Best tech school: IISc outshines IITs

Prashanth G N | TNN

Bangalore: Do good science and do it at the best place: IT city. IISc has been ranked the number one engineering/ technology institute among top 67 science institutes in the country. IIT Kanpur comes in at the second place, followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and Delhi at third, fourth and fifth position respectively.

The ranking, published in the Current Science, has been done by scholars Gangan Prathap and B M Gupta of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources and National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi.

The other institutes within top 10 include Jadavpur University ranked 6, IIT Madras 7, IIT Roorkee 8, Anna University 9 and IIT Guwahati ranked 10. The ranking has been done on the basis of publications and citations and research record available between 1999 and 2008 in the Scopus International multi-disciplinary, bibliographical database. The data shows IISc leading every other science institute in the country on publications and citations.

The scholars have said the top 67 engineering institutes have done better than the university sector as a whole in the 10-year period — 75,166 papers vs 59,685 papers.

Their research has also shown that by number and performance (quality and quantity combined), IISc and IITs taken as a group lead other groups — University and Deemed University, Select Engineering Colleges, NITs/RECs and IIITs. The IIITs are ranked last as a group for their low publications and citations.

The scholars have this to say about NITs. “Although National Institutes of Technology have been around for a long time and have been upgraded to deemed university and institutes of national importance their research performance is dismal.”

TOP 14
1 IISc, Bangalore

2 IIT-Kanpur

3 IIT-Bombay

4 IIT-Kharagpur

5 IIT-Delhi

6 Jadavpur Univ

7 IIT-Madras

8 IIT-Roorkee

9 Anna University

10 IIT-Guwahati

11 Cochin Univ of Science & Tech

12 BITS, Pilani

13 Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai

14 IT-BHU, Varanasi
Ranking on the basis of publications & citations between 1999 and 2008

RAGGING MENACE

Three IIT-M students expelled from hostel for ‘misbehaving’ with juniors

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Three senior IIT (Madras) have been expelled from the hostel for a year for allegedly harassing juniors who joined the institution this academic year. “The students, all residents of the Alaknanda Hostel block, were identified as involved in misbehaviour with junior students. They were expelled last week,’’ a faculty member said on Monday.

Officially, authorities have chosen not to describe the incident as “ragging’’. They said the students had “misbehaved’’ with juniors, a subtle distinction made to spare them of a more severe punishment.

All three students were on August 18 directed to immediately vacate the hostel and find accommodation outside the campus. “The expelled students have been prohibited from visiting the hostel zone including dining halls during the period of expulsion. Also no other student including hostellers should entertain them in the hostel premises. Those found violating the order would also face disciplinary action,’’ the faculty member said. Besides, the expelled students stand disqualified from contesting for any positions in the students’ council and other bodies.

Meanwhile, to curb instances of ragging, the office of the IIT Madras dean (students) has issued a circular imposing a fresh set of restrictions regarding interaction between juniors and seniors. The notice has specifically warned senior students against summoning freshers to their hostel rooms. “All interactions with juniors can happen only in the common room in the presence of wardens, hostel council members or guidance and counselling unit coordinators during the time of roll call between 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm,’’ the circular said.

Authorities have warned of disciplinary action against senior students who defied the restrictions “even without

a complaint from freshers.” The dean has also advised first year students not to go to the rooms of senior students after the roll call at night.

C H Ravi Kiran, a students’ representative for hostel affairs, welcomed the restrictions. “Such measures help in curbing ragging. Restricting senior students from talking to freshers only in common areas and not inside rooms will serve as a deterrent as they know they are being watched. Such a move also induces confidence in the minds of juniors and they can interact with seniors freely,’’ he said.

Seniors thrash disabled student after he resisted stripping in Kerala school

Thiruvananthapuram: A disabled student of a polytechnic school in Kerala’s Thrissur district was cruelly beaten by his seniors when he opposed their attempts to strip him. Police on Monday arrested seven students after Nandkishore, who is hearing and speech impaired, revealed that he was ragged in his hostel. The incident came to light on Saturday when Nandkishore’s mother visited him in the hostel of Sreerama Polytechnic in Tripayar. Police, who made the arrests based on his mother’s complaint, said two members of CPM’s student outfit SFI are among those arrested. Nandkishore, a computer engineering diploma student, joined the school on August 19 under the quota for the disabled. The incident happened the next day. According to hismother’s complaint, a group of 10 students came to his room in the night and tried to strip him. They took off his shirt and dhoti, but he resisted when they tried to forcibly remove his underwear. He was then thrashed for resisting. The accused students were suspended after a preliminary inquiry. TNN

Plus 2 marks may decide your selection in IIT

New Entrance Scheme Likely To Start In 2011

D Suresh Kumar | TNN

Chennai: Marks scored in the Plus Two board examinations are likely to become a key determining factor in addition to performance in the nervewracking Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) by 2011.

In a few months, a pan-IIT committee, formed by the Union HRD ministry to suggest reforms to JEE, is expected to submit its report recommending ways to factor in the marks scored by students in higher secondary examinations while preparing the IIT merit list. A meeting of all IIT directors and JEE representatives in Chennai over the weekend discussed the proposed changes.

“We hope to devise a methodology to compute a normalised Plus Two cut-off eligibility score for each educational board (CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards). If it’s approved, then only students who have scored this cut-off mark would become eligible to appear for JEE,’’ IIT Madras deputy director V G Idichandy, who is heading the committee, said on Monday.

The present eligibility norm of an aggregate score of 60% in Plus Two determined by the IIT standing council, as opposed to 85% recommended by a JEE review committee four years ago, is considered too poor a benchmark. The move comes in the backdrop of widespread concern among top academicians over the current IIT admission system, which is entirely dependent on JEE scores and ignores the board examination results.

The inherent weakness of such a system is that IITs have been able to largely attract only students “conditioned for JEE’’ by high-profile coaching centres in Kota and Hyderabad. Such students who lack “raw intelligence’’, as described by IIT Madras director M S Ananth, are at times at sea after entering the campus.

“We are collecting data on Plus Two results of the past four to five years from different boards in all states to base our recommendation on. Much will depend on how we compute an acceptable method to normalise the marks scored in different boards. You have nearly 40 boards of education in India,’’ Prof Idichandy said.

However, the even more difficult part is to convince authorities of all the boards to declare Plus Two results within a specified time-frame every academic year.

“This will be crucial for us as we have to base JEE on Plus Two results. This is where a common school board, at least at the level of higher secondary education, which has been proposed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal, will help in determining any all-India merit list,’’ he said.

Idichandy acknowledged JEE can’t be abolished “but we want to give as much importance as possible to the performance of students at the school level’’ in IIT admissions.

ATKT: Court raps state for late decision

Shibu Thomas I TNN

Mumbai: The beleaguered state education department came in for some more flak over the ATKT system from the Bombay high court on Monday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ajay Khanwilkar, while hearing a case regarding the state education department’s Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) policy, questioned the government for taking decisions concerning academics at the eleventh hour. “Why are such decisions taken in June and not earlier?’’ the judges asked. The court also asked the state if there was adequate infrastructure to accommodate the additional students who would be promoted because of ATKT.

The HC also asked the state government to furnish records in connection with its decision to allow SSC students, who failed this year, to take admissions to first-year junior college using the ATKT facility.

Advocate-general Ravi Kadam told the court that the state had decided to introduce the ATKT system as a social welfare measure after finding that students who failed in their SSC examinations suffered psychological trauma. “ATKT will ensure that such students remain in education,’’ Kadam said.

Kadam added that the ATKT system was a stop-gap arrangement for this year as the state proposed to roll out a new scheme, allowing for supplementary examinations for students who failed, from the 2010-11 academic year.

The state last month introduced the ATKT system which allowed SSC students, who had failed in a maximum of two subjects during the March 2009 exams, to get admitted to the next grade. The ATKT students were required to clear the exams by March 2010, failing which their admissions would be cancelled.

A similar proposal to allow the ATKT facility for HSC students is pending with the higher and technical education department.

A state affidavit said 1.47 lakh students were eligible to take admission to FYJC with the help of the ATKT. Kadam said there were enough seats available; 1.85 lakh of the 10.03 lakh FYJC seats were vacant after the regular admissions. The advocate-general also pointed out that over a lakh students usually dropped out after passing their SSC exams.

Lawyers Ram Apte and Anjali Helekar, representing petitioner ABVP, however, claimed that there were discrepancies in the numbers furnished by the state. ABVP said the government introduced the system in haste without ensuring that infrastructure was in place.

Daily wagers win reality show

Sandeep Mishra | TNN

Bhubaneswar: The all-conquering members of the Oriya dance troupe ‘Prince’ — comprising daily wage earners — may now justly expect a reception fit for kings. Since the moment Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee announced that the dancers from far-flung Ganjam district in Orissa were the winners of a TV talent hunt reality show, everybody and his brother in the state is doing a jig.

And with good reason. The dancers are not just starry-eyed participants in a hotly contested programme where the ultimate prize was Rs 50 lakh and a Maruti Ritz. Nearly every member of the group of 24 has surmounted individual odds — two of them have overcome polio — and shown their unbeatable spirit.

Coming from different parts of Ganjam, the dancers displayed perfect symmetry of determination and talent to outperform groups from across India — including an improbable 10 in the grand finale. Their winning submission was a performance based on ‘Dashavatar’ — the 10 avataras of Lord Vishnu.

‘‘We’d hoped to win. Now that we have achieved our mission, we’re thrilled!’’ exclaimed troupe leader Krishna Mohan Reddy (26) on phone from Mumbai. The self-taught dancer-choreographer said, ‘‘The prize money has come as a blessing as most of us were in dire need of it. Some needed to build houses, others have sisters to get married.’’

Show winners plan to set up a dance academy
Bhubaneswar: Krishna Mohan Reddy, leader of the Oriya dance troupe that won a reality show, is from a non-descript village Ambapua on the outskirts of Berhampur, Ganjam. He now plans to set up a dance academy. ‘‘We’ll all contribute part of our prize money for the institute,’’ he said.

The Berhampur-based troupe — their story sounds a bit like the rags-to-riches tale of Jamal Malik in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ — has become a statewide obsession ever since its members startled everybody with their fleet-footed show. Such was ‘‘Prince’s’’ impact that CM Naveen Patnaik declared his vote for the group.

‘‘Their performance has been magical and they have made Orissa proud,’’ he said after congratulating Krishna and his boys.

CINDERELLA MEN: Two of the ‘Prince’ troupe’s 24 members overcame polio; their leader is a self-taught choreographer

I am happy :)

It’s back to school in Pune even as swine flu toll rises

Toddler dies in Pune, two more deaths in Gujarat and Karnataka as country-wide toll climbs to 72; over 100 fresh cases also reported

PUNE/BANGALORE/RAJKOT:

A toddler and two middle-aged persons have succumbed to swine flu in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, pushing the pandemic toll to 72 even as schools and colleges in Pune, shut due to the spurt in the infection, reopened on Monday after nearly two weeks.

Over 100 more fresh cases of flu infection were reported from various states on Sunday, Union Health Ministry officials said in Delhi.

Meanwhile, schools and colleges in Pune reopened on Monday after almost two weeks of closure effected by the authorities to prevent spread of the flu virus.

Seven Pune ICSE schools, however, announced they will continue the swine flu break for another week and will reopen this month-end. Among the seven schools are Bishops School, St Mary’s School, St Helena’s School.

The two-and-a-half year-old child, who was suffering from a liver disorder, was admitted to the Command Hospital in worst-hit Pune on August 21 after she tested positive for the virus, health officials said.

She passed away last night, they said. With the toddler’s death, the toll in Pune has risen to 23 and in Maharashtra to 39.

A 50-year-old woman, Sarojamma, was admitted to Thirumala Hospital in Bangalore on August 15 and given Tamiflu treatment but she died on Sunday night, hospital sources said.

52-year-old Rajesh Udhad, who was admitted to Wockhardt Hospital in Rajkot on August 20 after he showed flu symptoms like fever, breathlessness and vomiting, died on Monday morning, raising the virus toll in Gujarat to seven.

With the two deaths, fatalities due to the disease has climbed to 72. This includes Karnataka with 13, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh with three each, Delhi two and Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Haryana one each.

Students of Rosary High School in Pune Cantonment wear masks to school which reopened on Monday

MY THOUGHTS

We have been more and more prone to such epidemics in this decade compared to the last few. Schools should seriously consider developing a plan-B, on the line of home-schooling, which allows children to stay at home and continue learning during such events.

Schools are under tremendous pressure of completing the syllabus, but then is it wise to restart shcools and risk young lives for the sake of completing a few chapters on time!

IIT-B faculty protest new pay scales:

Go on mass casual leave, take out procession to demand better hikes, other IITs likely to join protest today

DIPTI SONAWALA

Upset over their new pay scales, hundreds of professors of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay went on mass casual leave and took out a silent procession from the IIT-Bombay campus to mark their protest on Monday.

The teachers were offered an interim lump sum payment of between Rs 75,000 and Rs 2 lakh depending on their post, till final settlement is made. Faculty members, however, say it is inadequate.

“The hike is less than what we demanded and also less than that recommended by the Govardhan Mehta Committee,” said Dr B Seth, president, IIT-B Faculty Forum.

They claim there is already a dearth of teachers. “If you want to attract good teachers, compensation should be reasonable,” said a member.

They said that to become an IIT professor, one has to study six more years which means a loss of income during that period. Had we taken up a government job, we would have earned more than Rs 20 lakh by now, the members claimed. “So far we thought of our students, but now we are running out of patience.”

IITs in other parts of the country are likely to join the protest by Tuesday.

MY THOUGHTS:

I thought the goverment had increased education budget. Wonder where all the money goes. A google on drop out rates in India suggests that the state of primary education is pathetic! This article clearly points to problems at higher levels too.

Every year lakhs of Indian students fight [intellectually] for a few thousand seats in IITs across India. Is it all worth it? Is brand IIT really what it should be?

IITs annd IITians claim to be the definition of Quality Indian education ... which I don't agree with! True that IITs have produced some of the most brilliant brains in the past, but so have other institutes!

How can one expect professors to be exceptionally brilliant at teaching when somewhere in their mind the issue of payscale constantly troubles them?