My May 2012 service record & record tampering related correspondence with Sai university (SSSIHL) administrators

19th April 2020: Readers may please visit my updated post here:  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-may-2012-service-record-record.html .

About me not being Ph.D. and yet teaching lab. courses and being tech. consultant in the Sai university in the past

Last update: 2nd Jul. 2020 

Note: This post is copy-pasted from http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2016/08/about-me-not-being-phd-and-yet-teaching.html on 20th August 2016. Last update was copy-pasted/done on 2nd Sept. 2016.

In the context of some recent posts of mine where I shared some nasty (verbal) attacks on me including one attack about me not being Ph.D., on Facebook, I thought some readers who are not knowledgeable about Indian Computer Science academia may wonder why I was teaching lab. courses in the Sai university though I am not a Ph.D. in Computer Science or otherwise educationally qualified in Computer Science. So I thought of putting up this post explaining the situation.

Well, I did not join Sai university/SSSIHL for an academic career. I retired from commercial work in Aug. 2002 and came to Puttaparthi in Oct. 2002 with an objective of focusing on my "spiritual career" at Prasanthi Nilayam/Puttaparthi if Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was willing to accept me for such a role. To cut a long story short, in January 2003 my offer to provide FREE SERVICE to Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science in the Sai university, SSSIHL was accepted, based on my industry experience of 18 years in international software industry (and not based on my educational qualification). Note that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, Late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, and Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, which is what others and I are using for the main social media conversations on this matter (verbal attack on me, and my reaction/defence), all three of these iconic software industry figures did not complete their graduation (forget about PhD). So I am more qualified than them educationally as I am a graduate!!! What matters is their industry achievements/experience. Academia is not the only place one can learn software development. The software industry is a superb place to learn and practise software development, perhaps far better than Indian Computer Science academia as it is now.

Educational qualification wise, I am B.Sc. (Physics) from Bombay University (passed out in 1983). I had joined M.Sc. (Physics) in Bombay University but due to money problems decided to drop out of my M.Sc. after around six months. A few months after dropping out of M.Sc., in March 1984 I was into the software industry as a trainee programmer in my first software company, Datamatics, Mumbai. My biodata can be viewed here: https://ravisiyer.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/202002-ravisiyerbiodata.pdf, and details about my software industry experience can be viewed here: https://ravisiyer.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/raviiyerindustryworkexperience.pdf.

At the time I joined SSSIHL I had no demands whatsoever about designation. But I think the official designations provided by Principal, Prasanthi Nilayam campus, SSSIHL to me of Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty over my nine year stint, were fair. Later, as I studied UGC norms for such matters, I realized that the right designation for me from UGC norms point of view would be "Visiting Faculty". [In fact, in Prasanthi Nilayam campus, they used to use a term "Regular Visiting Faculty" to describe people like me who were staff doing teaching function (for FREE typically) for the whole academic year, to differentiate us from other Visiting Faculty who would visit the university for a few weeks in a year, typically (for FREE).]

Now, I could have chosen to do Computer Science research and publish academic papers on it, which would have made me PhD equivalent in Computer Science (5 published papers of certain degree of standing is considered equivalent to Ph.D. as per UGC norms, if I recall correctly). As part of my Seva, I used to act as technical consultant for M.Tech. projects and have published two papers as a co-author along with the student and another Visiting Faculty from the USA who was a regular academic Professor. I did that work only to help the student and the department (as it counts towards the department research profile).

If I wanted to publish these 5 papers to meet UGC requirement mentioned above for PhD equivalence, I surely could have done it. Please excuse me about blowing my own bugle, but I have to say that it would not have been a problem for me at all. But I had NOT come to Puttaparthi for an academic career in Computer Science! I had come for a "spiritual career". So I consciously chose not to spend time on doing Computer Science academic research and publishing papers in it (except in the above mentioned two cases to help the students & dept.) My expertise was on software development side - implementation side. I preferred to limit myself to that role which was perfectly OK for my role of teaching software development lab. courses and being technical consultant on software development aspects of M.Tech. (Computer Science) projects.

My main interest in using my spare time after my teaching and technical consultant FREE SERVICE in the Sai university, was in spirituality & religion. I preferred to do a lot of reading in that area instead of doing Computer Science research. I think I have read far more books from the Sai university Prasanthi Nilayam campus library on spirituality & religion, than I have read books from that library on Computer Science or any other subject/field!!!

Very unfortunately, the Sai university did not have, at the time I was associated with it (2003-2012), any dept of religion or comparative religion or even philosophy. If so, I would have really enjoyed interacting with the faculty of such a department.

Readers may also want to read my blog post, Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.in/2011/09/is-phd-in-csit-necessarily-good-teacher.html, dated Sept. 2011.

Given below is a pic of page 1 of my file copy of the letter I gave to Bhagavan in end 2002/early 2003, requesting for Honorary Seva at Prasanthi Nilayam. Swami graciously accepted the letter during Darshan (I had to use token lines Darshan then as I was not staff) after testing me for some time and making me pray intensely to Him to accept the letter. [Update on 21st Aug. 2016: I now realize that I tried to give this letter to Bhagavan for a few days but it was not accepted. The copy of the letter that Bhagavan accepted is given in later on in this post.] [To see documents in pics below in full resolution, use mouse right-click followed by Open in new tab/window.]

Here's pic of page 2 of the letter:

And here's the format of general letter I used for formal application for Honorary Seva at various PN institutions (including Sai university) then (end 2002):

In response to a comment on associated Facebook post of mine, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1779562312260338, "Relax buddy don't stress Pls", I (Ravi) wrote:
--Name-snipped--, didn't get the stress part bro. I am sharing all this stuff as I feel that it may help other people who are in similar shoes to what I was in 2002 when I was wanting to move from regular life to ashram life. It is more of a chronicling of what happened in my journey rather than a stressed out response.
-----

Here's a small extract from an older blog post of mine that deals with Bhagavan testing me for some days before accepting my letter to him (file copy given in the first and second pic in above pics), Some people felt more connected to Shirdi Sai than Sathya Sai; Impact on followers is a big legacy of a spiritual master, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2015/07/some-people-felt-more-connected-to.html, dated July 2015.

I should also add that it was my personal experience, in late 2002 or early 2003, when I was not staff and having darshan of Swami along with the general public (in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam/Puttaparthi), that intense prayer to Swami, resulted in Swami taking special notice of me by looking at me for some time and accepting my letter even though I was seated two or three rows behind the front row. Whereas, in the earlier weeks when I was regularly attending Darshan, sometimes with a front row seat and clearly holding my letter in my folded palms for him to see, he would not only avoid taking the letter but either not look at me or just cast a passing glance at me.

My view of this experience was that earlier I was not praying hard or praying intensely to him and so, even if I was seated in the front row, he did not show much interest in me. But when I prayed intensely, Swami's heart melted and he responded to me. It was almost as if Swami was teaching me that if I wanted God to respond to my prayer, the prayer MUST BE intense and from the bottom of one's heart/being, and not casual.
--- end extract from my blog post mentioned earlier ---

Found a stapled set of papers related to my application to SSSIHL in Nov/Dec 2002 and my Seva (FREE SERVICE) being accepted officially in Jan. 2003, with informal designation as Systems Manager and formal designation as Honorary Staff. Here's the earliest (date wise) paper in that set: Copy of my application to the Vice-chancellor, SSSIHL dated 26th Nov. 2002, given to Prof. G.V. Prabhakar Rao (to be given to appropriate person in SSSIHL)

Copy of my letter to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, dated 27th Nov. 2002, seeking his blessings for the application I had made on 26th Nov. 2002 to AI laboratory, DMACS, SSSIHL.

The last two sentences of the application were, "I will consider myself extremely blessed if You accept my Seva for the AI laboratory, Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, SSSIHL. I earnestly pray to You to consider my application, and if You feel that I will be suitable for Seva there, then please grant me this opportunity of serving You."

Bhagavan accepted this letter on my intense prayer to Him to accept this letter, around November end (a few days later perhaps) according to the jotting I have made on the copy of the letter.

Copy of page 1 of application for Seva in the AI lab., DMACS, SSSIHL given to Prof. C.J.M. Rao, then Head of Department (HOD), DMACS, SSSIHL on 25th December 2002. Note that Prof. G.V. Prabahakar Rao was associated with the AI lab which was the software lab. for DMACS. He was the key person in DMACS who interviewed me and assessed my software development capability. Later I came to know that he is a PhD in Mathematics from an IIT (Madras, perhaps) who moved to the field of Computer Science from Mathematics. Prof. C.J.M. Rao, I later learned was also a PhD in Mathematics from an IIT (Madras, perhaps but am not sure) who was focused on Mathematics and did NOT associate much with the software lab. I mean, he was not viewed as having moved to Computer Science field. He was viewed primarily as a Mathematician and not a Computer scientist.

Copy of page 2 of above application

Copy of letter from Dr. A.V. Lakshminarasimhmam, Registrar of SSSIHL, dated 28th January 2003, to DMACS HOD, Prof. C.J.M. Rao, copy to Principal, Prasanthi Nilayam campus (Prof. U.S. Rao was principal of PN campus then) informing him (HOD) that he (Registrar) was directed to inform him (HOD) that he has been permitted to utilize my services. Quite bureaucratic but that's how SSSIHL Administrative block was (and perhaps still is)! The presumption was that the vice-chancellor was the person who directed the Registrar to pass this information on to the HOD (who then passed a copy of the letter to me) and principal, PN campus. BTW the vice-chancellor then, if I recall correctly, was Shri S.V. Giri (not an academic but a distinguished Indian govt. official from the IAS cadre) who later became a trustee of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. I also clearly recall being told by people in the know then (University staff) that my photo and application were shown by the vice-chancellor Shri S.V. Giri to Bhagavan (chancellor of SSSIHL then) in the interview room. I was told that Bhagavan gave his nod to accept my services in the university.

A handwritten letter by Prof. C.J.M. Rao, HOD, DMACS to me dated 29th Jan. 2003, detailing my role in AI Lab., DMACS. He wrote the designation (informal designation) as Systems Manager. He put down the initials of two staff in DMACS then, RS (Raghunatha Sarma) and BKM (B. Krishnamoorthy) and orally told me that they will assist me. The handwritten letter only has their initials. While my application to DMACS emphasised my software development expertise part, this letter emphasised the management of AI Lab. part (heavy responsibility actually) but also clearly mentioned software lab. courses and M.Tech. projects. ... In a short period of time (some months) after I started doing this role, it became clear to me that Systems Manager was a very heavy responsibility role with accountability for Assets in the AI Lab and maintenance of Asset Register and Consumable Stocks register. Such accountability surely could not be given to somebody who was not a regular employee. I mean, the vice-chancellor and other top administrative authorities would want an accountable person whom they could hold responsible for the assets of the AI lab, and not a volunteer service person like me. ... Further, in June 2003, if I recall correctly, Dr. K.S. Sridharan took over as HOD from Prof. C.J.M. Rao. I don't think Dr. Sridharan was even passed on any copy of this informal role note given to me by Prof. C.J.M. Rao. Now Dr. Sridharan had done his PhD in Electrical engineering from Anna university if I recall correctly. He had moved to the Computer Science field from the Electrical engineering field. ... Over time, Sri Raghunatha Sarma (later he got his PhD and so is now Dr. Raghunatha Sarma) ended up handling the key responsibility for the assets in the AI lab (I think he was doing that work prior to me joining AI lab). I was helping him in this task and we got along pretty well. I did not sign a single document related to Asset management in the AI lab. However, I did help Sri Raghunatha Sarma to prepare such documents, which probably got signed only by the HOD, Dr. Sridharan. I also handled some part of Systems Administration of AI lab. role jointly with other younger staff of the department as well as senior students (M.Sc. and M.Tech. students). Of course, I taught Software lab. courses and provided guidance to project work of M.Tech. (CS) students and also computer software project work of M.Sc. (Mathematics) students. ... From Jan. 2008 onwards (till March 2012 when I terminated my association with SSSIHL) I stopped doing the Systems Management role, and provided ONLY FREE SERVICE of teaching of software lab. courses and guiding project work of M.Sc. and M.Tech. students.

Copy of my letter to Principal, Prasanthi Nilayam campus (Prof. U.S. Rao) on 29th January 2003, stating, "This is to inform you that I am joining the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science as an honorary staff with effect from 29th January 2003." It also has references to two letters one of which is given above (copy of Registrar letter). I don't think I was given a copy of the other letter referred here (Letter of Prof. CJM Rao to Registrar). I don't recall the entire situation then but I think I was told by Prof. CJM Rao to write this letter and was told what the contents should be. Prof. CJM Rao would have specifically mentioned the term, "honorary staff" as that would be the formal designation that he would have wanted to be given to me by the appropriate authority, which would be the principal, PN campus, Prof. U.S. Rao. [Please note that the formal designation recommended was NOT Teaching Assistant!!!! An informal Systems Manager designation cannot be mapped to a formal Teaching Assistant designation!!!]

The pic below is the I-Card that was issued to me in Jan/Feb 2003, if I recall correctly, by Principal, PN campus, SSSIHL, Prof. U.S. Rao (my photo part of I-card is cut out from the pic as I prefer to not show my photo publicly). Note that the designation is Honorary Staff and NOT Teaching Assistant or Lab. Assistant as some Muddenahalli group promoters who are attacking me allege. [Or as Teacher-Drohis (those who do harm to teachers) former HOD DMACS, SSSIHL, --Name-Snipped-1-- and former and current Registrar, SSSIHL, --Name-Snipped-2-- alleged (Teaching Assistant).]

NO. I was NOT FIRED from the Sai university (SSSIHL)!

Readers may please visit: http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2016/08/no-i-was-not-fired-from-sai-university.html. 

Thanks a lot Yahoo! Your Internet entrepreneurship will not be forgotten for decades

Last updated on 29th July 2016

Here Is Marissa Mayer's Final Letter To Yahoo Employees, http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/07/25/here-is-marissa-mayers-final-letter-to-yahoo-employees/, dated Jul. 25th 2016

Ravi: Yahoo is bought by Verizon.

A small extract from the letter of Marissa Meyer CEO of Yahoo, given in the above article:
Yahoo is a company that changed the world.  Before Yahoo, the Internet was a government research project. Yahoo humanized and popularized the web, email, search, real-time media, and more.
--- end small extract of Yahoo CEO letter ---

Ravi: So well said.

Hmm. This is a poignant moment for software techies and computer user techies of my generation. I started out in the software world as a trainee programmer in 1984 in a company in SEEPZ, Mumbai, when Microsoft was unknown let alone Yahoo. I used to write snail mail to India when I was abroad on assignment trips!

I got my Yahoo mail id in the late 90s sometime (which I still use but as an alternate to my gmail id which is my main mail id), and was an avid user of Yahoo search! Nowadays I rarely use Yahoo search, if at all. I guess many of today's generation of Internet users may not even know of Yahoo search due to the predominance of Google search.

Besides all the wonderful freebies that Yahoo gave (mail & search), it has become legendary for the way it was able to compete with Microsoft in the Internet space, even when Microsoft was having huge cash reserves and was a big threat to almost any software company that Microsoft targeted. Techie oldies will remember how Microsoft drove Netscape out of business - they just gave away a competing browser - Internet Explorer - free and even bundled it along with their Windows OS. Netscape became history real quick!

But Yahoo proved that the Internet space was different. Microsoft could not use its massive money power and rather questionable trade practices to knock Yahoo out of business. Yahoo had made its brand well known to Internet users. Microsoft could not destroy that brand using its money power alone!!!

Thanks a lot Yahoo! Your Internet entrepreneurship will not be forgotten for decades to come. You have given a lot to the world's Internet users, and have been the inspiration for many others to contribute to the revolutionary Internet.
=======================================================================

A correspondent C wrote (and was OK with public sharing):

I had not thought about Yahoo like that. Yes, they introduced the world to mail and search that we all used and took for granted. Google then did a much better job of this and combined it with a paying advertisement stream to make it commercially successful. It was frustrating to see how leaden-footed Yahoo seemed to be in responding.

I think Yahoo took too long to shed its outdated baggage (including Jerry Yang) and reposition itself in the internet market. They took a beating in China where they even provided the government with IP addresses and other details of people using Yahoo. In the meantime, the world had changed and Google dominated much of it. Taking them head-on was not sensible, yet, with its China market gone, what alternative had Yahoo left itself?

------------------------

I (Ravi - R) responded, edited:
They were the pioneers in this area. [Ravi: That is a wrong statement. It is corrected later on in the conversation.]

Pioneering is always more difficult than following through. Their story including the visit by a venture capitalist in a fancy car to their trailer which housed the Yahoo operation then, who ended up financing them, is the stuff of legends. [http://e145.stanford.edu/upload/handouts/BYERS-YahooCase-TV4ed.pdf is a 16 page study of Yahoo in its startup days (but it does not mention the fancy car of the venture capitalist).]

Google followed up by which time I think even getting venture capital would not have been that difficult

Did you read about how Sabeer Bhatia got inspired by Yahoo guys in forcing Microsoft to pay him $400 million or something like that for hotmail? It is worth reading that account. [http://www.coltech.vnu.edu.vn/~phuonghd/htt/book/interview/02-Hotmail.pdf (14 pages) has an account of the origins of Hotmail. Sabeer Bhatia says:
Two of my colleagues from Stanford had gone on to start Yahoo, and I thought, “Wow. This is just a list, a directory which tells you what is where. And somebody put $1 million in them.” I mean, that was huge. So I thought, “This Internet thing is here to stay,” and I started playing around with it and came up with the idea to do a simple-to-install database at the back end. Then you’d use the browser as the front end.
--- end short extract ---

Ravi: So Sabeer Bhatia drew some inspiration from Yahoo and came up with some idea of his own to float as an Internet product. Note that at that time Yahoo Mail was not around (as Bhatia started Hotmail before Yahoo got on to webmail).

The article also mentions the sale of Hotmail to Microsoft for $400 million but does not mention Yahoo it that context. I do clearly recall reading an article (say around 15 years ago) where Bhatia mentions attending a seminar/lecture or something like that given by Yahoo founder(s) (David Filo and/or Jerry Yang) where he/they spoke about how brand name of Yahoo (for directory search) was something that Microsoft could not effectively compete with using just money power. If I recall correctly that made Bhatia more confident that his brand of Hotmail was what Microsoft could not wipe away so easily and therefore Bhatia was able to drive up his price of sale to Microsoft to $400 million.]
...

Google was just too good for Yahoo. Then Facebook was too good for Yahoo. The product market in the USA is horrendous. My stress levels peaked when I saw how fast USA companies were introducing image indexing software with awesome features (in a CeBIT Hanover/Hannover visit I made and what I read in trade magazines) which was leaving behind the product that our startup in SEEPZ, Mumbai (Boshu Technics Corp.) was developing for an American (Indian-American owned) customer. This was in the early 90s, perhaps 1992-93.

So I can imagine what Yahoo would have faced when competing against Google and Facebook. They could not match them and so their story came to an end. But they are still the pioneers of free webmail and free Internet search (with significant number of users) - nobody can take that away from Yahoo!,  IMHO. [Ravi: I was wrong here. Later conversation corrects it.]

------------------
Correspondent C wrote:

I think Hotmail may have been the first free e-mail service. I remember getting a message in 1996 inviting me to open an account with them and turning it down: 'who would provide something free? what will they expect in return? will my information be safe?'. (I was teaching in the UK then.)

Altavista was started a little earlier, in 1995. Much earlier was the web browser Mosaic (1992).

Of course, there was an e-mail service on Arpanet by the late 1970s. I remember using it when I was teaching at CMU [Ravi: Carnegie Mellon University, USA] in 1980-81 and feeling its absence when I returned to TIFR  [Ravi: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai] in 1981. Routing was primitive and one often had to list the intermediate points between source and destination! When one route stopped working, clever students would work out another route, often quite circuitous.

When I returned to TIFR in 1981, I persuaded the systems person at NCSDCT [Ravi: National Centre for Software Development .., Mumbai] (as it then was) to start an internal e-mail service on our DEC-10 system. He created something but it was very limited: each person could send one message and until that had been read and deleted, no more messages could go from that person! He said disc space was limited so that was the best he was going to provide. He later increased that from one message to three, each not longer than a limited number of characters. I think he just did not like the idea of an uncontrolled e-mail facility!

AOL is of course much older, first as a subscription-based dial-up service for games, then broadening out into other fields like news sites. Their free e-mail service started in 1996, probably stimulated by Hotmail and Yahoo.

So I would guess 1996 is when free public e-mail started.

-----------

Ravi responded (slightly edited):

Thanks for your detailed response which made me fact-check my pioneer statement wrt Yahoo webmail (as a significant free public webmail service).

I think you are right (about Hotmail being the first webmail product). And Hotmail seems to a joint first for non-ISP based email (webmail), along with RocketMail which was later acquired by Yahoo and perhaps made into Yahoo Mail. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook.com#Launch_of_Hotmail :

Hotmail service was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, and was one of the first webmail services on the Internet along with Four11's RocketMail (later Yahoo! Mail). It was commercially launched on July 4, 1996, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based email and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world.

--- end wiki extract ---

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Mail

Yahoo made a deal with the online communications company Four11 for co-branded white pages. Marvin Gavin, who worked at Four11 as director of international business development said, "We always had a bias about being acquired by Yahoo. They were more entrepreneurial than Microsoft. We had a great cultural fit – it made a lot of sense." The real point in acquiring Four11 was the company's Rocketmail webmail service, launched in 1997. In the end, Yahoo! acquired Four11 for $96 million. Yahoo announced the acquisition on October 8, 1997, close to the time that Yahoo! Mail was launched. Yahoo! chose acquisition rather than internal platform development because, as Healy said, "Hotmail was growing at thousands and thousands users per week. We did an analysis. For us to build, it would have taken four to six months, and by then, so many users would have taken an email account. The speed of the market was critical."
--- end wiki extract ---

Ravi: So Yahoo Mail hit the web over a year after Hotmail (and RocketMail). That clearly shows that Yahoo Mail was NOT the pioneer in webmail. I was wrong about my earlier statement.

AOL was not available in Mumbai or even India, in the mid-to-late-90s if I recall correctly. BSNL/MTNL was the service provided in Mumbai then, for both companies and homes, if I recall correctly. I came to know of Yahoo Mail first and not Hotmail. I think among my colleagues (then I was with Mastek as a consultant) Yahoo Mail was the webmail of choice. I did not know many people in my circle of contacts who used Hotmail then. I think that's why I was under the wrong impression that Yahoo Mail was a pioneer in webmail.
...
Altavista never seemed to make it big among regular users. I had used it at times but for me it was like an alternate search engine to Yahoo search.
----------------

C responded (slightly edited):

1. Altavista seemed to be the search engine of choice for a lot of people, until Google came along and they saw how superior it was.

2. Gmail started as a beta and you had to be invited to participate. Those who could join got 10-20 invitations they could send to their friends to join. Google did not accept direct applications (I know, I tried!). I don't know when it stopped being a so-called beta version.

-----------

Ravi wrote:

Yes, I too recall about Gmail beta and the need to be invited. I was offered an invitation by some young colleagues as well as senior students (M.Tech. (Comp. Sc.) students) in the Sai university (maybe in 2004/05 when I had already moved to Puttaparthi and was serving in the Sai university) who were onto it but I resisted for some time. Eventually I decided to take up an offer of an invite (I think an M.Tech. CS student passed on the invite to me) and got a gmail id. A few years down the line, that gmail id (the same one that I am using to send this mail) had become my main mail id (and the Yahoo mail id had become an alternate email id)!
-------------

[I thank Wikipedia and coltech.vnu.edu.vn, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites (small extract from coltech.vnu.edu.vn) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

List of posts of this Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism blog with autobiographical content

Minor update to change blogspot.in to blogspot.com on 24th Sept. 2020

A few weeks ago I had put up a rather hurriedly written partial autobiography kind of document; see the post, An Indian Software Techie's (My) Material and Spiritual Journey So Far (till Sept. 2002), http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/06/an-indian-software-techies-my-material.html, dated June 20th 2016.

The question that popped up was what about the period from Oct. 2002 to now. I don't know when I will get around to that. However, over the past few years I had written some blog posts with autobiographical content which included the period Oct. 2002 to now. I decided to go through the rather tedious task of going through the posts of this blog (Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism) and listing out the ones that have autobiographical content. Note that this content would typically deal with my software industry and software teacher/consultant in academia life. That list is given below. I think I have got most, maybe all, of the posts of this blog with autobiographical content as of today (13th July 2016) in this list but I cannot rule out the possibility of having missed out some.

List of posts with partial (sometimes little) or mainly autobiographical type content OR significant posts capturing my Indian CS & IT academic reform activism efforts

1) God is One, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/08/god-is-one.html, Aug. 14th, 2011 [This post was my first post-Mahasamadhi blog post, which started my serious blogging career. Prior blogging was minor stuff related to a few tech. review and info. kind of posts. So though this is a very small post, I viewed it as a kind of foundation to my blogging efforts, even at that time, if I recall correctly. Note that this is the first post of this eklavyasai/Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism blog.]

2) CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/09/cs-it-academia-serious-systemic.html, Sept. 2011 [This post was my first serious technical post on Indian CS & IT academic reform, which received fair amount of views over time - 318 views as of today, 13th July 2016. So I felt it appropriate to include it in this list.]

3) CS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/09/cs-it-chittar-comment-response.html, Sept. 2011

4) Pursuing CS/IT Research Individually - Ph.D. Possibility?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/09/pursuing-research-individually-phd.html, Sept. 2011

5) IT Finishing Schools, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/cs-it-academia-it-finishing-schools.html, oct. 2011

6) CS & IT Academia: The PhD Glass Ceiling, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/cs-it-academia-phd-glass-ceiling.html, Oct. 2011

7) CS & IT Academia: A Bureaucratic POWER structure, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/cs-it-academia-bureaucratic-power.html, Oct. 2011

8) Dennis Ritchie, a Truly Great Software Guy, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-truly-great-software-guy.html, Oct. 2011

9) A Defense of The CS/IT PhD Teacher, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/defense-of-csit-phd-teacher.html, Oct. 2011

10) Programming: Practical Solution Mindset vs. Scientific Mindset, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/programming-engineering-mindset-vs.html, Oct. 2011

11) Does a Teacher of Programming Need to Know Turing Machine?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/does-teacher-of-programming-need-to.html, Oct. 2011

12) CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2012/01/cs-it-academia-is-teaching-excellence.html, January 2012

13) Ethics Policy for Sharing Content of Mail Exchanges on This Blog, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2012/03/ethics-policy-for-sharing-content-of.html, March 2012

14) Comments on Stroustrup's paper, "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2012/03/comments-on-stroustrups-paper-software.html, March 2012

15) Google's Hybrid Research + Development Model, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2012/07/googles-hybrid-research-development.html, July 2012

16) Poor software development skills Indian CS graduates - Google Search Results, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2013/01/poor-software-development-skills-indian.html, dated Jan. 2013. [This post links to my academic pre-print paper, Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1715, dated Dec. 21st 2012. This paper gives my view of some aspects of Indian CS & IT academia based on my experience in it, and suggestions to improve them. I view it as an important contribution of mine to efforts to improve Indian CS & IT academia.]

17) Should M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented?, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2013/04/should-mtech-cs-project-be-cs-research.html, April 2013

18) Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2013/06/concrete-suggestions-for-measuring.html, June 2013

19) Book Summary: Digital Republic, India’s Rise to IT Power by Mathai Joseph, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2013/06/book-summary-digital-republic-indias.html, June 2013

20) Content of Programming Courses shared on Blog For Free Access To Anybody, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/03/content-of-programming-courses-shared.html, March 2014

21) Nature April 2014 article - Policy: Free Indian science by Dr. Mathai Joseph et al., http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/04/nature-april-2014-article-policy-free.html, April 2014

22) Publicly Funded Higher Education Institutions should put up Detailed Course contents on the Internet, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/04/publicly-funded-highed-education.html, April 2014

23) The very strange case of 20th century era Department(s) of Mathematics and Computer Science in Indian academia in today's early 21st century world, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-very-strange-case-of-20th-century.html, April 2014

24) Information Technology - Products vs. Services, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/05/information-technology-products-vs.html, May 2014

25) Mumbai college principal arrested over charge of demanding donation for admission to XIth standard Science class, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/05/mumbai-college-principal-arrested-over.html, May 2014

26) Wrote to Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on improving practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/05/wrote-to-prime-minister-shri-narendra.html, May 2014

27) NPTEL - IIT Madras - offers online course and certification in Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/06/nptel-offers-online-course-and.html, June 2014 [BTW this post seems to have the maximum views of 1023 in this blog.]

28) Eminent Indian computer scientist-cum-administrator Dr. S. Ramani writes: this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog is interesting, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/07/eminent-indian-computer-scientist-cum.html, July 2014

29) Mainstream Indian newspaper article on Delhi University's Academic Council - "Everyone is terrified ...", http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/07/mainstream-indian-newspaper-article-on.html, July 2014

30) Ten Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) higher education policy changes to improve practice of software development in India, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/08/ten-computer-science-cs-information.html, Aug. 2014

31) Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/08/improve-practice-of-software.html, Aug. 2014. [This is an HTML version of paper with same title put up on http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1715, dated December 21st, 2012 (mentioned in a previous entry in this list).]

32) Noted Indian professor of education on young foreign Ph.D. qualified Indians finding it difficult to get good academic jobs in India, and on temporary teacher positions, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/09/noted-indian-professor-of-education-on.html, Sept. 2014

33) My perception of senior ex-administrator of a spiritual-cum-secular university being sarcastic about bhajans (devotional songs/singing), http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-perception-of-senior-ex.html, Dec. 2014

34) Dangers of pro-MATLAB-research and anti-software-development Computer Science higher education policy, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2015/02/dangers-of-pro-matlab-research-and-anti.html, Feb. 2015

35) My suggestions related to skill development in Indian higher education on mygov.in discussions on New Education Policy, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-suggestions-related-to-skill.html, Feb. 2015

36) Suggestion to Committee on attracting and retaining talented and quality manpower in Teaching Profession, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2015/09/suggestion-to-committee-on-attracting.html, Sept. 2015

37) How MHRD (& DIRECTOR IIT) disposed of my "Serious Systemic Problems in Indian CS IT Academia" grievance dated Nov. 2011, DOING NOTHING REALLY, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-mhrd-director-iit-disposed-of-my.html, Sept. 2015

38) Andy Grove, big tech leader, passes away; Unease with his "Only the Paranoid Survive" mantra, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2016/03/andy-grove-big-tech-leader-passes-away.html, March 2016

39) 22 Fake universities in India; Fear of top political leaders & academic administrators culture in Indian academia, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2016/05/hrd-education-minister-smriti-irani.html, May 2016

40) Sebastian Thrun of Udacity - Hindu interview; Udacity Nanodegrees in India, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2016/05/sebastian-thrun-of-udacity-hindu.html, May 2016

41) Stark look at problems faced by some Indians doing Ph.D. in USA today; UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2016/06/stark-look-at-problems-faced-by-some.html, June 2016

TSR Subramanian panel recommends drastically pruning UGC (India's higher education regulator); And perhaps create a new highered regulator?

Here's a recent Hindu article, Panel on education policy wants UGC Act to lapse, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/panel-on-education-policy-wants-ugc-act-to-lapse/article8749251.ece, dated June 20th 2016.

It states that the committee tasked with creating a new national higher education policy headed by former cabinet secretary, T.S.R. Subramanian, has recommended that the law that set up the nation's premier higher education policy regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC), be allowed to lapse.

I looked up MHRD website and UGC website for a document view/download link for this report but could not find it. This MHRD press release document, http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Press_release.PDF, dated May 27th 2016, states that the committee's report was submitted to MHRD. "The Committee for the evolution of a National Education Policy has submitted the report containing its recommendations to the Ministry of HRD. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development thanked the Chairman and all members of the Committee  for their commitment and efforts." But it does not have a link for the report itself (perhaps it has not yet been made public).

Given below are some quotes from the report the committee recently submitted to Minstry of Human Resource Development (India's union/federal education ministry), as reported by the abovementioned Hindu article:

The Committee was informed that there are widespread irregularities in grant of approval of institutions and courses. There are serious concerns about the quality of education provided by a large number of colleges/universities; it is the responsibility of the UGC to monitor standards of education in higher education institutions and the UGC has not succeeded in ensuring this. The credibility of the UGC has been seriously dented by approvals given to a large number of sub-standard colleges and deemed universities.
...
An expert Committee recently has examined thoroughly the past, present and future role of UGC; the report is under examination by the Ministry. It is understood that the report had concluded that the UGC does not have the adequate number of personnel, of requisite quality, to be an effective regulatory force in the higher education sector.
...
The UGC could be revamped, made considerably leaner and thinner, and could be the nodal point for administration of the proposed National Higher Education Fellowship Programme, without any other promotional or regulatory function.
--- end reported statements from the TSR Subramanian committee report ---

Ravi: If the regulatory function is removed from UGC then who will regulate higher education in the country? Has the TSR Subramanian committee proposed a new national higher education regulator body?

In this context it may be appropriate to share some extracts from another committee report submitted to MHRD in March 2015 (last year), the Hari Gautam committee report, from this article, http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/hrd-ministry-niti-aayog-examine-gautam-panel-report-on-ugc-115080200081_1.html, dated August 2nd, 2015:

--- start Hari Gautam committee report statements (as reported by above article) ---
[UGC] "failed to fulfil its mandate but also has not been able to deal with emerging diverse complexities."
...
[A new national higher education authority was suggested to be set up through an act of Parliament (new law) which would replace the UGC.] .. "any reshaping or restructuring of the UGC will be a futile exercise".
...
It (UGC) has side-stepped its function of being a sentinel of excellence in education and embraced the relatively easier function of funding education.
...
UGC chairperson "should be advised to strictly keep a vigilant track of the various performance areas of the UGC and assess contribution at all levels".
--- end Hari Gautam committee report statements (as reported by above article) ---

[I thank mhrd.gov.in, thehindu.com and business-standard.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

Stark look at problems faced by some Indians doing Ph.D. in USA today; UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar

Last updated on 14th June 2016

A stark look at the problems faced by some Indians who are doing Ph.D. in USA, including the UCLA shooter-killer Mainak Sarkar. I think many Indians doing Ph.D. in India are also in not-so-great shape.

A premature, horrible death, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/Patently-headed-Downhill/articleshow/52593691.cms, dated June 5th 2016.

------------------------------------------------

Some additional thoughts of mine:

From a pure research point of view, I think it would be wonderful if non-elite Indian academia did proper research in its Ph.D. programs (as against development). That would require a filtering process whereby some candidates who opt for proper research realize/or are told that they are not suited for it, and drop out early, say within a year or so, from the Ph.D. program, and move into something else more suitable for them.

But the practical reality of UGC/AICTE governed Indian academia today, it seems to me, is that the Ph.D. has become a vital stepping stone in an academic career. Perhaps two or three decades ago it was OK to have only a Masters qualification to have some sort of academic career in India. But today only a Masters qualification (without a Ph.D.) will heavily stunt one's academic career.

So most Indian academics want to acquire a Ph.D. by hook or by crook. Some will do it the proper way. But for some others, even if the work they do is more of development type rather than research but which gives them a Ph.D. (a minimum of one/two national publications is the critical UGC/AICTE norm if I recall correctly), they will be more than happy. And, in turn, they will become Ph.D. guides for other Ph.D. candidates who they may guide to do similar work - a self-perpetuating kind-of thing.

But these things are very difficult to control in UGC/AICTE Indian academia. In some cases (hopefully only a few cases but I don't know for sure), there is even money corruption and other kinds of unethical practices involved in enrollment and granting of Ph.D., mainly because the Ph.D. opens up better academic career (and pay scale).

Within my limited scope as a blogger who has some exposure to Indian academia in Visiting Faculty type capacity but who is not an Indian academic, my concern is mainly about the human toll on Ph.D. students who do not really understand what the Ph.D. is all about when they enroll into it. I think in non-elite Indian academia, a lot depends on the supervisor that the student does his/her Ph.D. under. Some Ph.D. guide academics are very wise. They know the system well in terms of what is the minimum expected for a Ph.D. by UGC/AICTE norms as well as by important academic administrators. They can assess a candidate's ability and can advise a path suitable for the candidate given the circumstances. The students who come under such Ph.D. guides, in a sense, are the lucky guys, as they tend to get their Ph.D. in reasonable time (say, three to five years) without too much pressure and suffering.

On the other hand, there are some Ph.D. guides who are very ambitious and set far higher standards than what is required by UGC/AICTE, for all/most of their students. So, for example, they may want the publication of the student to be in an IEEE transaction publication (which would typically have a high impact factor). Now if the student is capable AND is provided enough time & resources, perhaps this could work out very well, earning laurels for the institution, the guide and the student, and giving a tremendous foundation for future research work of the student.

However, many times, it is too much for the student given the various factors involved (time & resources being an important factor; some, perhaps most, institutions burden Ph.D. scholars with other work, especially if they are paid some stipend). Usually, in such scenarios, the Ph.D. student is not experienced or wise enough to know what sort of trap he/she has fallen into. He/she may keep trying and trying and still not come up with something satisfactory enough for the supervisor. They dare not fight or argue openly with the supervisor as the supervisor has tremendous control over their life as a Ph.D. student, and can make life hell for the student.

This is where I think some Ph.D. students get into serious mental issues. Some time back I was told a former student of mine (I taught him programming courses for his Masters in Technology - Computer Science degree) who was doing a Ph.D. landed into some serious issues with his Ph.D. supervisor. Fortunately, given the system of obedience by juniors in the associated institution, the student did not go overboard, I guess. I believe he parted ways with the institution. I don't know whether he was granted the Ph.D. But what I had heard was that there a breakdown of relations between Ph.D. student and guide.

Ideally speaking Ph.D. candidates should be given a clear picture of the risks involved in Ph.D. and there should be some sort of a decent exit plan for them if the Ph.D. does not work out.

To make things even more difficult I think Indian academic system seems to be churning out many Ph.D.s leading to some finding it difficult to get suitable jobs in Indian industry or Indian academia after they finish their Ph.D.

Sebastian Thrun of Udacity - Hindu interview; Udacity Nanodegrees in India

Last updated on 13th May 2016

Here's an interesting article from yesterday's The Hindu (May 11th 2016), MOOC is a potent tool with job guarantees thrown in: Sebastian Thrun, http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/mooc-is-a-potent-tool-with-job-guarantees-thrown-in-sebastian-thrun/article8581449.ece.

In the interview Mr. Sebastian Thrun says, "The momentum around MOOC has slowed but the new Udacity model is moving very fast. Going forward, we would love to extend our job guarantee (or money back) plan to all geographies, including India.

Top notch Indian employers such as Flipkart have hired Udacity Nanodegree graduates based solely on their performance in our programme, without any in-person interview."

The following comment (slightly edited, and broken into two parts) appears on the above web page:

I would like to say that I am greatly encouraged with Udacity's Nanodegree program as a way to provide software development skills to interested Indians (and others the world over). It is of great interest to me to note Mr. Sebastian Thrun's words that Flipkart, a top Indian e-commerce company, has hired Udacity Nanodegree qualified persons solely/mainly due to their Udacity Nanodegree qualification! Congratulations to Udacity & Mr. Sebastian Thrun, and a big thank you for having started this seemingly more effective Internet based alternative to regular Indian academia including its MOOC offerings for learning software development skills.

My background: As a B.Sc. (Physics) graduate (M.Sc. Physics drop-out), I made a career in the international software industry by joining an Indian software company in Mumbai in 1984 as a trainee programmer, underwent an around four-month intensive training period in programming & systems analysis and then did on-the-job training. I retired from commercial work in 2002, and then taught programming (software lab. courses) as a free service, for around 9 years (2003 to 2012) in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh, India. I have also blogged extensively on my thoughts & suggestions on improving the practice of software development in Indian Computer Science & Information Technology academia.
--- end submitted comment ---

I then did some browsing for Udacity in India which led me to two interesting webpages:

a) https://www.udacity.com/india

The first thing that comes to the fore in this page is that Google & Tata Trusts (a few of the famous philanthropic Trusts from the house of Tatas) are offering 1,000 scholarships for students in India to take the Android Developer Nanodegree of Udacity, for free.

It then lists the various Nanodegrees (different from courses alone) on offer:
1) Beginning iOS App Development
2) Data Analyst
3) Android Developer
4) iOS Developer
5) Ruby Programming
6) Machine Learning Engineer
7) Full Stack Web Developer
8) Senior Web Developer
9) Front-end Web Developer
10) Tech Entrepreneur
11) Intro to Programming

The Nanodegree program will provide access to courses, projects to build a portfolio, coaching and project reviews. Monthly cohorts would also be provided/arranged.

b) https://www.udacity.com/wiki/india-faq

I have given below the first Question & Answer of this faq:

Q: Why India?

India is one of Udacity’s fastest-growing countries in student engagement and interest. It is already our second largest student base; perhaps not surprising as India boasts the world’s second largest developer population with 3 million software developers. With the right resources and focus, India has the potential to have the #1 developer population by 2018. We want to help students in India to be part of that journey.

--- end short extract from www.udacity.com/wiki/india-faq ---

Ravi: No wonder, we have Sebastian Thrun making visit(s) to India! I am so happy to see this interest and services being rendered by Udacity to Indian students and Indian software development industry.

The FAQ states that the cost of a Nanodegree program in India will be slightly less that Rs. 10,000 per month with the students expected to take 6 to 9 months to complete the program. On program completion ("successful graduation"), 50% of the tuition costs will be reimbursed to students!

So for a determined and capable student who successfully completes the degree say in 8 months, the payment to Udacity will be around Rs. 80,000 with half of tuition costs being reimbursed (don't know whether that means half of the total 80,000 or of something lesser). Let's presume that the effective payment to Udacity then comes down to Rs. 50,000. [As of today, 12th May 2016, 1 US Dollar = Rs. 66.67; so Rs. 50,000 comes to around 750 US Dollars.]

That would be a very reasonable sum for middle class and higher class Indians! Note that the job prospects being high after passing in-demand Nanodegrees like, I presume, the Android Developer Nanodegree, makes it a very attractive proposition for those who are interested in this area. However, they need to have 1-2 years experience in Java or another object-oriented programming language prior to enrolling in this Nanodegree program.

The Nanodegree program will be the taught by the same instructors as globally. But there could be some localized support.

For freshers, the following two courses are recommended before doing the Android developer Nanodegree
a) Intro to Java Programming, https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-java-programming--cs046, a four month course.
b) Android Development for Beginners, https://www.udacity.com/course/android-development-for-beginners--ud837, around 4 weeks course.

==========================
Update on 13th May 2016: An Indian correspondent (IC1) who was a researcher and university professor in India and the West for much more than a decade, then spent a decade in Indian IT industry, and is now associated with the teaching of Computer Science in India, wrote the following over email (and was OK with public sharing; slightly edited):

Dear Ravi

Four years ago, the MOOC scene looked crowded with Udacity, Coursera, EdX and others offering free university-level courses (you had to pay for the certification). Was the traditional university going to last? Should we in India be pushing MOOCs to try and solve the problem of poor education? And so on.

It is interesting to see how the major players have now differentiated their offerings. EdX is promoting life-long education with preparatory courses, shortened university degrees and so on (see Anant Agarwal's article in today's Times of India -- I read the paper version and could not find a pointer to the online version). Udacity is now focussing more on the commercial/training market which is also huge. Coursera is still trying to license their courses to colleges and universities but (a) they do not fit in with Indian degree curricula, and (b) they are expensive.

Some prominent online universities have had to drastically change their models. Others supplement online courses with a lot of hands on teaching and tutorials.

At present, I think the big players are still running on venture capital and have not yet become commercially viable. So more changes should be happening in the coming months and years. Perhaps we will evolve something that suits our needs better than the canned material that is currently available.

--- end main part of response from IC1 ---

I (Ravi) responded as follows (slightly edited):

Read Anant Agarwal's article here, Where higher education is headed in the 21st century: Unbundling the clock, curriculum and credential, http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/where-higher-education-is-headed-in-the-21st-century-unbundling-the-clock-curriculum-and-credential/, dated today (May 12th 2016). I guess this is the article you were referring to in your mail.

Thanks for your interesting views, --name-snipped--.

My interest is more in the area of imparting affordable and job worthy skills to poor and lower middle class Indians. In this area, the quite affordable price of the Nanodegree programs of Udacity along with the job guarantee (or else you get your money back), makes it a standout MOOC based program. I should also say that I do recognize that traditional educators have a much larger perspective to worry about than my limited interest in affordable and job worthy skills being imparted.

Based on interactions that I have had with quite a few students & parents of the poor and lower middle class in India, as well as fair level of reading on the matter, it is crystal clear to me that almost all, if not all, of such students and parents view higher education as a passport to a decent paying job. The parents are willing to beg and borrow to fund the higher education of their children (both boys & girls). Sometimes the boy does part-time work to fund his higher education expenses. Their clear goal is a good paying job. The higher education expenses and time are viewed as an investment for the job. And if after doing all this hard work and spending all that hard earned money, if the higher education degree does not land them a job, they face heartbreak of a terrible kind. I have seen enough of this in my town of Puttaparthi and am very upset with the heartbreak so many youngsters face with a degree that does not land them any decent job.

For such persons, a Udacity like Nanodegree program with a job guarantee (or money back) seems to be a very interesting option. Note that the Udacity Nanodegree would not be recognized by govt. authorities, I guess, or Indian academic authorities. [This would be like how my 4 month intensive industry training followed by on-the-job training was not recognized by govt. authorities or Indian academia.]

But that's fine. It is a private enterprise response to a desperately felt need in Indian software development education. Youngsters would get a graduation degree from recognized Indian academia like B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) or B.E. (Bachelor of Engineering; B.Tech. is a similar degree standing for Bachelor of Technology) or B.Com. (Bachelor of Commerce), and additionally do one of these Udacity Nanodegrees to land a job in the well paid Indian software industry. [Like I did B.Sc. Physics followed by industry training.]

Udacity will not be under the purview of Indian academic regulators like UGC or AICTE. That will free them completely from any bureaucratic control and/or politics from these top academic regulators. If Udacity does a good job of providing well trained software developers to the Indian software industry, the software industry itself will not only put in a good word about Udacity to the government, but may also help Udacity to grow by leaps and bounds. It will be a market driven thing.

So essentially there will be competition between traditional academic model of Computer Science and Information Technology degrees and Udacity type of Nanodegrees, in terms of duration, price and level of job-worthy skills imparted. Yes, of course, the traditional CS and IT degree curriculum would be a more wholesome one and something that can create visionaries, innovators, ground-breaking researchers and tech. leaders of the future, and the Nanodegrees alone would be weak in that area. But there will be competition on the job-worthy skills part. That will be good.

I would also like to make an overview comment. Student debt and the rising cost of college tuition have become USA presidential campaign issues! Student debt in India is also becoming a significant issue but I don't think it has reached very high levels yet (don't know about the future). Many youngsters in the USA seem to be at a loss about their job prospects, and USA presidential candidates are talking about how college students are telling them about how worried they are about job prospects after they graduate. I think the situation is very serious - honestly. Something has got to give. USA and Indian academia cannot go on like they have in the past few decades (and centuries, actually). What exactly may happen in the future is not clear. But I do think that job guarantee (or money back) kind of education offerings may become very attractive to many confused and worried students (& parents) in USA as well as in India.

--- end my response ---

IC1 correspondent wrote back (main part of response):

Dear Ravi

Feel free to use my comments. By the way, I was a research and university professor for much longer than the 10 years I spent in the Indian IT industry.

Your own comments provide an important view orthogonal to the usual reports on university education. Like you, I see people struggling to earn money for their children's education with a clear eye on what this will buy them in terms of future jobs. They send children to schools with substantial fees (despite having free municipal schools nearby), they pay for extra tuition and generally try and groom them to get out of the low-paid job rut that they themselves are in. Sadly, these are not the motivations that the HRD ministry sees and recognises as driving forces for education. [Ravi: HRD ministry in India is the union/federal education ministry in charge of primary, secondary and higher education.]

University/college education is a whole area that needs a lot of study. It is interesting that Udacity has chosen to pitch their efforts towards securing jobs. I hope they are sincere about this and that the participants will benefit.

--- end IC1 correspondent main part of response ---

Here's a response I sent to another correspondent (only my response is given below; slightly edited):

Happy to receive your response, --name-snipped--.

I think the Nanodegree is more than one course offering. The crucial thing about it is that it offers a job guarantee. I have known of such offerings made by private Indian software education companies in specific industry in-demand areas (e.g. some IBM mainframe skills or even ERP skills, if I recall correctly), during my software industry days [1984 to 2002]. They would charge a Lakh [Lakh is one hundred thousand Rupees] or two then and the program would last six months or so, if I recall correctly. They had an arrangement of pre-interview by software export companies who would give a conditional appointment letter to selected candidates, the condition being that they successfully finish the program. At that time, providing appropriate computer hardware and software facilities and knowledgeable instructors was the vital part of those offerings by the successful private software educators with industry job tie-ups.

I don't think the Udacity Nanodegree can be viewed as costlier than 10 Lacs engg. degree college. [Ravi: 10 Lakhs/Lacs is Rs. 1 million; @66.67 Rs to 1 US Dollar, around 15,000 US Dollars. This would be total cost including tuition fees, hostel fees and any other fees for a 4 year engineering degree in a good quality private engineering college in India. The tuition fees alone would be more like Rs. 1 Lakh per year, and so Rs. 4 Lakhs (around 6,000 US Dollars) over four years.]  Yes, for a fresher there are additional skills to be picked up, either via Udacity courses (not Nanodegrees but courses) or courses elsewhere. However, I think that would be available at lesser cost than the Nanodegree. Worst case, I think, it would be 50,000 more, over a less than six month period.

So the Udacity Nanodegree for a fresher would be around Rs. 1 Lakh (around 1,500 US Dollars) and a time period of around a year and a quarter. But this cannot be directly compared to a B.E. or B.Tech. degree in CS or IT. As I have mentioned in the mail extract given below, students will typically need/want to do graduation elsewhere in regular Indian academia - could be a B.Sc. or B.E. or B.Com. but this need not be a 10 Lakh kind of college and could be govt. funded colleges (and so cheap even if teaching quality may be medium or worse). So, in my view, the Udacity Nanodegree would be a post-graduate UNOFFICIAL (not recognized by govt. or UGC/AICTE) qualification which has the all important job guarantee (for those who finish the program successfully; so they need to have some level of ability). Of course, there could be exceptions where somebody does a Nanodegree after 12th standard (or even after 10th standard) board exams, but these would be exceptions and not the rule, as graduation recognized by govt. of India has become a minimal expectation for all kinds of things (almost all kinds of white collar jobs in private and govt. sector in India, emigration and foreign visa clearance for white collar jobs/assignments abroad, social standing including marriage prospects :-) ...) in India.
--- end my response ---

Terry Reis Kennedy wrote over email (and was OK with public sharing):
Very informative and very exciting....Just great to know this, Ravi.
---end main part of Terry response ---

A software engineer correspondent wrote (and was OK with sharing):

A job guarantee is the most important part of it, given that many college degrees in India don't lead to a job, and are therefore a useless investment of money and time.

Still, I'm surprised that it's as costly at 50K. That's out of reach of the poor, whom I thought MOOCs could reach given the hype about them. Maybe Udacity isn't as democratising as I thought. It's still good for the middle and upper class, but I wish it were more affordable.
--- end software engineer correspondent comment ---

[I thank udacity.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

22 Fake universities in India; Fear of top political leaders & academic administrators culture in Indian academia

Given below are some quotes from union (federal) Human Resource Development (in charge of education including higher education) minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti_Irani, from her statements to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian (federal) parliament, from the article, Smriti Irani Reveals 22 Fake Universities Functioning In Country, http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/smriti-irani-reveals-22-fake-universities-functioning-in-country-1403329, dated May 6th 2016:

"As per information available with the UGC, there are 22 universities (in the country) which have been listed in the UGC list of fake universities and are functioning in contravention or violation of the UGC Act, 1956 in different parts of the country"
...
[Ravi: The article states that Irani rebutted the charge that the centre (union/federal HRD ministry) was not taking action, and said that the union govt. had passed on the information to the states, and also said,]
"Law and order is a state issue and only states can take action as per federal structure. No state government has so far said it is not taking action against such universities and have instead shown inclination of taking action."
...
"We are also making attempts to have direct interaction with students besides this 'KnowYourCollege' portal to help students identify fake universities".
...
"It is an endeavour to persistently act on injustices meted out to our students through such fake institutions through protection given by the regulator". [Ravi: UGC, the University Grants Commission, http://www.ugc.ac.in/, is the regulator she seems to be referring to.]
...
[Ravi: MEA is Ministry of External Affairs (foreign ministry). About fake universities outside India which Indian students are getting trapped in, she said:]
"We are in the process of writing to MEA to ensure that all missions are appealed to give us a list of fake universities or institutions overseas so that we can appropriately inform our states to help students not get duped by such institutions."
...
[Ravi: About universities tying up with foreign universities to set up off-campus centres (& perhaps setting up off-campus centres on their own), she said:]
"Many universities have tried to set up off-campus centres which are unauthorised and UGC has taken cognisance of this fact and ordered shutdown of illegal off-campus centres"
--- end quotes of HRD minister, Irani, from ndtv.com article ---

Ravi: One of the big challenges in cleaning up the unethical practices that infest Indian academia is that many of the higher educational institutions are either directly/indirectly owned by politicians! Naturally they will resist strict action being taken against them for unethical practices. Further, it is academics who are in committees that do the evaluation and recommend action to be taken for unethical practices detected. However, these academics typically would be terrified of the political, financial as well as muscle power wielded by Indian politicians, and so few academics would dare to force strict action against unethical practices when confronted by political leaders. This, I think, is the brutal reality of Indian academia.

I did not fully realize how blessed & fortunate I was to be part of the international software industry (including companies in India which are part of this international software industry) which is quite a fair competitive environment without much of nasty political intrigue and/or financial corruption, till I associated with privately-owned Indian academia as a free service Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty for around nine years. The contrast between international software industry culture and Indian privately-owned academia culture (different from govt. owned & operated Indian academia) was so striking, especially in upper echelon academic administration!

At these higher levels of academic administration (Head of Dept., dean, principal/director of campus, vice-chancellor of the university, registrar etc.), in many privately owned institutions in India (though not all I guess), sycophancy, playing political one-upmanship games, turning a blind eye to injustice being meted out to those who are targeted by academic power-mongers etc. seems to be common! There are many reports of even financial corruption playing a big role in these kind of positions. In particular, I found that many academics in private Indian academic institutions are very, very fearful of academic administrators and owners/management of these private academic institutions. I think now I understand that fear as such administrators & owners/management can make life hell for any academic who they are unhappy with given hundreds of bureaucratic rules which they can apply selectively, and for an academic, especially senior academic, getting a suitable replacement job in another privately owned Indian academic institution is not that easy.

I think govt-owned Indian academia provides far more protection to its employees, both academics as well as non-teaching staff. I think there are administrative tribunals that come into play when there is a serious dispute between an academic and academic administrator(s) who has/have taken punitive action on the academic. Further, I think there are unions for both teaching staff and non-teaching staff which also provides a degree of protection from injustice being meted out by academic administrators and/or govt. heads/ministers/top-bureaucrats who are effectively the top-bosses (like owners) of the govt-owned academic institutions.

But even in such govt-owned Indian academia, I think Indian academics are quite fearful of top administrators and of top political leaders, as these persons are very influential and could make or mar their academic careers in govt. owned part of Indian academia. Mind you, this could even impact their govt. pensions and so the retirement life that they would lead. Naturally, the wise academics in Indian govt-owned academia would not want to risk their working life as well as retired life by taking on top academic administrators or top political leaders.

[I thank ndtv.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above quotes of HRD minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

Andy Grove, big tech leader, passes away; Unease with his "Only the Paranoid Survive" mantra

[This post is copy-pasted (on 26th March 2016) from a blogpost on my Spiritual blog, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/03/andy-grove-one-of-big-tech-leaders.html]

[After a little bit of mental debate, I decided to put this post in this spiritual blog instead of my other blogs, as I think the being paranoid to survive bit deals with a human and spiritual matter.]

Intel’s Andy Grove Was Brilliant, Paranoid, and Prophetic. No Wonder Silicon Valley Reveres Him,
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2016/03/22/andy_grove_who_led_intel_has_died_he_was_brilliant_paranoid_and_prophetic.html, dated March 22nd, 2016.

A small extract from it:
Intel’s business practices sometimes went to the edge, and perhaps over the line, of fairness. Grove’s oft-repeated mantra, later expanded into his 1996 book, Only the Paranoid Survive, was fundamental to the corporate culture.
--- end extract ---

Ravi: I think almost everybody knows about how the personal computer (PC) revolution changed the face of computers and brought great changes in the lives of many people the world over. Most people view Microsoft as one of the great companies behind the success of the PC. But many do not know that Intel's contribution to the PC revolution on the hardware side, allowing for big cupboard size computers needing a specially cooled room to be reduced to medium suitcase sized personal computers which could be kept at home without any special cooling needs, at very affordable price, was as important a part of the PC success as was the Microsoft software part. [Laptops came later on.] Techies called it the WinTel platform, Win standing for Microsoft Windows and Tel for Intel. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintel, "The Wintel platform is still the dominant desktop and laptop computer architecture."

I recall attending a techie/business seminar in Mumbai in the 90s, if I recall correctly, which had some coverage of Intel's astonishing success attributed, at least to some significant extent, to Andy Grove's mantra of "Only the Paranoid Survive". I was quite disturbed by that business approach/philosophy. I felt that I did not want that kind of success as the human cost to be paid by being paranoid would be too much. The bleeding-edge tech world was not the right place for me, I felt, as I would have to give up too much of myself which would not be worth the financial success, howsoever great that might be.

Another small quote from the linked Slate.com article, "I’m also convinced the tech industry’s response to its deeply ingrained paranoia—ruthless, often predatory tactics and frequently disdainful treatment of customers—has contributed to society’s increasing cynicism."

Ravi: I think these words have some truth in them. As I got more into the software profession, I was UTTERLY HORRIFIED to see the predatory tactics of the PC software world practised by one major software company (based in the USA like most software majors).

Now Grove managed to survive Nazis and later communists in his native Hungary, and fleeing them, came to America. Perhaps he felt that he had to really be paranoid to survive and that made him to be fiercely competitive in his business management roles.

Grove also was a mentor to big names in Silicon Valley like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
======================

A USA based correspondent wrote me over email (and was OK with sharing it publicly):
Ravi - Fierce and cut-throat competition is not only in software profession, it is almost in all professions. Unfortunately.

"Survival of the Fittest" or "Only the Paranoid Survive" are the mantras of the capitalist societies. Today's majority world is living by capitalistic system. Big industrial houses or businesses are not the only ones to be labelled as capitalists. Capitalism has become an attitude, a way of life for the most. And the world is facing consequences too!
----

[I thank slate.com and Wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above very short extracts from their websites on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

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.]