RG nonpolitical views

[rgurus]

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Jaipur: not allowed to take board exam, student kills self. News
Even if he was allowed, once the exam results are out, he would have done the same thing probably

 

[rgurus]

Palestinian woman dies after giving birth to 69 children. News
Of course, she didn't give birth to all the 69 in one streak. It seems she lost her life after giving birth to her 69th child at the age of 40. I think this is a fit event that can find a place in the Guinness book of world records.

 

[rgurus]

When MNCs come here, they become typically Indian. The exorbitant money that you pay for their products is only for their name. Names do not matter anymore.
Obviously. the lizard also was found fried. when complained, the owner however did not ask the woman to pay more for the fries since it contained fried lizard as an extra item.






Kolkata woman finds lizard in French fries at McDonald’s
The mother found the fried lizard in the fries she was eating with her daughter to celebrate her birthday

 

[rgurus]

Student in TN swims 5kms with hands and legs tied. News
This is nothing great. Many politicians in TN are pulling on their days for the past one month or so with their HANDS and LEGS TIED and their MOUTHS SHUT

 

[rgurus]

Engineering colleges ( continued)

With many schemes and projects getting implemented, the need for engineering personnel increased. Using this opportunity, many private entrepreneurs (and not educationists) started engineering colleges. They charged exorbitantly on the plea that they have to pay their staff scales of pay recommended by UGC. But in fact , the faculty in most of the private colleges are paid a lump sum on contract far too below the UGC scales. Since there is a serious shortage of qualified staff, freshers who complete their degree course are temporarily recruited for service in these colleges again on contract basis. At the time of UGC inspection for accreditation or recognition, the names of qualified personnel who were coming there as visiting faculty are shown as their regular employees to cheat the inspection authorities and where it is not possible, other techniques are employed to satisfy them. But as on date, the fact is that many of these colleges do not have qualified and experienced staff, do not have library and lab facilities as stipulated by UGC and AICTE but that however do not deter these colleges from collecting exorbitant capitation fees in lacks besides hefty admission and tuition fees etc. So today, engineering education has become very costly and beyond the reach of the common man and only in government colleges, it is reasonable and affordable for many. In private colleges, the qualification for admission is mainly the money that you pay, even though reservation plays its role. Thus most of the private colleges have become money minting centres not interested in offering quality education. If you have sufficient funds, that is the main qualification for admission. The government also increased its number of colleges where of course there was no capitation fee and the tuition and other fees were comparatively reasonable.



Most of the private colleges are located in God forsaken areas mostly because the stipulated area of land is available only there and the person promoting the college is a powerful man in the area both politically and monetarily. These colleges are run on borrowed staff, which send their students for their practicals to the nearby urban colleges where the required facilities are available. Most students do not get enough opportunities to handle and familiarise themselves with the machinery and the equipment. This is a major disadvantage the students from such colleges face.

 

[rgurus]

. Engg colleges ( continued)

The minimum qualification for teaching today is a Masters in engineering but many of the engineering colleges have only raw graduates temporarily appointed to handle classes, some who have either not completed their degree course and some who have failed some two or three times. You might have seen in papers last year that a professor appointed in a college had completed only eighth standard, but was handling electrical engineering classes for nearly three years. It seems he developed an interest in reading books in electrical engineering when he was working in a library and he was hailed as a good professor by the students! (Does it reflect the standard of the qualified engineering teachers?)Today degrees are available for a cost and this practice was previously prevalent in the North, but now has become common in the southern States too including TN. Compared to the total cost of getting a degree, purchasing a degree is far too economical and strain free. You would also have heard of the Bihar education melee where the student who scored the first mark was not able to answer a very very basic question and on suspicion it was found that student had enough contacts and understanding with the right (!) people with whose help was awarded the highest marks. Such things are on the increase today but was unknown even two decades back. So we do not know how many of these engineers are genuinely qualified. Even if they are highly qualified, most of them do not have field experience. Just as Bernad Shah said " He who can, does, he who cannot, teaches", that is the real situation. The qualified teachers do not have practicsl experience and the field engineers with fairly good experience do not have teaching ability with the result the present impasse continues in all colleges. I also faced similar problem as a teacher in a greater degree, since I was a post graduate teacher throughout my life teaching working engineers ( who were twice my age at the time of my joining as a faculty member) who came on deputation to update themselves in the area of their specialisation. I learnt a lot from them and that helped me in teaching. But in undergraduate classes, this is not the case. This is a very ticklish problem in most branches of engineering teaching. That is one of the reasons why the students are given project work on relevant topics to work in the field or industry, but how far this is made use of effectively is still debatable.




The morale of the teaching staff is on the ebb and the good teachers who happened to be strict, face the music. There is thus an overall decline in the quality of the teacher since many of the admissions and most of the appointments are political. I don't mean to say that every thing was perfect years before. Even in our days, there was paper chasing, paper leakage, nepotism and so on. The fact that so and so is the son of a big gun alert the valuers who are either asked or threatened to give very high marks to that candidate. Vulnerable teachers fall victim to these techniques. But the most unfortunate thing is that these facts are not known to many of the villagers and as you know among the public, both the highly educated and the least educated, there is a craving for engineering, right or wrong , and they want their children to become engineers. There is nothing wrong about it but the craving is so deep that even as a child is born, they want it to be a future engineer or doctor. This trend you can see all over India. The one redeeming feature is that people now are ready to send their girls also to engg colleges. That is one reason why today there are 50% girls doing their engineering.

With better opportunities in certain other fields such as economics, MBA and so on, the demand for engineering has slightly declined. Some who get admission in both the streams of engineering and medicine prefer engineering since after MBBS they have to work as internees and have to work in villages and they can think of going abroad only after seven or eight years after their +2 whereas an engineer can go abroad after four or five years with higher chances to go abroad and it easier in engineering streams. So among students there are two categories, one trying for a job after graduation in this country in view of the family commitments or their own limitations and the other going abroad after completing their degree because of lack of suitable placement or opportunities in this country due to nonrecognition of merit for various reasons.

 

[rgurus]

Thomas Edison tried two thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.”
Edison replied very confidently, “Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.”
Research always does not give you a right solution, but every failed research is important since it helps to eliminate the wrong solution for others to continue it in the right direction. It is the reductio ad absurdum concept that we use in Mathematics. Many may search for gold but only a few get it.

 

[rgurus]

English killing students
Nowadays, we very often encounter cases of school students who have been studying in Tamil medium, going to the extreme extent of committing suicide, either because they find it very difficult to cope up with classes in English medium in colleges or because they feel shy as a result of their inability to speak in English fluently as their other classmates, who have come from English medium schools.
Formerly in our school days, on seeing the writings of some students in English, our teachers used to say in a lighter vein
'DON'T KILL ENGLISH'
(this is also one way of killing English)
But today
'ENGLISH SEEMS TO BE REALLY KILLING STUDENTS'!

 

[rgurus]

Chennai: plus-2.student ends life after Tamil exam. News
Students committing suicide on poor performance in the exams is on the rise on one hand and students indulging in malpractices in the exams as indicated by flying squad and police protection for exam halls and examiners is also on the rise. This indicates how serious the exams are viewed by the students. Exam is a serious affair no doubt and one has to take it seriously but not go to the extent of committing suicide in case in spite of all your sincere efforts you have performed poorly. Preparation for the examination is a mental training more useful for life than what you have learnt through studies. Even when teachers or parents scold their children, we find boys and girls committing suicide. This indicates a dangerous trend and the pressure to which they are prone to face society. While studies are very important and exam is a part of our system over the years, failure in the exam does not mean end of everything. The failed feel equated with culprits as though they have committed a heinous crime. Most of the highly successful people in life are those who are school drop outs or failures as students. Young minds should be taught besides the usual subjects to face life and its challenges. Both the teachers and the parents have an important role to play in this regard.

 

[rgurus]

Engineering colleges (continued)

Is this craving for engineering justified?



But what is really happening?

For the past four years, it is found that around 30,000 to 60,000 seats remain vacant in the State alone.There are very few takers for the basic engineering subjects like civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. Most students prefer IT, computer engineering and EEE courses. There are millions of people in our country who live in slums and platforms who need a liveable housing. We have to go a long way in strengthening our highways, airports and harbours. High rise buildings are on the rise. Our water supply and sanitation systems need expansion to cover the entire country. To fulfil these needs we require lot of civil engineers, but the civil engineers output is very poor. Similarly, the need for power is on the increase and at present we depend upon hydro electric or thermal projects. We have to harness the wind energy, solar energy and have to do a lot of work on alternate sources of energy and for all these things we need lot of electrical and fuel engineers. We need lot of agricultural engineers and mechanical engineers. But what is really happening is there is a huge rush for EEE and IT courses. In view of the high starting salary for those in the IT sector, there is a craze for that field. It implies that people avoid jobs that involve heavy field work, but prefer white collared job of spending their time in AC rooms and working at all odd hours with computers. This may be one of the reasons for many girl students opting for engineering. I don't underplay the importance of IT, but with that alone we cannot survive. Many students and their parents naturally aspire their children to be computer or IT technologists and only when they cannot get these branches they opt for other branches. With computers, smart phones and electronic devices, we cannot solve the pressing problem of food, shelter and clothing. Computer chips cannot replace the edible chips! If working in the field is considered a taboo, which thought is slowly gaining ground, we will soon be deprived of all sorts of field workers and engineers and we may may have to import people from outside. IT cannot procure us paddy. IT cannot procure us wheat. IT cannot procure us most of the basic things required for life, but a technology that can help increase the production of essential needs must be encouraged such as water resource engineering, irrigation engineering, agricultural engineering and those branches of engineering that will support these activities. Our transportation needs improvement. Many are not aware of the various openings available for these boys. So simply opening more and more IT sections and more and more people running after that will only land us in a state of irrecoverable soup. In this competitive world of ours we do need hitech projects but NOT AT THE COST OF BASIC ENGINEERING COURSES AND THE RELATED SCIENCES.




But what is the calibre of the students churned out of these colleges, not only private but also government ?
Engineering colleges (continued)

We have affiliated colleges which have their own inadequacies. Only very few colleges have autonomy who make their own syllabi, conduct their own exams and offer degrees. Probably there are a handful of such colleges in TN barring IIT and REC. A critical review and ranking of the colleges may regretfully reveal the inadequacy of these colleges in terms of staff and infrastructure. You may or may not be surprised to know that in international ranking we are far behind China, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and so on and not to speak of the Western countries. One IIT in India , I think it is Bombay IIT, which has a ranking of 40. Most of the colleges do not find any place in the ranking list, not to speak of the unknown colleges in remote corners.



my maistry came to my rescue and

thus I was at the mercy of my maisty for the next few months. When I had no idea about preparing an estimation for a temporary shed, my maistry did it within 30 minutes. To draw a square or make a wall vertical all through is simple in a drawing, but in the field you have to learn it from the workers. We can't erase our mistakes in the field as we do in a vales room?

I had no opportunity to use the knowledge that I acquired during my degree course in the field. I got frustrated. Working in Mettur, my main work as a civil engineer was maintenance of all the substation quarters in the entire Mettur system. I have to go to each and every house and find out the improvement those quarters need and I had to arrange the defects rectified including complaints about the grinding stone ( ஆட்டுக்கல், அம்மிக்கல்) replacement of which became a part of my work. To do such works, do we need a degree? Within three months I got frustrated and resigned the job. The only job where you use your knowledge is as a teacher. But my present write up is not about my experience. This may not be relevant to all engineering jobs, but no one can deny the fact that we have a lot to learn from experience which a class room cannot teach. It is only indicative of the type of work which one has to do until you are posted at the right place. You may not get an opportunity to use your book knowledge in the field unless you are given design which is usually assigned to senior staff with good experience.

I find to day cases where the engineering freshers don't get any job and so many engineering graduates register themselves with employment exchange waiting endlessly and ultimately ending up taking petty clerical jobs, writing accounts in private shops and so on.

This happens more particularly for those from villages who did their engineering from some remote college nearer to their place. The candidates and their parents after spending so much money regret that they have wasted their life time savings on their sons' and daughters' education. In spite of this, unmindful of the future of the candidates, AICTE has been grating permission to start new colleges every year.

 

[rgurus]

The outline details of hyperloop are not evident. it is good that high speed transportation connecting important cities and ports are under consideration. Some may feel that this is not our country's priority. Even satellites are not our priority. Are we not giving importance to it. We can;'t wait for progress until our priorities are met. Side by side we have to think of going high tech competing with other nations without lagging behind. But it is believed that this hyperlo...
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Bangalore-Chennai in 20 minutes or Mumbai-Chennai in 50? Vote on India’s first Hyperloop route
It involves sending magnetically levitated pods through low-pressure tubes at very high speeds, carrying goods or people.
thehindu.com

 

[rgurus]

This article will be an eye opener for all Young Indians who have an American dream. Some very valuable instructions are given that can be used as a guideline by all Indian youngsters who want to reach heights in their academic career.




Rethinking the American dream?
Some staid advice to students post the U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on immigration restructures
thehindu.com

 

[rgurus]

March against violence, gagging of free speech

Hemani Bhandari




New Delhi March 04, 2017 23:25 IST

Whatever be the objective of the group protesting in Delhi, one thing is very obvious. It allows leftists to intrude and make political gain out of every confusion in this country. The students are unwittingly becoming pawns in the hands of politicians, left or right. Keep the politicians at a respectable distance, if you care for your future. This bravado won't help you in your real life. Violence has no scope or hope anywhere , more so in Educational institutions. Don't entertain such foolish thoughts that all Rightists are always wrong and all Leftists are always right. Remember that wherever there is a leftist government, the first casualty is FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION. Haven't you studied what happened in TINNAMON SQUARE in CHINA? Did these leftists ever raised their voices against it? Still you believe the leftists. There cannot be a greater shame than this.WE can correct the rightists, but never the LEFTISTS.

 

[rgurus]

The levying of extra charges by SBI and may be other banks in my opinion is not justifiable. Instead of targeting the middle and the lower middle classes, it should recover the irrecoverable balance from big shots who try all their tricks and trades not to pay back their loans taken from these banks. We actually see many such culprits dodging the police and the government. Because you can't tighten your noose over the rich and the powerful, you are tightening your noose over the poor and the powerless. The poor fish get caught, whereas the whales thrive with all their virulence.


SBI to charge penalty for breach of minimum balance from April - Times of India
NEW DELHI: After a gap of five years, State Bank of India has decided to reintroduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts from April 1, and revised…
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[rgurus]

2 gored to death, 56 injured during Jallikattu event in Thiruvappur
PTI
The event speaks for itself.. Will those dead and injured be honoured by the organisers? Will the families of the dead be taken care of by the Jallikattu Organisers and the tratment cost of those injured borne by them?

 

[rgurus]

New Delhi named among cities most afflicted by noise pollution
ANI
Delhi seems to suffer from all sorts of worst pollution, air, noise, water and political pollution. Rape is another pollution of which Delhi is the capital. In short, it is a pollution capital. Well done Delhi.

 

[rgurus]

Written in 2013
Union urban development ministry has asked all states, to collect CONGESTION FEE from private vehicles which ply through central business district (CBD) or any congested place in the city. News
A comment in a lighter vein
To avoid congestion in the area, it is a good idea to collect congestion fees from vehicles passing through that area, but that it is not enough. All vendors, pedestrians, shop owners and shoppers using the street or area may be forced to pay a toll fee similar to that on the national highways. Encroachers can be levied a special fee per hour for occupying the pavements. At the main entrance of the roads in the area on both sides, if it is not one way, counters can be opened to collect the fees. This may lead to a very big queue of pedestrians, various types of vehicle owners, vendors etc resulting in a GREATER CONGESTION which may prompt the authorities to ENHANCE the congestion, confusion and chaos fee, which in turn may help the city corporation to get MORE REVENUE more and act as an INCENTIVE to create MORE CONGESTION in less congested areas so that the corporation coffer will swell much faster.

 

[rgurus]

CNN documents negative portrayal of Hinduism: news
“It will promote ignorance about Hindu traditions and promote ridicule of Hindu children in the schools. For example, a teacher has requested CNN on Facebook if the Hindu-related episode will be available for teaching ancient Indian history to her sixth grade class! … this will have wider Hinduphobic societal impact,” Ajay Shah, convener of AHAD said. At a time when racial prejudices may be increasing and violence targeting Indians is on the rise, such portrayal of Hinduism is unhelpful.




Hindu groups, Ro Khanna object to CNN docu’s negative portrayal of religion
Made by Reza Azlan, it featured the extreme forms of practice of the Aghoris, including eating of human corpses.
thehindu.com

 

[rgurus]

Bengaluru may boast of being the `IT Capital' or `Science Capital' of the country, but the city has a thriving market for black magicians and sorcerers who claim powers and `skills' to inflict an evil eye on the prosperity of people, or even inflict mortal injury.And the clientele include, not just the lovelorn youths, but even corporate employees, race car drivers and those reeling under family and financial crises - all apparently a well-educated lot. It is a pity that such educated people should succumb to Black Magic tricks. So education doesn't seem to inculcate in the individuals a capacity to think on their own and act. Otherwise how do we explain this magic flourish in the city for more than three decades?




Bengaluru: IT capital or black magic capital? - Times of India
Bengaluru may boast of being the `IT Capital' or `Science Capital' of the country, but the city has a thriving market for black magicians and sorcerers who claim powers and…
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[rgurus]

The America of our dream changes: Not only America
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said there is no security for anyone in America and Indians are now wary of migrating to the US.
"There is no
Mr Steve Pushar. an American says "The number of people from foreign countries blows my mind out here. You see this whole area is all Indian, amazing. It’s an amazing number of jobs have been taken away from Americans. The Indian crowd has ravished the Midwest. ...
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Man stalks Indians in Ohio; accuses them of stealing jobs from Americans
In one instance, Pushor also sarcastically described the park as 'mini Mumbai'.

 

[rgurus]

உப்பு பற்றிய உண்மை
டொரண்டோ : உணவில் குறைந்த அளவு உப்பு சேர்த்துக் கொண்டால் மாரடைப்பு ஏற்படும் அபாயம் உருவாகும் என ஆய்வில் கண்டறியப்பட்டுள்ளது.
நாள் ஒன்றிற்கு 5 கிராம் அளவு உப்பு உணவில் சேர்த்துக் கொள்ள வேண்டும் என உலக சுகாதார மையம் அறிவுறுத்தி உள்ளது. ஆனால் கூடுதலாக உப்பு சேர்த்துக் கொள்ள வேண்டும் என கனடாவின் மெக்மாஸ்டர் பல்கலை.,யில் நடத்தப்பட்ட ஆய்வில் கண்டறியப்பட்டுள்ளது.
ஆய்வு அறிக்கையில் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ள தகவலின்படி, நாள் ஒன்றுக்கு 3 கிராம் சோடியம் உடலில் கலக்க வேண்டும். அதற்கும் குறைந்தால் மாரடைப்பு ஏற்பட்டு இதயத்தின் செயல்பாடுகள் நின்று உயிரிழக்கும் அபாயம் ஏற்படும். நாள் ஒன்றுக்கு 7.5 முதல் 12.5 கிராம் உப்பு எடுத்தால் தான் 3 அல்லது 5 கிராம் சோடியம் பெற முடியும்.
அதே நேரத்தில் அளவுக்கு அதிகமாக உப்பு சேர்த்தால் உடல் நலம் பாதிக்கும் என்றும் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
உப்பு இட்டவரை உள்ளளவும் நினைன்னு தெரியாமலா பெரியவங்க சொன்னாங்க? ஆனா ஒரு சில பேர் அதிக உப்பு கூடாது என்கிற சாக்குலே, ஒரேயடியாக உணவில் உப்பைக் குறைத்து வாயில் வைக்க முடியாத அளவிற்கு செய்து விடுகிறார்கள். இவர்களை என்னவென்று சொல்ல?

 

[rgurus]

Engineering colleges (continued)

This is the situation of fresh engineers in general who are average or below average. Now let us see what happens to the better qualified. Industries regret that even the best among the students who come out of the colleges are not " industry worthy", meaning they are unfit for employment in the industries straight away. In a class room, it is not possible to teach the special technology involved in each and every industry unless they go in for a specialisation in a particular field which will satisfy the requirement of that industry. Otherwise they will get only an overall background which will enable them to learn, once posted in the industry. But many industries are not prepared for this. In that case industries should come forward to collaborate with the institutions where the required facilities are available to start a course that will suit their requirements. Of course as of now some industries do collaborate with the colleges and help the college in formulating the syllabus. But there is quite a lot of scope for the expansion of this collaboration. But this is limited to very few colleges and most of the other private colleges are never approached by the industries even if the college is available near by.



Another very important shortfall of many of our engineering candidates is their inability to communicate and face an interview, which is usually held in English. This seems to be a stumbling block for an otherwise brilliant candidate. This is not only a problem at the time of employment but even during studies, as the medium of instruction continues to be English. This is the case with almost all students who hail from villages wherein their schools, the medium of instruction is Tamil. Those who have studied in Tamil medium definitely feel inferior to those from English medium schools. This realisation has dawned on most villages now, which is one of the main reasons for their clamour for studying in English medium right from 1st standard. Frustrated by the double standards practised by the politicians who exhort every one to study in Tamil even in degree courses, but sending their children to costly English convents, so that they later on get opportunities to get educated abroad and occupy plush posts and positions in the country, people expect that such opportunities must be made available to their wards also. So that is one of the reasons that even villagers prefer to send their children to English medium schools if available nearby. Thus there is a need to overhaul our system of education.

Does that mean, that we have nothing to feel proud of our engineers in this country? In fact we had an Abdul Kalam who studied under such conditions only who rose up to the position of President of India. In space technology, with the launching of 104 satellites in a single head, even US has expressed its awe and appreciation. In the nuclear energy field, we have made enough advances to keep our enemies under check. We have built massive dams with our own engineers and technicians which the world is looking with wonder and amazement. In many other fields we are hopping up and making appreciable progress. So our engineers are capable of achievements. We have made great strides in computer technology and for all the advancements we have in this field, there is the brain of Indians who are working in Silicon Valley. Given proper opportunities, we may become number one in the field of engineering and technology.

Let us hope that conditions in the country change for better in the near future.

( I have been writing these for the past few days in a great hurry as it occurred to me as if I have been talking. So there may be repetitions, lack of coherence and some structural mistakes for which I may be excused. You must thank me for finishing this write up now)

 

[rgurus]

Happy International women's day.
Let all men take a vow to respect women of their household, of their neighbours and of all those in the world.
Let subjugation of women become a thing of the past.

 

[rgurus]

More Indian migrants in Pakistan than un US: Pew Report.
Unbelievable. No one from India will go to Pakistan as an immigrant searching for a better future. It must be the muslims from India, loyal to Pakistan, who might have gone there on the fond hope that the other side is greener.

 

[rgurus]

BI launches'Work from Home ' facility for employees. News
Most of the times, the employees are not found in their seats and the clients are made to wait. This may cause greater inconvenience to the clients, particularly the illiterates and the poor.
The well to do have a question to ask " will this facility be extended to the clients as well?"