School system fails students

Considering Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s caution regarding the insecurity that people face over a lifetime due to the deprivation of basic education, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014 calls for a hard look at the situation. Its findings amount to a distressing catalogue of the failures inherent in the pedagogic methods of instruction in vogue. The foremost among them is the overemphasis on a curriculum that is geared to outcomes in the form of examination results, at the expense of a process of learning that is oriented to a mastery of concepts. These shortcomings underlie the original assumption that students of a particular grade would not measure up to commensurate standards; and that any such evaluation would hence be an exercise in futility. That is the apparent rationale behind the ASER assessment of actual student performance based on a lower set of metrics. The report points out that just a small proportion of third-graders are able to read even a text from a lower grade, let alone their own. Any improvement in later years is at best marginal, says the report. The fact is that reading skills are not imparted as part of classroom activity.

ASER also shows that pupils from the higher classes are unable to perform even simple tasks of division or subtraction. This may have to do with the inadequate reinforcement of concepts over the years owing to the structure of the syllabus. For instance, the use of logarithms that were once taught from Class 9 has been dropped from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. Students are hence denied the opportunity to learn complex mathematical computations. Besides, the mathematics knowledge that people need in daily life is mostly arithmetic-based. Yet, the latter has been omitted from the Class 9 and 10 syllabus. Time was when students could opt between a basic and advanced level of math from Class 8 or 9 under some State boards. The current CBSE paper, tailored to the requirement of engineering aspirants, may be imposing an undue burden on students inclined to pursue different academic streams. A healthy pupil-teacher ratio could also help overcome many of these shortcomings. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act stipulates a 30:1 ratio. ASER notes that the country has come consistently close to universal enrolment in the 6-14 age group for six consecutive years. That may have afforded some consolation in an age where the prevailing wisdom held that poor families are disinclined to send children to school. In today’s competitive environment, the ability of students to read, write, count and measure is a bare minimum. The country cannot continue to fail its children.

Real pride of ancient Indian science

I write this with considerable impatience and one question. Do we really have the time to waste on controversies like what ancient India did or did not achieve by way of scientific discoveries? This is when there is the huge unfinished agenda to use the best of science to tackle current challenges and crises.

At the recently concluded annual ritual of the Indian Science Congress, the Union science and technology minister drew solace from the fact that ancient India had mathematical prowess - we gifted the Pythagoras theorem and algebra to the world. There is truth in this, no doubt. But all this is about the past. At best, it tells us to be proud of our legacy. But what does it tell us about what needs to be done to innovate for our needs?

There is no doubt that Indian science is losing ground; every indicator shows this. The ranking of our top scientific educational institutions is consistently falling and our achievements are fewer by the day. Most importantly, Indian scientists are nowhere to be seen in the world you and I inhabit. This is when our modern world requires science to be integrated into every aspect of daily life.

This is also the problem I have with the current controversy about Vedic science - whether we flew aircraft or mastered plastic surgery is immaterial for modern India. What matters is if ancient Indians understood the science and art of settlement planning, architecture and governance of natural resources. This is the history we need to learn because it tells us what we must do right. These are the real symbols of ancient India's scientific prowess.

Take water, for instance. Traditionally, we built highly sophisticated systems, which varied to suit different ecosystems, for harvesting every drop of water. Archaeological excavations near Allahabad have found evidence of early Indian hydraulic engineering. Dating back to the end of first century BC, the Sringaverapura tank is a remarkable system to take the floodwater of Ganga into a set of desilting chambers, including water weirs, to clean the water for drinking. It can be a matter of belief that Lord Ram drank water from this tank. But it is a fact that the technological system is so evolved that it would put to shame all public works engineers of today's India.

 

 

Dholavira, a settlement off the coast of Gujarat, dates back to the Indus Valley civilisation. Archaeologists have found this desert city had built lakes to collect monsoon run-off, bunds and inlet channels to divert water, and intricate drainage system for storm water, drinking water and waste. Today, we cannot even build city roads that do not get flooded each monsoon, or protect lakes for storing rainwater.

Till the time the British came to India, the water traditions were in vogue. British gazettes speak of these systems, at times with awe, calling us a hydraulic society. Sir William Willcocks, a British irrigation engineer, who was called in 1920 to advise the administration on how to handle famines, said the best answer was to go back to the ingenious system of flood management of Bengal. This was never done, of course.

Ancient Indians also understood the art of water governance. Kautilya's Arthasastra, written around 300 BC, has details of how tanks and canals are to be built and managed. The key was to clarify the enabling role of the state - the king - and the management role of local communities. The kings did not have armies of public works engineers; they provided fiscal incentives to communities and individuals who built water systems. The British changed all this, by vesting the resource with the state and creating large bureaucracies for management.

The British rulers also changed the tax system; collection of revenue became paramount, even during droughts. There was little then to invest in community assets. The decline came quickly and was cemented by polices of independent India. This is the history of resource management we need to learn.

But if we must be proud of our water heritage and relearn its art and science, then we must also reject its ills - the focus on rituals and the evils of the caste system. We are such a dirty nation today - look at the untreated sewage in our rivers and garbage in our streets - because we come from a society where waste is an "untouchable" business. As long as we can live with the idea of manual scavenging - somebody from a "lower" caste will carry our excreta away - we will never get a clean India.

If we must glorify the past, we must be proud of our present. This is what we need to learn. Quickly

Promise or problem? How the lack of right data affects the promise of big data in India

The digital footprint of society is expanding the world over into fragmented mediums (blogs, tweets, reviews etc) and technologies (mobile, web, cloud/SaaS etc). Data generated from mobile devices and the internet of things are the main contributors to this data explosion. While this provides organisations with significant business opportunities, it also presents several challenges in harnessing these information sources.

India's digital landscape maybe evolving quickly but the overall penetration remains low, with only one in five Indians using the internet (as in July 2014). Enterprises and businesses do have access to a veritable wealth of information. While some larger organisations have made a start in harnessing the information - telecom providers, online travel agencies, online retail stores are some of the industries that are using big data analytics to engage customers to a certain extent - most Indian companies are still learning how to collect and store big data.

To put it simply, big data analytics is still in its infancy in India. Most companies are just learning to store the data collected. There are several challenges when it comes to the collection of data sets themselves. Past and current data is required to make the application of big data analytics really useful but there is a scarcity of past data in public and private sectors in India. The lack of historical data can be traced to following:

> Late and slow computerisation: Healthcare, economic and statistical data, in both private and public sectors in India, is yet to be fully computerised. The main reason for this is the late adoption of IT in India. Unlike in the West, most industries in India made the transition from manual records to computerised information systems only during the last decade. Over the years, the state and central ministries have made the move towards e-governance. Efforts to deliver public services and to make access to these services easier are being made as well. While this is still a work in progress, huge amounts of data across many government sectors are yet to be digitised.

> Poor quality inputs: Not only quantity, the quality of data being used for crunching also influences the quality of insights. If the signal-to-noise-ratio is high, the accuracy of results may vary for less than optimum data samples. Public social media information that is available for most individuals from India lacks quality information about the users. Random facts and figures in individual profiles, sharing of spam content and fake social media accounts that are created for bots are very common in India.

> Spam: Social media sites are becoming increasingly vulnerable to spam attacks. Time spent by a captive audience on social media sites opens up windows of opportunity for online threats and spammers. Again, social media spam contributes to the signal-to-noise-ratio that defines the quality of big data.

This comes in the way of generating appropriate results.

> Cultural and social influences: In most Western markets, insights generated through big data can be applied across a wide consumer base. But given the extensive cultural and linguistic variation across India, any insight generated for a consumer based, say, in Chandigarh will not be directly applicable to a consumer based in Chennai. This problem is made worse by the fact that a lot of local data lives in regional publications, in different languages and has limited online visibility.

> Unstructured sources of data: Big data in India is not structured. Most transactional data in the healthcare and retail segments are stored purely for book-keeping purposes. In most developed countries, user data is rich enough to provide demographic or group level markers that can be used to generate customised insights while maintaining individual privacy. The absence of such standard identifiers in Indian consumer data is one of the biggest bottlenecks in mapping transactional and social records in India.

> Handsets and internet connectivity: Even though smart phones are driving the new handset market in India, feature phones still dominate everyday usage. Most connections in India are pre-paid and fewer than 10 per cent of users have access to 3G networks. To add to it, internet connection speed is among the lowest in Asia. As a result, consumer data, especially retail enterprise data is limited.

As more people in India make the move to smart phones and internet connectivity improves, there will be an increase in the amount of usable data generated. That said, organisations need to make a huge effort to improve the quality of enterprise data. The good news is, the key contributors to the promise of big data analytics in India are steadily gaining ground. An increase in social media users, efforts by enterprises, both public and private, for optimum collection and storage of transactional enterprise data, will contribute to better quality data sets, leading to improved application of big data analytics.

40 years ago... and now: Taking traditional Indian medicine to the world

We are talking about the year 1975 - that's nearly 40 years ago when Himalaya moved its base from Mumbai (then Bombay), the commercial capital of India, to a deserted outpost in Bangalore, a city known for its greenery and weather.

This decision, however, changed the course of the company. Today, this plot of land in Bangalore has transformed into Himalaya's 28-acre sprawling campus with an EU-GMP-certified manufacturing facility, an 80,000 square feet R&D and a lush green organic garden. It is also the company's headquarters for its India operations.

The move to Bangalore came with its share of heartache. The founder of Himalaya, Mohammed Manal had started the company in 1930 in Dehradun with a mission to contemporarise Ayurveda through modern scientific research. Although he had no formal scientific training, he possessed a love for nature, boundless curiosity and a firm belief in herbal healthcare. But he was equally convinced that if herbal medicine had to be taken seriously it had to be validated by empirical evidence.

This was a far reaching thought. In the 1930s, people still believed in herbal goodness but the growing influence of Western education meant that critical reasoning was becoming important and traditional ideologies and belief systems were being challenged. From early on, Manal focused on research and scientific data to prove safety and efficacy of Himalaya products, which at the time were a handful of brands.

The big break came in 1955, when the company launched Liv.52, a hepato-protective that soon became its flagship brand. Even today, Liv.52 is the crown jewel in the pharmaceutical portfolio, registering over Rs 250 crore in revenues and being the only herbal medicine in India's top 10 selling drugs.

Himalaya moved to Bombay in the 1950s. All the action was happening there. So when our founder's son, Meraj Manal, told his father that he was thinking of relocating the business to Bangalore, obviously it didn't go down too well. In fact, he self-financed this move by selling his flat in Mumbai to build a manufacturing unit here.

The Bangalore facility gave Himalaya the infrastructure it needed to develop high quality products. It was one of the first herbal manufacturing units in India to be granted a good manufacturing practices (GMP) certificate. The fact that Himalaya now churned out a much higher quantity of tablets and had succeeded in standardising the manufacturing process, translated into greater acceptability from doctors of modern medicine. Most importantly, the facility allowed Himalaya to flex its muscles overseas, something Meraj Manal had always dreamed of for the company.

The year 1975 was both a good and tough period for Himalaya - an inflection point. We moved to Bangalore and then took the decision to enter the US, the world's largest and most competitive market. At the time it seemed more reckless than bold. But now we know that these were watershed moments in our company's history. Today we are present in 91 countries and by 2020, global revenues will account for 50 per cent of our business.

Entering the US market was like baptism by fire for Himalaya. It was also a humbling experience for the team - back then no one knew much about India, let alone a small herbal company called Himalaya. To stay alive in a market like the US, we needed to fight harder and smarter.

Meraj Manal moved to the US and studied the market, paying close attention to quality and safety standards. He pushed the R&D team to develop products that met US regulatory standards. This raised the level of compliance across the board and it helped Himalaya India make a stronger case for its products with doctors here. The mantra of quality, safety and efficacy was even more deeply entrenched in the Himalayan psyche and in due course it gave the company its competitive edge.

In 1994, the US FDA implemented the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), allowing herbal products that conformed to the new rules and regulations to be sold in the US as dietary supplements. Himalaya was ready with a range of therapeutic products branded as the 'Care' range.

In the initial years, Meraj Manal worked out of a small space above his garage, which served as a makeshift office, and personally proofread all the labels. In early 1996, two years after DSHEA came into force, Himalaya launched its range of dietary supplements in America.

After the US came Russia, then West Asia, followed by APAC and Europe. In many markets, Himalaya's therapeutic range is registered as herbal drugs or medicines. Doctors of modern medicine swear by the safety and efficacy of the products, not just in India, where the company reaches out to more than 400,000 doctors, but even in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Russia, where Ayurveda is not a familiar system of medicine.

The US also served as a crucial training ground for future product development. The idea to expand the product range beyond pharmaceuticals and explore personal care developed during this time. Himalaya scientists began to formulate personal care products, which were eventually launched in 1999 under the brand name Ayurvedic Concepts, that later went onto become Himalaya Herbals. Presently, personal care contributes 38 per cent to the revenues in India. Despite being a relatively new entrant in the personal care space, Himalaya is one of the top players in the face cleansing and lip care segment, with a fast growing presence in hair care as well. It enjoys over 20 per cent share in facewash segment, making it the largest brand in the country.

It's amazing how the pieces fall into place. Today we are a head to heel herbal wellness brand with over 250 products and a global presence. Every second, ten Himalaya products are bought by consumers around the world. While there have been many big, glorious moments in our journey, 1975 will remain a very special year for us.

It was in the seventies that Himalaya Drug Company began to explore markets beyond India and focused on research and scientific data to establish the safety and efficacy of its herbal products

Transboundary cooperation to develop Himalayan region

Increased transboundary cooperation was needed to transform mountain forestry in Hindu Kush Himalayan region, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who addressed the inaugural session of the five-day symposium on ‘Transforming Mountain Forestry’ said, on Sunday.



The symposium, which began on Sunday, aims at creating conducive transboundary conditions, politically and institutionally, to protect the forest ecosystems in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.



Mr Javadekar, who addressed the gathering through his video-recorded message, said, “The symposium gives an opportunity to share the best practices. It is important for the stakeholders in the entire Hindu Kush region to promote sustainable and inclusive forest management that brings together practice, policy, and science. There are also transboundary issues (that need to be addressed).”



The symposium, which is being jointly organised by the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute and the Kathmandu Valley-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), is the first to focus on the mountain forestry in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.



Director General of ICIMOD David Molden also stressed on the need for transboundary cooperation regarding forest issues and called for collective efforts to make Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD-plus) a reality.



The objective of the symposium is: ‘To outline options for sustainable forest management practices and policies that address the changing conditions in the Hindu Kush Himalayas while identifying transboundary opportunities that meet climatic and contemporary challenges, thus simultaneously addressing conservation and inclusive development.’



Over 200 regional and global experts from countries including United States of America, Germany, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and Italy with participants including cross sector policy makers, scientists, practitioners, donors, market actors, legal experts, forestry professionals and representatives from the business and civil society will be present at the five-day symposium.

Indian-American Frank Islam presented with Martin Luther King Award

Frank Islam, an eminent Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist has been presented with the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr Award.

He was given the award for his contribution to the legacy of the great leader through his efforts in international service and civil engagement.

About Frank Islam

• He was born in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh to a peasant father. He had moved to US when he was only 15 years old.
• He is an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.
• In 1993, he had bought a struggling IT company in Maryland. Later in 2007, he sold it to spent rest of his life in philanthropy, both in India and the US.
• Currently, he heads the FI Invest Group a firm that he established after selling his IT Company.
• He is also board member of several think tanks, academic and cultural organisations including pretigious Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts, the Brookings Institute and US Institute of Peace.
• Books: He has written two well-regarded books on the American condition. They are Working the Pivot Points: To Make America Work Again (2013). Renewing the American Dream: A Citizen’s Guide for Restoring Our Competitive Advantage (2010).

Martin Luther King Jr Award

• It is an annual award started in 1991.
• It honors the legacy of noble peace recipient civil right leader Martin Luther King Jr and the legendary Dorothy I Height and their impacts both at home and abroad. 

World Future Energy Summit begins in Abu Dhabi

The World Future Energy Summit 2015 has begun in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It is eight edition of the summit and will be four day event.

It will provide platform to delegates including world leaders, international policy makers, industry leaders, investors, experts, academia, intellectuals and journalists from all over the world including India.

Delegates will discuss the future of renewable energy and how to overcome the challenges in tapping potential of it.

Key highlights of World Future Energy Summit

• It will provide a platform for commercial solutions to clean and green energy.
• It will include exhibition of first-of-its-kind, fully integrated hybrid product that captures both solar and wind energy to provide more consistent power generation.
• Summit will also display a mobile solar power plant on a trailer with a 4.8 kWp capacity and battery storage of up to 20 kWh and a new turbine that converts energy from sea waves.
• It will also display parabolic sun-dish concentrators combined with a specialized steam generator suitable for enhanced oil recovery, power generation, water desalination operations and power generations are on display
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• .South African cricketer AB de Villiers has hit the fastest century and half-century in one-day internationals (ODI).
  He achieved the feat in second match as part of the 5-match ODI series against West Indies. Overall in this match, AB de Villiers made 149 off 44 balls.
  • Fastest century: He made the century in just 31 balls and broke earlier record of New Zealand’s Corey Anderson who had hit the century in 36 balls in 2013-14.
  • Fastest half-century: He also made fastest half-century, off 16 balls breaking Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya’s previous record who had made half-century in 17 balls.
  • Most sixes in an innings: His innings included 16 sixes. It equalled the previous record set by India’s Rohit Sharma against Australia in Bangalore in 2013/14.

parliament and policymaking’

President addresses students and faculty of CUS, IITS, NITS etc on ‘parliament and policymaking’ from Rashtrapati Bhavan

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee delivered through Video Conferencing a New Year Message on the topic ‘Parliament and Policymaking’ to Central Universities, IITs, NITs and other Institutions using the National Knowledge Network from Rashtrapati Bhavan  today (January 19, 2015). The President also responded to questions on (1) the remedy to check disruptions in Parliament, (2) way out when ruling party does not have numbers in Rajya Sabha, (3) the Ordinance route to enact legislation and (4) making the budget making process participative.  A webcast of the address and the Q & A session is available on http://webcast.gov.in/president/ Addressing the students and faculty, the President said the year 2014 was an eventful year for India’s polity. After three decades, Indian electorate decided to give a single party the majority to form a stable government. The outcome of the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha provides political stability and gives a mandate to the elected government to fulfill its commitment to the people by using its majority in formulating policies and making laws to implement those policies. The President said in a democracy, the Parliament has three vital functions – representation, law-making and oversight. The Parliament stands for the will and aspirations of the people. It is the platform where through debate and deliberations, this ‘will’ and ‘aspirations’ have to be prioritized and translated into laws, policies and concrete programmes of action. When that does not happen, an important element in the functioning of a democracy gets compromised to the disadvantage of the people. The President said law-making or legislation is the exclusive domain of the Parliament and the legislative assemblies in our Parliamentary democracy. In law-making, the easy part is the act of passing a Bill. The harder part is the negotiations for reconciling the interests of different groups for the legislation. A legislature is effective only if it is able to address the differences amongst stakeholders and succeeds in building a consensus for the law to be enacted and enforced. When the Parliament fails in discharging its law-making role or enacts law without discussion, it breaches the trust reposed in it by the people. This is neither good for the democracy nor for the policies anchored in those laws. The President said policies have to address concerns of different stakeholders in a society in the larger national interest. Policymaking in India’s context is guided by its Constitution. The Parliament having aided policy formulation also ensures that policy and programmes that it has helped define through legislation is implemented in the envisaged manner. It exercises oversight, to ensure that programmes are carried out by the Executive legally, effectively and for the purposes they are intended. Parliamentary oversight extends also to two other important functions. Parliament enjoys exclusive power of total control on money and finance. Every taxation and every receipt and expenditure to and from the Consolidated Fund of India is subject to the approval of the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha. The other important supervisory power of the Parliament over the Executive is that the highest Executive authority i.e. the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers function as long as they enjoy the confidence of the popularly-elected House and can be removed by a simple majority of the House through a motion of no-confidence. The President said the Parliament’s role in policy articulation, its implementation and oversight is critical. It is, therefore, incumbent on the Members of the Parliament to discuss and undertake adequate scrutiny of all business transacted in the House. Unfortunately, the time devoted by the Members in Parliament has been gradually declining. The first three Lok Sabhas had 677, 581 and 578 sittings, respectively. Compared to that, the 13th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas had 356, 332 and 357 sittings, respectively. We all should hope that the 16th Lok Sabha reverses this trend. The President said there is a growing tendency to resort to disruption as a means of Parliamentary intervention. Dissent is a recognized democratic expression, but disruption leads to loss of time and resources, and paralyzes policy formulation. The cardinal principle of Parliamentary Democracy is that the majority has the mandate to rule while opposition has the right to oppose, expose, and if the numbers permit, to depose. But, under no circumstances should there be disruption of the proceedings. A noisy minority cannot be allowed to gag a patient majority. The President said to meet certain exigencies and under compelling circumstances, the framers of the Constitution deemed it necessary to confer limited legislative power upon the Executive by way of promulgation of Ordinances when the legislature is not in session and circumstances justified immediate legislation. The framers also deemed it necessary to impose certain restrictions on this extraordinary legislative power by constitutionally mandating replacement of such Ordinances within a timeframe by the legislators. Article 123 (2) provides that an ordinance must be replaced by a law not later than six weeks from the re-assembly of the two Houses. Article 85 further provides that six months shall not intervene between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next session. The President said India’s diversity and the magnitude of its problems require that the Parliament becomes a more effective platform to build consensus on public policies and a bulwark of our democratic ideals. The proceedings in Parliament must be conducted in a spirit of cooperation, harmony and purpose. The content and quality of debates should be of a high order. Maintenance of discipline and decorum in the House and observance of etiquette and decency are necessary. The President cautioned the Parliament to not yield its space for legislating and policymaking to mass mobilization and street-protests, for that may not always provide considered solutions to our problems. To retain the trust and faith of the people, the Parliament must enact laws to put in place policies that address the concerns and aspirations of the people.