Study hard, party hard too PARENTS TELL KIDS

National Crime Records Bureau statistics (2007) show student suicides rose 6% across the country, most due to exam-related stress. TOI, however, finds some parents refuse to pressurise their kids though board exams are round the corner and are keen they don’t lose out on a childhood in pursuit of perfect scores

Music makes him calm

Jeffrey’s mother Volga has helped him prepare a study timetable that has a special one-hour slot reserved for playing football with his friends in the compound every day. It even has an hour slotted for computer games. He listens to music while studying and even makes time for a half hour of meditation. And after every hour of study, he takes a 30-minute break.

His parents, including father John, doesn’t think it’s a good idea for kids to study till late into the night. So even as Class X students elsewhere burn the m i d n i g h t oil, Jeffrey is asleep by 10 pm.

“It’s not important how high he scores. As long as he gives the exam his best shot, we’re happy,’’ says Volga.

JEFFREY NEELANKAVIL,
Holy Family High School, Andheri

(Class X) Football and friends make it fun
Sachin gets seven to eight hours of sleep a day, watches a movie a month and never misses his daily game of football even with the board exams just a month away. His parents Wilson and Betsey have told him that it’s OK if his marks aren’t too good.

“I think the pressure surrounding board exams is rather exaggerated, to the extent that children lose out on a childhood,’’ feels Sachin’s father. “I am happy that my son is relaxed and that he plays football everyday. If he doesn’t play at this age, when will he ever play? There needs to be a healthy mix of work and play in a child’s life.’’

“Relatives and collegaues felt Sachin’s year in Class X must have been very hectic for our family. They feel social life must be put on hold at a time like this. But this is something I do not believe in,’’ says Menezes. “While people expected me to be strict with Sachin and keep him away from parties and functions, I allowed him to attend them. I don’t think it makes sense to study continously without a break. I’m happy with the amount of study that he has put in,’’ he adds. Sachin’s two sibblings, as well as several friends in the building, have ensured that Class X was fun for him as any other year.

SACHIN MENEZES
Holy Family High School, Andheri
(Class X)

Kid’s ad film drives home message in online contest

Mahafreed Irani I TNN

Mumbai: A film shows a man speeding on his motorbike, enjoying the wind ruffling his hair when his cellphone starts ringing. So, with one hand on the bike handle, he digs into his pant pocket to remove his ringing phone. The camera zooms out just then to show, god of death Yamraj riding pillion with the phone in his hand. The bike skids and the rider is killed.

This short ad film—highlighting the dangers of driving while talking on a mobile—was just one of the many films, with a message for the public, which was screened on Monday. But what made the ad film festival different was the fact that all the films were made by students—some as young as 11 years old—for India’s first ad film-making contest on the internet.

Most participants used their pocket money to meet the film budgets, which ranged from as low as Rs 300 to as high as Rs 6,000. The money was spent on software for editing and the videotapes used.

More than 1.7 lakh online votes will now decide which seven of the short-listed contestants get to fly to Malaysia to make a film on Malaysian tourism.

The top nominees in categories like Best Public Service Ad, Best Celebrity Promotional Ad and Best Ad for Futuristic Products were showcased on Monday. Jury panel members were impressed, especially when they realised that more than 70% of the entries were in the Public Service Ad category.

When 15-year-old Hriday Bhatia saw children as old as him inhaling drugs in a parking lot, he was taken aback. Bhatia decided to direct a twominute film aimed at parents of drug abusers. Film-maker and former Mumbai sheriff Kiran Shantaram, who was a jury member, recalled the days when his father and founder of Prabhat Film Company, V Shantaram, didn’t have avant-garde technology to make films. “Greats like Raj Kapoor and Bimal Roy used to spend hours peeping into the camera viewfinder to get the perfect shot,’’ he said.

The contest was held by an online portal for children. Its event ambassador, Johnny Lever, said GenNext directors would take over the advertising industry.

THEY WANT TO LEARN BY TEACHING

More than 800 college students and young professionals have applied to Teach For India 2009

Namita Devidayal

Until recently, Garima Kapila, a management consultant with a leading multinational, was working in offices, analysing data, working with industry experts, and checking her client's progress in relation to the targets she had laid out for them. She loved her job but something was missing. She wanted more.

Suddenly, all that has changed. Now, the 24 year-old IIT graduate finds that even when she shuts down her laptop she can't stop thinking about work. Her first thoughts when she wakes up are, “What can I do to make this fantastic programme work? How can I get more applications in today?”

Kapila recently left her coveted consulting job to become the Mumbai director for Teach For India, an impassioned movement that is gradually becoming the buzzword in college campuses, which have been touched by it. Suddenly, students and even young professionals like Kapila are sitting up and saying, “We want to be the agents of change. We don’t consider this a compromise but, rather, a career enhancer.”

Teach For India is a programme based on Teach For America, which aims to narrow educational inequities by placing India's most outstanding college graduates and young professionals in low-income schools to teach for two years. The programme is being supported by some of the top corporates in the country, including McKinsey, Thermax and the Aditya Birla group and ICICI. These companies have agreed to send two young professionals (if they qualify), pay their stipend for the time they are away, and take them back in when they complete the teaching stint, simply because they believe that the challenge will enhance their capabilities.

So far, more than 4,000 people from cities across India have registered on the site, and about 800 have sent in their applications. In The selection process comprises a rigorous screening of applicants, followed by a daylong interview where the applicant will also have to go through the motions of teaching in a simulated classroom. The applicants include top performers from leading colleges as well as companies.

The initial applications are revealing. For instance, a student from a top Mumbai arts college wrote in her essay, “I want to be humbled by the responsibilities of being a teacher. I want to wake up early each morning knowing that I will be affecting lives today and sleep late at night hoping that I’ve done it the right way. I want to be struck with that glorious moment I’ve so often read about, but can only imagine, when the nobility and magnanimity of a career as a teacher strikes you. I want to spend my days carefully because I know that any mistake on my part could cause devastating consequences, that doing anything but my best is something I must practice first, then preach. I want to be TFI Fellow because I want to be given the opportunity to be educated.”

An analyst at a multinational wrote in thus: “Having been successful in my career thus far, I have now reached the point when I am ready to try something different. I want to help fire the Indian education revolution that is around the corner.” Teach For India founder Shaheen Mistri says that she is quite amazed by the kinds of questions and responses she has been getting while recruiting fellows for the 2009 teaching programme. People want to know more, they have their own skepticism which has made even us sit up and think. For instance, some want to know: Why are the placements only in urban areas? Why are the fellows being placed in schools given that the greatest inequity is among children who are not even in school? Why in the English language? Will this really bring about a systemic change?

But the underlying enthusiasm is unmistakable, says Mistri. “People are beginning to understand that as one person, I have such limited impact but by being a part of such a great network, one can really make a difference.”

GRADUATE SCHOOL PARTNERS
The Indian School of Business Sadhana Centre for Management and Leadership Development (SCMLD) SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR)

CORPORATE PARTNERS
Aditya Birla Group
AFL
Ambit
AZB Law
Citigroup
Forbes Marshall
Godrej
HDFC
HDFC Standard Life Insurance
Hindustan Unilever
ICICI Bank
ICICI Prudential
JSW Steel
Mastek
McKinsey & Company
Monitor Group
Tata Chemicals
Tata Power
Thermax
Zensar Technologies

Himachal set to become first carbon-free state

Priya Yadav

Chandigarh: Himachal Pradesh, which has mandated all government departments to begin the environment audit, is on its way to becoming the country’s first and the world’s second carbon-free state.

The people of Himachal will be expected to undergo lifestyle changes, according to the environment master plan and ‘Policy & Strategy on Climate Change & Harnessing Carbon Credits’. The policy will focus on the functioning of all departments, especially those involved in development. “We must ensure that the technology used for projects like road cutting and tunnel digging is not harmful to flora and fauna,’’ said Arun Sharma, secretary to CM P K Dhumal.

The plan entails a novel approach towards how civic bodies dispose off garbage and contractors involved hydel projects do away with the muck. The HP government will sign an MoU with the state of California in this regard. Over the years, India is expected to earn $2.27 billion from selling certified emissions reduction to the US. “The state will announce the implementation of its carbon neutral policy by March,’’ said environment and forest minister J P Nadda. “About 12,000 hectares have been made available for carbon credits. A validator from World Bank is to verify that this land is available for only growing trees.’’ Most of this land is under panchayats where at least four CFL bulbs have been distributed free of cost per family.

HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY: The HP govt has framed a policy to start environment audits and ensure that technology used for development doesn’t harm flora & fauna

Quota leads to surge in OBC aspirants for IITs

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: As reservation for backward category students rises in the Indian Institutes of Technology, competition among them has also intensified. Of the 3.95 lakh applications that the IITs received from aspirants wanting to take the Joint Entrance Exam in April, close to 40% candidates—1.55 lakh—are in reserved categories. In 2007, a year before the IITs implemented the first phase of the 9% reservation for the Other Backward Caste category, 45,000 OBC students had applied to take the JEE. This year, more than 98,000 OBC candidates—26% of all aspirants—will take the JEE.

Bhaba Sarma, JEE chairman at IIT-Guwahati, which is organising this year’s exam, said, “About 75% of OBC applicants belong to the non-creamy layers. But this is preliminary data. We are yet to go through 16,000 applications received online.’’

SIMPLE MATHS
Number of JEE aspirants this year: 3.95 lakh
Aspirants in reserved category: 1.55 lakh (75% from non-creamy layer)
ercentage of reserved seats: 18 in 7 old IITs, 27 in 8 new IITs

CANDIDATES PER SEAT IN EACH CATEGORY 72 OBC 62 Open 40 SC 28 ST IITs lower bar for SC, ST students

Mumbai: This year, the seven old IITs will set aside 18% seats for OBC candidates, and the eight new ones will have 27% reservation for them. Last year, 1,134 OBC candidates qualified for admission at 13 IITs.

The tech schools did not have to lower the entry bar to fill seats reserved for OBC candidates. However, fearing that SC and ST seats may remain unfilled, IIT directors are allowing a 50% relaxation of scores in these categories from 2009, up from 40%.

For JEE 2009, the percentage of SC and ST candidates has gone up only marginally. More than 35,000 SC candidates have applied for 890 seats reserved for them at 15 IITs. And over 12,000 ST students will battle it out for 434 spots.

A faculty member from IITBombay pointed out that the number of ST applicants has always been low. “Forms are available to them at half-price, but few ST candidates feel they have the academic capability to get into the IITs. However, when we conduct the preparatory course for some of these students, we find some really bright ones amongst them. Most of them really just have a problem in communicating in English,’’ he added.

IIT sources said the number of OBC applicants has gone up dramatically with the government raising the income ceiling for non-creamy candidates from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh. Former director of IITMadras P V Indiresan felt that reservation was the sole reason for OBC applications going up. He said, “I can’t think of any other reason why so many candidates would apply.’’

Echoing his thoughts was IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua, who said that students across the country were now aware that a reservation policy was in place. “An OBC student who scored 80% or 85% will psychologically feel that he has a better chance to get into the IITs now that there’s reservation.’’ With so many OBC applicants, the IITs may be able to fill all the seats reserved in that category, he added.

The stakes in this exam are going to be high for OBC students as well as those from the general category. Close to 90,000 OBC students from the noncreamy layer will compete for 1,245 seats (72 aspirants to a seat). And close to 2.3 lakh general category candidates will vie for 3,728 spots (62 hopefuls per seat).

In the 2008 JEE, if the last general category student was admitted with an overall score of 172 out of 489, the aggregate cut-off for an SC/ST student was 104 (after a 40% relaxation). If the general category cut-off remains the same this year, the bar for SC/ST candidates will be lowered to 86 (50% of 172). Subject-wise cut-offs would be similarly affected.

Like last year, the number of students planning to take the JEE has risen by over 30%. The Mumbai zone has the highest number of applicants, followed by Chennai, Kharagpur and Delhi.

2006-2008 are the number of students who took the JEE from each zone
JEE 2009 refers to applications received by the IITs (online applications not included) for JEE 2009 to be held in April 2009 (The IIT reserve 15% and 7.5% seats in each program for the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes respectively. Starting 2008, all IITs set aside seats for the Other Backward Classes; most IITs reserved 9% seats for OBCs in 2008.)

Start-up firms march into IIT to woo freshers

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: Head hunters from start-ups are usually elbowed out by the bigwigs during placement season at Indian Institutes of Technology, when fancy compensation figures win the day. But this time, it’s a different story.

Of the 600 students graduating from IIT-Bombay this year, more than 140 have signed up for interviews to be taken by new venture firms on Sunday.

Sixteen of these young firms, including Maharaja Games, Pagalguy.com, IWeb, Hidden Reflex, Redb-us.in, Zice and Naaptol.com, landed at the Powai campus on Saturday. And, their aim was to convince the freshers of how important they would be for the development of these newventure groups.

Cyrus Vesvikar from the institute’s entrepreneurship cell said, “IIT-Bombay students placed in these start-ups will be directly absorbed in the core teams of the companies, which will offer them an opportunity to take decisions at the highest level and face the toughest of challenges, something that a big firm will not let them do at the beginning.”

Akash Dongre, COO of Mofirst, said, “Freshers will become industry-ready right from the first day as they will face the toughest of the challenges. We basically save the time big firms spend on training.’’

For the start-up firms, Vimal Shah, head of Animedia said, having IIT students work there would definitely enhance their performance.

And to top it all, the startups are offering not just toplevel posts to the freshers, but also quite a decent compensation package. “This year, we plan to get almost 40 students placed in new firms. That would be tough considering that most of the freshers have already been placed by now. But looking at the enthusiasm among students, we feel we would get as many to join lesser known companies,’’ Vesvikar added.

Teens get a taste of business

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: Those who launch a new business during an economic downturn can hardly expect their product to sell like hot cakes—unless, of course, the product is hot cakes. A bunch of Class XI commerce students in the city has got into the entrepreneurial spirit, and is gaining hands-on business experience running its new company, which manufactures brownies.

The 16-year-old commerce students from RN Podar school, Santa Cruz, put their heads together to create their own company, complete with a CEO, board of directors and shareholders. The five directors pooled in their own money, a grand total of Rs 3,750. They generated an equal amount by selling shares in the company to their classmates. “We used the money to set up Brownies Inc. We bought two ovens and an egg beater, and rented a classroom from the school at Rs 200 per month. That’s where we manufacture the brownies,’’ says CEO Arnav Singh Bisht.

The purchase team buys the ingredients, the production team bakes the brownies, and the sales team walks around school with trays of the finished product, priced at Rs 10 a piece.

Brownies Inc is part of the company project begun by Junior Achievement (JA), an organisation that works with schools nationwide to give students a taste of the outside world, so that they’re better prepared for choosing a career. JA has started a similar project in a school in Chandigarh, and another one in Bangalore. The board of Brownies Inc initially consisted of both students and a few teachers and members of JA. But within the first few weeks of the company’s formation, school authorities pulled back and let students take their own decisions.

“The company is doing really well, but the most important part of this exercise is for students to develop interpersonal skills as well as to grasp issues related to scaling up a company and maintaining quality control,’’ says Ramesh Krishnamurthy, who heads JA’s western region operations.

A few days ago, the two-month-old Brownies Inc suffered a setback. “A whole batch of brownies didn’t turn out well, and we had to discard it,’’ says one of the directors, Risheeta Agrawal.

BROWNIE COMPANY Student-run firm has plans to diversify into carrot cake

Mumbai: Brownies Inc, a company launched by Class XI commerce students of R N Podar school, Santa Cruz, recently survived its first setback, when an entire batch of brownies had to be thrown away, resulting in a loss. “We decided to discard them all the same and write off our loss, because we didn’t want to compromise on quality. And we thought it would be unethical to provide our customers with a product that wasn’t good enough,’’ says Brownies Inc’s 16-year-old CEO, Arnav Singh Bisht.

For production team member Haren Paul Rao, the recent mishap was heart-breaking, especially as the brownies are baked during the students’ free periods.

The company has been a huge success at the school, as students of all ages readily fork out their pocket money on the freshlybaked brownies. The school even hired Brownies Inc for its annual day function, buying brownies from its students.

Encouraged by its success with brownies, the company is considering branching out into carrot cake as well. “Many students are weight-conscious, and one can’t stay slim eating brownies everyday. So we thought carrot cake may be a good idea, especially since carrots are cheap,’’ adds Risheeta.

Working for Brownies Inc is no labour of love—students in all the departments of the company, except the board of directors, receive a salary ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 20 per session.

Podar school principal Avnita Bir says the exercise has helped students get hands-on experience of what they read in their textbooks. “They have a better understanding of what it means to form a company, raise capital and sign MoUs,’’ she adds.

The young entrepreneurs of Brownies Inc are very attached to their creation. “We’ll continue working for the company even in Class XII. Eventually, we may sell the company to our juniors,’’ says Risheeta.

SUCCESS IS SWEET: Brownies Inc entrepreneurs display their product.