tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70056242024-03-29T08:59:56.286+05:30Badri Seshadri's PagesPolitics, society, economics, technology and education in IndiaBadri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.comBlogger338125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-28294917755864405392017-05-12T14:12:00.000+05:302017-05-13T12:06:44.603+05:302017 Plus2 results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/telangana-intermediate-exam-2017-results-declared-girls-outperform-boys/story-wv4BDMZY2ImvSAb0QeyQQL.html">Telangana Intermediate 2:</a><br />
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Number of students who wrote the exam: 4,14,213<br />
Number of students who passed the exam: 2,75,273<br />
Pass percentage: 66.45% (<a href="http://bseshadri.blogspot.in/2016/05/plus-two-results.html">Last year pass percentage: 62.01%</a>)<br />
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[Telangana Intermediate 1 (equivalent of +1) is also a public exam. The results of which are as follows:<br />
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Number of students who wrote the exam: 4,75,874<br />
Number of students who passed the exam: 2,70,738<br />
Pass percentage: 57% (Last year pass percentage: 51%)]<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.oneindia.com/india/pu-results-2017-karnataka-girls-outperform-boys-pass-per-centage-at-52-2432621.html">Karnataka PU:</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of students who wrote the exam: 6,84,490</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of students who passed the exam: 3,55,697</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pass percentage: 52.38% (<a href="http://bseshadri.blogspot.in/2016/05/plus-two-results.html">Last year pass percentage: 57.20%</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pass percentage amongst girls: 60.28%, boys: 44.74%</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Urban: 52.88%, rural: 50.72%</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Breakup by streams:<br />Science: 60.71%</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Arts: 35.05% </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Commerce: 60.09%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tn-records-921-pass-in-plus-two-exams/article18434247.ece">Tamil Nadu +2:</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of students who wrote the exam: 8,93,000 (rounded)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of students who passed the exam: 8,22,000 (rounded)<br />Pass percentage: 92.1% (<a href="http://bseshadri.blogspot.in/2016/05/plus-two-results.html">Last year pass percentage: 91.4%</a>)</span><br />
Pass percentage amongst girls: 94.5%, boys: 89.3%<br />
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Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-59650918580481153062016-05-18T15:36:00.003+05:302016-05-18T15:48:31.379+05:30Class 10 results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Class 10 results</b></div>
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<b>ISCE</b> results from <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/icse-isc-2016-results-declared-check-it-here/story-cHIJ7RjiTFMqzHalaKTCaL.html">The Hindustan Times</a>:<br />
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The ICSE exam, which started on February 29 and concluded on March 31, saw 1,69,381 students writing the papers. Last year, 1,58,833 appeared for the Class 10 exam. </blockquote>
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For ICSE, the pass percentage of girls was 98.95, while for boys it was 98.12.</blockquote>
<b>Karnataka</b> Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) results from <a href="http://ummid.com/news/2016/May/16.05.2016/karnataka-sslc-2016-results-decared.html">ummid.com</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
The overall pass percentage is 79.16, almost two percent less than previous year. It shows a 2.66 per cent decline in the number of students who managed to pass the examination compared to the 2015 examination. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
“This time the male percentage of students who passed the exam is 75.84 per cent and for the girls its 82.64 percent. Girls have outshone boys as usual,” minister for primary education in Karnataka Kimmane Rathnakar said.</blockquote>
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Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-64947609966399001332016-05-18T15:26:00.005+05:302016-06-01T13:06:22.268+05:30Plus Two results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I intend to collect the details of Plus Two or PUC exam results from various states and CBSE/ISC here in one place:<br />
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<b>CBSE </b>results from <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/education/cbse-results-cbse-class-12-results-declared-at-cbse-nic-in-2811689/">Indian Express</a>:<br />
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This year, a total of 10,67,900 candidates have registered for the Class 12 exam as against 10,40,368 in 2015. This year, 83.05 per cent students passed, 2.38 per cent higher than 2015. Pass percentage of girls for CBSE class 12 results is 88.58 per cent, and pass percentage of boys is 78.85 per cent.</blockquote>
<b>ISC</b> results from <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/icse-isc-2016-results-declared-check-it-here/story-cHIJ7RjiTFMqzHalaKTCaL.html">The Hindustan Times</a>:<br />
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This year 42,880 students took the ISC exams, which began on February 8 and got over on April 8, from all over the country. Last year 71,141 students wrote the Class 12 exam. </blockquote>
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For ISC, girls had a pass percentage of 97.49 and boys 95.27.</blockquote>
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<b>Puducherry</b> results from <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/puducherry/Tamil-Nadu-12th-result-2016-Puducherry-students-pass-percentage-dips-marginally/articleshow/52306878.cms">Times of India</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
The pass percentage of students in Puducherry and Karaikal in the Class 12 examinations conducted by the Tamil Nadu board of secondary education dipped marginally by 0.41% compared to last year. Puducherry and Karaikal students registered 87.74% as against last year's 88.15%. </blockquote>
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Of the total 14,285 students who appeared for the examinations, 12,533 students came out successful. As usual, girl students fared better than boys recording 90.95% pass rate. Of the 7,744 girl students, 7,043 cleared the exams. Boys registered 83.93% pass rate. Of the 6,541 students, 5,490 passed the exams.</blockquote>
<b>Tamil Nadu</b> results from <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tn-plus-2-results-two-students-from-oothangarai-secure-state-first-rank/article8610930.ece">The Hindu</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
There has been a slight improvement in the pass percentage in the 12th standard higher secondary examinations, with a statewide percentage of 91.4, as against 90.6 percent registered in the previous two years. </blockquote>
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In the examinations held in March this year where 8.3 lakh students appeared for it across the State, the pass percentage of girls was 94.4 and that of boys, 87.9. This year, 4.19 lakh girls and 3.41 lakh boys took up the exams. </blockquote>
<b>Kerala </b>results from <a href="http://english.manoramaonline.com/news/kerala/kerala-plus-two-exam-result-2016-hsc-hse-result-vhse-result.html">Malayala Manorama</a> and <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/HSC-results-80-94-candidates-eligible-for-higher-studies/articleshow/52215845.cms">Times of India</a>:<br />
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About 81% of candidates appeared for the higher secondary examination 2016 were declared eligible for higher studies, when the results were announced here on Tuesday. The pass percentage (80.94) is slightly lower, compared to last year (83.96). Of the 3,61,683 candidates appeared for the examination, 2,92,753 students become eligible for higher studies. While 87.74% of girls became eligible for higher studies, only 73.3% boys qualified.</blockquote>
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In the vocational higher secondary section the percentage of candidates eligible for higher studies is 87.72. </blockquote>
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As many as 9,870 students scored A+ grades for all subjects in the HSC exam. Out of them, 70 percent.</blockquote>
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<b>Telangana </b>results from <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/telangana-board-intermediate-exam-results-declared-check-it-here/story-IhyIpff1qTnfu8Cd7RYFHK.html">The Hindustan Times</a>:<br />
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Girls in Telangana did better than boys in the intermediate examinations, which were held last month, as the Board of Intermediate Education announced the results for the first and second year on Friday. </blockquote>
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Deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari, who is also the minister for education, released the results saying, the pass percentage for the first year was 53.32 and that for the second year was 62.01. </blockquote>
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As many as 4,56,675 students appeared in the first year examination and out of them 2,43,503 qualified. The pass percentage among girls was 59 while the same for boys was 48. </blockquote>
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In the second year, 2,62,245 students passed out of 4,18,231 students who wrote the examination. Girls again topped the exams with a pass percentage of 67.64. The pass percentage of the boys was 58.</blockquote>
<b>Andhra Pradesh</b> results from <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/ap-intermediate-results-2016-for-1st-and-2nd-year-declared-check-it-here/story-UzgTdWaKMWxN5OZ9ZziPDL.html">The Hindustan Times</a>:<br />
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Girls outperformed boys in Andhra Pradesh’s Board of Intermediate Education’s first and second year (general and vocational) intermediate examinations result which were declared on Tuesday. </blockquote>
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State minister for human resources development G Srinivas Rao said the pass percentage for the first year was 68.05 and for the second year it was 73.78. </blockquote>
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In the first year, 72.09% girls passed the exam against 64.02% of boys. The pass percentage for girls in the second year was 76.43 while the same for boys was 71.02. </blockquote>
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As many as 4,67,747 candidates (regular) wrote the first year exam and 3,18,300 passed. In the second year, 3,03,934 students out of 4,11,941, who appeared in the exam, passed.</blockquote>
<b>Karnataka </b>results from <a href="http://registrardaily.com/2016/05/27/karnatakas-second-year-result-released/">RegistrarDaily</a> & <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/kanataka-pu-examination/1/676933.html">IndiaToday</a>:<br />
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Total of 6,36,368 students had appeared for the exam in which only 3,64,013 students have successfully cleared. Pass percentage fell by 3.34 per cent from 2015 result. Overall pass percentage this year was 57.20%. This year also girls outperformed boys with the pass percentage of 64.78%. Boys pass percentage recorded was 50.02%.</blockquote>
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Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-88600294354682480922016-01-10T11:46:00.002+05:302016-01-10T11:46:56.417+05:30A bit of Andhra History in Mylapore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
R. Venketesh, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.in/Gods-Kings-Slaves-Siege-Madurai/dp/9350095866">Gods, Kings and Slaves: The Siege of Madurai</a> took around 100+ of us today morning on a walk around a few streets of Mylapore. This was organized as part of Mylapore Fest organized by Vincent D'Souza of The Mylapore Times. We started at the Nagesvara Rao Park, moved to Andhra Mahila Sabha Hostel, then to the 16th century Luz Church, Nagesvara Rao's home, Mylapore Club, Ranade Library, what was Kamadenu Theatre, place where Krishnaswamy Iyer's house was, Luz House associated with Buchi Babu, Vidya Mandir school and Buckingham canal near Kutchery Road.<br />
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Two places are of key interest and I will talk only about them. One is the memorial for Potti Sriramulu, right outside Vidya Mandir school. Potti Sriramulu, a Gandhian sat on fast for 56 days asking for a separate state for Telugus and died on 15th December 1952. Riots broke out in the Telugu regions of Madras Province and in the Madras city itself. Jawaharlal Nehru was not in favour of linguistic states and had dismissed Potti Sriramulu's fast, but when the news of death reached him Nehru panicked and announced the formation of Andhra Pradesh comprising Royalaseema and Coastal Andhra. A memorial exists in the building where Potti Sriramulu died and it is called "Amarajeevi Potti Sriramulu Memorial House". It carries a board in three languages: English, Telugu and Tamil.<br />
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The fight for the formation of a separate state for Telugus is much older. An informal pact was worked out in the building where Amrutanjan offices now are (Luz Church Road). This is where the leaders from Royalaseema and Coastal Andhra met and came to an unwritten pact, that one part will get the capital and the other part its High Court.<br />
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Though Kurnool initially became the capital of Andhra, when Telengana, annexed from Hyderabad Nizam was combined with this entity, Hyderabad instead became the state Capital and the seat of High Court.<br />
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Now, we do have two states once again, and a new capital for Andhra is going to be constructed at Amaravati. Fair bit of Amaravati's treasures are in the Chennai Museum (including the great 'Subjugation of Nalagiri' medallion) while the rest are in the British Museum.<br />
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[An article I recently wrote in Swarajya on <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/politics/when-tamil-nationalism-turned-against-telugu-speakers-of-tamil-nadu/">When Tamil Nationalism Turned Against Telugu Speakers Of Tamil Nadu</a><br />
My two earlier articles on caste and politics in Tamil Nadu for Swarajya:<br />
<a href="http://swarajyamag.com/politics/dmks-son-set-tamil-nadu-will-likely-back-jayalalithaa-again/">DMK’s Son Set? Tamil Nadu Will Likely Back Jayalalithaa Again</a><br />
<a href="http://swarajyamag.com/politics/tamil-nadu-caste-realities-unlikely-to-change-any-time-soon/">Caste Realities Unlikely To Change Any Time Soon</a>]</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-26238281541130657802015-09-21T18:04:00.002+05:302015-09-21T18:04:27.707+05:30Alternate Undergraduate Education - A proposal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In Tamil Nadu today, we have oversupply of Engineering colleges and seats. Too many seats are lying vacant. But the Arts, Science and Commerce colleges are fewer in number with limited seats for many courses. It is not possible to create Arts/Science/Commerce colleges overnight. The requirements of a University may not make it viable today to open self-financing Arts/Science/Commerce colleges. The land requirement, cost of building, hiring faculty under UGC pay scales etc. mean it is a failed venture even before you start. Plus, education is anyway seen as a not-for-profit venture and hence only fraudulent fellows willing to ride roughshod over the existing laws will enter the field of education. That is what see around us today.<br />
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So, on the one hand you have a huge demand for at least select courses in the Arts/Commerce/Science fields, and not enough supply.<br />
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Take Vivekandanda College for Men in Chennai. It is an aided institution. The Government of Tamil Nadu pays for the salaries of the faculty members. The Ramakrishna mission undertakes the responsibilities of administration, maintenance of the buildings etc. from its own funds. This is called the "Day College". The same facility is used in the evenings to offer "self-financed" courses. In the Day stream, the annual fees are highly subsidised. For B.Com, the annual fee is Rs 265/- That is all! In the evening course, for B.Com it is between Rs 22,000 to 27,000! That is around 100 times more.<br />
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This is understandable. The Day faculty will be different from the Evening faculty and they have to be paid from the fees. I am assuming Vivekananda College may not ask for donations, capitation fee or whatever. Maybe I am naive. I do not know. But around the city, colleges which offer self-financed Evening college charge under the counter as well as over the counter. It could cost a student well over Rs 1.5 lakh for a three-year B.Com course under the self-financed model. To my knowledge, The Government under huge budget pressure has simply stopped aiding Arts & Science Colleges. So any new college built today is left to fend for itself.<br />
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For those who cannot pay much and cannot get into one of the Government colleges or the Aided Colleges, there is an alternative. The distance education programs of various Tamil Nadu Universities. Madras University will charge approximately Rs 2,000/- per year for B.Com. Along with various exam fees, mark sheet fees and other such funny things, the total for a three year course would come to around Rs 8,000/- and not more. But the downside? You are left on your own. The contact classes are pitiably hopeless. For a young undergraduate, there is no one to guide him or her. No one to teach the intricacies of the subject.<br />
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If you look at the Information Technology revolution in India, it was fronted only by NIIT, Aptech and such training institutions. Organized colleges and university curricula had no clue about the programming languages or the requirements of the market. It was only later that Engineering Colleges stepped into the game. But to this day the Engineering Colleges are failing to teach the necessary IT skills to the students. Students waste most of their time trying to write theory exams and many fail miserably. Unfortunately, with no support from the student/parent community, NIIT, Aptech etc. withered away.<br />
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Something similar can be planned for the Science/Commerce streams now. Training academies (not colleges, not universities) can be set up by entrepreneurs. Students join them, get themselves enrolled with the distance education programs of Madras University or similar such, but learn in classrooms daily all the subjects taught by skilled faculty.<br />
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You may ask: how can such an institution impart good quality education by charging a lower fees? How can they attract quality faculty by paying them 'fair' salaries when colleges are struggling to do.<br />
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I am of the opinion that in the current system, the colleges are highly inefficient. They have large buildings, incur massive expenses, use outdated modes of teaching and are controlled by the affiliating University's archaic rules and UGC's overbearing circulars. They are also localised monopolies with hardly any incentive to innovate. There is no drive to minimise wasteful expenditure and maximise fair profits because at least in paper, they are not supposed to act as profit making centres.<br />
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I propose to change all that with my model. Firstly, the institutions I propose will be profit driven. Law cannot stop this (at least for now). They will openly claim to be profit making (like Brilliant Tutorials was, like NIIT was) and will pay taxes on their profits. They will operate from small, short offices and learning spaces. When they hit reasonable numbers, they can create viable campuses. They have to be based within the city, and not in the suburban, unconnected areas. They cannot run buses like the Engineering colleges. Ideal size would be holding 100-150 students at most.<br />
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The focus will have to be great teaching. This would mean, identifying great teachers and rewarding them well. Best IIT coaching institutions and IAS coaching academies pay their best teachers good money. Here, the quality can be evaluated. The good ones will demand and will get their pay. Next, they do not have to have the UGC mandated PhDs or NET/SLET nonsense. We just need good teachers. They could just as well be a mere B.Coms to teach B.Com. Heck, they could even be Engineering dropouts to teach B.Com students.<br />
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Right from Day 1, this kind of institution will focus on the Internet enabled resources, course videos, information system for better management of the entire course etc. There will be no attendance requirement. You come and learn if you truly want to learn. Or else, you can go to the nearest movie theatre. Of course, you have to pay the monthly fee. You can drop out any time. You can join another similar institution if you do not like this one, any time. Your enrollment with Madras University will remain intact anyway and you can write your exams anyway, if you can prepare on your own.<br />
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Because this kind of institution will focus only on teacher costs, keeping other expenses to a bare minimum, it can charge a relatively a lower fee and still make a profit. For example, I guess a decent quality education can be provided for around Rs 25,000/- per year (inclusive of Madras University annual costs) for the B.Com course. Since there is no limit in terms of seats, you can educate thousands of students.<br />
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Vivekananda College evening course offers around 540 seats for B.Com, and 50, 70 and such for BBA, BCA etc. and nothing at all in the BA, BSc streams. That is why I am focusing on B.Com. It appears that there is a huge demand for that course. But there could be significant demand for some select BSc courses, BBA/BCA/MBA/MCA etc. in the coming days. As i explained earlier, there is no way regular colleges can be built to offer these courses in the coming years.<br />
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Now, who will join these programs? It is the middle class that finds no seats in the best colleges in the city. In a recent interaction with the humanities students of IIT-Madras, I asked them where the Chennai students would have joined if they couldn't get into IIT, they could come up with Stella Maris, MOP Vaishnava, Loyola, MCC and WCC. Only two of them for men (or selective co-ed), the rest women only.<br />
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What will the teachers teach here? Take the basic syllabus of Madras University's distance education, clean up the nonsense there, add the best from various other syllabies, make the whole thing contemporaneous, and then teach this. The teachers can focus on all kinds of interesting educational experiments not possible in the traditional colleges. Such students should easily excel in the exams of Madras University and score well.<br />
<br />
If the 'academies' do a good job, their students will be preferred over the students from regular colleges in the job market. Once the word spreads around, these academies will be chosen over the traditional colleges.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-12174069769991850642015-05-25T18:38:00.002+05:302015-05-25T18:38:56.985+05:30Banking the unbanked, insuring the uninsured<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been giving a major push to the following schemes:</span></span><br />
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<ol>
<li>Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: A no-frills zero balance bank account</li>
<li>Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana: An accident insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh for an annual premium of Rs 12 (or a monthly premium of Rs 1)</li>
<li>Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana: A life cover of Rs 2 lakh for an annual premium of Rs 330 (or roughly a daily premium of Rs 1)</li>
<li>Atal Pension Yojana: A sort of annuity with a promised return of 9.6% per annum.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Any adult having a bank account is eligible for 2 & 3. For the pension scheme (4), one has to be between 18 and 40 to be eligible. The monthly premium paid is determined based on the pension one opts for (capped at Rs 5,000 a month) and one's age. The monthly pension will be paid once you hit the age of 60. There is also a one-time annuity purchase if one has already hit the age of 60. This gives a guaranteed return of 9.6%.</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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It is very clear that 2, 3 and 4 are the best possible deals in their respective categories. Though I believe I have sufficient insurance cover, I will be insuring myself and my spouse in 2 & 3.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Modi and BJP PR talk about Jan Dhan as a unique scheme which they introduced. This is incorrect. P Chidambaram had introduced this no-frills account during the UPA rule. It was not promoted that heavily then. It was seen as a drain on their P&L by the Nationalised banks. Now it is promoted heavily, but it is not clear how the common folks see value in this. The Nationalised banks probably still see this as a drain but cannot complain given that the PM has made it his pet scheme. It is quite likely that many banks have registered the same person in their books (after all, it is a zero balance, no-fee account!) and Modi's PR bandwagon is trotting out numbers to show that this scheme is a big success. This is unfortunately part of any politically driven scheme in India.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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Despite these PR stunts, I think this package above is a fantastic one. Forcing people to have at least a no-frills account to be eligible for the very attractive accident insurance and life insurance will encourage them to understand and use the banking and the insurance systems in the country. Then, they can slowly be moved to start using these systems better. It appears that some degree of traction has happened with the insurance schemes.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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Indian life insurance sector dominated by LIC mostly used to sell endowment and money back policies. Private players pushed unit linked policies (market driven). Risk coverage has not been the priority. Life insurance policies are mainly seen as investment instruments. A senior insurance expert who runs an insurance industry magazine made me see the light a few years back. I was randomly taking whole life policies, unit linked policies and the usual LIC endowment policies. She explained that the best value for money was to go for a pure risk term insurance plan combined with an investment in a mutual fund (or a fixed deposit) instead of investing in any unit linked insurance policy. You get better liquidity, better returns and the best risk coverage. LIC's term insurance plans are the most awful in the country. Today, the best deal you get from a private insurer is around 200 times the premium (for my age ~ 45 yrs). The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana offers 600 times the premium. Quite unbeatable, but limited to a cover of only 2 lakh Rs.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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What is to be appreciated is, for the first time, instead of the usual dole-outs that Indians are so used to, our government is coming up with a scheme which rewards action and initiative on the part of the individual. You enroll, open a no-frills bank account and pay up the premium and only then you will get the benefit. You can't just sit there doing nothing and be compensated for your losses.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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One worry however is, whether the insurer will find it breaking even. Finance ministry is providing sovereign guarantees but that is generally not a good idea. One has to also see whether private players will be happy to participate in a scheme like this.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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Another problem is bridging the gap between these government schemes and the available market schemes that can help the middle class. The current government schemes are all targeted at the poor mostly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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However, the success of schemes like these may encourage private players to start offering interesting products to the public, to graduate them upwards.</div>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-55348877642595750792015-03-25T15:15:00.002+05:302015-03-25T15:15:37.033+05:30New BC commission needed to fix loopholes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Published in <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/New-BC-commission-needed-to-fix-loopholes/articleshow/46678844.cms">Times of India</a>, 24 Mar 2015)<br />
<br />
<span id="advenueINTEXT" name="advenueINTEXT" style="float: left;"><strong><span class="arttle" style="position: relative;"></span></strong></span><br />
<h1>
<strong>New BC commission needed to fix loopholes</strong></h1>
<strong>By Badri Seshadri</strong> <br /><br />
CHENNAI: The judgment by the Supreme Court of India on inclusion of
jats in the Central OBC list (Ram Singh & Ors vs Union of India) is a
landmark one. <br /><br /> Seen along with Indra Sawhney case judgment, the
court has called for a complete overhaul of the reservation system in
the country. The most important change will have to happen in Tamil
Nadu, the forerunner of the social justice movement in India. <br /><br /> Tamil Nadu is the only state which is in perpetual violation of the Indra Sawhney judgment given by a nine-judge bench. <br /><br />
The judgment says that reservation should be capped at 50% and the
creamy layer of any caste group should be excluded from reservation. But
Tamil Nadu has 69% reservation and no creamy layer exclusion. <br /><br />
Every year, the state government is challenged in court and every year
the government is forced to create additional seats to compensate all
those who lose out because of its flawed policies. <br /><br /> The Ram
Singh judgment establishes that governments cannot act in an arbitrary
manner and should go by data. It restricts governments from rejecting
sound advice given to them by commissions set up by them unless there
are strong reasons for the same. <br /><br /> Tamil Nadu formed the first
Backward Classes Commission under Sattanathan in 1970, which suggested
17% reservation for BCs and 16% for MBCs along with criteria for the
removal of creamy layer. The DMK government headed by Karunanidhi
clubbed BC and MBC together and offered 31% in total and did away with
creamy layer. <br /><br /> A subsequent AIADMK government headed by M G
Ramachandran introduced the creamy layer but, after an election defeat
in 1980, removed the creamy layer and randomly increased BC reservation
to 50%. <br /><br /> In 1982, the second Backward Classes Commission under
Ambasankar recommended that reservation for BCs be brought down to 32%,
17 communities moved from FC to BC and 34 communities moved from BC to
FC. <br /><br /> The report was not tabled in the assembly and the
suggestions were not implemented. Instead of removing any community from
the BC list, more and more communities were added. <br /><br /> It took a
serious agitation from Ramadoss's Vanniar Sangam to split the 50% BC
reservation into 30% for BC and 20% for MBC with vanniars included. <br /><br />
Many other caste groups that do not have the numbers or the political
might of vanniars are therefore at a disadvantage. Now, with the Ram
Singh judgment, a time has come to challenge the state government's
reservation policy. From this judgment, we can glean some directions.
First is the need for accurate and current statistics on social,
educational and economic backwardness. Second is the need for regular
updating of the BC, MBC list with removals and inclusions, as determined
by thorough studies that can stand critical scrutiny. Third is,
considering not just caste but other social groupings such as, for
example, transgenders for the definition of backward classes. I can
think of women as a non-caste group that deserves support. <br /><br />
Fourth, an earlier wrong inclusion of a group cannot be used to justify
inclusion of a new group on the same principles. This would only mean
that wrongly included groups will have to be removed at the earliest. <br /><br />
We need a new Backward Classes Commission in Tamil Nadu to determine
which castes and groups should be considered for inclusion or removal
from BC and MBC lists. This commission will also have to decide the
total quantum of reservation for BC and MBC so as to be in alignment
with the Indra Sawhney judgement. This may mean that scheduled caste
quota may also have to come down proportionately. <br /><br /> Many castes
which are today included under BC may have to be moved to FC and some
castes in MBC may have to move to BC. At least some castes in BC may
have to move to MBC. This will bring much needed relief to many castes
currently squeezed out by dominant castes within their groups. <br /><br /> If the government will not initiate this move, one may have to go knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court soon. <br /><br /> <em>(A co-founder of cricinfo.com, the author is managing director of New Horizon Media Private Limited)</em></div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-43331683722561893442015-03-25T15:12:00.002+05:302015-03-25T15:12:28.830+05:30Ruckus against books a Dravidian blowback<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Published in <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Ruckus-against-books-a-Dravidian-blowback/articleshow/46520004.cms">Times of India</a>, 10th Mar 2015)<br />
<span class="arttle"></span><br />
<h1>
Ruckus against books a Dravidian blowback</h1>
<strong>Badri Seshadri</strong><br />
<br />
Tamil Nadu is a deeply caste-ridden society. A recent, nationwide study
found that Tamil Nadu ranks very low in the prevalence of inter-caste
marriages. Kerala and Karnataka and even the northern states, often
considered to be regressive by Tamils, are ahead. <br /><br /> TN's rural
and semi-urban economy is controlled by intermediate castes who dominate
the society here. In the villages where feudal values still thrive,
dalits continue to live in 'colonies' away from the main settlement
which is still largely the exclusive domain of caste Hindus. The practice of untouchability such as the two-tumbler system is common
in many villages. Dalits mostly remain landless and are dependent on
rural landlords for their survival. <br /><br /> However, thanks to the
governmental policy of taking education to everyone, the disadvantaged
castes have made the most of the opportunities and have steadily got
into government jobs. This upward mobility of some dalits has caused
much tension, which time and again erupts into big clashes. <br /><br /> A
particularly infamous incident happened in 2013 in Dharmapuri district
when Divya, a vanniar girl, married Ilavarasan, a dalit boy. Goaded by
his relatives, Divya's father committed suicide. A mob ransacked dalit
houses and set them on fire. Divya informed the courts that she would
like to separate from Ilavarasan. Soon, Ilavarasan was found dead near
railway tracks. The police called it suicide. <br /><br /> It is in this
background that we need to look at two important events that have
happened in the last three months. Writer Perumal Murugan's novel
Madhorubagan (One Part Woman) talks of an archaic custom in Tiruchengode
where women without children attempt to mix with men in a ritual held
during a temple festival, in the hope that this may help them get
pregnant. <br /><br /> Organizations belonging to the dominant caste in the
region, kongu goundars, went after the writer who, incidentally, belongs
to the same caste. The writer was forced to withdraw the book in a
meeting mediated by a local government official. The writer who works as
a college professor has been transferred to the relatively safe
environs of Chennai. <br /><br /> Whether the custom as described in the
novel was prevalent or not is not the major issue here. Both in the
story and in the real life agitation, the actual issue was caste purity.
The temple ritual as narrated by the author allows for men of any caste
to copulate with women. Caste purity would be marred if the custom had a
historical basis. <br /><br /> A more sinister event happened last month.
Puliyur Murugesan, had published a short story collection, 'Balachandran
enroru perum enakkundu' (I am also known as Balachandran). One of the
stories is quite morbid, narrating the tale of incest in a family and
ending with the son, who is confused about his gender, taking revenge on
his father. <br /><br /> The caste of the characters - kongu goundar, same
as the one in the Perumal Murugan episode - is fairly explicit in the
story. Some intellectuals have asked why the writer should identify
deviant characters with a caste. One could argue and debate about this
but what has happened is that a mob belonging to the caste went to
Murugesan's house and beat him up. Now, a case of obscenity and
defamation against a community has been slapped against the writer, who
has sought anticipatory bail. <br /><br /> What we see from these two
incidents is a continuation of the hardening of the stance of middle
caste groups against dalits, as in the case of Dharmapuri. Despite
claims that Tamil Nadu is Periyar's land and that a casteless and
equitable society prevails here, the truth stares at us. <br /><br /> The
claims of Dravidian parties ring hollow because Periyar never intended
to create a casteless society. His primary goal was to pull down the
brahminical power structure and impose a non-brahminical, non-dalit,
intermediate caste hold on political and administrative power in the
state. He succeeded in this. <br /><br /> Though Dravidar Kazhagam talked
about 'saathi maruppu thirumanam' (inter-caste marriage), the numbers
were minuscule and made little impact on the state's demography. The
Dravidian parties have only helped to maintain rigid caste structures
and allocated MLA seats and ministries based on the caste calculus. <br /><br />
PMK was formed when vanniars felt that this political distribution was
unfavourable to them. Dalits formed their own parties when they felt
that they could never get their true share as long as they remained
within the DMK and AIADMK fold. But forming separate political parties
has also not helped them. Both Viduthalai Chiruththaikal and Puthiya
Thamizhagam, the two big dalit parties, have been marginalized. <br /><br />
In Tamil Nadu, power is held by intermediate castes. The incidents
involving the writers show that government officials only seem too
willing to support their interests. Mobs belonging to caste groups can
beat up a writer and also call upon the police to file cases against
him. <br /><br /> Constitutional guarantees on protecting the rights of
individuals are given short shrift. It is left to the writer to run from
one court to another to save himself. If the writer is a dalit,
prospects of getting justice are minimal. <br /><br /> Only a different form
of politics, one that does not depend on caste but probably class
interests, will usher in a rule of law and uphold freedom of expression.
Even if there are disputes, they should be settled in a court of law
and not in kangaroo courts organized by bullies. But for that to happen
Tamil Nadu's politics should move ahead and become truly progressive.
Will it? <br /><br /> <em>(A co-founder of cricinfo.com, the author is managing director of New Horizon Media Private Limited)</em> </div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-27174146826128547732014-12-15T09:59:00.001+05:302014-12-15T09:59:43.321+05:30The angst of the Tamil brahmin: Live and let live<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This article appeared a week back in <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/The-angst-of-the-Tamil-brahmin-Live-and-let-live/articleshow/45408151.cms">The Times of India Chennai edition.</a> I am adding it here only for the record. The comment section here will be closed. I intend to discuss this in my Tamil blog.<br />
<br />
====<br />
<br />
<span class="arttle"></span><br />
<h1>
'The angst of the Tamil brahmin: Live and let live'</h1>
<br />
By Badri Seshadri<br /><br />When Narendra Modi expanded his cabinet and made Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu cabinet ministers, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted thus: "Big day for my Goa. Two GSBs (Gowd Saraswat Brah min), both talented politicians become full cabinet ministers. Saraswat pride!!" The last bit "Saraswat pride" indicating brahmin caste affinity and pride caused considerable stir in the media.<br /><br />Brahmins may be at the top of the archaic social hierarchy, but in reality they hold little or no power across the country. They are numerically insignificant in most states and are not found in the public sphere at all. This is more so in Tamil Nadu than any other state.<br /><br />
Share of Tamil and Telugu brahmins was disproportionately large in the
government of pre-independent Madras province. But the quota system
initiated by the Justice party and the Dravidian movement over the years
has meant that brahmins are almost completely excluded from medical
seats, and are mostly out of contention in government jobs and good
engineering schools. Brahmins once formed a significant percentage in
teaching jobs in schools and colleges.Now, their percentage is
minuscule. <br /><br /> Politically, brahmins have been complete ly stripped
of any possible power. With very few options available in TN, there was
a brahmin exodus to Bombay and Delhi in search of jobs in the 1970s.
Post the liberalised 1990s, and the proliferation of self-financed
engineering colleges, brahmins chose engineering and then IT jobs. As
the need for executive managers arose in companies, many took to MBA.
Today IT, management and CA are the chosen professions of brahmins. Many
have migrated to the US and have been instrumental in many Silicon
Valley start-up successes. Many have taken to entrepreneurship in India
too and helped to seed the IT revolution in India. In Tamil Nadu, the
political narrative has been stridently anti-brahminical. Though
brahmins have been away from politics, the Dravidian parties have always
resorted to blaming everything on a purported "brahminical conspiracy".
Modi is brahminical. Jayalalitha too is, but only for DMK and not for
AIADMK. Centre's promotion of Sanskrit or Hindi is brahminical. Congress
or BJP's anti-LTTE stand is brahminical. Market economy and
globalisation are termed brahminical. <br /><br /> It is also routine for
Tamil movies to depict brahmins in bad light. The theme of the recent
movie, `Jeeva', is that a brahminical conspiracy is keeping talented
non-brahmin cricket players from reaching the state team. A putative
theory about brahmins suppressing nonbrahmins for the last 2,000 years
and denying them education and other privileges has gained currency and
is today taken for granted. No proof is required. No further research is
required. <br /><br /> Even OBC violence on dalits across the state is
explained in terms of brahminism, a term that implies that all evils of
the caste system are because of brahmins and hence they and only they
have to be held responsible for such violence. <br /><br /> Yet, the
reality is very different. Though no statistical data is available,
anecdotally I can say that brahmins have inter-married more than any
other caste in Tamil Nadu. <br /><br /> There is no rancour or resorting to
honour killing when inter-caste or inter-religious marriages happen.
They have been at the forefront of pre serving performing arts, heritage
monuments and culture in the state and have done much to promote Tamil
language and literature. They have contributed immensely to science,
engineering, medi to science, engineering, medicine and education in the
state. <br /><br /> Politically excluded and socially reviled, what can the
Tamil brahmins do to preserve their identity and yet feel secure within
the social space in Tamil Nadu and India?<br />
<br /> Brahmins are unlikely to
demand any kind of reservation in education, job or political sphere.
All they would look for is an amenable climate where they can, like
other communities, contribute to the progress of the nation.In a liberal
country , we would like communities such as Muslims, Christians, Parsis
and Jains preserving their unique faith, tradition, customs, attire,
language and practices. The same has to be extended to the brahmins of
Tamil Nadu. They should be allowed to retain multiple identities -that
of a brahmin, a Tamil and an Indian -with pride. <br /><br /> The political hate narrative in Tamil Nadu must change. <br /><br /> (A co-founder of cricinfo.com, the author is managing director of New Horizon Media Private Limited) <br />
<br />
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-41130533522236304002014-11-12T11:06:00.003+05:302014-11-12T11:06:40.949+05:30India fishermen row<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My article in the Swarajya Magazine: <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/featured/should-india-rescue-its-fishermen-from-the-death-row/">Should India rescue its fishermen from the death row?</a></div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-12064049653083817952014-09-29T10:51:00.003+05:302014-09-29T10:51:55.151+05:30Two articles on Jayalalitha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I wrote two articles on Jayalalitha for the newly launched <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/">Swarajya Online Magazine</a>.<br />
<br />
Before conviction:- <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/featured/unshakeable-amma/">Unshakeable Amma</a><br />
<br />
Immediately after conviction:- <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/featured/jailed-jaya-to-wield-remote-control/">Jailed Jaya To Wield Remote Control</a></div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-7555305280876070372014-06-18T15:46:00.004+05:302014-06-18T15:48:15.003+05:30On compulsory Tamil in TN Schools<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Starting this year, schools coming under the Tamil Nadu Government Board must have to have Tamil as one of the subjects. This has made a few people upset. Most notably the private schools operating under the name "Matriculation" schools. There is a long history to this. I will try to keep it as brief as possible.<br />
<br />
Between 2006-2011, DMK Government under M. Karunanidhi brought out three important pieces of legislation in the school education space.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Tamil Nadu Learning Act, 2006</li>
<li>Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009</li>
<li>Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The first one enforced that over time, Tamil will have to be compulsorily taught to every student coming under the Tamil Nadu boards. The second one put the screws on the private Matriculation schools on what sort of fee they could collect from their students. The third abolished the State Board, Matriculation and Oriental and replaced them with a single "Equitable & Uniform Syllabus".<br />
<br />
Naturally, the Matriculation schools opposed all of the above. They were also hit by the central legislation, "The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009." <br />
<br />
Matriculation schools are private schools which had a considerable degree of autonomy until the 2010 act. They are all English medium schools, and to start with had Tamil as one of the subjects. Over time, they started introducing subjects such as Hindi, French, German etc. replacing Tamil. So it was possible for someone to study in Tamil Nadu under a Tamil Nadu Government Board without knowing a single letter of Tamil. Not anymore.<br />
<br />
Oriental schools were religious minority schools set up by Islamic trusts and mostly Hindu Brahminical mutts offering Urdu and Sanskrit respectively instead of Tamil. They also offered a strong dose of religious education.<br />
<br />
The 2006 Tamil Nadu Learning impacted both the Matriculation and the Oriental schools. The linguistic minorities such as Malayala Samajams offering Malayalam instead of Tamil were also affected.<br />
<br />
This act was challenged in the courts by the Malayala Samajam and Nair Society, but failed. An 18th Feb 2008 ruling by the Supreme Court sided with the Tamil Nadu Government and said such an act is not infringing on the linguistic minorities. The Malayala Samajam was claiming that they were imparting education through mother tongue and should hence get legal protection. In reality these schools are/were imparting education via English and not mother tongue and merely teaching Malayalam as a subject. <br />
<br />
However the impact of the 2006 act was not immediate as enough time was given to slowly shift new incoming students to Tamil while the old students were allowed to continue in the language of their choice till the school leaving exam. It is only this academic year that they are all expected to teach Tamil in every class, and we have started seeing the opposition building up again.<br />
<br />
The 2009 fee control act was brought in primarily because the private matriculation schools were charging too much in terms of fees. The motive was probably political too. Many private schools have to be blamed for their excessive fees, but it should be acknowledged that the fee control committee that was set up as a follow up to this act flexed its muscles too much. With the change of government, this committee is not to be seen anywhere now.<br />
<br />
The 2009 Right to Education act with its 25% reservation clause in it has deeply hurt the finances of the private schools. These schools are owed fees by the Government for the last two years. <br />
<br />
The 2010 Uniform syllabus act robbed the "Matriculation" special brand from the private schools (though the private schools still continue with that name).<br />
<br />
Private schools fought all these measures and lost in each one of them. The 2011 regime change didn't help them much. Jayalalitha tried to delay the implementation of the Uniform syllabus act, but was stopped by the Supreme Court from doing that.<br />
<br />
Now, the full scale implementation of the 2006 Compulsory Tamil Act is being resisted again by the Matriculation schools.<br />
<br />
There are three sets of people who do not like the 2006 Act.</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Linguistic minorities who share the state border with Kerala, Karnataka & Andhra. Linguistic minorities who have come and settled down in places like Chennai.</li>
<li>Religious minorities who want to learn Urdu or Sanskrit instead of Tamil, in religious schools. Muslim organizations have already complained about this act in the recent times. I think the Sanskrit folks have completely given up.</li>
<li>Tamils who would rather learn some other language than Tamil, simply because it is easier to crack the said language in the exams than Tamil. They however claim that their job prospects are better now because they have learnt Hindi, French etc. This is now the vocal majority who are questioning the 2006 Act; not the categories above.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The linguistic and religious minorities have made noise, fought court cases and have sort of given up. It is the third group with no special interest protection from the constitution who are now fighting this. The Matriculation schools claim they are going to court but have not yet done so. <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/we-want-hindi-in-tamil-nadu-new-demand-speaks-language-of-change-542260">They have fired the first salvo - an NDTV special bulletin which claims that Tamils are eager to learn Hindi.</a> This hit job grabs a few willing people giving sound bites on their objection to the 2006 Act as below:</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It is boring to learn Tamil</li>
<li>In the globalised world, we need to learn other languages to survive</li>
<li>Local language is important but can be learnt at home and hence it is not necessary to teach the same in school. Thus it can be vacated and something else can be inserted there.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And thus their opposition to the 2006 Act which somehow stops them from achieving their objectives.<br />
<br />
I will accept that the Tamil syllabus is mostly boring and has not been modernised for a long time. The new books are in all-colour while the older books were in black and white. Not much has changed otherwise. You have to learn many old poems, difficult grammar (much of which is useless for the modern prose), and bad prose written in an archaic style of the pure-Tamil movement politico-linguistic scholars. Outside of the bad text books, the comparative quality of Tamil is way over that of the other subjects, making it difficult for the students of Tamil over the others.<br />
<br />
This is why the "globalization" Tamils want to drop this subject in favour of Hindi or French. So that they can spend little time studying that subject and allocate more time for studying Math, Science and Social Science.<br />
<br />
Supreme Court has in the past endorsed the constitutional validity of this Act. So challenging it again may be difficult and will not be easily entertained. That is why the Matriculation lobby is doing a PR campaign and NDTV is more than willing to play its part in this campaign.<br />
<br />
What should the linguistic minorities do? CBSE schools are available in Chennai which offer Hindi and a few other languages in place of Tamil. There are a few schools offering International Program such as Cambridge Syllabus etc. There is ISCE too. The rest should switch to studying Tamil as one of the subjects simply because they have to study under a Tamil Nadu Government board. I will demand the same for the Tamils living in other states. Those who are in a transferable job across the states may have to opt for Hindi in a CBSE school.<br />
<br />
A few Matriculation schools have already switched over to the CBSE syllabus. A correspondent who runs four schools in the outskirts of Chennai told me that he had converted two of his schools from TN Board to CBSE from this year only because he wants to offer Hindi instead of Tamil to his students. But his clientele will struggle to deal with the tough CBSE syllabus as well as Hindi. (In fact those students struggle with English! They are all mostly lower middle class, mostly backward or most backward castes and speak Tamil at home!) More such changes will happen over the next year but very soon the schools will realise that CBSE will be too hot to handle for their teachers and their students.</div>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-36183750473288089012014-05-08T10:53:00.000+05:302014-05-08T10:53:15.549+05:30RTE non-payment by Tamil Nadu Government<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I wrote on my Facebook status about the Tamil Nadu Government not paying the dues to the private schools which provided 25% reservation in admission to socially and economically deprived sections as envisaged under the Right to Education Act, resulting in the private schools threatening to stop admissions under this 25% category for the upcoming year.<br />
<br />
The comments to my status, from socialists, communists and generally ill-informed people can broadly be summarised as follows:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Private schools make massive profits. Hence Government need not pay the money due to them. Or at the least delay for as long as you can. Because they can afford it.</li>
<li>If the Government doesn't pay on time, it is the job of the private schools to go to court. Why aren't they doing this? Obviously they should be motivated and want to scrap the 25% reservation.</li>
<li>If the Government doesn't pay, the only option open to the private schools is to negotiate or go to court. They have no right to stop the 25% reservation, because they are bound by law. [Note that according to these people, law doesn't bind the Government in its obligation to pay the money on time. It only binds the private schools in offering the services forced on them.]</li>
<li>If running private schools under such hard circumstances created by the Government is that bad, why not get the hell out of this area and hand over the schools to the Government. [As if, the Government is all ready to take over such schools and start running from tomorrow morning!]</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What these people fail to notice is some basic Dharmic principles besides a host of legal issues.</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>A Government is as bound by law as you and me. A law passed in the Parliament is stronger than a mere contract signed between two parties. A Government is duty bound to fulfill the financial obligations especially when it brought the obligations on itself. It was not forced on it by outsiders.</li>
<li>There is a strong moral issue here. A Government that has completely abdicated its responsibility in providing basic primary education to its people has forced 25% reservations on the private schools on the explicit promise that it will compensate for the same. In fact, the compensation is inadequate - because the Government has only agreed to pay the lower of the fee or the money it claims it spends on its own schools per student. There is no auditing powers with the schools. If the Government says it spends only 10,000 Rs per student per year, that is all it will pay a school, which is normally collecting say 30,000 or more from its non-reservation students. Schools did not have a choice in opting out of this patently biased system, because the Parliamentary rights were invoked in passing this unjust law. Now, on top of this unjust law, the Government has not fulfilled its side of the bargain. This is so morally repugnant, we do not see the kind of outrage that should really be happening in any civilised country. But in socialist India, this does not cause any moral outrage but instead we see perfectly sane individuals coming and asking the private schools to buzz off. I am simply astonished by the moral bankruptcy of this class of people.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Issues that will have to be discussed and debated outside of this debate are:</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Is RTE enforcing 25% reservation with Government paying for those seats a fair law at all?</li>
<li>Should the Government be building its own schools instead of paying even one penny to the private schools?</li>
<li>Are the private schools basically cheats and hence should be closed down once and for all?</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
These debates in no way can mitigate the current immoral and illegal activities of our Government and any one supporting the Government action or defending it on dubious principles should really ask themselves whether this is the model in which they want themselves to be governed.</div>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-21325650248551293382014-02-13T13:07:00.002+05:302014-02-13T13:07:24.617+05:30MA History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After successfully completing an MA degree in Vaishnavism from Madras University, I have enrolled in a MA History program in Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).<br />
<br />
I chose IGNOU because they are the only ones who accept Engineering undergraduates for doing a masters in History. Looking at their curriculum and reading material, I am very happy to have made this choice. Their text books are extremely well written. Unfortunately, the printing and production standards are abysmal. For those interested, the subjects for the first year are:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Ancient and Medieval Societies</li>
<li>Modern World</li>
<li>Political Structures in India</li>
<li>History of Indian Economy</li>
</ol>
I have not checked out whether IGNOU is making these text books available as PDF or EPUB files. Will be useful to many people then.<br />
<br />
I wish Madras University professors read these books and produce their reading material to this quality - or better yet, simply commission IGNOU to write their books. The rest of the Tamil Nadu universities are worse than Madras University anyway when it comes to the quality of books they produce for distance education.</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-7347898409494681472013-12-17T18:27:00.000+05:302013-12-17T18:27:03.073+05:30CII Conference on e-Learning and e-Publishing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I attended the above conference in Park Sheraton, Chennai yesterday. I spoke on the technology challenges one has to face in producing and delivering E-books for the Indian languages. <br /><br />But more than my session, I enjoyed the last session on "Tablet Based Education". <br /><br />Couple of years ago, I spoke at TEDxSSN about the need to introduce a complete Tablet based education at the school level. I was then disillusioned as I tested with many low cost Chinese Android devices. They were completely crap, the Android OS was not up to the mark, and I felt the entire Tablet revolution will be only for the rich and stopped thinking about it.<br /><br />Subramanian Viswanathan of CEO of Edtech made some good points about why Tablet today may win where models such as OLPC failed in the past. I agree with him. I hope I paraphrase him correctly thus:-<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Tablets have a fantastic, natural interface through "touch", which even a child which has not learnt letters of a language can operate, while keyboards and mouse are a lot more difficult. Over time, we are going to get "gesture recognition" which will make it even better and easier.</li>
<li>Tablets are getting thinner and faster and hence easy to hold and take around.</li>
<li>Bandwidth is getting better and people are making provisions in schools for this.</li>
<li>Unlike the Laptops software, apps have been unleashed for the tablets. The app store concept has made content and application creation and dissemination too easy. Social media has become stronger and the connectedness helps in innovative uses for the product.</li>
<li>The users have become co-creators, and not just passive consumers.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He was suggesting that people invest in branded products rather than the cheap chinese tablets. (I should know better!)<br /><br />But the really fascinating talk was the one that followed - by Shefali Jhaveri, a teacher at the Canadian International School at Bangalore. Her school has introduced iPads for all the students. No books, no notebooks. Everything is done in their iPads. To get the teachers familiar with this product, the teachers were given the iPads a good six months ahead.<br /><br />The default apps that come with the iPad for the students include Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, Comic Life and she also talked later about Doceri. Students write their reports using Pages, presentations using Keynote, and also compile their projects using Doceri (a screen animator app - I have not used this). Comic Life is used by the students to create some of their projects.<br /><br />Teachers trawl through iTunes Univ and identify course material rleated to the syllabus they have to teach. Text books are provided through iPad directly (I didn't figure out who the publisher was and whether iBooks was the book reader).<br /><br />Subramanian, in his presentation, said most teachers are against the tablet because it does not enable handwriting that well, but that soon good writing may be possible with a pen like device. (I have found handwriting cumbersome as well currently with the current stylus models.)<br /><br />Shefali talked about and demonstrated a human body app which mimics digestive system, respiratory system, circulatory system etc. which provides students with excellent understanding of these lessons far better than the boring printed book.<br /><br />***<br /><br />Of course, there are challenges in India for the neighbourhood low cost schools. There are even bigger challenges for the Indian language schools. It is up to us to take this exciting idea to the next level.</div>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-34145006694576628962013-12-10T14:55:00.000+05:302013-12-10T14:55:03.387+05:30The incredible Arvind Kejriwal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been following Arvind Kejriwal, since Anna Hazare's movement against corruption gained prominence. I read through the various Jan Lokpal draft bills, and was not entirely impressed by them. I am not sure whether the institution of Lokpal will solve our corruption problem. However, I have felt strongly to support the activities of Hazare, and donate little bits of money wherever possible.<br />
<br />
Popular support for Hazare's cause went up and then came down. That was inevitable. Many factors came together to defeat him. Hazare himself was one of the reasons.<br /><br />But, when Hazare went on fast and the parliament had to be convened in a special session to debate corruption and Lokpal - that was the highest point of the anti-corruption movement. If you are cynical, you will laugh at this. The debaters in the parliament were all past masters of corruption and wheeling-dealing. It was clear that no good will come out of this special session other than to get Hazare to end his fast. You knew that the movement was going to fizzle out. Then why all this euphoria?<br /><br />But the simmering discontent was there. Hazare didn't know how to make the best use of it. Kejriwal knew, and started his party - AAP. With just one year in hand, he seems to have done an outstanding job of galvanising the Delhi voters. This is simply incredible. Two days have passed since the Sunday results and I am yet to come to grips with this result. Defeating CM Sheila Dikshit in her own constituency, winning 28 seats, winning such a large percentage of votes, all with probably a small fraction of the funds at their disposal compared to that of BJP and Congress, are nothing short of amazing. From various accounts, it appears that even the AAP top folks are surprised by the results.<br /><br />It is quite possible that AAP will wither away like Asom Gana Parishad. It is equally possible that AAP will go on to consolidate its position in a few states if not the entire country. Small states and Union Territories across India are ripe for such a new force. Pondicherry and Goa could be ideal pickings in future. States where there is no worthwhile opposition are other possibilities. For example, Maharashtra is drifting away with four large parties forming two fronts and none growing beyond their size. This state is ideal for AAP to firmly plant themselves in. Haryana which is ruled by a blatantly corrupt Congress, but where BJP has hardly played a serious role of opposition is another great opportunity. In fact, even Gujarat is a possibility where Congress is weakening steadily and those opposed to Modi want a strong rallying point.<br /><br />This also opens up possibilities for other forces. Tamil Nadu is stuck between AIADMK and DMK, Both are incredibly corrupt, utterly inefficient, totally casteist and they hardly even talk about good governance. The challengers to these parties are breakaways from the same stock or are similar in content and form. AIADMK leader has not developed a second line of leadership. DMK leadership struggle may result in internecine family quarrels. AAP, or a similar group can establish itself in Tamil Nadu, if they do enough groundwork.<br /><br />I am a little nervous about AAP's views on economics and other matters. But then, most parties in India have no views at all and they blithely go around destroying the country. Some of AAP's candidates seem to be dodgy characters, but by and large AAP seems to have given tickets to common folks who will never get a chance in any other party. That gladdens me a lot. If they maintain this character, I will support them wholeheartedly.<br /><br />[Disclaimer: I have published the Tamil translation of Arvind Kejriwal's book 'Swaraj', <a href="https://www.nhm.in/shop/978-81-8493-750-3.html">தன்னாட்சி: வளமான இந்தியாவை உருவாக்க</a> and my company is likely to gain if this book in Tamil sells more copies.]</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-80171336732225601032013-11-28T18:11:00.000+05:302013-11-28T18:22:50.433+05:30Quality of our graduates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For the last couple of days Satya and I have been interviewing rookie programmers - people with less than one year experience for a certain activity we are going to get into. We are not particular that they should be Engineering graduates, or MCA etc. But you find them everywhere and we have received resumes of people with either an Engineering degree or an MCA. They have completed their last degree just an year back.<br />
<br />
After talking to them on other things, we ask them to solve a few simple Math problems. This is really revealing. I give below the questions.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdjBQeJMKzKLLhR7P9Soe6XVZRMfQJP8A2T4ToyMtMPMxAJwRpVNtuI7JDWo-y6qblc-DSBRLJTVUPOAj0qoSgRcOdCJmync9QCu995rj4OXQcKVfYksQ5_NGQEAXUjsFuZEEaw/s1600/problems.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdjBQeJMKzKLLhR7P9Soe6XVZRMfQJP8A2T4ToyMtMPMxAJwRpVNtuI7JDWo-y6qblc-DSBRLJTVUPOAj0qoSgRcOdCJmync9QCu995rj4OXQcKVfYksQ5_NGQEAXUjsFuZEEaw/s1600/problems.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
One candidate with a B.Sc (Comp) and MCA couldn't solve a single problem above. His answer to the first question was "1". In fact three candidates all gave "1" as the answer to the first question. Then on further prompting and helpful hints, one came up with 1.4, another 1.414. One person came up with an amazing method, which resulted in sqrt(35) reaching close to 12.xxx. No one could touch the quadratic equation. One candidate solved all but the last problem.<br />
<br />
The degree we are giving out is worth shit.</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-33621828482622433942013-11-26T15:51:00.000+05:302013-11-26T15:51:10.128+05:30iPad vs Nexus Android Tablet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I went from this article (<a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3678-unapologetically-cheap">Unapologetically cheap</a>) to this article (<a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2588-what-happens-when-its-all-glass">What happens when it's all glass?</a>) via <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shankar.ganesh">Shankar Ganesh</a> in Facebook.<br />
<br />
Ignoring other OS or device manufacturers, my basic problem with Android earlier was this. It was simply no good compared to iOS. The gap was just too wide. The devices running Android were pathetic too. Even as the hardware started getting better, the Android OS simply did not keep up. That is until now.<br />
<br />
Even now, a <a href="http://bseshadri.blogspot.in/2013/11/nexus-7-2012-model.html">Nexus 7 (2012) 16 GB</a> is no match for an iPad mini. However, as pointed out by Jason Fried, the gap is coming down and the common man on the road is not going to care much about the brand.<br />
<br />
Google now seems to have gotten the right idea. Build a solid device - a good, cheap phone that is robust, fast and functional and a similar tablet. Hope it is also profitable for them. Such products can make a big difference to people in countries such as India.</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-34850707637196889862013-11-25T09:44:00.004+05:302013-11-25T09:44:52.575+05:30Nexus 7 (2012 model)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I bought a <a href="http://www.flipkart.com/google-nexus-7-tablet/p/itmdp6sywb5ywchh?pid=TABDNGSUTBGZTFKT&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=nexus+7&ref=8edc2cb1-eb6a-4b5f-89fa-a68a09521b40">Nexus 7, 16 GB Android Tablet</a> by Google & ASUS last week. It cost only Rs 8,999/- on Flipkart and was quite enticing. It is not going to be my primary tablet. I have an iPad. The main reason I bought this one was to test and continuously give feedback on an Android app (NHM Reader) we are developing.<br />
<br />
Over the last few of years I have bought many cheap Android tablets, mainly to test them. I was quite disillusioned with them all. It started with a cheap (then - Rs. 7,000) 7 inch unbranded Chinese tablet, resistive touch, Android 1.x which was soon cast away. Then I bought another resistive touch 10 inch, yet another cheap Chinese make (which cost Rs 10,000) from the US and had it delivered to India. It was some Android 2.x version. Again threw it away after a while. Then, again bought a capacitive touch 9 inch version from the US, which performed a little better, but had some fault and I couldn't fix it. [When I say I have thrown it away, I have them all lying in the house somewhere.] I then got a gift of Penta, a capacitive touch 7 inch tablet marketed by BSNL. I gave it to my daughter who quickly grew tired of it and instead kept taking my iPad away.<br />
<br />
These were basically for experiments, trying to figure out whether a cheap Android tablet can be a good consumer device, for consuming music, video clips, reading books etc.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I also experimented with couple of cheap Android phones - a Micromax one and a Samsung one, both at the entry level. They also left a lot to be desired. The Samsung Galaxy Y is still in use at home. My daughter uses it, primarily as a web device to watch Youtube clips, check weather, chat with her friends and quickly check her emails.<br />
<br />
I was looking for a very robust device at a good price point. Satya then pointed Nexus 7 tab to me an year back. He had procured one from the US. Then it went on sale in India on Flipkart and was costing around Rs. 10,000/- Then when they dropped the price further, I bought it.<br />
<br />
There is apparently a new Nexus 7 tab coming up (or has already come up?) I believe. I am not a gadget freak. I don't much care about the latest version of anything. I have an iPhone 3GS and do not feel the need to change it at all. Nexus 7 has only one camera, a front facing, low pixel one. I am yet to take a photo with it. I probably may never use this camera. I do however use my iPad to take a lot of pictures and many video clips as well. So if that is what you want, Nexus 7 is not your device.<br />
<br />
However, my experience with Nexus 7 so far is very good. It is nicely packed, compact and light enough. Its storage of 16 GB is more than enough for me. Screen response is really good. Just as good as my iPad. What I liked the most was the neat OS upgrade. The OS that came shipped with the system was 4.2. The same day as I started up the system, it downloaded 4.3 and upgraded itself (of course, with my permission). Then a day later, it prompted for upgrading to 4.4 which I did. (They could have upgraded from 4.2 to 4.4 in one jump, but probably this is easier for them.)<br />
<br />
I couldn't get a good cover for it. Satya had procured one from the US. But here in India I have now bought two covers and both are bad. A cheap one from Ritchie Street (Rs 250) which looks good from outside but quite pathetic leather inside. I had to use my cutter to carve out portions to see the full screen. The second one, I bought from Flipkart for around Rs. 550 (marketed by Ambrane India), which contains a cover and a keyboard built in. The keyboard works very nicely. So it can be used with Quickoffice (a free App) and you can create documents and presentations really fast. But the device can slip out of this cover, so it is not very safe.<br />
<br />
Kindle app works fine of course. Playing video and music are very competent. Browser (Chrome) experience is of the same standard as in an iPad.<br />
<br />
Tamil fonts and complex Unicode rendering are built in and work well.
Google doesn't provide a default Tamil input as of now, but Tamil
typing can be done with Sellinam well. I am sure there are many other
input apps as well.<br />
<br />
I paired it with my iPhone through Bluetooth and got the Internet working on the road. At home or office, wi-fi works comfortably.<br />
<br />
The battery life is really good. This I did not expect. Almost as good as (but a little lesser to) an iPad.<br />
<br />
*<br />
<br />
Why am I bothered about a cheap Android device?<br />
<br />
Print books have reached a stage where they are not going to grow much. It is a tough business. Raw material (paper) cost is steadily increasing. Every time paper cost goes up, we are forced to increase the cost of the books considerably - because everything else works on a percentage basis. The author gets 10%, while the trade discount is around 35% for Tamil and can be as much as 50% for English. So if the cost of paper consumed by a copy of a book goes up by Rs 1, you have to increase the MRP by Rs 2, just to stay where you are. If you want cover the inflation elsewhere, you will have to up the MRP by Rs 3. There are plenty of other difficulties a book publishing business face, too numerous to mention here.<br />
<br />
In this scenario, Book business can grow only with E-books. It is possible to create e-only books, and retail them for as low as Rs 10 and Rs 20. Most Tamil readers still expect books in this price range. They do not understand that paper price has grown three-fold in the last 10 years. When we started our publishing business roughly a decade back, one kg of paper was around Rs 23-24. Now it is almost Rs 70.<br />
<br />
E-books can work only when enough people have a reading device in their hands. Dedicated Kindle Reader like devices with e-ink displays are not going to work in India and particularly in the regional language market. Even Amazon has sort of given up on them, I think. So it will have to be tabs. iOS devices will always be exclusive and expensive.<br />
<br />
Given the price conscious Indian markets, it will have to be a cheap and yet robust Android tablet that will trigger in this revolution. Having played enough with resistive touch or unknown brand products, the hassle is so much, I don't think most common folks would even want to touch them. That is where Nexus 7 tab comes in. It is cheap enough at 9k, but in terms of performance it is good enough. In fact it is fantastic.<br />
<br />
So go for it! </div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-2099721581309034772013-11-13T09:41:00.000+05:302013-11-13T09:41:11.376+05:30Campa Cola illegal constructions in Mumbai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Read an article on Campa Cola illegal constructions today [<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/campa-cola-residents-block-civic-officials-entry/article5343294.ece">The Hindu</a>]. Municipality had given permission for construction of only 5 floors but over time, 35 extra floors had been created! The residents had gone to court demanding water supply, but the municipality had protested this claiming the construction was illegal. Now, armed with a court order, the municipality wants to demolish the additional floors but the residents are blocking this move. The chief minister of Maharashtra has refused to issue an ordinance regularising the structure. Opposition MLAs have jumped in to support the residents.<br />
<br />
I do not understand the housing problem in Mumbai much. There are too many high-rise buildings in Mumbai. You don't see that many in Chennai, though a few have emerged recently, in particular along the Old Mahabalipuram Road. Even then, they are probably around 10 floors. In the middle of the city, it is usually ground+3 or ground+4.<br />
<br />
I have read a fair bit about construction in Chennai in violation of the permit given. Usually a shady builder will add a floor more (if four floors are granted, build a fifth one) and then hope that (a) nobody finds out and (b) if found out, pay some fine and regularise the same. But what is shocking to me is, how could someone build 35 extra floors when the original permission was for a mere 5 floors? This is some audacity.<br />
<br />
A few famous shops in T.Nagar business district were penalised over the last few years for illegally adding 2-3 floors, or for not having enough parking space. Some demolition happened in case of Saravana Stores, but then the whole thing fizzled out.<br />
<br />
The normal middle class response to this is that the officials and the politicians take bribe and let these shops run unchecked. But now, decent upper middle class folks of Campa Cola compound have willingly violated the law and are refusing to vacate their premises. Chances are that most residents of Mumbai will side with the law-breakers. If that is the case, how can we demand that the politicians and the government officials clean up their act? I can clearly see a whole bunch of politicians sympathising with poor Lalu Yadav spending time in prison for stealing a few paltry crores!<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
I can see a bunch of violations by decent middle class people in Chennai.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Unauthorised floors above the permit.</li>
<li>Not leaving enough space between the compound wall and the construction inside, thereby blocking air and sunlight to the neighbouring building.</li>
<li>Encroaching on public space by extending their construction into the kerb.</li>
<li>Letting out space including the footpath for shops. [My earlier apartment complex had a problem like this. The idiot who owned the commercial space in the ground floor had rented it out to a food joint. This was not to be done - it was meant only for stationery or mobile or such shops. Anyway, the food joint simply gobbled up the entire footpath in front. The food shop fellow asked us to talk to the owner. We fought with the owner, who simply dodged us. The problem continues. I have moved out.]</li>
<li>Constructing ramps across the footpath for vehicles, which makes walking on the footpath difficult for older people or pushing a child-cart impossible.</li>
<li>Not making provision for transformers inside the apartment complex but placing them in the common public space [which is then quickly converted into men's toilet.]</li>
</ol>
It maybe worthwhile to start a campaign to educate the people on these and many other violations committed by them (mostly because they do not know that they are doing this) and fix them within a specific time, before we start demanding our politicians to clean up their act.</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-91613803246251879352013-10-11T10:31:00.002+05:302013-10-11T10:31:25.313+05:30Teacher-Student ratio in Chennai Corporation schools and the medium of instruction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I visited couple of Chennai [corporation] schools this week and have been to quite a few of them in the last year. The enrollment has come down drastically. The High school in Royapettah [Lloyds Road] had only around 200 students or so and the HM said once they used to get upwards of 600-700 students. In the Thousand Lights Middle School, the total number of students in 3rd/4th/5th together came only to 25. Accounting for those students who were absent, it seems like the strength is around 10 per class. In the Triplicane Middle School, 6th/7th/8th total came to 70. That is around 25 per class.<br />
<br />
Given that the teacher-student ratio is fantastic - does it result in better outcome in these schools? There seemed to be enough teachers - at least one per class in the schools I visited.<br />
<br />
Alternately, where are the kids who should be enrolled in these schools? They have all been pushed to low quality, English medium schools which have by and large bad teachers who are paid probably 3,000 or 4,000 Rs a month. The students are forced to pay probably around Rs 500 a month as fee. With that sort of fee, these schools can't be all that rich. Their infrastructure has to be poor; they probably do not have a playground. On the other hand the Chennai [corporation] schools had reasonable space around, fairly decent flooring, decent furniture, purified water cans, working fans etc.<br />
<br />
I have a radical suggestion:<br />
<br />
* Suppose we make all the Corporation Schools English medium only [just a renaming - call them Chennai Corporation English Medium Only Schools].<br />
* Charge every student at least Rs. 100 a month.<br />
* Force the students to wear ties and shoes and spanking new uniforms that the parents are forced to buy.<br />
<br />
<br />
My feeling is, the enrollment will go up significantly - to the level of at least 50 students per class. Use the funds to spruce up the buildings.<br />
<br />
This will have two advantages. The parents will now start demanding better quality teaching from the teachers, since now they are paying customers. The low quality local schools will be forced to close down.<br />
<br />
The only downside to this whole thing is "English Medium". This will be vehemently opposed to by the Tamil fringe. [I am myself in favour of teaching most/all the kids in Tamil and hence I belong to this fringe, before you jump up!] Ignore the fringe [including me].<br />
<br />
Will the Chennai [corporation] school teachers be up to the mark in teaching in English? My contention is, they can't be worse than the roadside low quality English school teachers anyway. These are better paid, D.T.Ed/B.Ed trained teachers anyway.<br />
<br />
At least you will save the public schooling system and save most parents from paying 500 Rs or more per month for lower quality education. We can think about how to revive Tamil, and how to improve the quality of education later.</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-87481894048672156362013-07-17T14:04:00.000+05:302013-07-17T14:04:05.775+05:30Narendra Modi’s projection as PM candidate is inevitable<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In a detailed interview where Prof. Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University criticises Food Security Ordinance, in response to one last question on Modi, he says it is inevitable that Modi will be made the PM candidate. As usual, ET only headlines this. But do please read the entire article to see the correct perspective on FSB.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong>Are you happy about projecting Modi for Prime minister? Are you
impressed with his style of campaigning? What do you think of the
controversial "puppy" remark?</strong> <br /><br /> That Modi, with his enormous success in bringing prosperity to the people of Gujarat,
will be projected as the PM candidate is inevitable. Modi is also
forcing a debate on the importance of growth to economic and social
development, which I greatly welcome. [<a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/narendra-modis-projection-as-pm-candidate-is-inevitable-arvind-panagariya-professor-columbia-university/articleshow/21113252.cms">Full Article</a>]</blockquote>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-77054150031189693472013-07-16T09:53:00.004+05:302013-07-16T09:53:44.643+05:30Pay Rs 5 to attend Narendra Modi's rally<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h1>
Modinomics: Pay Rs 5 to attend Narendra Modi's rally in Hyderabad - Times of India</h1>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span id="advenueINTEXT" name="advenueINTEXT" style="float: left;">The BJP
is charging Rs 5 per ticket for the public meeting and on day one of
the online registration for the meeting on Monday, about 8,000 persons
signed up. Organizers are expecting anywhere between 50,000 to one lakh
attendance for the meet, which at the rate of Rs 5 per ticket would
amount to about Rs 5 lakh in case the party manages a full house. [<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modinomics-Pay-Rs-5-to-attend-Narendra-Modis-rally-in-Hyderabad/articleshow/21093373.cms">article</a>]</span></blockquote>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-71056597766976503452013-07-15T08:46:00.003+05:302013-07-15T08:46:44.204+05:30Modi's agenda for improving education in the country<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Narendra Modi's 10 point agenda revealed before students - DNA</h1>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
* In Gujurat first of its kind 'I create institute", is coming up under
the guidance of Infoysis founder chief Narayan Murthy. Here we will
groom students for the professions they have aptitude in. If I ask what
is the biggest concern today for parents, it is that their child should
get a good teacher. We have huge youth power, but no liking towards
teaching profession. Gujurat is coming up with first of its kind
Teachers training university. Then there is one Forensic Science
university too is coming up.<br />
<br />
* When I approached Narayan Murthy to head an institute in the country,
he took six months to take the decision as he was scared that he
received invitation from Modi, will it land him in any trouble. An IT
raid probably. [<a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1861051/report-narendra-modi-s-10-point-agenda-revealed-before-students">article</a>]</blockquote>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7005624.post-2915932567420397692013-07-15T08:42:00.001+05:302013-07-15T08:42:19.751+05:30Modi attacks food security bill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="detail-title">
When people want food, Congress throws a piece of law on plate: Modi - The Hindu</h1>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Taking a dig at the Food Security Bill, Mr. Modi said when it became
impossible for the Congress to fulfill the promise, the party took the
easy way out. “They threw a piece of law instead of food in the plate.
This country is tired of acts, it wants action.” [<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/modi-slams-upas-food-security-scheme/article4914747.ece">article</a>]</blockquote>
</div>
Badri Seshadrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02563596810587587859noreply@blogger.com0