Can ISRO overtake NASA ?

Having already given leadership to the world in the space race by giving "cost innovative" and tech innovative solutions (slingshot tech in Mars orbiter mission), ISRO is just a couple of years of overtaking NASA. Having overtaken China and European countries, it is already raising eyebrows world over !!. Those who underestimated India's potential and left for greener pastures are having a rethink.

The $2.5 billion Mars Rover Curiosity is NASA's greatest pain .. NASA is just playing with money, not wisely though.

Unless NASA learns cost innovation, they are bound to be doomed like their Apollo and Space Shuttle missions ..

Wishing ISRO great success in giving "leadership to the world in space exploration for the benefit of mankind" in the new year and the coming years !

With rapid strides in communication and natural resource exploitation, combined with accurate weather prediction, navigational guidance and disaster prevention, who knows what's in store for mankind if he exploits space some more ?

Ge..

US gives Pak a free pass and $1 billion

US gives Pak a free pass and $1 billion

a pity that US never wants peace to return to Pakistan or to Indo-pak borders.

By ensuring that the Haqqani group of AlQaeda (bad taliban) is contained on its northen borders with Afghanistan and doing nothing to contain the LeT and LeJ (good taliban) groups in Punjab on Pak's India borders, US is playing into the hands of Pak military and intelligence, much to the shock and surprise of India.

By promoting and covertly funding Pakistan ( on borrowed funds) as the epicentre of global terrorism, US is sadly risking its own stand as wellwisher of global peace and interests vis-a-vis selfish interests of fishing in troubled waters.

Indeed, birds of the same feather, flock together ! Its high time India understood its real wellwishers and enemies who are out to block its economic march to global economic and technoligical leadership of the world !

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/US-gives-Pakistan-a-free-pass-and-1-billion-by-ignoring-LeT-LeJ/articleshow/45653941.cms via @timesofindia

A merry xmas ..

With Ramesh san Toyota .. 2013.

why it is difficult to innovate ?

Great article .. 

Courtesy Prof Edward Hess, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, US.

Helps to understand what we usually call by innovation, why innovation is not that  common and why people are afraid of applying innovation in their work environments.

The author from Uty of Virginia Darden School of Business tells that by removing the fear of failure and looking at failures as learning opportunities,by instilling a culture of "idea meritocracy", an innovation environment can be created in organisations.

Idea meritocracy means ideas are discussed for their merit and not on who raised it. This was considered to be one of the reasons for the success of ISRO as has been mentioned by one of their senior scientists, P. Kunhikrishnan, while giving a talk at Alliance University, Bangalore.

As Prof Hess mentions, humility, empathy and devaluation of the heirarchical rank were critical to making the new culture of innovation to work in an organisation. Creating the right organisational environment, which fosters critical thinking, innovative thinking irrespective of the heirarchy is crucial to success of an innovation programme.

george..

ISRO - LVM3-X .

ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation

ISRO's LVM 3 X flight is planned on December 18, 2014. (GSLV Mk III, experimental launch)

Experimental flight of LVM-3 will carry active Solid boosters (S200s), Liquid core stage (L110) and a passive Cryogenic stage (C25).

The primary objective of this experimental flight is to validate the complex atmospheric ascent regime of this all new launcher, especially the aerodynamic and control features that cannot be conclusively tested on ground.

In this sub-orbital flight, the launcher would climb to an altitude of about 125 km. Taking advantage of this opportunity, a CARE (Crew-module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment) Module is planned to be injected at this altitude. This module has been realized to validate a number of technologies developed under ISRO’s “Critical Technologies for Human Spaceflight Programme”. This Module is planned to be recovered from the Bay of Bengal after the splash down.

Good luck ISRO ..

Taliban massacre children at school

Pakistani army and civilian establishment should realise at least at this stage that they were playing with fire all this while !! Even though we feel sorry  for the incident and the grieving patents, at least this last time Pakistan govt, its military and intelligence agencies should realise that it cannot live on violence. Violence is a double edged sword !! Violence begets more violence !

Pakistan is suffering from the years of military dictatorship it has endured over the years  and the growth of militant groups supported by the army and civilian establishment !

" Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance." - Benazir Bhutto

Taliban massacre children at school

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30491435

Increasing service sector contfiburion among top 3 economies of the world..

Increasing service sector contfiburion among top 3 economies of the world..

China agr-10%, ind 44%, services 46%.

US agr 1.2%, ind 19%, ser 80%

India agr 13.5%, ind 21.5%, ser 65%

What does this mean in terms of employment, economic growth, enviroental sustainability, consumption of natural resources, urbanisation ?

Ge..

ASQ talk at MS Ramaiah, Bangalore, 22 March 2014.

The half day ASQ event at M S Ramaiah was on the theme Quality Forward. I gave a talk on Quality in Education, where I also narratyed instances from history of the evolution of scientific revolution, industrial revolution till the modern day events.

http://www4.asq.org/qualityfirst/2014/04/taking-quality-forward-event-at-asq-bangalore.html

ge..

Malala Nobel peace prize acceptance speech Dec 10, 2014.

Nobel Lecture

 Video of speech : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkDpJyGJVpg

Nobel Lecture by Malala Yousafzai, Oslo, 10 December 2014.  Courtesy www.nobelprize.org

Bismillah hir rahman ir rahim. In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent

Your Majesties, distinguished members of the Norweigan Nobel Committee, dear sisters and brothers, today is a day of great happiness for me. I am humbled that the Nobel Committee has selected me for this precious award.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love. I am grateful for the letters and cards that I still receive from all around the world. Reading your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me.

I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love. Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth- which we strongly believe is the real message of Islam.

I am very proud to be the first Pashtun, the first Pakistani, and the first young person to receive this award.  I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers. I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.

I am also honoured to receive this award together with Kailash Satyarti, who has been a champion of children's rights for a long time. Twice as long, in fact, than I have been alive. I am also glad that we can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together  work for children's rights.

Dear brothers and sisters, I was named after the inspirational Pashtun Joan of Arc, Malalai of Maiwand. The word Malala means "grief stricken", "sad", but in order to lend some happiness to it, my grandfather would always call me Malala – The happiest girl in this world and today I am very happy that we are standing together for an important cause.

This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.

I am here to stand up for their rights, raise their voice ... it is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education.

I have found that people describe me in many different ways.

Some people call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban

And some, the girl who fought for her rights

Some people, call me a "Nobel Laureate" now

As far as I know, I am just a committed and stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education, who wants equal rights for women and who wants peace in every corner of the world.

Education is one of the blessings of life—and one of its necessities. That has been my experience during the 17 years life. In my home in Swat Valley, in the north of Pakistan, I always loved school and learning new things. I remember when my friends and I would decorate our hands with henna for special occasions. Instead of drawing flowers and patterns we would paint our hands with mathematical formulas and equations.

We had a thirst for education because our future was right there in that classroom. We would sit and read and learn together. We loved to wear neat and tidy school uniforms and we would sit there with big dreams in our eyes. We wanted to make our parents proud and prove that we could excel in our studies and achieve things, which some people think only boys can.

Things did not remain the same. When I was ten, Swat, which was a place of beauty and tourism, suddenly changed into a place of terrorism. More than 400 schools were destroyed.  Girls were stopped from going to school. Women were flogged. Innocent people were killed. We all suffered. And our beautiful dreams turned into nightmares.

Education went from being a right to being a crime.

But when my world suddenly changed, my priorities changed too.

I had two options, one was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.

The terrorists tried to stop us and attacked me and my friends on 9th October 2012, but their bullets could not win.

We survived. And since that day, our voices have only grown louder.

I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not.

It is the story of many girls.

Today, I tell their stories too. I have brought with me to Oslo, some of my sisters, who share this story, friends from Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria. My brave sisters Shazia and Kainat Riaz who were also shot that day in Swat with me. They went through a tragic trauma too. Also my sister Kainat Somro from Pakistan who suffered extreme violence and abuse, even her brother was killed, but she did not succumb.

And there are girls with me, who I have met during my Malala Fund campaign, who are now like my sisters, my courageous 16 year old sister Mezon from Syria, who now lives in Jordan in a refugee camp and goes from tent to tent helping girls and boys to learn. And my sister Amina, from the North of Nigeria, where Boko Haram threatens and kidnaps girls, simply for wanting to go to school.

Though I appear as one girl, one person, who is 5 foot 2 inches tall, if you include my high heels. I am not a lone voice, I am many.

I am Shazia.

I am Kainat Riaz.

I am Kainat Somro.

I am Mezon.

I am Amina. I am those 66 million girls who are out of school.

People like to ask me why education is important especially for girls. My answer is always the same.

What I have learnt from the first two chapters of the Holy Quran, is the word Iqra, which means "read", and the word, nun wal-qalam which means "by the pen"?

And therefore as I said last year at the United Nations, "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world."

Today, in half of the world, we see rapid progress, modernisation and development. However, there are countries where millions still suffer from the very old problems of hunger, poverty, injustice and conflicts.

Indeed, we are reminded in 2014 that a century has passed since the beginning of the First World War, but we still have not learnt all of the lessons that arose from the loss of those millions of lives a hundred years ago.

There are still conflicts in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their lives. Many families have become refugees in Syria, Gaza and Iraq. There are still girls who have no freedom to go to school in the north of Nigeria. In Pakistan and Afghanistan we see innocent people being killed in suicide attacks and bomb blasts.

Many children in Africa do not have access to school because of poverty.

Many children in India and Pakistan are deprived of their right to education because of social taboos, or they have been forced into child labour and girls into child marriages.

One of my very good school friends, the same age as me,  had always been a bold and confident girl and dreamed of becoming a doctor. But her dream remained a dream. At age of 12, she was forced to get married and then soon had a son at an age when she herself was a child – only 14. I know that my friend would have been a very good doctor.

But she couldn't ... because she was a girl.

Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls everywhere a quality education and call on leaders to help girls like me, Mezun and Amina.  The first place this funding will go is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.

In my own village, there is still no secondary school for girls. I want to build one, so my friends can get an education—and the opportunity it brings to fulfil their dreams.

That is where I will begin, but it is not where I will stop. I will continue this fight until I see every child in school. I feel much stronger after the attack that I endured, because I know, no one can stop me, or stop us, because now we are millions, standing up together.

Dear brothers and sisters, great people,who brought change, like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi, they once stood here on this stage. I hope the steps that Kailash Satyarti and I have taken so far and will take on this journey will also bring change – lasting change.

My great hope is that this will be the last time we must fight for the education of our children. We want everyone to unite to support us in our campaign so that we can solve this once and for all.

Like I said, we have already taken many steps in the right direction. Now is the time to take a leap.

It is not time to tell the leaders to realise how important education is - they already know it - their own children are in good schools. Now it is time to call them to take action.

We ask the world leaders to unite and make education their top priority.

Fifteen years ago, the world leaders decided on a set of global goals, the Millennium Development Goals.  In the years that have followed, we have seen some progress. The number of children out of school has been halved.  However, the world focused only on expanding primary education, and progress did not reach everyone.

Next year, in 2015, representatives from around the world will meet at the United Nations to decide on the next set of goals, the Sustainable Development Goals. This will set the world's ambition for generations to come. Leaders must seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality primary and secondary education for every child.

Some will say this is impractical, or too expensive, or too hard.  Or even impossible.  But it is time the world thinks bigger.

Dear brothers and sisters, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call "strong" are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult?

As we are living in the modern age, the 21st century and we all believe that nothing is impossible. We can reach the moon and maybe soon will land on Mars. Then, in this, the 21st century, we must be determined that our dream of quality education for all will also come true.

So let us bring equality, justice and peace for all. Not just the politicians and the world leaders, we all need to contribute.  Me. You. It is our duty.

So we must work ... and not wait.

I call upon my fellow children to stand up around the world.

Dear sisters and brothers, let us become the first generation to decide to be the last.

The empty classrooms, the lost childhoods, wasted potential—let these things end with us.

Let this be the last time that a boy or a girl spends their childhood in a factory.

Let this be the last time that a girl gets forced into early child marriage.

Let this be the last time that an innocent child loses their life in war.

Let this be the last time that a classroom remains empty.

Let this be the last time that a girl is told education is a crime and not a right.

Let this be the last time that a child remains out of school.

Let us begin this ending.

Let this end with us.

And let us build a better future right here, right now.

Thank you.

Dr Gururaj Deshpande ..

A proud son of our country, wanting to contribute to its growth and development..

Gururaj Deshpande, (IIT Chennai, New Brunswick, Harvard Uty), the serial entrepreneur, co-chair with Obama on the US  National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Chairman of Sycamore networks, Tejas Networks, A123 systems etc, runs the Deshpande Foundation (www.deshpandefoundation.org) promoting innovation and entrepreneurship and the only Indian to have the Guruaj Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation started at MIT, Boston . Desh hails from Hubli and has a famous co-brother, Narayana Murthy of Infosys.

Getting him to Alliance Uty soon to kindle the flame of Innovation and Entrepreneurship among the student community ..

Do not miss this video of the $8 man !! 

Just ask the Karnataka Govt who majorly funds the famous mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka ?

More videos here ..

This husband and wife (Jaishree Kulkarni) team from IIT Chennai also holds the record for donating a HUUUUGGGEEEE amount of money to their alma mater (IIT chennai), unheard of in Indian history, even globally, other than what Sir Hewlett and Sir Packard to Stanford U or John D. Rockefeller donated to set up Uty of Chicago.

How I intend to give back to the IIT system ..

I do not have money to throw for IIT like Gururaj Deshpande gave to IIT Chennai.

But I have the commitment to give back to the IIT system and to the government for giving me an opportunity to complete my higher studies at IIT Bombay.

Let me list out the ways in which I can do that.

There is a false notion doing rounds that one works only for oneself. Get a good cushy job, make money, live a happy l;ife, unmindful of the society around you. But that doe not work. 

Let me do it this way. I am sure many people may have different opinion. I respect that. 

1. Take a job which serves the society. By serving society we are helping the government.

2. Have concern for society and fellow human beings

3. Be patient if things do not go the way you want to. By just holding on, you can change things to the best interests of the society.

4. Help colleagues and subordinates with the right advice and information, when things appear to go topsy turvy.

5. Keep oneself up-to-date with the right, balanced, impartial information, not corrupted by any bias of region, religion or caste.

6. Exercise greatest sincerity to what you do and do it with all concern for fellow unfortunate human beings in society

7. Promise that whatever I/we do,  societal interests are always superior , then comes private interests.

8. Firmly hold to the belief that even a single person can do his mite to improve society and do not give up on this hope.

9. Do not get complacent with what one has achieved. we can strive to achieve lot more.

Together let us build the India that will lead the world for the next two centuries or more. 

ge..

What do students learn thru group discussion ?

What Do Students Learn Through Discussion?

By: Maryellen Weimer, Ph

It’s a good question and on days when getting them to discuss feels a lot like prodding reluctant mules, it’s easy to be cynical about learning outcomes. But most faculty believe in discussion and try hard to make it work. Would we make the effort if we didn’t think the learning potential was there?

The question of what students learn in discussion was put to a group of second-year undergraduates studying social work in a course where group discussions were a key part of the learning experience. Students engaged in face-to-face discussion in large and small groups during class sessions and online after class. Their online posts constituted 13% of their overall course grade. Researchers surveyed and interviewed students asking them to respond to several discussion-related queries.

Using a qualitative design, researchers identified four different ways students reported they were using discussion to promote learning.

1. To challenge ideas – both their own and others with the goal of arriving at a more complete understanding
2. To develop ideas – using the ideas of others to improve their own thinking
3. To acquire ideas – using discussion as a way of collecting ideas
4. To check ideas – making sure that their ideas were the right ones; that they were learning the right things

The researchers identify the first two approaches as deep learning methods and the last two as more typical of surface learning approaches.

The researchers also point out that students don’t always see the potential for learning through discussion—it’s just another one of those things some teachers have them do. You think the reason for having discussions is obvious to students? I’d encourage you to test that assumption. Next time you’ve had a discussion, ask students why you had them discuss the topic rather than simply lecturing on it or have them read about it in the text. If I had to guess, I’d say that question will first be met with silence, followed by some glib answers, “You didn’t have time to prepare a lecture,” followed by other answers, none still very insightful, “It’s a way to keep us awake.”

If that’s at all close to what transpires, it might be worthwhile spending a bit of time exploring why discussing ideas makes them easier to learn. Maybe start by listing the reasons listed in the bullets above and ask students if they can think examples from the discussion that has just occurred? There are many ways a teacher can reinforce the learning that has occurred in a discussion. After it’s over, give students a couple of minutes and encourage them to make some notes about important ideas that emerged during the discussion. Maybe have a few students share what they’ve written at the beginning of the next class. Or, you might make a note of something insightful, provocative, interesting that a student said and then mention it in class the next day, or post it on the course website.

It doesn’t hurt us to revisit the reasons why we’re using discussion. What goals are you hoping these exchanges accomplish? How often do they accomplish these intended outcomes? What role do you take during the discussion? Often I talk too much, but I have a solution for that. When students are discussing, I take notes—I use the board but you could use the computer. I love this strategy. It keep me quiet and forces me to listen much more intently to student comments.

C. Roland Christensen, the great discussion teacher, writes that finding time to reflect on discussion as it unfolds is “like trying to meditate on a speeding fire engine.” Truly, too much is happening too fast. After the fact reflection need not be a terribly time consuming activity. You’ve read the blog, now be still for two more minutes and revisit discussion, as it transpires in your class and as you aspire to use it.

Reference: Ellis, R. A., Goodyear, P., Prosser, M., and O’Hara, A. (2006). How and what university students learn through online and face-to-face discussion: Conceptions, intentions and approaches. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22, 244-256.

"TEDxAshokaU - Desh Deshpande - Getting Thinkers to Do and Doers to Think" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb0IybhNPRE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

NASA and lack of cost awareness ..

Is NASA or its private contractors spending money wisely or burning it off in the Orion project ?? 8 billion dollar project ! Just like Apollo missions or space shuttle project, will this also go down the drain ? Be mercilessly chopped off for being a finanacial drain ?

US every day spends $2 billion more than it earns from its citizens by way of taxes ! And to keep it the favourite destination of the brains of the world, it has to constantly market itself in many different avatars to hoodwink the people - making it in the process more and more indebted, from $16 trillion to $20 trillion and beyond, ready to bring unimagined suffering and hardships for its people !

It will take many years for NASA to realise its folly !! First learn to control COSTS !!

http://m.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/unmanned-nasa-spaceship-blasts-off-for-trial-run/article6665429.ece/

Let those who can understand the consequence, brood over it. Anyway, ignorance is bliss !!

Ge..

Report on ASQ Summit at Alliance University Bangalore, 29 November, 2014.

The Quality summit hosted jointly by American Society of Quality, Bangalore chapter and Alliance University was held on Saturday, 29 November 2014 at Alliance University from 9 AM to 5 PM. The talk was attended by almost 50 industry delegates from different industries across Bangalore. The summit was inaugurated by the Chancellor of Alliance University Prof. Dr. Madhukar Angur. He spoke of the need to bring quality consciousness among the manufacturing and service professionals in the country. Mr Anshuman Tiwari, the brain behind the event and the Bangalore chapter Chair and Ciby James from ASQ Delhi also spoke on the occasion.

1. The highlight was the keynote address delivered by Shri V Ramesh, Sr. VP of Toyota Kirloskar in Bidadi, Bangalore. He spoke of the steps being taken by Toyota to serve the Indian society by raising the quality of the workforce, how they are being motivated and taken care of.

2. Smt. Pankajam Sridevi, MD of ANZ Support Services gave a very forceful speech and stole the hearts of the audience with her simple talk and interesting points on quality in service. She did not miss any opportunity to pull Shri Ramesh San’s leg by referring to how difficult it was improving quality in services compared to manufacturing.

3. Shri Murlidhar Pundla, Director from Akshaya Patra who spoke on behalf of the CEO, Sridhar Venkat gave an interesting presentation on Akshaya Patra and the need to have quality right from the procurement of rice, atta, lentils etc. right upto the final point of prepared food being served on plates at the different distribution centres of Akshaya Patra.

4. The talk by Umesh Krishnappa, Director of the Electric car program, Mahindra Reva on how the new electrical car is a high quality indigenously designed vehicle from Reva to hit the Indian roads was really eye-opening. The quality issues which were being tackled were interesting to hear. Subramanian PG , chair of ASQ Chennai spoke on quality holistically from different scenarios in the country and how it could focus more on customer satisfaction.

The afternoon session started with a small quiz on Quality aspects by B K Sourabha (Sem 4) to the participants which was very well appreciated. The student presentations had seven teams from Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME), St. Josephs College of Business Administration, Presidency College and Alliance School of Business. The first and second place in the student presentations were secured by Sourabha and team (Sem 4) on the potential of MOOCs in improving quality in delivery and content of higher education within the country and Ashwini and team (Sem 1) on better garbage collection methods. The third team was Anie Jacob and team from Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore. We are very thankful to all the college managements for sending in their teams to participate in the summit.

Overall the Quality Summit was an eye-opener to many students and participants on how important Quality is to the manufacturing and service sectors in the country and in nation-building. The theme being Quality for Nation building, the summit looked at how quality in most of our activities could lead to a safe and secure society around us, like better transportation facilities, better sanitation, better hygiene, better garbage disposal, better quality of education

and so on.

The Summit ended at 5 PM and the participants left with a promise to meet again for the next summit which will happen in the next four months. The ASQ members were very thankful to Alliance University management for the facilities to the delegates and student participants from other Business Schools. We dispersed with a promise to start an ASQ student chapter in Alliance university in the near future. We are very hopeful that the management will lend a helping hand in establishing this in our university. The constant guidance and support from the head of ASQ Bangalore chapter Shri Anshuman Tiwari and Shri Dhiresh Kumar saw that the summit was a big success. The facilities dept of Alliance Uty played a stellar role in the organising of this summit.

The great interest shown by the Chancellor in seeing the success of the event and in ensuring the delegates and participating colleges went satisfied with the arrangements and the logistics of the event made our day. The event started exactly at 9.30 AM and went on till 5 PM, with an our break for lunch and a 20 min break for the morning tea. The organisers and the participants were most happy, having benefited a lot from the event, which you dont get to host every now and then. ASQ being the foremost Quality organisation in the world, co-hosting a Quality summit with them is indeed a very privileged moment for Alliance University.

Finally were it not for the interest and enthusiasm shown by the student organisers and volunteers led by Sourabha, Deekshit and team from Alliance Business School, this event would not have been this great a success. They need a special clap for their dedication and sincerity !!

Some of the snaps are given below.

First prize winners of student presentation event, Sourabha (centre) and Radhika(left) from Alliance Sem 4,
taking the prize from P G Subrmaniam, Chennai ASQ chair. (right)

View of the key executioners of the event. Anshuman Tiwari, second left.

First Prize (l), third prize (c) and second prize (r) at the Student presentation
competition judged by ASQ members.

The XIME team secured the third prize..

The judges at the student presentation event.

Mr Ciby James (front row left), Director, ASQ India from Delhi among the audience ..

Mr Umesh Krishnappa from Mahendra Reva speaking of the REVA electric car

Smt. Pankajam Sridevi of ANZ services stole the hearts and minds of the audience.

None can miss the high quality talk from the quality man of India, Sr VP, Mfg, ,
Ramesh San from Toyota Kirloskar, Bidadi . 

Thats the inauguration, Chancellor Dr Madhukar Angur in the background.

Section of the audience in the second fl seminar hall..

NASA eating the humble pie !!

NASA has been in the space business for more than 50 years, experimenting with real rocket science. They had nobel prize winners on their staff from great Universities advising them and guiding them to reach great and noble goals in the space business. They believed they were undoutedly the best in the race.

Not finding anything productive coming out of their successful Apollo missions to the Moon ( the world is made to believe so), due to the high costs they were forced to abandon it. It took just one moon mission from India, the Chandrayaan to prove there are traces of water vapour in the moon environment.

All through their journey what they forgot to keep track was the poor reliability of their missions, even though many space missions like the Pioneer and Voyager have cruised through space since 1972 even going out of the solar system.. The cost component was never a constraint for them, neither was innovation a driving force.  Probably their political leaders were under the impression that leadership in space would give them the superiority to lead back on earth.

With the passage of time and the power gravity shifting from west to east, NASA is having a rethink at the basis of its very existence. If it has to survive, it needs to improve reliability from the present reliability for inter planetary missions from below 50% to at least 90% and cut costs drastically. For every interplanetary mission NASA undertakes, ISRO can undertake ten.  That is demeaning to NASA and undermining their supposed superiority.

After all these exercises, exploding launches, bloated inter planetary missions will it be able to match up with ISRO ? Will ISRO again be given the responsibility to prove existence of water vapour or even life in martian atmosphere ? Time will tell !!

Ge..

Mangalyaan features as top 25 inventions of 2014 ..

It was great to read that Mangalyaan has been declared as one of 25 greatest inventions of 2014.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/mangalyaan-named-among-best-inventions-of-2014-by-time-magazine/articleshow/45226354.cms

With this India is really giving leadership to the world in space exploration. 

ge..

P Kunhikrishnan's talk at Alliance Uty, Bangalore

Talk by P. Kunhikrishnan, Mission Director, Mangalyaan at Alliance University, Anekal, Bangalore on 19 Nov 2014.

Alliance University was very fortunate to play host to a young, energetic and dynamic space scientist at their central campus in Anekal, Bangalore on the 19th of November 2014 from 3 - 5 PM. Kunhikrishnan started the talk with the question, what is space and what makes space such a hostile territory ? 

Space is all the part above 100 km from earth’s surface. Kunhikrishnan has been associated with the PSLV missions at ISRO from the the PSLV mission C15 onwards till the present mission C26. Some technical details of the talk are reproduced here.

Kunhikrishnan

The assurance tests ISRO does on its different models before the actual flight is an interesting matter to be understood. At least 100 simulations are done on digital computer before the actual firing of any rocket to ensure that the flight and the payload are not wasted. Before any flight is authorised, it is subject to Mission Readiness Review and Launch Authorisation Board. Only after these boards authorise the launch does the actual physical firing happen and launch take place.

Regarding economies, maintaining an army of workers and scientists at ISRO and SHAR centre makes sense if only a minimum of 4 launches are taken up every year. Accordingly, the next four launches will be of the remaining four satellites D,E,F and G of IRNSS series the whole of next year. PSLV at its initial stages had imported components to the tune of 29% which at present is anywhere between 9-10 %. The active support given by the private sector manufacturing companies helping in fabricating different components for the rocket has to improve stil better as the speaker felt that in other countries, the private sector played a still bigger role which helped it to plan and execute still larger and powerful missions. After giving details of the harsh and cruel confines of space, the speaker went on to explain about the Mangalyaan project.

The MOM Mangalyaan mission to orbit Mars was launched on PSLV C25. The speaker actually gave us a good discussion on space and the machines which ISRO has been using over the years to conquer the unknown frontiers of space. He clearly explained the steps by which ISRO attained what very few other countries had achieved so far, to get an orbiter orbit Mars. ISRO did not wait for the more powerful GSLV rockets to be ready to launch the Mars mission, instead used its less powerful time-tested PSLV rockets to achieve this. To take a payload of 1337 kg out of earth’s orbit has been achieved with the PSLV rocket with the help of a very innovative sling-shot technology.

After cruising in interplanetary space from earth’s orbit to martian orbit for about 10 months travelling at the speed of 11 km/sec, the Martian orbit Insertion (MOI) was the most tricky part of the whole mission. To slow down a fast moving rocket  and get it under the gravitational attraction of Mars is the most difficult task, which the team achieved with great precision using very less amount of energy. A signal to control the MOM from earth would take 25 minutes to reach the 214 million kms to the orbiter, even though the signals travel at the speed of light of 3 lakh kms/sec.This makes it all the more difficult to issue signals to the orbiter and to wait for the feedback.

When asked how ISRO inspite of being a government organisation has still not yet got any of the painful bureaucratic issues and lethargy associated with government manufacturing organisations, the speaker was quick to point out that the self-initiative nature of the ISRO workforce is the biggest blessing of ISRO. Even at the final stages of launch, the most junior in the organisation has got power to express his doubts about mission readiness and his objections would be very clearly scrutinised. This adds a great sense of belongingness for each employee to the organisation.  

The session ended with a beautiful rendition of a Carnatic music piece by Kunhikrishnan on his flute making it very clear that even at such busy tensed sessions, he finds time to destress himself on the flute.. It was the first time that after the success of Mangalyaan MOI insertion, a senior scientist was going out to an educational institution and addressing students. The speaker not only explained the basics of space and rocket science in simple language, he went on to explain the intricacies of rocket science and launches in a more detailed manner, which was understood and appreciated by the audience.

The students will remember this interesting and excellent session from a senior Scientist from ISRO for a long time.

ge..

ASQ Bangalore Event | 29 Nov 2014 | Quality for Nation Building |

 

ASQ and Alliance University

Presents a one day Summit on

Quality for Nation Building

Please join us at ASQ Bangalore’s First Annual Conference in association with Alliance University. The event brings together speakers from Industry and Academia on a common theme of – Quality for Nation Building.

The theme is in synch with the agenda our new Prime Minister is setting. We will collate ideas and channel them to ASQ and QCI (Quality Council
of India). Select ideas will be published through ASQ Blogs for interested agencies to implement.

Event details are:

Date: Saturday, 29 Nov 2014

Venue: Alliance University campus, Anekal, Bangalore

Timing: 9 am to 5 pm

This event is open to ALL but needs prior registration.

Speakers include:

V Ramesh, Senior VP, Toyota Kirloskar Motors

Pankajam Sridevi, MD, ANZ Support Services India

Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation

Umesh Krishnappa, Head, Car program, Mahindra Reva

The student presentations will be judged by:

Dhirendra Dubey, CEO, Lean Management Institute of India

Student Participation: Current students of management institutes in Bangalore in teams of two each can participate. All submissions have to be supported by an approval from senior faculty or Dean of the Institute. There is no participation fee but each institute can send a maximum of two entries. All participants will receive a certificate from ASQ.

Please write to Dhiresh Pradhan (dhireshkumar@gmail.com) if you want to send a team from your institute.

Questions/clarifications please call Anshuman Tiwari / George Easaw on 9972309782 / 9742046184 or email at Anshuman.tiwari@hsbc.co.in / George.easaw@alliance.edu.in

Registrations: Please write to dhireshkumar@gmail.com. Dhiresh will confirm your registration and you must bring this confirmation email to the event. There is no registration fee for this event.

Event Partners:

                                      

ASQ: ASQ (American Society for Quality) is a global community of people dedicated to quality who share the ideas and tools that make our world work better. With individual and organizational members around the world, ASQ has the reputation and reach to bring together the diverse quality champions who are transforming the world’s corporations, organizations and communities to meet tomorrow’s critical challenges. For more on ASQ please visit www.asq.org

Alliance University: Alliance University is a private University established in Karnataka State by Act No.34 of year 2010 and is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi. Alliance University is a renowned university of higher learning located on an extensive state-of-the-art campus in Anekal, Bangalore offering a variety of degree courses. The University has baccalaureate concentrations, postgraduate offerings, doctoral degree programs and several professional certificate programs. Check the website for more details, www.alliance.edu.in  

Why Mars matters !

While my gentle observation says "Technology for the elite" is US NASA's motto of its technological robotic missions to Mars, "Technology for the masses" is the motto behind Indian ISRO mission to Mars, the author of this article from CS Monitor seems to have differing viewpoints.

Though the high reliability of ISRO Mars missions as compared to the less than 50% reliability of NASA missions has never been an issue for NASA scientists and never found mention in mainstream US media for obvious reasons, the cost-value-technological superiority of ISRO Mars missions over NASA Mars missions too has been very conveniently overlooked by NASA scientists and media.

The coming two decades may decide who will prevail in the end, like when US abandoned its Apollo missions to the Moon for being prohibitively expensive in the 70s. Everywhere cost matters at the end !!

Will US ever be magnanimous enough to accept and acknowledge the techno-commercial edge India holds when it comes to deep space inter-planetary missions (even under transitioning governments back in India) is yet to be seen.

Hear more on this at Alliance University Bangalore on 20 November at 2 PM. Kunhikrishnan has extended a warm invite to CETians !!

Click on this news item for more details on Indias Mars mission ..

http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0925/India-reaches-Mars-Why-it-matters-video

Perestroika in Beijing ??

By fighting corruption, acting against corrupt officials and slowly moving to a ruling dispensation that will stick to the Chinese constitution, is the Gen. Secretary of the Chinese Communist party and Chinese President Li Jinping promising to the world of doing a Perestroika and taking China the USSR way ?

Ge .

Prof Jean Tirole's work discussion !!

Prof Shamim Mondal from Alliance Uty (Rochester, NY) discussing the path breaking work on competition theory of 2014 Economics Nobel Prize winner Prof Jean Tirole from Toulouse School of Economics, France at Alliance Uty this afternoon to an interested audience of faculty and students. Had the good wishes of Prof. Jean Tirole himself.

India and APEC ..

All the big names from the world were in Beijing over the past two days for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting hosted by the world's largest economic power China in Beijing. The no.2 country US was also represented.

The recent deep space power and third largest economy in the world, with the potential to lead the world in another 20 years, India is yet to find a place in this 21 member nation group.

Strength of Indian democracy !!

The new defence minister, the academically brilliant and brainy, yet simple Manohar Parrikar with the defwnce services chiefs.

The strength and beauty of Indian democracy is demonstrated here when the three defence service chiefs meet the new people's representative stressing the fact that people power is supreme in a democracy !! In contrast in our neighbouring failed state of pakistan, defence minister would have been decided by the services chief and would have met the Press at the service chief's office ! A sad state of affairs there !!

Thanks to the leaders and framers of Indian constitution and to our politicians and service chiefs all these years for maintaining its sanctity and holding it sacrosanct !!

Ge..

Watch "US Debt Crisis - Perfectly Explained" on YouTube

A must-see video on how US is leading the global economic collapse by spending more than it earns !! Gullible Indian migrants and migrants from other parts of the world fail to realise the volcano on which they sit, which will erupt one fine day for sure, when is the only question !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6VGCB8f_c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

RE: Prof Jean Tirole's work - talk by Dr Shamim Mondal

Thank you for the kind words !

All the best

Jean Tirole

 

 

De : George Easaw [mailto:geasaw@gmail.com]
Envoyé : Tuesday, November 04, 2014 4:15 AM
À : geasaw.blogposting@blogger.com
Cc : Jean Tirole; ALLIANCE UNIVERSITY Chancellor; anubha@alliance.edu.in; Sajan Mathew; shamim.sm@alliance.edu.in
Objet : Prof Jean Tirole's work - talk by Dr Shamim Mondal

 

Prof. Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics, France), 2014 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, is one of the most influential economists who have extensively worked on business in the field of Game Theory and its application to Industrial Organization. More specifically, his work has focused on the nature of competition and cooperation that pervades business environment and markets, and how regulatory bodies should respond to their responsibilities of looking after consumer interest by enhancing competition and looking after business interests to encourage innovation. Significantly, he has done some path-breaking work in the domain of network externalities and two-sided markets, which are helpful in understanding the businesses of credit card, application development for operating systems, internet etc.

The talk to be delivered by Prof. Shamim Mondal, economics faculty of Alliance Uty for the students of Alliance uty Bangalore will focus on some of these issues.

Date : 11 Nov, 2014
Time : 2.30 - 4 pm
Venue : LHW 203, Learning centre, AU, Bangalore.

All interested are welcome !!