MY BULLETED LIST,

INTRODUCTION: - HISTORY OF IITS
IIT'S Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

DEFINING Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

AUTONOMY - Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

NATIONAL INTEGRATION

IIT ENTRANCE EXAM - Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

FACULTY QUALITY - Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

FACULTY SALARIES - Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

STUDENT QUALITY - Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

GOVT FUNDING - Yesterday Today Tomorrow

KOTA COACHING SCHOOLS ( Rs One Crore Salaries )

MERITOCRACY & RESERVATION IN IITS

SUICIDES IN IITS

IIT BRAND - ALUMI FLY THE IIT FLAGS

GLOBALISATION -Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

IIT BRAND Yesterday- Today -Tomorrow

LOOKING AHEAD INTO THE FUTURE

About me:

Born after WW II & Before Independence. Born a  True Blue Nationalist.

My Mum & Dad Carried me to the very first Independence Day Parade in 1947 at Port Blair Andamans which was occupied by Japanese who brutalised locals Indians

Born a Hindi speaking Kalapani in Port Blair to Telugu Parents schooled in Tamil speaking Madras, married to a Bong from Malaysia with one tonne of Malayalee friends. 

Born a Hindu in our home, opposite a Mosque in Port Blair, studied at a Catholic school, believe in God and all religions as different paths to the same destination. 

To me there is only one God. 

Love is God and Truth is God and my inner conscience is God. 

Don't believe in Religious Rituals which are more like offering Bribes in return for special Favours. 

What am I ? I am what you call "AVIAL" down South a Mixed vegetable curry with curds or "INDIAN" in the True sense and a Sai Devotee ( but onlky since year 2000. (He guides me every day virtually in my dreams. Believe it or not.)

In 2003 Satyendra Dubey was Murdered for reporting Corruption in National Highways. I was the lucky one who got away in 1976 after having a knife put to my throat two times for fighting corruption in TN Housing Board and TN Highways.

Many Desis tell me Rambo you are an NRI - "Not Really Indian" because you ran away from India for a better life; we stayed back and served the nation. I don't say this but think to myself "What a Wonderful World" that these Desis have forgotten that Gandhi too was an NRI.

Yes I call Australia Home but Doston "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani" Every living day I keep thinking why cant we do this in India

Things I hate "Money, Power and Praise" People want to buy power with money and People in Power want to misuse power to grab money. Money and Power both Corrupt. 

Too much praise can get to ones head swollen out of proportion too.

I was Home schooled and joined in 4th std at age seven in Port Blair. Topped every subject but got Zero very poor for Hindi and Failed. Not my fault. Only Hindi was available as second language not that my mother taught me any language. she focussed on English and Maths. Head Mistress Mrs Sandal took pity on me and created a special prize for excellence to give me.

Joined St Bedes High School in Madras in 5th Std, ranked 8th in 3rd quarterly, 2nd in final exam. From 6th std to 10th std I topped the Class. 

My secret to this success was my Mothers words of Wisdom. Don't memorise things blindly start from first principles and think logically. This Mantra worked at school but was the reason I drowned at IITM. I never developed the art of Memorising anything except Poetry. 

To be a Topper at IIT one has to have very high IQ but also be a Nerd to cram notes and regurgitate. If IIT education was based on projects and innovations that would have been my cup of tea.

Politics: I do not believe in any Political Parties and becoming a part of a Herd, developing blind herd mentality accepting what ever the leaders say. 

I like to back what I believe is Right for the Society and Oppose what I believe is wrong.

In my Opinion a two Party democracy if very flawed and needs to change to a system where all Elected Members of the Parliament are Independents who vote with their conscience and not blindly back the party as it has Majority support. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi "In Matters of Conscience, the law of Majority Makes no sense"

Aussies Opposed a National ID Card as it Violates Privacy and I opposed Aadhaar for he same Reason. Aadhaar can be misused by the State against the people.Let us niot forget that Hitler used the IBM Computer to create a database of the Jews in Germany and exterminated them one by one.

I Lost my dad in the second week of my 3rd Year. Did not attend classes for 2 months and was planning to quit IITM when the Registrar phones me to say, if you are not back in class by next monday, you wont have enough attendance to sit for your final exam. So very Callous. It hurt but what hurt me more was him saying you are not the first young man to lose his father. In OZ the registrar would have asked me to join him for tea and counselled me and given me strength. Not Indian Admin or Faculty at IITM. They lack sympathy and are public servants who will throw the book at you

Awards:
1- A Box full of merit cards and silver medals for studies won at St Bedes. 

2- The award I cherished most was winning the first Prize in my Class for Singing a Hindi Song "Jane Woh kaise, Log the Jinke Pyar ko Pyar Mila".
3- Did not win a thing at IITM as I was surrounded by sheer brilliance. I could see Brains oozing out of many ears. 

In OZ I was back to me natural self, no threats on my life and bosses did not mind me speaking my mind. In fact they often asked me for my Opinion. A totally free life which is what made me an "Outspoken Recalcitrant". I stood up to my GM Based in Melb and got MDs approval to manufacture in Sydney to save costs and ensure quality. For this my State Manager Gave me a Special Award at Christmas that Year "A Broom Stick"
3- Won the Contract single handedly for my company for "Noise Control of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel" against all odds beating seven International Consortia. Unfortunately I had to resign from that company as my GM appointed his puppet to execute the contract so he could cut corners and make more money. Over my Dead Body I said and walked out. I saw the writing on the wall. The man drove his company to bankruptcy. MD pleaded with me to return and I said No too much water under the Bridge
4- Won the Contract for supplying Acoustic enclosures for the Main Propulsion engine Supplied by MTU Germany for the Australian naval Frigates. Challenging it was as it was not any ordinary structure but a floating vessel and had to withstand G-Forces from rapid acceleration and deceleration.
5- Recipient of an Australian Design Award for Building an Acoustic Shipping Container housing Noisy Diesel Generators to be used on Container ships to power other Refrigerated shipping containers
6- Won "Excellence in Acoustics Award from Australian Acoustical society for the same Acoustic Shipping Container
7- Was runner up for the Institute of Engineers Australia award which eventually went to a Billion Dollar Govt Power station. The Committee decided that day to Create a  Major and Minor Projects Categories :-)

My Strengths and Weaknesses:

• I can see through people and tell who is True or False just from Body Language
• My Colleague John Cole once told me "Ram, You know what your Problem is? I said No John tell me and he says "You dont suffer fools"
• Never Chased money or power, accepted what ever destiny offered.
• My Father and Mother gave me different advices. My Father said if Some one slaps you, don't be a Jesus or a Mahatma Gandhi. Kick the shit out of the bastard. My Mother on the other hand told me to turn my back on people who betrayed my trust and walk away. What do I practice ? Both. I am a good man to a Good Man and a bad man o a bad man. When some one hurts me or Betrays my Trust I turn my Back on them. Don't believe in the Forgive and Forget Policy, giving awful people to rin my life

REVAMPING INDIA'S IIT'S ,

THE INVITE TO CHAIT IIT GLOBAL MEET AT IITKGP ON 18TH AUGUST 2021 AT IIT KGP

Sunday 13th June 2021,

Ram Da, 

Would like you to be the Chair of IIT Global 2021 (online on Zoom) - had been longing to curate this forum for a long time...but as the cosmos has brought us together once more, want to host it under your tutelage...

the distinctive philosophy of yours behind the IIT Global Forums need to be enunciated and taken forward...

It would be on 18th of august - the IIT KGP foundation day also known as foundation day of the IIT system in the country....

the theme would be Intense Inner Transformation....

Would like to felicitate some 108 IITians for their lifetime striving into Intense Inner Transformation who made it big in their chosen fields...

Over to you...

Shall ping you from my whatsapp shortly....  

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My post to my whatsapp IIT Network

23rd June 2021

                                                              Last week I shared with you an Invitation asking me to Chair IIT Global 2021 which I declined straight away. 

Many of you have asked why Not Ram ? and I appreciate the faith some of you have in me. Thank You for that I salute you all. I am sharing with you here the Text of my response to the IITians who invited me... 👇👇     

MY ORIGINAL RESPONSE:                                                                                                "You flatter me, to be honest. I am just a foot soldier who follows his gut feel about everything in life. I am definitely a sucker for work and have the endurance for a long haul but definitely a very shy person and am not a person of many words either.

Plus, put it this way PanIITian Founders don't like me, IIT Fraternity don't like me either as I host the "Suicides in IITs Blog" to raise Awareness of the issue, as until I started the Blog Administrators were sweeping the issue under the carpet and student suicides in IITs were totally ignored.

Also whatever I did from year 2000 to 2017 in creating IIT Global Yahoo Groups etc is Water under the Bridge.  

In 2021, Don't believe I am the right candidate.

Having said that, I have always been an IDEAS man and will back you in your efforts behind the scenes. I still hold close to my heart an idea of how IIT entrance exams can be modified to kill off Kota Coaching schools and allow kids from poor and disadvantaged families an equal opportunity to qualify on their own without parents taking out huge mortgages to pay for Kota.  

With my system IITs can, get rid of Reservation, so no one is discriminated against by Faculty or Fellow students for Caste  and Entitlement Reasons                                                                                                                                                                   I also am aware that many IIT Faculty members and even members of the HRD Ministry and AICTE have their hands in the Kota TILL ( Kapil Sibal did have his fingers in the Pie)

One thing I can do, is "Promote your IIT Global Meeting to my IIT Contacts".                                                                    

Tell me more about what this entity is and how it came about and how it co exists with PanIIT etc as I am totally in the dark right now as we speak. It is almost 5 years since I cut of contact with IITians except for my close buddies I am in touch with through Whatapp

Earlier this year I started on my Second Book Titled "Repairing India". Just ran out of fuel and is now sitting on the back burner.  

Cheers 

Ramda

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

23rd June 2021

Early Morning Dream:

I had another early morning dream urging me to complete what I started "Smash Repairs to FIX India". I dreamt that not even all the Gods of all Religions  Combined could Fix India's Problems and India will for ever be a "Chalti Ka Naam Ghadi like Indias Old Ambassador car". That is Indias Karma so to speak. 

The Ambassador kept going and no one could really kill the Ambassador car. India is also like a Paper boat in a Turbulent Ocean right now with Divisive Politics with Covid on its back. 

My dream was a suggestion to step back and not reach for the skies as failure is inevitable but to do what is feasible, given my age and my deteriorating health. No Point taking my Dreams with me to the Grave as it benefits no body. 

That out of the Blue Invite was in fact a Nudge to pull me out of my deep slumber, pull my socks  and do something that is within my Reach; which is to create a White Paper on "Revamping IITs for the Next century" 

Out of a few hundred IIT alumni who I shared the news with about IIT Global Zoom meet at IIT Kgp on 18th August 2021, I have hand picked ten buddies who share my thoughts and ambition. 

If you are receiving this, You are one of them. 

I am not going to ask you to co author the Book so do not worry. My plan is that I share my thoughts  as I go along  and I want you all to wear a "Hat of a Consultant" and be an ardent Critic and find holes in my ideas so I can plug them.

In my life I have always saluted my Critics most as they help me fix (especially my six sisters) the flaws. You can also help me with deeper research for information that I cannot find if you wish. No Compulsion. Do what you can and when you can let us call this " Revamping IITs" for the next century"  The Plan is to complete the white paper by end July 2021. 

Wish me Luck. 

Rambo

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Comments Received:

Congrats. Great. A laudable initiative.  first crowd source ideas, in a 2 stage structure.  1st stage 10 topics from each of these chosen 10.  It would range from 10 to 100.  From this shortlist 10.  stage 2 ask their views on the shortlisted 10.  Write it up after discussion

My Reply:I already have My ideas and is what I want to develop not crowd sourced ideas. You can start one in parallel and we can exchange notes

..............................................

Good luck, and thanks for identifying me as a fierce and honest critic.

India's problems need some serious out of the box thinking. Thick headed fascists can't even get to square one, that's when they begin screaming, destroying, and bullying like spoiled children. 

The smart liberals are also lost in what has seemingly worked elsewhere, and are unable to notice that only a handful of very small and rich countries have begun to overcome yesterday's prejudices, and unfortunately new kinds of problems are emerging now that that burden is lifted

...............................................

Gr8! Famous Rambo - who is this guy? If u had accepted you could have been an influencer.

(Me: I AM GOING TO BE AN INFLUENCER WITH NO CHAIR)

Fair enough n I tend to agree with the sentiments expressed by u: - work horse, sincere, forthright, blunt and will step on toes, if needed  ....

You can b a gr8 catalyst to promote this newbie group n contribute your knowledge! 👌👍🙌👊🙏  

Valid reasons very true and acceptable.

All the best Ram!  I shall read what you send and see if I can contribute at all.  Am more of a 'stay at home' and unsocial animal - as you will know.

(stay at home unsocial animals are also knows as creative artists and authors)

...................................................

Pity, I would have liked to hear you speak

Also very thoughtful response . You have good values

(Yes Yes felt flattered and proud  but not interested. These shows are for billionaires and millionaires to strut the stage and show off not me. Ten years ago I had the passion to transform IITs may be but disillusioned today with Modis rule and Saffronisation of India. Having turned the offer down I am thinking now as I write this is I can write a paper on Renovating The IIT concept that will eliminate Kota Coaching schools, reduce Suicides and give dignity to Dalits of India eliminating Reservations. My life is Run by my Inner Conscience which is my God Too)

I'm honored. Hope I can meet your expectations.

(No Expectations at all as I know you are always truthful and that is all I want good honest and thought out Opinion)

............................................

Great honour. We feel as proud as you are.  

You have put it across very well. Clearly brought out your willingness to help wherever needed. Your desire to give out ideas to refine the selection system into IIT to make it a better place to study to many deserving students should be utilised by the concerned. Valuable.

...........................................

Very well deserved offer, Ram - so proud of you 👍👍🙏

(Yes Flattered but not interested. These shows are for billionaires and millionaires to strut the stage and show of not me)

Agree with you, Ram - I dropped out of one Whatsapp group where we were supposed to be sharing old memories - but it appeared to be all about people bragging about themselves - gave me the shits 😊

...............................................................

Great honour indeed! You deserve a lot of credit for transforming the association to an alumni run institution from an institute/ faculty run  association.

(Made a lot of enemies in the process too and got used by many too and dumped. Never mind A Man has got to do what a Man has got to do. Yes Flattered but not interested. These shows are for billionaires and millionaires to strutt the stage and show off not me)

..............................................

I did glance over it, but did not understand it fully.What does that event do?

(Have no clue, I have not found out. You know what zoom sessions are like recently I attended a Public zoom session on Rajiv Gandhis Assassination. Two Hosts a man and a woman, my Friend Sri Kumar who was IG Police Karnataka and apprehended the baddies in a Bangalore Motel was Chief Guest and a lady journalist who accompanied the Gandhis in the car and was in the process of getting out and walking around from behind the car probably a van and the bomb exploded. Most people were waiting for Sri Kumar to explain the police investigation and why Karnataka police cracked it and not Madras police. Unfortunately the Journalist woman would not shut up and babbled on and on and I could see the frustration on Srikumars Face. There was another reason why I was very keen. One of my good friends  Padhmanaban who is a Retd Deputy Superintendent of Police. We reconnected on Whatsapp may be in 2019 or so and he told me things which were different to what the news papers published. A few years back there was something called a TELGI stamp scam which he solved and tracked. when the heat was on, the crook fled to Bangalore out of Tamilnadus jurisdiction .so he informed the Karnataka police who apprehended the crook and took all the credit and no mention of TN Polices efforts. Same happened with Rajiv bomb blast TN Police did all the dirty work and blamed Rajiv security arrangements that were taken out of TN police control and managed by Rajivs Body guard team. TN Team informed Karnataka Police who promptly went and arrested the baddies and took all the credit. Moral of the story is in India people will do any thing to take credit for other peoples efforts. This Padhu is a TamBram and we crossed swords on BJP Rule and we do not talk any more. Mithu just asked me why on earth did you decline the invitation and I said the last thing I wanted was to clash with Modi bhakts and I am not the m,ost popular wioth IIT administrators or the HRD as I maintain a Blog on Suicides in IITs..

..............................

I saw it, but could predict what your reaction would be.

..................................................

I was wondering who is the person who sent this to you? And when To forward it to the group.

(If You remember I formed the IIT Global Groups in year 2002 when I was in UK only to find out Later that Dave Singh had starte huis InterIIT Group a few months before me. Soon after Monishi saw the progress and did his best to block IIT Global Groups. He argued that I did not have the authorisation from the Directors of  IITs ( he was then sucking up to all IIT Directors to get the best IIT candidates for his body shopping business. He threatened to close my groups down legally and tell yahoo blah blah blah. I told him to go fuck himself. It was then he came up with the Idea of Pan IIT and even asked batch mates to donate big and I still remember KK told him suck my dick. IIT GlobalGroups grew and had about 5000 members in 2017 when I quit and handed over the reins to a few others. All IIT Global Yahoo Groups are Dead Now as you know. One young man was an IIT Global member is now involved in this new event at IIT Kgp to be held in Aug 2021. I received the invite out of the Blue. He was all excited but I declined as I am not the right candidate. No no need to forward it to the Group as Monishi Sanyal will have a heart attack and die. Once he wrote a tonne of vulgar things about me and I said Monishi I am not going to stop to your low standards but am going to hit nyiu well below thge belt where it hurts and you will shut your trap for good. I told him I was going to forward the rubbish he wrote to me, to  IITM Director Prof Anant. That very night I received a Phone call. Monishis wife had phoned Dave to say Monishi was having chest pain and he was fuming about some Rambo. So Daljit phoned me at home saying Monishi was in bad shape and wanted to talk to me. I. said no way and hung up. phone rang soon after. I guessed it might be Monishi himself so asked Mithu to pick it up she told me. it was Monishi and he tried to butter her up talking in Bangla As yiu and I know he did have serious heart problems in recent years. Pan IIT is as good as dead and there is a bit split between PanIIT Usa and Pan IIT India..I walked away from IIT issues from 2013. was Taking up oo much time of mine But must confess it was good fun and I made some life long friends)

.............................................

Ram, I just got back from a 3-week road trip in the American West with some of our mates 

Your response was a good one. 

At this stage in life, one needs to be in an advisory role and let younger people do the heavy lifting.

..................................................

516 - Growing influence of coaching classes: ‘Change in JEE criteria has failed to achieve the desired objective’ - Indian Express

Growing influence of coaching classes: ‘Change in JEE criteria has failed to achieve the desired objective’

Every move the JEE administration makes to reduce the role of coaching classes seems to backfire.

Written by Kannan M Moudgalya | Updated: November 17, 2015 9:14 am

Students sit with their laptops while attending a lecture. (File photo)

The Rajat Moona Committee has come up with figures that state that after 12th marks were included to decide the rank of JEE, the number of students who were trained at coaching classes went up. There was a valid reason to include class12 marks as students were completely ignoring schools so as to prepare for JEE. Unfortunately, this move seems to have strengthened the role of coaching classes: many more seem to have gone for coaching, possibly for combined class 12 and JEE coaching.

Every move the JEE administration makes to reduce the role of coaching classes seems to backfire. Not too long ago, the maximum number of attempts in the original JEE was reduced to two, to deny an unfair advantage to the wealthy, who can afford a lot more of coaching. Unfortunately, this resulted in students enrolling in coaching classes earlier than before, as one could attempt JEE only twice, and this increased the coaching business, naturally by those who could afford it.

" "

There is a reason to believe that coaching classes are seen by the public as an insurance against uncertainties introduced through major changes/disruptions in JEE. If the 12th marks get removed now, it could be considered as another major change, and there is no guarantee that the role of coaching will not increase yet again.

About 10 years ago, the JEE coaching business was considered to be about Rs 10,000 crore worth. An Assocham survey in 2013 estimated the size of coaching business to be $23.7 billion and that it would reach $40 billion in 2015. For further discussion, we will take the extent of JEE-related coaching to be of the order of Rs 1,50,000 crore worth. I am tempted to say that the coaching classes have beaten the JEE system.

Rs 1,50,000 crore is a lot more than the annual budget of all IITs and NITs put-together. As a matter of fact, the cost of establishing all the existing IITs and NITs together would not have been more than this amount. Coaching classes are not a cause, but a symptom of the malaise in the system. Given that the public is bent on going to all lengths to get admission to their wards in top IITs and NITs, this will continue to happen. 

Their financial inputs help pay teachers of JEE coaching classes ludicrous salaries, who in turn devise methods to beat the exam. JEE coaching classes thrive because of the demand-supply mismatch in engineering education. The only guaranteed way to get rid of the coaching classes is to increase the number of good quality seats fifty to hundred fold and provide admission on demand to every reasonably good student.

This is not going to happen through the traditional approach of IIT-NIT centric undergraduate education, despite the tens of new IITs and NITs that are being established. Despite this thrust, there is an all around deterioration of overall engineering education during the last decade. The increasing faculty shortage in all the IITs and NITs, including the well established ones, does not give confidence in this approach.

We can achieve the above said task of good engineering education on demand only by improving the quality of the about 5,000 engineering colleges that already exist in the country. Top IITs, NITs and select engineering colleges should be encouraged to take up this nation-building task. In order to provide an undivided attention to this important work, and to avoid any conflict of interest, they may be requested to vacate the undergraduate training space. To produce the large number of teachers required in the engineering colleges, the postgraduate and research programmes of top IITs-NITs be strengthened manifold. Hopefully, successful coaching classes can be encouraged to convert themselves into good engineering colleges. Naturally, government interventions are required in this approach.

Coming back to the Rajat Moona Committee report, most families possibly find it difficult to provide the extraordinary financial and other kind of support required to their female children to clear the entrance exams. This may be one important reason why the presence of females is abysmally low in top IITs and NITs. What I am proposing now will address this issue and also other imbalances, such as urban-rural.

The Rs 1,50,000 crore that is annually spent on coaching is a colossal national waste. Possibly it helps a small percentage of students to get better, to become good enough to secure admission in top institutions, but for all others, it is an utter waste. It may actually lead to the loss of self confidence of more than 90 per cent of our aspiring youth who are denied admission in these institutions, even after a rigorous preparation.

Burning out and the loss of childhood are other collateral damages that result in this warlike preparation.

Opponents to the proposed approach give examples, such as China and South Korea, where also a similar rigorous selection process is possibly in place. But should we not learn from good examples, such as the ones practised in the west and also in countries like Israel? It is a pleasure to see Israeli high school students spending all their energies in new ideas, projects and inventions, without having to worry about the future admission processes and round the clock preparation for entrance exams.

Finally, the approach proposed here has the potential to make us a centre of learning for the whole world. A trillion dollar education economy is certainly achievable in the near term.

(The author is a professor of Chemical Engineering, Systems and Control, and Educational Technology at IIT-Bombay)

515 - The Other side of JEE by Deepak Agarwal

The Other side of JEE by Deepak Agarwal

Story of an Indian engineer

By Deepak Agarwal

Jun 15, 2015

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Every April, the railway station in Kota, Rajasthan gets swamped by thousands of middle class Indian parents with their ward in tow. They all have similar busy-bee behaviour with a mixture of anxiety to settle the ward down in a new town and burning hope for a good future of the ward. Wards are usually young boys and girls between 13-15 years of age, still carrying a streak of child in them.

They come from all over the country. These are people from Bihar, UP, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Interior Maharashtra, Orissa, north Karnataka, Seven-sisters, Andhra Pradesh and places hidden somewhere in the finer details of map of India. They are people who are clerks in state governments, engineers in steel plants or on irrigation canals, doctors running clinics, businessmen running showrooms and dealerships, teachers in government schools and even professors in some big universities. They are quintessential middle class, who never made it big. They are people whose heart is in palpitation about  intense competition their ward will face to find his or her mark in inhumanly competitive India, competition worse than what you would have seen among wild beasts in migration in Africa on Animal Planet. The scene on the railway station is no different.

They are approximately 100,000 in number in Kota alone*. They are all here to chase IIT JEE* dream. IIT JEE means a passport to well paid job and possibly good life. These kids will be here for 3-4 years**, sweating out to learn Physics, Chemistry and Maths and ace IIT JEE.

Within two weeks, this number gets settled in hostels, independent rooms, shanty and chawl accommodations and left in alien place to fend for themselves with usual see-off "Son! work hard. It's only 3 years. Your life will be made. Do not disappoint your mother. Remember sacrifices we are making. If your brother could, you can. Eat well. Keep good company. Finish your tutorials same day. Call us every afternoon". And so on.... a childhood cut short with a snip...

Mid April, the grind starts. These impressionable young minds do not attend school. The private coaching classes make "suitable arrangements" for children's school continuity while administration turns into an ostrich and bury its head. Children spend from early morning 6:00 AM till 9:00 PM in coaching classes with almost 200 children in each class, with weekly and monthly test thrown in to segment children. The better test takers are segregated into exclusive sections to be coached by better faculty. Weaker are provided continuity with impression of obscurity of JEE outcome. System and parents go after them to do better and move to privileged sections. Play stops, social interaction stops, travel stops, vacation are none, science experiments in sham schools are mechanical and ability to look at world with wonder and hope extinguishes. The goal hardens to clear IIT JEE come what may, losing the entire meaning of the Win. Three years of grind culminates in famous JEE tests in blistering heat of May and June. Some children are upbeat, some fall sick with trepidation, some have already lost hope but most of them take the tests.

There are two outcomes. One is heart-breaking and other is heart-rending.

Less than 2% make it to get an admission through JEE to one of the prestigious IITs*** or NITs^. 98% get beaten and are those who could not live up to system's criteria and parental expectation. Precious years lost in learning what they won't need. Precious years lost in not being good in social skills, communication skills, teamwork and self-awareness. They go back into oblivion to fight another battle of finding a job with their soul crushed. Net outcome, a nation full of so called losers and opportunity for another set of private coaching classes to polish students for bank exams, government jobs, B. Ed exams, soft-skills and so on. These 98% who have put in sweat, blood and money to become IITians then crank up the private engineering school business, who gleefully exploit the opportunity. Even those who make it to NITs more often than not carry a sense of inadequacy of having not made it to IITs. It breaks my heart.

Those 2% who make it, are on the top of the world. However, their story (most cases) slowly turns into a heart-rending one. Among approximately 12,00,000 who write the IIT JEE tests, successful ones get a rank, a number which can swings wildly with answering of just one question right or wrong. In the month of July, these children fill a counseling sheet to rank order their choice of IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and so on) along with choice of engineering discipline (Computer science, Mechanical, Civil, Metallurgy and so on) and submit the counseling sheet to a big wheel of fortune. Social strata and education levels in child's family has huge influence on how the counseling sheet is filled. Most of the parents are elated with any outcome from the wheel of fortune. Sweets are distributed and parties are thrown for child's joining Metallurgy at IIT Kharagpur (no offense to Metallurgy department at IIT Kharagpur) at July end. Passport to good life through IIT has been secured, so they think.

When this teenager joins IIT, new found freedom, new friends, new ideas and possibilities are aplenty and bewildering and anything in the world seems within his grasp but he is also flummoxed why is he learning about alloys and slag in metallurgy. He is quick to reject what he does not like but almost always fails to choose wisely for his lack of self awareness. Some get involved in random extracurricular activities to build their profile, some do internships in unrelated areas, some simply give up and take to apathy with a bottle. With every distraction his CGPA suffers, his loathness for metallurgy increases and trials become more frenetic. Four years pass by in a jiffy in trial and errors and comparisons and now this adult finds himself in famous placement season at IITs. At this juncture,  three paths emerge.

First. Those students who were focused and well supported by their family (better educated) are the ones who choose engineering discipline as per their interest, treat IIT only as means to a goal and who keep themselves to their studies secure good CGPA. They also receive timely career guidance. They secure admissions to US MS and PhD programs. Later they are flowered by the US education system. 

Second. Those students who end up thinking IIT to be an end in itself, continue to experiment with themselves. They receive conflicting and myriad career guidance. Indian industry always hungry and selfish for their own growth lures them as raw talent. IT Industry hires and puts all metallurgy, civil, electrical engineers etc. through six months of grueling training say in Mysore and forges them into coders. Similarly lot of financial services firms, make them do inane and unending analysis of alien US stocks in back office support. They still wonder and fret about why are they doing things they have been asked to do. Their poor social skills come in the way of their growth in knowledge industry where teamwork, communication and collaborative problem solving are often more important than just analytical brilliance. They were told that they were the brightest when they entered IITs yet they can not reconcile it with reality of work they do. Some quieten after sometime because they get to travel to US and do same thing there. Some take courage to act, which is not to find their passion but only to correct the wrong which has happened.

Third. Those students who end up or take up a job in the industry which is relevant to their engineering discipline. However initially the metallurgy engineer finds it hard to fathom authority, appreciate industry rules, earn respect from peers and working in teams in heat and swelter of a steel plant. The feeling is exacerbated mostly because of lack of poor social skills and ability to handle adversity. He pines to escape from this work which he never aspired for and make his mark in. Very few students who indeed stick with their first job actually end up making a good career because of sheer alignment between what they studied with the industry they are in. However most are desperate to discover themselves and sometimes take courage to act.

Both second and third paths now move towards making repeated attempts to secure admission to a good MBA program and when they succeed, in most cases the story above is repeated once again. Those who do not succeed or make an attempt slowly learn to love what they do. It is during MBA that I personally meet them. It leaves my my heart rending. 

What could we do to avoid this colossal waste of human talent and spirit who gets beaten early on and then colossal waste of talent who finds itself on the wrong boat. Should we sit like industry which as long as it get manpower it only looks for short term fixes of training centers in Mysore and other vocational trainings? Should we wait for leadership like Paul Polman who at Unilever has stopped giving quarterly results and has stopped giving earning guidance to focus on long term things?

What do we fix? Should we rethink grounds up?

1. Fix our School Education.

Lets start from very beginning. Ours is a system devised by one Lord Macaulay for creating clerks for the British Raj. We have not yet come out of it. One has to read Kautilya, Froebel, Rossouw, Margaret McMillan, Bertrand Russell and Maria Montessori to know what the school system should be. 

It can be done with better goal such as "Every child should be employable right after 12th standard". It is not a pipe dream. It happens in Scandinavia, US, China, Australia, Israel and many countries where most students are able to join economic systems right after their secondary/ high school. It means that school education has to be both knowledge and skill based not just knowledge based which currently it is because it is expected to meet an objective outside its purview and mandate (read point 2 below). This expectation results in lot of unnecessary somersaults (smart class, iPads, and what not) which makes them look ludicrous to parents and inscrutable to children.

After taking this unnecessary and unreal yoke off its back, we need to scale our school infrastructure. We need a visionary and uncompromising leadership to create public schools like that of Dwight Eisenhower's roads, when he realized that public roads are essentials for growth and security of the nation and economic well being of people, he went after creatingInterstate Road System between 1953-1961. 

This probably is the only way to make "Make in India" a reality.

2. Scrap JEE

A very renowned professor with PhD and enormous number of publications remarked to me that  JEE is a wrong test (incidentally the year he made this remark to me, his son was in a coaching class preparing for JEE). The level of Physics, Chemistry and Math it tests, should be used to possibly give admissions to CERN in Switzerland or pure science programs not to relatively humble technology institutes which are supposed to produce engineers for industry and not fundamental science whizkids. 

JEE is a relic from past. Its a symbol of command and control model of economy and handles admissions same way. It is from the days where connectivity and information was hard to come by. It is unnecessarily centralized solution where there is no central problem. The damage it ends up creating is enormous and disgusting i.e. 2 % winners and 98 % losers. The systemic branding of a child at a tender age of 16-18 as loser is downright evil and grossly insensitive. In parallel, it ends up creating distortion in the preceding schooling system at least in middle and secondary school systems.

We only need a simple standardized aptitude test which guarantees nothing and evidence of interest and effort through school education for selection to individual IITs. Let's ask it this way, if Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Delft and several others can individually get approximately 800 students each and every year and at the same time produce technocrats loved by Industry, why can not individual IITs? The decentralization create more distributed opportunity for more number of applicants with no single point of failure and stigma. IIT administrators love JEE because it helps them to hide behind the brand of JEE and talent it secures them. JEE has given them so much comfort that among 5 oldest IITs, only IIT Kharagpur bothers to market itself with "Why choose IIT Kharagpur", whereas IITBHU website does not even work.

3. Make Higher Education broad based 

Why should we all be engineers and sometime doctors? Why do we need engineering colleges at every nook and corner of every tier I and tier II city? Are we not doing well in media, television and films? Are we not doing well in tourism and need to do better? Are we not doing well in fashion and apparel and need to do better? Are we not writing better literature and Indian authors making a mark worldwide? Why should these things be only for those who are aware and conscientious about them in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata? I think we need to broadbase higher education across different fields through institutions such as NIFTs, NLUs and others but we need to do more. We need to do better in journalism, art, history, anthropology, psychology and several other fields. This can be done only by first doing 2 and in parallel 1 above so that our children across nation are more aware about themselves during school days and then can choose appropriately in higher education.

 (Author 's view are personal)

Highlights:

*There are several such towns now, Kota remains most famous among them. JEE stands for Joint Entrance Exam. 

** Some children start from 9th grade meaning 4 years of IIT coaching. Some start at 10th grade meaning 3 years of IIT coaching.

*** IIT - Indian Institute of Technology

^    NIT - National Institute of Technology

514 - China rising, India falling: IITs are an illustrative example of the dumbing down of Indian universities - TNN Blogs

China rising, India falling: IITs are an illustrative example of the dumbing down of Indian universities

January 6, 2015, 12:00 AM IST Asit K Biswas in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page, India | TOI

Last September, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, gave me an honorary Doctor of Science degree. When the honour was conferred President Pranab Mukherjee, in his capacity as visitor to the institute, lamented that no Indian university is now ranked among the top 200 in the world even though historically the country had excellent educational universities like Takshashila and Nalanda.

President Mukherjee’s contention raises two serious issues. First, how relevant are university ranking processes and do these give a fair indication of the quality and appropriateness of education in a rapidly changing world? Second, should Indian universities be concerned that not even one is in the top 200?

There are now three ranking systems. The oldest one is Academic Ranking of World Universities, popularly known as Shanghai rankings because it was started by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003. It is updated biannually.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World Education Ranking started in 2004 in collaboration with Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). In 2010 QS went its own way with its own ranking methodology whose citation data base is provided by Thomson Reuters. The three ranking systems provide different results because criteria used as well as their relative weights differ. Many of the criteria are subjective and dependent on views of stakeholders sampled. With different stakeholders, the results could be very different.

To be ranked, universities have to continually fill up numerous surveys from the three ranking organisations. How reliable is self-reporting when results have high stakes as there are considerable economic and reputational consequences?

University rankings have become an important tool to attract high-quality staff, good students and serious funding. For administrators, politicians, government officials, funding agencies and media, rankings are important. Thus, temptation to manipulate data is quite significant. Providing regular global rankings data have become a fiercely competitive, lucrative and booming market. The way rankings are done at present, the roles of poachers and gamekeepers have become blurred.

No matter how the three ranking systems are assessed, they do not consider how good or relevant teaching quality is. Sadly, there is no indication that the system is likely to change in the near future because universities that rank within the first 200 simply refuse to provide such information. Not surprisingly, they would like to maintain the status quo since it serves their agenda well.

From my perspective, even though not a single Indian university is within the Global 200, i am not overtly worried about this fact so long as they can provide quality education to prepare the students for a rapidly changing world. Sadly, this is not happening.

The country made a good beginning as early as September 1944 when it was announced that an ‘Indian MIT’ would be set up. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, was conceived in the image of MIT and started functioning in 1951. When i joined this institution as a student, in 1954, it truly had an all-India character, with the best faculty and students available. When the second IIT was established in Kanpur a large number of faculty left Kharagpur, including M S Muthana who became director of IIT Kanpur. Over the years, as the number of IITs proliferated, these have become provincial institutions.

Until recently, admissions to IITs were strictly on the basis of quality. IITs became a respected global brand because they selected students who were the best in India. With the proliferation of IITs and quota system for admission, the overall quality of future IIT graduates is bound to decline.

Sadly, for political expediency, India does not have a single MIT as in the United States, but at least 21 IITs in the foreseeable future. Not surprisingly, in 2014, early results showed that during the first phase only 9,061 of 9,711 seats were filled. There is still high demand for the first five IITs (Kharagpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai) but not for the newer ones.

This is also reflected in quality and retention of staff. Overall, in IITs nearly 30% of faculty positions cannot be filled because of lack of quality staff. Indian politicians, for the sake of short-term gains, have killed the goose that laid golden eggs!

Compare this with Chinese policy. In 1998, the Chinese government decided to support only nine of their 2,000 universities to become world class. The results have been truly spectacular. China is now supporting a few universities at a much higher level so that these become globally some of the best. This does not mean research and teaching facilities are not supported at other universities but only that the elite universities are supported at a much higher level. Other countries like Germany have followed similarly successful policies. Current Indian policies are unlikely to produce world-class universities.

Irrespective of whether any Indian university is ranked within the first 200 of the world, the quality of education has to be improved significantly so that graduates receive the skills they need for employment. If India wants to have elite global universities it has to select a few that have the necessary potential and comparative advantage, then support them consistently over the long term with higher funding and less bureaucratic intervention.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

513 - Kakodkar model rejected by IIT directors

Kakodkar model rejected by IIT directors

23 September 2013 

IIT directors are against Anil Kakodkar's model that seeks to reduce the IITs' reliance on government funding

IIT directors are against Anil Kakodkar's recommendations and have told the HRD ministry that such a model will "strongly constrain the future growth of the IITs". Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar's model suggests that IITs' reliance on government funding must be curtailed.While this may assure greater financial autonomy to IIT’s, the directors do not seem to agree

The IIT directors have pointed out that IITs are not just about teaching but are "strategic assets of the nation". They thus summed up their desire to remain funded by the government. This matter will be taken up at the IIT council meeting in September 16. The IIT directors have spoken on the Kakodakar Committee's recommendations on governance, autonomy and finances saying that "the proposed model is not consistent with the funding pattern of any reputed public research university". "

The IITs reiterated that in order to attain an international profile there will be massive expenditure. Expenses will rise from the current rate and this gap must be filled by the Government and not student fees and overheads.

The changes that the Kakodkar Committee desires will extend greater financial autonomy to IITs. The committee’s counsel was put forward at the IIT council meeting in January this year. The IIT directors had asked for time to form a consensus on the recommendations.

The IIT directors' note makes their stand clear while stating "It may be noted that no reputed public research university in the world is financially self-sustaining and in most cases the universities are considerably subsidised by public funds ... IITs cannot progress without such government support. It is suggested that IITs may be treated as strategic assets of the nation, rather than just teaching institutes, since the institutes do much more than education,".

The IIT directors have put their weight behind their old proposal to fund an IIT's operational expenses based on a Block Grant Scheme with the amount proportionate to the number of students enrolled. They gave the examples of public funded varsities like the National University of Singapore and Beijing's Tsinghua University which have improved due to their mode of financial support.

512 - Admission policy unchanged as IITs reject govt proposal - DNA

Admission policy unchanged as IITs reject govt proposal

Monday, Aug 26, 2013, 7:58 IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA

Ritika Chopra  

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have shot down the government’s proposal to consider changes in the admission rules for next year.

On Sunday, the country’s premier engineering schools, at a meeting of its Joint Admissions Board (JAB) — the top admissions body of the IITs — decided that they will not entertain any proposal for change in the top-20-percentile eligibility criterion for the moment. In other words, the admission norms and the paper pattern of JEE – Advance will remain the same next year.

As per the percentile criterion, which was introduced just this year, an aspirant can be eligible for admission to an IIT if one, in addition to having qualified JEE-Advance, is among the top 20 percentile candidates of one’s respective school board results.

HRD ministry’s suggestion for a review of this criterion came at a meeting called by HRD minister MM Pallam Raju in the second week of August after 79 aspirants were denied admission to the IITs despite getting initial offer as they did not meet the percentile cut-off marks of their respective schools boards.
Many of such aggrieved students were from Andhra Pradesh, who had cleared the entrance test but missed the 92% cut-off marks of Andhra Boards results by just one per cent.

The government’s proposal suggested that the top-20-percentile criterion could carry a rider from next year that a candidate who has cleared JEE-Advance will be eligible for admission if he/she is either in the top 20 percentile of the Class XII board examination or has secured at least 80% in the Boards exams, which ever is lower.

But the IITs, which have always been skeptical of government intervention and protective of their autonomy, have shot down the idea. “Officials and directors felt that we can’t decide to change an admission criterion without proper analysis. If some (school) boards are very liberal in marking their students, then what can we do?,”said a senior IIT official, who was present during the JAB meeting, referring to southern state boards where students tend to score very high marks. “We must complete at least two admission cycles before considering any changes,” he added.

511 - More seats = dilution?

More seats = dilution?

While there have been many statements about the dilution of the brand value of the coveted Indian Institutes of Technology due to increase in number, on the other hand the country needs more such institutions to elevate India’s higher education situation. Where can one find the balance?

Choose the correct option:  

1. If we have something that’s really nice, we should make some more, so that everyone has a chance to get that nice thing. 

2. If we have something that’s really nice, we should not have more of it, since the more you will have, the lesser will be the value. 

Confused?

Well, in this case, the ‘nice thing’ we are talking about is education at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Since the initial five institutes were not sufficient to provide great education to the burgeoning population, many more were set up, so that a higher number of students would have the opportunity to get an education at the coveted IITs. Since then, all the new institutes have been offered is flak.

The latest comment comes from Anand Kumar, director of the famous Patna-based Super 30 programme, which offers free coaching to 30 economically disadvantaged students to crack the IIT entrance exams. According to him, the IITs are losing brand value with the continued increase in number of institutes and seats. Well, one must think that Kumar has a point, since the success of his venture can be estimated by the information that all of his students got selected to IIT programmes consecutively from 2008 to 2011.

While IITians like Mohit Goel, who runs the famous Yukti Education Services for training for the IIT entrance opine that there is such a phase of preferential treatment towards the existing IITs, it is a temporary one, and the degree will still be sought after. “The situation is such that it creates a sort of hierarchy among the IITs itself. 

Aspirants prefer the five existing institutes to the new ones. Once Guwahati and Roorkee started doing well, they joined the ranks of the older institutes and the new ones are the ‘less preferred ones. The rankings of the established ones are always very high and it will be a Herculean task for the new ones to catch up quickly,” he says. Goel adds that “once an IITian, always an IITian, so there is no question of losing brand value!

IIT aspirant Neeraj Bhagat is of the opinion that if any great organisation fears dilution of brand value, there would be no branches set up! Among educational institutions, he cites the examples of INSEAD, a world renowned management institute, which started with a campus in France, but now has campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. “Why shouldn’t the government think of the aspirations of the increasing student population and cater to the needs by setting up new campuses? It gives a student a better chance to score a seat to a good education,” he says.

Considering the admission ratios, there is no way that any of the IITs will see a shortage of applicants. It is just a matter of time that the new institutes catch up. Says IITian Kedar Shiroor “This gives many more smart people the opportunity to graduate from an IIT. With the market growing by the day and brain drain becoming less of an issue, more IITs will help improve the quality of education.” He leaves us with a bit of food for thought: “With our growing population, why have only a few premier engineering schools for the worry of losing brand value?”

510 - IIT JEE success skewed in favour of urban, high-income students

IIT JEE success skewed in favour of urban, high-income students

Mihika Basu : Mumbai, Thu Aug 08 2013, 04:21 hrs

Studetns from urban areas, higher-income families and those with access to coaching enjoyed significantly greater success in the 2012 joint entrance examination (JEE) for IITs, reveals a detailed internal analysis by the institutes.

The candidates who registered for JEE, as well as those who qualified, were concentrated in a few big cities. In fact, more than half the candidates who qualified came from just 11 cities. Of the 5,06,484 students registered for JEE in 2012, 24,112 qualified.

Among qualified candidates in all categories, the success rate (compared to the total who registered) was 5.8 per cent for city students, 4.2 per cent for those from towns and 2.7 per cent for those from villages. An analysis of the success ratio of those who took admission shows city students at 3.99 per cent, followed by 2.31 per cent from towns and a meagre 1.27 per cent from villages.

If general category alone were considered, the figures for those offered admission were 61 per cent for cities, 27 per cent for towns and 12 per cent for villages. "Overall, city candidates did better as against 51 per cent (of the) registration they could get 61 per cent of the total admission offers," the internal report by the IITs says.

In income levels, those falling in the highest income slab, or over Rs 4.5 lakh a year, showed the highest success ratio at 10.3 per cent, all categories considered. This fell progressively with income. Students in the middle income age group — Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh — had a success ratio of 4.8 per cent and those from families earning less than Rs 1 lakh had a success ratio of a meagre 2.6 per cent. That, however, can be explained to some extent by the fact that almost 85 per cent of those who registered belonged to the middle and lower income categories.

In fact, among all the categories, general category candidates from the highest income group had the highest success rate. While 81.49 per cent of this category students, with parental income above Rs 4.5 lakh, qualified JEE last year, 38.01 per cent with parental income less than Rs 1 lakh qualified.

Incidentally, parents' occupation too appeared to have had an impact on a candidate's performance. "Candidates whose parents are in medical and engineering professions performed slightly better than other candidates. Candidates whose parents are in agriculture or in defence services have not been able to perform as well as the others," the report says.

One in five registered students took extra help, most probably some sort of coaching, says the report, but they made up about half of the successful candidates. "More than two-fold increase in their success rate over other students, who only did self-study, is a clear indication of the effect of extra help (probably professional coaching). Further analysis also supports this assertion. While self-study students can hold their own in zones like Bombay and Madras and to a slightly lesser extent in Delhi, they could not perform well in Guwahati, Kanpur, Roorkee and Kharagpur zones. It hints at availability of better conditions of self-study in Bombay, Madras and Delhi zones," the report says.

The much-debated new JEE Main and JEE Advanced tests were aimed at reducing multiplicity of entrance tests and restricting coaching centres' hold on the system.

The trend is similar across various categories. In the IITs, 27 per cent seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs, non-creamy layer), 15 per cent for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

If 35.24 per cent and 11.43 per cent of the OBC candidates from cities and towns respectively got admission in IITs last year, a meagre 3.07 per cent who did so came from villages. Even among SC candidates, the figures tilt towards those from urban areas — 12.96 per cent from cities and 9.66 per cent from towns got admission as compared to 5 per cent from villages.

Among ST candidates, only 2.59 per cent from villages managed to get into the IITs, as compared to 8.43 per cent from cities and 4.04 per cent from towns.

Among boards, general candidates seemed to prefer CBSE. About two-third of all registrations and three-fourth of qualified candidates studied CBSE. "OBCs on the other hand seem to prefer state boards as they make up more than one-third of registered as well as qualified candidates from the state boards. The respective numbers for them in CBSE drops to about one-fifth. SC and STs do not show any major change in shares in both the boards," the report says.

Among income slabs, the difference is not so significant when it comes to SC candidates — 11.35 per cent students with parental income above Rs 4.5 lakh qualified as compared to 17.56 per cent with parental income less than Rs 1 lakh.

Among OBC category candidates from the non-creamy layer (NCL), there is a deviation from the general trend. Around 4.64 per cent candidates with parental income above Rs 4.5 lakh, 22.97 per cent with parental income between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh, and 38.01 per cent with income below Rs 1 lakh qualified the test.

"The proportion of OBC (NCL) candidates, whose parental income is below 1 lakh, relative to those with income between 1 and 4.5 lakh, is disproportionately high compared to all the other categories," the report says.

509 - Won't change our stand, IIT-Delhi director says - TOI

Won't change our stand, IIT-Delhi director says

Akshaya Mukul, TNN Jul 25, 2013, 07.02AM IST

TOI's Akshaya Mukul spoke to R V Shevgaonkar, director, IIT-Delhi . 

Excerpts:

Did the JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced) serve the purpose of a single entrance examination?

IITs never agreed to a single entrance test. All along, ours was a different system from AIEEE. We've always maintained that logical reasoning can't be tested through an objective test but through subjective questions. We did not want to mix Class XII results with the JEE (Advanced) score. So, we agreed to give weightage only to the top 20 percentile of each board. Intellect is equally distributed and the Class XII marks reflect board marks only, not intellect.

Seventy-nine students who could've got IIT seats have been turned away because the Boards got the 20 percentile calculations wrong. What went wrong?

There is a mistake in understanding . The Boards did the calculation voluntarily. On top of that, they calculated it on the basis of those who appeared instead of those who passed the Class XII examination . Right from the beginning , the JEE website has been saying 20 percentile has to be on the basis of those who passed the test. So we had to recalculate.

What happens to students who have lost out?

It is unfortunate. But nothing can be done now.

You met with the HRD minister also on this.

Yes. But we'll not change our stand. If we do anything now it'd be seen as being subjective.

Do we see any changes from next year?

We can look into the 20 percentile criterion as well as number of students who can appear for JEE (Advanced).

What about single exam?

Personally, I think it would not work. The example being given is of SAT/GRE. But these tests are about score, not ranking . In an entrance examination , ranking is everything.

508 - IIT (Ab)Normalization: How they got it wrong - TOI

IIT (Ab)Normalization: How they got it wrong

Akshaya Mukul, TNN | Jul 25, 2013, 06.57 AM IST

Since June, it’s been chaos. The single exam dream went awry. Students couldn’t crack the normalization formula till the JEE (Main) scores came.

Kapil Sibal wanted his stint as HRD minister to be memorable. He wanted to leave behind an enduring legacy. He proposed sweeping changes in the education system. 

In the nearly three-and-half years he was at the helm, the most effective change he undertook was confined to examinations: The CBSE Class X board examination was made optional. Then, after lengthy deliberations, a single examination for engineering was mooted.

Students, who spent their summers taking one entrance test after another, lapped up the idea. By putting the emphasis on the Class XII results, the government wanted to restrict the coaching centres' hold on the system. But there were enough detractors too.

States, though supportive, weren't willing to yield ground. Only Gujarat and Nagaland agreed. Haryana and Uttarakhand were already part of the earlier All India Engineering Entrance Examination and went along. The IITs, fearing a drop in quality, weren't keen to be integrated with a larger system. A complicated normalization process was devised to bring all boards on a par. The idea was to factor in Class XII result with JEE (Main) scores for admissions to NITs and central government technical institutes.

The IITs still had their say. Only 1.5 lakh of those who cleared JEE (Main) could take JEE (Advanced) for IIT admissions . Of these, only 1.2 lakh finally appeared. A high JEE (Advanced) score wasn't enough for an IIT seat. The extra factor was the stress on the Class XII result. A student had to be in the top 20 percentile of his/her Board result. Instead of a single examination, a complicated two-tier system was created in a rush.

Since June, it's been chaos. The single exam dream went awry. Students couldn't crack the normalization formula till the JEE (Main) scores came. Those with high JEE (Main) marks and reasonably high Class XII scores - by today's standard 90% isn't a good enough Boards score - found their ranks had slipped. Litigations began.

Go to Original Article to see Graphics and Tables

The 20 percentile factor became contentious because Boards got their calculations wrong. They calculated it on the basis of total students who had taken the state's Class XII exams, whereas it had to be on the basis of the number of students who had passed. Many like Nishant (see interview) suffered . Cut-off percentages jumped, especially in Andhra Pradesh, barring 79 students from a possible IIT seat. IITDelhi director R V Shevgaonkar said the Boards overstepped their brief. "It's unfortunate but nothing can be done."

CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said the confusion was because it was the first year. Stress on Boards marks had thrown up interesting results, he added. "Preliminary analysis of data reveals this year NITs will have a bigger representation of women and those from rural and semi-rural backgrounds ." The new system should continue . "But genuine concerns should be addressed."

Joshi hopes from next year more states would join in. Joshi's eventual dream: A single examination that can be taken more than once in a year to improve scores.

Shevgaonkar, though not critical of normalization, favours IITs having their own entrance test. But the confusion and tears of students being brushed aside as teething problems could have been avoided with transparency and deliberation.

507 - JEE changes made in a hurry: IITs - Business Standard

Kalpana Pathak & M Saraswathy  |  Mumbai  July 17, 2013 Last Updated at 21:50 IST

JEE changes made in a hurry: IITs

IIT alumni association to protest demanding restoration of the original examination system

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is yet to decide on reviewing the changes in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) joint entrance examination (JEE), but the IITs have given their verdict - the changes have been brought about in a hurry and have complicated the examination.

"We had been, since the beginning, suggesting this new pattern should be implemented from 2014, but to no avail. Though incorporating board marks for admission to IITs is a good move, the new format was implemented in a hurry, without much thought," said Gautam Barua, director, IIT-Guwahati.

"The new IIT JEE has complicated the entire admission process," said Devang Khakhar, director, IIT-Bombay.

Last year, then MHRD minister Kapil Sibal had cleared the proposal to hold the JEE in two parts-main and advanced. Students applying to the IITs have to appear for JEE-main. Of these students, only the top 1,50,000 are eligible for JEE-advanced. For final admission to the 16 IITs, based on JEE-advanced, a student has to be among the top 20 percentile in his respective standard-XII board.

While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts JEE-main, JEE-advanced is conducted by IIT-Delhi.

Coaching institutes have said the new process of normalisation has made it difficult for deserving students to qualify. The director of a Kota-based coaching institute said, "If a student from Tripura who secured 58 per cent marks in board exams is selected, while one from Andhra Pradesh with 80 per cent isn't, there could be flaws in the system."

"We need to discuss with Indian Statistical Institute (which had prepared the formula for normalisation) experts how real is the issue and whether it a problem on a larger scale. Only after such an analysis can any change be proposed in the process," said a senior IIT official.

Meanwhile, members of the IIT alumni associations are set to go on an agitation later this month to protest against the new system. Somnath Bharti, ex-president of IIT-Delhi Alumni Association and a Supreme Court lawyer, said the matter was sub judice. "We are looking at engaging directly with ministry officials on this issue. It is very unfortunate that these issues have cropped up," he said.

MHRD officials said the Andhra Pradesh government had taken up the issue in a high court.


'State boards interpreted 20% rule differently'
At a meeting between Human Resource Development Minister Pallam Raju and IIT officials on Wednesday, it was said in the case of the new JEE norms, while the IITs had meant the 20 percentile rule was applicable for students clearing JEE-advanced, state boards had taken it as applicable to 20 per cent of the students appearing for JEE-main.

"The method of calculation of the top 20 percentile had been clearly stated by us from day one. Therefore, we presented this to the minister…we wouldn't make any change to it. However, state boards used a different formula for normalisation and this resulted in the confusion," said a senior IIT official who attended the meeting. It was also decided IITs would draw up a list of students affected by the new rule and hold another meeting to address the issue.

WHAT IS NORMALISATION?

Normalisation, as used in the Indian context, is a process for ensuring students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the difficulty of exams they do for the Boards. This process is used in other countries with similar issues as in India

Normalisation process requires one to know the following

Percentile score: Percentile score of a candidate in a Board or JEE (Main) will reflect what percentage of candidates have scored below that candidate in that Board or JEE (Main) Examination

A percentile score is the value of below which a certain per cent of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20 per cent of the observations may be found

Example: Suppose we have 13,711 candidates in a Board, and a candidate who's score is 60% of Board marks has 6,865 candidates below him; his percentile score will be calculated as follows

Percentile score for 60% of Board marks: 6,865/13,711 x 100

506 - Govt accepts discrepancy in IIT admission process

Govt accepts discrepancy in IIT admission process

Many state boards did not calculate the 20 percentile according to the formula prescribed by IIT-Delhi

Prashant K. Nanda 

First Published: Wed, Jul 17 2013. 11 56 PM IST

IIT-Delhi is the organizing IIT for the JEE Advanced, the second part of the two-tier common engineering admission test. 

Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

The central government said on Wednesday that discrepancies in admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were due to a miscalculation by various school boards.

Human resource development (HRD)minister M. M. Pallam Raju said after a review meeting with senior officials of the ministry and IITs that many state boards didn’t calculate the 20 percentile according to the formula prescribed by IIT-Delhi, the organizing IIT for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced, the second part of the two-tier common engineering admission test.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen to these students, some of whom have filed cases in various courts across the country.

On 12 July, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings in a case related to this in the Andhra Pradesh high court and said it would hear the matter.

While IIT-Delhi had said the percentile should be based on the number of students passing the school-leaving examination, several boards including that of Andhra Pradesh based it on the number of students who appeared for the board examination, Raju told reporters.

Raju said he doesn’t have the exact numbers for the students who missed out due to this.

The IITs said they excluded 79 students who did not make the cut despite holding top ranks in the JEE Advanced. The Madras zone that includes Andhra Pradesh, had 35 affected students, followed by 19 from Kharagpur zone and 14 from Kanpur zone.

“We have gone by the rule. It was clear from last year that the percentile will be calculated on successful candidates of respective boards. The percentile calculation was supposed to be done by the COBSE (Council of Boards of School Education) but several boards calculated it on their own,” said H.C. Gupta, the professor in-charge of the JEE-Advanced.

Gupta said most boards had miscalculated the percentile, indicating that the number of aggrieved students could rise.

He said Andhra Pradesh was the first to issue the percentile cut off.

Out of a total 530 marks in the Class 12 board exam, the top 20 percentile cut off was set at 476 marks for the general category. This should have been 487, he said.

Raju said that a related controversy over the normalization of different school boards for admission to all central government-funded engineering schools except IITs could not be discussed on Wednesday as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman was travelling to attend a court case.

CBSE was in charge of the normalization process for admission to 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other top schools.

Scores of parents and aggrieved students have approached high courts and the Supreme Court to stay the admission process based on the normalization, saying that at least 25,000 students have missed out on admission to top engineering schools.

The Supreme Court said last week that admission to engineering schools would be subject to its eventual ruling on a petition challenging the process, but refused to stay the admissions.

CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi could not be reached despite several calls to his mobile phone but an HRD ministry official said the government is in favour of clubbing all the cases, related to normalization as well as admission to the IITs, to be heard in the Supreme Court.

The official, who did not want to be named, also said that Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had reached out to Raju on the issue.