Like Nalanda, Vikramshila may rise from ruins

It was among the most important centres of Buddhist learning in ancient India, but the remains of Vikramshila University in Bihar have been sadly neglected for years. Now, it appears, the ruins of the university would be conserved on the line of its older counterpart Nalanda.The conservation plan comes in the wake of the Bihar government's move to develop Vikramshila's ruins as a tourist destination like Nalanda, situated around 90 km from the state capital.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has roped in the National Culture Fund (NCF) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to conserve its excavated ruins with an initial investment of Rs. 2 crore (Rs. 20 million).

Vikramshila University was set up by the Pala dynasty (750-1174 A.D) king Dharmapala in the late 8th or early 9th century. The site is located near Antichak village in Kahalgaon sub-division of Bhagalpur district, about 150 km from Patna.

"The conservation work would begin from February in a phase-wise manner," ASI Patna circle's Superintending Archaeologist Sanjay K. Manjul told IANS in Patna. He said the initial investment will be Rs. 2 crore, though the total cost of the mega conservation and development plan is yet to be worked out. "NTPC has agreed to fund the conservation work through NCF. A memorandum of understanding has been finalised for it," he said. NTPC, under its corporate social responsibility scheme, decided to fund the conservation work. Officials of the three agencies visited the site last December.

Last year, the ASI decided to launch a mega plan for conservation of the university ruins. Manjul said the conservation, which has been neglected for decades, will help preserve the legacy for future generations. According to ASI officials here, conservation of 52 shells or reading room-like structures adjoining the main stupa and a major portion of the excavated structure will be taken up.

The ancient Vikramshila University was intended to complement the existing world-class universities at Nalanda and Takshila. It lasted four centuries before being destroyed during an attack on local kingdoms by Bakhtiyar Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate. As per the ASI, the remains at Antichak were excavated by B.P. Sinha of Patna University during 1960-69.

The antiquities found at Vikramashila comprise terracotta objects, including a large number of plaques representing Buddhist and Brahmanical deities, animal and bird figurines and some symbolic representations, as also a large number of stone images of gods and goddesses. A few small bronze statues of Buddhist deities like the Buddha, Maitreya, Vajrapani, Avalokitesvara and Manjusri too have been found. The bulk of antiquities comprise stone, iron, copper, silver and bronze objects, including a few silver and copper coins.

Members of the Vikramshila Nagarik Samiti said after more than three and a half decades of excavation by the ASI, no work has been done at the site on the pattern of Nalanda. The Samiti has been demanding that Vikramshila be included in the state's Buddhist tourist circuit for its development.

The ancient university at Nalanda was a seat of higher learning in the fifth century. The university was home to over 10,000 students, including from abroad, and nearly 2,000 teachers.

Source: www.news.in.msn.com

B-School laterals are a mixed bag

Placements 2012 at management institutes across the country may turn out to be a subdued affair, if lateral placements are any indication. Premier institutes like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and XLRI, Jamshedpur have reached out wider to new companies to compensate for lesser hiring numbers from regular recruiters.

Consulting, information technology (IT), e-commerce and IT products are among the sectors that are looking good, while those like banking and financial services and fast moving consumer goods have scaled down the number of offers. The process began at some of the IIMs in December, while others started in early January.

At IIM-Lucknow, for instance, where some 200-odd candidates with an average work experience of 32 months have gone into lateral placements, IT and general management companies are showing greater interest. “The impact of the economy is being felt in terms of numbers per company. But if we are losing out there, we are making up in terms of new companies,” says KV Nitin, recruitment coordinator.

“We have some exclusive recruiters in retail, IT and e-commerce,” he adds, explaining that international executive search firm Michael Page International is making its debut on campus, while Olam International and Deloitte are among the regular recruiters. E-commerce, oil and gas, renewable energy and retail are “among the hot sectors.”

Institutes have done their groundwork and dug deeper into their databases, expecting the number of offers per company to come down because of the overall slowdown. As a result, a number of new companies making their presence felt on campus. At IIM Calcutta, first-timers on campus during lateral placements include a US-based IT product company, and more from the power and manufacturing sectors, says IIM-Calcutta placements chairperson Amit Dhiman, who refused to disclose their names.

More than 100 students at the institute have been placed so far. These include about 78 candidates who have received pre-placement offers and nearly 40 who have been hired during the laterals process. At IIM-Bangalore, the lateral placement process started in mid-December and is still in progress, with around 246 students qualified to participate. “It is going very well, with 45-50 companies having confirmed their participation. We are expecting 100-plus offers during laterals,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of IIM-Bangalore’s Career Development Services.

About 75 of the institute’s students already have PPOs in hand. According to Agarwal, IIM-B has had organisations from consulting, FMCG, technology, manufacturing and general management making offers. “Though some companies have made fewer offers than expected, there are others who have made double-digit offers so it balances out,” she adds.

At XLRI Jamshedpur, apart from around 60 pre-placement offers (PPOs), some 35 offers have come in during the lateral placements which kicked off in the first week of January. Among those who have already visited are regular recruiters like Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Accenture. “We tried to widen our net. While financial sector companies are fewer in number, operations and consulting are doing well,” says placements chairperson Rajiv Mishra.

At IIM Indore, too, more than a 100 candidates have been placed so far in about 14 companies. Among the top recruiters so far are Cognizant Business Consulting — which has hired about 28 candidates from the campus, compared with 12 last year and Deloitte India, which hired 12 candidates this year compared with eight in the previous year. The institutes did not disclose salary figures, while IIM-A did not wish to reveal details till the process was complete.

Source: The Economic Times, January 24, 2012

XLRI and Weatherhead launch a new programme

XLRI School of Business & Human Resources, Jamshedpur, in a strategic partnership with Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, has announced the launch of a unique programme on organisational transformation and leadership skills christened Masters Programme in Positive Organisational Development & Change (MPOD). This programme is intended for executives who are interested in leading positive change, building sustainable institutions and shaping vibrant communities, and will be open to professionals from all management functional areas, provided they have at least 10 years of relevant work experience in organisations.

The 15-month programme will commence in November 2012 at XLRI and will be conducted in six modules spread over 15 months. The modules will be spaced 10-12 weeks apart, thereby making it flexible enough to accommodate the busy schedules of executives and enabling them to attend on-campus classroom sessions in India and the US without leaving their jobs.

“MPOD is the outcome of our continuous efforts to build responsible future leaders of tomorrow,” said Fr. E Abraham, the Director of XLRI. On the occasion, Dr. J. Singh, faculty, XLRI and co-director of MPOD, said, “MPOD will educate and develop business leaders who will shape an enduring socio-economic ecosystem that offers extraordinary value to all stakeholders, nourish the cooperative human spirit, and contribute towards ecological sustainability and global well-being.” Dr. Mohan Reddy, Dean of Weatherhead School of Management, said, “We are glad to offer this pioneering programme for students from the Indian subcontinent and beyond.”

Source: The Financial Express, January 23, 2012

Opportunities sparse for US LLM degree holders

"I was an eyewitness: I saw the Lehman Brothers sign being taken down,” says Apar Gupta, recalling a memory of the US recession that followed the September 2008 collapse of the Wall Street investment bank. Gupta was studying at Columbia Law School in Manhattan, pursuing a master’s degree with 14 other graduate students from India, many of whom had worked at the largest Indian law firms. But after completing their master’s programme, not a single one found a job with a comparable US law firm through campus placements, he says. Most didn’t even get a rejection call.

Research conducted by 2011 Columbia postgraduate Rohan Kaul of Indians studying for a master’s degree in law in the US reveals that there has been a slight recovery since 2008 in the prospects of landing a job with a respectable law firm. But the study also showed that opportunities remain sparse and tuition fees for foreign students keep increasing. Some 60 Indians did their master’s at some of the top law schools in the US: Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, NYU School of Law, University of Chicago Law School, Berkeley Law University of California, Penn Law School University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University Law School and Northwestern University Law School. Of those 60, some opted for alternative careers or academia, but only around five found jobs with top US or international law firms.

“Post-2007, there has been a huge reduction in the number who got such jobs,” says one 2011 Berkeley graduate. “Ninety percent of guys didn’t get a (US) job for sure, I know that.” He was part of the fortunate 10% and managed to bag an offer from one of Wall Street’s most elite legal firms. “The market conditions in 2005 were very favourable,” remembers Shishir Mehta, who was at Columbia in 2004-05. “I think pretty much everyone who wanted jobs in 2005 and 2006 got one, from what I know—there was at least a 70 to 80% strike rate (for US jobs) in prestigious law firms.”

“Those years were fantastic,” says Gupta, “You hear stories from there. Everyone got (job) offers.” By then, there was also a “critical mass” of Indian lawyers in New York, says Mehta, which meant firms were less apprehensive about hiring qualified Indian lawyers. Mehta himself went on to take a job at White and Case LLP in New York, having had previous experience in London, and in 2010 he returned to India as a partner at Khaitan and Co. in Mumbai.

Professional networking
That story has become a bit of a template — practice law in India for a few years, do an LLM and get a job abroad, then return to India a few years later with a career boost. There are dozens of Indian lawyers with similar resumes. Some who went abroad never came back, and became pure play foreign lawyers. Apart from politicians such as Kapil Sibal, who went to Harvard for an LLM in 1977, a generation of corporate lawyers was inspired by two of AZB & Partners co-founders: Zia Mody (1979 Harvard Law School LLM to Baker and McKenzie) and Bahram Vakil (1983 LLM at Columbia followed by Debevoise and Plimpton).

Vakil says that only he, Mody and at most six other Indian lawyers worked in New York at that time, but they would meet almost every week. “I think now it’s over 800,” he estimates the number of Indian lawyers in New York. The connections one can make at a US law school remains a major draw for applicants. “Above and beyond the teaching,” says Gupta. “There is a huge emphasis on professional networking dinners.”

An LLM at Columbia Law School in 2011-12 cost $54,932 (around Rs. 2.7 million) in tuition fees, coming to $77,000 including New York living costs for nine months. In 2008-09, the total cost at Columbia was more than 10% lower at $68,000, confirmed a college spokesperson. Spending a year elsewhere is not much cheaper: tuition at Harvard Law School’s LLM programme in Boston costs $47,600, rising to at least $72,800 including accommodation and other living expenses.

The easiest way to pay off those debts quickly, unless well-off relatives are funding the education, are jobs with US law firms where starting salaries for the most junior lawyer can range from $125,000 to $160,000 per year. Many partners at Indian firms do not make this much money in a year. The appetite for these jobs remains almost undiminished. Several US LLM graduates of the past years recount how everyone attended the New York legal job fairs and a majority hoped to land a gig at a corporate law firm, recount several US LLM graduates of past years. But the chances of even getting a foot in the door of such big law firms has become “tremendously grim”, explains 2011 George Washington University Law School graduate Areej Faiz, who has since joined Virginia-based IT consultancy firm DISYS.

To blame are the state of the economy, difficulties in getting H1-B visa sponsorship and only one intense year in which to develop local networks. “Job opportunities have decreased,” says Faiz, “but then this holds true for everyone, not just Indian LLMs.”

Brazilian exception
That much is true to an extent — the US legal trade press has been flooded with headlines about lay-offs, mass unemployment amongst law graduates and large firms deferring hiring as the world’s biggest economy struggles for recovery. Last year two US law schools were sued for more than $200 million each by former students, claiming they were misled about job prospects by the colleges. But according to Gupta, who ended up starting his own law firm in India later, that is not the complete picture. “Surprisingly, if you look at other jurisdictions, particularly the Brazilians, they still got job offers,” he claims. Some US and international law firms are hiring Brazilian LLM graduates to work abroad for a year, and then send them back to their booming offices in Brazil later, he says. The possibilities for Indian lawyers to move back to India within a foreign law firm are all but non-existent because of restrictions on such firms operating in India.

The numbers have not suffered over the years. Mehta’s Columbia batch of 2004-05 had no more than six Indian lawyers. In 2011 there were at least 11. At New York University there were 14 Indian lawyers and Harvard welcomed eight. “LLM programmes are increasingly becoming a cash grab for law schools,” claims Elie Mystal, US-based editor of online legal website called Above the Law. “While they still offer some help for foreign law students, law deans are more concerned about the money they can make from desperate foreign law students, as opposed to making the programmes something employers value. But the larger question is: why would you want to come into the faltering, struggling US legal job market in the first place?” Spokespersons for Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School declined comment.

While the number of Indians opting for an LLM programme in the US have increased, the job market has been difficult for the last three years or so, said an Indian lawyer who is now working with a top New York firm. “It is certainly not something for you if your sole agenda of pursuing the LLM is to break into the US legal market,” he says.

But the lure will remain. Even in 2011, US law firm Sullivan & Cromwell advised on $393 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) — single-handedly more than ten times the size of India’s entire national M&A activity the same year. Indeed, the appeal of the so-called Big Law career option in the US, however slim that chance has become, is unlikely to diminish, meaning Indian lawyers will not simply disappear overnight from US LLM programmes.

Source: Mint, January 20, 2012

Government to spend Rs.1 trillion to democratize information, connect institutions of learning and research

India will spend Rs.1 trillion over the next three years to “democratize information” through projects such as the National Knowledge Network (NKN) and the gram panchayat (village councils) network, Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on public information, infrastructure and innovation, said on Thursday. Pitroda, also a member of the National Innovation Council (NInC), said though the budget for NKN is now Rs. 6,000 crore (Rs. 60 billion), it could increase by some 65%. “We will probably end up spending some Rs. 10,000 crore (Rs. 100 billion) by the time the project is completed.”

NKN aims to connect the top universities, science research institutes, central institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and research labs through fibre optics, to promote research in the country. It will be a multi-gigabit pan-India network providing a unified highspeed network backbone for all knowledge-related institutes in the country. Of the targeted 1,500 institutes, NKN has so far connected 693; the rest will be connected before the end of 2012. “Multi-disciplinary research needs immersive interaction and NKN is facilitating it,” Pitroda said at a select press briefing to give a lowdown on the progress on NKN. “What we are doing now is putting an infrastructure of infrastructure that will drive the growth of India in the coming years.”

NKN will later connect with Edusat (education satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organization) and foreign research labs to allow people from diverse background to come together, he added. “If you put together all such projects, including UID (unique identity project), then the total investment will be around Rs. 100,000 crore (Rs. 1 trillion) in three years.” Providing broadband connectivity to all village panchayats alone, which is overseen by NInC, will need some Rs. 25,000 crore (Rs. 250 billion), Pitroda said.

All meteorological organizations and related institutions, including the India Meteorological Department in Delhi, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad are now interconnected under NKN for grid computing on climate change, said R. Chidambaram, scientific adviser to the government. The National Brain Research Centre and Canada’s McGill University too are working together on a project, he said. “It (NKN) is facilitating academia-industry interaction, remote access to advance facilities, rural tech delivery, and research collaboration,” Chidambaram explained. S.V. Raghavan, scientific secretary to the government, said NKN, once fully rolled out, will allow for virtual classrooms, countrywide classrooms and sharing of faculty among institutions. The Meta University that the government wants to set up will be based on the NKN backbone, he added.

Meta University, through which students can take up more than one course at a time and study from different universities, will not be a physical infrastructure. It will be a network based model, said R. Gopalkrishnan, member secretary of NInC. “It will start operation from the 2012 academic session and the details will be fleshed out within a couple of months. We think top-grade universities should be allowed to come together to start this.”

On the challenges to NKN, Pitroda said while the network will provide connectivity, “the need is for content, Indian (local language) content and new applications. We have to see how we can use it to promote vocational education.” But primarily, Pitroda added, there has to be a “change of mindset at the students’, teachers’ and researchers’ level.”

Source: Mint, January 20, 2012

B-School Wisdom Out of Sync with Real-Life Business - India Inc. unhappy with syllabus

A year after top Ivy League institutes in the United States began revamping their MBA programmes, in the process challenging decades of conventional business wisdom, India's top-rung B-schools are attempting something similar. An overhauled syllabus with new subjects thrown in and old ones scrubbed out is expected to be ready for 2012-13 at many premier institutes.

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), and S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) are some of the schools attempting to bridge the gap between classroom wisdom and business realities. Subjects like ethics, corporate social responsibility and management mantras from the Bhagavad Gita have made a debut along with hardship stints in backward villages and mandatory internships with NGOs. That should come as soup for the soul of a battle-weary India Inc hunting for socially-responsible and innovative leaders, right? Not quite.

The view from industry is that most of the changes in the curriculum are cosmetic and do little to tackle the root of the malaise at Indian B-schools - that they serve to create an elite social network and are clueless about the way business is run in real life. Senior executives say the top-tier schools, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are out of sync with corporates and do not have enough good quality research emerging. "Some executives I have spoken to find it hard to imagine that a student can grasp concepts of marketing without selling anything to anybody; or the concepts of operations if they have never spent time on a factory floor," says Professor Srikant Datar of HBS, co-author of 'Rethinking the MBA'.

The B-schools counter that India Inc is fixated on short-term goals, reluctant to provide information for research and has a limited knowledge base. "Our context is learning and not quarterly performance and that may be why there is seen to be no connect between our teachings and corporate life. But our corporates too are obsolete in their knowledge, yet we take their voices seriously," says IIM-K Director Debashis Chatterjee. "Each of us has different mandates; the shared space is defined by learning. That shared space needs to be explored," adds the professor. IIM-K is doing its bit to become more relevant by cutting back 10% of its regular content and making place for unstructured thinking.

The B-school is also working on breaking silos created in B-schools. These silos typically have specialised faculty for operations, human resources, marketing and other such fields. "We decided to change curriculum so that these subjects are integrated in some way," explains Chatterjee. The attempt, he says, is to ensure that when students get into a company, they are able to integrate different functions for one goal. "In fact last year, 32 members of our faculty got together to teach one course over five days," adds the IIM-K Director.

That is a step in the right direction, but many more similar measures are needed to convince sceptical Indian business heads. As A Mahendran, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, says: "There is no real connect between the curriculum and managing real time business complexities." K Ramkumar, group HR chief at ICICI Bank, derides IIMs as placement agencies. "Management is a skill and merely teaching organisational behaviour in classrooms is a waste of time," he says.

The B-schools say it is unfair to expect a sea change overnight as the curriculum overhaul is still work in progress. Efforts are under way to de-emphasise a lot of what is referred to as the 'normative' part of courses such as theories and discussions within classrooms and including a lot more of the 'subjective' part; the latter pertains to dealing with people, learning how to negotiate and studying consumer behaviour. For instance, IIM-A has set up a 'Negotiations Clinic' course that is based on real-life experiences of negotiation episodes in organisations.

At SPJIMR in Mumbai, faculty member Harsh Mohan says 60% of the curriculum is now focused on learnings out of classroom. These include attitude building, rural visits, how to deal with multiple cultures and getting sensitised to people at the bottom of the pyramid. "We get our students to go and interact with organisations such as the Railways and municipal corporations to learn how to deal with unstructured environments," explains Mohan. ISB is looking at introducing revised courses to develop leadership traits and emphasise on self-analysis. It is offering more flexibility in the programme structure to allow students to customise their courses. The effort is also to impart a global perspective by teaching students to manage situations of economic, institutional, and cultural differences across countries.

"The second major review process will be completed by 2012 and implemented from academic year 2013-2014. Currently, we are in the process of collecting data from all the stakeholder groups and, once this is done, the data will be analysed and further deliberated by the curriculum review committee," says an ISB spokesperson. "The world has changed and we have now made it compulsory to review courses every year keeping the global economy in mind," adds Debashis Sanyal, Dean, School of Business Management of NMIMS.

Similar efforts aimed at more diversity are on at other premier B-schools. IIM-K exposes students to a 'spiritual quotient;' the Mumbai Business School is introducing courses in philosophy that include along with the Bhagvad Gita and the Upanishads, eastern philosophies as well; and the Xavier Labour Relations Institute has a compulsory course called 'ethical ways of running a business,' for which it has professors who are not typical academicians but corporate practitioners.

But could the problem lie less with the institutes and more with insatiable students? HBS' Datar says the best students in B-schools want to join management consultancies and investment banks that offer top dollar. So B-schools automatically tune their teaching methods to pander to their needs. "B-schools are focused on teaching students to advise and analyse and are not preparing them for entrepreneurship, leadership and action-oriented innovative thinking," says Datar.

Adds TV Mohandas Pai, former head of HR at Infosys: "It is just a case of demand-supply scenario and the hefty packages offered by investment bankers have set the tone for compensation. The corporate engagement at B-schools is superficial." Still Datar adds "We cannot fault the students on choosing jobs that they think will give the right fillip to their careers." Atanu Ghosh, visiting professor in business policy at IIM-A, avers that the career choices are out of the control of the IIMs. "We do have students who join the public sector but if a large chunk chooses a line that will determine their course of life and lifestyle, we can do little about it. It is a market-driven economy."

Santrupt Misra, head of HR at the Aditya Birla group, says it is difficult to heap all the blame on either B-schools or on industry. "The current curriculum has not kept pace with the changing business environment, and limited research in our academia has aggravated the problem. I must also say that industry is not forthcoming in providing access to its research." That has to change - and perhaps has already begun to. Says Leena Nair, executive director HR at Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL): "We are now sharing case studies so that students are not dealing with a 30-year-old case. Instead of blaming each other, we should work together and influence key campuses."

Source: The Economic Times, January 19, 2012

Centre may offer greater autonomy to 3 more IIMs

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) who have long sought greater freedom from the government are close to attaining that goal. The Ministryof Human Resource Development (MHRD) on Thursday is expected to amend memorandum of associations (MoA) to three IIMs - Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Lucknow. The amended MoAs will result in drastic changes to their governing structure, reflecting greater autonomy.

ET had in its edition dated January 18 reported that IIM-Kozhikode had received the amended MoA. The boards of governors of the IIMs will have to formally ratify the amended MoA. The changes in the governance structure are in keeping with recommendations of RC Bhargava Committee. The committee was of the view that the divided responsibility for governance between the government, board, and directors inhibited the IIMs from developing effective strategies to meet the challenges that B-schools are faced with. "Till now, the IIMs had to approach the ministry for approval or notifying changes in the board members and so on, with these changes, governance of the institutes will become smoother. The IIMs will have greater autonomy now but that comes with greater responsibility," a senior official said.

A lean Board of Governors comprising 15 members, as against the current size of 24-26 members, will now be responsible for the IIM's governance. Instead of the government selecting board members, the board will make appointments in the event of vacancies. The government nominees will be ex-officio members, reducing the need for notification in the event the officer is transferred.

Source: The Economic Times, January 19, 2012

Educational institutions to publish balance sheets

All educational institutes under the central government and those that get grants or approvals from central education regulators will be directed by the government to publish a balance sheet every year, starting 2013, to bring in more transparency to the sector.

The educational institutes will follow a uniform accounting norm and disclose income and expenditure in a standard format similar to that of companies, according to an initiative unveiled on Wednesday. “The aim is to bring transparency and openness in our educational institutes,” said Kapil Sibal, minister for human resource development.

All Union government institutes, including central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will have to adhere to the accounting standards. Besides, all universities and colleges under the University Grant Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council of Teachers Education (NCTE) will have to follow the norms. Even schools affiliated to the Union government-controlled Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will have to incorporate the accounting norms.

The standards and guidelines have been prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). “Donations coming from within or outside India, grants received and expenditures incurred will all be detailed in a uniform format,” said G. Ramaswamy, ICAI president. India has 572 universities and more than 31,000 colleges, where around 15 million students pursue higher education. In addition, there are at least 10,000 CBSE schools.

Sibal said his ministry had accepted the report in principle and “it will come into force from the 2013 academic session”. Sibal will discuss the report in the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), a panel comprising experts, academicians and state education ministers. “I would like to see this adopted by all educational institutes in the country but states need to come on board too,” he said.

Though central government institutes submit their accounts to the government and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India audits them, private institutes are not obliged to do so. At least 60% of colleges are under private control. The standards will provide clarity on the deployment of funds, Ramaswamy said. “It will lead to decommercialisation and orderly growth of education,” he said.

The ICAI president said that some colleges might be talking about sustainable revenue model but that needs to be spelt out. “Once the accounting is done, you will put it online in a centralized server,” he said. “If you are earning revenue then you have to deploy 85% in education every year. This accounting norm will help analyse and come to a conclusion on who is doing what.” Jaydeep N. Shah, Vice-President of ICAI, said the step will take care of concerns that many private institutions engage in malpractices to fleece students.

A private university administrator in the National Capital Region attacked the move and said it would discourage investment. “The education malpractice Bill, the education tribunal Bill and even this accounting standard are aimed at one direction — scuttle private investment. If somebody is investing a billion rupees, he would like to get some return,” said the official, requesting anonymity. “When government can’t provide access to all, why is it then discouraging private participation?”

Source: Mint, January 19, 2012

India priority for Irish varsities

India is a priority for Irish universities looking to draw students from across the world, said Ms. Orla Battersby, Head, Education In Ireland. Speaking to Indian mediapersons visiting Dublin at the invitation of the Dublin Airport Authority, she said the country is promoting post-graduate and PhD programmes in India.

Why Ireland?
The country's safety scores (Ireland was ranked 11th in the Global Peace Index 2011) will be attractive to parents, and students can be assured of a very personal teaching experience, she said. Pointing to companies such as Google, Apple, Pfizer, Citi and IBM being present in the country, she claimed: “These companies don't just focus on our science and technology graduates – their CEOs also highly rate the Irish-educated graduates in the arts and humanities, who they regard as having the creativity, collaboration, flexibility and other core skills necessary for modern business.”

This year seven universities and a ministerial delegation will visit the country to acquaint students with studying in Ireland. Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) and University of Pune are among those which are conducting research projects with Irish educational institutions.

Students can opt for flexible approaches to international programmes such as blended courses and one-year exchanges. International graduates can remain in Ireland for a year to find a job or develop a business idea, Ms. Battersby said.

Education costs
A note from Education In Ireland says a Masters could cost between €7,500 and €22,000 per annum, while a PhD could cost €6,000 to €9,000. Living costs range from €6,000 to €9,000. To a query, she said there were more efforts by the Irish government to focus scholarships on a smaller number of countries, of which India will be given top preference.

Currently, about 1,000 Indian students study in Ireland. About 33 per cent study business and administration, 26 per cent computing and engineering-related courses and 18 per cent sciences. Fifty-seven per cent are post-graduate students.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, January 19, 2012

Marketing guru Philip Kotler to interact with Indian corporates and students

When there is rough weather on the high seas, sensible sailors do not sit idle. They get everything ready for a blue-skies scenario. Caught in a slowdown, and clueless when it will end, some top honchos of India Inc., are going to take a tip or two next month from Dr. Philip Kotler, the US-based marketing guru, on how to sail through difficult times. He will have a special session with students on trends in marketing during his two-day stay in India on March 5 and 6. Top executives from companies such as Apollo, Apollo Munich, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and TVS are expected to turn up to listen to him.

The 81-year-old S.C. Johnson and Son Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management is visiting India after four years. The indefatigable guru seems to have protested when Apollo Hospitals (which is sponsoring the event) prepared a modest itinerary for him. “He wanted to involve himself more during his two-day stay, forcing us to pack the programme with interactions with students and CEOs, and exclusive sessions for some corporates and media,” Ms. Sangitha Reddy, Executive Director of Apollo Hospitals, said.

Dr. Kotler has written several books, including one that deals with Marketing 3.0. He proposes that the new model for marketing should treat customers not as mere customers but as the complex, multi-dimensional human beings they are. “Corporates must create products, services and corporate cultures that inspire, include and reflect their customers' values,” he proposes in the model. He will speak on business challenges and opportunities, how to search for powerful new ideas and improving branding power.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad to announce the training sessions with Dr. Kotler, Ms. Reddy said the proceeds of the conference would go to SACHi (Save a Child's Heart initiative), a fund started by Apollo Hospitals to help under-privileged children in the country who require cardiac interventions.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, January 18, 2012

Business Standard B-school Awards: Insurance scheme for poor bags top slot

A Rs. 2 health insurance scheme for rural India and a project on empowering cooperative banks through effective application of information technology — ideas that looked at tackling such problems received the thumbs-up from the jury of the Business Standard B-school Award 2012 held in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Arul Vel Arasan, a management student from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), bagged the first prize for his idea to sell a Rs. 2 per day health insurance scheme for rural India. At present, Salem ,with a population of 70,000 is being considered for piloting this idea. Around 20 regions would be covered by 2017. This would be applicable only to people with monthly income above Rs. 4,000.

Tapojyotee Bandopadhyay of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak, bagged the second position. His idea was to empower cooperative banks through effective application of information technology through cloud computing and linking several urban cooperative banks using a secured network for using shared facilities. This would include modernisation of banks by setting up a data centre and disaster recovery centre.

Aditya Kaul from Sailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, claimed the third position for proposing to solve the complexities of Asian Paints by using technology like SAP CRM. The jury, chaired by Ajit Balakrishnan, founder-CEO, Rediff.com, also comprised P M Murty, MD and CEO, Asian Paints; Roopen Roy, MD, Deloitte & Touche Consulting India; Rama Bijapurkar, marketing consultant; and J G Kulkarni, VP (Power Systems-Asia), Crompton Greaves.

Five participants who made the final cut from 135 entries from the country’s top business schools were earlier shortlisted by the jury, based on the criteria of innovation, rigour, thought, clarity and how implementable their project ideas were. Deloitte had done the initial shortlisting of 15 projects. Balakrishnan, who presented the awards in the presence of students, professors and deans of several business schools, said, “It is heartening that B-school students are looking at solving problems faced by the vast majority of Indians in rural areas.”

Sanil Bhatia of the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai, and Tijo Eldho George of the Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, NCR, won the consolation prize for their ideas on empowering the youth in Himachal Pradesh by guiding them and to make ideal NTPC citizens out of NTPC employees. An elated Arasan said, “I have seen people in rural areas suffer, as they were unable to afford their medical expenses. This was true even in case of simple diseases. I believe that this would help us to get into a whole new world, as in terms of health insurance our country is at least 100 years behind the developed nations."

The third prize winner, Kaul, said a multi-modal interaction was not available in the existing CRM process of Asian Paints. Also, a central management facility that would capture all transactions was missing. “This prompted me to go for a SAP-based CRM process. Here, the SAP master data would be used by all processes.” The presentation emphasised incentivising customers for getting more data for CRM, customer account and ensuring that senior management implement it.

Source: Business Standard, January 18, 2012

Despite rupee depreciation, education loans witness spurt

Loans may be getting dearer for several categories of people, but students need not worry as they are still the favoured lot. Government data shows that banks have been readily doling out education loans to bail out students who have got admission overseas, but are unable to cough up the fees by themselves. Despite the banking sector witnessing a sluggish trend in disbursements, education loans by commercial banks continue to see a sharp spurt.

Going forward though, analysts predict that the depreciation in the Rupee could dent the growth in education loan disbursals. “Education loans are still being considered by banks, but we are not sure for how long if the rupee continues to fall and we are left with no choice but to be more cautious in doling out loans for higher education,” said an official of a public sector bank.

However, the story so far has been encouraging. The educational loans outstanding at Rs. 27,709 crore (Rs. 227.09 billion) by end-March 2009, increased to Rs. 42,808 crore (Rs. 428.08 billion) as at end-March 2011, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. This had further surged to Rs. 48,965 crore (Rs. 489.65 billion) by October 2011, a 17 per cent year-on-year growth in disbursals at a time when disbursals to most other priority sectors have been largely subdued.

Analysts ascribe this to efforts by the RBI to bring more students under the category of ‘education loans' by formulating policy guidelines for lending to education by the banking system. The steps introduced include classifying such loans and advances granted to individuals for educational purposes up to Rs. 10 lakh (Rs. 1 million)for studies in India and Rs. 20 lakh (Rs. 2 million) for studies abroad, under ‘priority sector'. In fact, in June 2004, the scope of definition of ‘infrastructure lending' was expanded to include construction of educational institutions.

Accordingly, schools and colleges are entitled to avail bank finance for improving their infrastructure. RBI has also been liberalizing foreign exchange rules for acquiring education from institutions abroad. So students are now able to draw foreign exchange equivalent to $10,000 under the private visit quota at the time of traveling overseas to pursue a study course. The limit of $30,000 for education abroad on declaration basis was enhanced to $100,000 since July 17, 2003.

In addition, a student can also draw foreign exchange equivalent to $ 2,00,000 for education purposes under liberalized remittance scheme before leaving the country, before he or she gains the status of non-resident. Students can also avail loan from a bank abroad for study purposes on the basis of counter guarantee given by an Indian Bank under the approval route.

Source: The Hindu, January 18, 2012

MHRD nod to MoA will give IIM-Kozhikode operational autonomy

The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K), is set to enjoy greater operational autonomy with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) approving its amended memorandum of association (MoA). Under the changed MoA, the institute will be able to appoint its own director and board of governors (BoG) besides revising the remuneration of the faculty. "The amended MoA will help us in managing and raising funds, recruiting and compensating the faculty besides setting up new campuses both in India and abroad,” said Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM-K.

IIMs are societies established under various Societies Registration Acts, and each society has an MoA which lays down the objects and rules of governance of the IIM. The general superintendence, direction and control of the affairs of the society and its income and property are vested in the board of governors. As per the revised MoA, the IIM’s Board of Governors -- and not the ministry -- will set up a search-cum-selection committee on its own and this committee will then shortlist three candidates for the post of the IIM director. At present, the government takes all these decisions.

With the changed MoA, making faculty pay more flexible is on the institute's agenda and it is discussing the matter with the board. “We are looking at excellent faculty and ways of retaining them by topping up their salary,” Chatterjee added.

Source: The Financial Express, January 18, 2012

Centre-sponsored program to boost higher education on cards

To make higher education more accessible, the government will roll out a new centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) in conjunction with the 12th Five Year Plan period. The scheme looks to incentivise states to invest in new institutes and in the expansion of existing ones, so that the supply-side bottlenecks in higher education are eased. The scheme is also aimed at increasing the gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education to 30% by 2020, which currently stands near 15%. GER is an indicator of the actual number of students enrolled in higher education as against potential students.

“The Planning Commission has finalised the new scheme and once finance ministry's approval is obtained it could be announced in this year's Budget,” said a Planning Commission official privy to the development. The new scheme would be part of a major restructuring exercise of CSS. For general category states, the proposed CSS for higher education would involve funds from the Centre and the respective state government in a 75:25 ratio. For special category states, the Centre's share will be at 90%. Further, the states would be free to mobilise a part of their share from private partners by means of innovative PPP (Public Private Partnership) schemes. The Centre would also dole out incentives, in the form of soft loans or grants, to states that take up the project on a priority basis.

According to the Planning Commission, the process of setting up new institutions and expanding existing ones would be incentivised for states. The list includes state universities, general degree colleges and professional and technical educational institutions. “We moved the idea of a CSS in September last year and the Planning Commission is seeing if it can be included in the next plan. The scheme is intended to increase enrollment in higher education with greater participation from private partners,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Private sector participation in higher education has been on the government's agenda since last year when it mulled new financing schemes whereby private parties could help in setting up institutes. The MHRD has already mooted the idea of setting up 14 Innovation Universities (IUs) in the PPP mode in which private parties will promote ideas and the government will finance them. In fact, it has already zeroed in on five such universities for the IUs, which will have the freedom to formulate their own policies on admission to programmes, and offer scholarships to the top 20% of the students at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

The proposed CSS, if implemented, would help the sector which is looking for investments of Rs. 10 lakh crore (Rs. 10 trillion) by 2020 to create an additional capacity of 25 million seats. The private sector, which accounts for 52% of the total enrollment, would be investing Rs. 50,000 crore (Rs. 500 billion) this per year, according to the annual FICCI-Ernst &Young report on higher education. At present, the state private universities are concentrated in a handful of states, with the top five states accounting for about 65% of such universities as they have favourable regulatory environment and provide government support.

Source: The Financial Express, January 18, 2012

New Silk Route acquires stake in education ancillary

Asia-focused private equity (PE) fund New Silk Route Partners (NSR) has acquired a significant minority stake in Hyderabad-based educational support services provider Varsity Education Management Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount. Varsity Education provides operational and support services, such as curriculum development and teacher recruitment, to over 350 educational institute in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the fund said in a statement.

While NSR refused to divulge the size of its investment, a person closely associated with the deal said on condition of anonymity that it’s in the range of $40-50 million. The PE fund, founded in 2006, has $1.4 billion under management. This is the second investment by NSR in the education sector. In 2008, it invested in Lahore-based Beaconhouse School System, a primary and secondary education chain. NSR said it is looking to invest as much as $300 million this year, primarily in medical devices firms and restaurant chains, Mint reported on 17 January.

Education is an interesting sector for any investor looking at tapping opportunities arising out of India’s growing domestic consumption, according to Jacob Kurian, partner at NSR. “As the country’s regulatory restrictions prohibit investors from making a profit in education, it is difficult to invest in schools directly,” Kurian said. “Therefore, the other attractive opportunities in the sector are in relatively unregulated allied businesses like support services providers.” While it is too early to think of an exit from Varsity Education, a public offering or a strategic acquisition could be the eventual options, Kurian said.

PE firms invested $10.6 billion (Rs. 54,166 crore today) in India across 501 deals in 2011, of which 17 deals worth $126 million were in the education sector, according to VCCEdge, which tracks investment activity. “The interest in education continues but not as strongly as in the past because investors are realizing that execution is a big challenge, which means scaling up is not easy,” said Sunil Jain, founder partner at Sprout Capital Advisors Llp. Non-formal education will continue to attract investors over the next 12-18 months, Jain said.

Valuations in the education space have become more reasonable, said Vivek Gupta, partner, mergers and acquisitions practice, BMR Advisors. “People are now realizing the intricacies and difficulties involved in these businesses,” Gupta said. “Furthermore, top players in any segment are already invested, therefore assets are available at more reasonable valuations.”

Source: Mint, January 18, 2012

Panel set up for better use of Private Funds in Higher Education

With an eye on channeling corporate sector funding to promote innovation and research in the higher education sector, the Planning Commission has roped in Infosys Chairman Emeritus N R Narayana Murthy to develop a framework for engagement. The Narayana Murthy Committee has been charged with the task of creating a framework which will bring in private funding into the domestic higher education sector.

The idea is to create an enabling structure that will encourage Indian corporate houses to endow funds to institutions in the country rather than foreign institutions as has been the recent trend. In the last few years, Tata Group and Mahindra Group donated $50 million and $10 million, respectively, to Harvard University.

The exercise, which is part of the 12th Five-Year Plan process, will help bring in focused private sector investment into the sector geared towards research, development and innovation. It will also address the issue of lack of adequately trained and qualified manpower that industry desperately seeks. This is a systematic attempt to articulate and conceive the role and participation of the corporate sector in higher education and the principles and guidelines that will determine it.

Despite all the efforts, corporate sector financing in education has been limited. This committee appears to be an opportunity to bring in corporate sector to engage with relevant education, quality, inclusiveness and innovation, former UGC Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat said. The corporate sector (both public sector undertakings and private enterprise) has consistently pushed for a greater role in the higher education sector. The nature of this greater role has never been clearly spelt out.

Over the past thirty years is a spectacular rise of private investment in education, matched by a steady decline in the government's education expenditure. But this increased private funding has been limited to setting up institutions the majority of the engineering and management institutions are in the private sector. This committee will force the corporate sector to put down what it really means by engagement with higher education. Every year this theme comes up at education summits hosted by industry chambers, but when it comes to a real and meaningful engagement or leveraging of private finance for education there is very little to show for it, a senior government official said.

Source: The Economic Times, January 18, 2012

Delhi to have an exclusive tech varsity for women

Delhi will soon have a technical university exclusively for women. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday said the existing technical college — Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, currently a part of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIP) — would soon be upgraded into a full-fledged university.

The Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University Bill, 2012, which will now be placed in the Assembly's budget session. "The Indira Gandhi Institute has attained a level of maturity and has made rich contribution to the growth of quality technical education and research among women during last 12 years. Since 85% seats in the institute are reserved for Delhi girls, it has also given them better placement and career opportunities.

“We now want to upgrade it to meet the growing needs of the industry for relevant technology and product innovation," Dikshit told reporters. Dikshit said Delhi would be the first state to have an exclusive technical university for women. "It will also facilitate additional enrolment of women in technological courses as parents are often reluctant to send their daughters outside Delhi for higher education. We expect that student strength will increase to almost two times the current strength in the next few years," Dikshit said.

A senior technical education official said the upgrade of the institute would provide an opportunity for accelerated growth of women in technical education, technology incubation and product innovation vital for women empowerment.

Source: Hindustan Times, January 17, 2012

Ombudsman for Central educational institutions

The government on Monday announced grievance redressal mechanisms in higher educational institutions. All institutions affiliated to the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)and the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) will now be required to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for students and applicants before the commencement of the admission season this academic year.

All government-run central educational institutions, institutions deemed to be universities, deemed-to-be-universities, technical and management institutions and teacher education institutions would be required to constitute an Ombudsman-person with judicial or legal experience to be appointed from a panel suggested by the affiliating university for technical and management institutions and by the regulator for non-degree granting institutions. The concerned regulators would issue the detailed instructions to the educational institutions shortly.

Grievances galore
Talking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday, Human resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said there were several grievances that arose relating to students and applicants for admission in higher educational institutions. These grievances required prompt redressal in order to provide timely succour to aggrieved students and applicants. The Parliamentary Standing Committee, while examining the Bill to prohibit and punish unfair practices, had recommended that pro-active steps be taken to constitute grievance redressal mechanisms in higher education institutions, he said. Applicants for admission and students can apply to the Ombudsman for redressal of grievances and the Ombudsman shall deliver his/her order within one month. Although the order would not be binding on the institution, the regulator would rely on the frequency of non-observance to decide on continued recognition to such institutions.

Issues under ambit
The Ombudsman will have the jurisdiction to hear grievances concerning denial of admission, non-observance of declared merit in admission, non-observance of applicable regulations for reservation, withholding of documents and non-refund of fees in case of withdrawal of admission, discrimination and other such matters concerning students in pursuit of studies in the institution. In case of matters concerning weaker sections such as Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes / Other Backward Classes or minorities, the Ombudsman can co-opt a person of eminence from the area coming from the weaker section to assist him/her in arriving at a decision, Mr. Sibal said.

Source: The Hindu, January 17, 2012

India to launch $1 bn innovation fund by mid-2012

India plans to launch a $1 billion fund by June-July, 2012 with an initial capital of Rs. 5 billion rupees ($ 97.02 million), to invest in innovations that can generate services and products to uplift the poor, a top government official told reporters on Monday. "We need to provide money to those who have ideas but no seed capital," Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation, said on the sidelines of an industry event.

The fund, named India Inclusive Innovation Fund, will invest in sectors such as agriculture, water, energy and healthcare, Pitroda said, after delivering the keynote address at Grid Week Asia Summit, organised by Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association. "It will have an initial investment, seed capital from the government. The finance ministry has already talked about allocating 100 crore rupees (1 billion rupees)."

The fund intends to raise Rs. 5 billion in its first phase. Pitroda said he was hopeful the finance minister would give out further details in the budget for 2012-13. The federal budget for the fiscal year ending March 2013 will be presented after elections scheduled in five states between the end of January and early March. Pitroda did not say when the fund would be scaled up to $1 billion, citing uncertain economic conditions. "It will be a private fund, where the government is one of the investors," Pitroda said, adding the government's stake would not be more than 20 per cent.

The fund is expected to generate modest returns of about 10-12 per cent, as opposed to present industry standard of about 18-20 per cent. The government is in talks with foreign investors and has received "some interest from UK agencies, from IFC (International Finance Corp) and others". It is also in advanced talks with various state and private banks in the country and other investors.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), January 16, 2012

Universities, colleges to be classified in terms of quality quartiles

Universities and colleges in India may soon be classified in terms of quality quartiles, which will decide the infrastructure and financing support they get from the government. According to the agenda of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for the 12th Five Year Plan, the highest amount of financial support would be provided to the lowest quality institutions, especially those in rural regions, remote areas and hilly terrain.

The classification on basis on quality will also help in achieving 30% gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education by 2020 which is 15% at present. GER is an indicator of the actual number of students enrolled vis-a-vis the number of potential students.

However, with increased private participation in the sector, the ministry says that government institutions alone will not achieve such a large enrolment target. Therefore, huge investment in private sector will be necessary. Private sector involvement in higher education has been on the government’s agenda since last year when it mulled new financing schemes where private parties could help in setting up institutes in the country.

According to a joint report by FICCI and Ernst & Young, the higher education system in India needs an investment of Rs. 10 trillion by 2020 to create an additional capacity of 25 million seats. The private sector, which accounts for 52% of the total enrollment, would invest Rs. 500 billion of this per year.

The quality quartiles may be created on the basis of GER and in a report to the Planning Commission, the ministry has suggested that Finance Commission may be approached to provide non-plan grant for some underdeveloped states where the GER is less than all India average.

Source: The Financial Express, January 16, 2012

IIMs to set up centres to help raise funds

The elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on Friday decided to set up development centres to be run by experts and independent professionals to raise funds from alumni networks and philanthropists. These professionals will work with the two groups to raise funds. At the IIM directors’ meet in Delhi, which was also attended by human resources development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal​, the London Business School (LBS) was invited to present a case study on how it raises funds.

“The older IIMs can set up centres with an exclusive aim of fostering relationships and raising funds and endowments. The IIMs meet discussed this and (they) are quite positive about the prospect,” said a senior MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) official requesting not to be named as “this is an internal meeting of the IIMs”. The above official said the newer IIMs may opt for setting up a single platform as they don’t have an alumni network like the older ones. “LBS could be the role model for the entire project.”

As Mint reported on Friday, the meeting also took into account a government committee report on the issue which suggested that the IIMs follow a model that identifies prospective fund givers, solicits money from them and keeps them informed about how it is being used.

“Fund-rasing is a long process and we discussed why we have not been able to do it successfully,” IIM-Raipur Director B.S. Sahay said. He said two senior LBS officials present at the meeting spoke about their experience.“LBS is a contemporary B-School to some of our older IIMs, and if they can do it, why cannot we,” Sahay said. The people involved here are professionals and have experience of raising endowments, he added. He said several Indian industrialists have donated generously to foreign B-Schools.

Ratan Tata donated $50 million to Harvard Business School​ (HBS) in 2010. The “gift, the largest from an international donor in the school’s history, will fund a new academic and residential building on the HBS campus in Boston,” the school website says. In the same year, Mahindra and Mahindra’s Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra donated $10 million in honour of his mother to Harvard University’s Humanities Centre. The Aditya Birla India Centre at LBS was founded by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.

A detailed road map will be prepared by IIMs by Saturday when the meet concludes, Sahay said. Since, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have managed to accumulate significant donations over the years, some of the directors of the elite engineering schools were also present at the meet.

Source: Mint, January 14, 2012

Politics mars race for UGC boss’ post

The avowed claim of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) that politics should be out of academics has little impact on the ongoing selection process for chairperson's post of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Candidates are openly canvassing political support and the ministry is also pitching for its own candidate in acting chairperson Ved Prakash. The ministry's argument being that he would maintain continuity in the UGC till the organization is subsumed by the proposed National Commission for Higher Education & Research (NCHER).

In case of All India Council for Technical Education ( AICTE), acting chairperson was made full-time chairperson through search-cum-selection process and similar argument was put forth. While former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in favour of Prakash, two other serious candidates from UP claim support of top Congress leaders. Congress leaders from Punjab are rallying around another candidate from the state.

With many competing interests, the two-day meeting of the UGC's search-cum-selection committee headed by scientist Goverdhan Mehta and consisting of jurist N S Madhava Menon and K Srinanth Reddy of Public Health Foundation of India failed to evolve consensus because of deep divisions within the panel. Out of more than 80 applications for the prestigious job, the committee has decided to call 20 candidates for interaction.

Twenty academicians called for interaction consist of Prakash; former Delhi University V C Deepak Pental; B Hanumaiah, VC, Ambedkar University; V N Rajsekharan Pillai, former VC, IGNOU; Surbhi Banerjee, VC, Central University of Orissa; R C Sobti, VC, Panjab University; NS Gajbhaiye, VC, Hari Singh Gour Central University, Sagar; Seyed E Hasnain, IIT-Delhi and former VC of Hyderabad University; Sanjay Dhande, Director, IIT-Kanpur; N Prabhu Dev, VC, Bangalore University; Arvind Kumar, VC, Magadh University; D P Singh, former VC, BHU; A D Sawant of Rajasthan University; A D N Bajpai, VC, Himachal University; and Furqan Qamar, VC, Central University, Himachal Pradesh.

This decision to interact is also not unanimous. One search committee member was in favour of factoring in academic and administrative credentials of a candidate. Though he was supported by another panel member, eventually the interaction mode was accepted. "The committee is as divided as the search-cum-selection panel for selecting NCERT Director was in 2010. There is a view that such interaction is often not objective," a source said.

Source: The Times of India, January 13, 2012

Law Education in India: Islands of excellence

If the alumni record is a measure of the success of an institution, then the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, has done exceedingly well for itself. Further, a review of the recent Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) preferences of the high-scoring candidates indicates that NLSIU is still the top school of choice for prospective law students.

Nothing works like success. Since NLSIU was set up in 1986, 13 other national law schools, based on the same blueprint, have come up across India. Earlier this month, faculty and students at the Gujarat National Law University moved into a brand new 50-acre campus in Gandhinagar in which the construction cost the government Rs. 150 crore (Rs. 1.5 billion). Last June, Ranchi’s law school received 100 acres and before that Raipur’s law university got 60 acres. The latest one to be set up is in Delhi and ministers have promised at least one in each state.

But what is of growing concern is that the schools represent an island of success. The success of the 20 national law schools has not percolated deep enough to pull the other 880 law colleges up by the bootstraps as it were. Instead they continue to serve outdated course material, teaching styles and processes that are out of sync with the new reality of a rapidly growing economy that has diverse demands being made of the legal profession. This was adequately summed up in May 2010 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while speaking at a function to usher in second-generation reforms in legal education. According to him, besides a few “islands of excellence”, law colleges in India were “a sea of institutionalized mediocrity.”

The genesis
Admission to any of the national law schools is a highly competitive process — about 1,000 seats are available in total. CLAT’s level of difficulty has increased progressively over the years, as have the number of applicants (19,000 took it in May last year, up from 16,000 in 2010). And as with any competitive entrance exam, a parallel ecosystem of coaching classes and crash courses flourishes in several towns and cities. It was not always so. The evolution has been unlike that of institutions of excellence such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

Nearly three decades ago, N. R. Madhava Menon was teaching at Delhi University’s faculty of law. He received a missive from Ram Jethmalani, then chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI), asking him to spearhead an experiment in Indian legal education. An enthused Menon took a three-year sabbatical from Delhi University to join the BCI. He proposed a new model for a law school and travelled through many states in search of support to set it up. “But there were no takers (among the governments). Eventually, my three-year tenure finished and I returned to Delhi University,” recalls Menon. The BCI later sought an opinion from the then Attorney General K. Parasaran on the proposed law school, asking that it be recognized as a deemed university under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act. After the attorney general’s assent, Menon was recalled and he struck a deal with Ramakrishna Hegde, then chief minister of Karnataka, leading to Bangalore being chosen as the location for the first national law school.

The start was anything but promising, with the school, in the initial stages, forced to operate from a couple of abandoned garages on the fringes of the Bangalore University campus. Things changed however, after the ordinance setting up the institute became a law (National Law School of India University Act, 1986). Armed with 12 handpicked faculty members and two grants of Rs. 5 million each from the state government and the Bar Council of India Trust, respectively, Menon managed to obtain deemed university status. Six years later, the first batch of 50 graduates emerged from NLSIU. Impressed, the government directed Menon and his team to replicate the success in Kolkata. Narayanan Ramaswamy, head of KPMG’s education practice, believes NLSIU brought a sense of pride and legitimacy to legal education. “The large positive effect is on the profession. Legal education has got a bit of respect. Earlier, it was almost like in chartered accountancy where the education did not matter, only the apprentice part did,” he said.

The objective
A key reason for which the national law schools were set up was improving legal education through model law schools. Today, there still exists a vast gulf between the top 20 law schools in India and the remaining 880. Unlike the national law schools and a handful of private ones, these colleges and departments that are housed in several universities have not altered the method or process of teaching of law in decades. Many of them follow the old system — a three-year programme that students can take up only after they have obtained an under-graduate degree.

Stung by the PM’s comments in 2010, then solicitor general and BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium immediately put in place an all-India bar exam to raise the quality of law graduates entering the profession. This caused an uproar across the country from some of the 60,000 law graduates being churned out annually. But Subramanium refused to relent. “The fault, I think, is that it is far too easy to become an enrolled advocate at most of the high courts,” said Subramanium, who quit as solicitor general, and consequently chairman of BCI, last year. “It seems to me that the universities which depend largely upon the number of pupils who come to them are likely to be in favour of the continuation of a situation where the university degree carries such potential subsequent advantages. Moreover, for the purpose of maintaining or increasing the supply of pupils there is a temptation to a university to make it easier from time to time the conditions of the qualifying examination for law degree.”

Subramanium suggested derecognizing law colleges that were not up to the mark. He said the intention was to reduce the number of law colleges from 900 to less than 200 by merging some of them with each other. In September 2010, the BCI refused to renew the licences of 50 law colleges on the grounds that their faculty did not have the requisite qualifications to teach. The second all-India bar exam was held on Sunday. All law graduates now have to pass the exam in order to be eligible to practice law in the courts.

The concept of national law schools was also being nudged along as model institutions in the push toward legal education reform. The syllabus was accordingly tailor-made for the teaching of law, Menon explained. “Law should be studied in a social context,” he said. “It is a matter for social engineering, a policy instrument for governance —you must study law in relation to economics, sociology, history, philosophy, public administration. Initially, it was thought that it would be the same economics taught in a BA economics college that would be taught in law school. But we decided to teach economics in relation to law — to better understand contracts, torts and other legal principles. Similarly for political science, psychology, history and other social sciences.” Besides emulating the Harvard Law School teaching method using case law, the course was designed as a shorter integrated five-year law degree fine-tuned for law students, saving them one additional year of college.

The ultimate test
Whether by design or otherwise, the national law schools have produced multi-disciplinary law graduates. They’ve been hired by the Supreme Court and high court judges as law clerks, Magic Circle law firms in London, international agencies such as the United Nations, arbitration firms in Singapore, and even news organizations in India and abroad. The law schools have also spawned academics and entrepreneurs who have dabbled in education, social work and philanthropy.

As Rahul Singh, a professor and alumnus of NLSIU, said: “The alumni has really chosen to do a variety of stuff—it is the broadest range of possible career options that an alumni body could have chosen.” Corporate law has undoubtedly been the largest beneficiary of the national law schools. This is partly due to good timing as these graduates were lucky enough to see a boom in demand from corporate law firms that emerged to address the growing needs of a rapidly expanding economy. Several of India’s top law firms employ graduates of the national law schools as partners.

Counterpoint
The biggest criticism of the national law schools is that institutions funded by taxpayers’ money are churning out lawyers for large companies and rich clients. Critics also argue that many graduates leave for a foreign university or firm, thereby creating a brain-drain like the IITs did, albeit smaller. They contend that this makes the programme a failure since a very small percentage of national law school graduates have contributed to the profession’s traditional areas such as justice delivery and litigation. Part of the reason could be that litigation is an area that takes several years of experience to master and hence graduates from the national law schools are yet to make a proper mark in the courts. It’s also a field that’s ruled by a handful of highly paid, superstar lawyers.

No graduate of the national law schools has been designated as senior counsel by any high court or the Supreme Court yet. But there are some contenders according to observers at the Bar — among them Dayan Krishnan, a Delhi advocate who graduated in 1993 as part of NLSIU’s first batch. He was recently appointed standing counsel for the Delhi government and has been known to handle prosecution work. Another is Aditya Sondhi, a 1998 graduate who practices in the Karnataka high court in Bangalore. By extension, places on the bench at the high courts or the Supreme Court are still a long way off, although this will happen with time. “The national law schools have succeeded in making law a popular career choice, but not quite in contributing to the Bar and thereby to the dispensation of justice,” Sondhi said.

Nick Robinson, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research who has taught at NLSIU, Bangalore, and the Jindal Global Law School, Sonepat, said the situation is more complex. “I think it’s a little more grey than black and white—the original mission of the NLS (national law schools) as I understood it was to create litigators — particularly litigators for poor people. That hasn’t happened too much—although I don’t think you should discount those who do it, there are people like Alternate Law Forum in Bangalore,” he said. Robinson encourages diversity among the alumni. “If you think of the NLS as more of a lead school like Harvard or Yale—most of the alumni of Harvard and Yale don’t go into litigation either—they go into firms, into government and academia. I don’t think that law schools should be only for cranking out litigators. In India itself, the whole freedom struggle was led by lawyers who joined politics. I’d be happy to see more NLS students going into politics or policy,” he added.

There have been criticisms from the Bar and sometimes from judges that graduates are not willing to take up lower-rung litigation or the join judicial services. But Ashok Parija, chairman of the Bar Council of India, disagrees that the graduates can be blamed for not choosing this option. “All these national schools are located in the state capitals and big cities — so you cannot expect these graduates to not go to the high courts or the Supreme Court. One cannot expect them to relocate to small towns and start trial court work there.” Parija added that the graduates’ “arguments for joining law firms is simple—they get better salaries. Some of them have loans to pay back. There have been instances of some of these graduates moving to practice or to teaching after four-five years (of working in a law firm). Blaming them totally cannot be very fair—the Bar should also find ways and means to look after them.” While NLSIU has had a significant impact on India’s legal system, it’s still not clear whether this success can be emulated to reorder the scale and scope of legal education in the country.

Source: Mint, January 13, 2012

IIMs look to alumni for raising funds

The country's premier educational institute, the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs), will be seeking funds from its alumni and other stakeholders to expand and create world-class infrastructure. The top management of the IIMs will discuss on Friday,a blueprint on ways to get funds from corporate world and alumni in the next few years. "The IIM directors will be discussing on how to raise funds for the new and old IIMs and engage the alumni," said Hari S. Bhartia, Chairperson of IIM-Raipur and head of a MHRD committee on raising funds for the IIMs.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had constituted the committee to help IIMs in building a corpus, so that they can be financially independent and fund proposal for foreign campuses. Bhartia had already recommended setting up of a development office and campaign committees in each IIM for raising fund.

Fund raising campaign by some foreign universities like Yale and Harvard have resulted in generation of over US $ 3 billion. Harvard had received US $50 million donation from the Tata Group in 2010 and earlier Anand Mahindra had donated US $ 10 million.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have also generated money in similar ways. Bhartia said the IITs have raised good money and IIMs, especially the older ones, would like to revisit strategy and engage alumni to raise funds. According to IIM officials, the reasons for poor response would also be discussed. To help the IIMs and IITs in their mission, the MHRD has already sought Income Tax exemption on donation of funds or option of non-cash endowments. The ministry had also given full authority to individual IIMs to raise money to pay for its expansion plans.

Source: Hindustan Times, January 13, 2012

IIMs meet to consider ways of raising funds

Directors of the 13 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will meet on Friday to devise a plan to raise funds from philanthropists, industrialists and their alumni in India and abroad to boost their finances, following the example of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and foreign business schools. Directors and the chairmen of the board of governors of IIMs are holding a workshop in New Delhi that will also be attended by the human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal, the higher education secretary and other officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to devise a strategy to raise funds.

Initially, the IIMs plan to raise Rs. 400-500 crore (Rs. 4-5 billion). This may also be one of the items on the agenda for the IIMs when they go to Europe and America later this year to promote their brand and attract foreign students to bring in more diversity to campuses. The workshop, which some successful IIM alumni may attend, will discuss a MHRD report prepared by a team led by Hari S. Bhartia, co-chairman and managing director of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd. “Many foreign B-schools are raising funds successfully, IIMs would do well to raise funds too. It will give them a financial edge while planning their expansion inside or outside the country in future,” said a senior MHRD ministry official, who did not want to be named. “They are a growing brand and more funds will serve them well.”

The Bhartia Committee report has suggested that IIMs follow a model that identifies prospective fund givers, solicits money from them and keeps them informed about how it is being used. IIM-Raipur is leading the initiative to hold the workshop, according to the MHRD. The IITs have leveraged their network well and got a good response from corporates and philanthropic funds, said P. Rameshan, Director of IIM-Rohtak. The IIMs jointly represent one brand and even if the new IIMs don’t have an alumni network, progress in raising funds will help all 13, he said.

For a leading business school, managing everything including infrastructure from student fees is very difficult, said Pramath Sinha, the founding dean of Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business​ (ISB). IIMs have some government backing, but funds are always needed for expansion. “You need it to improve infrastructure, give scholarships to students, create chair professors and improve research,” Sinha said. Sinha, who has mentioned about the role of donations and endowment in his new book on ISB, said that this has been a trend among well-known foreign business schools and universities. “In India, IITs are doing it and IIMs trying to do so seems to be a good step.”

For a decade and half, IITs have made significant progress in collecting funds for expansion. In 2000, the Bharti Foundation donated Rs. 20 crore (Rs. 200 million) to IIT-Delhi to start the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management. IIT-Kharagpur aims to accumulate a $200 million endowment fund by 2020. Industrialist Arjun Malhotra, an alumnus of IIT-Khargapur, donated Rs. 5 crore (Rs. 50 million) last year and has promised to give more. IIT-Bombay has got funds from its alumni network, mainly in the US. The Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, the Gaitonde Lecture Hall Complex, the D.S. Foundation Gymkhana and the Victor Menezes Convention Centre have come up with support from alumni, according to its website. The Vinod Gupta​ School of Management at IIT-Kharagpur was initiated by its alumnus Vinod Gupta and named after him.

Source: Mint, January 13, 2012

CAT results: 9 notch up 100 percentile

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) declared the results for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2011 on Wednesday, in which nine aspirants have notched up a 100 percentile. Around 185,000 candidates took the test over a 20-day period across 36 cities starting mid-October, 2011.

The toppers included Shashank Prabhu, a student of Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), who reappeared for CAT despite securing a seat in a premier B-school. Prabhu said, "I didn't manage to do so well last year, which shattered many expectations. I wanted to prove a point, which I could this year." But he is yet to make up his mind about which B-school he wants to get into, or if he is going to leave FMS midway. On the fact that joining an IIM would mean he will lose out on a year, Prabhu said, "Whatever you do is never a waste. I have learnt many things in the last one year."

Shikhar Goyal from Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi scored 97 percentile despite over 50% visual impairment. Goyal, who is from Hisar in Haryana and comes from a business family, said, "I applied myself to the preparations without worrying about the score." He was provided a scribe during the test. The study material provided by the teachers at his coaching centre helped him crack CAT, added Goyal.

The IIMs and several other B-schools, including the management studies departments in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), subscribe to CAT score. The IITs and FMS decided to accept CAT scores this year.

The convenor of CAT 2011, Prof. Janakiraman Moorthy of IIM-Calcutta, said the IIMs will start calling candidates for the next stage of the admission process with immediate effect. "Some IIMs may come out with the list from this evening itself. Within a week, all the IIMs would have sent out mails to prospective candidates," he said. About the results, Moorthy said: "While nine aspirants scored 100 percentile, 1,800 candidates scored 99 percentile and above."Vinayak Gupta, a student of Economics (Honours) with Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi who scored 99.89 percentile, said: "The 15-minute trial was a great help, and the test was better organized."

This year, many of the new IIMs, including those in Tiruchirapalli, Udaipur and Raipur, have increased their intake from 70 to 120. This will improve the chances of making it to the prestigious institute.

Source: The Times of India, January 12, 2012