Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee of National Institute of Technology (NIT)

1. It is my privilege to be here today for the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli. I congratulate everyone associated with this premier centre of technical education on this beautiful occasion. 2. I am also glad to have made use of this opportunity to visit Tiruchirappalli, which is a historical city famous for engineering marvels. The Grand Anicut, or the Kallanai dam, built across the Kaveri River by the Chola King, Karikala Chola, in the Second Century AD, is considered the oldest water regulatory structure in the world. The temple complex at Tanjavur is one of the largest in the country - its apex, the Kumbam, carved out of a single granite rock weighing 90 tonne is another engineering feat. Traditional idol-making at Swamimalai, which developed two thousand years ago, is the basis for investment casting technology, now adopted for advanced gas turbine engines. Tiruchirappalli is a bustling industrial destination today, marked by the presence of important engineering establishments like Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Ordnance Factory, mechanical workshop of the Indian Railways and number of ancillary industries. Ladies and Gentlemen: 3. NIT Tiruchirappalli is one of the top technical schools and one of the largest suppliers of engineers in our country. Formerly called Regional Engineering College, it was started in 1964. Its first Principal, Professor P.S. Manisundaram, was a visionary who nurtured this College from scratch. Tracing the origins of the older NITs like yours, one can draw a parallel with the genesis of post-1947 modern industrial India, when steel plants, refineries, dams and heavy engineering industries were being set up. Most of these NITs were established in rural locations or in green-field industrial sites, with the aim to spur local development. Your Institute, which was set up alongside BHEL, was one of them. Such vision brought about a pulsating eco-system of industry and technical institution that fostered close interaction. The NITs have made remarkable progress over the years. That their growth since inception is primarily the result of indigenous efforts, without help from foreign institutions, is truly praiseworthy. 4. Another notable feature of the NIT system is its student mix, which by design has a national character, making each campus a microcosmic-Bharat. The bright young minds – the would-be engineers and scientists - are an asset to the nation. Hopes and expectations from them are many. I am confident that the students, including those of this institute, will understand their responsibilities well. They will always, with a sense of obligation, perform their duty for the well-being of their fellow countrymen and development of the nation. Ladies and Gentlemen: 5. The IITs and NITs are the front-ranking institutions for engineering education in India. Yet, according to prominent international surveys on universities, Indian institutions do not figure in the top two hundred places. Since September 2012, I have been expressing my worry about our performance and restating in all my interactions with higher educational institutions the need to take the rating process seriously. It is therefore encouraging to see international rating agencies starting to recognize the quality of our institutes. Some of our IITs are in the top 50 in civil and electrical engineering. Five institutions are amongst the top 20 universities amongst BRICS nations. The number of Indian institutions in the top 100 in Asia has increased to 10 this year from 3 in 2013. I am confident that our institutes would replicate these initial successes in the overall rankings. The NITs, in particular your Institute, should take a cue from successful Indian institutions on how to approach the rating system. Featuring in international rankings has several positive spin-offs, in terms of intangibles like boosting the spirits of students and faculty, to more tangible benefits like better placement for students. More importantly, active participation in rankings will propel the development of institutions in the right direction. 6. India has recently become a permanent member of the Washington Accord, which is an international accreditation agreement amongst 17 countries for professional engineering degrees. I appreciate the efforts of all involved, including this Institute, in taking India into this privileged academic group. India’s entry will enable global recognition of our degrees and increase the mobility of our engineers. It will enjoin our technical schools to adhere to global benchmarks in quality. This will be the real test. 7. To identify the challenges facing NITs and work out strategies, a Conference of the Directors of NITs was organized in Rashtrapati Bhavan last year. I am hopeful of the suggestions made at the Conference being implemented in a time-bound manner. To address faculty shortage, vacant faculty positions must be filled up on priority and external talent injected by hiring experts from industry, laboratories and foreign universities on short-term basis. Academic curricula must have an industry-focus. Industry interface cell must be set up to establish linkages with the local industry and industry associations. 8. ICT networks must be utilized fully to enable knowledge sharing and intellectual collaboration beyond the campus. Academic cooperation is a must for healthy exchange of ideas and expansion of knowledge boundaries. It is heartening to note NIT Tiruchirappalli having active collaboration with leading global universities that augurs well for students’ prospects. 9. Augmentation of student capacity must be facilitated by quick up-gradation of infrastructure. E-classrooms must be made available for smarter dissemination of lectures and tutorials. I am told that NIT Tiruchirappalli is working on the concept of virtual campus, which if executed will enable greater access to better quality education. Ladies and Gentlemen: 10. Knowledge and innovation are the underpinning of progress and prosperity in the twenty-first century. In this age of globalization, we can derive competitive advantage only from an eco-system that is conducive to new learning, research and innovation. NITs must work towards promoting scientific temper in their students. I am glad to learn that this Institute has set up centres of excellence in emerging areas like corrosion and surface engineering, safety, health, energy and environment. 11. Using innovation as a bridge, we must muster enough technological prowess to be counted as an advanced nation. Yet, given the present socio-economic condition of our country, the thrust of research must be to erase backwardness and wipe out deprivation. Innovations must improve the state of the underserved, who want a positive difference in their lives. Institutions like yours must support ingenuous ideas that promise betterment for those aspiring to rise up the socio-economic ladder – help a farmer till the soil better, an artisan perfect his craft or a small entrepreneur improve the productivity of his venture. I am happy to note that this Institute has a Centre for Rural Technology aimed at developing modern and cost effective technologies for application in the rural areas. 12. We pin our hopes on IITs, NITs and other technical institutions to nurture world-class, professionally-competent engineers who will not only take India to new heights in technology but also improve the quality of life of our countrymen. We must, therefore, develop in our budding engineers an understanding of the society. I am pleased to know that students of this Institute are being exposed to the world outside through initiatives like Joy of Giving that provide service to orphanages and the needy. Always remember the words of wisdom of Swami Vivekananda, which I quote: “The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle of life, which does not bring out the strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion -- is it worth the name?” (unquote).

Gene key to developing stem cells found

Researchers have found a gene that could be key to the development of stem cells – cells that can potentially save millions of lives by morphing into practically any cell in the body.

The gene, known as ASF1A, is at least one of the genes responsible for the mechanism of cellular reprogramming, a phenomenon that can turn one cell type into another, which is key to the making of stem cells.

Researchers at the Michigan State University analysed more than 5,000 genes from a human egg, or oocyte, before determining that the ASF1A, along with another gene known as OCT4 and a helper soluble molecule, were the ones responsible for the reprogramming.

“This has the potential to be a major breakthrough in the way we look at how stem cells are developed,” said Elena Gonzalez-Munoz, a former MSU post-doctoral researcher and first author of the paper.

“Researchers are just now figuring out how adult somatic cells such as skin cells can be turned into embryonic stem cells. Hopefully this will be the way to understand more about how that mechanism works,” said Gonzalez-Munoz.

In 2006, an MSU team identified the thousands of genes that reside in the oocyte. It was from those, they concluded, that they could identify the genes responsible for cellular reprogramming.

In 2007, a team of Japanese researchers found that by introducing four other genes into cells, stem cells could be created without the use of a human egg. These cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs.

“This is important because the iPSCs are derived directly from adult tissue and can be a perfect genetic match for a patient,” said Jose Cibelli, an MSU professor of animal science and a member of the team.

The researchers say that the genes ASF1A and OCT4 work in tandem with a ligand, a hormone-like substance that also is produced in the oocyte called GDF9, to facilitate the reprogramming process.

“We believe that ASF1A and GDF9 are two players among many others that remain to be discovered which are part of the cellular-reprogramming process,” Cibelli said.

The finding was published in the journal Science.

From the discomfort Zone: Ingenuity to transform habits

Changing the behaviour of a product’s end-user does not happen by chance. Only an enterprise with special motivation can make it happen, as I wrote last week. Behavioural change is extremely physical. There’s got to be some bodily object that interacts with people for behaviour to change; no intangible theory can do this job at the mass level.

Shaving behaviour: The straight razor, where the blade folds into its handle, what roadside barber shops still use, was invented around 1680. In 1901, Gillette initiated the double-edged safety razor with replaceable blades. To modernise men’s shaving habit, Gillette invented the single-side razor. Introducing the “razor and blades business model” or inexpensive razor with disposable blades, Gillette’s business grew tremendously. The beauty here is the high-tech blade; it’s expensive, but gives a large number of shaves. The razor picks it up from its packaging socket, men don’t touch it. It’s so simple and safe that women are attracted to use it.

So year after year with single focus, Gillette follows every generation, social trend, state-of-the-art engineering with precision manufacturing to innovate and revolutionise the way the world shaves. The Fusion ProGlide with FlexBall Technology they’ve just announced has a maneuverable handle that moves, adjusts, pivots across a man’s facial contours to allow it to capture every hair. This is a grand example of Gillette’s drive for world leadership by constantly changing men’s practical behaviour.

Walkman, the incredible behaviour changer: History shows that Philips, the fundamental inventor of many products, could barely get registered in people’s minds as a behaviour changing agent. On the other hand, newcomer Sony — not a fundamental inventor — successfully did so with the Walkman in 1979. The behavioural change the Walkman established was phenomenal; people moved around with little earphones, hands-free, enjoying music with a personal device. Being able to transform habits often comes from single focused, creative entrepreneurial challenge. Sony masterminded entertainment devices with the Walkman. But then it diversified and ran into losses. The big behavioural change the Sony Walkman introduced has shifted to Apple. Sony lost focus on entertainment devices for the digi-tech generation when it derooted its creative ingenuity into too many directions.

Smartphone: Changing people’s habit and behaviour through the smart mobile phone, Apple dynamised the finger touch. Monopolistic Microsoft missed the boat with people shifting from the laptop to the mobile phone. Till a few years ago, I was comfortable with my Blackberry — the typewriter replica. The day my IT engineer changed my ‘dumb phone’ to a ‘smart phone’, I was lost. But just a few days of usage changed my habit. I could never imagine I’d write articles and books on the touch screen. Just look at how these industries have not only innovated, but contaminated people to change their product usage behaviour.

Fast food: ‘Eat slowly’ is our social nicety when hosting a meal for invited guests. Yet along with 118 countries worldwide, India has abandoned specific, food-related cultural nuances to embrace typical American fast food like McDonald’s. Europeans hated this “time ismoney” fast food concept, and resisted its entry. But when at midnight you don’t find any restaurant open in rural Europe, a McDonald’s welcomes you. In fact, McDonald’s has democratised society globally. A low economic strata family now dares to eat at the extremely expensive Champs Elysees street of Paris because McDonald’s, which is affordable, is there. Also tourists amidst alien ways and food habits make a beeline for the predictably familiar McDonald’s.

In places famous for gastronomy like France and Italy, McDonald’s tweaks its menu and décor to attract locals. In Milan’s 14th century Piazza del Duomo with Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — the world’s oldest and beautiful shopping mall — there’s luxury brand Prada on the left, Louis Vuitton on the right, Cartier, Gucci, Ferragamo; all within view, jostling for prominence. I was amused to see the bright yellow M twinkling at the edge, saying “I’m lovin’ it”, and attracting heavy traffic in total defiance of the dissonance traditionalists feel.

The only food connecting poor, rich, old and young across heterogeneous India is the jalebi, which is why my book is called Jalebi Management to represent everyone. India’s traditional food habit is different every 500 km, but McDonald’s — with the same vegetarian and non-vegetarian menu — is mesmerising all age groups across south, east, north and west India.

Never so easy: Behaviour change through product usage is not always easy. Take the e-cigarette that’s trying so hard to shift smokers. The response is minimal as e-cigarettes merely give flavoured vapour that simulates tobacco smoking. Actually the main question is, do cigarette companies really want their business model to change? Is the e-cigarette an eye-wash to fool the public and regulators that people’s health is not being damaged? As the e-cigarette is not addictive, it doesn’t work towards behavioural change. So will smokers and cigarette companies forget about changing behaviour and continue to injure health?

Enterprises need a different mindset to change the end user’s behaviour: It’s the ingenuity of the enterprise that drives behaviour creation. Before the digital age, human behaviour took time to change. Digi-tech now helps speed up innovation for industrial production to satisfy human needs. Corporate ideation for changing and sustaining the customer’s behaviour tomorrow will be very challenging because of fast changing digi-trends. An innovative but traditional mindset company can make profitable growth, but when it can command the mechanism of changing behaviour, it enters another league.

The substance of changing customer behaviour always requires a distinct spark. The product or service has to be extremely humane and uplift routine to ideal habit. Society’s drivers may start the change in a small way, but if it’s really scientific it quickly shapes up to addict the masses — who are the followers in society.

Defence projects worth Rs. 21,000 crore cleared

Also okays a project for production of transport aircraft, which is open only to Indian private sector companies.

The government on Saturday cleared defence procurement proposals worth over Rs 21,000 crore and also okayed a project for the production of transport aircraft, which is open only to Indian private sector companies.

Among the major proposals to receive approval is a Rs 9,000 crore tender to provide five fleet support ships for the Navy, for which the request for proposal (RFP) would be issued to all public and private sector shipyards, Defence Ministry officials said.

Chairing his first meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said, “There are many proposals in the pipeline for the defence forces and, today, we have tried to expedite quite a few of them.”

Thus, a proposal for supply of 32 HAL-built Advanced Light Helicopter, ‘Dhruv’, to the Coast Guard and the Navy at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore was also okayed, officials said.

Under the proposal, HAL will supply 16 helicopters each to the Coast Guard and the Navy and also provide maintenance for the machines to ensure the “highest level of operational maintenance and efficiency”.

DAC also cleared an IAF proposal for issuance of a tender for construction of 56 transport aircraft by private industry players to replace the force’s fleet of Avro aircraft, they said.

As per the proposal, private Indian defence companies such as Tata and Mahindra would be issued tender and they would build the aircraft in partnership with foreign firms.

The meeting also cleared the procurement of five fast patrol vessels (FPV) and offshore patrol vessels (OPV) each for the Coast Guard at the cost of Rs 2,360 crore.

The FPVs and OPVs would be built by the state-owned GRSE and Goa Shipyards Ltd, respectively, officials said.

A proposal to procure search and rescue (SAR) equipment for the three services at a cost of Rs 900 crore, too, received the green light.

CPF2014 PAPER1 BREAKUP

Topic MCQs in CAPF-2013 Weightage
Geography & Environment 22 18%
Polity 20 16%
Aptitude 20 16%
History & Culture 19 15%
Science 15 12%
Economy 10 8%
IR & defense related 10 8%
PIN, Sports, Books 9 7%
Total 125 100%

Outrage in the skies

The tragic and outrageous shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukrainian airspace on Thursday is a direct consequence of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Even while offering solace to the family of the dead, the international community needs to fix the responsibility for the firing of the missile that brought down the aircraft that was flying 33,000 feet above sea level, with 298 people on board. There have been at least 20 such incidents since the 1940s, when aircraft have been struck down by a missile or military jet. The blame game has already started among the Ukrainian government, the pro-Russian rebel forces fighting the separatist war in the eastern part of the country, and Russia itself. There have been previous instances of Ukraine’s military aircraft getting shot down in the same region. It is surprising that some international carriers have been sticking to this dangerous airspace all these weeks and months and only now have decided to steer clear of the zone. The Ukrainian rebels, the prime suspects, were perhaps targeting another Ukrainian military aircraft expected at that time; they even claimed they were in possession of missiles and had shot down a military aircraft.

This ghastly tragedy could not have come at a worse time for Malaysian Airlines. Hardly four months ago, one of its aircraft went missing while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Even debris has not been found and there is no clue on what happened to it. The fallout of the war in Ukraine, in which Russia has played a controversial role, has now become an even bigger international issue with the shooting down of this aircraft. Some countries have already called for the United Nations to play a more decisive role in ending this conflict and also taking charge of the investigation. There were a couple of other aircraft quite close to the site where the Malaysian aircraft was shot down. An Air Indiaaircraft carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a diversion to avoid this zone. Tragedies such as this only revive the demand for international aviation organisations to take a more active and dynamic role in tracking or monitoring flights in the interests of the safety of passengers. Airlines will have to accept such a monitoring mechanism sooner rather than later. The Ukrainian authorities have already begun a probe and have taken note of some Twitter posts purportedly put out by the separatists who they say are to blame. The immediate need is to order a full-fledged international investigation into this tragedy, as demanded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, perhaps headed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Climbing the beanstalk

Tucked between the tax breaks and FDI declarations in the Narendra Modi government’s inaugural budget sits a nugget of a new programme announcement: Rs 100 crore to develop career centres by upgrading employment exchanges, especially in traditionally underserved communities. I have previously made the case for information institutions where young people could reliably procure information on job opportunities, get customised career guidance and meet inspiring role models. Based on thousands of interviews, I had found that young people from poorer communities, no matter how capable and hardworking, were not able to win higher-paying jobs. Those who have recently become engineers, business managers and civil servants are the children of parents who are themselves highly educated and employed in high positions.

This gives rise to a dynamic of layered development —  different strata moving forward at different speeds. There are households in India that get by at levels below Rs 5,000 per month. There are others that live global middle-class lifestyles, not very different from their counterparts in other and richer societies. And then there are a series of layers in between.

Problems arise because these layers are growing at different rates, with higher and richer layers growing faster than lower and poorer ones, resulting in rising inequality. The bigger problem arises because these layers are growing increasingly apart from one another. There is very little movement of people from lower to higher layers. My examination of more than 20,000 households in four states showed that while many people have escaped poverty, most have become the near-poor. They live just a little distance above the poverty line, only a handful have become secure; none are rich.

Bumping up the scope of self-improvement is essential. Why do poor youth not manage to secure bigger career achievements? Lack of information is critical to the potential going under-utilised. People growing up in poor communities do not know about career opportunities simply because no one from their community has ever achieved any such career. What children in poor communities lack most is knowledge of alternative careers, how to prepare for them. Children in richer communities have it in abundance and take for granted a cousin writing the IAS entrance exam, a family friend who flies Mirages for the air force. These examples illuminate the career road for a young person in a richer community. In a poorer community, this road is mostly dark; a school teacher here, a police constable there are the only examples. A vicious cycle links underachievement with lack of information.

Career centres can fill such information gaps. Informing, guiding and motivating young people from poorer communities will help talented ones climb higher, crossing from lower to higher layers, an achievement previously denied.

While the logic tosupport career centres is strong, how these should be staffed and programmed remains to be discovered. The new centres must have comprehensive information on a variety of career choices and skill-acquisition opportunities of different kinds. They must be staffed by professionals trained in career counselling, people who realise that poverty and potential are unrelated. We need sensitive counsellors providing customised advice.

Rs 100 crore is not a princely sum in a country of India’s size but strategically used, it can help develop working models. The need of the day is policy experimentation. Let us encourage states to compete for the pot by developing an innovative plan for one centre and carrying out this plan successfully for a number of years. Let a dozen such experimental career centres (of different models) be implemented simultaneously, and let us observe the results each year for five years. There should be only one criterion for success: how many individuals were able to climb up layers because of your efforts? How many poor kids did you help gain admission to professional colleges and civil service positions? Different modes of engagement should emerge as a result of announcing a competition for the best few models to be initially funded. Some models may be organised in public-private partnership and with CSR funds, some may be run by NGOs, and some managed by government. Different ways of doing things must be tried out and their results assessed.

The dumbest thing would be for the Central government to pick and nominate locations or to apportion the money among state governments without any action plans. The next dumbest thing would be to prescribe a standardised template. There is too little knowledge available. We must first learn —  relatively cheaply — what works at the local level, before implementing over a broader region.

Modi’s career centres have to be carefully launched, and the potential is vast. Helping people climb layers is timely and necessary. Equality of outcomes is usually an idealist’s dream, but equality of opportunity is the bedrock of political order and social cohesion