At Rs. 6,000 salary, Kerala varsity asked Einstein to be VC

Decades before India embarked on its quest for superpower status, the tiny princely state of Travancore had aimed it high in 1937 when it made a bid to enlist the services of great physicist Albert Einstein as Vice-Chancellor of its fledgling university for a monthly pay of Rs. 6,000. The founder of modern physics, however, politely declined the offer, saying he wanted to join Princeton University in the US. The Travancore University, later renamed as University of Kerala, celebrates its platinum jubilee this year.

According to eminent historian, late Prof. A S Menon, who authored a comprehensive history of the Travancore University, seeking Einstein’s service was the idea of the then Diwan (Prime Minister) of Travancore Sir C P Ramaswamy Aiyar. Aiyar was a shrewd administrator and multi-faceted scholar who kept abreast of contemporary developments, including those in modern science.

Citing records of local people’s council, Menon says Aiyar advised the reigning prince Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma, the last Maharaja of Travancore, to invite Einstein to decorate the prestigious academic post. Aiyar thought the prestige and status of the university would get elevated if a great scientist like Albert Einstein agreed to head it.

According to historian M G Sashibhushan, Aiyar had tried to bring not only Einstein but many other famous personalities from various academic disciplines as faculty at the university. “I have heard people saying of CP’s public announcement about the proposal first at the Sree Chitra State Council. But as far as I know, unfortunately, the copy of the letter sent to Einstein is yet to be traced,” Sashibhushan said.

Data from 1947 onwards shows that inflation rate in India has averaged around 6.4%. Extrapolating this to the time between 1937 and 1947, Rs. 6,000 then would be equivalent to Rs. 630,000 per month today.

Source: The Times of India, January 3, 2012

MCI starts 3-year PG in Family Medicine

Family physicians medical practitioners that were fast disappearing are now being revived. With India witnessing a rush of medical students keen on becoming specialists, the Ministry of Health and Medical Council of India (MCI) have notified introduction of a new three-year postgraduate course MD in Family Medicine. Chairman of MCI’s board of governors, Dr. K K Talwar said, “The curriculum has been prepared and sent to all state governments that have been told to roll out this broad speciality course.” Experts say a doctor with MD (Family Medicine) will be the one who will know a little of every discipline, from pediatrics to gynecology and will be able to treat the community as a whole.

This will soon bring back the family physician in the forefront of primary healthcare. The steering committee on health has also been pressurizing the ministry to endorse family medicine. In its recent report finalized last week, it said, “family medicine discipline needs to be introduced in all medical colleges so that they can effectively manage most of medical problems encountered at primary level, and referral to specialists occurs only when necessary.” Till now, most family physicians were MBBS doctors. “The MD course on Family Medicine is more advanced than a simple MBBS and will help doctors wanting to increase their acumen in community health,” Dr. Talwar said.

At present, the only available post-graduate programme on family medicine was the DNB Family Medicine qualification, conducted by the National Board of Examinations-accredited community hospitals. NBE Executive Director Dr. Bipin Batra said, “The demand for DNB (Family Medicine) course run by the NBE is seeing a major increase. We have 300 seats for this discipline. As against just 50 MBBS students enrolling to become family physicians a couple of years ago, the numbers reached close to 300 in 2011. This is mainly because private hospitals have increased their recruitment for general practitioners.”

Students pursuing MD (Medicine) are taught more in-depth on diseases, functions of various organs and their treatment. Professor Ranjit Roychoudhury, former member of MCI’s board of governors, said, “A person with a postgraduate degree in family medicine will look at preventive, prophylactic and promotive healthcare. He will have extensive knowledge on healthcare for the elderly who cannot move out of the house and will be taught on everything from gynecology, psychology to pediatrics.”

Introduction of Family Medicine as a PG discipline has been emphasized by the Bhore Committee, National Health Policy 2002, National Knowledge Commission and the Task Force on Human Resource for NRHM. Dr. K Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India, said, “Family medicine is a required discipline. The rush for specialization has deprived doctors of the ability to look at individuals as a whole and families as one unit. We require large number of persons trained in family medicine, which combines a broad set of clinical competencies.”

American Academy of Family Physicians defines it as medical specialty that integrates the biological, clinical and behavioural sciences. The scope of family medicine encompasses all ages both sexes each organ system and every disease entity.

Source: The Times of India, January 3, 2012

IIM-Ahmedabad set to choose its own director

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) will be the first IIM in the country to choose its own director. Set to formally accept the revised Memorandum of Association (MoA) proposed by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will allow increased autonomy to the management institute.

Prof. Samir Barua, who is currently IIM-A’s Director, will complete his term later this year and his successor is likely to be selected through the new procedure which will encourage active participation by the IIM. As per the revised MoA, the IIM’s Board of Governors — and not the ministry — will set up a search-cum-selection committee on its own and this committee will then shortlist three candidates for the post of the IIM director.

The IIM-A BoG will forward these names to the MHRD which will then be able to choose a director only from amongst these shortlisted candidates. The IIM’s BoG will also be able to select its own chairman in a similar fashion. This new process marks quite a departure from the selection process in effect until now.

IIMs have for years been engaged in a tug-of-war of sorts with the government for more autonomy. “IIM-A will be able to select its own director under the new MoA. The IIM-A director will soon complete his term and the new director will come in through the new selection process. This will go a long way in bringing more autonomy to IIMs,” MHRD sources said.

As of now, it is the ministry which forms a search-cum-selection committee in collaboration with the IIM BoG and also chooses one of the candidates short-listed by the committee, allowing the government to wield its influence right from the beginning of the selection process. While this process allows no room for the IIM or its BoG any say in the appointment of its director, the new process promises to be initiated and driven by the IIMs themselves.

Incidentally, the IIT Review Committee headed by R C Bhargava had also recommended the same. “We recommend that the director of each IIM be selected and appointed by the Board of each IIM, with the conditions of service being approved by the pan IIM Board. The process of selection should be determined by each Board. We also recommend that the selection field should be broad-based to attract the best available talent,” the Bhargava Committee said in its report.

Source: The Indian Express, January 3, 2012

China overtakes India in R&D: PM outlines ambitious plan to ‘change the face’ of science

With India overtaken by countries like China in R&D, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today outlined an ambitious plan to “change the face” of science which includes doubling investments and urged women to take up careers in this area where they are under-represented. Inaugurating the 99th Indian Science Congress (ISC), he voiced concern over a large number of women scientists remaining unemployed due to lack of job opportunities. Singh also asked the industry to increase expenditure on research and development (R&D) and help achieve the target of spending two per cent of the GDP on research by the end of the 12th Plan.

“This can only be achieved if industry, which contributes about one third of the total R&D expenditure today, increases its contribution. I believe public sector undertakings especially in the engineering sector should play a major role in this expansion,” he said inaugurating the five-day event at the KIIT University campus in Bhubaneshwar.

Listing the objectives for the 12th Five Year Plan, Singh said a major increase in R&D investments has to be achieved and a new innovation ecosystem has to be created for scientific progress. He stressed on the need to expand the basic science infrastructure and to achieve greater alignment of the S&T sector with the inclusive development needs of the nation. “We must encourage greater research collaboration among universities and national laboratories. We hope to use the National Knowledge Network to this end,” Singh said.

In a bid to push research in niche areas, the Prime Minister said the government was examining a proposal to build national capacity and capability in supercomputing which will be implemented by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,000 crore (Rs. 50 billion). He said there was another proposal for setting up a Neutrino Observatory at Theni in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs. 1,350 crore (Rs. 13.5 billion) to study the fundamental particles that form the universe.

“Over the past few decades, India’s position in the world of science had been declining and we have been overtaken by countries like China. Things are changing but we cannot be satisfied with what has been achieved. We need to do much more to change the face of Indian science,” he said. Noting that publicly funded R&D was skewed in favour of fundamental research rather than applied research, Singh said, “It is easier to attract industrial funds into applied research areas and a set of principles should be formulated to push such funding and to drive public-private-partnerships in R&D.

“While research generates new knowledge, we need innovation to use this knowledge productively for social benefit. We need to give practical meaning to innovation so that it does not end up being just a buzz word,” he said. Singh made a strong pitch for incentivising private R&D investments under Indian conditions.

Congratulating the Science Congress for highlighting the role of women in science, the Prime Minister lauded the women scientists for making a mark in traditionally male bastions and decisively breaking the glass ceiling. He noted that the country’s Agni Missile programme has a women scientist — Tessy Thomas — at the helm and for the first time last year and three women scientists received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize compared with 11 women awardees for all these years since 1958.

“I hope that their examples will motivate other women to take up careers in science, where women are under-represented,” the Prime Minister said. However, Singh noted that nearly 60 per cent of the 2,000 Indian women PhDs in science were unemployed and the main reason cited by them was lack of job opportunities. A very small section cited family reasons for unemployment.

Singh said the Government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) was formulating another scheme called DISHA that would help women scientists relocate to other cities. “The department will create 1,000 contractual positions tenable in publicly funded institutions for this purpose. A fellowship matching the total emoluments of an in-service science and technology professional will be provided when she moves from one station to another,” he said.

The Prime Minister also gave away awards to scientists for their achievements and tribals of Koraput region for the global recognition they received for conservation of bio-diversity and developing climate resilient farming system. The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of State for Science and Technology Ashwani Kumar and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Deshmukh said the government would soon come out with a new science policy which would include increase in R&D spending and having a transparent, evidence-based regulatory system. For the first time a Women’s Science Congress is being held parallel to the ISC and it will be inaugurated on Thursday by India’s Ambassador to the US Ms. Nirupama Rao. Delhi Chief Minister Ms. Sheila Dikshit will also take part in the event.

The 99th Indian Science Congress, presided over by Ms. Geetha Bali, Vice Chancellor of the Karnataka State Women’s University, Bijapur, is being attended by over 15,000 delegates, including 500 foreign scientists and several Nobel laureates. Bali is only the fourth woman to be a President of the Indian Science Congress. The last time was in 1999 when the Congress was held in Chennai when the then Secretary, Department of Biotechnology was the President.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), January 3, 2012

It won’t be pouring big bucks at B-schools this time

Lessons in real life are often better than what’s taught in the classrooms, even if they happen to be at the country’s best B-schools. For students graduating in 2012, the real-time learning of managing their careers through economic volatility is the only consolation in what threatens to be a gloomy placement season across the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and at the Indian School of Business.

At least four IIM directors, two student heads of placement cells, recruitment managers, head-hunters and students told ET they expect fewer recruiters, fewer jobs and lower salaries when the placement season kicks off next month. They are bracing for the worst, and gently lowering expectations to cushion the impact on hundreds of students aspiring for dream jobs. Placing 350-odd students sitting for the final placements would be a challenge, admits Professor Amit Dhiman, IIM-Calcutta’s Placements Chairperson.

“I want to understand how far the slowdown will impact us this year,” says 24-yearold Vishal Sharma, a final-year student at IIM-Ahmedabad, flipping through a business magazine for articles on the slowdown. Batchmate R Sridhar is in touch with the alumni to gauge hiring sentiments across companies. The class of 2012 has seen global economic volatility at its worst. They sat for their entrance exams in late 2009, when the world economy was still reeling under the impact of the previous year’s financial crisis. They walked into the campus for the first day at school in June 2010, when the early hints of recovery were quite evident, at least in India. Those hopes have been belied as they prepare to pass out in a few months. “When we entered IIM-A in 2010, it was a good recovery year (after 2008 meltdown). But now when we are ready to enter the corporate world, there are fears of a double-dip recession,” says Sridhar.

“The number of Day Zero finance jobs, including those from investment banks, are likely to go down,” says Prof. Dhiman. “But not every sector is doing badly. Consulting companies have multiple job offers, as do IT, technology product companies.” Adds Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM-Kozhikode: “The number of companies visiting and offers being made will be conservative.”

FMCG and durables companies haven’t dropped out. They are coming to the campus, but they will recruit fewer students. “Some have said they are coming just to maintain their relationship on campus. They will recruit only 1 or 2 people,” says Dhiman. Some FMCG companies had hired 10-15 each last year. Pre-placement offers at IIM-Calcutta are down to 75 compared with 90-plus during the same time last year. Some Day 3, Day 4 companies have also dropped out.

Crore-Plus Salaries, Foreign Jobs Missing
“In 2009, we were banking on domestic offers. But this time, besides global offers, even the domestic ones will be affected,” adds Dhiman. IIM-Bangalore has been tempering the hopes of its students for some time now, not just this year. “The students are mature now and many of them come with work experience; they understand they may not get their dream job.

Not everything is rosy,” says Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at the institute. The placement committee and faculty are trying to point students to other sectors that are equally good. “We have increased the bouquet of desirable companies. We are trying to help students understand the goodness of other industries (which may not have necessarily been part of their first choice),” says Agarwal.

Adds Ashish Dongre, an IIM-B PGP student, “The faculty is helping students come to terms with sustained recession.” The Rs, 1-crore (Rs. 10 million) salaries, foreign postings won’t happen. “Instead of only Ivy League companies, middle and smaller companies are offering challenging and equally competitive jobs. It’s right to bring down expectations,” says Dongre.

At IIM-B, 370 students will line up for placements this year. “Most recruiters are reserving judgement on the number of people they are planning to hire,” says Ashish Srivastava, placement committee member at XLRI-Jamshedpur. “Most will recruit less. If the market picks up later, they will hire more from the market.” “Consulting is looking fine, but finance is taking a hit. We are not sure about marketing yet, but no one seems to have any major expansion plans,” he adds. Earlier in November, companies were enthusiastic in picking first-year students for six-week internships, raising hopes of a strong hiring sentiment. But free interns are one thing; paid hires are another.

Campus insiders say many students have cancelled holidays from their year-end schedules. CVs are being reworked and social networks actively accessed for the latest buzz on hiring. At IIM-Ranchi, consumer-facing companies, including those in the FMCG and durables sector, have been affected and a couple of those that had originally planned to visit the campus have backed out.

“It would have been a problem if we had a larger batch, even 120 students. But since we are going into final placements with only 44 students, we are not worried,” says MJ Xavier, IIM-Ranchi Director. Institutes placing a large number of students will surely face problems, he says. The average salary will come down this year. “Those at the top of the class will still get good offers, but the average bunch will probably get a little less,” he says. How much less is the questions B-school grads are fretting about.

Source: The Economic Times, January 3, 2012

Placement Season: Tier-II B-Schools to feel the chill

Consumer durables and electronics company LG Electronics has decided to go slow on hiring from campuses this year. The company is likely to hire only 20 candidates from management campuses this time, compared with the 60 it recruited last year. Like LG, a number of companies in the country may go easy on campus recruitments , in the wake of a slowing domestic economy and the global economic crisis. The tremors won’t touch the top management institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), though. It’s the second rung-B schools that will feel them hard. Most of their students won’t land plum jobs this year. Not only are employers hiring fewer candidates this year, they are also deciding against an upward revision of salaries for B-school graduates.

Placements have begun at many such institutions, including Fore School of Management (FSM), International Management Institute (IMI), and ISB, Hyderabad. IBS, Hyderabad, for instance, has witnessed a drop in the number of jobs being offered by each company this year. “We are counselling students to be a lot more flexible in terms of salaries, roles and locations,” says Dean-Corporate Relations Srinivas Cheedi. The institute is hopeful of 150 recruiters participating in this year’s placements, compared with 130 last year, but believes the current placement season will be much slower. “The placements will drag on well beyond the end of the academic year,” said Srinivas Cheedi. “There is no change in salaries being offered this year,” he added. The average salary at IBS stood at Rs. 580,000 last year, while the highest was at Rs. 1.1 million.

However, some companies are tweaking the compensation structure by adding a larger part of the salary package to the variable, says an official familiar with B-school placements, who did not wish to be named. LG, for instance, is offering a fixed salary of Rs. 450,000, similar to last year. There is the bonus element, but it varies according to the candidate’s performance. “Some companies have offered salary packages that are less by Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000 this year,” said a placement coordinator at a Delhi-based management institute , who too did not wish to be named. While it has been difficult to get organisations to look at an upward salary revision, a lot of recruiters have promised to look at revisions in the next fiscal, says Anita Lal, Chairperson – Placements, FSM. Yet, the institute is hopeful of a good placement season . “We have confirmation from as many as 93% of recruiters which visited last year and despite the slowdown, 11 new recruiters have confirmed their participation,” she adds. The average package at the institute was at Rs. 700,000 last year.

Cosmetic goods and toiletries manufacturer Emami plans to plans to hire up to 15 management trainees from various secondrung B-schools this year. The company also says it will follow the market trend while deciding on salary packages, although there won’t be any cutting back. “There will be an increased emphasis on variable pay,” says Krishna Mohan, CEO of Emami. Hoping that business will remain as usual , IT giant Infosys is planning to hire more candidates from top B-schools as well as second-rung schools this year.

The company says it will stick to last year’s salary offers, which were in the range of Rs. 650,000 to Rs. 1.2 million, depending on the role. “We plan to hire in the range of 1,000-1,500 candidates,” said a company spokesperson. Last year, Infosys had recruited about 1,000 candidates. Some institutes like IMI in New Delhi are tapping new companies to ensure the placement season ends well. “We are trying to increase the basket of the companies to achieve our objective of 100% placement,” says Satish Kalra, Dean of Placements.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), January 3, 2012

Angel investors in India warm up to e-learning start-ups

Angel investors in India are turning their attention to e-learning start-ups, convinced that such projects will gradually acquire scale in India, given the gap between supply and demand of quality education in the country. These projects also appear to have a sustainable business model given their low investment requirements compared with brick and mortar projects, these investors say. E-learning refers to all types of training, education and instruction that is imparted on digital media, such as computers and mobile phones. Most angels typically invest anywhere between $500,000 to $750,000 in start-ups.

Over the last one year, about a quarter of business proposals vetted by Mumbai Angels—one of the largest organized angel networks in India—have been e-learning projects. It plans to close three to four deals in the e-learning space over the next one month. The Mumbai-based angel network currently has three education companies in its portfolio, which started out with a brick and mortar model and have now also launched e-learning initiatives. “All the investment proposals in this space that we are currently evaluating are in the business-to-business space,” said Anil Joshi, Vice-President at Mumbai Angels, which has a portfolio of 40 companies. “These are young companies and we are looking at investing up to $500,000 in each one of them.”

Indian Angel Network (IAN), India’s largest angel investor, has also seen a sharp rise in the number of e-learning business proposals. Padmaja Ruparel, President of IAN, said most start-ups are being launched now in the core education segment of K-12 (primary and secondary education), compared with post-college initiatives. “We are also seeing a lot of interest in non-academic e-learning like hospitality and retail. We are looking at a couple of deals in this space,” she said. IAN has invested in 26 companies.

The recent initial public offerings (IPOs) of education companies like Career Point Infosystems Ltd and the acquisition of TutorVista by Pearson Plc are indicators that scaling up and exiting investments are a possibility in this sector, say investors. “IPOs are a possibility, mergers and acquisitions are another viable route. There are investors present for the next round of funding for short term exits,” said Joshi.

For angel investor Ajeet Khurana—who has been in the test preparation business for over 18 years—education is attractive for three reasons. It’s recession-free, there are opportunities to create powerful brands in the space, and exits are possible. “But how will you get a better market for a student?” he asked, explaining what he looks for in a business model. Khurana has so far invested in a dozen companies, of which three are in the education space. He is currently evaluating three more e-learning business proposals. “The Procter and Gamble and Unilever of education are yet to take birth. There could be a huge competitive edge if an education brand stays around for a long time.”

The real challenge in this extremely fragmented sector lies in identifying the right opportunity, said another angel investor, Sanjay Anandaram. It could be hard for a first-time entrepreneur to hit on such an opportunity and deliver it to the right audience, he said. “E-learning, as well as the brick and mortar education segment, could soon became a game of big boys with deep pockets,” said Anandraman, adding that scaling up is crucial for companies.

Despite the opportunities, investment bankers say that there will be teething troubles for e-learning start ups. Most educational institutions in India are still not receptive to the idea of using digital tools for learning, they point out. “While it was important to create big brands, the concern was reaching thousands of schools at reasonable price points,” said Deepak Srinath, Director of Bangalore-based boutique investment bank Viedea Capital Advisors.

Source: Mint, January 3, 2012