Education System in India

Introduction

India ranks second in population and seventh in terms of largest landscape. India is a land of diversity in terms of Languages, Religions and Castes. India is well known not just for its culture and tradition, but also for its intelligent yet cheap human resources. India’s recent Mangalyaan satellite launch is certainly a cherry on the cake. Leading IT giants such as Microsoft, Apple, IBM etc. always try to acquire more Indians as their employees, In fact NASA’s 36% of scientists are Indians (Source: Times of India). Education acts as a base for all these brilliancy. Education System in India, Is it good or bad? Let’s take a closer look.

Literacy in India

India has an average literacy rate of 74% compared to the world’s literacy rate of 84% (Source: Wikipedia).

Levels in Indian Education System

There are thousands of schools, colleges and universities offering several levels of education in India. Broadly all of the courses can be categorized under 6 levels as shown in the picture below;

Education Institutes in India

According to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), there are close to 4600 approved institutes providing technical education as on July 2014 which includes engineering, Pharma, Architectural and other technical institutions.

Number of Graduates in India

During the year 2013 to 1014, close to 1.75 million undergraduates and half a million of post-graduates have completed their education in India. Apart from these graduates, there are also other non-technical institutes offering graduation to several millions across the country. Source: icec.co.in

Advantages in Indian Education System

Multiple choices

There are various types of curriculum and syllabus available in India’s education system such as Sate-Board, Matriculation and CBSE. Though there are differences in terms of complexity and quality, they are all limited up to higher secondary education. Parents can choose the best as per child’s knowledge.

Discipline Along with Education

In India, schools and colleges are not just a place to learn math and science, but also discipline and respect. Indian schools are well known for teaching excellent morals to children at a very tender age.

World class educational Institutes

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is one of renowned institutes in the world, offering world class quality education. Getting into IIT involves incredible competition along with intelligence and dedication. Aspirants must get highest score possible in Join Entrance Examination (JEE) to get a seat in one of the 15 IITs located across several states in India.

In 2012 over 5 lakhs appeared for the exam whereas the total number of seats available were less than 10,000. It’s like 53 students competing for each seat. Source: Times of India

The reason for such competition is because of the quality of education and on-campus offers from Fortune 100 companies such as Samsung, Google, and Apple etc. At the end of the course itself these companies are ready to pay up to INR 73 lakhs per year ($137,000) for IIT students. Source: NDTV

Disadvantages in Indian Education System

Reservation System

Reservation Quotas in Indian education system acts a major hurdle for most of the aspiring students. Though many disputes are arising for the past 6 years. Indian Government is not ready to make any changes in terms of reservations.

Present caste-based reservation system of Union Government; Source: Wikipedia

Category as per Government of India	Reservation Percentage as per Government of India
Scheduled Castes (SC)	15%
Scheduled Tribes (ST)	7.50%
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	27%
Total constitutional reservation percentage	49.50%
General (Open to all including SC/ST and OBC)	50.50%

Cost of Education

Though the cost of education in comparatively less in government and aided schools and colleges, Private institutes charge way too high fee for students. One of the International Residential schools in Chennai, Tamilnadu charges from 3 lakhs to 4.75 lakhs a year from 2nd grade to 12th grade.

Moreover Private schools and colleges in India keeps Increasing their fee by 8% to 14% every year source: Forbes

Competitive Pressure

Indian parents take education way to seriously. They often force their children to be the topper in the school and sometimes in the state! This creates unwanted pressure in children’s mind. Though a student scores 93%, he or she might still be worried because the first mark is 95%. This state however is slowly diminishing. It becomes a usual new every year students committing suicide because of scoring low marks in their exams. Last year, around 6 students committed suicide in the state of Tamilnadu, because of their failure in class 12th public exams. Source: Times of India 

Language Barrier

Though government schools offer education at low cost along with incentives such as free uniforms and food, the quality of education and resources are no match to private institutes. Moreover these government institutes offer education in rural languages and English is one among the subjects as a language; these children when they get into college, suffer a lot because of this language barrier. Though they are able to score well because of the hard work, they are still unable to clear interviews.

Conclusion

As every coin has two sides, there are both pros and cons in Indian Education System. However people have started realizing the true value of education. Parents are ready to spend as much as possible for their children’s education. Government is taking various steps possible to promote education. The reputation of Indian Human Resources in international IT sectors keeps increasing every year. It is assured that Indian is trending in the right direction in terms of education.

Top 10 Husband Moments

1. Whenever a fight gets started with your wife

2. When your friends call you for a Party

3. When she leaves out of town for few days

4. Those forgotten Birthdays and Anniversaries

5. The face you make when you are caught drunk

6. It's fun at the beginning, But slowly you can say only "Yes"

7. When she starts talking about her Family

8. Whenever she says that you stopped loving her!!

9. When she tries to talk with her eyes

10. When you forget the Birthday Present...

Gifs Source: www.giphy.com

Business Process Automation in a Nutshell

What is it?

It’s simple to understand the meaning, if you split up the words “Business” “Process” “Automation” if you automate any process in any business in such a way that it happens automatically without human intervention, that too with at most accuracy and optimal speed, that’s called as Business Process Automation (BPA)

Is there any examples?

I can think of hundreds of real time examples, let’s discuss a very simple example:

Example 1:

During those good old days, when we went to a hospital, there will usually be a Nurse standing right outside the Doctor’s room and she will have a notebook and a pen to write down the names of the patients in the order they come in, so that she can people inside in a first come first served basis.

Well! But what are the cons in this process?

·         She might miss a name while unable to manage the crowd

·         If her friends/relatives happen to come in, she might bypass some of the other patients who are already waiting to send her friends/relatives inside.

·         She might have to hit the restroom; meanwhile a couple of patients will walk-in directly, while others were still waiting for her to call them.  

·         She cannot do anything else (e.g. assist doctor) as she has to be there all the time!

·         The worst of all, Doctor has to pay her wages month on month for just this job L

But nowadays, BANG!!!

These “Token Machines” helped us to overcome all those cons mentioned above; it’s just one time expenditure. The only probable problem is if the machine malfunctions (very rare though). However, companies manufacturing these kinds of machines are ready to offer instant and free service during the first couple of years!

Example 2:

In one of the government sectors, where people submit their applications to get permits for their Cars, the application has to be reviewed by three different officers at grades ‘C’, ‘B’ and ‘A’.

Once the Officer at grade C reviews it, he will sign it and leave it on his table, the attender must carry the applications and place it on the table of Officer at grade B for his review, once it is done, the applications must be moved to the desk of Officer at grade A. Once all three of them sign-off an application, the Permit is granted for a Car.

What problems might arise here?

·         All of them, must work at same pace, if any one of them is not available on a particular day, the next day he has to sign-off lot many applications, whereas other two will be idle (considering Office at grade C is on leave)

·         The attender must be keen to move applications from one table to another table on-time

·         There is a possibility that the attender might move a wrong stack of applications

·         It’s a time consuming process to find who is accountable for a mistake (if happens)

Nowadays, we have this software to manage application cascading based on layered approach, if one officer approves, the application will be automatically moved to other Officer’s queue and also generates a reminder email to him. No need of this “Attender” guy at all.

These are the simplest BPAs that I can think of. Nowadays, there are millions of such machines have replaced humans, increasing productivity, offering 24*7 availability with improved speed and accuracy, other examples include:

Simpler Examples

·         ATMs

·         Metal detectors at airports

·         Automated Doors at Restaurants

·         Access Enabled Doors

·         Amazon drones!!

Complex Examples

·         Order Tracking Systems

·         ERP Suites

·         CRM Software

·         Payroll Processing Software

·         Content Management System

·         Data sharing software (e.g. SharePoint)

Think, I have missed anything? or need more clarification?, let me know in comments.

Marketing in a Nutshell

When we think of marketing, the first thing that pops up in our minds are those advertisements, especially videos that we have seen in a TV or a website about a company. But the term Marketing means much more than advertising. With its limitless powers, any organization can transform into an unsurpassable giant and always stand ahead and apart from their competitors.

It doesn’t matter whether:

·         You own a petty shop to sell magazines around the corner of the street or one of the Fortune 500 Companies in Silicon Valley

·         You sell Products or Services

·         You sell your products and services once or twice a year or 24X7

·         You sell them online or through Retail shops

·         You aim at end users or large enterprises

·         You sell commodities only in a particular region or Globally

 Marketing is of at most important. It can never be ignored.

Organizations are marketing their products and services in such a way it can be mutually beneficial for both the company and the receivers, at the same time, most of them cannot even be recognized as marketing, we believe that it’s more of a Complement or free, For instance:

ü  Think about the last free eye checkup, dental checkup or health checkup you took from any hospital

ü  Think about a visit to your hometown with a company provided Backpack

ü  Think about a free shampoo packet which you received for free along with a Weekly Magazine

ü  A movie ticket you got because of the credit points you earned through your credit/debit card

What is marketing?

To put it simple, any action can be categorized under marketing if it does some or all of the following,

Ø  Attracts Customers

Ø  Increases Sales

Ø  Retains Customers

Ø  Promotes Brand visibility (awareness)

Ø  Improves Customer Relationship

Ø  Improves Company’s Reputation

Ø  Increases traffic to your Company’s Website (!!)

Ø  Improves Revenue

And as you can see, most of these points mentioned above are interdependent.

Why do we need Marketing?

Though I have mentioned the reasons above, check out the info graphics stats about marketing in 2014 below from web dam, source (http://www.webdam.com/2014-marketing-statistics-infographic/)

Types of Marketing

There are several types of marketing strategies which different industries use, find below all of them

Video Advertising

§  In TV

§  In Streaming sites like YouTube and other social media sites

§  In the Company’s own websites

Look at the Impact of Video advertising, Source: Mixpo (http://multiscreen.mixpo.com/videoblog/post/mixpo.co/VideoAdQuality)

Audio Advertising

§  In Radios (FMs) and other sites such as Sound Clouds

Banners and Flux Boards

Pamphlets and Flyers

Images and New Letters

§  In Newspapers and Magazines

A new and now becoming the most important type of advertising is Content Marketing.

It’s very rare or never have you seen a video advertisement about an IT Organization, almost all the IT firms in the world do this Content Marketing, and there are several types such as

Content Marketing

§  Online Presentations

§  Brochures

§  Case Studies

§  White Papers

§  In-Person Events

§  Blogs

§  E-News Letters

§  Articles

§  Social Media

As you can see these are very important nowadays, let me explain about them a little bit,

Online Presentations:

Advertisers prepare a power point presentation and uploads it in general websites such as “Slideshare.net” so that others get to know their competency in that particular subject.

Brochures

Every Company will have multiple Brochures available in their company websites and in other social media sites, some brochures talk about all of their services as an overview and they will also have specific brochure for each and every service they provide

Case Studies

Case Studies are excellent way to show off the accomplishments of a particular company, the general structure of a case study comprises of description of a problem, solution offered by this company to solve the problem and the methodology used. It’s like an interior designing company having a catalogue which is a collection of their previous projects.

If the customer is satisfied with any of the solutions provided to some of the previous customers who faced the same problem, current customer also can demand the same solution.

White Papers

This is a bit tricky, I would say this is a combination of a Case Study and a Brochure. White papers will explain the problem in depth, various solutions available for the problem, pros and cons of each and every problem, along with how a company chooses and applies a particular solution to any problem and the factors they consider while doing so.

Unlike Case studies, which explains a specific solution to a problem, white papers give a broad spectrum of choices to the customer and as every components of any problem is explained in detail, it is a best way to establish the proficiency of the service providing company about any subject.

In Person Events

This involves physical presence of the advertiser himself or someone from his organization. It can be a general meeting, free workshop on a particular topic or a live on-stage presentation.

Blogs and Articles

Blogging becomes a new and useful hobby for most of them out there in the Internet world. It’s a simple yet an efficient way to share knowledge. It can be created for any purpose, entertainment, share information, attract customers or for any of the above mentioned advertising strategy.

Normally blogs will have articles on different topics, categorized for intended usage.

Who does it?

There are millions of Ad creating as well as distributing companies out there, the way they advertise becomes innovative. The amount of advertisement increases day by day and so does the price for advertising.

But for Content writing, as it requires subject matter knowledge as well, most of the companies hires professionals internally to do so or they assign a freelancer to do that.

If you are a good writer who the capability to understand complex technologies and explain it in simple English, you are a perfect fit for Content Marketing.

Feel free to leave comments.

P.S: none of the images above are created by me, credits go to the respective creators.

Ancient India and Future Technologies

India, the seventh largest country in the world. Its history is full of mysteries. The two great epics “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata”, the story about “Vikramaditya”, numerous happenings which are similar to recent scientific experiments and a lot more have made India a land of Myths. Most of them, however are proven real (can be related to present technology), there are always secondary thoughts revolving around other unproven myths.

Find below some of them,

1)      “Dwarka” the city where lord Krishna lived (according to Indian Epics) was found along the coasts of India and estimated as old as 10’s of thousands of years. Archaeologists are stunned at the blue print of the city and its usage of metals such as bronze and Iron. It’s still a puzzle, how a group of people lived so long ago, had such a sophisticated but complex technologies to create such a perfect and bilaterally symmetrical City.

2)      According to the Epic “Ramayana”, Lord Rama built a bridge (with rock and Sand) between India and Sri-lanka which was discovered from satellite images during the last ten years. However, scientists have a different explanation as that sand got aligned due to the continuous and varying ocean currents at the tip of Indian peninsula. They also explain that the sand gets solidified as time progress.

3)      The sequence of  the “10 Avatars” of Lord Krishna, matches exactly with Darwin’s “Theory Of Evolution”

4)      Long before we discover that earth is round, it itself revolves and revolves around the sun, numerous temple were built in India with “Navagrahas” these are statues depicting the nine planets in our solar system with sun at the center. The best part is about the colors of dresses wore to those statues. They match with the actual colors of the planets

5)      It’s only a couple of decades, doctors found out that a child in its womb can respond to external light, sound and vibrations. But Indian epics written thousands of years ago talk about the same

 “Abhimanyu's education began while he was still in Subhadra's womb” (source: Wikipedia)

6)      Flying machines called “Vimanas” are described in several literary documents, some can take off right away by giving thrust and some need to run on land (with the help of horses) before they take off

7)      Weapons similar to missiles, which can  be launched from a distant place targeting a specific location out of sight were also described as “Astras”

8)      Gandhari, the Queen of Hastinapur was unable to hold a child in her womb. So a wise sage suggested that her children be incubated in clay pots. 101 such clay pots were impregnated with fetuses and finally burst open to produce the 100 Kaurava boys and one daughter. Not only is this a miraculous birth in Hindu mythology but also the first reference to test-tube babies
(courtesy: boldsky.com)

9)      To talk about organ replacement, Lord Ganesh the hind god with human body and elephant head, legend says that they beheaded a baby elephant and gave life to lord Ganesh.

10)   It’s today’s satellite system when Sanjay can view and explain king Dhritrashtra about the War that was happening elsewhere

11)   It’s only in the early 1800’s scientifically we discovered “Atom”, but Tamil poetess “Avvaiyar” praised another poet “Thiruvalluvars” writings as

"அணுவைத் துளைத்து ஏழ்கடலைப் புகுத்தி
குறுகத் தரித்த குறள்"

Which means

"Pierce the atom and pack within it the seven seas of the world” 

12)   The “Siddhas” saints of ancient India, said to be possessed 8 different powers called “Astama Siddhi” which are

1.       Anima (shrinking) -- Power of becoming the size of an atom and entering the smallest beings.

2.       Mahima (illimitable) -- Power of becoming mighty and co-extensive with the universe. The power of increasing one's size without limit.

3.       Lagima (lightness) -- Capacity to be quite light though big in size.

4.       Garima (weight) -- Capacity to weigh heavy, though seemingly small size.

5.       Prapthi (fulfillment of desires) -- Capacity to enter all the worlds from Brahma Loga to the neither world. It is the power of attaining everything desired.

6.       Prakasysm (irresistable will) -- Power of disembodying and entering into other bodies (metempsychosis) and going to heaven and enjoying what everyone aspires for, simply from where he stays.

7.       Isithavam (supremacy) -- Have the creative power of God and control over the Sun, the moon and the elements and

8.       Vasithavam (dominion over the elements) -- Power of control over King and Gods. The power of changing the course of nature and assuming any form.

13)   One of the oldest temples in “Thirunallar” for “Lord Sani” is so special that even NASA is stunned about its location

A few years ago US sent a satellite which kept revolving round our globe &
whenever it crossed right above the spot of Thirunallar (East Coast
Divine place of Tamil Nadu) it staggers, moves forward very slowly for a
while! NASA observed it and was puzzled! It is also said that during the
SANI- PEYARCHCHI, a most sacred festival of the place, say once in 30
months, a very dense UV rays falls from the Space on the place (it seems
there is always a greater flow of UV rays compared to the quota received by
any other part of our earth at that place; and during the said festival
the density gets more!) No explanations from the Scientists. Just accept it
as a miracle. It is not a fiction.

(Source: tamilbhramins.com)

14)   A Tamil Saint called “Agasthiar” was also a surgeon and he found numerous medicines from plants which can treat even cancers. One of his unique compound named “Boopathi Kuligai” is capable of even bringing back the dead from life.

15)      “Parthenogenesis” a modern science, a kind of asexual reproduction was explained in Mahabharata as Karna was born to his Mom even before her marriage as a result of her love towards Sun.

  

Much more like “Goddess Meenakshi” implying the Go-Green concept, the cosmic dance of “Lord Natraja” implying the universe...

It's just that the creators of all the above mentioned things, haven't left any notes about how they attained so much knowledge.

Feel free to add comments about thing you know as well.

Why English is a Confusing Language?

I have friends who are communication specialists in various corporate companies. Still, I’ve always had difficulties while trying to understand English Grammar. Those rules which are contradictory to each other, those exceptions for rules, same word implying different meanings, different rules within a similar concept such as degrees of comparison, singular & plural, and most importantly, revising the dictionary with more words (both noun and verb) every now and then and calling English as an evolving language!!! Offff!!! So tough for a beginner to avoid confusions.

Let’s consider Rules of subject verb agreement

First confusion,

How many rules are there?

The highlight is, these people have their own set of rules for Subject verb Agreement, check the links below:

20 Rules:

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/sentences/20-Rules-of-subject-verb-agreement.html

12 Rules:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm

18 Rules:

http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/students/grammar/writing%20guides/SUBJECT%20VERB%20AGREEMENT.htm

All right, let’s discuss about the first rule which is common in any website you might see and the rule goes like this

Rule 1: Singular subject takes singular verb and plural subjects take plural verb

The confusing point – Plural subject has ‘S’ at the end (not all the time!!), but singular verb has ‘S’

Boys, rests, goes, girls, monkeys, eats, temples, builds, roads, flies, rhymes, sings, songs, plays, balls

These words mentioned above have both singulars and plurals, subjects and verbs, try to find them.

OK let’s see some examples,

1.       Boy goes to school (subject and verb both are singular)

2.       Girls go to school (subject and verb both are plural)

3.       I go to school (subject singular and verb plural)

4.       You go to school (subject singular and verb plural)

Though sentences 3 and 4 does not satisfy the rule, for our amusement, all the four sentences are correct.

But how?

There is an exception for Rule 1, if the subject is a first or second person the verb takes the opposite form (singular for plural and vice versa)

Moreover we have this nasty concept of one word replacing two different words in varying tenses,

Linking Verbs (Present Tense)	Linking Verbs (Past Tense)
Is, am	was
are	were
Has, have	had

Note that both “is” and “am” replaced by “was” similar to “had” replacing “has” and “have”.

“So do we still have to discuss the remaining rules?” nope, this is more than enough.

Singulars and Plurals

Let’s talk about singular and plurals.

Do we have rules for this also?

Yes! We do and I am not sure how many and based on what logic, let’s see some examples and you count the rules yourself!

·         Boy becomes Boys

·         Mango becomes Mangoes

·         Leaf becomes Leaves

·         Life becomes Lives

And the worst part,

·         Child becomes Children

·         Person becomes People

·         Man becomes Men

·         Mouse becomes Mice

 Words with Multiple Meanings:

 This part is a cherry on the cake, there are hundreds of words in English, which can be a noun/pronoun and (or) a verb

·         I May get a car in the month of May

·         Fly flies and Flies fly

·         I want my intimate friends to intimate me about the work

·         During the Lab session, we subject the subject to a series of tests

·         The police can lead us, if they get a lead from the crime scene

·         He was too close when I was about to close the door

·         I saw a dove and it dove into the bushes

Degrees of Comparison

·         Tall, Taller and Tallest

·         Beautiful, More Beautiful and Most Beautiful

·         Good, Better and Best

·         Many, More and Most

·         Little, Less and Least

Words with same sound

There are words which you can identify only with reference to the context, if pronounced alone, both words have same sound

·         Two, Too

·         Gene, Jean

·         Die, Dye

·         Lie, Ly

·         Write, Right

·         Ant, Aunt

·         Billed, Build

·         Know, No

·         Knot, Not

These words are called as “Homonyms” in English.

There are much more other concepts, but due to the size factor, I am stopping this here. Add your own thoughts in the comments section.

Finally, this is me, when other correct my Mistakes