Of the 99.99%

The last couple of months had lot of discussions on IIT admissions. It is an issue that I do feel strongly about and broadly supported the stance taken by IIT Kanpur.

However, my problem with the HRD minister is not so much about what criteria are suitable for admissions to IITs - IITs can take care of them the best and most responsibly - but the real problem of India, i.e. what happens to the ones not in IITs or indeed in any professional college?

That 99.99% is barely affected by whatever decision is taken about admission to IITs. That is the real and really big problem and our ministry is doing little about it.

In fact, India has a real big problem of dealing with the vast population that is either untouched by or drops off from the system in the course of early education. Estimated at about 300 million, this population has hardly any avenue in modern India. They remain unemployed at worst and underemployed at best.

The size of any problem in India is usually so big that one wonders if individual or small scale efforts can make even a dent at all? While this is partly true I do think that most problems in India are amenable to replication and scaling. So, getting to one piece of success in a smaller scale can then be considered for replication and scaling.

I explored the possibility of doing something in my hometown of Gaya. A historic city from the poorest state of India - Bihar. I started exploring my school - Zila School, established in 1845 - and my college - Gaya College, established in 1944. Both these have a modest presence on Facebook and it was possible to interact with a few students and alumni. In my estiamte, both these institutions would have about 100,000 alumni around. Some would be quite successful in their chosen areas.

There was a general sense of frustration and gloom among current students. Their syllabi are outdated, placement records poor, faculty is barely paid, and barely fit for the responsibility. Allegations of nepotism, favoritism abound. Looking for some silver linings I started posting messages to elicit response. Some did respond.

Frustration and helplessness has caused many to be distracted, and some sound rebellious. But there is a population that explores and posts ideas and discoveries on Facebook. Alternative coaching institutes take advantage.

I have been trying to find out what can we do to make these students employable and also develop a sense of entrepreneurship among them.

As this discovery is still on I am trying to crystallize ideas and see how to cultivate the brand value of my city and its educational institutions. Sounds somewhat daunting but I remain an optimist. 

Memoirs of my journey in subsequent posts!

Innovation in China

Much of modern innovation has been from rich countries. And then there is a slew of news of innovation from China - fast supercomputers, fast trains, modern stealth fighters, large dams and so on. It runs deeper as McKinsey report - A CEO’s guide to innovation in China - explains in some detail. 

The GDP of China at $6+ tr is well in the range where developed countries have been for many decades. So financial resources available for creating a broad based ecosystem for innovation do exist. Additionally, institutions, labs, and abundant supply of young minds create a conducive environment for sustained innovation.

At $1.8 tr of GDP much of the above holds for India too. However, we need to make innovation - and by corollary, research - an attractive proposition for individuals and enterprises together. Our economy needs to grow in multiple dimensions and not remain lopsided towards services alone.

Research and innovation need a widespread network where working professionals, academics, full-time researchers can collaborate pursuing bigger goals with bite-sized innovations at massive scale.

The future of nations is a battle of ingenuity.

Exciting times, challenging times, and times to stand up and be counted!

Too Services Heavy?

The current decade is meant to be a 'make-or-break' decade for India. The notion that India has somehow 'arrived' or 'destined' appears to be a gross exaggeration unless some key challenges are overcome. There are challenges that retard and challenges that we need to overcome to become empowered and capable. 

The ones that retard include:

1. Corruption
2. Political disquiet
3. Bureaucratic sluggishness
4. Chronic laziness

Empowerment comes from:

1.  Infrastructure development
2. Energy security
3. Skills development
4. Entrepreneurship

A bigger structural problem is the fact that the productivity of our agriculture has become stagnant for over two decades now, and manufacturing accounts for a relatively small share of the economy. Services alone are unlikely to carry India down the growth path on a sustained basis.

While infrastructure and energy are predominantly issues of capital availability the last two - skills development and entrepreneurship - need massive collaboration of human networks to train and mentor. I look forward to participate in these as PanIIT Alumni initiatives and other collaborations.

Learning Taxonomies

Training, mentoring, coaching has become a core part of modern professional job description. Often this needs to be imparted in short periods and on short notices. One needs to understand the purpose of that training/learning and use suitable techniques to achieve specific learning goals.

My list of such goals include:

1. Memorization/Enumeration
2. Understanding
3. Performance/Execution
4. Analysis
5. Problem-solving
6. Synthesis
7. Envision/Discover

General purpose taxonomies have been developed. There is a need to create more specialized taxonomies in specific domains. I propose to compile such lists in various areas - specifically in skills, technology, and management - to start with. 

The most important taxonomies are:

1. Anderson, L.W. & Krathwohl, D.R. (Eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for Learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
2. Bloom, B.S. (Ed.), Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., & Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay

Skills Development in India

Sustaining India's growth story is a challenge and the top three issues it is grappling with are:

1. Infrastructure
2. Energy
3. Skills Availability

The first two can be addressed with relatively more concentrated efforts but skills cannot be developed without a very large scale participation by its educated professionals.

Success or failure in skills development can make or break the India story. Many such issues are highlighted in Navi Radjou's post Can India Reap Its Demographic Dividend? 

India has set an ambitious target of training 500 million people by 2020. It presents a great challenge and a great opportunity for professionals to mentor India's young. Working on PanIIT Alumni's IITians for ITIs initiative there are interesting thoughts and experiences that I plan to share in this space.