Monday, September 28, 2015

John Chambers of Cisco & chairman-elect of USIBC and PM Narendra Modi speeches at Digital India meet in California, USA

Last updated on 29th Sept. 2015

Here's the video of the event held on 26th Sept. 2015, PM Modi attends Digital India and Digital Technology Dinner in San Jose, California, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4krn8K2JWMs, 1 hr 13 min

The first main speaker was John Chambers of Cisco. John Chambers is a really big man in tech. world. So I felt it appropriate to give some info. about him. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chambers_(CEO):
John Thomas Chambers (born August 23, 1949) is the executive chairman and former CEO of Cisco Systems.
...
After obtaining his MBA, Chambers began his career in technology sales at IBM 1976–1983 when he was 27 years old. In 1983, when he was 34 years old he moved to Wang Laboratories. There, he became the vice president of U.S. Operations in 1987. Wang had gone from a $2 billion profit in 1989 to a $700 million loss in 1990. In 1991,when he was 42 years old he left Wang and joined Cisco in 1991.
...
Since January 1995, when he was 46 years old he assumed the role of CEO [Ravi: in Cisco], the company has grown from $70 million in annual revenues to its current run-rate of approximately $46 billion.

[Ravi: Fascinating that Chambers was with Wang Labs. (based then in Lowell, MA, USA) from 1983 to 1991, as I have spent two stints totalling over one and a half years at Wang Labs, Lowell, MA, USA in the mid to late 80s. So I may even have seen Chambers then, say in the parking lot or in the elevator! As I was a consultant/contractor from an Indian software company (Datamatics Ltd., SEEPZ, Mumbai), I was interacting only with the technical staff in the dept. I was associated with, and not the sales and mktg. guys or the top guys.

Chambers writes about how IBM and Wang missed the bus when mainframe and minicomputer technology wave(respectively) moved to minicomputer and PC technology (respectively), in this article in Harvard Business Review of May 2015, "Cisco’s CEO on Staying Ahead of Technology Shifts", https://hbr.org/2015/05/ciscos-ceo-on-staying-ahead-of-technology-shifts. A small quote from the article, "From IBM, I went to Wang, where I had the chance to work with An Wang, the company’s founder and the most brilliant man I’ve ever met. He invented key parts of the computer industry and built a large, very successful company. The most important thing I learned during my time at IBM and Wang is that even great companies are imperiled if they miss a market transition—and I saw both of them miss important ones."]
--- end wiki extracts ---

Transcript of John Chambers speech in the video :

[Ravi: Note that John Chambers has been recently elected to serve as Chairman of the US-India Business Council, http://www.usibc.com/press-release/cisco-executive-chairman-john-chambers-elected-chairman-us-india-business-council.]

From 8:54: Prime Minister Modi, all of us in the audience cannot be more proud that you are with us tonight. You are an amazing ambassador for your country and what's possible in the world. And by being in our country, showing what's possible between our countries, showing what's possible between businesses in India and the US and now in Silicon Valley as every company becomes a technology or digital company, you send a message to the world on what's possible. I was asked to talk about the network or the Internet. My parents were doctors and they taught me early on in life, education was the equalizer in life but you had to be in the right country, the right state, the right city to really be able to benefit the full opportunity it gave you. The Internet existed twenty years ago. We said the Internet now is the second equalizer in life. And it suddenly began to break down the barriers, not perfectly, but in large facet, has had more impact on businesses and government than any technology advancement that we have ever done.

And now we are on the cusp of what we call - you can call it the next generation of the Internet. You can call it digitization. You can call it the Internet of Everything. But as technology combines with process change with innovation, it truly for the first time has the potential to change the world.

I was deeply honoured when I was asked to be chairman of the United States - India Business Council. And while I was tremendously humbled by that, my first reaction was, is this what I want to do at this point in my life. And then I thought how wrong that was. Because what we do at Cisco, while we are a far from perfect company, we get transitions right. And there are three huge transitions going on in the world at the present time. The first is one that really this technology that will enable every company to be a technology company in ways that (many) of my peers may probably talk about tonight. The second is the business model and the skill sets needed for this new economy are changing at tremendous speed and you have to be able to change education in a country, you have to be able to adjust the business models, the regulations which allow that to occur. And the third, whether its in a city or company or country, you have to have a visionary leader who surrounds himself with a team that can execute with tremendous speed. When I thought about that, to be a small part of that as chairman of US India Business council, that was something that I could not resist. Because I (would be able?) to change the world, change India. [Applause]

For those of you who are doubters and say this is a vision and it won't happen, I want you to go back to the information age. which really occurred from 1990 to 2010. And president Clinton, even though he came from a different political party than mine, he envisioned a strategy than can change a country and (then the world) and during his eight years of leadership, 22 million jobs, 18 percent growth in GDP, 17 percent growth in real per capita income by the average person in America. [Applause]

This will be an instant replay except it will be 5 to 10 times the size. And its the exact same principles, the way you drive it through. Our (cut) on this just 5 years ago was 19 trillion dollars. [Ravi: Did not get that. What was 19 trillion dollars? Their expected size of this (instant replay) business?] The size of the US economy in a decade. [Ravi: Did not get this either. US economy currently is 17 to 18 trillion USD] That's 1 to 3 percent growth of every country in the world GDP wise on-going for a decade. But it now looks like that number is going to be too conservative.

And when you travel around the world, as Prime Minister you have the vision of many of your peers, when you talk to Chancellor Merkel in Germany or Cameron in the UK or Hollande in France or Renzi in Italy, the leaders, they all understand that every country has the potential to grow 1 to 3 percent GDP. They have the chance to generate a large number of jobs, (for the) first time for them to be inclusive jobs for everyone in the country regardless of age or geographic location. It would change health care and education in a way we are just beginning to (dream?). It would usher in a new generation of startups and capabilities that truly will make an innovating India and an innovating world. It would be able to do so at the same time (as) addressing the challenges such as our environment. And so now you see a race for who is going to move the fastest. Who is going to have the courage to move with that type of capability. And the willingness not just to do the technology which will be the easy part, but the process and organization and structure changes to do the innovation.

If you look to the Prime Minister's vision and you begin to think what is possible in terms of what I just talked about, it is amazing how quickly that can occur. Now I will say something that will make a lot of (businesses) in this room uncomfortable. Whether you are in the US or India or Europe, forty percent of us won't be around in ten years. This is a period (where) you better disrupt or you will be disrupted. To companies regardless of size or countries. And you have got to have the courage to go the ... bumps along the way.

So when you look at Prime Minister Modi's vision of a digital India, (a) manufacturing in India using this inflection point that is occurring, what we do very well at Cisco, see that inflection point occur, and you compete not against other countries or other companies, you compete against your ability to innovate. And the ability to skill in India not a million jobs a year but a million jobs (...) the middle of a month.

Think about how this gives you the vehicle with digital manufacturing .... to make in India. A hundred smart cities, two hundred and forty thousand villages - [Ravi: looking at PM Modi] your vision, I believe, will happen. It takes a country and a leader that has the courage to do that. It also takes, going back to my opening comments - you have to get the market transitions ...... right. This digital age is now upon us. So the technology transition is there.

Second, you have to see the business models and the skills that employees need to participate in this new economy. So it doesn't depend upon which city you are in, or which state or which country. And then you have got to have a charismatic leader who has the courage to make the changes, who knows (the times that we) second guess, (and) is willing to disrupt or be disrupted. And you take those tremendous ideas in a simplistic way and bring it to life.

Its an honour, Mr. Prime Minister, for you to be here, in Silicon Valley. ... USIBC will be there for you, Silicon Valley will be there for you. Indeed United States and India will be very strong together because of your leadership. Thank you.

--------- end John Chambers address --------

The addresses of the other main US Tech CEOs (Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm and Sundar Pichai of Google) were also interesting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech transcript is available here: https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2015/09/pm-modi-speech-at-digital-india-event.html.

I have given selected extracts from that speech below:

From computing to communication, entertainment to education, from printing documents to printing products, and, now to internet of things, it's been a long journey in a short time.
...
The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education, language and income. I like recounting my meeting with a group of unlettered tribal women in a remote part of Gujarat. They were present at a local milk chilling plant I was inaugurating. They were using cell phones to take photographs of the event. I asked them what they would do with the images. The answer was a surprise for me.

They said,they would go back, have the images downloaded on to a computer and take printouts. Yes, they were familiar with the language of our digital world.

And, farmers in Maharashtra State have created a Whatsapp group to share information on farming practices.

Customers, more than creators, are defining the use of a product. The world may be driven by the same ancient impulses. We will continue to see human struggles and successes. We will witness human glory and tragedies.

But, in this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of people in ways that was hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago.

This is what sets us apart from the century that we have just left behind. There may be still some who see the digital economy as the tool of the rich, educated and the privileged. But, ask the taxi driver or the corner vendor in India what he has gained from his cell phone, and the debate gets settled. I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity. Social media is reducing social barriers. It connects people on the strength of human values, not identities.
...
When you think of the exponential speed and scale of expansion of social media or a service, you have to believe that it is equally possible to rapidly transform the lives of those who have long stood on the margins of hope. So friends out of this conviction was born the vision of Digital India.

It is an enterprise for India's transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history. Not just to touch the lives of the weakest, farthest and the poorest citizen of India, but change the way our nation will live and work.

For nothing else will do in a country with 800 million youth under the age of 35 years, impatient for change and eager to achieve it.

We will transform governance, making it more transparent, accountable, accessible and participative. I spoke of E-Governance as a foundation of better governance – efficient, economical and effective.

I now speak of M-Governance or mobile governance. That is the way to go in a country with one billion cell phones and use of smart phones growing at high double digit rates. It has the potential to make development a truly inclusive and comprehensive mass movement. It puts governance within everyone's reach.
...
But for all this, we must bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy in the same way that we seek to ensure general literacy.

We must ensure that technology is accessible, affordable, and adds value.

We want our 1.25 billion citizens to be digitally connected. We already have broadband usage across India go up by 63% last year. We need to accelerate this further.

We have launched an aggressive expansion of the National Optical Fibre Network that will take broadband to our 600,000 villages. We will connect all schools and colleges with broadband. Building I-ways are as important as highways.

We are expanding our public Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, we want to ensure that free Wi Fi is not only there in airport lounges, but also on our railway platforms. Teaming up with Google, we will cover 500 railway stations in a short time.

We are also setting up Common Service Centres in villages and towns. We will also use information technology to build smart cities.

And, we want to turn our villages into smart economic hubs and connect our farmers better to markets and makes them less vulnerable to the whims of weather.

For me, access also means that content should be in local languages. In a country with 22 official languages, it is a formidable, but an important task.

Affordability of products and services is critical for our success. There are many dimensions to this. We will promote manufacture of quality and affordable products in India. That is part of our vision of Make in India, Digital India and Design in India.

As our economy and our lives get more wired, we are also giving the highest importance to data privacy and security, intellectual property rights and cyber security.
...
The task is huge; the challenges are many. But, we also know that we will not reach new destinations without taking new roads.

Much of India that we dream of is yet to be built. So we have the opportunity to shape its path now.

And, we have the talent, enterprise and skills to succeed.

We also have the strength of the partnership between India and the United States.

Indians and Americans have worked together to shape the knowledge economy. They have made us aware of the vast potential of technology.

From large corporate to young professionals in this great centre of innovation, each can be part of the Digital India story.

The sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be a major force of good for our world and our planet.

Today, we speak of India-U.S. partnership as a defining partnership of this century. It hinges on two major reasons. Both converge here in California.

We all know that the dynamic Asia Pacific Region will shape the course of this century. And, India and the United States, the world's two largest democracies, are located at the two ends of this region.

We have the responsibility to shape a future of peace, stability and prosperity in this region.

Our relationship is also defined by the power of youth, technology and innovation. These can ignite a partnership that will advance and sustain prosperity in our two countries.

Even more, in this Digital Age, we can draw on the strength of our values and partnership to shape a better and more sustainable future for the world.

Thank you.
--- end extracts from PM Modi speech transcript ---
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update on 29th Sept. 2015.
Saw an interesting article dated June 2015, about a meeting in New Delhi between Cisco's John Chambers and then incoming CEO (and now CEO, I guess) Chuck Robbins, and Indian PM Narendra Modi, "Modi is among the top 5 leaders I have met, says Cisco’s John Chambers", http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/modi-is-among-the-top-5-leaders-i-have-met-says-ciscos-john-chambers/article7333862.ece.

The articles quotes John Chambers as saying, in reference to Indian PM Narendra Modi:
"He has the courage to put together a vision, strategy and execution plan for a Digital India that we identify with."
and
"He has the rare characteristic for a political leader, to think like a businessman with operational skills. The only one I have seen who thinks like him is President Clinton."

[I thank Wikipedia, John Chambers, Harvard Business Review, Indian PM Narendra Modi, The Hindu Business Line and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts (very small extracts from Harvard Business Review and The Hindu Business Line) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

PM Modi speech at Digital India event, California, USA on 26th Sept. 2015

Last updated on 29th Sept. 2015

The transcript of this speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is copy-pasted from the entry in http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=3, for Month of Sept., 2015, and titled "Text of Speech by Prime Minister At the Digital India Dinner 26 September 2015, San Jose, California (26-September 2015)"

Text of Speech by Prime Minister At the Digital India Dinner 26 September 2015, San Jose, California

Thank you, Shantanu, John, Satya, Paul, Sunder, and Venkatesh

A big thank you!

I am sure this was not pre-arranged. But, here on stage you see a perfect picture of India-U.S. partnership in the digital economy.

Good Evening, everyone!

If there was ever a gathering under one roof that could claim to be shaping the world, it is this. And, I am not talking about those in public office, here or in India! It’s a great pleasure to be here in California. It is one of the last places in the world to see the sun set. But, it is here that new ideas see the first light of the day.

It’s a great honour that you have joined us tonight. I have met many of you in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

These are the new neighborhoods of our new world.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous one and the most connected.

Google today has made teachers less awe-inspiring and grandparents more idle. Twitter has turned everyone into a reporter. The traffic lights that need to work the best are on CISCO routers.

The status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline. The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows.

From computing to communication, entertainment to education, from printing documents to printing products, and, now to internet of things, it's been a long journey in a short time.

From cleaner energy to better healthcare and safer transport, everything is converging around the work you do.

In Africa, it's helping people transfer money on phone. It has made reaching small island states no longer a journey of adventure, but a convenient click of a mouse.

In India, a mother in a distant hill village has a better chance to save her new born infant. A child in a remote village has better access to education.

A small farmer is more confident about his land holding and getting better market price. A fisherman on the sea has a better catch. And, a young professional in San Francisco can Skype daily to comfort her sick grandmother in India.

An initiative by a father in Haryana for "Selfie with daughter" to draw attention to the girl child became an international movement.

All this is because of the work you people are doing. Since my government came to office last year, we have attacked poverty by using the power of networks and mobile phones to launch a new era of empowerment and inclusion: 180 million new bank accounts in a few months; direct transfer of benefits to the poor; funds for the unbanked; insurance within the reach of the poorest; and, pension for the sunset years for all.

By using Space technology and internet, we have been able to identify in the last few months 170 applications that will make governance better and development faster.

When a small craftsman in a village in India brings a smile to a customer looking at his phone on a metro ride in New York; When a heart patient in a remote hospital in Kyrgyz Republic is treated by doctors sitting in Delhi, as I saw in Bishkek, we know we are creating something that has fundamentally changed our lives.

The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education, language and income. I like recounting my meeting with a group of unlettered tribal women in a remote part of Gujarat. They were present at a local milk chilling plant I was inaugurating. They were using cell phones to take photographs of the event. I asked them what they would do with the images. The answer was a surprise for me.

They said,they would go back, have the images downloaded on to a computer and take printouts. Yes, they were familiar with the language of our digital world.

And, farmers in Maharashtra State have created a Whatsapp group to share information on farming practices.

Customers, more than creators, are defining the use of a product. The world may be driven by the same ancient impulses. We will continue to see human struggles and successes. We will witness human glory and tragedies.

But, in this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of people in ways that was hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago.

This is what sets us apart from the century that we have just left behind. There may be still some who see the digital economy as the tool of the rich, educated and the privileged. But, ask the taxi driver or the corner vendor in India what he has gained from his cell phone, and the debate gets settled. I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity. Social media is reducing social barriers. It connects people on the strength of human values, not identities.

Today, technology is advancing citizen empowerment and democracy that once drew their strength from Constitutions. Technology is forcing governments to deal with massive volume of data and generate responses, not in 24 hours but in 24 minutes.

When you think of the exponential speed and scale of expansion of social media or a service, you have to believe that it is equally possible to rapidly transform the lives of those who have long stood on the margins of hope. So, friends out of this conviction was born the vision of Digital India.

It is an enterprise for India's transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history. Not just to touch the lives of the weakest, farthest and the poorest citizen of India, but change the way our nation will live and work.

For nothing else will do in a country with 800 million youth under the age of 35 years, impatient for change and eager to achieve it.

We will transform governance, making it more transparent, accountable, accessible and participative. I spoke of E-Governance as a foundation of better governance – efficient, economical and effective.

I now speak of M-Governance or mobile governance. That is the way to go in a country with one billion cell phones and use of smart phones growing at high double digit rates. It has the potential to make development a truly inclusive and comprehensive mass movement. It puts governance within everyone's reach.

After MyGov.in, I have just launched the Narendra Modi Mobile App. They are helping me stay in close touch with people. I learn a great deal from their suggestions and complaints.

We want to free our citizens from the burden of excessive paper documents in every office. We want paperless transactions. We will set up a digital locker for every citizen to store personal documents that can be shared across departments.

We have set up Ebiz portal to make approvals for businesses and citizens easy and efficient so that they concentrate their energy on their goals, not on government processes.

We are using technology to impart scale and speed to development.

Information, education, skills, healthcare, livelihood, financial inclusion, small and village enterprises, opportunities for women, conservation of natural resources, distributed clean energy – entirely new possibilities have emerged to change the development model.

But for all this, we must bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy in the same way that we seek to ensure general literacy.

We must ensure that technology is accessible, affordable, and adds value.

We want our 1.25 billion citizens to be digitally connected. We already have broadband usage across India go up by 63% last year. We need to accelerate this further.

We have launched an aggressive expansion of the National Optical Fibre Network that will take broadband to our 600,000 villages. We will connect all schools and colleges with broadband. Building I-ways are as important as highways.

We are expanding our public Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, we want to ensure that free Wi Fi is not only there in airport lounges, but also on our railway platforms. Teaming up with Google, we will cover 500 railway stations in a short time.

We are also setting up Common Service Centres in villages and towns. We will also use information technology to build smart cities.

And, we want to turn our villages into smart economic hubs and connect our farmers better to markets and makes them less vulnerable to the whims of weather.

For me, access also means that content should be in local languages. In a country with 22 official languages, it is a formidable, but an important task.

Affordability of products and services is critical for our success. There are many dimensions to this. We will promote manufacture of quality and affordable products in India. That is part of our vision of Make in India, Digital India and Design in India.

As our economy and our lives get more wired, we are also giving the highest importance to data privacy and security, intellectual property rights and cyber security.

And,I know to achieve the vision of Digital India, the government must also start thinking a bit like you.

So, from creating infrastructure to services, from manufacture of products to human resource development, from support governments to enabling citizens and promoting digital literacy, Digital India is a vast cyber world of opportunities for you.

The task is huge; the challenges are many. But, we also know that we will not reach new destinations without taking new roads.

Much of India that we dream of is yet to be built. So, we have the opportunity to shape its path now.

And, we have the talent, enterprise and skills to succeed.

We also have the strength of the partnership between India and the United States.

Indians and Americans have worked together to shape the knowledge economy. They have made us aware of the vast potential of technology.

From large corporate to young professionals in this great centre of innovation, each can be part of the Digital India story.

The sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be a major force of good for our world and our planet.

Today, we speak of India-U.S. partnership as a defining partnership of this century. It hinges on two major reasons. Both converge here in California.

We all know that the dynamic Asia Pacific Region will shape the course of this century. And, India and the United States, the world's two largest democracies, are located at the two ends of this region.

We have the responsibility to shape a future of peace, stability and prosperity in this region.

Our relationship is also defined by the power of youth, technology and innovation. These can ignite a partnership that will advance and sustain prosperity in our two countries.

Even more, in this Digital Age, we can draw on the strength of our values and partnership to shape a better and more sustainable future for the world.

Thank you.

***

[I thank Indian PM Narendra Modi and the PMO, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their associate Indian govt. dept. website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

How MHRD (& DIRECTOR IIT) disposed of my "Serious Systemic Problems in Indian CS IT Academia" grievance dated Nov. 2011, DOING NOTHING REALLY

I had put up my complaint as a grievance in Nov. 2011 at the following portal, http://pgportal.gov.in/, whose description is as follows:
PORTAL FOR PUBLIC GRIEVANCES, Brought to you by Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Government of India

I received an email (and SMS) today (15th Sept. 2015) that my grievance has been DISPOSED. The status of the grievance could be checked at the portal by (mainly) giving the registration number. [No login is required; so anybody can do it.] I have given below the Grievance Status. [BTW MHRD stands for (Union/Federal) Ministry of Human Resource Development, http://mhrd.gov.in/, which is the main ministry handling education policy and public (tax payer) funds disbursement to UGC/AICTE and other such institutions which disburse it to suitable educational institutions across the country.]

Registration Number : DSEHE/E/2011/01988
Name Of Complainant : Ravi S. Iyer
Date of Receipt : 10 Nov 2011
Received by : Department of Higher Education
Forwarded to : DIRECTOR IIT
Contact Address : ROOM NO 516 C
                                        SHASTRI BHWAN
                                        NEW DELHI110001
Contact Number : 23073241
Grievance Description : Dear sir/madam, I had sent a mail on Oct. 28th 2011 to Hon'ble ministers, MHRD and others on "Serious Systemic Problems in Indian CS IT Academia" (see attached document) but have not received any response so far. I have written another post on the issue with some concrete suggestions for a solution, entitled "CS IT Academia: How To Relieve Suffering of Students, Parents and Employers" here: http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/11/cs-it-academia-suffering-students.html I would be very happy to receive some acknowledgement of receipt of this grievance suggested solution, and your esteemed ministry's views on the matter. I also offer my services, in case your esteemed ministry is interested, in a part-time, free Seva capacity to help arrive at some solution to this serious problem for the entire country. Regards Ravi Iyer Software Consultant Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh e-mail: ravi@raviiyer.org web: raviiyer.org - Individual Capacity, Not-For-Profit Effort Service to Society is Service to God
Current Status : CASE CLOSED
Date of Action : 15 Sep 2015
Details : The matter does not pertain to MHRD. Even otherwise it is not a grievance.

--The following were provided by me (Ravi S. Iyer) today (15th Sept. 2015) on the status page --
Feedback Rating: Poor [Lowest rating]
Feedback comments: [The website accepted the comments below but does not show it on the status window. It does show the above feedback rating though. Also note that a lakh is an Indian term for one hundred thousand. So 'lakhs of students' means 'hundreds of thousands of students'.]

As explained in the doc. attached to my grievance (and available on the net here: http://eklavyasai.blogspot.in/2011/09/cs-it-academia-serious-systemic.html), "The unfortunate reality of the vast number of CS & IT departments of universities & colleges in the country is that the Professors of these departments are strong in theory and research publications but not so strong in practical areas like Software Design and Programming or Coding. Naturally the students graduating out of CS & IT academia also end up having somewhat strong theoretical and research-oriented skills but being weak in Software Design and Programming."

The doc. also explains that AICTE/UGC policies do NOT encourage CS/IT academics to know programming well, and that these policies need to be changed. Further, as explained in the same document, MHRD is the govt. agency that gives TAX PAYER money to AICTE/UGC, and so MHRD is answerable to the Indian public for AICTE/UGC policy failures affecting lakhs of students & parents in the country.

So I completely disagree with MHRD's reasons for closing this grievance. Not only is my grievance a valid grievance, it also pertains to MHRD.

The grievance status states that it was forwarded to DIRECTOR IIT. What response did MHRD get from him/her? Why has that response not been shared on this status? Is the DIRECTOR IIT not answerable or accountable for AICTE/UGC policies that he/she may have been instrumental in formulating, and that affects the lives of lakhs of students & parents in the country?
--- end Feedback comments ---
=====================================

I sent the above blog post contents as an email to the Hon'ble minister for Human Resources Development, Smt. Smriti Irani (on 15th Sept. 2015).

Friday, September 11, 2015

Suggestion to Committee on attracting and retaining talented and quality manpower in Teaching Profession

Based on this notice in the UGC website, http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5390499_quality-teaching-profession.pdf, I sent today (11th Sept. 2015) the following email to the person mentioned in the notice, "Dr. Sunita Siwach, Deputy Secretary, UGC" <ssiwach.ugc@nic.in>:

Proforma to invite suggestions/views for consideration of Committee constituted by the Central Government to examine issues related to attracting and retaining talented and quality manpower in the Teaching profession

Name and Address of the Stakeholder: Ravi S. Iyer, ---snip---

E-mail address: ---snip---

Name of the vice-chancellor of institution: NIL; I am writing as a software consultant who is currently not associated with any university or industry company.

Tel. No.: ---snip---

My Suggestion:
Related to skill development in technical higher education in fields like Computer Science and Information Technology, in my view, these are the problems and suggested solutions:

a) Lab. courses which are meant to provide skills are not given much importance.

Solution: Do strict evaluation of lab. courses, failing students where necessary. Ensure career growth incentive for lab. course teaching faculty.

b) Industry experience is not given much value by UGC/AICTE recruitment and promotion norms.

Solution: Improve practical skills level of teaching faculty in technical higher education by making it easy for experienced and accomplished industry professionals to move to academia on regular academic pay scale and designation.

c) In general, I am given to understand that in medicine the teaching faculty are themselves practitioners of medicine in "teaching hospitals". However, in technical fields like Computer Science and Information Technology, typically the teacher is not a practitioner of the field! So then how can the practical skills be taught properly to students?

Solution: Strongly encourage via career growth incentives, teaching faculty in technical higher education to be practitioners of the associated field. Measures of their competence as a practitioner can be evolved over time, based on artifacts/prototypes/products developed by the teaching faculty which should be peer-reviewed to ensure good quality output and rejection of poor quality/fraudulent output. Specifically, in the Computer Science and Information Technology field, a software contribution record can be used as a measure of competence of the teaching faculty in the practice of software development.
--- end suggestion ----

For more you may please visit my blog: Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.in/ [24th Sept. 2020 Use https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/ ]

Thanks & Regards

Ravi S. Iyer
Blogger on spirituality & religion and retired software consultant, Puttaparthi, India

Spiritual/Religious Websites/Blogs
* About Sri Sathya Sai Baba and more: ravisiyer.blogspot.com
* God & science conversation and a little more: iami1.wordpress.com/god-and-science-toc

Software Websites/Blogs
* Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism: eklavyasai.blogspot.in/p/table-of-contents.html [24th Sept. 2020 Use eklavyasai.blogspot.com/p/table-of-contents.html ]
* Course material related to computer programming (software lab.) courses: raviiyerteaches.wordpress.com

e-mail:   ---snip---
Twitter:  twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer
Google+:  google.com/+RaviSIyerSai
Facebook: facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7

Service to Society is Service to God

Friday, February 20, 2015

My suggestions related to skill development in Indian higher education on mygov.in discussions on New Education Policy

First, I would like to state my privacy and ethics policy on sharing publicly, matter related to mygov.in discussions.
a) I am free to put up on my blog for public viewing, the comments I make on mygov.in.
b) I should not and will not share any content of mygov.in portal that is private to logged in users and that is not contributed by me [unless I seek and get specific permission, which I don't think I will have any occasion to do so.]
c) I am free to put up links to content of mygov.in website which are accessible to the public
--- end privacy and ethics policy on sharing publicly mygov.in discussions ---

What is the New Education Policy that the Indian central (federal) government is working on, and is inviting participation from concerned Indian citizens like students, parents and teachers? This link gives a good idea: http://mygov.in/new-education-policy-group.html. A short extract from it:

The National Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. Since then several changes have taken place that calls for a revision of the Policy. The Government of India would like to bring out a National Education Policy to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regards to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry.

--- end extract ---

Related to skill development in higher education I made the following suggestions (split into multiple posts due to post size limitations; I chose not to upload a pdf file) on the mygov.in portal (slightly edited):

In technical higher education like Computer Science and Information Technology, in my view, these are the problems and suggested solutions:

a) Lab. courses which are meant to provide skills are not given much importance. Students are not examined strictly (it is rare for students to be failed in lab. courses), and so they tend to take it easy with lab. courses. Further, faculty are not given any career growth incentive for teaching lab. courses well. So lab. courses are usually dumped on junior faculty.

Solution: Do strict evaluation of lab. courses, failing students where necessary. Ensure career growth incentive for lab. course teaching faculty.

b) Industry experience is not given much value by UGC/AICTE recruitment and promotion norms. So industry experienced persons do not have much incentive to move from industry to academia as teaching faculty. Non-industry-experienced academics in fields like Computer Science and Information Technology usually lack thorough knowledge of practical side of the field.

Solution: Improve practical skills level of teaching faculty in technical higher education by making it easy for experienced and accomplished industry professionals to move to academia on regular academic pay scale and designation.

c) In general, I am given to understand that in medicine the teaching faculty are themselves practitioners of medicine in "teaching hospitals". However, in technical fields like Computer Science and Information Technology, typically the teacher is not a practitioner of the field! So then how can the practical skills be taught properly to students?

Solution: Strongly encourage via career growth incentives, teaching faculty in technical higher education to be practitioners of the associated field. Measures of their competence as a practitioner can be evolved over time, based on artifacts/prototypes/products developed by the teaching faculty which should be peer-reviewed to ensure good quality output and rejection of poor quality/fraudulent output. Specifically, in the Computer Science and Information Technology field, a software contribution record can be used as a measure of competence of the teaching faculty in the practice of software development.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Dangers of pro-MATLAB-research and anti-software-development Computer Science higher education policy

[Please note that some of the content of this post may have been already written in earlier post(s). However, I have now felt it appropriate to label an extreme higher education policy as anti-software-development. So that is new in this post.]
It seems to me that some Indian Computer Science department(s) which do not have campus recruitment by software companies, have adopted a rather extreme policy where they have become almost anti software development as that takes too much time & effort to teach properly, and, very importantly, Indian top-level academic administration policy as well as academic institution accreditation processes do not reward or appreciate good teaching of software development practice. Instead, the rewards and recognition, both for individual faculty and the department, are for research publications. So some CS department(s) seem to have opted to strongly encourage students to use MATLAB script programming in their project work as that will help in quick results which in turn will facilitate a student-faculty research paper publication from the student's project work.

If the student concerned is strong in regular (general purpose, object-oriented) programming languages like C++, Java or C#, then he/she using MATLAB script programming for some part of the project work may be OK. But if the student is weak in regular programming language skills then the project work is the ideal opportunity for the student to do all programming work in these regular programming languages, thereby strengthening his/her regular programming language skills. Very unfortunately, it seems to me that in some Indian CS department(s) many students are misguided to produce quick research results using MATLAB script programming, without any concern about their weakness in regular programming language skills.

But what about the software lab. courses where regular programming languages are taught? Do those teachers not do a good job? Well, the big problem, it seems to me, is that teaching lab. courses in those sections of Indian CS & IT academia where campus recruitment by software companies does not take place, is a thankless and very poorly paid job. So most career-growth-oriented as well as senior faculty avoid teaching lab. courses and focus on more respected (in Indian academia) theory courses and research work. Lab. courses get neglected and are dumped onto junior faculty or even support staff like system administrators/technical staff. And, the senior academic administrators, knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to this mess by having lab. courses evaluation being either an internal evaluation done by the teacher himself/herself or, even if external evaluation is involved, the evaluation being very generous and easy to score. Students being failed in software lab. courses is almost unheard of in most of Indian CS & IT academia, I believe.

I don't think I would be wrong if I term such education policies as anti-software-development.

Who suffers most with such education policies? It is those students who after finishing their bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science or Information Technology, seek a challenging and well paying job in the software industry. Their weakness in software development can be exposed by an experienced technical interviewer in less than half an hour (sometimes just a few minutes) of technical questioning.

How can this situation be corrected? Some suggestions:
1) The anti-software-development education policy of some Indian CS department(s) must be abandoned. Students must be encouraged to do software development using regular programming languages like C++, Java and C#.

2) Software lab. course teachers should be knowledgeable about programming and should be well paid. If knowledgeable teachers are not available among existing teaching staff then industry experienced persons should be recruited as well paid visiting faculty or regular faculty if their educational qualifications meet UGC/AICTE (Indian top-level academic regulatory bodies) criteria.

3) Students should be advised that a research publication is NOT a necessary requirement for their bachelor's or master's project work. [Please note that most masters students in CS/IT in India seem to come from a non-CS/IT bachelor degree background, and so may not be proficient in programming when they start their masters in CS/IT studies.] Students should be further advised that if they are not confident about their software development (programming, design etc.) skills then it is better for them to do a project involving a lot of software development without any research component. Please note that Masters degree by research is an exception as the title of the degree itself states that it is a research oriented degree.

4) Faculty should be actively discouraged from 'strongly encouraging' students to take up research problems for their (bachelors' and masters') project work. It should be left to the students' informed choice. Ideally, students who are already proficient in software development should be advised (but not 'strongly encouraged') to take up research problems in their project work so that they get exposure to the vital field of CS & IT research.

Those educational institutions where campus recruitment by software companies is a vital selling point to attract students, will have to pay much more attention to software lab. courses as their campus recruitment results will get negatively affected if they neglect software lab. courses. So the picture may be dramatically different in such Indian academic institutions.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Wonderful to see Bill Gates get civilian award (Padma Bhushan) from India

I think Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft) was the first software techie business guy to make a huge fortune. That he and his wife, Melinda Gates, have used a significant part of that fortune for social work benefiting the poor of India and other countries, has been very heartening for a software techie like me who saw the rise & rise of Microsoft in the late 80s and 90s. I am very happy to see that India has honoured this, perhaps first software-fortune-philanthropist, and his wife, with the Padma Bhushan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Bhushan, for the social work they have done in India, http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-india-honours-bill-gates-with-civilian-award-2055859.

From http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Policy/Regional-Offices/Our-Work-in-India (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website):
"We began our work in India a decade ago with an initiative to curtail the spread of HIV. Since then, the scope of our work in India has expanded tremendously to include maternal and child health, health and nutrition services, vaccines and routine immunization, family planning, agricultural development, sanitation, and the control of infectious diseases."

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Indian science congress: Unacceptable to give Hindu scriptural accounts mentioning planes as scientific evidence without prototypes

I was passed on the following link by a correspondent:
Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago — and other startling claims at the Science Congress, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/04/indians-invented-planes-7000-years-ago-and-other-startling-claims-at-the-science-congress/

Here's another related link: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/at-science-congress-vedic-aeroplanes-and-virus-proof-suits/. An extract from it:

The abstract of the Bodas-Jadhav paper says: “Aviation technology in ancient India is not a tale of mythology, but it is a total historical document giving technical details and specifications. Ancient Sanskrit literature is full of descriptions of flying machines, Vimanas.
“From the many documents found, it is evident that the scientist-sages Agastya and Bharadwaja had developed the lore of aircraft construction. Aeronautics or Vaimaanikashastra is a part of Yantra Sarvasva of Bharadwaja. This is also known as Brihadvimaana Shastra. Vaimaanikashastra deals with aeronautics, including the design of aircraft, the way they can be used for transportation and other applications, in detail.”

--- end indianexpress.com article extract ---

My two bits :-).

If the presenter was so sure of his claim why did he not make a prototype of such a plane using the Hindu scripture he quotes, and demonstrate that prototype at the science congress. Without such a working prototype/model, it seems to me that the "technical details and specifications" provided in the referenced Hindu scripture, is not scientifically validated.

It is a different matter for somebody to have belief in such Hindu scripture - that is belief not science. [BTW I should also mention that I believe that at least some of the accounts in Hindu scripture of flying vehicles (e.g. Pushpak Vimana in Ramayana) and sacred-mantra-powered weapons of phenomenal destructive power (e.g. Brahmastra), are true. But that is my belief (based on revelations from my spiritual master). I cannot expect science to accept such Hindu scripture as scientific evidence of the existence of these ancient technological feats.]

About Narendra Modi believing in Ganesha (elephant headed God) and mentioning that in a non-science meet: in my view, that is his personal belief and he is entitled to it even if he is PM. But he should not mention such things in a science meet where he is an honoured guest or give them as directions to Indian scientists. [BTW I think Modi's opening address at the science congress was quite non-controversial.] Anything that is mentioned in a science congress, even by a politician-minister, should be in line with science.

About Harsh Vardhan's (Indian science minister's) claim regarding India having discovered the Pythagorean theorem before the Greeks, it seems that there may be some basis to it. See what Shashi Tharoor has written in support of Vardhan's claim: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/miscellaneous/now-congress-shashi-tharoor-supports-bjps-harsh-vardhan-over-ancient-indias-claim-to-algebra-pythagoras-theorem/25951/. I guess for this matter, if Hindu scripture does have that theorem or equivalent in some shlokas (verses), and the scripture can be dated to before Pythagoras, then there will be ground for making such a claim. But as I don't know the details I can't take a definite stand on this.

--- end two bits ---

A (USA based) correspondent responded (and was OK with me sharing the response publicly):

Mixing science, religion, politics, and nationalism is not  good. I read about Pythagoras and algebra. It is well known and consistently acknowledged that the early inspiration to mathematics came to the Greeks from the East - both Sumeria and Egypt (are) mentioned. The Greeks, however, didn't just stick to formulas (that worked), but developed the proof and a systematic approach to proving things. That's the key to science. That, and the "discovery" of the experiment by Galileo are key foundations of the modern world.

--- end correspondent response ---

I wrote back to the correspondent:

I think some Indians (and few non-Indians too) are of the view that Sumeria, Egypt etc. got it from India!

A correspondent shared the St. Andrews University Scotland, History of Mathematics link, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Projects/Pearce/Chapters/Ch4_2.html. An extract from it:

The later Sulba-sutras represent the 'traditional' material along with further related elaboration of Vedic mathematics. The Sulba-sutras have been dated from around 800-200 BC, and further to the expansion of topics in the Vedangas, contain a number of significant developments.
These include first 'use' of irrational numbers, quadratic equations of the form a x2 = c and ax2 + bx = c, unarguable evidence of the use of Pythagoras theorem and Pythagorean triples, predating Pythagoras (c 572 - 497 BC), and evidence of a number of geometrical proofs. This is of great interest as proof is a concept thought to be completely lacking in Indian mathematics.

--- end extract and response to correspondent ---

The correspondent wrote back:

Quite possible, but I have no knowledge about that and neither did the Greeks (as far as I know). [Ravi: 'that' meaning Sumeria, Egypt etc. getting early inspiration for mathematics from India.]

There is also the possibility of independent invention and of discoveries that (were) never transmitted to future generations or other cultures.
Discoveries that are not shared become sterile.

--- end correspondent response extract ---

I think this article, Neglect of knowledge traditions, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-openpage/neglect-of-knowledge-traditions/article6752699.ece, dated Jan. 4th 2015 by Michel Danino, author of books on ancient India and a guest professor at Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, seems to be quite a balanced one on ancient Indian knowledge traditions (safer phrase than science as the word science today means something pretty different from simply knowledge).

Saturday, January 3, 2015

PM Narendra Modi's speech at the Indian Science Congress: Some tweets

Hon'ble Prime Minster of India, Shri Narendra Modi, gave a speech at the Indian Science Congress at the University of Mumbai today, 3rd Jan. 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Narendra-ModiMumbai-University-Indian-Science-Congress/articleshow/45739555.cms.

Some tweets from @PMOIndia from that speech that I found to be interesting:

To me, the arms of science, technology and innovation must reach the poorest, the remotest and the most vulnerable person: PM @narendramodi, https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/551243553465053184

A nation's progress and its human development are linked to science and technology: PM @narendramodi at the Indian Science Congress, https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/551241587074666497

Science and technology has helped reduce poverty and advance prosperity: PM @narendramodi at Indian Science Congress, https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/551241412188962816

Science may be the product of human brain. But, it is also driven by the compassion of human heart –the desire to make human life better: PM, https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/551241210099429376

I feel humbled by the work that scientists do. And, I find science and technology an invaluable ally in governance and development: PM, https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/551240947892494336