Governance of Indian Universities: Deemed to Decay

India with a current student population of around 4 million in its universities and colleges is the third largest system in the world after USA and USSR. The unprecedented expansion of higher education in India, which took place in the last four decades, has, however, been extremely uneven and resulted in the neglect of quality, research and management aspects. The universities and colleges function much below their optimal levels and fail even to fulfill their minimum and basic tasks such as making admissions, completing teaching, conducting examinations, declaring results and awarding degrees on time. The very credibility of the higher education system stands eroded.

Warning Bells

Departments have faculty members that do not hold advanced degrees and very few hold doctorates from reputed institutions. Those who hold Ph.Ds have no publications as first author in reputed International Journals. Too may non-serious actors have intruded into academics. Who will expose them. Almost 70 % of the faculties in every department in Universities (including the Cental Univ.) have never published papers in Int Journals or presented papers since last decade. This is the group that becomes biggest hindrance to growth of the department & spoils the environment in the department by creating obstacles to their colleagues who can produce good work and make them irrelevant. Such unwanted persons in acadmeics have made a nexus to manipulate things to their advantage.

Promotions of faculties should be on the basis of publications and research only. Requirement of recommendations and refernaces is the biggest catalyst in the decay and destruction of higher educationa d research in India. More than 70 % Ph.Ds and promotions in universities are bogus due to this loophole and no one is talking about this menace as all the unwanted ones are breathing through this hole only.

A survey of employers shows that only a handful of the 1400 engineering schools in India are recognized as providing world-class education with graduates worthy of consideration for employment (Globalization of Engineering Services, 2006). AICTE and UGC have failed beyond doubt in controlling the quality of staff and institutes. Grants are given to private institutions on the basis of their political affiliations who in turn encourage internal groupings within the department in promotions etc. Situation is going to become worse after the implementation of 6th pay commission as everyone wants to be promoted to the highest pay scale by manipulating the system.

Many Engineering colleges do not appear to meet the NBA standards, and yet they are NBA accredited, it does not appear that the NBA criterion on faculty and staff for accreditation is being applied in any meaningful manner, suggesting another level of institutional failure.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/asian_university_rankings_top_200_universities/

Time to expose the Rajus in Universities and Higher Education

The National Policy on Education-1986 was introduced to reorganize and strengthen the higher education through multi-pronged strategies and programmes and structural reforms. Policy interventions have, however, failed to create much impact. There is a need to revamp the governance framework of the universities and bring in place a rigorous system of performance audit to stem the rot into the system.

Institutions are not serious about maintaining the standards and quality of teaching and research. Thats is the reasons for finding so many manipulators we see everywhere eincluding your dept to the corridors of UGC and AICTE. You can get any accrdiation if you can manage a few babus there. Univ. cant attract talented persons because they are not interested and dont want them. It has become the fiedom of "Idalist and Incomptents". Even senior professors are afraid of any bright knowledgable person around. Its not going to happen even after the 10th Pay revision if we dont the impression that teaching is not for idalists and incompetents. Lot of people are responsible for this and its not due to few black sheeps as talked by many whenever any scam is exposed. We have to admit theat there are many black sheeps in the education sector also. In fact there are 'very few white sheeps and too many white collar bandits' n the education sector throughout the world like U.K. and Aussies Univ..

There is a need for an independent evaluating agency like USA and many other countries to check the bogus rating bodies working under the control of UGC and AICTE. It should be made mandatory to all Univ. to have a sepaarte section on their websites where professors, departments and institutions can be rated and evalauated by the students after they pass out only. This can be done by a separate national level site also to avoid any disagrremenet about the artings. These ratings should be given a good weightage during the promotions, evaluations and ratings by the authorised gov. agencies as interview and inspections have been proved ineffective and helping only in promoting the incompetencies. This will definately help in checking the groupings and manipullations happening in education.

How many of our respected professors and institutions will agree to this kind of evaluation by their ex-students? Hmmmmmmmmm.

I posted this suggestion in one of the yahoo groups who talk too much about higher education and morality but my comments were never posted.

http://www.careers360.in/cover-story/iipm---best-only-in-claims.php

Satyam Fiasco and Corporate Culture: Tip of the Iceberg

'The scintillating performance of white collars are now showing up patches of darkness in the private sector also. The hollowness of money spinning generation has been opening up. The charisma of Business school theories and their products are now no more a spell bounding. The fort of globalsiation has been collapsing. The series of "economic and systematic scam" is gruelling the murkier scenario of "Global depression". The Satyam episode is not a earthquake. The epicentre of the Satyam (and many more to come in future) shake is well known , but we all had closed our eyes (and ears) when many among us were feelings the tremors in the past. We have never released ourselves from the lust of money and machoism. This global economic crisis is the result of misplaced priporities and short sighted business plans. (Dont blame oil prices alone.) Unlimited greed to capture the global market ( without any long term vision and ethics) made way for unsustainable and impractical plans (expansion, over-production resulting in over-employment with high bonus for sales persons & managers for showing projected profit with wrong assumptions) that were not feasible in any sense. Everything was justified in the name of aggressive marketing. (Remember those lectures from your colleagues for raising these ethical issues during lunch break discussions. "In fact there is nothing that can be called right or wrong in this world. It’s all a matter of our perception and personal preferences". You were told). These are the only two unsocial product of Global economy that was in hands of over ambitious marketing persons who believed that anything is good that helps in getting the business. There was no difference between temporary and long term goals due to lack of vision. The illusion (Professionalism & Cheating as two sides of a coin) is created by these so-called elite managers and we are mortgaging the existence of reality. Profit projection is the only way to justify their positions (and year end appraisals), though most of them have brilliant CV but usually without basic understanding of that field. The unsocial marriage of profit making plans and market opportunities has given the birth of unsocial child of "Unfaithful" corporate culture and capital. Who will cherish this unsocial child? The egoistic rhythm of big B - Schools (and E-Schools also) is now jarring the world civilization. Let us hold them now and teach them to respect the basic ethos of society where at present honesty and transparency are noticed as sign of unprofessionalism.

In fact the way to deter others from such manipulations, and even to get at others is to expeditiosly put Raju and his Accountants/ Auditors/ Directors behind bars. This may give those who know about misdeeds of others to come forward and expose them. Also an enquiry should be set up to know the utilization of all the top B- school products hired on multi-million packages by these co.s. Were they just used to mainly mislead clients, balance sheet manipulations and shield the manipulators at higher management level? I am sure that these B-school products contributed enough to the downfall of the USA financial sector also. All the co.s that gone bust (or got bail out) are those who were too generous in recruiting from top B-Schools and giving commission based bonus to their managers. A make-believe fantasy world was created by these people where they tried to hijack the basics theories of good business practices, sustainable growth, parameters of professionalism & socio-economic realities.

The fantasy created for the elite service providers has been evaporated in the heat of Global Depression, Ethical Terrorism and Global Machosim. The hammer of TIME has been bolting on the face of these hollow technocrats and managers. The sin of indecent sleepless nights in front of workstations are now coming to reality. We need to say no to this brutal community of so-called professionals. Let us bridge the respectful and dignified economy and work culture where the breads and pride of 70% marginalised population will be weaving the theory of Management and Policies. This is the basic ethics of Social Capitalism. Otherwise there are numerous balance sheets are ready to mortgage the dignity of humanity on this Globe.

Kosi River Shifting: Sediments or Tectonics or Both

Recent abnormal tectonic acitity and subsequent earthquakes (12 May'08, 26 Aug'08) in China, Nepal & Tibet support my hypothesis that ongoing tectonic activities influenced the path of Kosi and its divergence point near supoil. River is under the influence of Malda Kishenganj fault on the eastern margin of Monghyr-sharasa ridge. It seems this fault is influenced by the recent China and Tibet earthquakes.

Although water level in the barrgae and rainfall is the cause for floods but rivers tendency yo erode its embankments has been influenced by other factors also. The reason for the sudden changes may be related to the the recent increased tectonic activities in Nepal & China Himalays. Frequency of earthauakes (more than 5 intensity) is observed highest in the last few dwcades.
In that paper i had identified the zones showing diffrent levels of tectonic influence on kosi River shifting. Geophysical data and GIS modeling using and RS images of different years proved that it is shifting its path under the influence of tectonic movements in its catchment area in Himalayas twoards China and Nepal side.

Kosi River changed its path in three main phases due to changes in the spatial position and orientation of its diversion points ( meeting point of three main basement faults). This is the fourth such phase and river will keep on gradually changing its position after that also. The diversion point of Kosi near Birpur has shifted north-eastward and it caused breaches in the East Kosi river south east of Chtara.

There are many ways to control the situation for temporary respite but the fact is that it is a problem that needs long term carefull micro level study study of the factors causing this shift since thousnad of years and then remedial planning by the India and Nepal. Its not that if you can fill the breach in the dam and the problem will be solved forever. The barrage's estimated lifespan of 30 years expired in 1986 but the river's morphology — it was showing a reverse tendency to shift eastward — began changing even earlier. Read the paper for more details.

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/geology/geomorphology/geom0002b.htm
In this paper i had identified the zones showing diffrent levels of tectonic influence on kosi River shifting. Geophysical data and GIS modeling using and RS images of different years proved that it is shifting its path under the influence of tectonic movements in its catchment area in Himalayas twoards China and Nepal side.

Chasing a Mirage: Accuracy improvement of Utility network

For any utility co. most critical requirement is a complete updated inventory of its assets. Any attempt to correct the network data at a later stage cannot result the desired sub-foot accuracy due to ever changing network and ongoing maintenance activities. The main aim should be to find a permanent sustainable solution to the problem of data updation and control of errors at the source to improve the accuracy. A sub-meter (50 cm) accuracy of GIS databbase is more than enough required for use with any OTDR and fault locator.

GIS database is an important Asset Management/Accounting tool and means of visualizing the location of the network assets quickly and presenting it in meaningful ways to assist network planning and maintenance activities. Though everyone wants highest accuracy possible but spatial accuracy of utility networks is not as important as emphasized by many GIS data users due to the following reasons:

1. GIS database cannot replace any engineering document like as-built drawing which is supposed to be the single independent document describing layout and technical characteristics of the network.

2. GIS database is best suited for tracking asset inventory, engineering analysis and customer support type activities. An updated database can be used for network planning (desired scale of 1:1000 or accuracy 1 M), fault locating, demand calculation, load change, load estimation type engineering analysis also. Again its currency and completeness are much more importnt than a pinpoint accuracy.

3. Accuracy of the top of line fault locators and OTDR available in the market are in the sub-meter range. There are no information available about their performance and accuracy and none of these claim sub-foot accuracy. So, a 50 cm accuracy map (as maintained by a carefully drawn 1: 500 scale as-built drawing) is better than what is required by any O&M staff.

4. Most of the maintenance problems and accidents during trenching occur due to human errors in cable/feeder identification, outdated as-builts and not due to its wrong location in GIS. This happens due to the use of old data/drawings that do not show current as-is situation in the ground than the issues related with the data accuracy.

Use of geophysical methods like cable tracing and Ground Penetrating Radadr (GPR) for locating underground utilities which are meant for knowing the approximate/supposed location of the objects are highly prone to errors with additional operational limitations of the equipment and ground conditions for any large project.

Ref.: www.esri.com/events/egug/sessions/tues_sessions.html

“If We’re so Good, Why Aren’t We Better?”

A progressive organization thinks: “If we’re so Good, Why Aren’t We Better?”

An organization stuck in the past thinks: “If there were a better way, we would have found it, and we’d be doing it।”

Projects are about technical management of delivery so all Quality aspects should be fixed by technical persons with exposure to different technology and organizations. Often this aspect is ignored when matters reach to decision-makers who can be easily influenced by the non-technical sales persons types.

Project management model for outsourced GIS services and IT/GIS consultancy projects can never be same. Identify the key factors, resourcing systems and role definitions. Consultancy projects demand expertise while data conversion projects require man management only.

Develop a capable team. Team members need a good understanding of the project’s fundamental components-goals, objectives, scope, problem statement, constraints and vision. This is the team that keeps a company ahead of other competitors.

Identify key sort-term goals. Form an Action Plan. Focus on long run perspective. Develop expertise and strategies.

Find a Business Strategist with a thorough understanding of Technology and GIS market to help the decision-makers by giving unbiased, for-sighted views on various business opportunities, pilots and other initiatives. This person should drive BD and Sales team because these teams usually focus on sort-term gains due to the pressure of their monthly review meetings and targets..

Control the practices and views that hide the underlying problems.

Useful Links

Here are some links on Geomatics. These are mostly for tutorials, notes, and help with different aspects of RS & GIS.

Watch out, more to come!
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=welcome
http://iris.usc.edu/Vision-Notes/bibliography/contents.html
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/MODIS/02_Atmosphere/index.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/services/support_center/faqs/focus_v10.html#tiff_arc
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/tg/resources.jsp?rd=rs&ds=3
http://www.daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/catalog.pl?s
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/chapter11/chapter11.html
http://www.storm.uni.edu/rs/2001/
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/751/
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/appendices/references.html
http://geography.laurentian.ca/resources/idrisi/tutindex.htm
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/index_e.php
http://www.landmap.ac.uk/ipc/ccrs/fundam_e.html
http://earth.esa.int/pub/ESA_DOC/landsat_FAQ/#_Toc69120405
http://www.resmap.com/imgsearch2.asp
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/Rscc/rscc-no-frames.html
http://web.pdx.edu/~emch/ip2/ip2.html
http://gis.unbc.ca/index.php
http://www.ace.net.nz/tech/TechFileFormat.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/facilities/gis/index.php?Page=338#soft
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/cgi-bin/pcihlp/CDSPOT
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/e_tutor.htm
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/env_tutorial.htm
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/tutorials/
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/links/onlinecourse.html
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/hipr/html/hipr_top.html
http://aria.arizona.edu/courses/tutorials/welcome.html
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/chapter4/07_e.php
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/tut_i.htm
http://www.geog.umd.edu/homepage/courses/472/
http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/daccess.html
http://cbc.rs-gis.amnh.org/remote_sensing/index.html
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/rs.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Front/tofc.html
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mbinford/RS_Web_Sites.html
http://www.utexas.edu/its/rc/tutorials/matlab/
http://chesapeake.towson.edu/data/principles.asp
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://sal.ocean.washington.edu/tutorials/erdas/index.html
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/tutorials/tutorials_main.html
http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/GEODEPT/COURSES/remote_sensing/rslinks.html
http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/general/persons/jana/isprs/ed_material.html
Other interesting links:
www.soople.com (effective Google searching simplified)
www.wallpaperstock.com (cool wallpapers for the PC)
www.pixelgirlpresents.com/desktops.php
www.wikipedia.org (online open source encylopedia)

Educate Yourself !

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." -Albert Einstein
Dr B.R. Ambedakar (1891-1956), who was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly to draft the constitution of India had once made this call ("Educate Yourself") to a particular section of our society who were considered illiterate and uneducated. I feel this slogan is still very relevant to all sections of society as even today we see a lack of proper education, patriotism, self respect and civic sense among many so-called modern and literates. I want Dr Ambedakar to comeback and pressurize the parliament to include this in our constitution as a punishable offense for everyone who do not take this call seriously. The one thing I want to encourage you to do above all else is to continue to educate yourself. If you aren't of this mindset, you will never be able to be successful in long-term. To succeed in a real sense you've got to acquire an insatiable appetite for anything and everything having to do with your work, leadership, marketing and business skills.

What's more, the educational process never stops. It doesn't end after a certain job or achievement. Successful people NEVER stop learning. They are always on a quest to grow and develop themselves. This is something that can only come from within. No one can force feed it to you, neither you can buy, borrow or steal it from others. As Jim Rohn said "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune."

There is a persisan proverb;
He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/295-speech-narayana-murthy-infosys-lbsim.html