The Global Competitiveness Index for 2012-13 has been put up by World Economic Forum.
India has a rank of 101 or so with an index of 4.44 out of 7..
What can be done to improve this index ??
george..
A train of thoughts and writings on development, technology and the economy focusing on the socio-techno-economic-cultural surge of developing economies to regain and partake in leadership of the world. Written by George Easaw, member of the faculty of Business Administration of Allliance University, Bangalore, India. (This is purely an academic site, no commercial use is allowed. Photography rights lie with the respective organisations). Mention credits as needed.
I found 13 points which he gave to students that would help them remain abreast of competition to be most useful and powerful. I am listing those points here for the benefit of the student community all over the world.Coming from a hard core academic with over 16 years of education at MIT, Boston and then another 28 years of teaching and admin experience at National University of Singapore, these principles will only add to our worth and make one a more confident person.
These are really heavyweight points which we can use our whole life !!Point 1 : Keep abreast of latest happenings and developments in the world around you on a global basis.
Point 2 : Wherever possible ALWAYS try to gain practical exposure ..
Point 4 : Never stop learning, life itself is a big learning exercise.
Point 6 : Improve your communication skills. It is better to learn a extra language and Chinese is the best !Point 7 : Identify your strengths and weaknesses, highlight your strong points and overcome the deficiencies
Point 8 : Work on your personality, constantly trying to improve it
Point 10 : Never bear grudges and grievances against others
Point 12 : Do not be afraid to take risks
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people - Hugh C Camerongeorge..
Any innovation to succeed in India has to have the basic parameter of affordability factored in.Let the innovation be on technology, products, services, for the innovation to succeed in the country , it should be affordable for the masses. I shall try to explain my statement with the help of a few examples.
The recent innovation in mobile phone telephony is a case at point. When the mobile phones were expensive, rarely few people had mobile phones in their hands and tariffs used to be exceedingly prohibitive, like Rs 20/ minute for an outgoing call and the same rates for an incoming call, in the early 2000s.
The next example I wish to point out is that of Tata Nano car. It was the cheapest affordable quality car priced at less than 1.5 lakhs, in the country. This forced other manufacturers to come up with cheap models and the latest is Datsun Go under Nissan to plan to make an entry and capture the Indian market. The auto majors of the world rolling their offerings include GM Beat, Huyndai Eon, Maruti 800/ Alto (already there) and now the Datsun Go ..
The Indian population is well informed about the need, the product or the service, but the question is only of affordability. This makes the innovators to really burn the midnight oil and offer great products and services at the lowest price. In India even the people who can afford would spend less with plans of saving his wealth for the future. People are not yet ready to spend out of the way and outside the thrifty methods practiced by their forefathers. It will take some time for the culture to change, but only if it has to. Large demands seeking lower costs are driving the innovators to do even better and come out with real value products, this is the real innovation !
The innovation wave in the Education arena sweeping the world , Massive Open Online Courses, MOOC, is yet another example of free learning for the masses. The recent plan for Cognizant, TCS and Infosys to join hands with 7 IITs to offer MOOC courses for the Indian public who can access these courses from anywhere in the country, may be even from other developing countries from other parts of the world, may be really a defining factor in ensuring the roaring success of this model. Affordability, reach for the masses and scalability are thus the important factors for its success.
1. India is said to have approximately 200 million youngsters in the age group of 20 years to 27 years, (of the 610 million below 26.7 years which is the median age of our population).
2. Of 100 students who finish high school, only 18 have the opportunity to do higher education. (Gross Enrolment Ratio of 18%, ). what happens to the rest 82% ?
3. Out of 200 million between 20 and 26.7 years (assuming 33% of 610 million below 10, 33% between 10 and 20 years and 33% between 20 and 26.7 years), 26% remain illiterate ie.52 million,(literacy rate is 74%).
4. Of the rest 148 million approximately, 50%, 74 million would go for jobs. ( my fair estimation..)
5. Of the rest 74 million, 18% is roughly 13 million of youngsters get a chance to do higher education and the rest 61 million exclude themselves from the higher education (Tertiary Education).
(With 636 Universities in the country to give higher education with 31,324 educational Institutes affiliated, at an average of 400 students per Institute, there are presently 12.53 million (roughly 13 million) students enrolled for higher education in the country. )
1. broadband internet access is made available across the rural areas of the country at affordable rates ( India has about 150 million Internet users, ie. 12% of our population while China has 43% (600m) and US 80% (250m) of their population respectively on the Internet)
2. the modules are offered on mobiles as android or iphone apps so that more people can access
3. the modules really optimised (both in terms of content and the software coding, for faster downloads)
Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion . Georg Hegel
Jiji Thomson is a name most of us back in Kerala recollect very fast, mostly for the right reasons. He has been a known figure in Kerala for a long time because he is in elite company, being from the Indian Administrative Services and known to be a proactive personality. After completing his MA (Economics) from Trivandrum, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 in the Kerala cadre.Usually civil servants are considered to be capable of doing great service for the society and the people. (we too can do it wherever we are in what small position it is..) At some point in life, due to preoccupations or some hiccups in their career, these top civil servants consider giving their best to society is not in their personal interests and withdraw into a cocoon. But there are certainly exceptions to that !!
Here you about to find a person totally different, always looking for opportunities to interact with people, passionate to take on challenges and responsibilities, wanting to do more and more good for the society and the people, with an abundant resource of untapped energy for the society. What an ideal "civil servant" should be ! True to that word, very humble and approachable .. Every time you meet him he is energised and enthused as never before..Right from his initial stints as sub-collector of Alleppey, Kerala, 1983, in his office-cum-residence anyone visiting him would be amazed and taken aback by the cheer, discipline and passion with which he works, interacting so effortlessly with people big and small, rich and poor, patiently listening to them, helping them dispose their files. Shri. Jiji Thomson used to be a popular figure then.
Besides popularising the Nehru Trophy boat race at Alleppey and bringing it to international acclaim, he was instrumental in conducting "community marriages" for hundreds of couples in Alleppey in the early eighties ! From there it went on to the cultural, social scenes in Palghat as District Collector when he revived the Kalpathy Carnatic music festival and conducted many camps for the physically handicapped by implanting Jaipur foot. In Kerala, Jiji Thomson's contribution to the socio-cultural-literary scene in Kerala has been very interesting, eye-catching, eventful, varied and colourful.He was also the Convener of the first National Games in the country with corporate sponsorship in 1987 held in Kerala. The events were for the first time held at different towns and cities in the state of Kerala, networked through technological innovations with the help of Keltron. (His discipline also saw him submitting the final audited accounts in time after the games, generating an overall profit of about Rs. 55 lakhs, again a first of it's kind in the country). This caught the attention of the then PM, Rajiv Gandhi who invited him to take over as the DG of Sports Authority of India then, which Jiji politely refused. He had loads of work left to be done ..!
Throughout his life he has decorated various bureaucratic positions in energy, agriculture, tribal welfare, sports and youth affairs, transport etc., gained invaluable experience and is now an Additional Secretary to the Government of India, (just short of a full blown Secretary), presently posted in the Ministry of Youth Affairs, New Delh. From March, 2013 he has taken over as the Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), New Delhi, in line to get the Chief Secretary posting in Kerala soon !!
An eloquent, motivating and inspiring speaker, right from the the school and Balajana sakhyam (Malayala Manorama) days, Jiji Thomson is a very simple and sincere person, with a pleasing personality, known for sticking to time, performance and exacting work standards and ethics. A born orator, he has also been decorating many stages as spiritual speaker for the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He has carried out his advanced studies in Economics in UK and is a widely travelled personality.
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. - Wilma RudolphHis life reminds us this strong conviction : each one of us has the potential to be great. Be humble, prayerful, modest and simple. Love your fellow beings, friends and the less fortunate in society, pray for them.
Students who join an Institution of Higher Learning has to look out to acquire enough mastery in the following three areas.Making sure that you get enough and more of subject matter expertise through textbooks, interacting with your faculty members and friends, reading extensively from many knowledgeable sources and the library, the points which I am making here is for your development in the other two areas of personality development and making yourself market ready ..
1. Subject matter expertise
2. Personality development and
3. Market readiness.
Point 1. Elevate yourself to a higher level. Nobody rises above low expectations !! Human beings have an infinite potential to rise to whatever expectational levels they aspire to ..
“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” - Oscar Wilde.
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” - Haruki Murakami
Point 3. Transfer your scribblings and learnings after reading the book as time permits, to a weB LOG (also called blog) either on blogspot (blogger) or wordpress, so that your writings get immediately published for a worldwide audience. (It also helps to improve one's writing style too). To make your writings worthwhile to the reader, add some fine analysis to the writing, some suggestions to improve the organisation, what could have been avoided, what could have been done better etc. ie. ADD TO THE DEBATE .. Do not just be a journalist !
Point 5. Keep your GOALS in life a little higher than others .. Plan out what you will be in five years, ten years and twenty years .. The higher your goals, the better ingenious ways you will find to attain them. The otherwise painful obstacles now become just enjoyable steps to reach your ultimate GOAL.Point 6 : The Library is a very good place to find the best books for general reading and read them to your hearts content. I am reminded of this quote : “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges. Once you enter your professional career you may not get the time to do all the reading !!
Do not miss out on any opportunity where you can contribute positively (be it a classroom discussion or with friends in the cafetaria). By being a patient listener you can learn from others too !
1. to give an industry exposure for the student
2. to let the student find the relationship between what he has studied and what is being practiced in industry
3. to understand the industry employee- management working relationship
4. to understand what is the outside world and how it feels like to work in the industry or an organisation
5. to get an idea of industry discipline, mannerisms in the office, shop floor, field etc.
6. to get an idea of customer needs, demands and how they are being met by the industry / organisation
7. to understand how all employees in the organisation work collectively towards attaining the industry / organisational objective
8. to understand whether one has liking to any specific job or area
9. to provide an opportunity and training for the student to collect data, collate, analyse and interpret the results and present it in a presentable form.
10. to see places, interact with many different people, get their opinion on many aspects, experience systems, get training and information from experts and many other intangible benefits.
To become India's #1 university, Alliance University should focus on the following five key areas over the next ten years: 1. Academic E...