Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: SSSIHL/SSSU (Sathya Sai University) ID cards with face blurred (Ravi S. Iyer), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/sssihlsssu-sathya-sai-university-id.html, 30th Dec. 2018
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Referral: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - school and college education certificates and marksheets
Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - school and college education certificates and marksheets, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/documenting-my-part-auto-bio-with-pics_28.html, 28th Dec. 2018
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Referral: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - computer software industry appreciation and experience letters
Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - computer software industry appreciation and experience letters, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/documenting-my-part-auto-bio-with-pics_27.html, 27th Dec. 2018
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Will Cambridge University do a thorough investigation of its academic Aleksandr Kogan's role in massive abuse of around 50 million American Facebook users' data for PSYOPS in USA elections? OR will it do a cover-up to protect its image?
Note that this post is copy-pasted from https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/03/will-cambridge-university-do-thorough.html.
The Guardian article: Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/22/facebook-gave-data-about-57bn-friendships-to-academic-aleksandr-kogan, 22nd March 2018, states:
On Friday 16 March, in anticipation of the Observer’s reporting that Kogan had improperly harvested and shared the data of more than 50 million Americans, Facebook suspended Kogan from the platform, issued a statement saying that he “lied” to the company, and characterised his activities as “a scam – and a fraud”.
--- end small extract from Guardian article ---
This is the referenced Facebook company statement: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/, dated 16th March 2018 and updated on 17th March 2018. Some extracts from it are given below:
In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
Breaking the Rules Leads to Suspension
Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made. We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information.
--- end extract from Facebook statement ---
Ravi: So Facebook is clearly stating that Aleksandr Kogan of Cambridge University (an Assistant Professor there and not a full Professor) passed "information" (Facebook users' data) to a third party including Cambridge Analytica by which act Kogan "violated" Facebook's "platform policies".
The above Guardian article mentions that Kogan formed a company called Global Science Research (GSR) in May 2014 along with another Cambridge University researcher. The article mentions an email from Kogan to Cambridge (University) colleagues where Kogan said that he created the Facebook App for academic purposes in 2013. After GSR was founded (in May 2014) he transferred the App to GSR (commercial company) changing its logo and stating that it was being used for commercial purposes. Kogan seems to put the blame on Facebook for not raising issues then, and claims that Facebook is (unfairly) blaming him (Kogan) for this massive abuse of Facebook users' data.
I would love to see a full and thorough investigation by Cambridge University along with any required assistance from UK government authorities into the role of Aleksandr Kogan, Asst. Prof (Lecturer) of Cambridge University in this matter of abuse of 50 million American Facebook users' data. Did Kogan make inappropriate use of his Cambridge University academic status to do bad things and get away with it? That seems like a real possibility to me.
The unfortunate truth of life today is that there are many unethical academics, especially those that run or are associated with commercial enterprises (with permission from their academic authorities like it seems to be in the case of Kogan). My experience in Indian academia showed me that many academics get jealous (sorry I am being brutally frank) of the money made by people in industry, including their own former students, while they (academics) remain stuck, typically, on some govt. scale fixed salaries. So some Indian academics jump at opportunities to make better money through a business venture than they make from their academic salary alone.
But academics are usually not well versed with commercial law, commercial aspects of agreements, legal ramifications if the agreements are not adhered to etc. They are treated with kid gloves by the world in general which is deferential to them because of their once-noble calling of teaching, and they think that companies will also treat them that way.
However, once they form their own company, and are into making money there, they no longer have any basis to request the world to handle them with kid-gloves, since they are not academics only now but academic-cum-business persons.
The age when academics could be trusted to lead a higher and nobler life, are over, especially in Indian academia. There are some very good guys in Indian academia and then there are some very unethical fellows who will stoop to all kinds of nasty corruption and nasty poisonous politics to improve their career and to harm their peers' or juniors' career, with some such peers and juniors being viewed as opponents of theirs. And there are many academics in between.
In Aleksandr Kogan's case I would like a Cambridge University investigation to aggressively see if Kogan behaved ethically and if not, to record his unethical behaviour, share it with the university community and the public, and come up with steps to prevent recurrence of such behaviour from Cambridge University academics. That's the way to keep ethical standards high in such cases.
But will Cambridge University and the UK authorities whose assistance it may seek, have the time and inclination to do such an investigation which will be expensive in time and money? My experience in Indian academia, and later as a blogger on Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academic reform activism, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/, is that the first response of the top people like vice-chancellor and trustees/board of management of the university is to try to cover things up, and dismiss the matter as a minor mistake. The government prefers not to get involved in such university matters unless it is a big scandal and the media forces them to interfere. Many times, the Indian academic or academic administrator gets away with grossly unethical behaviour, sometimes criminal behaviour, due to this cover-up approach. That then leaves the concerned Indian academic institution in an ethically tainted state which people come to know about from informal sources even if no formal acknowledgement is made of the grossly unethical or sometimes even criminal behaviour of the concerned academic(s) and/or academic administrator(s). Recovering from that ethically tainted culture then becomes a difficult and long effort for the concerned academic institution and its academic and non-teaching staff.
Indian society finds it very difficult to handle unpleasant truths about teachers as the culture over millennia is to revere the teacher. That age-old reverence of Indian society towards teachers is unfortunately exploited in terrible ways by quite a few Indian teachers and academics, many times due to greed for money or sometimes, nowadays, sexual desire towards their students.
I do hope and pray that Cambridge University will keep its high reputation intact by doing a proper and fair investigation into Aleksandr Kogan's role in this massive abuse of Facebook user data of over 50 million Americans which was used to influence the 2016 USA elections. If Kogan is found to have been ethical then Cambridge University should say so publicly thereby clearing his name from the cloud it has come under now. But on the other hand, if Kogan did behave in an unethical manner, that should also be shared with the public and Kogan should be penalized in a suitable and proportionate manner.
=====================================================================
Given below is part of my response (slightly edited) to a mail correspondent who responded to above post contents sent to him over mail (his response is private and so not shared here):
It is teaching institutions including top research institutions that also teach students (like Cambridge University), that have to keep ethical standards high. If they fail then society at large gets threatened of being infested with the rot of poor ethical standards, which can degrade society at the least, and at worst, can destroy society.
-------
Some relevant articles provided by a couple of correspondents:
1) Cambridge Analytica academic's work upset university colleagues; Emails reveal rows over Aleksandr Kogan’s ‘get rich quick scheme’ with Facebook data, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/24/cambridge-analytica-academics-work-upset-university-colleagues, 24th March 2018
2) Cambridge University asks Facebook for evidence about role of academic, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-university-asks-facebook-for-evidence-about-role-of-academic-alex-kogan, 20th March 2018
----
A couple of relevant audios/videos:
3) Aleksandr Kogan - Interview BBC Radio 4 - March 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtCNPnQtnY, around 18 mins.
4) Scientist: Didn't know data used to target voters, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APqU_EJ5d3U, 2 min. 23 secs., by CNN published on 20th March 2018.
I went through both the articles and the two audios/videos above.
Some points that emerge are (I may have made slight errors in some points below as I am writing them down from my memory of having viewed/heard the audios/videos only once; Don't have time right now to view/hear them again to confirm whether my points below are accurate):
a) Some other academics, including senior academics, of his psychology dept. at Cambridge University were unhappy with the manner in which Kogan was negotiating with SCL, parent company of Cambridge Analytica, about payment to be made to him (Kogan) and two other colleagues. Kogan was accused of taking a 'get rich quick' approach, which accusation Kogan refuted in strong terms.
b) Kogan created a commercial company with another colleague - Global Science Research (GSR). But claims that he was guided on legalities by others (SCL or Cambridge Analytica, if I recall correctly) and so was not able to answer authoritatively on whether he had breached his agreement with Facebook! Kogan tried to say he is just an (psychology) academic, implying that he cannot be expected to be knowledgeable on legalities and all that!
c) Kogan's company, GSR, was paid around 800,000 dollars by Cambridge Analytica but Kogan says that most of the money went towards paying those who participated in surveys (and things like that). Kogan says that he did not make money out of the Cambridge Analytica association with his company, GSR!
d) Cambridge University has not yet made a clear statement on this matter. It has sought information from Facebook.
e) Kogan claims that he had no idea that his App would be used to try to influence people in the 2016 USA elections. Kogan tries to give the impression that he is a researcher who is trying to do good for the world and that he is not in favour of his work being used to influence any election campaign in the manner in which Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have done in the 2016 USA elections.
--------
[I thank theguardian.com and fb.com, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites (short extract from theguardian.com) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Last updated on 24th March 2018
The Guardian article: Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/22/facebook-gave-data-about-57bn-friendships-to-academic-aleksandr-kogan, 22nd March 2018, states:
On Friday 16 March, in anticipation of the Observer’s reporting that Kogan had improperly harvested and shared the data of more than 50 million Americans, Facebook suspended Kogan from the platform, issued a statement saying that he “lied” to the company, and characterised his activities as “a scam – and a fraud”.
--- end small extract from Guardian article ---
This is the referenced Facebook company statement: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/, dated 16th March 2018 and updated on 17th March 2018. Some extracts from it are given below:
In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
Breaking the Rules Leads to Suspension
Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made. We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information.
--- end extract from Facebook statement ---
Ravi: So Facebook is clearly stating that Aleksandr Kogan of Cambridge University (an Assistant Professor there and not a full Professor) passed "information" (Facebook users' data) to a third party including Cambridge Analytica by which act Kogan "violated" Facebook's "platform policies".
The above Guardian article mentions that Kogan formed a company called Global Science Research (GSR) in May 2014 along with another Cambridge University researcher. The article mentions an email from Kogan to Cambridge (University) colleagues where Kogan said that he created the Facebook App for academic purposes in 2013. After GSR was founded (in May 2014) he transferred the App to GSR (commercial company) changing its logo and stating that it was being used for commercial purposes. Kogan seems to put the blame on Facebook for not raising issues then, and claims that Facebook is (unfairly) blaming him (Kogan) for this massive abuse of Facebook users' data.
I would love to see a full and thorough investigation by Cambridge University along with any required assistance from UK government authorities into the role of Aleksandr Kogan, Asst. Prof (Lecturer) of Cambridge University in this matter of abuse of 50 million American Facebook users' data. Did Kogan make inappropriate use of his Cambridge University academic status to do bad things and get away with it? That seems like a real possibility to me.
The unfortunate truth of life today is that there are many unethical academics, especially those that run or are associated with commercial enterprises (with permission from their academic authorities like it seems to be in the case of Kogan). My experience in Indian academia showed me that many academics get jealous (sorry I am being brutally frank) of the money made by people in industry, including their own former students, while they (academics) remain stuck, typically, on some govt. scale fixed salaries. So some Indian academics jump at opportunities to make better money through a business venture than they make from their academic salary alone.
But academics are usually not well versed with commercial law, commercial aspects of agreements, legal ramifications if the agreements are not adhered to etc. They are treated with kid gloves by the world in general which is deferential to them because of their once-noble calling of teaching, and they think that companies will also treat them that way.
However, once they form their own company, and are into making money there, they no longer have any basis to request the world to handle them with kid-gloves, since they are not academics only now but academic-cum-business persons.
The age when academics could be trusted to lead a higher and nobler life, are over, especially in Indian academia. There are some very good guys in Indian academia and then there are some very unethical fellows who will stoop to all kinds of nasty corruption and nasty poisonous politics to improve their career and to harm their peers' or juniors' career, with some such peers and juniors being viewed as opponents of theirs. And there are many academics in between.
In Aleksandr Kogan's case I would like a Cambridge University investigation to aggressively see if Kogan behaved ethically and if not, to record his unethical behaviour, share it with the university community and the public, and come up with steps to prevent recurrence of such behaviour from Cambridge University academics. That's the way to keep ethical standards high in such cases.
But will Cambridge University and the UK authorities whose assistance it may seek, have the time and inclination to do such an investigation which will be expensive in time and money? My experience in Indian academia, and later as a blogger on Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academic reform activism, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/, is that the first response of the top people like vice-chancellor and trustees/board of management of the university is to try to cover things up, and dismiss the matter as a minor mistake. The government prefers not to get involved in such university matters unless it is a big scandal and the media forces them to interfere. Many times, the Indian academic or academic administrator gets away with grossly unethical behaviour, sometimes criminal behaviour, due to this cover-up approach. That then leaves the concerned Indian academic institution in an ethically tainted state which people come to know about from informal sources even if no formal acknowledgement is made of the grossly unethical or sometimes even criminal behaviour of the concerned academic(s) and/or academic administrator(s). Recovering from that ethically tainted culture then becomes a difficult and long effort for the concerned academic institution and its academic and non-teaching staff.
Indian society finds it very difficult to handle unpleasant truths about teachers as the culture over millennia is to revere the teacher. That age-old reverence of Indian society towards teachers is unfortunately exploited in terrible ways by quite a few Indian teachers and academics, many times due to greed for money or sometimes, nowadays, sexual desire towards their students.
I do hope and pray that Cambridge University will keep its high reputation intact by doing a proper and fair investigation into Aleksandr Kogan's role in this massive abuse of Facebook user data of over 50 million Americans which was used to influence the 2016 USA elections. If Kogan is found to have been ethical then Cambridge University should say so publicly thereby clearing his name from the cloud it has come under now. But on the other hand, if Kogan did behave in an unethical manner, that should also be shared with the public and Kogan should be penalized in a suitable and proportionate manner.
=====================================================================
Given below is part of my response (slightly edited) to a mail correspondent who responded to above post contents sent to him over mail (his response is private and so not shared here):
It is teaching institutions including top research institutions that also teach students (like Cambridge University), that have to keep ethical standards high. If they fail then society at large gets threatened of being infested with the rot of poor ethical standards, which can degrade society at the least, and at worst, can destroy society.
-------
Some relevant articles provided by a couple of correspondents:
1) Cambridge Analytica academic's work upset university colleagues; Emails reveal rows over Aleksandr Kogan’s ‘get rich quick scheme’ with Facebook data, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/24/cambridge-analytica-academics-work-upset-university-colleagues, 24th March 2018
2) Cambridge University asks Facebook for evidence about role of academic, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-university-asks-facebook-for-evidence-about-role-of-academic-alex-kogan, 20th March 2018
----
A couple of relevant audios/videos:
3) Aleksandr Kogan - Interview BBC Radio 4 - March 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtCNPnQtnY, around 18 mins.
4) Scientist: Didn't know data used to target voters, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APqU_EJ5d3U, 2 min. 23 secs., by CNN published on 20th March 2018.
I went through both the articles and the two audios/videos above.
Some points that emerge are (I may have made slight errors in some points below as I am writing them down from my memory of having viewed/heard the audios/videos only once; Don't have time right now to view/hear them again to confirm whether my points below are accurate):
a) Some other academics, including senior academics, of his psychology dept. at Cambridge University were unhappy with the manner in which Kogan was negotiating with SCL, parent company of Cambridge Analytica, about payment to be made to him (Kogan) and two other colleagues. Kogan was accused of taking a 'get rich quick' approach, which accusation Kogan refuted in strong terms.
b) Kogan created a commercial company with another colleague - Global Science Research (GSR). But claims that he was guided on legalities by others (SCL or Cambridge Analytica, if I recall correctly) and so was not able to answer authoritatively on whether he had breached his agreement with Facebook! Kogan tried to say he is just an (psychology) academic, implying that he cannot be expected to be knowledgeable on legalities and all that!
c) Kogan's company, GSR, was paid around 800,000 dollars by Cambridge Analytica but Kogan says that most of the money went towards paying those who participated in surveys (and things like that). Kogan says that he did not make money out of the Cambridge Analytica association with his company, GSR!
d) Cambridge University has not yet made a clear statement on this matter. It has sought information from Facebook.
e) Kogan claims that he had no idea that his App would be used to try to influence people in the 2016 USA elections. Kogan tries to give the impression that he is a researcher who is trying to do good for the world and that he is not in favour of his work being used to influence any election campaign in the manner in which Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have done in the 2016 USA elections.
--------
[I thank theguardian.com and fb.com, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites (short extract from theguardian.com) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Top Indian scientist reportedly dismissed after his research institute upheld charges of sexual harassment against him by junior colleague; Scientist to go to court to challenge it
Note: This post is copy-pasted from https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/02/top-indian-scientist-reportedly.html.
Today's (11th Feb. 2018) The Hindu newspaper carried this article on its front page: Scientist dismissed for sexual harassment of colleague, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/scientist-dismissed-for-sexual-harassment-of-colleague/article22716197.ece, 10th Feb. 2018.
It says that a junior woman staffer alleged sexual harassment by this 59 years old top scientist who seems to have held a powerful administrative position (head of a scientific lab). The allegations included an incident of alleged sexual molestation in March 2015 in a hotel room. That was in the context of an academic conference they were attending.
The charges were investigated by a committee constituted by the research institute. The article quotes the executive director of the institute as saying (slightly edited), "The governing board has ratified the decision to terminate --Name-snipped--’s services".."It is his decision whether he wants to further pursue the matter in court. From our side, the process has been completed." [I decided not to name the top Indian scientist in this post as I do not want to contribute to Google search results on his name showing up the matter via this post.]
The top scientist (who was dismissed) told The Hindu that he would "contest the decision in court".
Hmm. How good will scientists be as investigators and judges of a charge of sexual harassment! I have a very poor opinion of the Sathya Dharma (truth and ethics) standards of Indian scientists and academics. I have personally experienced Asathya-Adharma (untruthful and unethical) crook Indian academic administrators some of whom are Professors of science and so are scientists.
Through my own experience and through following mainstream media reports about Indian academia for some years, I have found that most Indian academics and scientists are very poor in knowledge about current day professional techniques and standards in managing staff and administering staff. They are trained mainly in academic research and teaching due to which most of them are UTTER NOVICES in management and administration. Many of them indulge in favouritism, nasty revenge, and sometimes poisonous behaviour towards juniors and sometimes even peers that they don't like including those that refuse to become obedient sycophants (yes-men) to them. Many Indian academic and scientific administrators are known to have indulged in even record-tampering, malicious defamation and identity-theft which are criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code. It is a crazy environment with significant amount of nasty abuse of power and sometimes money corruption and sexual favour related ethical corruption. Of course, there are good people too but somehow Indian academic administration posts seem to be such that even good people become ethically corrupt once they occupy administrative power posts.
I have zero faith in the ability of Indian academic or scientific committees to fairly judge a very serious, career-threatening and reputation-threatening matter like a sexual harassment charge. They may very well use the opportunity to ***fix*** a colleague of whom they have become jealous or have some other issue with, and unfairly judge him guilty which leads to a career-threatening and reputation-threatening outcome for the colleague. And similarly they may unfairly judge a colleague whom they support for some reasons like fear of that colleague's power to hurt them and monetary corruption reasons, as innocent of such sexual harassment charges even if the charges have strong evidence to back them!
I think it should be the court of law in India or suitable bodies appointed by the court which have people trained in Indian jurisprudence (lawyers and judges) who investigate and examine such sexual harassment charges in Indian academic and scientific institutions. If it is a court of law then judicial process would be followed and so any injustice concerns would be similar to how it is for any other court case.
But the court process in India may take years to arrive at a judgement. The concerned academic or scientific institution would want a quicker interim decision. The court could appoint suitable bodies as mentioned above staffed with persons trained in Indian jurisprudence. That body should produce a document on the lines of a judgement document though not as exhaustive as a regular court's judgement document, which explains the evidence and eyewitness testimony that is examined and how the conclusion of prima facie (at first view) guilt of sexual harassment or no such prima facie guilt, is arrived at. Based on this document's view which would have the stamp of people trained in Indian jurisprudence backing it, action or no action could be taken against the accused academic or scientist by the academic/scientific institution.
Of course, both the accuser and the accused would have the liberty of challenging the prima facie guilt/innocence decision, in a regular court of law. Note that some cases of sexual harassment like physical sexual molestation seems to be a criminal offence in India meaning that if the accused (top Indian scientist in this case) is proved guilty, he, in all probability, would have to serve a jail sentence. I mean, he would become a convicted criminal!
While I have not followed such cases in detail in the past, it seems to me that if the top scientist in this case who has been dismissed from employment by the Indian scientific institute, goes to an Indian court of law, seeking suspension of dismissal pending a proper court of law deciding his guilt/innocence in this matter, the Indian court of law may suspend the dismissal and the Indian scientific institute will have to put him back on the rolls! However, if the top scientist really did indulge in sexual harassment then he would fear going to court as the court would in all probability order the sexual harassment case to be heard in a trial criminal court. This court's wheels of justice may grind slowly but steadily and may eventually deliver a guilty verdict if the hearing produces strong evidence and/or strong eyewitness testimony supporting the sexual harassment/molestation charge. That would mean the top Indian scientist may go to jail as a convicted criminal!
Hmm. What a terrible dilemma to be in! Recently I informed an Indian Professor of Computer Science (male) about such matters becoming a great issue in India nowadays and advised him to ensure that he is never alone in a room/cabin with a female colleague or female student. Even a false complaint made by a female colleague or female student who is angry with him for some academic grade/examination result related matter could be enough to land the Indian Professor into unnecessary trouble! Further, the female colleague or female student can simply threaten to make the complaint if they had been together in some room without anybody else, to ensure that the Professor does their bidding (say, passes a female student in her Ph.D. examination).
I am not letting my imagination run riot. Indian academic system is rotten now with so many reports of police cases being filed against Indian academic administrators. This is the reality of Indian academic system today. There are lots of bad people in Indian academic administration and so the good people in Indian academia have to be very careful not to get trapped by these bad people using false charges or false statements.
Today's (11th Feb. 2018) The Hindu newspaper carried this article on its front page: Scientist dismissed for sexual harassment of colleague, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/scientist-dismissed-for-sexual-harassment-of-colleague/article22716197.ece, 10th Feb. 2018.
It says that a junior woman staffer alleged sexual harassment by this 59 years old top scientist who seems to have held a powerful administrative position (head of a scientific lab). The allegations included an incident of alleged sexual molestation in March 2015 in a hotel room. That was in the context of an academic conference they were attending.
The charges were investigated by a committee constituted by the research institute. The article quotes the executive director of the institute as saying (slightly edited), "The governing board has ratified the decision to terminate --Name-snipped--’s services".."It is his decision whether he wants to further pursue the matter in court. From our side, the process has been completed." [I decided not to name the top Indian scientist in this post as I do not want to contribute to Google search results on his name showing up the matter via this post.]
The top scientist (who was dismissed) told The Hindu that he would "contest the decision in court".
Hmm. How good will scientists be as investigators and judges of a charge of sexual harassment! I have a very poor opinion of the Sathya Dharma (truth and ethics) standards of Indian scientists and academics. I have personally experienced Asathya-Adharma (untruthful and unethical) crook Indian academic administrators some of whom are Professors of science and so are scientists.
Through my own experience and through following mainstream media reports about Indian academia for some years, I have found that most Indian academics and scientists are very poor in knowledge about current day professional techniques and standards in managing staff and administering staff. They are trained mainly in academic research and teaching due to which most of them are UTTER NOVICES in management and administration. Many of them indulge in favouritism, nasty revenge, and sometimes poisonous behaviour towards juniors and sometimes even peers that they don't like including those that refuse to become obedient sycophants (yes-men) to them. Many Indian academic and scientific administrators are known to have indulged in even record-tampering, malicious defamation and identity-theft which are criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code. It is a crazy environment with significant amount of nasty abuse of power and sometimes money corruption and sexual favour related ethical corruption. Of course, there are good people too but somehow Indian academic administration posts seem to be such that even good people become ethically corrupt once they occupy administrative power posts.
I have zero faith in the ability of Indian academic or scientific committees to fairly judge a very serious, career-threatening and reputation-threatening matter like a sexual harassment charge. They may very well use the opportunity to ***fix*** a colleague of whom they have become jealous or have some other issue with, and unfairly judge him guilty which leads to a career-threatening and reputation-threatening outcome for the colleague. And similarly they may unfairly judge a colleague whom they support for some reasons like fear of that colleague's power to hurt them and monetary corruption reasons, as innocent of such sexual harassment charges even if the charges have strong evidence to back them!
I think it should be the court of law in India or suitable bodies appointed by the court which have people trained in Indian jurisprudence (lawyers and judges) who investigate and examine such sexual harassment charges in Indian academic and scientific institutions. If it is a court of law then judicial process would be followed and so any injustice concerns would be similar to how it is for any other court case.
But the court process in India may take years to arrive at a judgement. The concerned academic or scientific institution would want a quicker interim decision. The court could appoint suitable bodies as mentioned above staffed with persons trained in Indian jurisprudence. That body should produce a document on the lines of a judgement document though not as exhaustive as a regular court's judgement document, which explains the evidence and eyewitness testimony that is examined and how the conclusion of prima facie (at first view) guilt of sexual harassment or no such prima facie guilt, is arrived at. Based on this document's view which would have the stamp of people trained in Indian jurisprudence backing it, action or no action could be taken against the accused academic or scientist by the academic/scientific institution.
Of course, both the accuser and the accused would have the liberty of challenging the prima facie guilt/innocence decision, in a regular court of law. Note that some cases of sexual harassment like physical sexual molestation seems to be a criminal offence in India meaning that if the accused (top Indian scientist in this case) is proved guilty, he, in all probability, would have to serve a jail sentence. I mean, he would become a convicted criminal!
While I have not followed such cases in detail in the past, it seems to me that if the top scientist in this case who has been dismissed from employment by the Indian scientific institute, goes to an Indian court of law, seeking suspension of dismissal pending a proper court of law deciding his guilt/innocence in this matter, the Indian court of law may suspend the dismissal and the Indian scientific institute will have to put him back on the rolls! However, if the top scientist really did indulge in sexual harassment then he would fear going to court as the court would in all probability order the sexual harassment case to be heard in a trial criminal court. This court's wheels of justice may grind slowly but steadily and may eventually deliver a guilty verdict if the hearing produces strong evidence and/or strong eyewitness testimony supporting the sexual harassment/molestation charge. That would mean the top Indian scientist may go to jail as a convicted criminal!
Hmm. What a terrible dilemma to be in! Recently I informed an Indian Professor of Computer Science (male) about such matters becoming a great issue in India nowadays and advised him to ensure that he is never alone in a room/cabin with a female colleague or female student. Even a false complaint made by a female colleague or female student who is angry with him for some academic grade/examination result related matter could be enough to land the Indian Professor into unnecessary trouble! Further, the female colleague or female student can simply threaten to make the complaint if they had been together in some room without anybody else, to ensure that the Professor does their bidding (say, passes a female student in her Ph.D. examination).
I am not letting my imagination run riot. Indian academic system is rotten now with so many reports of police cases being filed against Indian academic administrators. This is the reality of Indian academic system today. There are lots of bad people in Indian academic administration and so the good people in Indian academia have to be very careful not to get trapped by these bad people using false charges or false statements.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Two recent money corruption and sexual harassment (ethical corruption) police cases against senior Indian academics of South India show how rotten Indian academia has become
Note: This post is copy-pasted from my blog post here: https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/02/two-recent-money-corruption-and-sexual.html.
Here is an article that appeared in 4th Feb. 2018 newspapers: Coimbatore: Bharathiar University VC arrested for taking Rs 30 lakh bribe, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/040218/bharathiar-university-vc-takes-rs-30-lakh-bribe-arrested.html.
The article states that the vice-chancellor of this university in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded Rs. 30 Lakh (Rs. 3 million or about USD 46,773 at current exchange rate of Rs. 64.14 for 1 U.S. Dollar) from an Assistant Professor who was on probation, to get confirmed in his job as Assistant Professor. The Asst. Professor approached the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption people (police department) who laid a trap and caught the vice-chancellor red-handed with currency notes marked with invisible ink (according to this report: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/bharathiar-university-v-c-arrested-on-graft-charge/article22642800.ece).
When the top academic administrator of a university (which is the vice-chancellor) indulges in such money corruption, one can well imagine how lower ranked academics and administrators of the university would behave. I am quite sure at least some of the lower ranked academics and administrators of this university would be corrupt as well. This kind of behaviour poisons academic institutions from the top. When the top is rotten the whole academic institution becomes vulnerable to becoming rotten like the top academic administrator.
A few days back there were reports of a Computer Science/Information Technology professor in JNTU Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) sexually harassing female students who he called individually for a viva voce test that he was conducting as an external examiner.
Here are the related articles:
a) Andhra police arrest JNTU Kakinada professor for alleged sexual harassment, https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/andhra-police-arrest-jntu-kakinada-professor-alleged-sexual-harassment-75754, 2nd Feb. 2018
b) Sexual harassment: Prof. removed as Director, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/sexual-harassment-professor-removed-from-post-of-director/article22581072.ece, 30th Jan. 2018
The students' agitation saw to it that the matter could not be suppressed. A member of the State women's commission also spoke to the alleged victims. I read in some other article about the state education minister also calling up the vice-chancellor about this matter. I think all this pressure resulted in an investigation by the university following which a police complaint was recorded against the Computer Science/Information Technology professor who also was a Director of some department/institute, and the professor was arrested by the police.
We have not heard the professor's side of the story in the media. Perhaps he has some defense. But multiple girls complaining about sexual harassment would be treated seriously by an Indian court of law, unless their complaints are shown to be false. As the letter complaint to the Registrar was made by 20 girl students, I find the complaints to be credible. I mean, I find it hard to believe that 20 girl students in Andhra Pradesh would conspire to make a false complaint of sexual harassment against the professor.
Still, the accused professor has to be proved guilty of these charges in a court of law. Till then, I will view it as an accusation only. Unfortunately, there is no CCTV kind of evidence to prove the case.
But can an Indian Computer Science/Information Technology professor sink to such depths of sexual harassment of his students? Well, my own experience of Indian academia in South India is that it is rotten. There are some good people. But many people in academic positions of power abuse their power in horrible ways. I personally experienced Shakuni poison kind of academic administrators including a vice-chancellor, registrar, director of campus and Head of Maths & Computer Science department in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh. By default, I am deeply suspicious from ethics point of view of any Indian senior academic and any Indian academic administrator. I think the Indian academic system has become so rotten now that it poisons the ethics of any person who gets associated with it for long in positions of power.
Of course, there are academic institutions of high academic calibre (different from ethical standards) which may not be so poisonous in terms of their ethics, and there are good ethical senior academics even in lesser known Indian academic institutions. But, overall, the system has become rotten. Perhaps the reason is the lack of accountability that Indian academic system has. The perception is that nobody can question them. Therefore they get away with poisonous behaviour that in other walks of life in India (like private companies) would have put them behind bars (in jail) or at least be dismissed from employment.
When Indian academic administrators and senior academics have become so rotten in money corruption and ethical corruption including sexual harassment, what can we expect from the students they teach and mentor? It is very depressing to know about such things.
I think Indian academics should be subject to accountability like people from other walks of life. That will put some fear in them and stop them from money corruption and ethical corruption like sexual harassment and mental harassment of juniors, or at least reduce the number of such incidents.
Here is an article that appeared in 4th Feb. 2018 newspapers: Coimbatore: Bharathiar University VC arrested for taking Rs 30 lakh bribe, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/040218/bharathiar-university-vc-takes-rs-30-lakh-bribe-arrested.html.
The article states that the vice-chancellor of this university in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded Rs. 30 Lakh (Rs. 3 million or about USD 46,773 at current exchange rate of Rs. 64.14 for 1 U.S. Dollar) from an Assistant Professor who was on probation, to get confirmed in his job as Assistant Professor. The Asst. Professor approached the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption people (police department) who laid a trap and caught the vice-chancellor red-handed with currency notes marked with invisible ink (according to this report: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/bharathiar-university-v-c-arrested-on-graft-charge/article22642800.ece).
When the top academic administrator of a university (which is the vice-chancellor) indulges in such money corruption, one can well imagine how lower ranked academics and administrators of the university would behave. I am quite sure at least some of the lower ranked academics and administrators of this university would be corrupt as well. This kind of behaviour poisons academic institutions from the top. When the top is rotten the whole academic institution becomes vulnerable to becoming rotten like the top academic administrator.
A few days back there were reports of a Computer Science/Information Technology professor in JNTU Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) sexually harassing female students who he called individually for a viva voce test that he was conducting as an external examiner.
Here are the related articles:
a) Andhra police arrest JNTU Kakinada professor for alleged sexual harassment, https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/andhra-police-arrest-jntu-kakinada-professor-alleged-sexual-harassment-75754, 2nd Feb. 2018
b) Sexual harassment: Prof. removed as Director, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/sexual-harassment-professor-removed-from-post-of-director/article22581072.ece, 30th Jan. 2018
The students' agitation saw to it that the matter could not be suppressed. A member of the State women's commission also spoke to the alleged victims. I read in some other article about the state education minister also calling up the vice-chancellor about this matter. I think all this pressure resulted in an investigation by the university following which a police complaint was recorded against the Computer Science/Information Technology professor who also was a Director of some department/institute, and the professor was arrested by the police.
We have not heard the professor's side of the story in the media. Perhaps he has some defense. But multiple girls complaining about sexual harassment would be treated seriously by an Indian court of law, unless their complaints are shown to be false. As the letter complaint to the Registrar was made by 20 girl students, I find the complaints to be credible. I mean, I find it hard to believe that 20 girl students in Andhra Pradesh would conspire to make a false complaint of sexual harassment against the professor.
Still, the accused professor has to be proved guilty of these charges in a court of law. Till then, I will view it as an accusation only. Unfortunately, there is no CCTV kind of evidence to prove the case.
But can an Indian Computer Science/Information Technology professor sink to such depths of sexual harassment of his students? Well, my own experience of Indian academia in South India is that it is rotten. There are some good people. But many people in academic positions of power abuse their power in horrible ways. I personally experienced Shakuni poison kind of academic administrators including a vice-chancellor, registrar, director of campus and Head of Maths & Computer Science department in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh. By default, I am deeply suspicious from ethics point of view of any Indian senior academic and any Indian academic administrator. I think the Indian academic system has become so rotten now that it poisons the ethics of any person who gets associated with it for long in positions of power.
Of course, there are academic institutions of high academic calibre (different from ethical standards) which may not be so poisonous in terms of their ethics, and there are good ethical senior academics even in lesser known Indian academic institutions. But, overall, the system has become rotten. Perhaps the reason is the lack of accountability that Indian academic system has. The perception is that nobody can question them. Therefore they get away with poisonous behaviour that in other walks of life in India (like private companies) would have put them behind bars (in jail) or at least be dismissed from employment.
When Indian academic administrators and senior academics have become so rotten in money corruption and ethical corruption including sexual harassment, what can we expect from the students they teach and mentor? It is very depressing to know about such things.
I think Indian academics should be subject to accountability like people from other walks of life. That will put some fear in them and stop them from money corruption and ethical corruption like sexual harassment and mental harassment of juniors, or at least reduce the number of such incidents.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Business Insider.com article: PhD students have double the risk of developing a psychiatric disorder than the rest of the 'highly educated' population
PhD students have double the risk of developing a psychiatric disorder than the rest of the 'highly educated' population, http://www.businessinsider.com/phd-students-could-face-significant-mental-health-problems-2017-8, 5th Aug. 2017.
My comments on the above article:
My experience as a free service Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty for nine years in an Indian deemed university, fits with the article's broad view. I think the PhD program in some parts of Indian academia puts inhuman mental pressure on the PhD candidates if they have a PhD guide who does not give proper guidance. There is a complete lack of accountability from the PhD guide. The student, who would typically be in the mid-twenties, has to be mortally afraid of his PhD guide as his PhD can be easily messed up by his guide. And, very unfortunately, there are some brutal and inhuman professors in Indian academia, who can extract brutal revenge from a PhD student who dares to go against them or complain about them or simply does not follow his orders.
For me to watch mid-twenties young men who could have had a good paying job in the software industry if they had chosen to go for industry, having to become grad-slaves of some unethical or sometimes plainly incompetent PhD guide professors, was particularly upsetting.
I think there should be some human rights group in India that ensures accountability from Indian (academic) professors who exploit and mentally harass their PhD students, and even punishes such professors by naming-and-shaming them and by having a negative record entry in their academic record. Really! It gets that bad, at times, in Indian academia.
-----
My comments on the above article:
My experience as a free service Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty for nine years in an Indian deemed university, fits with the article's broad view. I think the PhD program in some parts of Indian academia puts inhuman mental pressure on the PhD candidates if they have a PhD guide who does not give proper guidance. There is a complete lack of accountability from the PhD guide. The student, who would typically be in the mid-twenties, has to be mortally afraid of his PhD guide as his PhD can be easily messed up by his guide. And, very unfortunately, there are some brutal and inhuman professors in Indian academia, who can extract brutal revenge from a PhD student who dares to go against them or complain about them or simply does not follow his orders.
For me to watch mid-twenties young men who could have had a good paying job in the software industry if they had chosen to go for industry, having to become grad-slaves of some unethical or sometimes plainly incompetent PhD guide professors, was particularly upsetting.
I think there should be some human rights group in India that ensures accountability from Indian (academic) professors who exploit and mentally harass their PhD students, and even punishes such professors by naming-and-shaming them and by having a negative record entry in their academic record. Really! It gets that bad, at times, in Indian academia.
-----
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Requested a correspondent to never refer to me as Prof. even jokingly
This post is copy-pasted from https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/08/requested-correspondent-to-never-refer.html on 19-Aug-2017.
I had sent the contents of my recent post, A quick intro of Puttaparthi to non Sai devotee ex software industry colleague who is now based in USA,
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1955750351308199, over mail to a correspondent who is an elderly Indian academic.
He responded by thanking me for the mail and referring to me as Prof. Iyer! Now, even in the past I had requested him to NOT refer to me as Prof. as I am NOT an academic. But I think he was using the word in a nice way to express his appreciation for my post.
But my problem is that .... I think what I wrote him next expresses my views quite well. I wrote:
Sairam sir!
Thanks.
But please, please do not refer to me as Prof., even jokingly. I have a very, very poor opinion of Indian academia and certainly do not consider Prof. to be a compliment (I actually consider it to be an insult).
Please do not be offended, sir. I think while you are an Indian academic, you are a nice person. I am afraid I cannot say that of many Indian academics and academic administrators today. I think it is the ***rotten*** Indian academic system that is to blame for this state of affairs and one hopes that HRD minister Javadekar's efforts to reform Indian academic system will bear fruit so that academics, including professors, do not neglect their teaching duties, and do not indulge in promoting fake research, giving fake PhDs and producing graduates with paper degrees but without appropriate knowledge thereby severely handicapping these young graduates in their quest to get a good job and lead a full life.
--- end my response---
Ravi: I was concerned about the elderly Indian academic getting upset by my having shared my frank and truthful views. Fortunately, his subsequent short response indicated that he did not get upset.
I responded by thanking him for his understanding and his Sai blessings.
I decided to put up this post as a way of letting other readers know that I become very, very uncomfortable if somebody refers to me, even jokingly, as (Indian UGC/AICTE academic) Professor. I earnestly request readers to please not refer to me, even jokingly, as Professor. I am NOT an (Indian) academic. I am a retired international software consultant who is now a social media writer on spirituality and religion.
I had sent the contents of my recent post, A quick intro of Puttaparthi to non Sai devotee ex software industry colleague who is now based in USA,
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1955750351308199, over mail to a correspondent who is an elderly Indian academic.
He responded by thanking me for the mail and referring to me as Prof. Iyer! Now, even in the past I had requested him to NOT refer to me as Prof. as I am NOT an academic. But I think he was using the word in a nice way to express his appreciation for my post.
But my problem is that .... I think what I wrote him next expresses my views quite well. I wrote:
Sairam sir!
Thanks.
But please, please do not refer to me as Prof., even jokingly. I have a very, very poor opinion of Indian academia and certainly do not consider Prof. to be a compliment (I actually consider it to be an insult).
Please do not be offended, sir. I think while you are an Indian academic, you are a nice person. I am afraid I cannot say that of many Indian academics and academic administrators today. I think it is the ***rotten*** Indian academic system that is to blame for this state of affairs and one hopes that HRD minister Javadekar's efforts to reform Indian academic system will bear fruit so that academics, including professors, do not neglect their teaching duties, and do not indulge in promoting fake research, giving fake PhDs and producing graduates with paper degrees but without appropriate knowledge thereby severely handicapping these young graduates in their quest to get a good job and lead a full life.
--- end my response---
Ravi: I was concerned about the elderly Indian academic getting upset by my having shared my frank and truthful views. Fortunately, his subsequent short response indicated that he did not get upset.
I responded by thanking him for his understanding and his Sai blessings.
I decided to put up this post as a way of letting other readers know that I become very, very uncomfortable if somebody refers to me, even jokingly, as (Indian UGC/AICTE academic) Professor. I earnestly request readers to please not refer to me, even jokingly, as Professor. I am NOT an (Indian) academic. I am a retired international software consultant who is now a social media writer on spirituality and religion.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Indian Computer Science Academic job can be a DANGEROUS CAREER-WRECK for 'only' graduate Comp.Sc. engineers
Last updated on 18-Aug-2017
Minor update on 23-Apr-2020
Minor update on 23-Apr-2020
I think a serious warning should be given to all Indian B.E./B.Tech. (Comp. Sc.) graduates to NEVER EVER take up a job in an Indian academic Computer Science / Information Technology department UNLESS a) they plan to finish an M.Tech./M.Phil./Ph.D. degree in the near future OR b) they are doing the job as a way to pass their time or as spiritual Seva (voluntary service).
The mail exchange given below shows how Indian Computer Science academia (engineering colleges, in this case) SADISTICALLY EXPLOITS 'only' graduate Computer Science engineers by using them as Lab. Assistants and also using them as teachers for some lab. courses and even theory courses at times, WITHOUT ANY CAREER GROWTH PROSPECTS WHATSOEVER! This is because the minimum qualification for a proper faculty designation in UGC/AICTE regulated Indian computer science academia is an M.Tech. (or M.Phil). Ph.D., of course, opens up the faculty designations and career growth possibilities in a big way. With 'only' a graduate Computer Science degree, there is NO CHANCE at all for anybody to be appointed as regular faculty.
Further, the even scarier thing is that as such a person ages, he/she may be pushed out of even that Lab. Asst. position by a youngster! College managements would want youngsters to do Lab. Assistant work and so push out oldies who are stuck at Lab. Asst. post for some years. Net effect would be that such a person loses such 'Lab Assistant' position in one college and so has to look for the same position in other colleges who are willing to take an older person to do that job! And sometimes one may be jobless.
The mail exchange below shows a sad case of such a first class B.E. in Computer Science & Engineering graduate.
A few days ago I received an email from a person (he was OK with sharing contents of his mails anonymously) who I am referring to as P in the shared mail exchange below.
P wrote (slightly edited):
My humble pranams [Ravi: salutations] at lotus feet of Bhagawan. I was working in --college-name-snip--,--location-snip-- as lab assistant. At present I have left the job. I have come across your blogspot.
...
[P forwarded his bio-data. It mentions B.E. (CSE - Computer Science and Engineering) Bangalore university with first class as his academic qualification.
The skill set claimed include C, C++ and Java languages and various Windows and Linux operating systems.
The experience details are three stints of "Lab. Assistant" in three different colleges in Andhra Pradesh (a state in South India) for 4 years, 4 years and 2 years. That comes to a total of 10 years "Lab. Assistant" experience.
The job function part states:
Installation, configuration and operation of various Windows and Linux operating systems (including server installations).
Computer Assembling, fault finding, Computer maintenance.
Helping students and acting as informal tutor.
Ordering supplies for the dept.
Doing other duties as assigned.]
[From a later mail, it seems that after P finished his BE (CSE) he worked for some computer services company. Later he seems to have moved to "Lab Assistant" position in an Indian engineering college in 2007. In the first college that he worked in, he seems to have been given an (informal perhaps) designation of "Assistant Professor" where he also taught courses for B.Tech. 3rd year students like computer organization, computer architecture, human computer interaction, and also ran multimedia lab. having experiments in Adobe Flash.
In the next college he joined he taught "IT lab" and subjects: computer graphics and unix internals.
He was with the third college till sometime this year - 2017. Now he is looking out for a job.]
----
I (Ravi S. Iyer) responded (slightly edited):
Sairam brother --name-snipped--,
I am not in a position to help you directly get a job. However, I looked at your bio-data and have given some thoughts for you to ponder about.
Your bio-data shows B.E. (Computer Science & Engineering - CSE) 1st class from Bangalore University, followed by 3 stints of Lab. Assistant in CSE dept. of 4 years, 4 years and 2 years. If they are not parallel then that comes to Lab. Assistant experience of 10 years!
Very unfortunately, Lab. work is treated as unimportant and so career prospects for Lab. Assistants and Lab. course teachers is very, very poor in Indian academic setup. Without clearing NET exam (don't know if you tried) or without having a Ph.D., I am afraid the career prospects for a person like you in Indian Computer Science / Information Technology academia is very poor.
[Update: A later mail from me notes that he needs an M.Tech. irrespective of NET exam to qualify for regular faculty position in UGC/AICTE academia.]
So either clear NET or I think you should try for a job in Indian software industry. For that you will have to find out the in-demand software skills in it today and learn them either by yourself or by attending suitable training courses. Then you will have to try hard to get a job in Indian software industry by proving that you have software development skills in the area they are interested. That can be done by doing experimental projects whose design and code can be shown to prospective employers as proof of your skills.
Don't take my advice as the final view. It could be inappropriate for you. Ultimately it is your future and your decision.
All the best!
----
He responded (slightly edited):
Sairam
Thanks for reply. If you know of any job sites please let me know.
----
I (Ravi) responded:
Sairam!
I don't keep track of job sites. So I cannot help you there.
----
I (Ravi) later wrote:
Sairam,
Oh! I later recalled that minimum qualification for Asst. Professor position in UGC/AICTE norms is M.Tech. with 55% marks.
So with a B.E. you are not eligible for Asst. Prof. position even if you pass NET/SLET (if they allow you to appear).
If I have understood that correctly then I think you must seriously consider whether trying for a job in software lab in Indian academia is worth it for you.
Why don't you learn mobile app programming - Android/iOS - as that seems to be in demand, and then try for a programming job?
----
In a later response P wrote (partial edited extract):
When I lost (an earlier college Lab. Assistant/(informal Asst. Professor)) job I thought I don't have M.Tech. (degree). I will never get a job. But you are totally wrong. Persons like you who should give good advice usually say unfit for any job. That is why --name-snip-- commited suicide because of frustration. [--snip--]
Only thing comes to you is that swamy has to give job or bless you. Without swamy blessing nothing will happen.
[P later got his second 'Lab Assistant'/(informal Asst. Professor) job in another engineering college in Andhra Pradesh.]
----
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited):
Sairam brother,
First, I think you have misunderstood me. You wrote, "when I lost job i thought i dont have m tech. i will never get a job. but you are totally wrong. persons like you who should give good advice usually say unfit for any job.that is why --name-snip-- commited suicide because of frustration."
Did I say, "unfit for any job"??? NO. I wrote, "So with a B.E. you are not eligible (for) Asst. Prof. (position) even if you pass NET/SLET (if they allow you to appear)." I think that is the truth as per UGC/AICTE norms today which is what most colleges and universities in Andhra Pradesh (and India, I guess) follow. We have to face the truth in such situations FOR OUR OWN GOOD.
I had WARNED YOU that without M.Tech. your career prospects in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academic setup is poor. Actually I think without M.Tech. /PhD your career prospects in Indian academic setup is very poor. I am just telling you the truth because I have studied IN DETAIL the UGC/AICTE regulations for appointment of Asst. Professor, Assoc. Professor and Professor, and am also aware of how so many engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh have had to close over the past few years. I have seen how 'only' B.E./B.Tech. engineering graduates are EXPLOITED by Indian academic administrators like HODs and principal/director/Registrar/Vice-chancellors, giving them poor salary without scope for career growth. I even view some of such behaviour as sadistic. They destroy the life of young engineering graduates like you who has a FIRST CLASS Bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Bangalore University!!!
As I have spent nearly two decades in Indian software development/IT industry where I have played roles of main technical interviewer (included interviewing of fresh B.Tech./B.E. and M.Tech/M.E. Computer Science graduates/post-graduates), trainer, mentor, software manager, technical consultant etc., I know that Indian IT industry is a far, far better place for people who are sadistically referred to by Indian academics as 'only' B.E./B.Tech. engineering graduates. BTW I was referred to as 'only' B.Sc. Physics by an ignorant fool in software development HOD of an Indian academic Mathematics and Computer Science dept. even though I then had 18 years international software development experience FOLLOWED by around eight years teaching and Masters project technical consultant FREE SERVICE in that department! Perhaps that ignorant fool in software development of an HOD will view Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg as 'not even B.Sc'!!! This is the tragic and horrific reality of some, if not many, Indian Computer Science academic departments where people who are ignorant fools in software development but who have some Ph.D. qualification (many times in field of Mathematics, Electrical Engg., Electronics etc.) and who are sometimes brutally exploitative of staff (and students as free research assistants to further their (academic's) research credentials), hold important administrative and decision-making positions.
Therefore I advised you to pick up software development skills that are in demand and try for an IT job in industry. Now I will expand that to even looking at system administration cum management positions in Indian IT industry. You could do some industry certified system administration courses and then try for such jobs. Based on my direct experience of Indian IT industry, I can tell you that expertise and performance are rewarded. I am sure if you had spent ten years in even a small Indian IT company instead of Indian Computer Science academia, and even if you had focused on systems administration rather than software development, and had done your job with reasonable performance level, today your salary would be at least Rs. 50,000 a month if not higher. Further, you would have been in the management grade by now and so had a senior and respected designation instead of 'Lab. Assistant', [Ravi: I guess that a 'Lab Assistant' job in an Indian private engineering college in Andhra Pradesh, for even a 10 year experienced Lab. Assistant, will not typically pay beyond Rs. 15,000 a month. In fact, I think the salary would typically be in the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 a month.]
Those academic administrators/consultants who appointed you in Indian academia (college) and may have promised you a good career even though you had stopped your studies at B.E. (CSE), seem to have given you BAD ADVICE and, in my considered opinion, seem to have done you grave injustice. These Ph.D. fellows who are Indian academic administrators and consultants ****WOULD HAVE KNOWN IN 2007 and later**** that without an M.Tech. or Ph.D., appointment to regular scale (Lecturer/Assistant Professor) would not be possible from UGC/AICTE norms point of view. [Some college giving you an 'Assistant Professor' designation but not paying you UGC/AICTE scale salary is not REAL 'Assistant Professor' but more of something to make you feel good but which will not be viewed as REAL 'Assistant Professor' designation by proper UGC/AICTE academic setups.]
Honestly, I don't think it is too late for you to try to get into Indian IT industry even now. You have a First Class CSE bachelor's degree. You may not have the software development or systems administration skills that industry wants right now but you can pick it up. Don't mind joining in with people ten years your junior - the start salary will match if not better your Lab. Assistant salary.
To make you feel good if I tell you that pray to Swami (Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba) and that even without an M.Tech. degree/Ph.D. you will get a good job in Indian Computer Science academia, I think I will be doing A GRAVE INJUSTICE to you and I will be giving you BAD & HARMFUL ADVICE. Instead I will say that you should pray to Swami for blessings and then EITHER do M.Tech. and then try for a good job in Indian academia OR do some additional training and try for a job in Indian IT industry. Bhagavan would say, "Manishi prayatnamu kuda kavali" or words to that effect, meaning that human effort is also needed, for success in such affairs and that we should not depend only on Bhagavan/God.
Thank you for the information you have provided about your work experience. May I share it on my blog ANONYMOUSLY, removing all names of people and college institutions so that there are no sensitivity issues? I think your information will help others to avoid the Indian Computer Science academia trap that you fell into.
I pray to Bhagavan to guide you and help you get a proper profession and not just a job. I repeat my advice - EITHER get an M.Tech. and then try for academic profession (and not just job) OR get additional training (even using Internet based courses) in in-demand areas either in systems administration or software development, and then try for Indian IT industry profession (not just job).
Jai Sairam!
----
A USA based correspondent wrote (slightly edited):
Dear Ravi - Another advise you may give him is to try and do some self training on Cloud stuff. Best I can think of is AWS (Amazon Web Services) at https://aws.amazon.com. It allows one to create what is called a Free Tier account and is good for one full year! The free account would allow one to launch server instances, databases, apps etc. He can get familiar with various terminology used in the Cloud world these days!
There is tons of documentation also on its site. Hope this helps him. Good Luck to him!
---
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited):
Thanks --name-snipped--. Will share it with him and also put it on my blog/FB pages.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Dr. Pushkar's articles on research req. for Indian college teachers producing fake research and reducing teaching quality; historical background of Indian academic research system
Last updated on 5th Aug. 2017
I came across an interesting article that appreciated HRD minister Javadekar's recent announcement of near-future change in UGC/AICTE API (Academic Performance Indicators) to remove mandatory research requirement for college teachers (under-graduate teachers) - Kudos to Javadekar for Letting College Teachers Teach by Pushkar, https://thewire.in/163562/javadekar-ugc-research-college-teachers/, 1st Aug. 2017. The sub-title for the article is: "The research requirement in the API for college teachers was a travesty. All that it achieved was a proliferation of fake journals for college teachers to publish in."
About Dr. Pushkar who is Director of The International Centre Goa (India), from http://www.internationalcentregoa.com/web/about-icg/whos-who/: "Dr Pushkar (PhD Political Science, McGill University) previously taught at BITS Pilani-Goa, McGill University, Concordia University and Goa University." .. "He also writes regularly on India’s higher education and his op-eds and essays have appeared in Asian Scientist, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, The Wire, Braingainmag.com and elsewhere."
[For background on HRD minister Javadekar's announcement, readers may visit my recent blog post: HRD minister Javadekar tells truth about UGC AICTE academia problems; removes mandatory research for college faculty (but not university faculty); assures UGC AICTE reform, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2017/08/hrd-minister-javadekar-tells-truth.html, dated 2nd Aug. 2017.]
Pushkar's above article refers to two earlier articles of his:
a) Let College Teachers Teach by Pushkar, https://thewire.in/3617/let-college-teachers-teach/, dated 10th June 2015
b) Strides Ahead in Sizing Up Academic Performance Skip Faculty Performance by Pushkar, https://thewire.in/36677/strides-ahead-in-sizing-up-academic-performance-skip-faculty-performance/, 18th May 2016
I feel that the three articles above give a good picture of UGC/AICTE Indian academia's struggle with mandatory research resulting in negative impact on teaching quality.
In the latest Aug. 2017 article, Pushkar himself summarizes his arguments for exempting (Indian UGC/AICTE regulated) college teachers (under-graduate faculty) from research, from his June 2015 and May 2016 articles mentioned above, as follows:
- Large numbers of college teachers, even those with PhDs, lack basic training for research;
- Most teachers are already overburdened with teaching, administrative and other responsibilities; and
- A majority of college teachers work at institutions with woeful infrastructure and where the overall academic environment is inimical to substantive research.
As I am interested primarily in good teaching of Computer Science and Information Technology (CS & IT), especially the practice of software development, in UGC/AICTE administered Indian under-graduate AS WELL AS post-graduate academia, and have only some limited exposure to doing CS & IT academic research, I don't think it is appropriate for me to comment on point 1. Note that I have great respect and appreciation for GENUINE Computer Science and Information Technology academic (and industry) research and innovation, and as a software technologist I have applied/used the products/output of such research and innovation, to develop software and to teach software development in Indian industry and academia. But I am NOT INTERESTED in doing such research myself.
The Aug. 2017 article of Pushkar gives a very interesting extract from what it refers to as a widely-cited study (from the USA): The Relation Between Research Productivity and Teaching Effectiveness, by Herbert W. Marsh and John Hattie in "The Journal of Higher Education Vol. 73, No. 5 (September/October 2002)", http://faculty.washington.edu/mpw/ITE05/research&%20teaching%20correl.pdf. The extract is as follows:
It is important not to perpetuate the myth that there is a positive and reciprocal relation between teaching and research. There is no doubt that many would like such a positive relation to be true, and there is a strong conviction that research and teaching are closely linked….Furthermore, a near-zero correlation between teaching and research is consistent with the observation that some academics are gifted teachers and researchers, but that others are substantially better at one than the other, and some are weak as both teachers and researchers.Ravi: I think the above effectively rebuts criticism that teachers who don't do research will be like drones who cannot apply knowledge well, and so will produce graduates and post-graduates who are like drones who cannot apply knowledge well. Mind you, like Pushkar says further in this Aug. 2017 article, teachers who are not trained to do research or are not inclined to do so, can keep up to date on research (in their field) and bring the new research input into their teaching if appropriate. I think this is like when I was an international software consultant in the Indian software export industry, I used to keep up to date on information about the latest technologies being offered by leading software vendors in the world, in my areas of software expertise, by reading leading industry/trade magazines on it regularly. And many times, I had to learn about some of these new software technologies so that I could provide consultancy advice about it, and sometimes even teach it to software developers. I did not have to do research into these new software technologies myself. Others did that and provided the new technologies. I consumed/used those new technologies to develop or help develop better software solutions for end users.
Pushkar writes, "It is not necessary, in terms of content, to be doing research in order to be or become a better teacher." I completely agree with this statement of Pushkar, based on my experience as an instructor/mentor/consultant in Indian software export industry for over a decade (different from my individual software developer and project lead experience), as well as a teacher of software lab. courses (mainly at M.Sc and at M.Tech post-graduate levels) and technical consultant for post-graduate (M.Tech./M.Sc.) software design & development projects in Indian academia for 9 years (with designations of Honorary Faculty, Visiting Faculty and Honorary Staff). [I also taught one software lab. course, once, to U.G. students (B.Sc. Mathematics).]
Note that my academic teaching/tech. consultant experience of mainly post-graduate students was in a somewhat odd situation. The M.Sc. students I taught software lab. courses were Mathematics students (and Physics students a couple of times) and NOT Computer Science students. So while they were post-graduate students, they could not be viewed as post-graduate students from a Computer Science perspective. And most of these M.Sc. students later became students of the M.Tech. (Computer Science) lab. courses and projects that I taught/gave consultancy advice on. The important thing to note was that almost none of the M.Tech. (Comp.Sc.) students that I taught had a prior academic degree in Computer Science or Information Technology! Further, I believe that it is similar in many parts of Indian CS & IT academia. The M.Tech. (CS) or M.Tech. (IT) student usually has a NON Computer Science/Information Technology graduate (and sometimes post-graduate) degree! So he/she has to be taught some under-graduate level Computer Science/Information Technology subjects, including some under-graduate level software lab. courses, at M.Tech. (post-graduate) level!
The June 2015 article of Pushkar gives some interesting historical background of Indian (UGC/AICTE) academia. It says that in the "old system" there was a clear separation of teaching and research. Colleges and universities teaching at under-graduate level (offering graduate degrees to passed out students) are, Pushkar writes, "the backbone of India’s HE system" (HE stands for Higher Education) with UG students comprising 80% of the total no. of Higher Education students. College faculty (and university faculty mainly teaching UG courses) focused on teaching. In the old system, a few college faculty did research and such people typically got promoted to/hired at PG institutions. But college faculty were not expected to do research with many not obtaining PhD degree or even seeking one.
In the old system, research was done by faculty in PG departments "across state universities, central universities and other central-government funded institutions". The PG department faculty had duties of teaching and supervising PG students (teaching-cum-research).
The article states that in 2010, the UGC introduced the API (Academic Performance Indicators) which made research mandatory for career advancement at central govt. funded institutions. This was also adopted by many state universities and colleges. The API was scrapped for a short time in 2013 but reintroduced (in 2013 itself).
This seems to have been an attempt to increase quality research output from (UGC/AICTE) higher education. Pushkar argues that it should have targeted only PG faculty and not UG faculty. By targeting all, it resulted in proliferation of fake research done only to secure API credit and reduction of teaching quality of UG faculty.
Now that the HRD minister is proposing to remove the mandatory research requirement for UG faculty/college teachers, Pushkar argues that it will allow UG faculty/college teachers to focus on teaching (Ravi: like it was before 2010).
[I thank thewire.in, Dr. Pushkar and washington.edu, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts from, and many references to their website/articles, on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
HRD minister Javadekar tells truth about UGC AICTE academia problems; removes mandatory research for college faculty (but not university faculty); assures UGC AICTE reform
Last updated on 5th Aug. 2017
I came across this very interesting speech by Hon'ble HRD minister Prakash Javadekar at a national conference on higher education organized by a teachers union/orgn. on 29th July 2017. Javadekar talks in a free and frank manner about the problems in UGC AICTE academia, how he proposes to solve them, and about other plans and initiatives taken by his HRD ministry to improve higher education in India.
[UGC, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Grants_Commission_(India), http://www.ugc.ac.in/ and AICTE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Council_for_Technical_Education, http://www.aicte-india.org/, are the leading Indian govt. run academic regulatory (and academic funding, at least in the past) bodies of India.]I found that his speech had a lot of content which is hard to find from other sources. Further, as the top man of Indian higher education, he gets to know a lot about the reality of Indian UGC AICTE academia. So I felt that I should make a social media post having transcript of appropriate parts of his mostly Hindi speech and then translate that to English. This post can then serve as a source of easily available data on the Internet for anybody interested in these matters. It took a lot of time and effort for me to do this work but I think it is a worthwhile additional small contribution of mine to improve teaching quality in Indian UGC and AICTE administered academia.
Note that I have a blog on Indian Computer Science and Information Technology Academic Reform here: https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/. A key academic paper of mine related to my study and suggestions in this regard, which I must say has not been published in any academic peer review publication, is, "Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia": Abstract: https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1715, Paper: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1202/1202.1715.pdf.The transcript of most of the speech of Hon'ble HRD minister Javadekar given below covers the following (not in the same order):
- Attacks fake/pretence (pretense in USA English) research
- Demands good teaching and accountability from faculty; Student feedback will be one part of faculty accountability
- Announces plan to remove mandatory research (from API) for promotion of college faculty [Under graduate level teachers]
- Announces that research will continue to be mandatory for university faculty [Post graduate level teachers]
- Promises good rewards for good teachers
- UGC AICTE reform; Graded autonomy plan
- Good education system leads to country becoming rich and not the other way around
- Sustainable prosperity-hood for the country comes through innovations; Universities should become temples of innovation
- SWAYAM free online higher education with exams & certification; available via DTH TV (offline) too
- Details of how genuine research and innovation are encouraged by HRD ministry
- Permission given to students to form startup companies in hostel rooms; 600 such startups formed
- Over 500 engineering colleges closed in past four years due to students rejecting them; students see placement record and do peer review of colleges
- National Ranking Framework; 40,000 colleges today; Only good colleges will survive
Ravi: I wholeheartedly support Hon'ble HRD minister Javadekar's proposed plan to remove mandatory research component from promotion criteria of college faculty [under graduate teachers] so that college faculty can focus on improved teaching and therefore better learning outcome for students. But I do have some concerns about problems of poor teaching in post graduate level in university departments not being addressed by his proposed change.The video of the speech which was used to make this transcript is: Speech of HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar at National Conference on Higher Education on 29-07-2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2BjZ1oQ9o, 30 min. 40 secs.
Given below is a screenshot from above youtube video.
Note that the event is a conference on Higher Education organized by Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM) which seems to be a teachers' union and/or organization.
From its about us webpage, http://www.abrsm.in/about-us.htm :
Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM) is an organisation imbued with Indianness with an aim to propagate the ideology of Cultural Nationalism in the field of education and society. Along with safeguarding teachers' interests including their salary, allowances, service conditions and other facilities, the Mahasangh keeps in mind its national objectives, plans and executes the programmes of social concern and educational upgradation.
Accordingly, Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh comprising the range from Pre-Primary to University level teachers throbbing with the sense of Nationality and Indian philosphy was founded in 1988. Now Mahasangh is a country wide organisation. Presently, 35 State level organisations and more than 50 University level organisations spread over 24 States are affiliated to it.
--- end short extract from About Us webpage of ABRSM ---
Ravi: It seems to me that this teachers' union/orgn. is directly/indirectly affiliated with the political party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and so the minister who is from the ruling BJP party seems to view this teachers' union/orgn. as a kindred union/orgn.
Given below is my attempt at English rendering of the transcript of most of the speech (but not all of it) by HRD minister Javadekar. Note that my English rendering may have a few errors but not many. My Hindi knowledge is reasonable but not excellent. This English rendering is followed by the transcript of the original Hindi (in English, or rather Latin, script) with little parts in English, that he spoke in.
English rendering of most of speech of Hon'ble HRD Minister Shri Javadekar
From 0:00
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This organization [Ravi: referring to the teachers union and/or orgn. that organized the conference] is one that works for the nation. And therefore I remember Dattopantji. Dattopant put the biggest idea (ideal) of [Ravi: workers'/trade] unions in this country. Dattopantji said, "We will work for the nation. And take full wages for the work." This one slogan itself creates a separate identity for us. To take the full wages for the work, we will stop work - this is what others say. Dattopantji taught us that we will work for the nation and we will take full wages for the work.
So this full wages have to be taken. And I am the education minister. I will say this that you too will get full wages - 7th recommendation [Ravi: This seems to be a reference to the 7th pay commission recommendation which if implemented for govt. teachers would result in increase of salary & allowances]. [Applause]
...
Around 6:15
-----------
When I got involved in the discussions about API [Ravi: Academic Performance Indicators which seems to play a key role in determining promotion for Indian academics in UGC/AICTE regulated educational institutions] - then I always go in detail. But the opposition to accountability from some organizations - in their remarks it was seeming that some professors/senior faculty were opposing accountability. Well, 16 lectures have to be given [Ravi: I think that refers to standard UGC norms for per week teaching load of faculty]. So what account are we asking? Well, how many lectures were done, how many tutorials were done, how much time was spent in student activity. They do not want to give even this. And I find this difference in you that how should a new system of accountability be, (you said) we will give you an initial form (draft). What initial form (draft) you give, we will welcome it - this is what I would like to tell you. [Applause]. As this is what partnership is.
From around 7:05
----------------
One cannot say that we are not accountable. You can suggest that what accountability framework UGC has drafted is not correct in this respect and therefore the correct system should be like this.
And therefore today I would like to declare ... When I studied (the matter) it came to my attention that research being made compulsory for college teachers ... What happened after making research compulsory (for college teachers)? Research got finished! And UGC (research) magazines (count) become 13,000. So (they) came with that list to me. And many colleges took their annual magazine, made it a quarterly and added it to the research list. I said the list is so much, is there Champak [Ravi: A children's stories magazine, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champak] and related magazines (in it too)? [Laughter]
But I always hate hypocrisy/pretence and I do not want to live in hypocrisy/pretence. College faculty and university faculty are two different categories. They are two different jobs. There are two different expectations. In one you teach post graduates and in the other you teach (under) graduates. And therefore college faculty should have the primary responsibility of teaching well. That is the accountability. [Applause]
And the accountability will be that (you) teach well. And I am going to start a new procedure. I am [Ravi: with emphasis on am] going to start students' feedback mechanism. [Applause]
As accountability is not one sided. You said two sided. So I am doing it as three sided. So we will take student feedback too. But teach well - this is your primary responsibility. We will not put the burden of research being made compulsory on your forehead. We will say that it is your choice. You will have to surely do one student activity or one community activity. So your teaching + community is what will assure you promotion.
I will be bringing this change to API and we will declare this change in a short time. ... And from this platform of ABRS [Ravi: Acronym of union/orgn. that has organized the conference] I am declaring for the first time that we will make this change in API which will remove pretence/hypocrisy and college teachers/faculty will have teaching well and doing one student activity or community activity as their primary task(s).
And research will be compulsory for university teachers/faculty. And for those college teachers/faculty who have a proclivity/inclination for research, we will not finish their choice to do research. But that will be a choice. It will not be mandatory. Otherwise research becomes a joke. We should not allow that to happen. So this we will do.
...
Around 12 min 19 secs.
---------------------
The ad-hoc teacher matter in Delhi is amazing. In all other universities ad-hoc teachers comprise ten to fifteen percent. In Delhi ad-hoc teachers particularly are the main force. Nine thousand ad-hoc teachers! I said we will stop this. We will make regular appointments. And this year I am behind that matter every month. In one year we will finish the whole process of regular appointment - I would like to say this too. [Applause].
In that those who are good ad-hoc ... There will be competition.
Around 13 min:
--------------
Competition should never be opposed. See, whatever you may say about politics, every five years we have to compete to come (back to power). We do not come for free. [Laughter] In our place/profession [Ravi: minister seems to refer to politics profession] we do not have assured career promotion. Therefore you should not oppose competition on ... But you are experienced. As you have taught for eight to ten years, naturally you will become permanent. You will get selected into permanent (category). Some may not become (permanent). This rule is also there.
Sometimes I think about this hire and fire (management approach) - I go to those countries. There nobody fires anybody actually. [Ravi: I wonder whether he referred to Western world academia only as in regular companies, hire and fire does happen. Perhaps it happens in Western world academia as well but that was not noticed by the minister.] Where there is hire and fire, there nobody fires anybody because every year there is a review. The fear of being fired leads to everybody being active. And everybody is on their toes. And everybody makes improvement in themselves. There is improvement in the country only because of these (attitudes/actions).
So sometimes to understand systems we need to open the doors of our minds. And therefore the government took the decision on it ...
As we are senior faculty/professors what study should we do? Do the study and let me know. What has happened in those countries which follow hire and fire (policies)? What were the good and bad results? Let somebody study and let us know.
To achieve quality in education, quality in higher education, the government has, as per Modiji's vision, started some remedial actions. I would like to only make a small mention about it.
Gargji said that in UGC reform - essentially he was saying that the rules/regulations of UGC have become very old. ... I told the officers. I am prepared to close down UGC. But we will need some administrative system. So what (will be) that administrative system? So what should be the reforms for UGC and AICTE? Have discussions on each rule/regulation and give me suggestions. Those suggestions are welcome. I would like to say that. [Applause] As we want to increase ... count.
And we have made one direction definite. That UGC and AICTE reform will be now graded autonomy. What is the meaning of graded autonomy? Those colleges which will go up in quality will get complete autonomy. Yesterday only, in the Lok Sabha [Ravi: Indian lower house of Parliament], unanimously [Ravi: supported by all members/parties], the IIM [Ravi: Indian Institute of Management, the premier management institutes of India funded by the govt.] bill was passed. This is a historic bill. This is a bill which gives complete autonomy to IIM. The government has no (role) in it. There is no need for (them) to go to the government everytime. This is the primary mantra of autonomy. This is how education evolves/grows.
The specialty of education in foreign countries, advanced countries is that countries have advanced only through progress in education (system). Like they say about roads that one day a team of representatives of India went and met America's president and told him sir, ... as you are wealthy your roads are good. Then the president said, no, no. It is because our roads are good that we have become rich/wealthy. Do understand this. So it is not that that country is rich and so its education (system) is good. The education (system) is good and so they have become rich. This is the truth.
And so if our education (system) is to be good then autonomy is the life force of UGC reform. And we will surely achieve UGC AICTE reform! And autonomy will be given to (good quality) institutions. Medium quality [Ravi: literal words used were less quality] institutions will get 50-50 (autonomy). And even lesser quality institutions that are at C level they will have regulations like (it is) today. But even in other regulations we need to do lot of improvement. Give those (to me/us). Taking each regulation - there are thousands of regulations - the UGC and AICTE system was like this that (the regulation) came in the dream in the night, the circular was put out in the morning and it got implemented the next day! I said this will not happen. First we will discuss. We will keep fifteen days for each ... for stakeholder consultation. ... We are opening the doors of online education. So to maintain the quality of online education we have made draft rules. We have kept those rules in front of you.
In future days any circulars about big changes in UGC AICTE will first have consultation (with) stakeholder(s) and then it will be given its final form. And if they are of (..) impact/effect then they will be implemented only next year. In mid way (we) will not change the goal post. This is also a definite rule of ours.
So we are proceeding with this reasoning and we need your co-operation.
Around 18 min 12 secs:
------------------------
We are doing one thing. There are two or three initiatives (in this regard) by Modi government. Research and innovation. Because we lack in innovation. India lacks in innovation. And I have umpteen times said, that there are only three four ways to get country richer. And what are these. The one model which was adopted by Europe - Portuguese, Dutch, French, British - they conquered the world and looted the colonies - colonized the world and looted the colonies. And they became rich. But that's not a good way and now not available also. So that is one.
Second is the nature's bounty which the Middle East has. Wherever you dig you get oil .. That's a natural (resource) but that you can't demand. What you have, you have.
The third is India and China's way of last thirty years, of reverse engineering and cost-competitiveness on the basis of - essentially on the backdrop of - ah - low wages. We have achieved cost competitiveness and therefore we have dominated in exports, in world markets and .. China majorly and India to an extent, became rich with this kind of thing. But that's not a sustainable prosperity-hood.
The sustainable prosperity-hood comes through innovations. And therefore higher education centres must become - universities must become - temples of innovation. They must become centres of research (and innovation). If they are not - then if PhD students are applying for sweeper's job that means we have not taught anything. See, world over PhD is something addition to the existing knowledge.
We have made PhD so thin/shallow/superficial that any new interpretation through the existing knowledge is also PhD. It is not as if people are doing PhD for doing PhD [Ravi: I think it means: 'It is not as if people are doing PhD out of desire to do genuine research which is what should be done for a proper PhD.] In our place/orgn./area we had a director. He had/owned very big educational institutions. He did a PhD. So we asked, how did you do PhD? I asked, in which subject/topic did you do PhD? So he asked (his) P.A., Hey, what subject/topic was that? [Laughter]
So this is not (full) quality education.
And therefore we started two three initiatives/experiments. We initiated/experimented with GIAN. [Ravi: I think this is what the minister is referring to: "Global Initiative of Academic Networks", http://mhrd.gov.in/gian, http://www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/.] In the previous year 600 senior faculty/professors from 58 countries came to India. They stayed for two to three weeks. They conducted a course in their subject. This year 800 senior faculty/professors will come. They will come from 70 countries. And (when) good senior faculty/professors come then our faculty/teachers also interact face-to-face with them. Our students also get knowledge [Ravi: The Hindi word used is gian, also written as gyan, which means knowledge; so there is a pun here involving the acronym GIAN mentioned above.] And we record all that, which we are also converting into SWAYAM courses. [Ravi: The minister seems to be referring to the HRD ministry/govt's free online learning portal SWAYAM: https://swayam.gov.in/.] So they will come as SWAYAM courses too.
A few days ago I had taken up a new initiative. Our national (chief) economic advisor, Prof. Arvind Subramanian - he has taught in John Hopkins and Harvard and best of the best - world's best universities. [Ravi: The minister seems to be referring to Mr. Arvind Subrmanian, Chief Economic Advisor to Indian govt. now, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvind_Subramanian. Subramanian is a world famous economics expert. But he does not seem to be a regular academic professor. However, the wiki page mentions him teaching at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government from 1999 to 2000 and at Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies from 2008 to 2010. end-Ravi].
We are not utilizing the professor. I said you are professor. Give me one week. And he gave. And he conducted a course on contemporary .. issues of Indian economy and Indian economic survey. As we are giving our economic survey in a new way in the past three years. So he conducted a course on it and we appealed to senior faculty/professors across the country that those who want to attend the course to please register (for it). We called the first 200 senior faculty/professors who registered. Senior faculty/professors who teach economics came from Andaman [Ravi: A remote island part of the country] to all other parts of the country. And in front of them he gave thirty three lectures. Five lectures everyday. He conducted the course in 7 days. (That will now be available in SWAYAM).
Around 22:30
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This year, there have been 1.5 lakh [Ravi: one lakh is one hundred thousand] registrations in SWAYAM. Our portal has become so popular. And there are over four hundred new courses available on it now. So we are quickly progressing on this new kind of platform of SWAYAM. This is (available) online as well as offline.
I am saying this so that you know who your competition is going to be from. I am also going to tell you that otherwise even if AC [Ravi: Air Conditioner] is fitted in classrooms, students will not sit (in those classrooms). Then they will study there (in SWAYAM). That is free. Because there will be two thousand courses there. It will be free. (There) will be lectures. (There) will be material. (There) will be tutorials. By the best of the best professors. (There) will be interactions. (There) will be discussion forums. Mid-term exams will be (there). Exams will be (there). Certification will be (there). These students will get choice based credit. And other learning (will be) made forever - If I [Ravi: I think the minister is referring to himself] want to learn something I can do so. I will get a certificate. So this system is new and it is online as well as offline on 32 DTH TV channels. As for this online is not required. For that [Ravi: DTH TV] only a set top box for free DISH has to be taken [Ravi: I think the minister is referring to free Satellite TV/DISH TV services provided by Govt. of India for which a suitable set top box has to be procured/bought.] For that, you spend 1300 Rupees once and you will get it permanently. (And people will learn this). We also can use this technology and these courses to - if you also teach the same (subject) then if I am the teacher I will say that students, listen to this lecture and come. We will run the class in a (flip) class model. We will do discussion here.
...
Around 25:27
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There is a project "Ucchta Aavishkaar". In this Ucchta Aavishkaar project there is interaction between industry and academia. Hundred proposals - customized requests by industries have been offered and IITs teams of faculties and students together working on those hundred ideas. .. They will come out with the solutions. That is what higher education is all about.
Along with that we have created a program of IMPRINT. [Ravi: I think the minister is referring to this: http://imprint-india.org/. IMPRINT acronym seems to come from the term: IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology.] In IMPRINT, we called for research proposals from all professors, all professionals, all students and we received more than 1500 proposals in ten domain sectors and we finalized 200 proposals and we are funding 600 crore Rupees [Ravi: 1 crore is 10 million] for these 200 projects. Many things are on and now, they are into that research mode. That is what constructive engagement is all about.
I am not agreeable to [Ravi: research done] only for your API score. But those who on their own [Ravi: initiative and interest] do research, for them certainly they must get something [Ravi: some reward].
This is what takes the country forward. If this is not there then what will we do? We gave permission to begin startup in hostel rooms [Ravi: I think the minister is referring to startup companies being formed in student hostels]. And I am happy that the young students of India have the power of ideas and those students who are rich/gifted [Ravi: not money-rich but idea-rich] with those ideas have started 600 startups from (their) hostel rooms. This is a powerful initiative. This higher education is going there.
Are we also with that or what are we doing?
Along with this we have also started incubation centers. And we now have three final initiatives - we created NRF - National Ranking Framework. Two years have passed. In the third year it will become perfect. The entire design.
But why NRF - good people - all people have started giving (it) - that our number in national ranking is this. So please come to our college. This is what should happen. That is the healthy competition. See, now without (good) quality, colleges will not run/survive - this I want to tell you today itself. And students will close it. Government will not close it. In the past five years, 500 engineering colleges in the country closed down. 500 - in four years [Ravi: In the audio, somebody seems to have said something to the minister leading to him changing his words slightly]. Over 500 colleges closed down. Who closed them? Students did! Students go to - they are now informed technically. They go to the website. They see the placement record. They go to the peer review. Do peer review. And ask those students, past students, alumni, how the college is? And if they don't get good report, they don't take admissions.
500 colleges closed! If some government had done that, by now we would have a (people's) movement against it. But students closed it. So what can (we) do? They [Ravi: seems to refer to engineering colleges] ask us for permission to close. We are giving that liberally - (we say) GO CLOSE DOWN (the college)! [Laughter]
As it is by this that quality (...). 40,000 colleges are there. Our idea/thinking is that maximum number of colleges should be good. And for this NRF is being used. NAAC ranking is being used. Now all of the facilities - grants, everything will be linked to the quality of the institute.
And then about many famous good colleges that are there, I have an experience about them too. That experience is this that these colleges are good because only good students come there. Therefore they are good. What has changed from your endeavour/efforts? This is what I want to see. And the system that I will create - you must have understood this much that I do understand something! [Laughter] So I will get to the entire details of this (in the system I create) [Ravi: Literally the minister said he will prepare the entire horoscope of this, which figuratively means that he will get to the entire details in the new system he creates.] [Applause].
What is the endeavour/effort of the college? What have you (done) to bring improvement, to develop the splendour and the potential of the student, what are the efforts/endeavour of the college? This (is what) we will see.
And this way we are creating a new construct. Lastly, we have started higher education finance agency. This is a new initiative. Why is India behind? Because .. Why do the best of the best 500 students of the country go abroad? They go because there (foreign countries) they have the best laboratories which are not there (available) here. We want to create best labs here. And for that in the coming three years, through the higher education finance agency, we will make an investment of twenty thousand crores [Ravi: 1 crore is 10 million. So 20,000 crores becomes 200,000 million which is 200 billion (Rupees)] in this field. So that with this the research infrastructure becomes strong.
Higher education finance agency has started (work). Next .. month the first loan will be disbursed (by it) for which there is no interest. It is (non-profit) in a way. But the habit that has formed about (asking for) grant for every thing, I want to (somewhat) get out of that too. Many improvements have to be made. People like you are there, are (there as) companions and so my enthusiasm increases further. You have many discussions over these two days and give a lot of suggestions [Ravi: The event where the speech was made seems to be a two day national conference on higher education.] Your suggestions are welcome.
Thank you very much. Victory to India [Ravi: I have translated Hind as India]! [Applause]
---- end English rendering of most of HRD minister Javadekar's speech ----
Transcript of most of speech of Hon'ble HRD Minister Shri Javadekar
From 0:00
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Yeh desh ke liye kaam karne wala sanghatan hai. Aur isliye mujhe (Dattopantji) ki yaad aati hai. (Dattopant) is desh mein unionbaaji mein sabse bada vichaar rakha. Aur (Dattopantji) ne kaha ki desh ke liye karenge kaam aur kaam ka lenge pura daam. Ye ek naara hi hamari alag pehchan batanewala naara hai. Kaam ka daam pura lene ke liye kaam rookenge aisa baaki log kehte hain. Aur Dattopantji ne hame sikhaaya ki desh ke liye karenge kaam aur kaam ka lenge pura daam.
To ye pura daam lena hai. Aur mai to shiksha mantri hun. Main toh yehi kahunga ke aapko bhi jaldi pura daam milne wala hain saathwa recommendation. [Applause]
...
Around 6:15
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Mujhe jab API ki charcha hui tab mai detail mein hamesha jata hun. Lekin mujhe accountability ka virodh kuch sanghatanoa ke - unke kathan me ye lagne laga ki kayin pradhyaapak accountability ki virodh kar rahein hai. Bhai solaah lecture karne hain. To hum kya hisaab maang rahe hain. Bhai lecture kitne kiye, tutorial kitne kiye, student activity mein kitna samay diya. Woh dene ko bhi mana kar raha hain. Aur aapme mujhe farak ye hi hain ki aapne kaha ki accountability ek nayi vyavastha kaise hon, iska ek prarup bana kar hum denge. Aap jo denge prarup hum iska swagat karenge yeh main aapko kehna chahta hun. [Applause] Kyunki yahi to partnership hai.
From around 7:05
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One cannot say that we .. are not accountable. You can suggest that what accountability framework UGC has drafted is not correct in this respect and therefore the correct system should be like this.
Aur isliye main aaj yein khulasa bhi karna chahata hun.. Maine adhyayan jab kiya to mujhe dhyan aaya ki college ke adhyapakon ko research ka compulsory promotion ke liye ... Research compulsory karne se kya ho gaya? Research khatam ho gaya. Aur terah hajaar UGC ke magazine ho gayen. Toh woh list leke aayen mere paas. Terah hajaar magazine ko hamne .. Ab anek collegenon ne toh apna joh annual magazine nikaltha hai woh quarterly karke usko bhi research magazine list mein dal diya. Maina kaha itni list hain isme champak vagarah hain ki nahi. [Laughter]
Lekin main paakhand se hamesha nafrat karta hun aur paakhand mein jina nahi chahata. College ka adhyaapak aur university ka adhyaapak do alog sreni hain. Do alag kaam hain. Do alag apekshayein hain. Jahan post graduate ko padha rahein hon aur jahaan under graduate ko padha rahein ho. Aur isliye college ke adhyapak ko multa accha padhane ki jimmedaari honi chahiyein. That is the accountability. [Applause]
Aur woh agar accountability hogi ki accha padhaon. Aur main ek nayi paddhati shuru karne wala hun. Main students ka feekback ki mechanism shuru karne wala hunnn! [Applause]
Kyunki accountability ek tarfa nahi hoti hain. Aapne kaha do tarfa. To main teen tarfa kar raha hun. Toh student feedback bhi lenge. Lekin achha padhaon yeh aapki mukhya jimmedaari hain. Research ka boj mathe par hum compulsory nahi karenge. Hum kahenge ki choice hain aapka. Ek student activity ya ek community activity aapko nischit karni padegi. So your teaching + community is what will assure you promotion.
Yeh API mein mai badlaav laane wala hun aur yeh badlaav jaldihi ghoshith karenge. ... Aur ye main aaj ABRS ke manch sehi pehli dafa yeh ghoshna kar raha hun ki yeh API mein hum badlaav karenge ki jisme paakhand hat jayega aur college ke adhyapakon ko achha padhana aur ek student activity ya community activity ek karna, yeh unka muul mudda rahega.
Aur university adhyapakon ke liye research compulsory. Aur jo college ke adhyaapakon ko jisme research ki pravritti hain woh research karne ka choice unka khatam nahi karenge. But that will be a choice. It will not be mandatory. To phir majaak ban jata hain research ka. Woh nahi banne dena hain. To ye hum karenge.
...
Around 12 min 19 secs.
---------------------
Delhi mein ad-hoc teacher ka to kamaal ho gaya. Baki sabhi vishwa vidyalayon mein das percent maximum pandrah percent ad-hoc teachers hote hain. Delhi mein ad-hoc teacher hi mukhya praan hain. Nau hajaar ad-hoc teacher! Maine kaha yeh bandh karenge. Regular appointments karenge. Aur is saal main har mahine uske peeche pada hun. Ek saal mein puri ki puri regular appointment ki prakriya puri karenge yeh bhi main kehna chahata hun. [Applause].
Usme jo acche ad-hoc hain. Competition hogi.
Around 13 min:
--------------
Competition ke liye kabhi mana nahi karna chahiye. Dekho raajniti ka kuch bhi kaho, har paanch saal mein hame competition karke hi aana padta hain. Aise free mein nahi aate. [Laughter] Assured career promotion nahi hota hain hamare yahaan. To isliye ... ka ek competition dena ke liye kabhi mana nahi karna. Aap lekin anubhavi hon. Aath das saal padhaaya hain to aap naturally permanent ho jawoge. Permanent mein select ho jawoge. Kuch nahi bhi honge. To Yeh bhi niyam hain.
Kabhi kabhi main sochta hun. Yeh hire and fire hain na, un deshon mein main jaata hun. Wahan koi kisi ko fire nahi karta. Actually. Hire and fire jahan hain, wahan koi kisi ko fire nahi karta kyonki fire hone ki ashanka mein hi - kyonki har saal review hota hain - fire hone ki ashanka mein har koi chusth rehta hain. Aur har koi toes par rehta hain. Aur har koi khud mein improvement karta hain. Isise toh desh ki improvement hoti hain.
Toh kabhi kabhi systems ko hamein samajne ke liye bhi apni man ke darwarje ko kholna chahiye. Aur isiliye uska nirnay bhi sarkar ne liya .. Nahi toh wah ...
Hum pradhyaapak hain isliye, kya adhyayan karna chahiye .. Kare adhyayan, mujhe bataon. Jahan jahan hire and fire hain wahan kya kya hua hai un deshon mein. Ache bure parinaam kya hue? Koi adhyayan karke hame bata de.
... Humko quality education, higher education, quality banane ke liye kitne upaay, sarkar ne, Modiji ki vision shuru kiye hain. Uska keval ullekh karna chahunga thoda thoda.
Gargji ne bataya ki UGC ke reform mein - multa woh keh rahe the ki UGC ke niyam bahut purane ho gaye. .. Maine toh adhikaariyon ko kaha. Main toh UGC ko bandh kar dun. Lekin kuch toh vyavastha lagegi na. Toh kya woh vyavastha? Toh UGC aur AICTE ke reforms kya ho? Ek ek niyam par aap charcha karo aur mujhe sujaav do. Un sujaavon ka swagat hain. Yeh main kehna chahatan hun. [Applause] Kyunki hamein .. sankhya badani hain.
Aur ham ek disha nischit tay kiya hai. Ki UGC aur ACITE ka reform will be now graded autonomy. Graded autonomy ka matlab hai. Jo college quality mein upar jayenge unko puri swaayaththatha milegi. Kal hi Lok Sabha mein ek raay se, IIM ka bill pass kiya hai. Yeh ek aitihaasik bill hai. IIM ko puri swaayaththatha dene wala yeh bill hai. Kuch bhi sarkar ka nahi hai usme. Har baar sarkar ke paas jaane ki jarurat hi nahi. Ye to swaayaththatha ka mul mantra hai. Shiksha aise hi vikasit hoti hai.
Videshon mein shiksha ka visheshta jahan advanced countries ka shiksha ka vikaas sehi desh advance hue hai. Jaise woh road keh bare mein kehte hai na - ke ek din Bharat ka pratinidhi mandal gaya America ke Rashtrapati ko mila aur unhone kaha ki sir .. Aap ameer hai isliye aapke road achche hain. Toh (adhyakshji) ne kaha ki nahi nahi, hamare road achche hain isliye hum ameer hue hai. Yeh samaj lo. Waise woh desh ameer hai isliye unki shiksha achi hai ye nahi hai. Shiksha achchi hain isliyein woh ameer hue hai yeh sachchaayi hai.
Aur isliye hamari bhi shiksha agar achchi honi hai to swaayaththatha hi praan hai UGC reform ka. Aur UGC AICTE ka reform hum karke rahenge. Aur swaayaththatha (guni?) sansthano ko milegi. Aur kum gunwale ko 50-50 milegi. Aur usse bhi kam C level peh honge unko aaj jaisa regulation rahega. Lekin baaki bhi regulation mein bahut sudhaar karne hain. Woh deh dijiye. Koi ek ek niyam leke - hajaaron niyam hain - aisa tha UGC aur ACITE ka aisa .. system tha ki raat ke sapne mein aaya, subha circular nikla, kal se amal hua. Maine kaha yeh nahi hoga. Pehle charcha karenge. Stakeholders ke consultation ke liye pandrah din har .. rakhenge. Aur (wohi unke) sujaav hamne rakhe the. Abhi online bhi sujaav .. jo online hamne rakhein hain. Website pe. Toh online education ke hum darwaje khol rahe hain. Toh online ki gunvaththa ko kaise barkaraar rakhenge ispe hamne draft rules kiyen hai. Woh rules hum aap ke samne rakhe hai.
Aisa aane wale dinon mein UGC AICTE ke koi bhi bade parivartan ke circulars honge woh pehle consultation bhi hoga stakeholder, aur uske baad usko antim rup diya jayega. Aur woh agar (..) parinaam ke hai toh woh agle saal se lagu honge. Beech mein - mid way - goal post change nahi karenge. Ye bhi hamara ek nischit (rup?) hai.
To is tark se hum aage ja rahein hai aur aapka hamein sahbhaag chahiye
Around 18 min 12 secs:
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Ek ham kar rehein hain. Ek - Do teen badi pehel ki hain Modi sarkar ne. Research aur innovation. Because we lack in innovation. India lacks in innovation. And I have umpteen times said, that there are only three four ways to get country richer. And what are these. The one model which was adopted by Europe - Portuguese, Dutch, French, British - they conquered the world and looted the colonies - colonized the world and looted the colonies. And they became rich. But that's not a good way and now not available also. So that is one.
Second is the nature's bounty which the Middle East has. Kahin bhi khodo to tel mil raha hain. .. That's a natural (resource) but that you can't demand. What you have, you have.
The third is the India and China's way of last thirty years, of reverse engineering and cost-competitiveness on the basis of - essentially on the backdrop of - ah - low wages. We have achieved cost competitiveness and therefore we have dominated in exports, in world markets and .. China majorly and India to an extent, became rich with this kind of thing. But that's not a sustainable prosperity-hood.
The sustainable prosperity-hood comes through innovations. And therefore higher education centres must become - universities must become - temples of innovation. Woh shod aur anusandhan ke kendra banne chahiye. Agar nahi hain to PhD students if they are applying for sweeper's job that means we have not taught anything. See, world over PhD is something addition to the existing knowledge.
Hamne PhD itna patla kar diya ki any new interpretation through the existing knowledge is also PhD. Yadi PhD karne ke liye PhD karo aisa nahin. Hamare yahan ek director the. Unka bahut bade shikshan sansthan hain. Unhone PhD ki. To hamne kahan aapne kaise PhD kiye? Kounsi vishay mein kiye, maina pucha. Ton unhone P.A. ko pucha, kounsa vishay tha re? [Laughter]
Toh yeh nahi hain gunvattha purna shiksha.
Aur iskeliye hamne teen chaar naye prayog shuru kiye. (GIAN) ka prayog kiya. Pechle saal mein atthavan deshon se chehsau praadhyaapak Bharat mein aaye, do ya teen saptah rahen. Apne vishay ka ek course unhone conduct kiya. Is saal aathsau adhyaapak aayenge. Satthar deshon se aayenge. Aur achche achche adhyaapak aate hai toh hamare adhyaapakon se bhi unki rubaru hoti hai. Hamare students ko bhi milta hai gyan aur woh sabh hum record karte hain jo SWAYAM mein bhi courses mein convert kar rahein hai abhi. Toh SWAYAM ke courses mein bhi aayenge woh.
Parsu toh maine ek nayi pehal hamne ki. Hamare aarthik (salahadaar) desh ke Prof. Arvind Subramanyam. He has taught in John Hopkins and Harvard and best of the best - world's best universities. We are not utilizing the professor. I said you are professor. Give me one week. And he gave. And he conducted a course on contemporary .. issues of Indian economy and Indian economic survey. Kyonki ek naye tarike seh hum economic survey de rahein hai pechle teen saal se. To us par unhone conduct kiya course aur desh bhar se hamne praadhyaapakon ko appeal kiya ki jinko is course ko attend karna hai woh apna register karein. Jo pehle do sau praadhyaapakon ne diya, unko hamne bula diya. Andaman se lekar desh ke sabhi hisson se praadhyaapak aaye jo economics padhaate hain. Aur unke saamne unhone taitees lectures diye. Roj paanch. Saath din mein course conduct kiya. (Woh abh SWAYAM pe uplabdh rahega.)
Around 22:30
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Is saal SWAYAM ke courses ko ded laakh abhi registration hua hain. Itna popular ho gaya hamara portal. Aur naye naye char sau se jyaada courses ab uplabdh hain (uspe). To yeh jaldi hum tarakki kar rehen hain ek naya prakaar ka SWAYAM ka platform hain. Yeh online bhi hain, offline bhi hain.
Main yeh isliye bata rahan hun ki aapki competition kinse hain yeh hame samajna chahiye. Nahi toh student AC lagakar bhi class mein nahi baithenge yeh main aapko batane wala hun. Toh phir woh waha sekhenge. Woh free hain. Kyonki wahan do hajaar courses honge. Free hoga. Lecture hoga. Material hoga. Tutorial hoga. By the best of the best professors. Interactions hogi. Discussion forum hoga. Mid-term exam hogi. Exam hogi. Certification hoga. In studentko choice based credit bhi milega. Aur baki learning for ever karne wale -. Mujhe agar kuch seekhna hain to main (seekhu). Mujhe certificate milega. Toh yeh vyavastha nayi hain aor woh online bhi hain aur TV ke battees DTH channel par offline bhi hain. Kyonki uske liye to online nahi lagta. Woh toh ek keval set top box free DISH ka lena hai. Woh terahsau rupya ek baar kharcha karo to aapko permanently milega. (Aur log ye sekhenge). Hamhe bhi en technology ka es courses ka upyog karke - aap bhi agar wohi padhate hon to mai agar teacher hun toh main kahunga ki students yeh lecture sun ke aao, hum (flip) class model mey chalayenge. Yahan discussion karenge.
...
Around 25:27
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Ek Ucchta Aavishkaar yojana hain. Ucchta Aavishkaar yojana mein industry academy interaction hain. Hundred proposals - customized requests by industries have been offered and IITs teams of faculties and students together working on those hundred ideas. .. They will come out with the solutions. That is what higher education is all about.
Uske saath saath humne imprint ek karekram shuru kiya hain. Imprint mein, we called for research proposals from all professors, all professionals, all students and we received more than 1500 proposals in ten domain sectors and we finalized 200 proposals and we are funding 600 crore Rupees [1 crore is 10 million] for these 200 projects. Many things are on and now they are into that research mode. That is what (is) constructive engagement is all about.
Mujhe woh score ke liye aapke keval API karna manjoor nahi hain lekin khud hoke jo research karega usko to kuch na kuch to nischit milna chahiye.
Yahi desh aage karta hain. Agar yeh nahi hoga to hum kya karenge. Hamne startup permission diya hostel room se shuru karneka. Aur mujhe khushi hain Bharat ke navjawan chaatraon ke paas power of idea hain aur us idea ke dhani hone wale acche chatron ne 600 startup hostel room se shuru kar diye. Ye ek jabardast pehal hain. Jabardast safalta hain. Yeh ucchya shiksha wahan jaa rahi hain.
Kya hum bhi uske saath hain ya hum kya kar rahein hain?
Iske saath saath humne incubation center bhi shuru kiye hain aur abhi teen final pehal hain ki NRF - National Ranking Framework kiya. Do saal hue. Ab teesre saal meh woh perfect ho jayega. Sara design.
Lekin NRF kyon - achche log - Abhi sabhi log dene lage. Ki hamara national ranking me itna number hain. Toh hamare college mein aaiyen. Yehi hona chahiye. That is the healthy competition. Dekho ab bigar gunavatta ke college nahi chalenge yeh main aajhi batana chahta hun. Aur students bandh karenge. Sarkar nahi band karegi. Pechle paanch saal mein paanch sau engineering college bandh hue desh ke. Paanch sau - chaar saal mein. Paanch sau se jyada bandh hue. Kisne kiya bandh? Students ne! Students go to - they are now informed technically. They go to the website. They see the placement record. They go to the peer review. Do peer review. And ask those students, past students, alumni, how the college is? And if they don't get good report, they don't take admissions.
500 colleges closed! Agar kisi sarkar ne kiye hote to ab tak andolan khada hua hota. Lekin students ne bandh kiye. To kya karein? Woh hamein mangtein hain, hame closure karneki permission do. Hum (udaar haste) dein rahein hain. Ki JAAO CLOSE KARO. [Laughter]
Kyunki isise gunvattha (...). Chaalis hajaar college hain. Jyada se jyada college acche hon yeh hamari kalpana hain. Aur iske liyein NRF ka upyoog hon raha hain. NAAC ranking ka upyoog ho raha hain. Ab saari .. saari ki saari sahulate - grant, everything will be linked to the quality of the institute. Aur mujhe jo bahut bade bade acche colleges hotein hain na, uska bhi mera ek anubhav hain. Woh anubhav yeh hain ki ye college isliye acche hain ki wahan acche studenthi aatein hain. Isiliye woh acche hain.
Aapke prayaas se kya badla? Yeh main dekhna chahata hun. Aur main jis system tayyaar karunga, aapko itna to pata chala ki mujhe kuch to samajta hi hain. [Laughter] To main to iski puri kundali tayyaar karunga [Applause].
College ke kitne prayaas hain? Aapne improvement karne mein, students ki pratibha ko aur students ke sahi potential ko vikasit karne ke liye college kya prayaas kar raha hain, yeh hum dekhenge.
Aur is tarah se ek nayi rachna kar rahein hain. Lastly humne higher education finance agency shuru ki hain. Yeh ek nayi pehal hain. Bharat kyun peche hain kyunki hamare best of the best 500 students of the country har saal videsh me kyun jaate hain? Isliye jaate hain ki vahan unke paas best laboratories hote hain joh yahaan nahi hain. Hum best labs yahaan karna chahate hain. Aur iskeliye aanewaale teen saal mein higher education finance agency dwaara bees hajaar karod rupaye ka (nivesh) is kshetra mein hum karenge. Ki isseh research infrastructure majboot hon. Higher education finance agency shuru ho gayi hain.
Next .. month mein pehla karja uske liye vitrit hoga jisko vyaaj nahi hain. Woh bhi (analaabh he hain) ek tarah se. Lekin har cheej (ko) jo grant ki aadat lagi hain na, usse bhi main thoda bahar nikalna chahata hun. Bahut sare sudhaar banne hain. Aap jaise log hain, saathi hain, toh mera utsaah aur badhta hain. Aap do din khup charcha karo aur bahut sare sujaav do. Aapke sujaav ka swagat hain.
Bahut bahut dhanyavaad. Jai Hind! [Applause]
---- end of HRD minister Javadekar speech ----
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Readers may want to read my related blog post: Dr. Pushkar's articles on research req. for Indian college teachers producing fake research and reducing teaching quality; historical background of Indian academic research, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2017/08/3-interesting-articles-by-dr-pushkar-on.html, 4th Aug. 2017.
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Ravi: I felt it appropriate to provide my background below:
Ravi S. Iyer
Social media writer on spirituality & religion and retired international software consultant, Puttaparthi, India
Spiritual/Religious Websites/Blogs
* About Sri Sathya Sai Baba and more: ravisiyer.blogspot.com
* God & science conversation and a little more: iami1.wordpress.com/god-and-science-toc
Software Websites/Blogs
* Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism: eklavyasai.blogspot.com/p/table-of-contents.html
* Course material related to computer programming (software lab.) courses: raviiyerteaches.wordpress.com
Misc. Topics Blogs
* ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/
* ravisiyer.wordpress.com/category/misc/
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Service to Society is Service to God
[I thank Hon'ble HRD minister Shri Javadekar and have presumed that he will not have any objections to me sharing the above transcript of most of his above youtube video speech on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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