Predict the future...

LET’S TALK ABOUT STARS

Forget Met, look to stars for weather

Astrologers Draft Rain Prediction Mechanism

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Nothing is uncharted territory for astrologers. So, no eyebrows were raised when they claimed they can predict what kind of weather in the city would have five years on and how the sensex would behave in the coming days. It’s simple, they explained. Their research findings and data have to be superimposed on planetary configurations to predict the future. If you are foxed, you could head for Nakshatra-2008, an astrology exhibition that began on Saturday at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.
Giving the weatherman stiff competition is a company of astrologers that claims to be using ‘‘scientific techniques’’.
It has developed a rain forecasting programme that can predict the onset of monsoon and dry spells in Delhi, five to 10 years from now. ‘‘The analysis is done by collecting rainfall data for the past 30 years from the Met department and then superimposing planetary positions on them to know what kind of rain can be expected in future,’’ said Arun Bansal, president of All India Federation of Astrologers Societies.
The astrologers are even ready with advice on where to put your money in the share market. ‘‘There is going to be a second fall in the sensex after February 10 and this fall will persist through February and March,’’ said Bansal. He claimed their predictions on the sensex, through a scientific analysis, has been over 80% accurate in the past.
The main objective of the exhibition is to remove misconceptions about astrology and bring together experts from various fields in different parts of the country to discuss various topics like contribution of astrology towards a healthy and happy married life, Saturn is friend not a foe, alternative therapy and importance of yoga for a tension-free life.
The nine-day Nakshatra 2008 has 150 participants showcasing the potential of astrology, palmistry, Vastu and Tarot.

The Best Investment on can make...

MONEY MAKEOVER

Education is the wisest investment

The poorest man can leave his children the biggest wealth, finds financial planner
Gaurav Mashruwala

Tushar Shirsat’s father, Nandkumar, works for the Indian Security Press in Nashik and has a modest salary. But that hardly deterred him from ensuring that his children got a good education. They lived a frugal and simple lifestyle—for example, he cycled 15 km to work every day. It was not easy. Tushar’s initial engineering fees of Rs 35,000 had to be jointly funded by his father’s and sister’s salaries. At the time, his father’s monthly salary was only Rs 12,000. Tushar had to leave his engineering studies at Loni and complete his degree in Nashik, because the cost of living away was too much.
But years of struggle have paid back and the Shirsats’ future looks bright. Tushar, now 27 years old, works with a large corporate, his younger brother Pankaj is pursuing an MBA, and their sister Smita is married. “While my father’s colleagues’ children are driving auto rickshaws or running small shops, I have a stable career and bright future,” says Tushar. He is grateful to his father and his mother Mangala, who always ensured that the house ran smoothly.
The family stays in a flat close to the Press, but they have bought a plot of land and would like to construct a house.
What is he saving for?
Cost of house, Rs 15 lakhs (2) Another Rs 15 lakhs to be set aside for the parents (3) Retirement corpus, which will generate an inflow of Rs 2 lakhs per annum after 30 years. Also, once he has his own family Tushar would like to have Rs 50,000 for his children’s initial education and Rs 5 lakhs for their marriage.
He dreams of a car worth Rs 5.5 lakhs and foreign vacation worth Rs 1.20 lakhs. Tushar also wants to pursue gliding and the cost of a gliding course is Rs 45,000. All the above costs are at today’s rate of inflation.
Where is he today?
Cash flow: Total inflow from all sources is Rs 4.95 lakhs per year. Against this, his outflows are Rs 2.47 lakhs, which includes mandatory savings of Rs 1 lakh, insurance premium, tax and other expenses. Any surplus left is given away to his father.
Net worth: Total assets are worth Rs 3.98 lakhs. There are no liabilities. Assets worth Rs 58,000 are for self consumption. This includes a motorbike.
Contingency reserve: Funds equivalents to about nine months’ expenses are lying idle.
Health and life insurance: Tushar’s employer has covered him for his health expenses. His life insurance cover is worth Rs 3.50 lakhs. This is through investment-oriented policies.
Savings and investments: Funds lying in cash/liquid assets is about Rs 1.93 lakhs (Rs 55,000 in the bank, an FD of Rs 15,000, liquid fund and cash Rs 1.23 lakhs.) Invested assets include stocks/shares worth Rs 45,000, equity mutual fund Rs 34,000, and balance in EPF Rs 68,000.
Fiscal report
There is decent income stream. There is lot of surplus left after expenses. However, funds are not being properly invested. Contingency funds are very high. Health expenses are covered by employer. Life insurance is low. Saving and investments are not aligned to financial goals. Investment to get Sec 80-C benefit in income-tax is ad hoc.
The way ahead
Contingency plan: Keep only Rs 60,000 for contingencies. Keep Rs 10,000 cash at home and the balance in a savings bank linked to a fixed deposit.
Insurance: Read up the employer’s health policy/benefits properly. Increase life cover through a term plan to Rs 35 lakhs. Split into two separate policies. Currently, Tushar’s father should be the beneficiary in both policies, but on getting married he should make wife the beneficiary in at least one policy—which should also be endorsed under the Married Women’s Property Act.
Planning for financial goals
House: Firstly, park excess funds in bond funds. Also start a systematic monthly investment plan of Rs 10,000 in an index fund. At the time of purchase/construction of the house, liquidate both and use proceeds for down payment. For balance amount, go for loan.
Parental fund/retirement:
Tushar will have to prioritize between creating funds for parents and his retirement. Once home requirements are settled, set aside Rs 20,000 in an equity-based mutual fund every month. Also ensure that EPF/PPF contributions are made to the fullest. This will ensure that retirement portfolio has the right mix of debt and equity.
Children’s education and marriage: This goal can be achieved from the yearly income. Any bonus/incentive received in the next five-seven years should be deployed in equity and gold funds, which will help at the time of marriage.
Tax: Investment for the 80-C benefit is erratic. Firstly max out provident funds. Premiums paid towards term plan is entitled for tax deduction. If there is still scope for 80-C benefit left, invest in an equity-linked savings scheme.
(If you wish to be featured in this column, email: moneymakeover@ indiatimes.com)

THE PLAN: Tushar Shrisat is prudent in his spending habits. Now he needs to be prudent in investing his savings to build wealth

Don't get a job, get a passion...

What do you want to be when you grow up?

IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT… EDUCATION CONSULTANT

Karishma Shah

Twenty years ago, an educational consultant would have been fairly useless because the options available were relatively scarce. Today, the education scenario is maddeningly complex. The question of “what to be when I grow up” is not a whimsical musing, but a loaded and burdensome task that often requires professional inputs.
Enter, the education consultant.
First, note that employing the services of an education consultant does not imply that one is planning to pursue studies abroad. Neither is educational consulting age-bound. A student fresh out of school, in the tenth grade, can use the help as much as a graduate student. Students, who wish to complete their education in India, may not even know of the number of new courses and premier institutions available. A consultant should not only have such information, but also be able to help students with application forms, scholarships, and the like. Vice Principal at Jai Hind College, P.H. Mirapuri, points out, “It helps students make an informed decision as they are made to realize what exactly is out there.”
If one is uncertain about career choices, an education consultant can, in partnership with the student and perhaps a psychometric test, help infer where one’s aptitude lies and choose a suitable line of work. Once that is ascertained, the real need for guidance arises. The different paths leading up to that career will be presented to the student, who will then be able to bolster his/her education, present and future, with direction and focus. For instance, Viral Parikh, an 18-year-old student of HR College, says that his educational consultant helped him determine both his short-term goal (pursuing Chartered Accountancy) and long-term one (getting a MBA) and defined what steps he should take to achieve these goals.
Be warned that many individuals quite unabashedly practice the job, despite being grossly unqualified. They simply do some research on the Internet and deem themselves competent enough to guide the lives of students at a critical junction. Founder of Edwise International, Preeti Sukhwani says, "Students need to check out who they trust with their careers especially when a monetary angle is involved." Do your own additional research on what has been recommended.
Also be cautious that some counselors may get a commission for recommending you to a particular college abroad even if it is not the best one for you. This has, indeed, happened in the past and led to great heart-burn when the student actually got the promised land, so to speak.
Harshbeena Zaveri, who interviews for a top liberal arts college in the US, says, "Parents and students should be wary. They should not accept what a consultant says on face value just because he/she is well-known or expensive; they should do their own homework. I recommend that they get in touch with students who are at the colleges being suggested, or are doing the courses recommended by the consultant, and cross-check the advice."
There is no dearth of education consultants in Mumbai today. Both individuals and organizations have consultancies that vary in size and function. Edwise International has national and international accreditation and offices all over India. Many international institutions appoint Edwise to shortlist candidates from India. Edwise doesn’t charge a rupee for counseling (except for students applying to the US/Canada.) At Young Buzz, another such company, the student will be asked to take an aptitude, interest and personality inventory to determine his/her areas of interest. This will be followed by intensive discussion as well as access to their comprehensive career database.
In addition to these much larger consultancies, smaller, individual consultants can also provide effective guidance. Viral Doshi is one such well-established consultant who is especially useful to those students who are sure about what they want to do, but are uncertain of how to go about it. Through his systematic methodology, he presents all the various avenues available to the student—in India, the US, Australia, etc. Madhavi Desai Consulting, Karan Gupta Consulting and Anjali Mathur are other such. The best way to decide on which consultant would be right for you is to speak to other students who have used such services and get their feedback.

Better than real life?

ENTER: SECOND LIFE

Now, anyone can make a movie inside Second Life

Raunak Roy (aka Snowcrash Seymour)

In another example of Second Life attracting the big names in business, last year Time Warner owned HBO acquired the rights to a new, short-form documentary shot entirely within Second Life. Called My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Molotov Alta, the show is about Molotov Alta who supposedly disappeared from his California home and began uploading video broadcasts from Second Life. HBO plans to create seven episodes, each dedicated to unique things in SL such as Furries, Cyberpunks, Neo-Luddites, Sex Slaves and the King of the Hobos. Molotov Alta is incidentally the SL avatar of filmmaker Douglas Gayeton who was supposedly paid a six figure sum by HBO for the rights to the movies.
But this story is not about that. It is about the rationale behind HBO paying six figures for a short movie made in a virtual world. What business sense does HBO see in this? Say hello to a Machinima: a new era in motion picture production.
Machinima, a join-up of machine and cinema, is the art of film making using virtual 3D worlds. It is mostly used along with 3D video game technologies such as the engines behind popular games like Quake, Doom or FarCry. In simple terms, it is the coming together of filmmaking, animation and game development. Machinima is realworld filmmaking techniques applied within an interactive virtual space where characters and events can be either controlled by humans, scripts or artificial intelligence.
But, what is so great about machinima? Well, for one it saves time and thus money when compared to traditional animation, where it can take a highly sophisticated array of computers hours, if not days, to render each frame for animation movies like Shrek or Finding Nemo. For example, some frames of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. took over 90 hours to process using over 400 parallel processing computers. With 24 frames per second of footage, you can imagine how long this process can get. Subsequently, Monsters, Inc. took four years to produce. Machinima eliminates the time intensive processes of software rendering. In addition, live-produced machinima can be created similar to producing a live action film—the camera records performance, action and events as they take place.
What this means is that now anyone who is more or less savvy with SL can create animation movies using SL. Get together a gang of friends, come up with a script, decide on actors and log in. Using freely available software to record inside SL, all you need to do is to say your lines. Scores of such movies are available for public viewing on Youtube along with tutorials, tips and expert advice on how to go about it. Check out the SL Machinima wiki at https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Machinima.
In February 2007, CBS (one of the largest TV studios in the US) created a machinima ad for its comedy show ‘Two and a Half Men’, that featured footage shot within SL. What is more astounding is that the ad was aired before the SuperBowl (the most watched sporting event of the year), thus bringing virtual worlds to even more American households. Though still in its infancy, machinima can very well revolutionize modern movie making. And with the ever increasing popularity of things virtual, the day is not far that the big names of animation start using this technology.

India need Inventors and Innovators...

Got a good idea? Now let’s get innovative about selling it

Pallavi Srivastava| TNN

Consider this: The number of patent applications filed by India in 2002 was 9,000. In the same year, China filed about 180,000, and US about 380,000. In India, 2000 patents were approved versus over 100,000 for China. Also, India’s record for new designs was 39 versus 53,000 for China. These figures are from CII’s National Innovation Mission Report, released in May 2007.
If necessity is the mother of invention, a poor country like India should have produced many more innovations. “To cope with stress (whether economic or ecological or technological), the lesser material resources we have, the more creative we have to be,” says IIMA professor Anil Gupta, who’s also president of Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions and the executive vice-chairperson of National Innovation Foundation. His Honey Bee Network — which identifies individual innovators, provides them financial and technical assistance, helps them file for patents and devises models for self-sustenance — has so far mobilised over 75,000 innovations and traditional knowledge practices from over 500 districts.
Yet, even the handful of Indians who manage to create something new remain mostly unsung. For instance, do you know that Mohd Mehtar Hussain, a 37-year-old farmer from Assam has developed a low-cost windmill unit using bamboo and strips of tyres? Gupta cites many examples: Like 24-yearold student-farmer Mustaq Ahmad Dar from Anantnag in J&K, who has created a portable device to climb trees and poles with which one can ascend 50 feet in less than five minutes; or 40-year-old A Muruganantham from Coimbatore who has developed a mini sanitary napkin machine, with a production cost of about Re 1 per pad.
Why do these brilliant innovations seldom get translated into successfully marketed products? “The main bottleneck is finances,” says Shrashtant Patara, senior programme director, technology systems, at Development Alternatives, an NGO that creates products and technologies for sustainable development. “In rural areas, innovators don’t have deep pockets.” They depend on credit from banks or public bodies, which can often be a long-drawn process. “Things would change drastically if the government were to fast-track credit availability,” says Patara. The other hindrance is entrepreneurship itself: “Most innovators don’t make good entrepreneurs,” says Gupta. “The challenge is to find entrepreneurs who would like to invest in new products or processes.” Or else, as Patara points out, innovators have to be trained in marketing, management and sales.
Bangalore-based Sameer Sawarkar and Rajeev Kumar experienced this first hand when they launched Neurosynaptic Communications in 2003. The company provides healthcare in rural areas through telemedicine, and has developed a $400 portable kit that records BP, temperature, ECG and auscultation sounds of a stethoscope, the results of which can be transmitted to the closest medical centre. “We had to show the model with a lot of data to a lot of people before we attracted any interest,” says Sawarkar, named among Technology Pioneers 2008 by
the World Economic Forum. “Business models have to be worked out properly and one has to be highly resourceful to draw partners and investors.”
The ride ahead may seem bumpy enough, but with the right roadmap we may get there. After all, as Gupta says, “There is no dearth of people with ideas.”
pallavi.srivastava@timesgroup.com

A bamboo windmill created by a farmer from Assam

eSchools - Are we utilising technology in the right manner?

Online schooling grows, setting off a debate in US

Sam Dillon

Milwaukee: Weekday mornings, three of Tracie Weldie’s children eat breakfast, make beds and trudge off to school—in their case, downstairs to their basement in a suburb here, where their mother leads them through math and other lessons outlined by an internet-based charter school.
Half a million American children take classes online, with a significant group, like the Weldies, getting all their schooling from virtual public schools. The rapid growth of these schools has provoked debates in courtrooms and legislatures over money, as the schools compete with local districts for millions in public dollars, and over issues like whether online learning is appropriate for young children.
One of the debates has concerned the Weldies’ school in Wisconsin, where last week the backers of online education persuaded state lawmakers to keep it and 11 other virtual schools open despite a court ruling against them and opposition of the teachers union.
Two models of online schooling predominate. In Florida, Illinois and half a dozen other states, growth has been driven by a state-led, statefinanced virtual school that does not give a diploma but offers courses that supplement regular work at a traditional school. Generally, these schools enrol only middle and high school students.
Despite enthusiastic support from parents, the schools have met with opposition from some educators, who say elementary students may be too young for Web learning, and from teachers, and school boards, partly because they divert state payments from the online student’s home district.
Other opposition has arisen because many online charters contract with for-profit companies to provide their courses. The Wisconsin academy, for example, is run by the tiny Northern Ozaukee School District, north of Milwaukee, in close partnership with K12 Inc, which works with similar schools in 17 states.
The district receives annual state payments of $6,050 for each of its 800 students, which it uses to pay teachers and buy its online curriculum from K12.
Saying he suspected “corporate profiteering”, senator John Lehman, a Democrat, last month proposed cutting the payments to virtual schools to $3,000 per student. But during legislative negotiations that proposal was dropped. NYT NEWS SERVICE

Tracie Weldie teaches her children, including Isabel and Harry, at home with lessons outlined by an internet charter school

The business called Education...

ORDERED TO SHUT tech colleges move their business

Engg, MBA Institutes Among Those Found To Have Dubious Standards

Hemali Chhapia & Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: The cat-and-mouse game has begun. Technical institutions ordered to shut shop by Bombay High Court owing to shoddy teaching standards, have begun to look for ways to skirt a crackdown. Many of them have moved out from the address registered with the state and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to escape detection.
Dingy rooms, classes running out of basements, garages and residences, the scene in these colleges is a repeat of Chattisgarh where private institutions had proliferated without sanction. A day after Bombay HC directed the closure of 14 of these unrecognised institutions and six others which have academic tieups with foreign universities, TOI visited some of them — only to find that they had packed their bags and left.
The trip to Hindustan Institute of Technology and Management at Borivali (east) revealed the college had shifted out to a new locality. The institute had moved to an address on S V Road in Borivali where they were located on the second floor of a shopping centre; about 50 students had enrolled for MBA and MCA courses in the institute, unaware of the recent order.
Alok Jha, chairman of the institute, said his institute was anyway only a “study centre’’ of the Sikkim-Manipal University and he was following the rules laid down by the Distance Education Council (DEC). “How many bodies do we have to seek permission from? The DEC states that their rules do not have a geographical jurisdiction,’’ Jha defended.
However, Jha also claimed that he had stopped all fresh admissions since July 2007 when he was served a notice by the state government to seek the AICTE’s permission.
Similarly, two rooms and a laboratory on the second floor of a shabby building in Dadar is all that St John’s Paramedical College can offer. Jostling for space along with a host of coaching classes, the college had hung a board at the entrance of the building which said that it offered international education, medical lab technology, clinical research, and courses in ECG, X-Ray, CT Scan and MRI. The door was locked.
A peon at the gate said few students came to the institute. P F John, who runs it, said it was a private vocational training course, not affiliated to a university. “I am closing it down because it is not financially viable to run the course any longer,’’ said John.
According to him, the college stopped admitting fresh applicants since June 2007. Those who were enrolled earlier completed their training in December. “There’s an acute shortage of paramedics and there was a great demand for our students,’’ said John. However, he admitted that some of the courses that were mentioned on the board at the entrance, such as clinical research, were never part of the curriculum.
Similar situations exist in many of the other institutes too. A paper stuck on the door of a room on the ground floor of a shabby, commercial building at Andheri said ‘Sai College’ had shifted to Mira Road. The college, affiliated to the Madhya Pradesh Open University (or at least that’s what its president Rakesh Kumar claims), offers BA and BCom courses. “We have been told to get the necessary permissions from Mantralaya. We have applied for recognition,’’ said Kumar.
Another such institute — similarly named Sai College — runs from a basement in Thane. The Global Institute of Management Science has a small bungalow in Kalina for its campus. These are colleges clearly unlike any management or engineering campus that a student dreams of. But given the growing demand for professional courses, said a technical education official, they find takers among gullible students who can’t crack tough entrance exams.
It was a PIL filed by activist Dinesh Kamath which pointed out that private universities and educational institutions, which were functioning without affiliation or AICTE recognition, were misguiding students; it prompted the state to swing into action. The high court has taken note of 112 such bogus institutions functioning across Maharashtra and directed the government to take action against them.
The state government constituted a seven-member committee, which included four former vice-chancellors, to scrutinise all the 112 institutions. All these colleges were given a chance to present their side of the story and plug deficiencies like lack of infrastructure or shortage of faculty. While many institutions have complied with proposed standards, those that have not have been asked to shut down.
TO BE SEALED
IMET, Malad Link Road, Malad (west) Praxis Business School, Kalina, Santa Cruz Industrial Research Institute, Pune RSP Management Institute, Kothrud, Pune Hindustan Institute of Technology, S V Road, Borivli Sai College, near Navrang Cinema, Andheri Swastik College, Dadar Academy of Pharmaceutical Management, Kalina, Mumbai Hospitality Training Institute, Matunga, Mumbai St John’s Paramedical College, SB Marg, Dadar (west) Sai College, Thane (west) Global Institute of Mgmt Science, Santa Cruz (E) ITM Institute of Financial Markets, Vashi, Navi Mumbai

THE HEAT IS ON: Lack of regulatory approvals has landed numerous institutions like these in trouble

Are Quotas the right solution?

30% quota for girls in nat’l law schools

Seethalakshmi S | TNN

Bangalore: Even as parliament dithers on introducing onethird reservations for women, top national law schools in the country are all set to implement a 30% quota for girls from the next academic year.
The seven premier law schools in the country have also decided to offer a common law admission test (CLAT) for admission to their LLB and LLM courses on May 11, 2008. Earlier, individual law schools used to conduct their own entrance tests. However, the L-schools have set 50% as the cut-off for students to qualify for a seat.
Simply put, no matter how well a student performs in CLAT, she will not be able to secure a seat if her qualifying examination marks are lower than 50%.