Block grant teachers court arrest

As many as 2000 agitating block grant teachers on Saturday courted arrest protesting the State Government’s apathy towards them. With the Assembly session coming to an end, the teachers called off their hunger strike that they had begun on August 16 under the aegis of Orissa Block Grant Secondary School Teachers and Employees Association. They said that although the hunger strike has been called off, they would intensify the agitation over their demands.

They are demanding abolition of block grant and reinstatement of the grant-in-aid (GIA) system, payment of salary at par with the government teachers and as per the Sixth Pay Commission and extension of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan benefits to block grant high schools.

President of the association PK Mohapatra said September 5 will be observed as a black day by the teachers and on September 8, they would gherao 314 block offices and also block national highways and state highways in their areas.

This apart, the teachers are planning for a mass agitation involving students after September 10.

The association represents around 24,000 teachers and employees of 1,983 block grant high schools of the State. In support of their demands, the teachers and other staff have ceased work from August 1 affecting education of over three lakh students. The teachers’ agitation also caused lot of inconvenience to the students appearing for supplementary examination for High School Certificate.

They alleged that while teachers in government and semi-government schools were paid a salary of around `15,000 a month, under the block grant system they get a meagre `4,995 a month for the same nature of job. Sources said the financial implication of their demands is ` 508 crore.

The School & Mass Education Minister Pratap Jena had earlier informed that a high power committee has been formed to look into their demands and it needs time to submit its report.� The State Government would take measures as per the recommendations by the committee, he said.

from the department has come forward to discuss the issue with us in the last two weeks,” he said.

A little more care please

 The city witnesses two road accidents on an average every day, claiming at least one life every second day. In spite of the grim statistic, trauma care facilities in the state capital are conspicuous by their absence.

While 617 mishaps took place in 2010, killing 190 persons; 619 accidents took 158 lives in 2009. Over 210 accidents took place till July this year, police records reveal. But the city doesn't have a dedicated trauma care centre in the government sector and private hospitals are out of reach for many.

Experts said the city needs to improve the way it handles accident victims - from picking them up from mishap sites to infrastructure and manpower to treat them. First-aid treatment should start for the victims right at the accident spot by well-equipped ambulances with trained paramedical staff, they maintained. However, the job of taking the victims to hospitals virtually rests with PCR vans.

"We are surrounded by highways. But it is a pity that we don't have a planned approach to deal with road accidents," said Debendra Mishra, former state election commissioner and resident of Saheednagar.

Though the National Highway Authority of India has placed four ambulances on the NH within a radius of 50 kms from the city, people feel these are not enough.

"We have placed four ambulances on the NH. The requirement is reviewed periodically," said A K Ray, project director of NHAI Orissa.

Doctors say there is a huge scope to improve response mechanism to shift victims to hospitals. "Mostly PCR vans take accident victims to hospitals. Though police are doing a commendable job, they have limitations because the police vans are not equipped to give medical support while on transit. The need is for dedicated trauma care vans, equipped with life support system," said Dr Ashok Acharya, chief operating officer of a private hospital here. The facilities in private hospitals too are not enough to attend to accident victims, he conceded.

Dr Madhusudan Mishra, president of Orissa Medical Services Association, said a proposal was made for a full-fledged trauma care unit at Capital Hospital a few years ago, which never materialized.

The government, however, said it is doing its best. Dr P K Das, director medical education and training, said the highways were kept in mind as per Centre's guidelines while planning for trauma care. Accordingly, a trauma care unit was established at SCB Medical College with an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore recently. Another such facility is under construction at Khurda at an estimated cost of Rs 2.5 crore. "These are two facilities on either side of Bhubaneswar. The city has a number of private hospitals with good facilities. Besides, AIIMS is coming up in the city," Das said.

Das pointed out that the state government had decided to establish trauma care units at three levels. Besides a tertiary-level trauma care unit at Cuttack, two secondary-level units are under various stages of construction at Berhampur and Balasore at a cost of Rs 9.65 crore each. Another third-level trauma care unit is under construction at Bhadrak, he added.

The problem of ever widening industry- academia gap is much discussed and deliberated upon in academia as well as industry. To bridge this gap and to promote intellectual capital in all facets of management and related social sciences, Amity Business School organized 8th Renvoi- International Case Study Competition on the theme ‘Challenges and Opportunities for the Indian Industries after two decades of Liberalization’ at Amity Campus, Sector- 125, Noida

Welcoming the distinguished speakers and august gathering, Dr. Sanjay Srivastava presented a bird’s eye-view of the case study competition and various sessions that will unfold during the day. Dr. Srivastava highlighted the dearth of cutting edge researchers in India, which, he said, is a big area of concern for academia as well as industry. He stressed that it is very imperative to add value to already existing vessel of knowledge, therefore academia and industry should come together to bring out contemporary researches in cutting edge areas.Wishing great success to the 8th Renvoi Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President, Amity Group urged the budding professionals to make the most out of this opportunity of learning and said that the future management professionals should endeavour to gain practical knowledge from these case studies presented by the corporates during the 8th Renvoi so that they can implement the same with further innovation, when it is time for them to directly function in the industries.

Dwelling on the challenges faced by Indian industry and academia, Dr. Anand Prasad- Professor and Head of Psychology, Delhi University said that time is the biggest resource that cannot be generated and the terror of time is being experienced by everyone. Knowledge and learning is based on past which may not be useful for future, therefore education imparted in the portals of colleges and universities should be relevant for tomorrow. Today, knowledge has become perishable ie.what is useful today may become redundant tomorrow. Knowledge should be created to update itself creatively and productively. The academia, with the apt synthesis of theory and practice, should aim for internationalization of the students’ minds as the competition they face is not just from their own counterparts in the country but across the globe. In the industry one is faced with too many challenges, the real challenge comes when one has to decide between two right options. The academia has to prepare and equip the budding managers with a knowledge which can help them to make this difficult choice.

Sharing his views with the gathering, Mr. M K Venu – Managing Editor, The Financial Express said that Indian industry has entered next phase of globalization, which poses a host of challenges and opportunities. Continuing uncertainties provide great opportunities to Indian economy and opportunities become challenges if not properly leveraged. The axis of growth is shifting from West to Asia. Western world is slowing down. OECD economies are growing by just 1 % whereas on the other hand, BRICs countries are growing by 6 ½ % . In the coming years, countries like India and China will contribute larger to the global output as 75-80% in the next 15-20 years. The shift of this power or transition will pose opportunities as well as challenges to BRICS countries. Lot of employment will be generated, leading to world class society but at the same time, India, with its 600 million people at the bottom of consumption will face resources crunch leading to over- exploitation of resources, climate change protocol etc. Indian industries need to work closely with civil society. India needs to do a lot of strategizing; new thinking and changed mindset is required. Problem of growing corruption has to be addressed in the country. Indian needs to think evolve as “Brand India” image like other countries , which will distinguish India from other countries

The inauguration was followed by four technical sessions spread during the day on Operations, General Management, Marketing and IT and Finance and HR. Prolific speakers from industry and academia presented the real life case studies and enriched the knowledge of the budding managers.

Mr. Prem Narayan -Director of Estates, Ministry of Urban Development while presenting a case study on “Improvement of catering services through sustainable cost and effective approach by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)” shared how IRCTC identified the problems plaguing its catering services and how it eventually managed to overcome those problems successfully. Outlining the various causes leading to poor catering services, identified after the causal analysis of the situation from 2007- 09 by applying “ Fish Bone Diagram, Mr. Narayan said that it was found that Untrained kitchen staff , Inability of the Attendants to handle packaged food, Unavailability of trained chef, Inferior quality raw materials, Non- Established material procurement procedure, Preservation of perishable item in ordinary freezers- all these reasons led to the deterioration of catering services of railways. Emphasizing on the identified solutions, Mr. Narayan said that IRCTC trained its kitchen staff on hygiene, personal grooming and methods of food preparation; it replaced old inefficient staff with new trained staff from hospitality sector, standardized the recipes, developed the infrastructure of base kitchens and redefined procurement procedures to overcome the problem. Stressing on the cost savings achieved by IRCTC, Mr. Narayan revealed that as part of the solutions implemented in Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Express Trains, IRCTC signed a MoU with HPCL for supply of 19 KG LPG commercial gas cylinders as a result of which IRCTC saved Rs. 36.5 Lac annually; by signing Centralized Rate Contracts with national reputed brands, IRCTC had a net saving of Rs. 8.38 crores and by attaining fuel efficiency by several measures, IRCTC managed to save Rs. 1.85 lacs on consumption of fuel over precious years.

While presenting his case study – ‘Are we headed the right way?, Mr. Subhendu Shekhar, MD, Esscon Engineering Pvt Ltd said that the development of India is a highly lopsided one as even after two decades of liberalization there exists stark contrast between the picture of urban development in terms of skyscrapers, Malls, technological advancement etc and rural backwardness in terms of denial of basic necessities of life such as drinking water, sewage systems and numerous others. He suggested “Strategies of development in India ought to be designed in a way that its benefits are evenly distributed across all the layers of society. The prime remedy to this chronic problem is to make quality education accessible to the people at the grass root level and the policy makers of the country should invest their potential in this direction to attain progress and development in the real sense of the terms.

Presenting the case study on “Panchayati Raj and Rural Development” Dr. Rita Singh, Chairperson Zilaparishad Sikar said that the purpose of quality education is not just drawing handsome salaries from plush jobs in the MNCs. It is more importantly about implementing the skills acquired to make a contribution towards welfare of the country. Therefore all the sharp and bright professionals of tomorrow should endeavour to understand the key to India’s prosperity which lies in making efforts to develop the rural belts. Apart from advancing in their respective careers the budding professionals should use their lessons, intellect and time to work for the country and also engage themselves in effective rural development in direct or indirect ways.

“Waste energies should be used to conserve energy. Scientists and Economists should jointly work on developing a new realistic models of waste heat recovery keeping the cost benefit in view and more waste heat recovery applications should be explored in hospitals and small scale industries” said Mr. Saumya Garnaik, Energy Economist, BEE while making his presentation on “Energy saving through waste heat recovery in an engineering industry: A success story”

During his case study presentation on “Safeed Teeka – Communicating Boroplus Antiseptic cream” Mr. Subhadip Roy, Professor Marketing, IBS Hyderabad outlined the various branding strategies adopted by the company over a period of time through which the product Boroplus changed its image from being a mere antiseptic cream to an all purpose cream in the eyes of the customers. He apprised the budding professionals with the various tools of marketing and communication for a brand. He said that the marketing strategies of a brand should constantly evolve to engage the customers with emotional appeal apart from rational appeal. The future marketing professionals should endeavour to think out of the box and utilize all the options of branding their products ranging from personal selling, to event sponsoring and advertisements. The challenge in this field is to create the brand recall rate which needs to be achieved by constant communication and idea exchange amongst the professionals to keep the innovation going and touch the target audience differently each time.

Various other case studies that were discussed during the day included “Work Value and Work Style Impact due to globalization and Liberalization in Indian Industry” by Mr. Anoop Saxena- Site Manager, ST Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd.; “ HCL Learning as a Strong Brand in the Education Industry” by Dr. Rachita Rana- Professor and PGDBM Director, IITM; “Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) misses opportunity in Bangladesh” by Mr. Kohinoor Biswas and Mr. M Sayeed Alam -Assistant Professor, East West University, Dhaka; “Ethics and Business- A case study of Infosys” by Ms Meenakshi Sharma-Company Secretary; Nucleus and many more

Law Students Of India Are Not Getting Practical Training

Legal education in India is not up to the mark and it requires serious reforms. At the moment, the legal education is not professional in nature as it suffers from being excessive academic in nature and is producing law graduates who lack good research and analytical skills. 

This fact came to the knowledge of Justice Markandeya Katju, a judge of the Supreme Court, while addressing an audience of law students at the Dr Ambedkar Law University. Justice Markandeya Katju posed a simple question before the law students who found it difficult to answer. 

The question was “what will you do if a client approaches you alleging that the cop refused to register his complaint?". The law students failed to give a satisfactory answer to this question. Justice Markandeya Katju showed his dissatisfaction with the practical knowledge of Indian laws on the part of law students. He also showed his dissatisfaction with the Bar Council of India (BCI), the statutory body governing legal education in the country, for prescribing the syllabus which did not include practical training. 

Justice Markandeya Katju opined that mere theoretical classes would not bring the result, unless it is supported by practical training classes. The students should get to know the day-to-day legal problems of common man and the way to get rid of them if the students were imparted practical training by way of participation in free legal clinics. Justice Markandeya Katju further said that the legal education system of India needs radical change. Answering a valley of questions posed by the students, Justice Markandeya Katju at times also complemented them for their brilliant queries and their up-to-date knowledge. 

The law students and law graduates need to undergo practical legal training in India. They must stress hard upon legal skills development . In the present era of information technology, e-learning can greatly assist them in achieving this task. Online skills development in India is now possible for legal professionals. 

There are some very good online legal research, education and training institutions in India. In fact, institutions like Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) are even providing research, education and training in techno legal fields. PTLB is the exclusive techno legal research, education and training institution of India and world that provides online education and training in the fields like cyber law, cyber forensics, e-courts, legal research, legal drafting, digital evidencing, etc. 

Law students, law graduates, lawyers, corporate counsels, etc must take full advantage of the research, education and training courses of PTLB so that they are not only well versed with the practical aspects of Indian and foreign laws but also well equipped to deal with techno legal issues like cyber law and cyber forensics.

Rutgers B-School to offer mini-MBA in India

For corporate students who do not wish to spend a bomb for an executive education class, US-based Rutgers Business School is offering a mini-MBA in the country.

The programme, Mini-MBA in Business Essentials, will consists of 10 three-hour modules to be taught over five days by faculty members from the Rutgers Business School.Executives from over a dozen companies including Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Essar Group, UTV Group, Bajaj Electricals, Eureka Forbes, Franklin Templeton, Thomson Reuters, Yes Bank, HDFC, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co and Sanofi-aventis among others, have enrolled for the programme.

The cost of the programme is Rs 82,725 each executive.

“We have representation from various companies and individual executives for the programme. While many companies are sponsoring the programme for their executives, many executives have taken personal interest in the programme,” said Dhruv Sayani, founding member, Think Education Learning Initiative, the company that brought the Rutgers programme to India.

In all, around 90 participants have registered for the programme so far. The programme is targeting young managers, functional experts, chartered accountants, professionals and entrepreneurs.

“We have customised case studies which students will be using during the programme. We have created those case studies specifically for the Indian market,” added Sayani.

The 10 modules to be taught are economics, business strategy, managing human capital, marketing, global macropolicy and international trade, leadership, supply-chain management; analysing a financial statement, global financial markets and investing and financial strategies.

The programme is being delivered by the Rutgers Center for Management Development by faculty from Rutgers Business School and Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

A Mini-MBA duly certified by the Rutgers Centre for Management Development will be awarded to every participant.

Rutgers has been offering the Mini-MBA programmes on its campus in Piscataway and Newark, for two years now.

The range of programmes include biopharma entrepreneurship, biopharma innovation, digital marketing, finance essentials, mobile marketing, social media marketing among others.

Experts stress industry role in employability

Is the industry making too much of a noise about the gap between the continuously evolving technology and what students get to learn at engineering colleges?

A broad response to this question, at a seminar on 'Re-engineering future in India' here on Saturday, was in the affirmative; speakers from variousengineering colleges insisted that the industry cannot do away with its part of training responsibility by expecting students to be employable from the first day after graduation.

"The industry's participation as a key stakeholder is critical to address the employability issue," said the experts at the event, which was organised by Pearson Education India, publishers of academic and reference books, to mark the launch of customised textbooks for engineering studies.

College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) director Anil Sahasrabudhe said, "Reports from industry bodies like the National association of software and services companies (Nasscom) are often cited to point out that barely 25% of students graduating from engineering colleges are employable vis-a-vis the skills required by the industry."

"While a debate prevails on whether the role of institutions is confined to teaching basic concepts and fundamentals of engineering, the fact also remains that the industry's expectation is driven more by profitability and productivity aspects," said Sahasrabudhe. "Instead, the need is to appreciate that young graduates will take some time to settle into their work," he added.

Sahasrabudhe said, "Communication skills, especially a two-way classroom exchange between students and faculty, as well as exchange among the faculty, and development of problem-solving abilities as against rote learning, are crucial to rolling out good engineering graduates."

He said, "Modern day engineering students have access to a range of learning material, starting with the classroom textbooks to books and journals in libraries, e-books, digital content like compact discs, open courseware on the internet and webinars. However, what is important is to see that they get genuine original texts. The teachers have an important role in facilitating this."

Symbiosis Institute of Technology (SIT) director Tejinder Pal Singh concurred with this view by saying, "It is important that teachers read original books and refer the same to students to build and create the kind of learning material they require."

Singh made an elaborate presentation on introducing an internship model to engineering studies that focuses on improvement of soft skills and communication and adaptability of students from tier II and III cities.

S Y Prabhu, former academic dean at the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), said, "The oft-repeated remark that the university syllabus is outdated and not in tune with what is happening in the industry is unfair, considering that educational institutions are meant for making the fundamentals clear and stronger. It is unrealistic to expect a continuous change in the syllabus for a four-year programme."

Prabhu, however, conceded that flexibility in terms of implementation of the updated syllabus was an issue owing to the large number of colleges that operate within an affiliated system of the university.

He emphasised the need for better communication between faculty and students, efforts to retain high-quality faculty, boosting confidence of faculty to go for innovative ways of teaching, and introduction of other disciplines, like management and psychology, in the engineering curriculum.

Referring to industry-institute interaction, Prabhu said that industry ought to participate more by offering practical training programmes to students. The universities also need to take bold decisions, like opting for credit-based continuous and comprehensive evaluation at the undergraduate level of studies. This will ensure suitable opportunities for students to improve on their performance.

Tuition terms

Section 80C of the Income Tax Act does not define the term tuition fee. However, Section 80C (xvii) states that the deduction will be allowed for “tuition fees (excluding any payment towards development fee or donation or payment of similar nature), whether at the time of admission or thereafter, to any university, college, school or other educational institutions situated within India.” So, the provision prohibits deduction on development fee, donation or payment of similar nature. Hence, all payments related to the education of a child which a school or college charges should be allowed under Section 80C. You should claim the expenses you have mentioned for deduction.NRIs are not allowed to open PPF account or invest in any of the small savings schemes as well as the RBI savings bonds. A central government circular GSR 585(E) dated July 25, 2003, prohibits NRIs from opening a PPF account. However, if a resident Indian who subsequently becomes an NRI before the PPF account matures, may continue to subscribe to the fund till maturity on a non-repatriation basis.Corporate fixed deposits are very opaque and involve a lot of such irregularities. However, you can approach your income tax assessment officer. You can also make a complaint about the company with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Company Law Board.