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

We have a curse that all major projects get delayed badly; this project is no exception. But we are equally to blame for NOT celebrating the success though delayed. None of the scientific / engineering community would communicate the excitement of such a project to the people at large.

We had a similar show five years back in Bangalore. The KR Puram bridge is a marvelous piece of engineering; no one ever sang a glory for the project. Today it is not even painted (white washed even) or lit!

I do hope we Indians learn to celebrate (just not movies and cricket) but great pieces of engineering too

This year they had selected

• Dr Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO (Indian Spece Research Organization), whom youngsters call as “Moon Man” after the recent success of Moon Mission – where ISRO successfully put the Indian Flag on the surface of the Moon
• Mr B Muthuraman, MD of Tata Steel who once again became “Steel Man” after Tata Steel emerged as the largest steel manufacturer in the world by acquiring Corus Steel in 2007
• Mr S Viji the MD of Brakes India who has pioneered automotive brakes manufacture and known in Chennai as “Brakes Man” and currently devoting considerable time & energy to the cause of School Education by establishing a School in honor of his School Teacher Abraham Kuruvilla in Chennai and making a difference to Corporation Schools by providing quality inputs, training to teachers

Dr Nair talked of Moon’s surface looking quite “ugly” (unlike popular folklore where one compares the beauty of his/her sweetheart to that of the Moon) with 6,000 meter high hills that are just 200 meters wide! He talked of the “cost effective” nature of Indian space missions.

Mr Muthuraman talked of the need to “standarize, improve / innovate” cycle that must happen all the time if one were to achieve the goal of “world’s chapest stell production” (achieved by Tata Steel in 2007). He also talked of the myth that confuses standardization with “innovation killing”. He talked about the quality running across the organization – not limited to Board room alone. He also talks of “MD Online” where every month he himself comes online for the entire organization – where safety, customers, improvement, sales and rewards – are taken up in that order. Mr Muthuraman talked of the current goal of Tata Steel remaining EVA positive

Mr Viji talked of the need to work with teachers and government.

(I am fortunate to be on the Advisory Board of the CII IQ)

Chapter 6 “Discovering a new continent” documents the first stage of IT growth in India – “focus on computer hardware”. The notable contribution of the book is the due credit given to the original pioneers and their extreme frustrations – Vinay Bharat Ram meeting SONY CEO Akio Morito, he agreeing to permit DCM to assemble SONY calculators in India and the Indian government refusing to convert their own LOI (Letter of Intent) into a manufacturing license! The DCM Data products story is captured well. The story of HCL starts with the crafty Shiv Nadar who started HCL as a joint sector to capitalize on “Hindustan” and quietly getting out of the “joint” sector; the early successes of HCL are documented well

·       HCL Micro computer 8C

·       HCL PC,

·       HCL Singapore operation (HCL Far East)

·       HCL selling Apollo workstations in India, and,

·       and HCL America

Interestingly, the unknown hero in HCL’s success – designer Raman – has been given his due credit. The rise of PSI (of Deshpande and Raveendran fame) and their contributions are given due credit. The growth of Wipro and its evolution into many facets of hardware manufacturing are well documented. This decade gave an opportunity for India to see the direct benefits of competition – prices falling by 25-50% in a year and business volume growing year after year at a similar rate.

(My Book Review will be posted over the next 10 days (starting March 28, 2009) – a chapter a day for each of the ten chapters!)

Book Review

Sharma Dinesh, “The Long Revolution”, The birth and growth of India’s IT industry”, Harper Collins (Dec 2008)

• the creation of ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India),
• extensive use of computers in different wings of the government, namely, atomic energy, defence, planning commission and CSIR Labs,
• the formation of IPAG (Information Planning and Analysis Group), and,
• the huge bureaucracy created by Department of Electronics (DoE) that led to average delay of 3-4 years to get any computer imported

The decisive roles played by Professor M G K Menon with his strong personal views are very well documented. Though Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai had very different views, the hold of DoE ensured that electronics and IT grew only at the government controlled way.

(My Book Review will be posted over the next 10 days starting March 28, 2009 - a chapter a day for each of the ten chapters!)

Book Review

Sharma Dinesh, “The Long Revolution”, The birth and growth of India’s IT industry”, Harper Collins (Dec 2008)

(My Book Review will be posted over the next 10 days – a chapter a day for each of the ten chapters!)

Sharma Dinesh, “The Long Revolution”, The birth and growth of India’s IT industry”, Harper Collins (Dec 2008)

Several IIT students have formed a political Party – they did participate in the 2004 Elections. They do not seem that well organized.

With Vote India, Jago Re and several ways in which the younger generation is taking active interest, I do hope Indian Politics will change, and change for the better.

I wish it happens soon  - may be  not in 2009, but hopefully in 2014!