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Showing posts from July, 2008

Knowledge Commission Recommendations On Higher Education

=============================================================== This article is based on the following link: http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/documents/faq_he.pdf =============================================================== Sam Pitroda does not need any introduction. I had a chance to hear him on January 19, 2007 when he had visit my university- Dharmsinh Desai University on occassion of felicitation of the Vice Chancellor - Dr. H. M. Desai. Sam Pitroda talked about 'Knowledge Commission' and its recommendations to Government of India. This post reflects my views on the same. Important highlights: 1. 1500 Universities in India: Right now, India has some 350 odd universities. This commission recommends this number to increase by 1500. It does not want creation of 1200 more universities, but it wants to break down the bigger universities into smaller ones and wants the Government to provide autonomy to the deserving college so that they can change fast according

A visit to Blind People's Association and Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad

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"They may be blind from their eyes, but actually their vision for life is far more clear than mine..." Similar thoughts blew my mind when I visited the Blind People's Association, Ahmedabad on July 17, 2008 as a part of my FDP at IIMA. When we were informed that we'd be taken to Blind People's Association, we thought it would be just waste of time! It'd be yet another NGO that would show us some of their work, and would demand some donation from us. But, fortunately, we were wrong. Instead, it proved to be a thought provoking, astonishing and unforgattable visit for all of us. Here's why: When we landed at BPA around 11 AM, their officials brought us to the conference hall. It was a good conference hall, well carpeted, fully Air Conditioned and ambience was also quite wonderful. A small introduction was provided initially and then we were made to play a game. It was very simple. They tied a black cloth on the eyes of each of us except five people, who were

The Role of An Instructor in Management Education in India - A Young Management Teacher's Perspective

-INTRODUCTION: Education has come a long way in India. Today, India boasts itself as one of the countries having the maximum number of B-Schools, and more than that, every year it adds hundreds of them in its kitty. Quality and quantity never go together. The principle of 'More the Merrier' does not apply here unfortunately. Today, I want to focus on the issues that exist for young management teachers. I've written already about the issues that faculties face in one of the posts earlier, but I am taking a different perspective this time and focusing solely on the issues faced by young teachers. For us, the definition of a young teacher will be the having experience less than 5 years, with a post graduate degree, no industry experience, or boasting of one to years of industry experience [which is generally an experience of failure]. ISSUES: 1) How to maintain a distance with students: The students and young teachers [here after referred to as TEACHERS only] are generally o