Manthan 2012: Redefining Industry - Academia Relationships: Part 1

Recently, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), MP organized a 2 days event with the mantra of "Redefining Industry - Academia Relationships". The goal is, obviously, too challenging and big to solve in two days. However, as it is said,  "The man who wanted to move a mountain, starts with a stone", we have definitely taken the first step to reach the goal with the help of Manthan. 

In this blog, I will share some of the highlights of event in terms of challenges and opportunities discussed. Here they are:

One of the main challenge shared by the Industry is:

Readily Employable: As per industry, students are not readily employable. As a result, industry has to spend a lot of resources to train the freshers. Companies like Infosys, TCS, Microsoft and so on have their full fledged universities to train the freshers.

It is also worth while to ponder upon some of the following questions:

1. Why institutions like IITs, and Delhi Universities have 100% placement and other institutions struggle? 
2. Why certain colleges have as low as 10% occupancy and are at the verge of closing?

Some of the expectation of the industry from the academia and students are:

Soft Skills

General Problem Solving Skills: General problem solving skills can be applied to various facets of today's personal and industry life. It should be considered as one of the top skills to learn and master:

1. Survey: Students should be able to convert data into information, and information into knowledge.
2. Problem Finding: Students should be able to find gap areas in existing solutions, and propose new creative solutions to existing solutions. 
3. Problem Formulation: Students should be able to define and present the problems.
4. Problem Solving: Students should be able to find creative and breakthrough solutions to existing problems.

(Tight Bounded) Communication: Students should be taught to communicate effectively using various means including writing and oral communication. Tight Bounded Communication means to communicate effectively within a given time bound.

Technical Knowledge

Conceptual Knowledge: It is extremely important to acquire indepth conceptual knowledge of a field or a specific subject, the students have studied. Without conceptual knowledge, students will not know why they are doing of what they are doing. 

Practical Skill: It is also extremely important to have practical skills of the subject. If conceptual knowledge is the mind, then practical skills are, definitely, the hands and legs of the education. What a mind will do without hands?

The main solutions discussed to make students readily employable were in the following lines:

1. Industry is ready to invest in training the students and faculties.
2. Industry will actively participate in creation of curriculum.
3. Industrial training for students.
4. Video interaction between industries and academia.

Some of the opportunities that were discussed in the event are:

1. Some of the sectors like manufacturing, construction, and power have huge scope in India. We are lagging behind the countries like China and USA by another 20 years. As a result, we need a more workforce to bridge the gap.
2. Interestingly, a major Indian company talked about opening a campus in Bhopal that will require 5000 people, 10 times more than the students attending the conference. 
3. 9 out of 10 countries in Africa are young countries, as a result, we have potential markets in all these developing countries.

Wrapping up, the event is a great initiative both for industries and academics. The event must have provided an eye opener to students that we are staying in a highly competitive world and nothing should be taken as granted. 

PS: "If we keep on doing what we are already doing, we will keep on achieving what we are already achieving"

Its time to have game changers in education

Last few days, I spent my time in interviewing fresh graduates from colleges (non IITs / Premium Colleges) for security internship in my company. I was both happy and disappointed. I was happy because I was meeting some smart youngsters and I was disappointed because I felt that, probably, they have wasted their four years of their life in colleges. I felt this simply because their basics were not correct in what ever they studied.

Is it because they are not smart enough or because we do not have good educational system / smart teachers in our non premium colleges?

With India's ever increasing population of youngsters, will we ever be able to keep up with the requirement of quality education?

In my opinion some of the main root causes of the problem are following:

1. Every one is running behind IT and wasting their actual talent.
2. Late Wake up Call. When the time for job searching comes, everyone starts studying.
3. Lack of Conceptual, at the same time Creative, teaching in Colleges. Students do not get their basics correct.

The problem is mammoth with millions of students graduating each year. In my opinion, one of the creative solution to solve this problem is to have early wake up call (a whack on the side of their head), probably a mid assessment where students are, in terms profession, industry requirement and research.

Probably one of the best way to learn is by examples and industrial projects that they can engage with, early in their curriculum. Some of the new startups, like Internfever or Stalk Ninja have already started creating a channel between students and companies in IT field. They provide a platform where companies their expose small projects and students can apply for the projects. It will provide some of the wonderful opportunities to students to refine their skill set at an early stage.

Let us hope they and similar startups can be game changers in Education!!!

Just a FALTU blog

Recent movie "FALTU" got a good success, unexpected from a movie with no super stars. I saw the movie during its third week after getting some good reviews from my friends. At the end of the movie, I was stunned. The movie has good storyline and concept. No wonder, movie got connected with the people.

The movie revolves around word called "Faltu". "Faltu" means useless. It is a movie about people who are backbenchers and are considered as Faltu by parents and teachers. In the movie, few (founder) Faltu students, opened a fake college, named as Faltu, just to make their parents happy and convince them that their children also got admission into a good college of India. They published about Faltu in the paper, put up one website and invited their parents to the college.

To their surprise, they got accompany from 500 other Faltu students who registered online, thinking that the college is legitimate. In the middle of this caos, founder faltu students decided to continue the college, where everyone is free to study and do any thing that they like.

Faltu students studied what they like most, some studied acting, some cooking, some fitness and lot of other unorthodox subjects. I, personally, love this concept. I have seen a lot of people who are brilliant in their own ways, however, we do not have right examination for them. It is like you are judging a soccer player by how many runs he scores in a cricket game.

In the next few decades, India is going to have a lot of students, holding engineering degrees, however will be referred as Faltus by the society. Probably this movie is an answer to the future and it won't be a surprise that some entrepreneur take this idea to next level.

Inspiration from Tees Mar Khan

Last two weekends, I watched two of the latest Bollywood movies, as expected from a movie freak that I am. One movie is "Tees Mar Khan" (TMK), a fantastic promotion but not so good show in the theatre. Second is "No One killed Jessica", expected to do decent show in the theatres.

TMK is almost a flop, but do not worry, I am not going to write about whys and what-if's. However, I want to highlight in TMK is the role of "thief", named Tees Mar Khan, as a brilliant concept in field of creativity. Tees Mar Khan, played by Akshay Kumar, is a world renowned thief and fraudster, a half Robin Hood who thieves money from rich but does not return back to poor. He can open any lock in the world.

Two of the inspiring lessons from the movie are:

1. Open the mental lock. TMK can open any lock.

2. Lead by Inspiration. TMK inspired Akshay Kanna at every moment.

3. Get ready to change your plan, depending upon situations

Roger Von Oech, a creativity guru, suggests the concept of a 'stupid/fool' in creativity. A fool reverse all the assumptions and suggest foolish suggestions/ideas to give totally different alternative to the main thinker. No wonder, this idea is not new and you might have seen that in movies and serials, a detective hero is always accompanied by a foolish character.

I believe that TMK can be used as another creative character who can inspire and open your mental locks. If you ever feel, you are arrested by police of same mundane routine, you should act like TMK.

A Flop: Inter State Horticulture Fair 2010 Bangalore

It was Sunday morning and I was browsing internet for some events happening in Bangalore. Interestingly I came across an event called Inter State Horticulture Fair, It sounded a big event and big idea to me. It was happening in Lalbagh, largest garden in Bangalore. Suddenly few imaginary pictures came to my mind, I could see lots of people, lots of stalls, knowledge sharing and real life case studies of the exemplary innovations and ideas.

I quickly got up, took bath (uff so early), got ready, took my EOS DSLR 500D and started for Lalbagh. I reached Lalbagh with lots of expectations. I went inside, it was a pleasant weather and I started looking for the fair. There were lots of people in Lalbagh, probably a sign of a big fair inside. After roaming for half n hour, I got to see the fair. Guess what, I was totally shocked to see the scale of the fair.

There were not more than 25 shops, and it was more looking like a vegetable or fruit market than a fair, a total flop.

What I believe should have been there are following:

1. Knowledge Sharing (Cross Fertilization): As it is inter state, there should have been knowledge sharing sessions explaining the processes depending upon the climate conditions. Every state has their own strengths and lots of knowledge to share.

2. Case studies of some innovative examples: Case studies of the some of the innovative methods/ideas should have been there.

3. Promotion of Organically Grown Fruits / Vegetables: There should have been demonstrations of the benefits of organically grown fruits / vegetables and how to increase the scale of production via organic way.

Well my total trip was not flop, I took some pictures of the wonders, 20 million tree fossil (Have you seen anything that is 20 million years old!!) and 200 years old tree ( truly marvelous).

Amazing view of UB City
Inter State Fair !!!
Road to Heaven!!!
20 Million old tree fossil !!!
200 Year Old Tree, Sorry the 200 Year Old Big Tree

What's cooking in your life?

One of the oldest thing, as old as, human themselves is cooking. Ohh, probably, I made a wrong statement just now. Does any other animal cook like humans do, No!, that means cooking is as old as only the creativity of humans. Or I should say that creativity is just as old as cooking. You may ask what creativity is anyway. Creativity is act of creating something new, possibly from same resources. When someone consistently create something new, he/she become creative person. Creativity does not get limited to any particular field, it can be applied to any field of your life, including love!!!

Few years back, I was a bad cook. I still remember my failed experiments with cooking, a half cooked potatoes and overly crispy brinjals. Very recently, I have started loving cooking and yes started preparing some decent and tasty dishes. Cooking generally involves following as part of the process:

1. Goal: You have some end dish in mind, a very vague idea about how it should taste and how it should look.
2. Resources: You need to find ingradients around you. You also need to learn the chemistry among different ingredients.
3. Cooking: The later part remains to mix the ingradients in definite order, at right temperature and at the right time. This is how a chicken tikka masala differs from chicken butter masala.
4. Presentation: Finally the presentation matters. Presentation involves aesthetic, smell, temperature and ambiance.

Resources, Chemistry, Order, Temperature and Time really defines the formula of cooking. When I first started cooking, I used to have the right goal in mind but I was not really great in understanding the chemistry of different ingredients. I used to dump what ever I used to find at any time during the cooking, resulting into dishes where things were not mixed together in proper way. Now I am realizing the importance of all the four factors and how important are they in preparing a good dish.

So what's cooking in your life?

My bad day is a sign....

Two years ago I got a friend who always remained with me, and we became almost inseprable. This is my Samsung Omnia smart phone. I learnt photography with my smart phone, with its 5 MP camera I learnt to see things in different way and capture them in images, taking notes became fun because a picture is worth of thousands words. My passion of photography is increased day by day and very recently I got a Canon DSLR EOS camera, one of the best camera in the market for photography. So my smart phone became really a friend who taught me how to see things in a way that I have done never before.

One day, it was 11:10 PM in the night, I was returning from the office party. I generally walk from my office to home and I was doing the same that day. At one of the lonely place, I was trying to call my wife, Janu. Suddenly I realized a, hmzzzzzzhmmzzz, sound on my right and somebody snatched the phone from my right hand. I was shocked and still did not realized what the hell is happening. Then I realized somebody has snatched my phone, my 2 year friend, and I will never going to get it back. I felt a sudden fear and shock, I was still not believing that I will be never able to see again my friend. As I was realizing, they took a left turn, they were two youngsters on a bike. I started shouting and chasing them. I chased them but with no results. It was lonely road at that time, a typical of Bangalore, however I was really not prepared for this, I have never seen this before. Suddenly I left chasing them and sudden of trauma and guilt got into me, how I can be robbed like this !!

I reached home at around 11:25, I had no other spared phone, nor I remember exactly mobile no of my wife and friends. My whole neibhourhood was sleeping, I had no idea what I should do, I was totally devastated. Suddenly a certain courage got into me, I felt that I would not let aways these people like this and I decided to go to police station at around 11:45PM. I reached police station at 12:00 AM, probably it is the first time I was engaging with police. As I entered into police station, there was one gentleman, a police receptionist probably, was was sitting there just in the reception.

The police officer was looking more like an receptionist that a police officer. I told my story to him, I was expecting some emotional response from his side, but alas his response was "why have you come to us?". For sometime, I thought I had come to some drama company and this guy sitting there is a part of some B Grade Indian Movie. I again checked all around and outside, yea it was really a police station. So I continued to tell him my story but with more stress. Finally the officer agreed to write my complain and told me to write an complaint application.

I started writing the application with the statement, "I was robbed ...", he quickly reacted and told me to change it to "mobile is lost". I argued a lot but he keep on insiting to write that mobile was lost. What an Irony of Indian Police? I left police station with more stressed and trauma.

That was bad day for me. However the event has raised a lot of questions in my mind. I told story to all of my friends and relatives and found out that I am not alone and these incidents are increasing day by day. The problem here is the divide, Employed vs Unemployed. Employment is giving Indian citizens power to purchase expensive gadgets, we all are buying more powerful gadgets and the gadgets are mostly small and mobile entities. We use them while we walk, eat and travel. On the other hand unemployed people are deprived of more purchasing power. So the best way for them is to snatch what they do not have.

This problem is going to be worst in future. Probably this is just the sign and we need to act fast. My bad day can change future in couple of ways:

1. Business:

- Gadget location tracker services.

- Emergency and Rapid Action Teams on your fingertips. Just like call a no to get help any time and any where.

- Intelligent devices, just like intelligent pet dogs who know their owners.

- Insurance cover.

- Backup solutions.

- Self Destructive devices.

2. Government

- Need to improve eduction and employment. (They have dauting task at hand. India have more young power than anywhere in the world.)

- As I have written in my last post, government need to run like an modern corporates and not as beurocrates.

- Rapid action forces that act rapidly.

I hope that this problem, if not reduced, does not get worst in future.