IIMA Professor on IIM pay packages

For a while the Indian media have been projecting a “much more than rosy” picture of the “fat” salary that IIM graduates reportedly get

Figures of “Crores of Rupees” routinely get mentioned.

This has led to “heart burns” for students and the general public who actually get salaries that are far below.

The mushrooming B Schools in the country use such news item to “lure” potential candidates

Unfortunately, so far most Institutes were not “bold enough” to tell the world that what gets reported is NOT truth, though the item portrays the Institutes in a formidably positive way.

In this backdrop I am so happy that Professor Saral Mukherjee, Placement Head, IIM-A decided to write a very balanced article “Truth about astronomical IIM salary packages” in Economic Times on March 12, 2010.

The learned professor’s words “”It is a signal to the world that IIM-A students are mature enough to disassociate themselves from a very flattering portrayal if the portrayal is not true” should make IIM-A proud

I wish EVERY member of B School Management, faculty and students read this article

Theater @ Campus in IIIT-B on Feb 13, 2010

It was truly amazing to see YoursTrulyTheater Group an interesting form of Theater that involves the audience!

Their ability to “in situ” create scenes out of just a few words from the audience that too relating to the particular campus was touching

We were proud to have our own alumnus (Sumit Acharya of the Class of 2004 who works for Oracle) as part of TAC Group

I do hope one day we can teach Software Engineering through such form of Theater!

Reliance Foundation to set up a world class university in India

Reliance Foundation (the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries of Mukesh Ambani) is planning a full-fledged University (on the lines of Harvard and Univ of Pennsylvania) in India.

It will be an interesting to watch.

Except BITS Pilani no private enterprise has ventured into higher education at this level. Reliance University could be a tipping point!

IIT-The Road Ahead

Education Times Division of Times of India is starting a new feature “Interaction”

As part of the new initiative they had organized a Panel Discussion on IIT-The Road Ahead on October 31, 2009 (3 to 5 PM)

I was asked to modetate a panel consisting of distinguidhed individuals -

1. Prof R Natarajan,   Former Chairman, AICTE (Former Director, IIT Madras)
2. Mr Ananth Koppar, Founder Kshema Tech & KTwo Tech (IIT Kharagpur Alum)
3. Mr Ashok Kamath Chair Akshara Foundation & Former CEO Analog Devices India (IIT Bombay Alum)

I was invited thanks to my 16 years at IIT Kanpur (and a year at IIT Madras too)

We deliberated on five issues

1. The recent controversy on cut-offs for JEE aspirants moving from 60% to 80%
2. The percieved brand dilution due to hurriedly starting seven IITs in just a year
3. The recent stand-off between IIT faculty and the Government and the resultant strike by IIT faculty
4. Are  IIT’s contributing enough  on research front?
5. Do students join IITs only for lucrative managerial careers by joining IIMs?

It was interesting to listen to the esteemed Panelists and the interaction between them and the 50+ audience consisting mostly of IIT aspirants in Schools and their parents

IIT faculty on hunger strike

Without hurting teaching and other academic activity the faculty members of the prestigious IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) went on a hunger strike protesting against the spirit of Government control and the pay structures announced recently.

It is a sad day; sad that IIT faculty have to resort to such a measure; added to this sadness is the fact that a well-meaning Government, Minister and the establishment have to let such a thing happen.

One hopes an early end to this deadlock; there must be a better way to resolve such deadlocks!

9th Convocation of IIIT-Bangalore today

131 M Tech students received their degrees from Mr. NR Narayana Murthy, Chairman Infosys and Chairman of IIIT-B’s Governing Council.

Dr Madhavan Nair, Chairman ISRO was the Chief Guest; he gave a truly inspiring talk. He recounted his personal joy when ISRO vehicle could place an Indian flag on the soil of the Moon. Hearing it from the “Moon Man” was a touching experience; knowing about the mission being the lowest cost mission, yet achieving several new global milestones, makes every Indian proud. 
Mr. Ashok Soota, Founder & Chairman of Mindtree was the Guest of Honor. He talked of his ten years of Mindtree (something that IIIT-B shares with Mindtree) and also some lessons to learn from successes and failures. Coming from the man who was “bitten by the entrepreneurial bug” at the age of 50 (after being Wipro President for 15 years) was so convincing.

Chairman Mr. NR Narayana Murthy in his inimitable style talked of the need for youngsters from India to dream big, take on the challenge of bringing the benefits of high quality education to the 300 million Indians who are steeped in poverty; he also asked the graduating students to “give back” to the “alma Mater.

It is an interesting coincidence that the four students (Ritesh Nayak, Ashwin, Jayant and Harsha) who won the Google Product Prodigy contest decided to give away their entire prize money of Rs 2,50,000 to their Alma Mater IIIT-B

It is great to be a teacher, particularly in India

With 600 teachers from all across India and nearly 100 faculty members (mainly from US), the month-long IUCEE Workshop is an exciting event; in its third year of operation, I always make it a point to be there, thanks to Dr Krishna Vedula of UMass, USA (who coordinates from the US side) and Dr MP Ravindra of Infosys (who coordinates from the Indian side)

While several eminent academic heads talked about the challenges of teaching in India and the pathetic state of some of the educational Institutes, I used the time to talk about the positive side; to remind the teachers assembled to “count the blessings“

I talked of just three things

1. Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society
2. Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society elsewhere, but not in India
3. Not widely known ideas about teaching that are NOT well appreciated by the society

Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society

• The general respect academics command in India, something that can be touching many times
• The campus advantage; the fact that students & faculty live together for years leads to several spinoffs; SPICMACAY would not have happened without IIT Delhi campus
• Freedom to pursue what you like; no need to listen to the managers every day

Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society elsewhere, but not in India

• Opportunity to teach “Full time students”, who are supported by families all the way up to PhD without having to worry about supporting them or their families; the students can be given lot more challenging work, demanding work; campus life adds to this advantage
• Students in India viewing Computer Science as Top 3 options for 20 years (unlike countries like USA where Computer Science is NOT in the Top 10 first choices)
• Ability to see the world, thanks to conferences happening all over the world

Not widely known ideas about teaching that are NOT well appreciated by the society

• Age advantage; we age every year but every year we get 18+ age group to teach; it keeps us younger!
• The absence of topline and bottom line!
• The 4Ls of learning getting transformed within the past 5 years, more so in India; Lectures going to e-learning, Library going digital, Labs going online thanks to tools like iLab and Life getting increasingly digital

IUCEE (Indo US Cooperation in Engineering Education) Workshop at Infosys Leadership Institute, Mysore on July 2, 2009

India is the only country where scholars (not soldiers) are in higher pecking order!

Mr Mohandas Pai, Head, Human Resources and Director on the Board of Infosys talked to the distinghished audience assembled for the Conference organized by IIIT-B at Infosys Campus, Bangalore today (June 4, 2009), namely,

“Ramanujan Rediscovered – Mathematics & IT Conference – Tribute to Prof Venkatachaiengar (June 1-5, 2009″

He talked about the need to discover the importance of science, Infosys initiative of instituting an Infosys Prize for Mathematics ($ 100,000 or Rs 50 Lakhs Prize money) as well as similar awards for Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Economic Sciences and Engineering Sciences.

He also made an interesting observation that for centuries India had put scholars on the top of the societal order unlike most countries where soldiers dominated the social order. This is particularly relevant as we enter the knowledge economy.

The conference managed to assemble an amazing set of eminent mathematicians from

India (Shimla, Allahabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Madurai, Mysore, Tezpur and other places),

renowned mathematician Bruce Berndt from University of Illinois, USA (author of seven books on Ramanujan’s Notebooks)

as well as mathematicians from

Singapore, Austria, Australia, Turkey, China, New Zealand and USA

It is an interesting experiment pioneered by Prof GNS Prasanna of IIIT-B; it looks like we will be able to make it into an annual conference

Karnataka Knowledge Commission gets all Vice Chancellors to a common table

Led by the renowned Dr Kasturirangan, Member of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) the Karnataka Knowledge Commission has started to make its mark within the first six months.

It was nice to see Vice Chancellors Summit on April 17, 2009 right in Vikas Soudha bringing nearly 19 VCs on a common platform in addition to Directors of premier Institutes (IISc, IIM, IIIT, ISEC)

It was eye opening to see that Karnataka has

one technical university (VTU),

three Agricultural Universities (UAS at Bangalore, Dharwad and Gulbarga),

Horticultural University, Medical University (RGUHS),

Kannada University,

Sanskrit University,

Yoga University (SVYASA – unique in the world),

Music University,

Women’s University in addition to

region specific universities (Bangalore, Dharwad, Gulbarga, Mysore, Mangalore) and

an Open University!

It will be interesting to see all the universities uniting, create a common brand & identity, allow free movement of students across the State, have a common calendar, interact and collaborate with each other.. (my wish list)

There was a presentation on “How to make Karnataka Universities world-class?” It was more of rhetoric than substance; yet the very thought that the VCs are pushed into “aspirational” mode is very interesting

In the afternoon, there was a long winding presentation by the Working groups; the progress, though slow, is indeed steady. The Commission managed to get its three Research Associates and a skeleton staff in place – commendable. The web site is up.

All in all, it is a pleasant experience that even State Universities are deciding to move forward – one hopes that they move fast and in the right direction.

 

(Commission meet and Vice Chancellors Summit, Vikas Soudha, April 17, 2009)

STP students sustained good performance

I had lunch meeting with about 25 students of the STP Program (Special Training Program) today (April 5, 2009). The former students had arranged a “party” to celebrate my birthday (that falls on April 1); though I was reluctant, I agreed realizing it is the best for the students to meet with each other informally.

STP is a program that we organized in 2006-2007 where we trained unemployed engineers belonging to the weaker sections of the society. It started with an idea from Mr NR Narayana Murthy and Mr Mohandas Pai of Infosys. Infosys sponsored fully the first program. Of the 89 who completed the course, we could place 83 students in top Indian companies including Infosys, Wipro, Mindtree and top MNCs IBM, HP, CSC and EDS.

All the students except one could complete the 1-year probation and retain the jobs at the end of one year (many completed a year in June 2008; some completed in October 2008)

It is nearly two years since they graduated in June 2007. It is heartening to see that more than 10 students have won some or other performance award in Infosys, Wipro, IBM, HP.

It only goes to prove that given the right input, guidance and critical support at the correct time  students with initial disadvantage too can perform very well.