Education System in India(By Karthik Vikram)

Hello people,
I believe the problem we are discussing has a much deeper root besides the points discussed here. I just want to stress the importance of choice we make in our lives. Im not sure how many of us are where we are now by choice. I have seen an awful lot of people in India misplaced in terms of their interests and talents. People who are not happy to be where they are in their career because they did not pursue this career for their own good but for their parents or someone else who thinks this will better suit him or her. I believe many of us don’t know what we are good at. Imagine people ,who are not passionate about what they are doing, in every job in India , you will know why we do not have a system which works. Make no mistake these people are trying their best but the motivation and more importantly passion is missing. On the contrary imagine people full of energy , enthusiastic and simply cannot live without their job then we are talking about mass progress in every field. I know these two extremes but its suffice to say that we are somewhere in the middle (hopefully). Although we are led to believe that India produces close to half a million graduates every year , the reality is we are infact producing half a million pair of hands, so to speak, to be put to work. Even though this a harsh criticism and painful to digest, someone has to say it out.
To overcome this i suggest parents have to let their kids make conscious choices by themselves and not impose and influence them deliberately. Parents should find their kids’ interest and encourage may it be art, law, modelling, music and what not. Most importantly its high time parents realised that their lives belongs to them. I once watched a neeya naana show wherein Gopi brings in very truthful saying directed towards every parent “Children are born through you and not for you”- something like that. Gopi nailed it to perfection. Now im not being overly critical of parents. I understand they have dreams about their child’s future but it should only be a dream where he/she will reach great heights in a career chosen by him/her and not by them.
This should be our primary concern in my opinion.

Thanks,
Aravind
(Submitted this post on behalf of
Karthik Vikram, Queens University,Canada
e-mail: viktorcrum@gmail.com)

About Karthik vikram: A good friend of mine, hailing from Coimbatore, did his bachelors degree in MIT, Anna university, Chennai. With a lots of interest in polymer sciences research, he is now pursuing Ph.D in Queens University, Canada.

Why we don't stand high in scientific research???

Hello Friends,

I was quite busy with my project work for the past few months....And just because, I have to finish up my masters' thesis work by end of July, I couldn't concentrate on our blog....Sorry for that..

Some of my ideas on 

"WHY WE DON'T STAND HIGH IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH?"

There is a factor called 'H-Index' which determines the quality of a scientist...This H-index depends on the number of research publications of a scientist and the number of citation for those publications..Higher the H-index, better the scientific contribution of a scientist to the society...Recently I have seen a list of scientists and their H-Index in RSC webpage..There were 520 scientists in that list.

(link: http://www.rsc.org/images/H-index%20ranking%20of%20living%20chemists(Feb%2009)_tcm18-85867.pdf)..

It was shocking to me that there are only 2 Indians....

1.Prof. CNR Rao, IISc Bangalore -(H-Index -76)

2.Prof.Balaram, IISc Bangalore - (H-Index - 50)

Hats off to both these scientists... 

There are 4 other scientists of Indian origin, in the list..But they are working for US, UK & so...

Though our country contributes to 15% of the world's population, only 2 Indians(out of 520) are in list of influential scientists...

Here are some of the reasons that I felt worthy to note for these setbacks.....

1. We don't concentrate on one thing..Thats where we fall.

For example, my Professor, Prof.Michael Graetzel(H-index - 99) invented Dye sensitized solar cells(DSSC) in 1991. And from then, he and his group(around 50 people) keep working on many aspects of DSSC to improve its efficiency..For more than 20 years, he is working on this field and now, the DSSC are called as Graetzel cells...These solar cells are entering the commercial world at cheap rate than the coventional silicon solar cells.He is 65..Even now, he is working hard to make these cells more efficient & more economic..

He concentrated his research on DSSCs for his lifetime. His commitment, from the invention of DSSCs to its commercialization brought about a change in the clean energy production sector..His contribution is highly valuable to the society.

Also a professor from a French university, Prof.Jean Marie Tarascon(H-index-68) is commited to work in Li-ion batteries. He & his group are concentrating only on li-ion batteries. Once the oil resources depletes, then every automobile have to be powered with batteries..So his inventions are going to be highly valuable to the society in future.

In the both the cases mentioned above, it is clear that long time commitment on one research field can bring about a significant research output from a lab..And again, its going to contribute to the society..

We, researchers, both from science & technology sector, have to concentrate on one ideas and we have to commit ourselves to that field of research..Just keeping the targets clear, can help us to achieve the goal..

2. Most of our Indian scientists(so called) never work for 8 Hours(atleast) a day..One of my friends who worked in a Indian Central Government research sector, mentioned about the regular agenda of a scientist in his/her lab..It seems he/she in that lab, have to work for 8 hours a day, starting from 9 in the morning....

Do you think that these people work for perfect 8hours a day?? No..

Here is the agenda of these scientists.(Thanks to my friend who gave this ultimate secret of that top research center)...

Arrival Time : 9:30am..

Browsing internet & checking mailbox : 9.30 to 10.30am

Tea time: 10.30 to 11.15...

Getting back to work at 11.15 and work till 12.30..

Getting ready for lunch at 12.30...Lunch hour will last till 2 pm..

Again getting back to work at 2pm..Suprisingly they work for 2 hours from 2pm..

Again a tea break at 4pm..

Getting back to lab at 5pm and pack the things and will start to home..

So an average working hours of a scientist(again so called) is roughly 3 hours/days..

But they are getting salary for 8 hours job...However there are some exceptions...

See how awkward our people are???

This is how things are moving in government research labs..Then Howcome we can stand high in research quality??? We dont have commitment to our work..

We have to learn to work for 8 hours a days, which can bring a significant research output..

Blog readers, please forward the blog link to many Indian citizens..So that everyone will come to know about our country's situation..

We, the blog readers, will take pledge, to work sincerely for our nation and rise its pride in the world......

Thanks,

Aravind.