eh, minister?

Huh! And the prime minister prattles of new IITs when he cant even ensure that students enrolled in his dream project of IISERs get a degree. Talk is cheap. So typical of these politicians. The current Congress government, and the future governments of XYZ parties are hereby humbly requested to shut their mouth and deliver an iota of their promise. That includes you too, Manmohan ji.

Will he, wont he?

IITs are planning a fee hike. But will Arjun Singh allow it? That is the Rs 25,000 question.

The article further quotes:

Sources close to Arjun said the minister’s decision was likely to be “political”.

Quite naturally. After all, is a modern day politician capable of taking a single apolitical decision?

Arjun Singh prepares to strike

Arjun Singh is at it again. Having conquered the combined might of IITs and IIMs, he now believes he can get away by introducing quotas in private colleges and universities.

Some facts on the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution, as reported in The Telegraph:

The 93rd amendment altered Article 15 of the Constitution — prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste or gender — by adding a clause on reservations in educational institutions.

“Nothing in this article.... shall prevent the state from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes or for the SCs and STs in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions, including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state...,” the inserted clause says.

Note the last part "including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state". The report further states:

But constitutional expert P.P. Rao, who was on the panel of lawyers that challenged the OBC quota law in the Supreme Court, said that reservations in private institutions were “illegal, as things stand now”.

“Of the five judges who heard the OBC reservation bill, one clearly said reservations in private educational institutions cannot be allowed. The other four reserved their comments as the case before them did not require them to speak on the matter. So the private sector quotas are illegal, as things stand now,” he said.

I fail to see how, when the Amendment clearly mentions "including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state". So, probably, we shall see another round of demonstrations, which in all probability will turn out to be entirely futile.

Now, let's take another look at it. The Constitution guarantees "equal opportunities" etc. The current government (as well as the preceding governments) have failed to provide the most basic opportunity, i.e. access to good school education. They have, however, decided to make higher education more accessible to people across all castes. Fine. That's what the constitution says. So, they decided that institutes like IITs and IIMs (which where established by the government, and which are run largely by the taxpayer's money) should have reservations. I am not sure that I agree with the government (*for the institutes of national importance*), but the Supreme Court has spoken and so I will hear it and accept it.

Now, they want to introduce reservations in the private colleges, whether aided, or un-aided by the state. They may well use the constitution as a shield and defend it. But, here's the question. Why should the government be allowed to dictate a private institution, which it does not support at all, to bow to it's whims? They can very well ask, nay order, the people running the private colleges not to discriminate, but what right do they have in ordering the private colleges to incorporate reservations?

Can you order a person, whom you dont pay, and who is not your employee to bend to your whims? You cannot. You can ask a person to follow common set of rules (eg traffic rules, the clauses in IPC, etc), but not your whims. Rules are made so as to ensure that in enjoying one's own fundamental right, he/she should not curb others from enjoying their fundamental rights. In my book, if a private unaided college discriminates on the basis of caste, or religion, they ARE violating a fundamental right. As long as they don't indulge in this, they are not violating any rights.

One can argue all they want, but the truth is the government will get away with this by telling, in effect, that their whims are the new rules.

Education is a fundamental right and it is incumbent on the state to ensure everyone, whether SC/ST/OBC/GC has access to education. To ensure it, the state decided to incorporate reservations in all the universities and institutes run by the state. But to ask unaided private colleges to incorporate this is a clear admission of dereliction of duty by the government. It has to force private organizations to incorporate reservations only because the state has failed to provide adequate opportunities. Arjun Singh, in effect, has handed his own ministry and the government a rather damning report card.

At the end of the day, the government will be judged by the people. Come 2009, and we will know what the people think of Arjun Singh and his policies and the Congress government.

A word of advice to other political parties: Dont shout yourself hoarse on reservations. Let Arjun Singh eat his cake. If you want to win an election, go to the masses and work on their pressing needs. India, unfortunately, has a greater chunk of people who dont even make it to middle school (let alone colleges), than people who go to colleges (all castes put together).

On the OBC quota

Thank goodness, that even while the government goes bersek, there is still a body called judiciary which keeps its feet planted on the ground and doesnt hesitate in calling a spade a spade. At least, the quota debacle has been avoided for this year.

Without going into a debate as to whether introducing an OBC quota is justified or not (socially), here is a short list of where the government bungled -

• The government doesnt have any authentic figure on percentage of OBC population
• The figures upon which they based their decisions came from 1931. If it isnt height of stupidity to assume that demographics remain constant, then what is?
• Even these figures arise from Mandal comission report, whose correctness is a BIG question
• Even assuming 27% to be a good figure, the institutes didnt have the infrastructure to cope with the seat hike. Premier institutes like IITs face a 15-20% faculty shortfall already. A 27% seat hike on top of this would have been disastrous

IIT bashing yet again!

There are some things in India which is considered fashionable. One of them is bashing the "brand IIT". While some of the criticism is definitely warranted, a chunk of it is, well, just "fashionable".

Here is a piece by BV Shenoy. The article criticizes the IIT JEE system. It is really a well written article for most part, and all the arguments have been put rather nicely (although there maybe some factual errors). Except for the last paragraph. So you want to put emphasis on board exams? You trust them, do you? Well, before going any further please take a couple of minutes to read this too and spare a thought for the students who suffer this way. This link is a report on answer scripts getting "lost" and then "found" on a local train. The article also reports that this isnt a one off incident.

When we appeared in class XII exams, a chunk of roll numbers had 78 in math. A nice continuous chunk. With students amongst that chunk having rather varied expectations too; even if you were to look at the mock exam marks there was huge diversity in the chunk (the students by the way, can look at the graded mock test answer scripts). Fishy? But still, there are so many who would rather trust this than the JEE.

By all means, with a preponderance of coaching centers, the IIT JEE cant be truly considered fair. But take a moment and think whether the alternatives proposed, like the board exams are fair.

I have a couple of questions for the proponents of using board exams etc as "performance indicators", and hence maybe as possible alternatives to the JEE.

1. While you keep harping that coaching institutes play a key role in JEE, do you intend to say that no private coaching goes on for board exams? Even if you were to leave aside the coaching institute stuff, do you intend to say that students studying in a top notch metro school, and those studying in a mofussil school are on a level playing field? If they arent, how come the board exams will be a better indicator.

2. A lot is made out of the corelations between board exams and college performance and the (lack of) corelation between JEE scores and college performance. Anybody has an idea of the corelations between board exams and other tough exams (eg, ISC math score vis-a-vis math olympiad results) and the correlations between JEE and other tough exams (eg, JEE math score vis-a-vis math olympiad scores)?

In a lighter vein, I do see a very strong correlation between college performances and board exams, while I dont see any between college performance and the JEE: In the board exams they ask questions like "State Newton's laws of motion"; nothing focuses on applications of the Newton's laws in tricky situations. In the undergrad courses, they ask questions like "Define structure factor"; no questions asked on actually calculating the structure factor of even slightly complex crystal structures. JEE however, wouldnt ever ask "State Newton's laws and stop there". There you have to demonstrate, while solving the problems, that you have understood the laws fairly well and can apply them. No wonder that the rote learners of board exams have a field day after entering college!! See, I told you; there's a very strong correlation indeed.

All is not well with the IIT JEE. Agreed. But the behemoth survives due to lack of proper alternatives. The crappy stuff which passes in the name of board exams are not, I repeat, ARE NOT an alternative for the JEE.

Disclaimer: I did not clear the IIT JEE. Like 98% others (as well as a fair chunk who didnt have access to methodical coaching like FIITJEE classroom coaching etc), I flopped as well. So please dont think I am defending a system that suited me.

nanopolitan's analysis: R&D funding

Prof. Abinandanan presents a nice incisive analysis of science R&D funding in India (wrt the present budget) in his blog ...

Wanted: top notch professors

This is how some of the premier institutes plan to retain and hire top professors. The report goes on to say "IIT Delhi is planning to “play on the emotions” of Indian scholars studying or working abroad. Faculty members travelling overseas have been told to seek out bright young Indians and encourage them to return."

Wonder whether they really believe it will work. I may be wrong, but it seems to me the two key reasons for Indian academics preferring greener pastures abroad is: 1) Better research facilities, and 2) Money (not necessarily in this order). There are other impediments as well, some of which has been listed nicely over here by Dr. Phanikumar.

Research facilities available in some of the universities abroad are still out of reach for Indian universities having a similar standing in India. So far as the salary differential goes, I guess the following set of figures might be interesting.

The avge starting salaries for undergrads from a good university in US - $60k p.a.. The avge starting salary for an Asst prof in US - $75k p.a. Compare this with Indian stats. The avge starting salaries for undergrads from a good university in India - Rs15-18k p.m. (IITians, BITSians and some of the NITians as well as a few other places like BHU, Jadavpur, etc have a better average). The avge starting salary for an Asst prof in India - Rs18K.

The avge grad student in US may end up with a stipend of $20k p.a. The Asst prof manages $75k p.a. Compare with Indian scenario. The PhD students get Rs 10k p.m. The Asst prof gets Rs 18k pm.

Then again, some of the developed countries have a large number of industries willing to engage academicians in consultancies. The apalling status (at least on the R&D front) of Indian industries preclude consultancies to some extent at least.

How much of these problems does IIT Delhi hope to overcome by "playing on emotions"?

Battle of Knowledgeables.

Here is an article on the spat inside the Knowledge Comission. It is interesting to note the Communist party state Pitroda does not understand the Indian ground realities". The "broad" and "indepth" understanding of "ground realities" by the CPI is there for all to see, with their recent land acquisition drive and their "superb" stewardship of Bengal over the past 3 decades.

Mathematics and Materials Science

Yet again, the professor harped to a class of MSE grad students, "I know that those from an MSE background arent too familiar with the mathematical techniques..."

Wonder why is it always like that? In India at least, students get into IITs / BHU / NITs through gruelling exams which have a significant mathematical component (In fact, when I took up the state entrance exam in 2000 for admission to REC, the math paper carried 200 points, physics 100 and chem 100). Seems to me that its criminal to take in students based on mathematical aptitude and then fritter it all away by divorcing metallurgy courses from mathematics.

A couple of guys in our Metallurgical Engg Dept were also amongst the toppers in the Regional Mathematical Olympiad during high school. By the time we were through with the BTech program in Metallurgy, they (as well as the rest) were hard put to solve simple problems in calculus, probability and combinatorics. Till date, this remains my single bigggest greivance regarding metallurgy / materials science education.

Wonder when the metallurgists will wake up to the fact that math, when applied to meta, can actually be fun!!