbourhood’ criterion which allots 70 points to kids living within the radius of 6kms from the school has not gone down too well with the parents, as many believe that a more dissected system of grading could have been better in a city like Delhi, than allotting a fixed 70%. Parents with a single boy child find the 5% quota for girls adding to the woes.

Free education till elementary level for J&K students According to the new law drafted in Jammu and Kashmir, every child in the age group of four to fourteen years will have the right to free and compulsory education till the competition of elementary education.

The state education department is ready with the draft of the law which would soon be presented before the cabinet for approval. The law drafted by the state goes beyond the provisions given by the centre. It has made special provisions for children from the weaker sections of the society. Steps have also been taken to upgrade education infrastructure in the area for rural students. Setting up a college is also on the anvil.

J&K class 10 results out: Girls vanquished boys

Jammu and Kashmir girls excelled boys in the class 10 examinations, securing 70 percent of the first 20 ranks.

269 students made it to the first 20 positions out of which 186 were girls. The first 10 positions were acquired by 55 girls out of a sum of 68 students.

Kauser Jan, a student of Iqbal Memorial School (IMI), Bemina was declared the topper with a whopping score of 99 percent with the second position being shared by three students scoring 98.8 percent.

Around 31,130 students (70.58 percent) passed the examination. 26,511 boys and 22,847 girls passed out of the total 49,358 students enrolled with the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education. Though the girls made the cut, the pass percentage of boys this year too remained high with 73.82 percent.

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

Sex education in Bengal schools still a matter of debate Study of sex education in the state-run schools of West Bengal is still a matter of debate. The state education ministry is still in the process of collecting views of various educationists and stakeholders on the matter.

Last year, the Council of Boards of School Education in India (Cobse) had proposed the inclusion of adolescent education as part of the syllabus from classes 8 to 12. Earlier, the previous government in the state had introduced teaching of sex education but it proved to be a failure with teachers utilising the classes for finishing the syllabus in other subjects. Hence, the present state education minister wants to consult all the stakeholders before implementing sex education in the state-run schools.

education.eletsonline.com

ADVERTORIAL

The First Ever Live Online Course from an IIT Kharagpur Professor Set to Take-Off

I

IT Kharagpur has come a long way since its establishment in 1951. The first IIT to come into existence, IIT Kharagpur was not just an educational institute. It was a movement that would in the years to come, give shape to the Indian technical educational scenario and set a benchmark of the pursuit of excellence. Initially established to train scientists and engineers, post-independence, IIT Kharagpur continues to give to the world dexterous graduates and postgraduates as its alumni.

The institute’s first steps into the new age education were through the setup of the CET. Established in 1995, the Centre for Educational Technology (CET) represented IIT Kharagpur’s early recognition of the increasing importance of the role of Technology and Pedagogy in Engineering Education. Continuing its stronghold over seamless adoption and integration of new technology into education, CCVIC, an online certificate course with Live Virtual Classroom has been launched that will run over a period of 4 months starting the first week of February, 2014. The course is being offered in hybrid mode with combination of both onsite and online phases via the WizIQ Online Course Delivery Solution with integrated live virtual classroom.

What is unique about this course?

For the first time, an online course initiated by a Professor from IIT Kharagpur will be across the globe. The aim of the course is to help the learners master the basics as well as advanced insights of image and video communication. This course is believed to be beneficial to engineers who are designers of algorithms

“It is the first ever live online course of its kind. If students’ objective is not to learn the basics alone, but in addition they wish to go a bit advanced – in terms of system design or even cuttingedge research, they will find this course to be a very valuable companion.”

- Prof Somnath Sengupta, Course Coordinator, Certificate Course in Image and Video Communication (CCIVC) or architects of image, video, communication systems, graphics, animation, etc.

The learners of the course will be certified by CEC, IIT Kharagpur (Continuing Education Centre, IIT Kharagpur) after the completion of the course.

The course is originally fashioned upon the hybrid model of teaching, which includes both onsite and online classes.

The course will span over three phases: # Phase I: Feb 8 to Feb 9, 2014. (at IIT Kharagpur campus) # Phase II: Feb 14 to May 10, 2014.

(Online classes on WizIQ.com) # Phase III: May 17, 2014 (Valedictory at IIT Kharagpur Campus) (If for some reason the students can’t make it to the campus, the whole course will also be available online).

The web-link of the course is: <go.wiziq.com/2qbk> Even though IIT Kharagpur is familiar with the advantages of online education, this course is in a way a novel venture of its kind because of its Live Virtual Classroom component.

This example will usher an avenue to add value in the education fraternity as it has immense potentiality to be initiated

such kind of course by individual faculty or the institute without hassle of managing a long tail of infrastructural paraphernalia.

Here is how: 1. Almost infinitely scalable- This course connects the teacher and the target students, from anywhere on the globe, in real time, thus justifying the very purpose of launching such a course.

2. Does not require download of software - The course works from a web browser(Windows, mac or Linux), iPad and Android tablets, thus eliminating the need to download any videos or cumbersome softwares.

3. Advanced engaging features for a unique teaching and learning experience via a virtual classroom - The platform supporting the certificate course is robust and offers interactive whiteboard, audio/video via VOIP, screen sharing, document view in the classroom, integrated chat, recorded lessons for selfpaced learning, thus enabling a unique teaching as well as learning experience.

To initiate a similar online course, feel free to drop a mail to Kalyan Sarkar, Director, Academic Liaisons, WizIQ.com, at kalyan@wiziq.com or call +91-9216405405 or +91-9897072888.

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

19

nEWS

School

Education

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

CBSE to conduct ‘Science Exhibition 2014’ The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is going to organize its Regional and National Level Science Exhibition in the month of July, 2014.

CBSE’s main objective behind this exhibition is to provide a common platform to schools, teachers and students to give shape to their innovative ideas and to offer a creative forum for the students to pursue their natural curiosity, innovation and inventiveness. These exhibitions also try to be a medium for popularizing science and increase awareness among the stakeholders about the close relationship between science, technology and the society.

This year’s main theme is ‘Science and Mathematical Innovations’ with sub themes being agriculture, energy, health, environment and resources.

Apart from organizing the science exhibitions at regional and national level every year, CBSE has taken on a number of other initiatives in order to impart interactive, participatory, hands-on, innovative and creative learning experiences to its students.

Unrecognised schools under Education department’s scanner The state department of elementary education in Coimbatore issued notices to around 68 nursery and primary schools running without mandatory state recognition.

The schools have been asked to get various certificates required to run a school. If they fail to meet the conditions mandated by the government by the end of this academic year, they will be directed to close down.

Certifications needed to run a school includes stability certificate, fire and safety certificate as well as certificates from the department of health and the city corporation. Another important condition is the minimum land required to run a school. Schools in corporation limits must have a minimum of 33 cents, in municipality areas 55 cents, town panchayat an acre and village panchayats three acre to be free to function.

At the start of the current academic year, around 30 schools were forced to shut down citing similar reasons which had an adverse affect on students as many had found it difficult to get admissions in other schools. A similar situation is feared to arise if the schools under the scanner fail to submit the required certifications.

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

English teaching tips on mobile for primary school teachers in West Bengal

West Bengal’s primary school teachers will soon be getting English teaching tips on their mobile phones.

The project is funded and developed by the British Council in partnership with Pashchim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education. To make the education material easily accessible on mobile phones, fairly short video clips on teaching tips would be made available to teachers.

The material for the project is designed keeping in mind the traditional face-to-face teacher training programmes and professional development by using a blend of high quality interactive digital tools such as films, audio recordings as well as printed work books. The initiative will enable teachers to teach the English language in a more interactive and communicative way, with more stress on speaking and listening skills of the pupils.

In the next phase of this project, all the materials would be available through the school education department’s website.

nEWS

Higher

Education

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

FT Masters in Management Survey ranks IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta The post graduate programme of IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta are ranked in the world’s top 20 management programme in the 2013 FT masters in management (MiM) survey. The IIM A comes in at the 18th position followed by IIM C at 19th position.

The ranking features the top 70 programmes for students with little or no previous work experience. The Univer-

IIT-BHU students launch portal for internship seekers Two under graduate students of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IITBHU) have designed an online portal ‘www.internlelo.com’ to help students fresh out of colleges to find good internship. The portal, launched on November 14, 2013, primarily informs about the duration of internship, stipend, location of work, eligibility to apply in addition to the information about internships available. At the same time the portal also gives notifications about workshops, conferences, campus ambassador programmes, technical and management events organized in college campuses around the globe.

sity of St Gallen, Switzerland is at top for the third consecutive year, followed

by ESCP Europe and WHU Beisheim, Germany. IIM A and IIM C are the only institutes from India to feature in this ranking. Both have been ranked higher than the world renowned institutions such as the London School of Economics, Manchester Business School among others.

IIM A among top 39 in QS Global Business School Report QS Global Business School Report 2013 ranks Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad (IIM A) in the top 39 business schools in the world named by the employers. It also ranked Indian MBA graduates as the most academically distinguished in the world. The report lists 200 best B-Schools in the world. It also highlights that the students of IIM Bangalore (780) and IIM Ahmedabad (767) have the highest average GMAT scores in the world. Apart from IIM Ahmedabad, two Asian B-Schools to have made it to the Elite Global category are the INSEAD Singapore and NUS Business School, National University of Singapore.

Rishikesha Krishnan to be the new director of IIM Indore Rishikesha T Krishnan is all set to take up the post of director of Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM I). A man full of innovation, an IIT Kanpur and Stanford University post graduate will take up the lead to achieve the future goal of the institute. Krishnan is currently posted at IIM Bangalore as professor of corporate strategy and policy. Krishnan has co-authored the book titled ‘8 Steps to Innovation: Going from Jugaad to Excellence’ earlier this year. Prior to that he wrote a book ‘From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge for India’ which was published in 2010.

Prof Krishnan has also worked in the corporate sector.

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

Two BITS Pilani students offered highest pay package till date

Google, the network and services giant, hired two BITS Pilani students for a whopping annual package of `1.44 crore, the highest Google has ever offered in the country. The package has also become the highest offer made to any Indian student in 2013.

The two students are Thoppilan Romal Devassy and Kannan Sunder, both natives of Mumbai and seventh semester students of the computer science branch in BITS, Pilani. More than 100 students participated in the interview and appeared for seven technical rounds and one written examination which were conducted in the campus. The other five rounds of technical interview related to subject knowledge were conducted in Bangalore. Networking giant, Facebook also visited BITS for the third consecutive year and shortlisted three students.

education.eletsonline.com

CFA Institute to open India centre US based Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute plans to open an India centre in Mumbai by the second quarter of 2014. With almost 25,000 candidates every year from India, it is the third biggest market for the institute with US being at the top followed by China. The institute operates in India through its member societies such as the Indian Association of Investment Professionals. The India centre aims to make the Institute a better known name in the country as a professional designation for investment managers and security analysts. The Mumbai office is expected to be a fully functional office where the CFA Institute will have people engaged with regulators, industry and educational activities.

Decline in number of student visa applicants to UK The number of students applying for higher education to UK from India has seen a dip in last twelve months. India contributes the second largest number of students in the UK after China. There are almost 40,000 Indian students studying in UK but now there has been a decrease in the number of Indian students visa applicants to the country. Possible reason for this decline is the depreciation of Rupee which has made education in UK much more expensive. Also a tighter monitoring of student visa, as people with interest other than higher education also use this route, has led to the reduction in student visa applicants.

Amity to provide vocational training in collaboration with international counterparts Amity University sealed a deal with Australia based training providers Heraud Education and TAFE to provide vocational education in India.

Technical And Further Education South Australia (TAFE SA) will work with the two institutes and develop its first series of course on automotive training staring from February, 2014 in Amityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Manesar Campus. TAFE SA will also develop courses on retail, building and construction, banking, accounting and healthcare. Amity has also decided to open two new institutes, Amity Vocational Training Institute and Amity Skills Institute.

115 more IIM seats added but CAT aspirants decline The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) have added 115 more seats this year but the overall registration for CAT (Common Admission Test) has come down.

The number of registrations has declined from 2.14 lakh in 2012 to 1.94 lakh this year recording the lowest in the last five years.

The number of CAT aspirants from Tamil Nadu has shown a dip of 6% over the last year. As against with 13,121 candidates in 2012, only 12,348 registered this time. The sudden decline is attributed to the economic slowdown. The existing sentiment of the graduates of no job available despite a management degree has affected registration. Earlier MBA degree was a safe bet but now there are apprehensions whether it is worth it. With the B-school fees going up from Rs10 lakh to Rs15 lakh for the two-year course in some institutes, many aspirants feel that the cost is too high compared to the returns after completion of the course.

A total of 115 seats have been added to the IIMs, taking the tally to 3,335 seats.

IIT professors to take virtual classes in 100 colleges Students of 100 engineering colleges will now be virtually taught by IIT professors. From January, as many as nine subjects from mechanical engineering to mathematics will be taught to these students by one of the best faculties in the country. The initiative is taken as part of the Quality Enhancement in Engineering Education programme guided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. E-tutorials and e-labs are also part of the first phase of the programme.

The ministry reportedly hopes to extend this experiment to other disciplines. India has previously experimented with online classes but their impact has been marginal probably due to their lack of interactivity. When the teacher-student ratio in most classrooms is 1:40 and there is dearth of properly trained faculty; the availability of online content can usher in the much required experimentation in the higher education model. digitalLEARNING / January 2014

23

policy matters

Why RUSA

Might Fall

Short on Hope Against the backdrop of nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s optimism with Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) as a game-changer for its higher education sector, several state universities are skeptical about implementation of the guidelines in reality. Rozelle Laha of Elets News Network (ENN) finds out the views of the end beneficiaries of the scheme

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

education.eletsonline.com

RUSA Glimpses • RUSA will be implemented over 12th and 13th Five Year Plan period • Private government-aided institutions on fulfillment of certain pre-requisites can avail funds under RUSA • RUSA to cover 316 State universities and 13, 024 colleges • 54 existing colleges to be converted into model degree colleges • 150 universities and 3,500 colleges to receive infrastructure grants under RUSA • RUSA will support 5,000 faculty positions • RUSA’s financial outlay during 2012-17 (12th Plan) is `22, 855 crore • Out of `22, 855 crore, `16, 227 crore is under the share of the central government

Higher education in India is in doldrums because of the bureaucratic control of the universities Dr Akshai Aggarwal, VC, GTU

T

he central government proposes to spend Rs 98,983 crore through RUSA over next eight years with the aim of strengthening the country’s higher education segment. Under RUSA, the funding will be released jointly by the central government and state government. State universities, the ultimate beneficiaries of RUSA are barely induced by the whole new funding mechanism. This prevailing communication gap between the implementers and the end users may lead to an undesired output from this overarching scheme.

No role-play for institutes in framing RUSA The RUSA Mission Authority in collaboration with a Project Advisory Group, Technical Support Group and Project Directorate will be responsible for implementing the scheme at a national level. At the state level, State Higher Education Councils (SHEC) will be functioning as an autonomous body to coordinate directly with the RUSA

Mission Authority and plan, monitor and ensure execution of the scheme. A State Project Directorate and Technical Support Group will assist SHECs and a Project Monitoring Unit will oversee the advancement of the projects in the institutes.

In the overall scheme of things, it is evident that there is no direct involvement of institutes in the overall policy framing process. All decisions will be passed on to the Mission Authority via SHECs. As Prof Mohan Paul Singh Ishar, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu said, “The State Higher Education Council is supposed to forward our request to the UGC. In case, they start pruning or and put checks in the requirements (before passing it on to UGC), it will not be good. It was much better to apply with UGC directly. Now, we are not sure if the correct information will be passed on to them.” On similar lines of apprehension, Dr S S Chahal, Vice Chancellor, Desh Bhagat University, Punjab also added, “Policy is formed first and then we come to know.”

Some say that approaching the state government for funds was comparatively tougher. As Prof K Lal Kishore, Vice Chancellor, JNTU Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh says, the state councils are better aware of the issues faced by the universities than the state government and secretaries.

Lack of awareness among direct beneficiaries too can be a spoiler in the implementation of this centrally sponsored scheme. As Dr Akshai Aggarwal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University pointed out, “All decision making in India is done by people who are not the direct beneficiaries. Those who travel by air and have never set their foot in a train decide policies about facilities to be given to railway travelers.”

A direct involvement of vice chancellors in the policy framing of funding mechanism could have played a crucial role in bringing to light the challenges faced by the fund starved universities.

But, “It is often believed by Indians that digitalLEARNING / January 2014

25

policy matters

With nearly 96% of student enrolment in state universities of the country, it is indeed significantly important to fund them to ensure threshold quality is maintained

Whether the state will be in a position to give the 35 percent of funds in their share to universities is a question mark Prof Narsimha reddy, Vice Chancellor, M G University, Andhra Pradesh policy issues are to be decided by the bureaucracy and the institutes have to implement that,” Dr Aggarwal said.

However, some are optimistic about RUSA. Success of RUSA is not only dependant on its own implementation but also the activities of other agencies linked to it. Accreditation from organisations like NAAC and NBA being prerequisites to apply for RUSA, it is essential for such quality assurance agencies to speed up approval process to ensure that RUSA is functional at the soonest, says Prof Lal Kishore says.

As we say, all is well that ends well, we can only hope that this policy too does not become another scheme on papers and demonstrate poor execution

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

due to this existing communication gap.

In words of Prof S K Singh, Vice Chancellor, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal) said, “If the scheme is implemented with honesty, it can change the horizon of higher education of the country.”

State governments might thwart fund hope As the ministry is singing paeans about RUSA’s ability to emerge as a game changer of the higher education sector, the universities show little confidence on release of funds in the state’s share.

Prof Narsimha Reddy, Vice Chancellor, M G University, Andhra Pradesh recalled upon state government’s failure to

The state councils are better aware of the issues faced by the universities than the state government and secretaries Prof K Lal Kishore, Vice Chancellor, JNTU Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh release its share of Rs 5 crore in the one time catch up fund. “It was decided that UGC and the state government will jointly provide Rs 10 crore to the new universities towards infrastructure development. Accordingly, the universities started to work on the budget of the proposed amount.

But, though UGC released Rs 5 crore of their share, state government never did.”

RUSA initially plans to release some funds to the State governments to help universities become eligible for applying for funds. Following the accomplishment of the pre-requisites of commitments, the states will be funded based on achievements and outcomes. Performance will be gauged on the basis of access, equity and excellence. However, as rightly pointed out

policy matters

Organisers

RUSA has complicated the funding process and the fear is that ultimately the funds might remain unutilsed Prof Mohan Paul Singh Ishar, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu

by Dr Chahal, “The details of evaluating these parameters have not been provided.”

Most universities are also seeing this process of applying for funds as an unnecessarily complicated process. “RUSA has complicated the funding process and the fear is that ultimately the funds might remain unutilised. Also, the process of applying for funds with UGC via the higher education council, will delay the process,” said Prof Ishar.

As per latest reports, the Central and State Governments respectively will fund universities in the ratio of 90:10 (NorthEastern States and Jammu & Kashmir), 75:25 (Other Special Category States like Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and 65:35 (Other States and UTs).

Most states at this point of time are faced with fund crunch. So, most vice chancellors have expressed their concerns over the probability of receiving the state’s share of funding.

Reshuffling might add to resource crunch With the nation’s aim of improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio from 19 percent at present to 30 percent by 2020, RUSA would play a key role in establishment of new academic institutions in addition to quality enhancement of the existing ones.

As a big step towards quality improvement, RUSA guidelines limit the number of affiliated colleges per university. With such a move, a major reshuffling in the affiliation of colleges is to take place.

Osmania and Pune like big universities with huge number of affiliated colleges are seeing it as a major issue.

As Prof S Satyanarayana, Vice Chancellor, Osmania University, Andhra Pradesh said, “Forming new universities is a big process in itself and then strengthening the constituents defining

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

KnOwleDGe EXCHANGE, new Delhi higher education

14 - 16 March 2014

The state councils are better aware of the issues faced by the universities than the state government and secretaries Dr S S Chahal, Vice Chancellor, Desh Bhagat University, Punjab its constituent colleges is a different task.

Faculty employment, non-teaching staff employment is also not easy. In this whole bifurcation task, the state universities and the existing universities might face lot of problems. There is a chance that revenue will go down.” Osmania University has 901 colleges and is the largest university in the country.

With nearly 96 percent of student enrolment in state universities of the country, it is indeed significantly important to fund them to ensure threshold quality is maintained. Keeping in view the same, RUSA is a much needed reform in the segment.

However, as it is often told, any new policy face implementation glitches but since it is the first ever central funding initiative to institutes since independence, the policy can be a game changer despite all odds.

With appropriate awareness of the same among beneficiaries and timely action by implementers, the scheme can help the nation for overall qualitative achievement of the targeted GER by 2020.

Accelerating Growth of Higher Education The 2nd edition of digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange aims to discuss on subjects related to higher education sector through extensive panel and round table discussions. Vice chancellors from central, state, private and deemed universities, industry bodies, regulatory bodies and the government will take part in the discussions.

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10 Game Changers in Education

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Empowering the poorest through education One needs a lot of conviction to bring the tribal children from the lap of poverty and give them all the necessities of life, money can buy. The story of his life is a journey from abject poverty to opulence and to sacrificing of opulence for the uplift of the people languishing in poverty with consequent attendance of ignorance and neglect

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Leader - Dr Achyuta Samanta Organisation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; KISS and KIIT Vision â&#x20AC;&#x201C; To provide quality education and opportunity to the poorest-ofthe-poor indigenous tribal children for their all round development Establishment Year - KISS (1993) and KIIT (2004) Reach - KISS (20,000 tribal children) and KIIT (over 20,000 students)

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is simple vegetarian food, inexpensive dressing and endearing smile speak a lot about him. Dr Achyuta Samanta drew positive inspirations and worldly wisdom from his childhood tribulations and grew up wholesomely to chase a vision of a world sans hunger and illiteracy and to bring smile on the faces of the socio-economically challenged indigenous tribal community of Odisha.

Having grown up in a dilapidated thatch-roofed house and nurtured them mostly with rice gruel and wild spinach because that was everyday hard menial work by his mother could fetch, Dr Samanta, followed the elderly boys to reach the school. Surprised by his keenness to study, the headmaster of the

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school took him in the school and from there started Dr Samanta’s academic journey- from primary school to high school, from high school to college, and from college to university finally endowing himself with a meritorious degree of the Masters in Chemistry that landed him in a lecturer’s job in a college in Bhubaneswar.

His childhood struggle for survival and education stirred him endlessly and a strange spirit began to possess him. While he was pursuing his college education in Puri and later postgraduate education in Utkal University in Bhubaneswar, the young Samanta used to augment his paltry scholarship money to meet his expenses by rendering tutoring service to school students and this led him to discover an entrepreneur in him.

He became occupied with his entrepreneurial abilities and he looked forward to empowering the hapless unemployable young children who failed to make it big in the academic field. With Rs 5000, all that he had saved from his not very big income from the teaching job, Dr Samanta started an Industrial Training Institute in 1993 in a two-roomed rented building in Bhubaneswar.

Dr Samanta’s visionary mind and adept

hands weaved an educational institution that has become a model for emulation.

KIIT Group of Institutions, which had started a decade and a half ago with an Industrial Training Institute, has become the largest educational conglomerate in Bhubaneswar. Encompassing over 500 acres of prime land, KIIT today stands with 7.5 million square feet of built-up area in immaculately architected buildings cut into 20 contiguous independent sprawling campuses with state-of-theart facilities. Starting from Engineering, MCA and MBA, KIIT has added programmes like Rural Management, Law, Bio-technology, Medical Sciences, Nursing, Dental sciences, Fashion Technology, Cinema and Media Studies, Sculpture Studies, Humanities, Languages, Yoga and Spiritual studies to its fold over a short span of 16 years.

By about the same time when KIIT was beginning to shape up, Dr Samanta had already weaved a plan to empower the marginalised poorest-of-the-poor indigenous tribal children of the state by providing a level playing field. With the conviction that ‘illiteracy breeds poverty and literacy eradicates it’, he established in 1993 a small school, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), within the pre-

cincts of KIIT for providing free education to the tribal children with free lodging and boarding facilities. This fledgling school has now grown into a mammoth tribal residential school providing free education from Kindergarten to Postgraduation, free lodging and boarding with all modern amenities and state-ofthe-art-technology-empowered independent campus to over 20, 000 children and youth belonging to the poorest-ofthe-poor indigenous tribal communities; a feat hailed as only one of its kind in whole of the world.

Establishment of KIIT and KISS shows just a small facet of Dr Samanta’s multifaceted personality. His respect for mothers wish and his commitment to the routes transformed his remote village Kalarabanka to a model one by providing all facilities and amenities of city life.

With his faith and beliefs strongly founded on right effort and perfect maneuvering, he works for a genuine social cause and the success inevitably follows like providence and this has remained the mantra for his stupendous success. It is the love for humanity that inspires him to stand as apart as a class of his own in the midst of the crowd of philanthropists.

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Creating future professionals A successful businessman, Ashok Mittal’s urge to do something for the society brought him to the work in the education sector.

His passion to create professionals and not just academics drove him to establish Lovely Professional University. A journey that started as a corporate social responsibility initiative became a social responsibility with time. Rozelle Laha of Elets News Network (ENN) finds out how

Leader - Ashok Mittal Organisation – Lovely Professional University Vision – To transform the way education is delivered in India Establishment Year - 2005 Reach - 28, 000 Indian students and 2, 000 foreign students from 32 different countries

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nown for being a strong proponent of youth leadership education, Ashok Mittal started his career as a confectioner 52 years back. During 1999, ‘Lovely’ as a group was doing well. It was operational in the automobile and telecom sectors simultaneously. But, Mittal wanted to do something for the society. He was filled with ideas. He had plans to open up either a hospital, dharamshala or an orphanage house, just when he realised the need of bringing in global education facilities in the home country. With the faith that “Ed-

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ucation is perhaps the best way to train students who can serve the nation in future,” Mittal established Lovely Professional University.

So, what makes Lovely different from the rest? As Aman, Mittal’s son says, “Our aspirations to become the best and expand and not only in the country but across the world makes us different from the rest.”

In 2005, with the aim of bringing US education system to our country, Mittal applied for a university status with the Punjab Government to be able to introduce innovative curriculum pattern. On being granted the same, Mittal played an influential role in shaping the curriculum and introducing innovative teaching methods.

With time, the university got good response from the parents of the students who were well placed after graduating from Lovely Professional University and as Ashok Mittal says, “The fact that we have been able to create a difference in their kids was the propelling force that made to us to go ahead and do something big.”

Education is perhaps the best way to train students who can serve the nation in future - Ashok Mittal As Aman communicated his father’s aim, “We wanted to create an university very close to the US education system university as a lot students were going abroad for a their education , so we thought of creating something similar or better in India.” Though India has given the education system to the world, over the years we did not follow the legacy of Takshila and Nalanda and universities in some of the foreign countries emerged as a role model. “To bring back the status of hosting some of the best universities in the country, we have to emulate some of the models in the US pattern in addition to the much

praised Takshila and Nalanda style,” Aman says.

LPU not only ensures a good learning environment, but also ensures diversity.

The campus hosts 2, 000 international students in the university coming from 32 different countries of the world like Indonesia, Tanzania, Lativia, Germany and so on. Cross cultural interactions help build a strong network and learning environment.

A foresighted entrepreneur at heart, the Mittals wanted to change India through education.

Under the leadership of Ashok Mittal, the University has tied up with various foreign universities and is expected to be established as an international university by 2015.

A true visionary, Sunil says, “Experimentation is what we are committed to. Excellence is what we strive for, and service of mankind through education is what we stand for. The saga has just begun and many milestones have to be achieved as we move ahead on our journey.”

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Special Feature Feature cyber security Special

Indian Cyber Security –

Threats and Jobs

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ndia a developing country, which is becoming a powerful nation in field of security. India has the second largest army in world. Even India’s nuclear power and security is also increasing.

But is it enough? India is not even good in cyber security. Indian cyber security is falling behind in this internet era.

As Indian army is known for its bravery and dedication towards the nation. but this is not enough for full protection of nation. Army only protect nation from outside, physical attacks and helps when there is a conflict inside or outside nation.

But what about the internal security of documents, the security of nation.

But most of all is that why Indian government is not having so much concern about this matter. Even in the countries like America, when they have very good cyber security. They still give an importance to cyber security matter.

About Indian Cyber security Indian cyber security is not so much to be said as secure to be like other countries like America and Japan. China has experts about 1.25 lacks and America is having about more than 91 thousands professionals. Even Russia has experts about 7.5 thousands. But if we talk about Indian Cyber Security, India has only has a bunch of 556 people.

Indian Cyber security is under NSCS (National Security Council Secretariat) and it handle the whole architecture of Indian cyber security. One of its statement for security was ,”The existing combined strength of cyber security experts in all organisations in the government domain is 556, which is grossly inadequate to handle Indian cyber security activities in a meaningful and effective manner”.

Threats in Cyber World Cyber security is necessary in every nation which is developing or developed.

This is because in this world of Computer technology, every files is stored on computer. Every website of any organisation handles and stores all the information. This information may be confidential also. Just same like that every nation has some websites related to security, deals and foreign trade related documents.

Threats in cyber world And every nation in this era is trying to make itself better than all others. Even the terrorists and unethical organisations tries to get the confidential data and sell to other countries. Or they try to leak into nation security matters. Even they can disturb the whole system.

In other words, all these things are known as hacking in general language.

As we know hacking is crime, and many people or organisations are performing this. They do this either to peek into others confidential matter or to make them better then others.

What Cyber Security do?

Amit kumar President cyberfort facilitate by IT security Maharashtra Government.

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Cyber security handles all these threats which may harm the nation security and data. Cyber Security keep eye on every action perform inside or outside the internet of nation. They handles every transactions, every data interchange, every single information on internet from the country to other or vice-verse.

If they found any thing harmful or not usual they start tracking it. They check the content and handles every step of the action. And then they take the required action. They track the I.P. of the host, and then they perform respective action.

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serve, there are infinite actions to be observed.

Jobs and Future in Indian Cyber Security

Now what in Indian Cyber Security As India is a developing nation and is developing at a fast rate. India also collaborating with other nation operation and technologies. At this time many information and confidential data are sent on internet from nation to nation or to intelligence centers. But this data may be tried by other people or organ-

isation to be accessed and then misused. But does this team of 556 people is enough to handle every action on internet.

As many things are there on internet to handle. Like data interchange, files exchange, money transactions, even the chatting and email. Then how can this small team will handle all this.

As there are not limited actions to ob-

Making of a Cyber Security Expert Who can become a cyber security professional?

Engineering graduates in any stream can become a cyber security professional , through there is a greater demand for IT students. At lower levels, even non engineering students with a sharp mind and can be trained, are found suitable.

What does a student need to do to become a cyber security professional?

S/he has to take courses on cyber security as a part of specialisation. However, currently only a few institutes such as the IITs offer these courses. So a student can do specialised courses from private companies and IT training institutes.

Which IT companies offer cyber security courses?

Currently, companies such as Microsoft and Cisco offer specialised courses on cyber security, through franchisees. The government is working with institutes, industry and private training institutes to meet the need, which is much greater.

As because of all these things of internet and security. And many cases of hacking and spam which are coming daily, then to handle Indian Cyber Security department need much more people. NSCS is trying to make a new team and new organisation for security. Hence there are many jobs coming to vacant.

According to a news, till 2015 Indian Cyber security need around 5 lacks jobs. Hence there is a scope in future and present for all those who want job in cyber related posts. Indian Cyber security is going to take anyone who has any knowledge of computer related operations. And will train them according to their needs.

The proliferation of information technology across sectors is generating demand for a new kind of specialist: the cyber security expert.

The national cyber security policy sees India needing as many as 500,000 professionals in the field in five years.

“Currently, there are only about 556 cyber security professionals and there is a big gap between demand and supply,” said Amit Kumar President, cyberfort.

Information technology is already the lifeline of banking and telecom, and other sectors are becoming dependent on it as well. “With this increase, the threat of cyber attacks is also increasing. Hence, the need of cyber security experts is also increasing,” Kumar said.

The catch is that at present, not enough institutes offer courses on cyber security.

“We want private sector participation in training people in this field,” said Rai. “We are closely working with the government to meet the requirement.

We have also created some training programme,” said Kamlesh Bajaj, CEO, Data Security Council of India, an industry body.

For establishment of cyberfort study center contact - Dr Rajesh Kumar Mobile- +91 9031489275, 9973195996 email-rajesh@cyberfort.org

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Upskilling Indian youth for a better future Dilip Chenoy has been a guiding factor for NSDC in achieving its goal to foster private sector and industry participation in skill training and development.

He has been successfully doing the crucial balancing act between the private and public interests in an initiative that helps millions of people in gaining the required skills

A Leader - Dilip Chenoy Organisation – National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) Vision – To contribute significantly (about 30 per cent) to the overall target of skilling / upskilling 500 million people in India by 2022 Establishment Year - 2009 Reach - 300 districts covered by 2012, trained 9.5 lakh people

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fter serving as Director General of the advocacy group for the automobile industry in India, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), where Chenoy was responsible for setting the technical, economic and social responsibility agenda for the automobile industry, shifting the track to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was a role that couldn’t have suited him better. As MD & CEO of NSDC, Chenoy travelled to remote places in India and work on grassroots level, something he always wanted to do.

Skills shortage and the gap between demand and supply of skills led to the establishment of NSDC in 2009. A brainchild of Ministry of Finance, NSDC is a public-private partnership with the

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Finance Minister launched the National Skill Certification and Reward Scheme in New Delhi on August 16 2013.

(L to R) S Ramadorai (Chairman, NSDC), Jairam Ramesh (Minister for Rural Development), P Chidambaram (Finance Minister), Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission) and Arvind Mayaram (Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs)

objective â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;to skill 150 million people in India by 2022 by fostering private sector investment and initiatives in training and skill development in 21 high growth sectors and the unorganized segment.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Chenoy also worked on the competitiveness of Indian industry with Professor Michael Porter, Harvard Business School, as a part of an Indian team. He has played a seminal role in the accomplishment of the vision of the ministry in the skills sector.

NSDC has an equity base of Rs 10 crore, of which 49 percent is in governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s share and private sector accounts for 51 percent.

How does NSDC work?

NSDC primarily has three functions- to create large-scale sustainable training

organizations, to fund organizations to set up or expand training initiatives either in a sector or across sectors and to set up an eco-system that leads to skills development becoming a sustainable venture as well as a program that meets industry needs. NSDC supports skill development efforts, especially in the unorganised sector in India by funding skill training and development programmes.

It also engages advocacy and training programmes, in-depth research to discover skill gaps in the Indian workforce, and developing accreditation norms.

NSDC provides services in 21 sectors like Automobile, electronics hardware, textiles and garments, gems and jewellery, building and construction, handlooms and handicrafts, IT or software, ITES-BPO, real estate, media, entertain-

ment, broadcasting, healthcare, banking, education or skill development and unorganized sector among others.

To scale up efforts necessary to achieve the objective of skilling or upskilling 150 million people, NSDC strives to develop ultra low cost, high-quality, innovative business models, attract significant private investment, ensure that its funds are largely re-circulating i.e. loan or equity rather than grant, create leverage for itself and build a strong corpus.

The NSDC aims to catalyse initiatives that can potentially have a multiplier effect in this space. It strives to involve the industry in all aspects of skill development. The approach adopted by NSDC is to develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders and build on current efforts, rather than undertaking too many initiatives directly or duplicating efforts currently underway.

National Skill Development Corporation is an apt example for the optimum use of public private partnership model for social development. Dilip Chenoy spends most of his time in providing a strategic vision to NSDC in ensuring that the team moves in one direction in achieving the mission of the organisation.

(Compiled by Anushi Agrawal)

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Each child will attain education one day Shaheen’s desire to impact the lives of less privileged children is something one would barely fail to notice.

With a purpose of changing lives in heart and a mission to build a movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education, Shaheen started working on the idea of Teach For India (TFI) since 2007.

Rozelle Laha of Elets News Network (ENN) interacts with the creative thinker to find out her inspiration behind TFI and her vision forward.

I Leader – Shaheen Mistri Organisation – Teach For India Vision – To build a movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education Establishment Year – 2008 Reach – 1000 classrooms across the country impacting over 23,000 children

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n 1989, Shaheen was enrolled in an undergraduate programme in Tufts University. During her holidays, she happened to walk into one of the infamous slums in Mumbai.

Moved by the neglected plight of children, she started the Akanksha foundation in 1991 to work with children. Shaheen had started Akanksha at the age of 18 with the same aim. From 15 children in one centre in 1989, the foundation is now spread over 3, 500 children across Mumbai and Pune, and has 58 centers and 6 schools in Mumbai and Pune.

Shaheen did not stop there. By mid 2000s, she began researching ways and means to replicate child-by-child victories on a national scale. Teach for America (TFA), a US non-profit or-

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ganisation founded in 1989 by Wendy Kopp, alumni of Princeton University inspired her. In her final year thesis at Princeton, Kopp developed the Teach for America model, that is, to recruit high-achieving university graduates to teach for at least two years in lowincome schools, and subsequently become champions of school education throughout their professional lives.

“I saw promise in adapting the TFA model to India and in 2006 I reached out to Kopp for support and guidance, prompting her to take a week-long reconnaissance trip to Mumbai,” Shaheen recollects.

The timing was perfect because the 15-year-old TFA was ready to take its tried and tested model worldwide through the Teach For All initiative, an affiliation of NGOs in various countries committed to using the Teach For America model.

TFI encourages exceptional college graduates and young professionals from across the country to teach for two complete years in under-resourced schools.

The first batch of 87 young Teach For India Fellows started teaching in June 2009.

So, who is a TFI Fellow? As Shaheen informed, “With a very detailed screening process and selectivity of less than 10 per-

Looking back I feel it is has been a long journey- from my kids not knowing ABC and numbers to now writing beautiful stories and reading books like Roald Dahl, gives me immense happiness. The journey has not been easy.

Today, as I step into class every day, I know I made the right choice.

Mansi Bhatia 2011 Delhi Fellow Teach for India

cent of total applicants, we recruit Fellows who have demonstrated excellence and leadership skills in different sectors and academic and professional backgrounds.”

TFI Fellows work diligently as dedicated teachers to expand, in a measurable way, the educational opportunities available to thousands of India’s most underprivileged children. In the long run, regardless of the career path they choose after their Teach For India Fellowship, the Fellows will work towards fighting educational inequity in India, with their willingness and capacity to create change. Shaheen believes, “They (TFI Fellows) may work as CEOs making the corporate sector more responsible, or as journalists highlighting key legislation in the media, or as entrepreneurs developing low-cost technologies for under-resourced schools.”

Like all other ventures, TFI too faces challenges. As Shaheen mentioned, “One of the biggest challenges that TFI faces is to maintain a balance between scaling the movement quickly and continuing to maintain the highest levels of quality and impact.”

By 2016, TFI aims to place 2, 000 Fellows in eight cities impacting 60, 000 students, other teachers in their school and the community at large. digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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Every child in school and learning well A PhD graduate from Ohio University, Dr Madhav Chavan came back to India with a dream of making a difference in the education sector of the country. His belief that education is the fundamental right of every child and perseverance to provide low-cost solution for mass literacy has made Pratham a well known name in the field of education in the developing world

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Leader - Dr Madhav Chavan Organisation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pratham Vision â&#x20AC;&#x201C; To ensure quantum and visible improvement in the enrolment and learning levels of the underprivileged children Establishment Year - 1994 Reach - Pratham benefits around 34 million children across 20 states in India

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ith the focus to work at the grassroots level and solving the problem of access to educational opportunities, Dr Madhav Chavan, started the initiative Pratham in 1994. Hailing from a humble background in Maharashtra, Dr Chavan served as a professor at University of Houston and Institute of Chemical Technology before working with National Literacy Mission in the slums of Mumbai in 1989. After producing a couple of literacy programmes for Doordarshan, he was invited to work with a UNICEF project to teach in Mumbai slums. UNICEF had originally set up the Bombay Education Initiative in Mumbai to establish a three way partnership between the government, corporate and

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civil society to improve India’s primary education. This eventually led to the formation of Pratham as an independent charity in 1994.

Pratham, an organization dedicated to providing quality education to underprivileged children in India, has been providing school education to children in slums in 17 states of India.

It also has its chapters in United States, UK, Germany and UAE. Pratham has become a powerful voice in the area of educational reform. Starting by setting up pre-schools in community spaces or people’s homes in slums, Pratham introduced remedial literacy learning in Indian schools and focused on measuring outcomes. It endorsed that classrooms could be anywhere, under shady trees, amid rubble heaps of pavement, homes of migrant workers in cities or just in front of a blackboard propped in the narrow alleys of Mumbai’s slums.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) facilitated by Pratham is referred to by the Central and State Governments for formulating various plans and policies. Read India, the flagship programme of Pratham, was launched in 2007 to improve reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of 6-14 year

old children and is carried out by school teachers, anganwadi workers and volunteers, whom Pratham trains. Read India has reached approximately 34 million children. Since 2004, the organisation also publishes quality books at affordable prices for children to complement Read India. Pratham has also set up other programmes for disadvantaged Indian

children and youth, including Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC), Early Childhood Care and Education Centre (ECCE), Vocational Skills Programme, and Computer-aided Literacy.

One of the major challenges faced by Chavan at the inception of the organisation was shortage of resources, both human and financial. Pratham was a novel concept and it was hard to convince people of its success or acceptability in the society. The organization faced the initial hiccup of not finding the requisite financial banking but once the start-up took off, it has only grown from strength to strength. Pratham’s strongest point has been its ability to mobilize people.

In future it aims to be recognized for its ability to build capacities to deliver a high-quality, education-related services as well.

Dr Madhav Chavan, a beacon for education at grassroots level, has been a member of National Advisory Council from 2004 to 2008. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission (SSA) of the Government of India and has been a member of four half-yearly Joint Review Missions of SSA. (Compiled by Anushi Agrawal)

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Bringing a smile to every child With the aim of creating a schooling experience that promotes diversity and access to education for all, Dr Pascal Chazot established Mahatma Gandhi International school in 1998. It is his fervor for providing an alternative education that is at par with the international counterparts that has made the school one of its kind in India

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Leader - Dr Pascal Chazot Organisation – Mahatma Gandhi International School Vision – Creating an educational project that emphasises on holistic learning rather than teaching; focuses on equipping the students with skills; provide them with tools to face the future, to shape it and to change it.

Establishment Year - 1998 Reach - 310 students, from 12 different countries, with equal male and female ratio

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r Pascal Chazot has a long, illustrious career in education and international cooperation spanning over three decades. An elected Member of Parliament for the French overseas and a French Civil Servant, Dr Chazot came to India as the Director of Alliance Française d’Ahmedabad.

In 1998, after completing his term, he founded Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) with his wife, Anju Musafir. The school was created as a public-private partnership with the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad and went on to become the first International Baccalaureate school of Gujarat. As the head of school and director of research and training at MGIS, Dr Chazot has done pioneering work in pedagogy that impacted both policy and practice at the state and national level.

MGIS is a democratic school based on the tenets of equality and freedom, where students make their own rules and construct their own learning in

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participatory processes. Learning is interdisciplinary and students undertake projects such as running their own cafeteria, making short films on social issues for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, voter awareness films for Election Commission and so on.

The school organizational structure did away with hierarchical power and instead introduced participatory management. The school provides quality education that is accessible to all sections of society irrespective of caste, socioeconomic status, religion and nationality while being free for the under-privileged.

There were not many international

schools in the country when MGIS was founded in 1998. It was an effort ahead of its time. Dr Chazot, in another pioneering effort, has launched the first of its kind vocational center to develop skill based technical education center at school level in India. He championed the cause of creating a schooling experience that promotes inter-cultural understanding and mutual respect by encouraging all forms of diversity within and without the classroom in order to engender diverse learner interactions, which are a fundamental resource to its innovative pedagogy.

Dr Chazot has been invited to chair several committees in India and in France.

He completed a term as Member of the Education Committee of Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organisation in 2011. He is a member of the International Mind, Brain and Education Society with the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. Dr Chazot is also a published author, columnist and teacher trainer. His doctoral thesis on education was rewarded with a gold medal for best research by the University of Paris, he was also conferred a Doctorate of Honour in Education in addition to his PhD. Dr Chazot is an erudite man with Masters in Sanskrit, Indian Medicine and psycho-linguistics. He has a background in applied mathematics too. Apart from his native French, he is fluent in English, Hindi, Nepali and Newari.

He has been delivering engaging teacher trainings in India and across the world and more importantly for creating the space for alternative education to coexist with the existing education system.

Speaking of his vision of action-research in schools and an education for citizenship, Dr Chazot says, ‘I simply want to put a smile on every child’s face’.

(Compiled by Anushi Agrawal with inputs from Seema Gupta)

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Social change through public policy

Leader - Parth J Shah Organisation – Center for Civil Society (CCS) Vision – To create a system of education where all children get access to quality education of their choice Establishment Year - 1997 Reach - CCS supports National Independent Schools Alliance, an alliance of state school associations with 8000 member schools servicing 16,00,000 students across 19 states

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Parth J Shah’s dream to bring about a change in the system through constant dialogue, publications, seminars and research about policy led to the foundation of centre for civil society in 1997. Shah’s unstinted determination to improve the quality of life of the citizens by reviving and reinvigorating the institutions of civil society has made the centre one of its kind in the country

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arth Shah was a revered professor of Economics at university of Michigan before starting the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in India in 1997. Shah realized the power of economics in his college days and that it is the economic systems that would determine the kind of quality of life people would have. That is where the idea of starting a think tank germinated.

Centre for Civil Society is a public policy think tank advancing personal, social,

economic and political freedoms.

CCS offers public policy solutions within the framework of the rule of law, community engagement and competitive markets. It has adopted five streams of work: research, advocacy, campaigns, pilots, and policymaking. It has worked in six sectors in the past, i.e. education, economic freedom, governance, institution of community property rights for environment conservation, and promotion of globalisation and trade. Presently, the

Centre is involved with two main campaigns, the School Choice Campaign and Jeevika Livelihoods Campaign.

The major hurdle before Shah after returning from US was to find the likeminded people in India to start with an initiative like CCS. Parth Shah was surprised not able to find even a handful of people who would see a different way of solving the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s problem and would come together for a novel idea.

Workshop in progress for ipolicy for Young Leaders, Hyderabad, November 14, 2013

Parth Shah has also published academic articles in the areas of development economics, welfare economics, business-cycle theory, free or laissez-faire banking, and currency-board systems.

He has edited books like Morality of Markets, Friedman on India, Profiles in Courage: Dissent on Indian Socialism, Do Corporations have Social Responsibility?, and co-edited Law, Liberty, and Livelihood, The Terracotta Reader, and Agenda for Change.

CCS in Jeevika: 10th Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival 2013, New Delhi

(Compiled by Anushi Agrawal)

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leaders

Affordable education for all Making education accessible to all at affordable price has been the goal and driving force for Dr Sitansu S Jena for more than two decades now. Dr Jena has been doing path-breaking work in making Open and Distance Learning system a success in the country. His zeal to reach to the remotest areas of the country and educate every child has made National Institute of Open Schooling, the largest open schooling system in the world

Leader - Dr Sitansu S Jena Organisation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Vision â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sustainable inclusive learning with universal and flexible access to quality school education and skill development Establishment Year - 1989 Reach - Cumulative enrollment of 2.59 million across 19 regional centres and 2 sub-centres in India. It also has centres in UAE, Nepal, Kuwait and Muscat. Overall it has 3827 academic centres, 1830 vocational centres and 690 open basic education centre

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D

r Sitansu Jena has been working over the years to make education available to children in the remotest areas of the country. His unstinted dedication to accomplish this humungous task for providing access to education for all has led to the success of an institute like National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

How does NIOS work?

The objective of NIOS is to reach every child in the country, make education accessible to all and develop skills.

NIOS wants to make its share of contribution in the universalisation of education, for greater equity and justice in society and to the evolution of a learning society.

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Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Pallam Raju, Union Minister of HRD at NIOS

NIOS, formerly known as National Open School was established in 1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986, to cater to the needs of a heterogeneous group of learners up to predegree level. NIOS provides a number of vocational, life enrichment and community oriented courses besides general and academic courses at secondary and senior secondary level.

NIOS aims at providing relevant, continuing and holistic education up to predegree level through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, contributing to the universalisation of school education and catering to the educational needs of the prioritized target groups for equity and social justice. The institutions also provides professional advice to the Government of India, and to the States, regarding proper development of ODL system at school level in response to requests from the concerned Government/s or suo moto. It accredit institutions for developing effective learner support system to facilitate learning up to pre-degree level and also provide professional/technical

NIOS has provided a ray of hope to the students who cannot access education due to geographical barriers and financial obligations consultation in field of ODL to institutions/organizations/agencies in India and abroad.

NIOS has provided a ray of hope to the students who cannot access education due to geographical barriers and financial obligationss. NIOS is an attempt to provide solution to the biggest problem plaguing the Indian education system, the problem of access to education. NIOS has done a pioneering job in enrolling students from the remotest of the areas in the country and providing quality education.

Dr Jena has been tirelessly working in the field of Open and Distance Learn-

ing education for more than two and half decade. Prior to working as Chairman of NIOS, he worked as the Director, Distance Education Programme (DEP) of IGNOU for training of teachers at elementary level under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) through Open and Distance learning mode to achieve the goals of education for all. He is also the Chairperson of the National Consortium for Open Schooling, India. He also had the distinction as the founding Chairperson of Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA). He has previously also worked as Dean, School of Distance Learning, Narsee Monji Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Dr Jenaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fervor to enroll every kid of the country in school has resulted in enrollment of 2.59 million students in NIOS. Its huge bouquet of courses and subjects available through Open and Distance Learning, its vast geographical spread and substantial number of students enrolled with Open and Distance Learning system has made NIOS the largest open schooling system in the world.

(Compiled by Anushi Agrawal)

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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leaders

Imparting value-based education Jagdish Gandhi has a very different leadership style that has made ordinary people work extraordinarily. He put enormous trust in those who work around him. People around him take ownership and feel very much a part of the mission that he stands for

Leader – Dr Jagdish Gandhi Organisation – City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow Vision – To make every child both good and smart and a gift of God to mankind and a pride of the human race Establishment Year – July 1959 Reach – 47,683 students

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T

o many who meet Dr Jagdish Gandhi for the first time, they often expect to meet a corporate person with a lot of airs about him. Instead they find a slight, unassuming person of great humility. He comes from a small village in the heartand of UP, who was inspired in his early childhood by Mahatma Gandhi and Sant Vinoba Bhave. To date, he lives simply, has no personal wealth to speak of, and works on average of 18 hours a day with no breaks or holidays. His office works 24 hours a day and he often refers to himself as “a man in a hurry”. He seems to have endless energy and plenty to do that keeps him busy.

CMS is a vision-lead organisation that provides lot autonomy to its staff who then works fearlessly towards its goals. CMS has 20 branches in the city of Lucknow with 20 principals spear heading. Despite its large population of over 47,000 Pre K-12 students, every child remains a focus.

CMS has a strong program for not only involving the parents but also of educat-

ing them to provide a consistent set of values at home as at school. CMS has created a range of literature and programmes for parents’ effective involvement. In addition, CMS has a strong programme of outreach to society with a range of initiatives at the local, national and interna-

One major thing to happen in the education sector in the last 10 years is the realization that peace and unity education are absolutely necessary to develop a child into a responsible citizen of the society.

tional levels. CMS works proactively on its social agenda such as through an IndoPak friendship initiative with exchanges and programmes between children of the two countries. At the international Level, CMS organises 32 International Events annually of which 25 events bring children together at different ages to participate in inter-cultural exchanges, competitions and olympiads that encompass the whole world. A unique conference of chief justices of the world has brought together chief justices and Judges from 112 nations of the world to CMS. Its mission is to protect the future and safeguard the interest of over 2 billion children of the world and generations yet to be born.

Guinness World Record since 1999, for being the World’s Largest School.

UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, 2002, Derozio Award by Council of Indian Schools Certificate Examinations, 2000, Key to the City of Georgetown, USA, 2000, and several other awards as listed in the enclosed materials. CMS has been cited in International Literature across the globe.

Even at the age of 80, Dr Gandhi works harder than most people younger than him. Personally for himself he maintains a regimen of daily yoga and simple food.

Providing an excellent education to students and ensuring that children coming out of its portals are not only academically strong but also a good human being is the keyword of CMS. digitalLEARNING / January 2014

49

corporate diary

Q& A

Leader of Tomorrow

Solutions should not only be unique but also useful for the customer. It should be the right solution for the existing problem and the customer should feel happy and be benefited by that solution says Subramanian Narayanasamy, Managing Director at TRS Forms and Services (P) Ltd in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

Subramanian Narayanasamy (Right) being awarded by Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO, Mindtree with Regional award (South) 2013 in the ITES vertical by ET Now

How do you feel about getting the ET Now award?

Great, elated, thrilled. In our 15 years of existence this is the first recognized award. There were more than 1 lakh nominations this year for the 14 verticals. We come under the ITES vertical.

The team of juries who did the final selection are Jambavans in the industry. The fact the selection was done in 3 rounds and finally selected after the jury round gives a pride in winning this award. I personally consider this as recognition for our innovative products and solutions offered to our customers. This encourages

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us to work more and more on innovative solutions.

How do you define TRS? TRS is a specialist in automated data capturing and document security.

You have mentioned that TRS is a specialist in data capturing and document security. Are they two different areas of specialization?

Yes. First one is related to capturing data from different sources using automated technology process. This will be very useful in high volume data capture. Second

one is securing any document using our security mark. This means we do not give importance to the physical document but concentrate on securing the variable data and make it tamper proof. The document may be issued as physical document or electronic document. In both cases our security mark can be used to secure the total document.

Please explain on your successful key products that have brought you this award.

First is our Automatic Dummy Numbering System which I can say is the

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game changer for TRS. This is mainly for the subjective exam answer sheets to remove the identity of the student by allocating an alternate number. Every Indian university follows this procedure manually. Now our automatic process includes numbering, scanning, and result preparation. We also sell this solution as product. Second and the recent one is eSekure which is basically for document security and verification. This product is for all verticals like education, corporate, government etc.

What is your geographical spread for these products?

We have customers pan-India and currently we are concentrating in the Indian Market. However, with our on-line products including eSekure and On Screen Marking (OSM) we are looking for offshore market as well. Requirement for products like eSekure is global and we are confident of making it a success in those markets as well.

Can you name some of your key clients for these products?

Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Company Secretaries, Institute of Cost Accounts, Bangalore University, JIPMER, Sri Venkateswara University to name a few.

Can you mention a few Indicators of success in your business?

We feel that we are succeeding when : • Our services result in faster and accurate declaration of exam results, especially when the numbers of candidates are increasing exponentially.

• A leading professional body in the country does a national level search and finds that we are the only company who is providing such unique service.

• Reputation of our customers is protected with our products and the same has been acknowledged positively through repeat orders.

What are your plans to sustain the growth levels of your business?

To sustain the growth levels in our business we plan to diversify market, diver-

Accolades l

“When we are with TRS we feel we are in safe hands” - TRB Chennai

“If the requirement is customised technology based solution then it is possible only by TRS” - Professional Institute

l

l “For an exam process to be fair, fast and accurate we need the help of technology. In our case we have TRS who is offering technology based solutions and we have processed 5 million answer booklets in record time and the results are out” - Ex Vice Chancellor of Kanpur university.

“After introducing TRS solution we are able to publish the results in 25 days which usually takes 6 months and also with discrepancy” - Ex Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University.

l

“Currently we are concentrating in the Indian Market. With our on-line products including eSekure and On Screen Marking we are looking for off-shore market as well sify geography and increase market penetration.

What do you think are the unique aspects of your innovative solutions?

The unique aspects are: • Automatic Dummy numbering scanner is a 3 in 1 scanner where numbering, scanning and data capturing take place simultaneously. This has the feature of printing randomly generated numbers or predefined numbers which are student specific. This scanner is designed and developed by TRS and the same has been registered for patent.

• eSekure mark holds the variable data in any document in an encrypted format which makes it 100% tamper proof. Verification of eSekure is simple and secure. It does not access any database or servers of the clients. Hence eSekure is impossible to counterfeit, but easy to verify.

What is the impact that your innovative solutions have had on the main stakeholders?

The main stakeholders in our business can be listed as universities, student community and team TRS. For the universities our solutions help in bringing out accurate

results on time even though the volume is increasing. eSekure helps in securing their mark sheets and certificates. This not only gives credibility to the institution but also protects their reputation. For the student community getting the accurate results on time is a big relief. Helps them to apply for higher studies or work without any delay. eSekure sees to it that non-deserving candidate does not take away the opportunity by using a tampered document. Such innovations help TRS to employ around 150 plus employees in 3 offices and provide them a good working environment and create prosperity.

What do you think is the reason for your success story?

For me the reason for success cannot be different for different business. I personally believe in 3 Us - Unique, Useful and United. I always see to that our solutions are unique. I always like to be easily identified in a crowd. Solutions should not only be unique but also useful for the customer.

It should be the right solution for the existing problem and the customer should feel happy and be benefited by that solution.

Finally achieving success is always a team work. So be united with your team and take them along with you. If our vision for the future includes these three Us then success is guaranteed.

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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leaders

Quality education for nation building Sushma Berlia is one of those few people who believe in giving back to the society.

Seeking inspiration from her freedom fighter father, her contribution is not restricted to setting up many schools and higher Institutions, but she has also been immensely involved in moulding the educational system in the country by becoming a catalyst in the policy reform in education and skill development programmes in the country

Leader – Sushma Berlia Organisation – Apeejay Education Society Vision – To promote a system of integral education that emphasises the unity of all knowledge, synthesises humanity and sciences and recognises that each child is unique Establishment Year – 1967 Reach – Apeejay Education Society runs 13 Schools and 16 institutions of higher learning in India with more than 32,000 students on its rolls

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For life that I have to compromise at every step, I wish to live that is true but not this much and not at any cost’. I say this to illustrate the kind of regime, as far as Education is concerned that we were living in – Sushma Berlia

S

ushma Berlia, an eminent entrepreneur and industrialist has touched the lives of many with her outstanding contribution in the field of education in the country. An Economic Honours from Lady Shri Ram College and Master’s in Business Economics from the University of Delhi, Sushma Berlia was well equipped to take her father’s, Dr Stya Paul who established Appejay Education Society (AES) in 1967, legacy forward. She took to business and industry in 1989 and is today a leading entrepreneur and a force to be reckoned with. She is presently the vice-president of AES and president of the Apeejay Stya Group & Svrán Group, an international conglomerate of businesses. Berlia has earned accolades for her professional and family approach to business, and for successes in building a diverse range of companies.

Having tremendous passion for education, Sushma Berlia has been the primary force behind the AES and the Apeejay Stya University, India’s first Liberal Arts University focused on research and technology. AES provides quality education from pre-nursery to Doctoral level with more than 85 courses to choose from. Social work and community service are the core part of the curriculum and culture at these institutes making them win a number of awards for their contribution to the nation’s skill building effort.

Over the years, Berlia has been helping students by providing scholarships to them to study in the premier institutes across the world and providing funds to build schools in rural India. She has also contributed extensively to a large number of public and private bodies to aid them in policy interventions and other initiatives.

Berlia has been tirelessly working for the empowerment of women. Under her leadership the Apeejay institutions have setup a large number of programs and schemes to help women from every walk of life ranging from rural development programs, to upgrading of traditional skills in villages, from free health camps, to family education, scholarships and projects on low-cost health and hygiene products for rural women.

Berlia has always favoured direct interventions and setting up charities. She has also worked with and provided support to a range of non-profit programs like Tribal Welfare Fund, UNICEF, UNESCO, PM relief fund among many others.

She is also deeply committed to preserving the culture and traditions while also promoting new cultural ideas, concepts and upcoming artistes.

(Compiled by Anushi Agrawal) digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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feature story

How Foolproof are Placement

Reports?

More often than not stories of fudged placement reports have been a part of our discussions with acquaintances studying in B-schools. We all have heard of false claims made by institutes to attract students, one of them being 100 percent placement. In 2011, IIM Ahmedabad launched the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) as a step to provide authentic and reliable placement data to help MBA aspirants make an informed decision. Three years down, how many MBA aspirants are aware about it? Anushi Agrawal with inputs from Veena Kurup of Elets News Network (ENN) finds out

P

urvi Patel was at crossroads of her career after she failed to get admission to IIM Ahmedabad, her dream B-school. A final year MBA student, Purvi says, “I did not have any clue about IPRS that time. What a student needs at the time of admission is authentic information about the placement

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figures of a college. I did not know how to figure it out.”

Failing to gather the realities of placement data, Purvi not only browsed through institute websites, MBA education portals, magazines and B-school rankings, she also visited some institutes, spoke to students, alumni and

counselors. “I hail from a middle class family. I was to apply for a huge loan for doing the MBA and any wrong decision could have put me in the soup,” Purvi said in retrospect. She was looking for the right course at various institutes with appropriate salary packages and her dream companies in their recruiters’

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Document Scanner + eXtractPro = Hybrid OMR Scanner eXtractPro, with its unique state-of the art-technology, reads the OMR data on the fly while the OMR sheets are being scanned using a normal Document Scanner, there by the Document scanner works like an OMR Scanner with the help of eXtractPro.

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feature story

list, when she got a call from the institute she is currently pursuing her MBA. She realised that most of the professors were PhDs and the institute was ranked well in most rankings. So, she decided to go for it. It was much later that she reaslised that the institute is a signatory to Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS).

Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) are instituted by IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in 2011 to standardize B-school placement reports.

While a few top B-schools are signatory to it but there are many, including IIMs, who do not comply with IPRS thus, making it a lopsided initiative. But the

Objective of IPRS IPRS aims to bring in uniformity in the manner in which Indian business schools report salary and non-salary information related to placements.

These standards would enable a fair comparison between B-schools on multiple parameters including compensation members are hopeful that as the system matures there will be many more participants in IPRS. It is also believed that IPRS will help put a check on fake placement reports in the long run.

The need for standards The necessity of such an initiative was felt after there were reports of B-schools inflating their stipend and salary figures for summer and final placements which is often misleading for MBA aspirants.

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Balasubramanian S, Coordinator, Student Placement Committee, IIM A The standard was designed to ensure that aggregate level statistics are reported while still preserving the confidentiality of individual-level and firm-level data, thereby satisfying the needs of all stakeholders

Moreover, each B-school has its own format of placement reports which does not make it comparable to others. Therefore, IPRS was devised as a solution to lack of standardization and clarity which may lead to misinterpretation of data leading to wrong decision making. “The standard was designed to ensure that aggregate level statistics are reported while still preserving the confidentiality of individual-level and firm-level data, thereby satisfying the needs of all stakeholders,” said Balasubramanian S, Coordinator, Student Placement Committee, IIM Ahmedabad.

IPRS is based on the MBA CSC Standards for Reporting Employment Data under the aegis of MBA Career Service Council since 1999 in United States.

In India, IPRS require that placement data be audited by an independent auditor. CRISIL offers this service under the Business School Grading initiative.

“CRISIL validates the information in the placement report with respect to remuneration, job function and location of the placement. The validation of the information is based on communication received by the institute. Each data point is verified through a valid set of documents which includes offer letters, IPRS forms, emails from official IDs and company presentations, among other docu-

ments,” said Anurag Jhanwar, Director, CRISIL Education Gradings. This verified data is then made available in the public domain to existing and prospective students, recruiters, media and ranking agencies and other stakeholders.

Are institutes ready for IPRS? IPRS, an attempt to cleanse the mucky

Followers of IPRS • IIM Ahmedabad

• SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai • Sahyadri Institute of Management Studies, Pune • Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Pune • TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal • Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Pune

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B-school placement reportage in the country is into its third year now. After the initial hiccups, today it has twenty nine signatories out of which only six have released their placement report as per the IPRS norms.

The program does not enjoy support from many B-schools since the beginning. The B-schools have been apprehensive about the data to be disclosed in the report since its inception. While India has about 3000 B-schools offering MBA programme, IPRS enjoys support from only 29 of them. IPRS has also come under a lot of criticism for being in favour of the established B-schools in the country as they usually have the big numbers to show in terms of salary packages or number of students placed.

The relatively smaller or less known B-schools do not have similar figures to flaunt and thus IPRS put them in a bad light. But on the hindsight, the main purpose of IPRS is to check that these institutes do not fake their placement data to attract more prospective students. “Ranking agencies give very high marks to the placement records.

Figures are manipulated, institutes which wrongly report 100% placement will not able to manipulate salary figures if their records are audited. This is one of reasons that prevent some of the institutes from being a part of IPRS,” says Abbasali Gabula, Deputy Director External Relations & Administration,

IPRS is not company specific, it gives an overall picture of the institute. It is only a consolidation of data which is put before the public and such data should not be difficult for the recruiters or the institutes to facilitate for the report Abbasali Gabula, Deputy Director External Relations & Administration, SPJIMR SPJIMR. He added that in order to secure the future of the students, government should make a law that binds all the institutions to get their placement reports audited.

One of the major concerns for the B-schools is the cumbersome process of making the report as per IPRS norms.

Prof Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Associate Professor Marketing and Chairperson (Placements) of IIM Kashipur, which is the latest B-school to be the signatory of IPRS, says, “It gets quiet difficult to come out with the report on time since it is a very long process to collect the data.

A new institute like ours which is doing it for the first time takes about 6 to 8 months to collect the data and come out with the report. It requires a lot of commitment to stick to the IPRS norms.” It is probably this lack of commitment on the part of B-schools that most of the signatories who have been part of IPRS since its inception have still not come out with the placement report as per IPRS norms for two years now. Raising this concern, Dr H S Srivatsa, Associate Professor and Chairman-Placements, T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) said, “All B-schools who are members of IPRS should participate to the fullest extent. It’s not enough if B-schools become members of IPRS and do not get their placement data audited.” This really fails the purpose being part of an initiative like IPRS.

Santosh Mathews, Vice President-Corporate, MITCON Institute of Management Lack of awareness and the nonmandatory approach might be among the few prime causes that have resulted in the non-acceptance of IPRS on a larger scale

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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feature story

Some of the institutes, including IIMs, who are not part of the initiative, believe that IPRS over-emphasizes on salary packages. MBA is not only about landing up good jobs and earning hefty salaries.

Some of the IIMs have internal policy of not disclosing salary figures and this contradicts with the IPRS norms, resulting in their non-participation in IPRS. Dean of School of Management, NMIMS, Dr Debashis Sanyal says, “We have our own system of reporting standard and are quite happy with its functioning. Moreover, the market as a whole does not demand its necessity. We didn’t feel the standard is good enough for us to accept it.” Also most of the times, recruiters are not very cooperative in reporting the salary break-ups as per IPRS, further discouraging institutes to take up the initiative. The report clearly states that the individual level data specific to a student or a recruiter would not be shared as a part of the placement report.

As pointed out by Abbasali Gabula, “IPRS is not company specific, it gives an overall picture of the institute. It is only a consolidation of data which is put before the public and such data should not be difficult for the recruiters or the institutes to facilitate for the report.”

Despite only six signatories complying with the IPRS norms, IIM-A is hopeful of a more positive response in the future. “Over the years IPRS has become

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Dr Debashis Sanyal, Dean of School of Management, NMIMS The market as a whole does not demand its necessity. We didn’t feel the standard is good enough for us to accept it

more mature and refined with better data capturing and categorization and also detailed placement records. For the 201213 Final Placements, we have seen highest levels of participation with data points being captured for 98.9 percent of PGP offers, 97.8 percent of PGPX offers and 100 percent of PGP-ABM offers,” said Balasubramanian S said.

IPRS cannot be a game changer until most of the B-schools comply with it. The standardization of data is only helpful when there is enough data to be standardized and eventually be compared. Data of only six B-schools do not give out any trend or help students in better decision making. “Though the standard has assisted in bringing more transparency in the placement reporting system, the scenario still awaits acceptance among the B-Schools at large. Unless the corporate start insisting

on the standardization, IPRS will remain as a nicety,” said R Shreenath, Director, Corporate & Career Services, Great Lakes Institute of Management.

The Anatomy of IPRS One of the major deterrents for B-schools to adopt IPRS is the structure of the IPRS report. It is quiet a task to release placement report as per IPRS norms. Institutes need to provide data regarding internship and final placements. Data collected for internship could be nonsalary information but data collected for final placements has to be both nonsalary and salary information.

Data required for IPRS for internship include job/role function, sector, location, responsibilities and stipend details.

The recruiters and institutes are also required to report a split-up of the various components of the salary and not just the total Cost to Company (CTC).

Salary components to be reported as per IPRS include fixed yearly component, total one-time cash benefits at the time of joining, maximum possible performancelinked compensation during the first year of performance and maximum Earning Potential (MEP). The institutes also have to provide the minimum, maximum, mean and median salary statistics pertaining to students placed on campus.

Explaining the procedure of collecting the data for IPRS and making the report, Prof Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, who is in the process of making the report for 2013, says, “It is a three stage process, first an organization becomes a signatory, fills up a form and send it to IPRS. They need to collate all the infor-

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mation provided by the recruiters. They also send a supplementary sheet to the recruiters which needs to be filled by them, as many a times offer letters are not very clear on the breakup of the salary and only give CTC. Companies do not disclose salary break up at times in which case institutes can request their students to send across their salaries details. But there is no surety of compliance from students either. Hence, at times it becomes a difficult proposition for institutes.”

R Shreenath, Director, Corporate & Career Services, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai Unless the corporate start insisting on the standardisation, IPRS will remain as a nicety

Salary components to be reported as per IPRS include fixed yearly component, total one-time cash benefits at the time of joining, maximum possible performancelinked compensation during the first year of performance and Maximum Earning Potential Who does IPRS concern?

As stated in one of the objectives of IPRS, “The information based on these standards would provide media and ranking agencies with correct data and statistics for them to release the appropriate news and research reports. Also these standards would help aspiring students in taking career decisions based on correct information.” But the bigger question is, are students even aware about the existence of IPRS? Nupur Mehta, MBA final year student says, “I am not aware of IPRS and have not heard about it before.” Another MBA student Sajil Shah who is aware of IPRS, wants the report to be more crisp. “There was too much statistics involved in the report. A fresher or an individual who is not from a B-School background will find it difficult to understand and analyze the information disclosed in the report,” said Sajil Shah. Tanya Khera, MBA aspirant says, “IPRS has the right intent but there is need to create awareness about it which can be done through social media and social networking sites which are most frequently visited by MBA aspirants.”

Prof Dwarika Prasad Uniyal feels that IPRS need more time to establish and be accepted by all stakeholders. He says, “There is not much awareness amongst students because it’s not publicized

much. At the same time students do not do this much homework when opting for an institute. They go by media reports, portals, rankings and so on and students bodies are not that much mature to look at it, but as the system matures with time, things will improve.” But for students who were aware about IPRS before

All B-schools who are members of IPRS should participate to the fullest extent. It’s not enough if B-schools become members of IPRS and do not get their placement data audited Dr H S Srivatsa, Associate Professor and Chairman-Placements, T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI)

taking the admission into B-school, IPRS did help them in taking an informed decision. However, they feel that more should be disclosed in the report. “There is need for more clarity on the kind of profile being offered by the companies offering placements in B-schools. The report only talks about sectors which are very vague,” said Ayush Gupta, final year MBA student.

IPRS is also helpful for the institutes in keeping their internal records in place.

“It’s a pretty good governance structure to put in place. It also helps in the case of RTI queries, it saves our job when such queries come up, and we are able to share the real and audited data,” said, Prof Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Associate Professor Marketing and Chairperson (Placements), IIM Kashipur.

At a time when B-schools are no longer the favorite destination for students, IPRS does seem as a solution to the fudged placement reports. It can help students like Purvi to take a well-informed decision that is going to have a huge impact on their lives.

IPRS can prove to be a helpful tool in deciding about B-schools but it certainly is not a one-stop solution all the admission dilemmas. The need is to create awareness about IPRS among students, both prospective and current, and industry professionals and willingness of the B-schools to adapt it. As suggested by Santosh Mathews, Vice President-Corporate, MITCON Institute of Management, “Lack of awareness and the non-mandatory approach might be among the few prime causes that have resulted in the non-acceptance of IPRS on a larger scale.”

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

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Campus

nEWS om >> To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com To read latest>> news, To read log on latest to education.eletsonline.com news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

Series of IIM Ahmedabad alumni reunion on institute campus Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM A) is set to hold five alumni reunion at the IIM A campus during December 2013 and January 2014. The scheduled events include the 10 Year Reunion of Class of 2003 batch; the 20 Year Reunion of Class of 1993 batch; the Silver Jubilee Reunion of the Class of 1989; the 30 Year Reunion of Class of 1983 batch and the 40 Year Reunion of Class of 1973 batch. About 300 alumni members are expected to be present along with their families, during these five reunions.

Prof Arvind Sahay, Dean, Alumni & External Relations, eager to welcome the batches conveyed, “The reunions would provide an opportunity to obtain feedback from alumni about the ongoing curriculum review of the flagship PGP program and also be a platform for sharing details of happening and activities at the Institute, including achievements of the faculty and students.”

IIT Hyderabad smart campus to be ready by next academic year The newly established Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT H) is all set to get a smart campus that would be self sufficient in energy and water conservation. The campus would be ready by next academic year and the classes would thereby be held on the new campus. The construction is being done in modular model and would be taken up zone-wise so that the academic activity will not be affected. The buildings at the campus will have unique features like radiant cooling systems, which provide thermal comfort while minimizing power consumption.

The organisation would have spent almost Rs 650 crore on the new campus by the time it shifts to the new location. The campus will have an academic building, class rooms, seminar hall, 10 hostels (eight boys hostels accommodating 192 students each and two hostels for girls accommodating 200 students each).

education.eletsonline.com

IIM Lucknow achieves 100% summer placements

IIM Lucknow broke the record and achieved 100 percent summer placement for its 29th bacth of 475 students, the largest IIM batch, in a record time of five and a half days.

The recruitment drive saw participation from 159 domestic and international recruiters.

The top four segments based on roles offered were sales & marketing, finance, consulting and business development. In spite of the current economic slowdown, IIM Lucknow attracted significant roles in the finance domain.

One of the new segments that came up this year was the social and education sector with paid stipends.

Fourteen such firms participated offering roles in sales and marketing, market research, business development, finance, IT, policy research and project implementation. Institute has attrated the highest number of international firms from Middle East and Africa from retail, real estate, brand consulting and advertising sectors.

IIT Kharagpur turns to students for greener campus IIT Kharagpur has floated a challenge to its students to devise innovative ways of greening so that the campus becomes an environmental pleasure. The challenge called ‘Innovation Challenge Grant, Under Green Policy Initiative’ is unique to the campus as part of its Vision 20-20 programme. The campus has also banned use of plastic cups and packets and motorbikes on campus. The problem areas of the campus, as far as environmental issues are concerned, have been charted out and students can choose any one area and develop technological solutions to them. They are allowed to form groups to address the issue and take the support of a faculty member of their choice. The innovations that stand out will be given the status of a full fledged research project up to a corpus of Rs 25 lakh.

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

61

course review

All You Wanted to

Know About Hotel Management While we all love to celebrate, rarely we think of those behind the scenes making our parties and celebrations a success. If your dream is to make your guests happy, hotel management is the career for you. Roselin Kiro of Elets News Network finds out what it takes to be in the hotel industry.

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

education.eletsonline.com

W

ith the efforts being made by Ministry of Tourism to promote tourism in the country, a career in Hotel Management or Hospitality Management has become a flourishing career option in recent times. With the boom in the tourism sector, there has been an immense growth in the requirement of skilled personnel required in the field of hospitality management. The Indian hospitality industry has emerged as one of the key industries driving the growth of the service sector and, thereby, bringing a growth in the Indian economy.

Prof S Rajamohan, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai agrees that “Job opportunities are humongous due the diversity of the nature of job offered by the various sectors related to tourism.”

“Students who aspire to take up a career in Hotel Management industry should possess qualities like good communication, sense of humor and pleasing personality. But the qualities that we inculcate in the students during the course are practical knowledge, personality and communication skills.

We aim at making students active, hard working and presentable,” said Brijesh Verma, Principal, Maharishi Arvind Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Rajasthan. To add to these, Prof C Swaminathan SMC, SRM Duration (in years)

Institute of Hotel Management, Tamil Nadu said “Personnel needs to have enough tolerance to be able to sustain in the industry.”

The hospitality sector is mainly divided into four basic functions: Food Production as the name suggests is about preparing food and designing dishes.

Food and Beverage Service (F&B) involves the art of serving the guests with food and drinks Front Office is responsible for meeting and greeting the guests, organizing accommodation of guests, taking and organizing reservations, managing check in and out of rooms, passing on messages to customers and settling accounts.

Housekeeping section ensures a comfortable and appealing environment to guests at the hotel.

According to the World Travel and Indian Tourism Council, India will be a tourist hotspot from 2009 to 2018 having the growth potential. Many big hotels and restaurant chains have extended their projects not only in the metros but also in the tier II and III cities. Hotel giants like The Taj, The Lalit, The Leela and others are expanding in big way across the country.

“There is an increase in the job opportunities with the growth in the hospitality and hotel industry. It might not offer very lucrative salary packages initially but the industry will get better with time,” says Pushpendra Singh Narukar, Front Office

Serial Number

Name of the Institute

City

Programme

Total Fees (in INR)

Number of seats

Minimum qualification

1

Christ College

Bangalore

Bachelor of Hotel Management (BHM)

Four

3,50,000

60

10+2

2

Dr Ambedkar Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management

BSc in Hospitality and Hotel Management

Three

2,10,000

NA

10+2

3

FHRAI Institute of Hospitality Management

Greater Noida

BA in International Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Three

3,80,000

NA

10+2

4

IHM

Mumbai

BSc in Hospitality and Hotel management (NCHMCT) & (IGNOU)

Three

As mentioned in the JEE brochure

NA

10+2

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

63

course review

Serial Number

64

Name of the Institute

City

Programme

Duration (in years)

Total Fees (in INR)

5

IHM

New Delhi

1. Bachelor of Hotel Management 2. MSc in Hospitality Administration

BHM - Three MHA - Two

2,30,000

6

IHM

Bangalore

1. Bachelor of Hotel Management 2. MSc in Hospitality Administration

BHM - Three MHA - Two

7

IHM

Hyderabad

1. BSc Programme in Hospitality & Hotel Administration 2. MSc Programme in Hospitality & Hotel Administration

BSc - Three MSc - Two

8

IHM

Chennai

BSc in Hospitality and Hotel Administration

Three

2,33,630

265

10+2

9

IHM

Kolkata

BSc in Hospitality and Hotel Administration

Three

2,09,100

NA

10+2

10

IHM

Ahmedabad

-BA (Hons) in Hotel Management

Three

2,34,000

NA

10+2

11

IHM (Taj Group)

Aurangabad

BA (Hons) in Hotel Management

Three

NA

120

10+2

12

Merit Swiss Asian School of Hotel Management

Ooty

BSc in Catering Science and Hotel Administration

Three

NA

NA

10+2

13

Rizvi College of Hotel Management

Mumbai

BSc in Hospitality and Hotel Administration

Three

2,34,000

NA

10+2

14

The Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development

New Delhi

Bachelor of Hotel Management

Three

NA

NA

10+2

15

Welcome group Graduate School of Hotel Administration

Manipal

Bachelor of Hotel Management

Three

8,90, 000

NA

10+2

January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

Number of seats

Minimum qualification

NA

BHM - (10+2) MHA- BSc (HHA) or Degree in Hotel Management from recognized University.

BHM- As announced

by National Council for Hotel Management MHA1,50,000

BHM - NA MHA - 20

BSc - 10+2 MHA- BSc (HHA) or Degree in Hotel Management from recognized University.

NA

BSc - 180 MSc - 30

BSc - 10+2 MSc - BSc (HHA) or Degree in Hotel Management from recognized University

education.eletsonline.com

COURSES AVAILABLE • • • • • •

MSc – Hospitality Administration BSc – Hospitality and Hotel Administration BSc – Hotel Management and Catering Operations BSC – Hotel and Tourism Management BA (Hons) Hotel Management BHMCT (Bachelor of Hotel Management and Catering Technology)

Executive at Hotel Radisson Blu, Jaipur.

On the contrary to the expected growth of the industry, Parvadha Vardhini Gopalakrishnan, Principal, Manipal University, Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Karnataka anticipates that “Under constant economic uncertainty, volatile oil price and fluctuating exchange rates, hotels would go slow in investing heavily and holding large stakes in the business. Optimum revenue management and cost effective operational efficiencies would guide stakeholders in the business.”

A final year student of Bachelors in Hotel Management Catering Technology (BHMCT) Vineet Nanda of AIHM said, “This is an industry which is progressing with time and is a very dynamic and exciting industry to be part of. Our institutes prepare us well for the industry but it is the hands-on training which gives the maximum practical knowledge.” Vineet has already found his dream job at Oberoi Hotel, Udaipur.

There are a large number of institutes and colleges that provide Hotel Management courses at the degree and diploma level. At present there are 21 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHM) promoted by Central Government, Ministry of Tourism, and Government of India. There are15 similar institutions promoted by respective State Governments as well.

They have common entrance examination and admission process but they depend on their respective governing bodies for fund and infrastructure development.

Besides these two, there are about 16 private institutions, university departments and independent institutions affiliated to National Council for Hotel Management

and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Admissions, curriculum, examinations and evaluations are centrally monitored in these 52 institutions. But, as Kamal Kant Pant, Principal IHM, Gwali-

(DHMCT) at Amrapali Institute of Hotel Management (AIHM), Uttarakhand.

However, in recent times, the lowered packages in the industry has led to lower enrolment of students in the sector, as Prof Sanjeev Kacker, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai said, “the salary packages in all segments of the industry ranges between Rs 15, 000 to Rs 20, 000 which is too low as compared to packages offered by other industries.” He also added that the salary package in the airlines segment is better as compared to the hotel segment.

Hotel Management is a service industry that believes and works by the age old tradition of India, ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, the guest is our God. The biggest reward for the professionals in this industry is the ap-

No job could have been more exciting and less monotonous. If given an opportunity to choose a career again, I would still be an hotelier

Pushpendra Singh Narukar, Front Office Executive, Hotel Radisson Blu (Jaipur) or said, “The difference lies in how they transform the curriculum to enhance learning opportunities.”

Prof K C Robbins, Principal & Director, Oriental Group of Hospitality Management Institutions, Kerala says, “Despite large number of professionals being churned out from hospitality institutions, there is still dearth of manpower in the hospitality industry and skewed ratio of manpower to rooms in the industry is yet to be met.”

Many diploma and certificate courses of short duration are also available in Food and Beverage Service, Bakery and Confectionary, Food Production Operations, Housekeeping Operations and among others.

“This is a profession which is so uncertain and exciting at the same time, it enhances the personality of an individual.

That is why I want to make career in the hospitality industry,” says Deepshikha, another third semester student of Diploma in Hotel Management Catering Technology

preciation from guests or when they leave a note behind saying he/she would like to visit again.

As Shailendra K.Singh, Chief Operation Officer, AIHM says, “Hotel industry is now more of a science than an art and great stewardship of hotel properties will reward them in millions over the next few years.”

A person with pleasing personality, good communication and social skills, keen to learn new languages, eager to discover and adapt various cultures and passionate to serve people will find hotel management an interesting career option. As India scales the chart for the most popular tourist destination, the demand for professionals in the hospitality and hotel industry is only going to soar. This is an excellent opportunity for the aspiring students or professionals to be part of this exciting and dynamic industry. Hence, an investment done to pursue a career in Hotel Management can give good returns to the students in the coming years.

digitalLEARNING / January 2014

65

ADVERTORIAL K-12 Speak

Doon Public School

Stupendous Accomplishments: Our Pride And Glory

E

ducation at Doon Public School epitomizes nurturing intellectual curiosity to bring out academic excellence and aptitude so as to equip the students with the lifelong skills and experiences. The hi-tech education in the school is seamlessly integrated with multimedia devices, to create a truly immersive learning experience.

Doon Public School was felicitated with the BEST E-SCHOOL AWARD by WORLD EDUCATION AWARDS at the WORLD EDUCATION SUMMIT held at Le Meridian Hotel, New Delhi. The award has been bestowed for the School’s stupendous initiative in the e-school programme.

Our School’s tie-up with the British Council has led us to the ISA Project (International School Award) which has streamlined our efforts through myriad activities.Students of class 11 competed in Debating Matters India- 2013, organised by the British Council and thus made it to the Regional Finals of Delhi and made the school proud. Nipun Jain of class 11 was adjudged Best Interjector in the debate organized by Controversial 2013 which is another feather in the cap.

The scientific temper and aptitude of the students is truly reflected in the various achievements made by them.

Mantosh of class 12 participated in the debate on ‘Uses of Biotechnology in Animal Welfare and Agriculture is the Need of the Hour’ held at Shah International School, Paschim Vihar and got 1st Prize.

Our school brought laurels in the Science Exhibition conducted by CBSE and got a consolation prize for making the model on The Modern City. The Social Science Department bagged a Commendation Certificate for the model making,

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

depicting the Relationship between Agriculture and Industry at an International Geography Olympiad held at City Montessori School, Lucknow.

Cbse Class 10 and 12 Result Highlights The students have been ranked amongst the top 0.1% at the All India Level and find places in prestigious professional colleges like IIT, NIFT, IIST and many more.

In class 12, 158 students scored distinction in English, with 96 being the highest. Harshit Gupta received a Certificate of Merit from the CBSE for achieving 0.001 % category of the meritorious students.

In Mathematics Anchal and Abhimanyu scored 99 whereas Richa scored 96 out of 100 and amazingly 13 students scored 95 marks out of 100.

In the Commerce Stream Anchal Gupta secured 96% and got 1st position and received a Certificate of Merit from CBSE for the subject Economics for being in the 0.001% category of meritorious students. Richa secured 95.6% and stood 2nd. Ankita Saxena got 3rd position securing 95%. In Economics the highest score was 99. In Business Studies 42 students got distinction and the highest score was 98 whereas in Accountancy 97 was the highest score and 32 students passed with distinction.

Tanya Wadhwa of Humanities Stream was a topper with an unsurpassed overall percentage of 92.4 %. In Computer Sci-

ence the highest marks 92, were secured

by Himanshu Goyal , who was the topper in the Science Stream with 94.8% .

In Physical Education Manisha Shokeen scored 99/100 and topped in the West District.

The sports faculty of the school has made us proud with extraordinary achievements. In the Inter School Table Tennis Competition our students bagged 2nd Position, in Badminton 3rd Position, in Volley Ball and Basket-Ball Competition 3rd Position and in Foot-Ball and Kho-Kho Competition, 4th Position was bagged by the sports students. In Taekwondo, 2 Gold Medals were won at the School Level (National) and at the CBSE Level (National) and 3 students represented at the District Level.

Our School Band bagged 2nd Prize at the Zonal Level and was exclusively invited to display its aura at the Sports Athletic Meet Open to receive the guests at the Zonal Level.

Thus the students with their immense potential made the school progress in leaps and bounds and taking its glory to the zenith.

3

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person K-12 Speak of the year

Art of

Giving

An MBA with distinction from Harvard University and a dual bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (BS/BA) holder with Magna Cum Laude honours from Yale University, Ashish Dhawan ran one of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading private equity funds, ChrysCapital. In June 2012, he left his full-time job. So, what drove a private equity investor to choose the education sector for philanthropy and start Central Square Foundation (CSF)?

Ashish Dhawan Founder and CEO Central Square Foundation

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

education.eletsonline.com

A

pioneer in introducing VC funding for non-profits, Ashish Dhawan’s work is largely focused towards ensuring delivery of quality school education. Forty-three year old Dhawan is also a celebrated name in the Indian private equity fraternity for being one of the most triumphant dealmakers for over a decade.

His brainchild, the Central Square Foundation (CSF) has adopted a unique way of doing so. While CSF doesn’t work at the ground level, it funds the organisations that do so. In Dhawan’s words, “CSF believes in backing new generation who has bright ideas and execution capability to bring about the change in the education sector. The newer generation has more adaptability and more willingness to change.” The group believes in bringing the change through a venture capital approach.

However, as Dhawan quickly points out, “We realise that no goal can be achieved at the ground level without bringing in changes from the policy level. Hence, we strive to create a platform for all the non-profit organisations and the reformers to come together and work on a common platform.” To address this need, CSF organises special programs like excellency seminars and also provide open education resources and conduct media workshops as a step

VISION All children in India, regardless of their social and economic status, will get a high quality school education that prepares them to be responsible and productive citizens MISSION To achieve transformational standards of excellence for the Indian school education system

It is unusual to find philanthropic partners who believe in investing in an organisation’s talent pipeline - Vandana Goyal, CEO, The Akanksha Foundation

Central Square Foundation is an active funder that looks for alignment in values as well as long term goals - Gaurav Singh, Founder and CEO, 3.2.1 Education Foundation The Central Square Foundation helped a lot in connecting us to people outside and bringing in visitors and leading practitioners in this field from all over the world to the Centres - Sridhar Rajagopalan, MD, Mindspark digitalLEARNING / January 2014

71

person K-12 Speak of the year

The Central Square Foundation team runs to raise the bar for education in the Airtel Delhi Marathon

to improving the quality of education.

The organisation also interacts with policy makers and carries out extensive research and advocacy activities.

As Dhawan mentioned in one of his communications, “The journey has so far has taught us some valuable lessons we have learned the importance of linking our investments to a larger policy objective, as well as aligning them with the current market conditions. While we continue to borrow global best practices, we also recognise the need to adapt and contextualise these models to fit the local Indian conditions.”

Over the years, CSF has done a tremendous job in engaging with stakeholders to catalyse an education reform movement in India. It tied up with Centre for Civil Society to build awareness of around the RTE among key stakeholders and promote sharing of best practices related to on-ground imple-

Sajha works with 35 municipal schools in North Delhi and 25 schools in East Delhi to form, activate and build capacities of School Management Committees (SMCs) for improved learning outcomes

mentation of the Act, and allow people to seek redressal of grievances when required. On similar lines of advocacy, it works in collaboration with INDUS ACTION to help them ‘create over 10 million seats for low-income children at private schools.’

CSF also enabled capacity building of school leaders through their partnership with The Akanksha Foundation and ASER Centre. CSF has channelised a public-private partnership model in rural schools by funding 3.2.1. Schools, a start-up organisation with 227 children enrolled in KG and first Grade. Not only that, at the ground level, CSF works with India School Leadership Institute (ISLI) to encourage leadership in setting up high quality schools for students of lowincome communities, and establish the benchmark for school leadership training in India.

CSF and Pratham’s initiative Saajha

The Central Square Foundation consists of a team of experienced professionals united by the belief that quality education is the right of every child.

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January 2014 / digitalLEARNING

aims to work with 35 municipal schools in North Delhi and 25 schools in East Delhi for formation and capacity building of School Management Committees (SMCs) for improved learning outcomes who in turn will help improve student attendance and parent participation in the learning process.

Apart from these projects, CSF has also launched the “Vision 2018 for Delhi’s School Education System,” to document the key targets, and action steps needed to create a world-class school system in Delhi. Following its commendation, the foundation is also working on “National Vision to Transform India’s School System,” to drive discussion on quality education in the 2014 National elections, a recent release of CSF said.

So, what makes CSF nobler than the rest in the segment? As Dhawan points out, “The Foundation has a similar objective as other stakeholders, that is, to improve the education scenario in India.

The foundations like Azim Premji are sharply focused and are now bringing in their own projects in education sphere.

The CSF group on the other hand, works on venture philanthropy approach and on building an eco system where collaboration happens among all the players in education sector. The CCF works in collaboration with other foundations to get the PPP model working.”