warm regards,
Rajwinder SIngh
Interesting article written by an Indian Economist
Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far
more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100
billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.
Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports.
Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American
economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.
But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from
Japan , China and even India .
Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly
invested in US, in dollars.
India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in
US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities.
Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions.
Result:
The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world
saves for the US - Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep
the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other
countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2
billion a day, to the US !
A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US
in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half
of what China has invested in US.
The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50
billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India .
Why the world is after US?
The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In
fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That
the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US
imports more than what it exports year after year.
The result:
The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its
deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to
feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its
consumption, the world provides the money.
It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the
customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the
shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is
like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper
financier.
Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet
it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that
Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to
spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings
rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend
(habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional
postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the
Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the
strength of Japan , has become its pain.
Hence, what is the lesson?
That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not
just spend, but borrow and spend.
Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told
Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on
imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India
on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to
India , seeing the consumer spending.
'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'
But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so
that you can borrow from them and spend !!!
The All India Management Association (AIMA), the apex body for the management sector, has launched a Management Aptitude and Skills Test (MAST) to evaluate management students across the country, a senior AIMA official said. The first test will be held Feb 20, 2011.
Punjab Technical University (PTU) vice chancellor Rajneesh Arora said that the MAST was important for management students.
"The test will add benefit to the employers also. The employers will now have the opportunity to choose students with the right skills. It will also make the recruitment process cost effective and efficient," Arora said.
Anshu Kataria, chairman of the Aryans Business School near Chandigarh, which has introduced MAST for its management students, said: "AIMA has come up with this innovative model of testing B-school graduates that will help the students as well as the recruiters to opt for the best possible job opportunity and right talent respectively."
"The test will certify and check the students of their readiness and aptitude before they enter the corporate world," he added.
MAST is a computer-based test, which will test students on the parameters of general ability, domain knowledge and personality traits.
NOTICE
This is for the information of all the students of B.Tech that the online submission of PTU examination forms is now open (last date is 28th November 2010). The students are required to follow these steps:
Step 1: Log on to www.ptuexam.com
Step 2: Use your user name and password to log in (type of user: student)
Step 3: Upload your passport size photograph and signatures (having following dimensions) online:
PHOTOGRAPH : 125(width) X 150(height)
SIGNATURE : 200(width) X 125(height)
The photograph and signature should not exceed 50kb limit. Cropping facility is available at time of uploading image to website. JavaScript option must be on in the browser while uploading. The color photograph should be of good quality with plain background. The signatures must be with Black ink only. Please ensure that correct photograph and signature are uploaded before locking the form.
Step 4: After uploading the photograph and signature, the students must fill the examination form. In section A, select the subjects in which you would be appearing. Press Submit and move to section B. Check the subjects very carefully and then lock the form. Thereafter the form can be printed.
Step 5: The fee of required amount (as specified by Director's office) must be submitted to the account office at college on or before 28th November, 2010 (without late fee).
Hi ,
Waitlisted tickets in Indian Rail is common place and so is the frequent delay in arrivals/departures of trains.
Generally it becomes pretty painful to go online/ call up Indian Rail IVRS again and again to find out your latest PNR Status/ train timings.
Sumeet Sahu (NIT Surathkal, Batch 2007) came up with an innovative idea to get us rid of this pain , something that reverses who queries the above statuses for you.
www.mypnrstatus.com will send you FREE SMS Alerts periodically whenever your PNR status changes or there is a change in your train timing.
You just need to key in your PNR number and your mobile number on the website once to avail this facility.
Do visit mypnrstatus.com for more details and yes , please spread the word if you find it useful !
After deciding to bring the admissions for most courses online from the academic session 2011-12, Panjab University has decided to computerise all results to be announced at the end of this academic session.
The decision has been taken keeping in view the discrepancies in hand-written results and mark sheets. The university has been receiving numerous complaints against evaluation, which is on the rise with each passing year. Majority of these complaints pertain to discrepancies in mark sheets.
"No matter how careful the evaluators are, discrepancies do creep in. The university is working towards computerisation of all results. This would check the possibilities of human error that creep in during the process of making results," said Panjab University Controller of Examinations Prof AK Bhandari.
The staff is being trained to make the transition. "The university had undertaken a trial to switch over to feed data in computer for limited courses this year to gauge what difficulties and problems can be faced by the staff members. Now that all issues have been taken care of, the university is hopeful that the entire switch over would be successful for this academic session," added Bhandari.
Major concerns were raised by some senate members in its meeting held recently over the discrepancies in the mark sheets. Citing instances, one of the members pointed out that the difference in the actual result and that written on the mark sheet is sometimes more than 50 (instead of 54 marks as given by the evaluator, only 4 marks are hand written on the mark sheet).
The university had already conducted a trial by introducing computerised results in some of the postgraduate courses this year. This would be adopted for all courses now on.
However, Panjab University Vice-Chancellor RC Sotbi, in the senate has ruled the possibility of online tests due to technical intricacies and loopholes in such online exams. Going the by the glitches that were faced by the IIMs while conducting the online CAT, the university is not willing conduct tests online unless a fool-proof system evloves.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development and Unique Identification Authority of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource Development and Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI, on October 27. Amit Khare, Joint Secretary in the HRD Ministry signed the MOU on behalf of the HRD Ministry and Anil Kachi, Deputy Director General signed on behalf of UIDAI.
The proposed MOU would be helpful in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry of all students, right from primary/elementary level through secondary and higher education, as also between the institutions. Imprinting of UID number on performance record of individual students (marksheets, merit certificates, migration certificates) will also be helpful to prospective employers and educational institutions. UID number will help in tracking problems of fake degrees. UID can also be utilized while dematting of academic certificates as also education loan and scholarship schemes. It would also be useful in the implementation of Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
The HRD Ministry will co-operate and collaborate with the UIDAI in conducting proof of concept (PoC) studies, pilots to test the working of the technology and process of enrolment into the UID database, identify Registrars for the implementation of the UID project (PoC and pilots). The ministry will help ensure that the Registrar shall do all that is necessary to effectively complete the PoCs and pilots; and put in place an institutional mechanism to effectively oversee and monitor the implementation of the UID project and provide logistic and liaison support to the staff and representatives of UIDAI.
The Government has set up the UIDAI for the issuing of UID number to all the residents of India, based on demographic and biometric data of the individual. Unique Identification Authority of India will develop and prescribe standards for recording data fields, data verification and biometric fields, prescribe a process for enrolment of beneficiaries/students to authenticate the identity of a person with a UID number
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Shivaji Sondhi, a professor of physics at Princeton University lists out 14 good tips on what you should do to build your university into a world-class institution.
The time appears to have come for India to seriously address the challenges facing its higher education sector. The challenges are twofold, those of quantity and those of quality.
1. Aim for the best faculty, and the best students you can attract
The best universities are about the truly gifted students being taught and mentored by an exceptional faculty in a virtuous cycle. At the end of the day, a really good university is about the people on its campus.
2. Spend accordingly
Recruiting high-quality faculty requires money for internationally competitive salaries but even more so for infrastructure and for seeding research efforts before they become selffinancing. Money is a tool to recruit exceptional students certainly if absolute financial need is an issue, but also in some cases where the very best ones you might wish to attract, have attractive offers elsewhere. You can't build a really good institution on the cheap.
3. Aim small
You will have only so much money to spend. There are only so many fine academics willing to live in India today that you can recruit almost entirely Indians. Education is labour intensive. And, the best institutions have a small number of students per faculty member (my own, Princeton, has an incredible five students per faculty member). Such ratios allow efficient mentoring and student involvement in research while enhancing the transmission of knowledge that a university necessarily engages in. Small is also easier to manage in respect of quality control. [For comparison, Princeton has 7,500 students and no professional schools; Harvard has about 20,000 students and a set of professional schools].
4. Focus on faculty
The quality of faculty is key. Given the paucity of high-quality institutions in India, the pool of good students available to our new university is likely to allow recruitment of an exceptional body of students. The same is not true of faculty recruitment. With faculty, quality attracts quality—you want to be where so-and-so is present already. With faculty, critical mass is also important in most modern disciplines—you need colleagues to talk to about research on a daily basis, which makes it more important to hire wisely. This implies the need for selectivity in the areas in which you hire. Finally, faculty members last a long time—a problematic set of hires at the start can mar the tone of the institution for a long time.
5. Postpone professional education
Law, medical and business schools are wonderful additions to a university—but they are different in important ways from core academic areas (pure science, mathematics and humanities and social sciences). Initially, as you seek to define the character of the new institution, it would be best to not have to work out a 'balance' between core and professional education sectors. You can always add them on.
6. Pick an impressive academic leadership
While academic administrators necessarily sacrifice their own research productivity in the interests of an institution, it helps enormously if they come with genuine intellectual accomplishments. Such people command respect from their faculty colleagues and are far better able to judge the virtues of various competing claims on the scarce resources of the institution.
7. Empower the leadership
Much as I hate to say this as a faculty member, an institution that lacks the power centre, charged with watching out for its global interests, is likely to become a hostage to inertia. What is needed is a balance of power—where faculty has the opportunity to be heard collectively on issues that matter. But, at the same time, individuasl academic units are not the last word on their own practices—especially on hiring and promotion.
8. Build external review
For the foreseeable future, India is likely to have a small internationally-competitive higher education sector. This will make it hard to obtain purely market-driven readings of how an institution is faring. To compensate for this, build in a systematic review process involving faculty and administrators from outside India, who periodically examines all aspects of the institution
9. Incentivise the faculty
It is true that faculty do not get into academics to maximise cash returns, but they are not immune to the charms of incentives. A good university has many incentives at its disposal: reasonable differentials in pay, discretionary research funds for individual faculty, teaching relief, sabbaticals, a willingness to make additional hires in areas of interest to existing faculty, a willingness to provide funds for more public activities such as visitor programmes in support of specific research efforts. These can be used to encourage faculty to lead productive front-rank research careers. Related incentives can be used to advance the teaching mission of the institution with the caveat that experience around the world suggests that when push comes to shove the research criterion should prevail over others. At the junior stage there is the incentive of a tenure decision. As our university takes off and becomes the employer of choice, it should be able to use the tenure process to identify exceptional candidates for recruitment. In this sector set for massive expansion, selectivity in tenure at a few top institutions will be offset by a large number of jobs elsewhere.
10. Offer four-year undergraduate degrees
The American model allows for exploration. It allows some students to work out their true interests over a period of time with very productive consequences. The longer period also allows students to develop a closer relationship with the faculty. More practically, it allows the new university to interface more easily with the US, which is likely to prove attractive to students for the foreseeable future.
11. Supplement permanent faculty with less expensive manpower
Senior undergraduates could be paid to grade entering courses, graduate students can work as teaching assistants while pursuing their degrees, good teachers from the large pool of existing Indian universities could be enticed to come and teach specific courses on leave from their home institutions for short periods. Less expensive staff could be utilised to help with routine academic tasks.
12. Use IT
Information technology (IT) can boost the fundamental educational productivity. Entry-level instruction could benefit substantially from the introduction of expert systems that do everything—from examining students, which they already do, to actually instructing them on specific tasks of problem-solving, which seems well within the reach of existing technology. If our university can harness these advances it would enable its scarce resource— the high-quality faculty to focus on more advanced instruction thus effectively boosting the faculty student ratio. Given the strengths of Indian companies in IT, that seems to be an especially promising direction for our new university to build into its very DNA. Another use of IT would be to allow faculty and students to connect seamlessly to the broader world of learning. High-bandwidth access to international databases and electronic publications should be provided where possible. Videoconferencing and collaborative software can make learning even more exciting. There is no reason, that the high-quality but small physics department at the university could not host terrific talks delivered by distant colleagues via videoconferencing. However, it will find it hard to persuade the same number to hop on a plane and fly half around the world.
13. Be India specific
Our university may have some trouble competing with the established heavyweights of the international academic world in fields which are not very country specific. However there is no reason why cannot build its brand by establishing the best programmes in the world on topics that relate specifically to India. Examples that come to mind are Indian languages and literature, social science work specific to India, Indian history, India's fine arts, Indian archeology, Indian biodiversity and genetics. Given resources, selectivity and freedom from academic political fashions it seems to me a relatively straightforward task of the new University to put itself on the map in these areas.
14. Build a postdoctoral scholar programme
At least initially, our university will find it easier to attract a higher calibre of undergraduate student, then a graduate student. The best graduate students will probably still find themselves attracted to the very best universities in the world outside India. As this will pose of a challenge to faculty in the pursuit of their own research, it would be wise for our new university to explore options to recruit postdoctoral scholars where possible with attractive fellowships. As such scholars will come with a fair amount of training already under their belts, they would provide a welcome addition to the research effort.
Job Details : IndianOil is looking for bright result–oriented professionals to join its journey of growth. Applications are invited for the position of Engineers/ Graduate Apprentice Engineers (GAEs) in the following engineering disciplines:
Educational Qualification :
Minimum educational qualification for employment in above mentioned positions are : Candidates should have passed qualifying degree examinations and awarded bachelor's degree in engineering/ technology in the above mentioned disciplines (full time regular courses only) from recognized Indian Universities / Institutes.
Candidates (belonging to general and OBC category) should have secured minimum 65% marks in qualifying degree examinations. It is relaxed to 'pass class' for SC/ST/PH candidates.
Candidates currently in final year of their engineering studies may also apply. However, if selected, they must be in a position to submit their final mark sheet by 31st July 2011.
Age Limit : Maximum 26 years as on 30th June 2011 for the general category candidates. Age relaxation for OBC (Non Creamy Layer)/SC/ST/PH candidates will be applicable as per the Presidential Directive.
Remuneration Package : Candidates selected as engineers/officers will receive a provisional starting basic pay of Rs.24,900/-per month.
Graduate Apprentice Engineers (GAEs) : Candidates selected as GAEs for one-year apprenticeship training will be paid consolidated stipend @ Rs.20,000/- per month.
Selection, Training and Placement :
The selection methodology will comprise of the following:
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineers (GATE) 2011 score of the candidates in the concerned disciplines. The graduate engineers from the relevant disciplines, desirous of taking up a career with IndianOil are required to appear in GATE
Engineering discipline advertised by IndianOil | Corresponding GATE –2011 paper | Corresponding GATE –2011 paper code |
Chemical Engineering(Incl. Petrochemicals) | Chemical Engineering | CH |
Civil Engineering | Civil Engineering | CE |
Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | EE |
Instrumentation Engineering | Instrumentation Engineering | IN |
Mechanical Engineering (excluding Production/ Manufacturing/ Industrial) | Mechanical Engineering | ME |
Metallurgical Engineering | Metallurgical Engineering | MT |
On the basis of GATE-2011 score, the candidates will be short listed for further selection process comprising of :
Candidates will have to qualify through each stage of selection process successfully before being adjudged as suitable for selection.
Selected candidates shall have all-India transfer liability and may be posted to any Division / Unit / Subsidiary Company / Office of the Corporation.
General category candidates will have to execute a bond of Rs.1,00,000 (Rs.25000/- for SC/ST/OBC & PH candidates) to serve the Corporation for a minimum period of three years from the date of joining (date of appointment as Engineer in case of GAEs after successful completion of training).
How to apply :
12th February 2011 is the last date for receiving application online.
Note : There is no separate fee for applying to IndianOil
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