Comments on: Awaiting enlightenment http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/ Across the world, Nandan is recognized as one of India's most successful software entrepreneurs and as the co-founder of Infosys, among India's premier companies in the IT sector. Now meet Nandan, the author. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:15:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Prasanna Rayaprolu http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-1497 Prasanna Rayaprolu Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:51:15 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-1497 Dear Mr.Nandan, First of all let me take this as an oppurtunity to congragulate you for being appointed for the prestigious Unique Idenfication Number project. Mr. Nandan! You wrote in length in this post of yours about the rigidity in Indian Colleges and about the concept of cross disciplining. These points are very much interesting. However, Mr.Nandan!!! This post makes me complain about the most worrysome recruitment policy of INFOSYS. The elibility criteria for most of your company's jobs are higher percentage of marks throughout the applicant's career. See! You people are still in the old orthodox way of thought of "More marks means More intelligent". Do throw some light on the concept of assessment of intelligence only the basis of marks in academics. Please think about the aspect of amending the eligibility criteria for applying to INFOSYS jobs... I was surprised to hear from you about the rigidity in Indian Academic system when I always wonder about the rigid and strange eligibility criteria for recruitment in INFY. Cheers, Prasanna Rayaprolu Dear Mr.Nandan,
First of all let me take this as an oppurtunity to congragulate you for being appointed for the prestigious Unique Idenfication Number project. Mr. Nandan! You wrote in length in this post of yours about the rigidity in Indian Colleges and about the concept of cross disciplining. These points are very much interesting. However, Mr.Nandan!!! This post makes me complain about the most worrysome recruitment policy of INFOSYS. The elibility criteria for most of your company’s jobs are higher percentage of marks throughout the applicant’s career. See! You people are still in the old orthodox way of thought of “More marks means More intelligent”. Do throw some light on the concept of assessment of intelligence only the basis of marks in academics. Please think about the aspect of amending the eligibility criteria for applying to INFOSYS jobs…
I was surprised to hear from you about the rigidity in Indian Academic system when I always wonder about the rigid and strange eligibility criteria for recruitment in INFY.
Cheers,
Prasanna Rayaprolu

]]> By: solai http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-973 solai Thu, 28 May 2009 13:29:14 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-973 I do agree with you about the lack of giving an option to the student to choose their fav course. It would have been better if the course can be decided on their second year. But there are also some courses in B.E. which includes industrial training as a part of curriculum making the students learn it practically also. Sad thing is that only one college offers this. Innovation has to be their in the courses offered also and in their curriculum's. I do agree with you about the lack of giving an option to the student to choose their fav course. It would have been better if the course can be decided on their second year. But there are also some courses in B.E. which includes industrial training as a part of curriculum making the students learn it practically also. Sad thing is that only one college offers this. Innovation has to be their in the courses offered also and in their curriculum’s.

]]> By: Payal http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-944 Payal Fri, 22 May 2009 04:40:31 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-944 @idontspam Why west believes what it does is not the point here. Indian students are far more capable of what they are doing right now, and they deserve a better education system. A system which is flexible and allows more lateral growth. And you have to see why indians and chinese do so well when they go and study in the US, clearly their education system is capable of producing good students. @idontspam
Why west believes what it does is not the point here. Indian students are far more capable of what they are doing right now, and they deserve a better education system. A system which is flexible and allows more lateral growth. And you have to see why indians and chinese do so well when they go and study in the US, clearly their education system is capable of producing good students.

]]> By: Ujjawal Sisodia http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-926 Ujjawal Sisodia Mon, 18 May 2009 15:49:23 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-926 Good topic for some interesting future posts. I remember reading the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" in the part where the writer goes to Brazil to teach science to students, he was surprised to know how students who were able to solve theoretical easily , could not relate to practical scenarios related to it. India's education system is similar and so the products. More than anything, in my mind we should encourage freedom of thoughts in schools , colleges add univ . Keeping govt. controls minimum should also yield good results though I am not sure as pvt. univ are as bad without any govt controls. Good topic for some interesting future posts. I remember reading the book “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” in the part where the writer goes to Brazil to teach science to students, he was surprised to know how students who were able to solve theoretical easily , could not relate to practical scenarios related to it. India’s education system is similar and so the products.
More than anything, in my mind we should encourage freedom of thoughts in schools , colleges add univ . Keeping govt. controls minimum should also yield good results though I am not sure as pvt. univ are as bad without any govt controls.

]]> By: Anuj Pathania http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-921 Anuj Pathania Sun, 17 May 2009 10:36:16 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-921 I totally agree. I am very good at computer so doing a computer engineering made a very good sense to me. I have never regretted that decision. But, as the time pass I developed an avid interest in space science. Unfortunately there is no way in Indian education system I can merge these 2 fields now. I totally agree. I am very good at computer so doing a computer engineering made a very good sense to me. I have never regretted that decision.

But, as the time pass I developed an avid interest in space science.

Unfortunately there is no way in Indian education system I can merge these 2 fields now.

]]> By: senthil http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-918 senthil Sat, 16 May 2009 14:31:37 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-918 Sir, You are right on your point. But shouldnt we analyse the root cause? The education system we are following is a macaulay education meant to produce only clerks for the british administration. However, after independance, the congress continued the same without any indigenisation. And today, you are complaining that our education system is in such a mess. But shouldnt we fix the people who are responsible to do this, but failed. The congress had been in power for 50 years, and it is they who should have done. But still now they havent ever thought of that. Similarly, the congress has been responsible for collapsing our economy with their socialists policies. But no one is here to identify the root cause.. Sir,

You are right on your point. But shouldnt we analyse the root cause? The education system we are following is a macaulay education meant to produce only clerks for the british administration. However, after independance, the congress continued the same without any indigenisation.

And today, you are complaining that our education system is in such a mess. But shouldnt we fix the people who are responsible to do this, but failed.

The congress had been in power for 50 years, and it is they who should have done. But still now they havent ever thought of that. Similarly, the congress has been responsible for collapsing our economy with their socialists policies.

But no one is here to identify the root cause..

]]> By: idontspam http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-911 idontspam Fri, 15 May 2009 13:51:41 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-911 Why does the west believe 2 million minutes of college are better spent in India and China and that their flexible education system have not been effective in producing the right kind skills? Why does the west believe 2 million minutes of college are better spent in India and China and that their flexible education system have not been effective in producing the right kind skills?

]]> By: Vijay Krishna http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-909 Vijay Krishna Fri, 15 May 2009 05:57:17 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-909 I feel strongly about some of the things you've talked about in this post. The stupidity of our system that makes people make significant career decisions at the age of 18, with significant parental pressure that is hard to resist. Many anecdotes about this. My friend's relatives used to tell him that Mechanical Engineering is the 'evergreen' career option :-) How superfically decisions are made. After the dotcom bust there was a wholesale moving away from computer science to electronics as the first branch preference for students wanting to enter engineering. It struck me as completely out of touch with the reality (how many jobs does India have in electronics as opposed to software?). How come sensible messages were not coming through to the colleges and students from the legions of industry leaders and engineers? Where are the communication channels for people to communicate to students about making good career choices? I am also not sure about one of the sentences above: about the main function of universities being "equipping their students to function effectively, and productively, in the economy." Can our universities equip students also to understand the world around us, the nature of the political and socio-economic systems (and a la J.Krishnamurti, the nature of the human mind), and enable them to make meta-decisions about how they would engage with the economy and society? (I don't see this as an elitist or unaffordable luxury for a poor country) I feel strongly about some of the things you’ve talked about in this post.

The stupidity of our system that makes people make significant career decisions at the age of 18, with significant parental pressure that is hard to resist. Many anecdotes about this.
My friend’s relatives used to tell him that Mechanical Engineering is the ‘evergreen’ career option :-)
How superfically decisions are made. After the dotcom bust there was a wholesale moving away from computer science to electronics as the first branch preference for students wanting to enter engineering. It struck me as completely out of touch with the reality (how many jobs does India have in electronics as opposed to software?). How come sensible messages were not coming through to the colleges and students from the legions of industry leaders and engineers? Where are the communication channels for people to communicate to students about making good career choices?

I am also not sure about one of the sentences above: about the main function of universities being
“equipping their students to function effectively, and productively, in the economy.”

Can our universities equip students also to understand the world around us, the nature of the political and socio-economic systems (and a la J.Krishnamurti, the nature of the human mind), and enable them to make meta-decisions about how they would engage with the economy and society? (I don’t see this as an elitist or unaffordable luxury for a poor country)

]]> By: Raj http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-906 Raj Thu, 14 May 2009 20:35:15 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-906 I do agree with you on governance issues of colleges. But the mentality among students and lecturers has to be changed as well.I did engineering. We had student union, student & lecturer groups based on caste and religion. one group didn't like another. Though it was not on large scale, it created kind of disharmony among people and on due course, people who invested lots of time on these sectarian activities last their eyesight on their real targets. It should start from home&schools.Students should have been taught to respect diversity. Innovation & creativity should be rewarded all the time irrespective of their background. Forget about switching between courses. our general schooling system is designed to award people who memorize stuffs with out understanding the real meanings. I do agree with you on governance issues of colleges. But the mentality among students and lecturers has to be changed as well.I did engineering. We had student union, student & lecturer groups based on caste and religion. one group didn’t like another. Though it was not on large scale, it created kind of disharmony among people and on due course, people who invested lots of time on these sectarian activities last their eyesight on their real targets.

It should start from home&schools.Students should have been taught to respect diversity. Innovation & creativity should be rewarded all the time irrespective of their background.

Forget about switching between courses. our general schooling system is designed to award people who memorize stuffs with out understanding the real meanings.

]]> By: Sharad Subramaniam http://imaginingindia.com/2009/05/08/awaiting-enlightenment/#comment-891 Sharad Subramaniam Sun, 10 May 2009 13:17:25 +0000 http://imaginingindia.com/?p=1018#comment-891 I couldn't agree more with you. I remember one of my friends wanted to pursue Machanical Engg. and do some course in Automobile Engg. as well. And the two are very congruent fields of work unlike marine biology\medicine as stated as an example by you ! So now what does he do, gets the same course in USA because it wasn't available in India, cos the bottom line is that he's an above average student. So not only is this dented figment of our education policy 'insidious', it promotes BRAIN DRAIN ! I couldn’t agree more with you. I remember one of my friends wanted to pursue Machanical Engg. and do some course in Automobile Engg. as well. And the two are very congruent fields of work unlike marine biology\medicine as stated as an example by you !
So now what does he do, gets the same course in USA because it wasn’t available in India, cos the bottom line is that he’s an above average student.
So not only is this dented figment of our education policy ‘insidious’, it promotes BRAIN DRAIN !

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