a) During 1960’s – 70’s, primary economic development STRATEGY of USA was to attract Manufacturing Industries. But, unfortunately, this was implemented at other communities expense: Many Manufacturing facilities were lured away from their moorings elsewhere through TAX INCENTIVES & slick PROMOTIONAL efforts.

So, this resulted in transfer of jobs & related revenues and one town’s triumph was becoming another town’s tragedy.

b) In 1980’s, STRATEGY shifted to “HIGH-TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT”. Here, the local governments competed to attract newly formed high-tech manufacturing firms. Till early 2000 year, this trend continued. But, as expected, this requires special training & at the same time, there are not enough high-tech firms to provide jobs to all the population.

c) In late 1990’s & early 2000’s, local governments have recognized advantages of yet new STRATEGY. PROMOTION of HOME GROWN SMALL BUSINESSES.

Small indeginous businesses are created by a nearly ubiquitous resource, LOCAL ENTREPRENEUR’s. With roots in their communities, these individuals (entrepreneurs) will be less likely to be enticed away by incentives offered by another communities. Talent is kept at home creating an environment that both provides JOBS & fosteres further Enrepreneur ship.

I ask – “How different is this from the INDIAN CASTE BASED SYSTEM followed since hundreds of thousands of years ?? “.  When a Potter’s son becomes a Potter. He has the every advantage of knowing the work since his childhood and learn the skill from childhood, by helping his parents & other relatives in his daily chores. Isn’t this ENTREPRENEUR-SHIP? Isn’t he preparing himselves for the tomorrow since his DAY 1 ? Isn’t his entire family helping him to prosper well in that particular family occupation, as they are already into the same work field since centuries ? (which we call it as BUSINESS today)

When we read the Education system of the INDIA dated back some 50,000 yrs ago (Lord Sri Rama’s Era a.k.a Treta Yuga / 25,000 yrs ago during Lord Srik Krishna’s Era a.ka. Dwapara Yuga) schooling system was limited previlege only for BRAHMIN’s & KSHATRIYA’s. Both had separate schools and in Gurukulam’s, the kids had seperate set of skills to be taught. Complete set of Veda’s, Upanishad’s & Godly knowledge for Brahmins , while Kshatriya’s whose Dharma / occupation was protecting the Kingdom / country had to learn skills like Archery, Fighting etc. During these ages, majority of the people were happy with their family occupations. So, there was less number of people from Brahmin’s entering and running a Business (duty of a Vysya), while a Vysya  entering and taking up responsibilities of a Kshatriya (a soldier to a king). This had the following advantages:

a) A son learns his skills from his very father (or family) & his ancestors. As his entire clan will be in the same occupation, there will be more than a million people around him to suggest what best suits him with in the and also every one is equally knowledgeable in that field.

b) Majority of the people are generally enthused about professions which they have learnt and have seen since child hood. They know in & outs of the occupation & can easily mould them selves to the requirements of the occupation. This indirectly means that their Life is more or less secure and can happily get on well in the area. Percentage of people who hold this interest levels in their parents occupation are also generally large in number. (Like we see even today, A Doctor’s child generally shows enthusiasm towards becoming a Doctor etc.) We coin this as the GENES of their household, which determines the child’s interest levels too.

Though our system had such amazing benefits, I agree that there were many short comings in it too. People greatly misused this powerful concept to their advantage and hence, is totally looked at with lesser significance amongst younger crowd today. Like one caste didn’t allow other caste to enter into their occupations, people were rigidly classified based on their birth stratum. Hope the society quickly open’s up & helps the coming generations to learn & descend into any occupation / skill based on their interest & what their heart directs them to do.

This not only helps us to grow strong into the chosen occupations of interest, but also opens up the society to greatly withstand any kind of a challenge in store. Future is yet to reveal..

Dear All,

Kindly be noted of the NASSCOM - JNTU - GLOBARENA MEET on : ”Employment opportunities, impact of recession on students, and how to overcome it ?“ 

Venue: Hotel GreenPark, Ameerpet, Hyderabad.

DATE: Saturday, 4 July 2009, 10 am to 2 pm

Registration:

Confirm your participation by
Email to: quraishi@globarena.com
with the following details:
Name:
Designation:
Company/College:
Mobile:
Email:

For further details please
feel to contact:    Kiran 98485 31838  /  Quraishi 98485 40850 

This Meet will focus on:

- Recession: the current scenario and its impact on entry level employment
opportunities
- Recovery of Economy
- Sectors (after economic recovery) with high entry level employment
opportunities
- Qualifications and skills sought by industry

Panel discussion - Employment Trends & Opportunities (10:50 am to 11:50 am)

Prof. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT – Bangalore
Sheen Akkara, Vice President – Deloitte
V Rajanna, GM – Telecom Industry, TCS
D.J. Ramesh, Chairman – Vijai Electricals

Panel discussion – Being Industry Ready: Skills & Qualifications (12:00 pm to 01:00 pm)

Dr Sandhya Chintala, Director – Education Initiative, NASSCOM
Prabir Jha, Senior Vice President Global Chief of HR – Dr Reddy’s
Ramesh Loganathan, MD, Progress Software
Namala Giri, Senior Manager – IBM

Hey! All you IIM – CAT aspirants here is a good news for you. There is a free CAT workshop by serial CAT topper Byju Raveendran , co-branded by Education Times at Hyderabad on Saturday July 11 . Byju is a 100 %ler and a regular TOI columinst and founder of Byju CAT coaching classes. To know more about Byju and his coaching classes just click here.

All you need to attend this workshop is immediately grab your phone ,

CALL or  SMS  < your name > to 9966708480.

Simple isn’t it.You receive a confirmation sms regarding the venue and the timings of the workshop as mentioned below….

Venue : Balaji palace Hotel ,

Rani Gunj Bus Stop ,

M.G.Road ,

Hyderabad

Saturday , July 11 at 6 pm

Source : Education Times Hyderabad June 29 2009

Since my childhood, I always wondered about the rules of our education system ? A system which just makes people byheart things. Which treats a 99% student to be more talented than 98% and 98% than 97% so on and so forth !

Opportunities are more for the better ranked / with higher marks !! GRADING SYSTEM IS SURELY AN END TO THIS MENACE / RAT RACE TO SCORE HIGH…

Here are my few cents:

10th exams should not be scrapped altogether as they are the introduction / base for students to enter the competitive world. But, significance of the exam must be kept limited. Also, the pattern of exam (being written alone) must be changed. I prefer following amendments to happen in the current education system:

a) “YES” TO GRADING SYSTEM.
  Here, Grade A = >80% marks
   Grade B = >70% marks
   Grade C =  >60% marks.

 So, a student will not really put effort to get 99% etc, but try to get into a better belt. As, student marks are not revealed at any point of time, no one really struggles to get that 1st rank… !!  Infact why do we need a 1st & 2nd ranks ?? What we need is collective effort amongst students to move towards a better tomorrow… In this process of moving forward, we must know what we are and what we are best at. If Education itself doesn’t provide that option to choose my career choices, then who would ?

b) A single final exam should never decide a student’s Grade as A / B /C. This should be calculated across multiple assignments, evaluations that happen all through his course work of 10th standard. Because, if you again limit a child to just evaluating on a single exam, he will be concentrating on doing well just during the exam and not really on attending classes well, participating in classes, contributing to over all school growth across the year. REMEMBER, CONSISTENCY IN DOING A TASK WITH DEDICATION is what makes BEST people. Putting lot of effort in mugging up things for years and finally getting a 99% will take the kid nowhere.

c) This evaluation has to happen during QUarterly, Half Yearly and Year End phases. This will make sure that student is READY & CONSISTENT all across the year. And, the marks to get a Grade must be split into various weightage systems. Here, Quarterly evaluation will get 30% , Half Yearly around 30% and Final assessment 40%. This reduces the nervous breakdown of students during the single exam, but makes them move forward with confidence, as they keep performing well every exam and have options to do well in one / another / all.

d) EVALUATION FACTOR is again most important. Don’t just conduct a written exam (Multiple choice types / Essay questions) and test students memory and byhearting skills.

e) Rather, make sure that student submits his paper work / dissertations / public speaking / projects etc on each of the subjects he studies at school. This helps people to really get ready for the real world, as these are the things that are done in their future course of study/ jobs etc. Also, learning methods should not force a kid to limit himselves to book, but he can rely on GOOGLE and find relevant information to write his thoughts based on unlimited source of information – THE WEB.

f) GK / General Awareness must be a subject in schools. Its very very important to cultivate this habit too as a mandatory subject. This subject too contains providing various essays, dissertations, public speaking, leadership activities etc at various phases of the year, rather than just blindly writing a MULTIPLE CHOICE Exam. This makes sure that a kid, if he likes politics, will learn what is politics and know more from a younger age.

g) Exams demand people to byheart. Rather, kids have to work on projects and a COMMITTEE of teachers from various schools evaluate the kids. This is the best methodology of helping kids add all the necessary qualities to face the real world like PUBLIC SPEAKING ABILITIES, FEARLESS ATTITUDE TOWARDS EDUCATION, ABILITY TO THINK BIG since their young age by opening up to imagination & expressing ideas via various projects/ paper presentations. Rather than blindly taking up some topic given in text book, they can write a BOOK REVIEW / give a Presentation / Project write up etc in their area of interest.

h) Education should never be limited to 7 subjects ( 6 regulars and GK). It should also have General ARTS, SPORTS, SOCIAL ACTIVITIES, POLITICAL SCIENCES, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES etc. Again evaluation of these subjects will happen 2 times a year (not 3 / 4 as others). This is non-exam based and is totally action packed. Students will really be asked to PAINT / DANCE / GIVE A PRESENTATION OF THEIR RESEARCH IN POLITICS or ENVIRONMENT etc fields they select. The experiences & knowledge that the kid has come to know across the year will be shared during this part…. This type of education since 6th standard (not just the board exam) will not only help students to really concentrate on TOPPING IN various areas to get a GRADE “A”, but also, to choose their field of interest in the future with confidence…

Because, If I am a good painter and I have 3/4 yrs of good concrete education in the same then this will allow me to choose if I want to really follow my heart in painting / general trends like IT today.

This way, we can definitely see talented children taking up courses of their interests & strengths and grow strong & happy in their future. Also, the biggest question of “KNOWING WHO A PERSON IS & WHAT HE SHOULD BECOME IN HIS LIFE”… is given as an opportunity or a gift to the kid since his childhood to choose from. So, what else can EDUCATION be ??.. rather than WINGS TO A KID’S DREAM WORLD OF PASSION…

———————

But, we still have many road blocks of merging 43 different board of examination to one single entity to evaluate kids on a same basis.. But, is this step / thought right ? .. Can a kid from urban background with lot of private schools brushing his skills on a daily basis ever be compared to a rural background kid, who might not even have enough skill & potent teachers to guide him achieve his dream percentages or rather Grades.. ? … Let us wait and watch.. as the EXPERTS COMMENT !!

Please do post your feedback on this .. We require active participation to ensure our friends and readers thoughts.. .

During this recession period, there are as usual millions of Masters applicants for various US universities. But, the words RECESSION kicks high in our mind day in & out. I would say majority of the parents would be unwilling to send their kids for universities abroad.

“BTECH KIYA NA .. AB AUR KYA” – are some commonly heard phrases.

Remember that after doing BTECH from some nominal college in India, its definetely worth pondering over MS option to get that

• Exposure to wide array of subjects
• Real Time Projects
• Excellent Staff
• Challenging College environment etc

But during this market down period, always remember to pick inexpensive colleges first. If you have some extraordinary voodoo & passion to do challenging projects and join top notch research labs at US, then may be the university costs shouldn’ t matter. But, for a regular masters applicant, try to gauge the incurring costs & thinigs around carefully.

Also, as in no time will the US job market gets straight under Obama JINX, this being his Top priority Ticket, there is no reason for these MS applicants to worry about their future steps.

Check for all these things atleast before you check out:

• Does the University provide any Teaching Assistantship /Research Assistantship position for you, to work parttime in the college and get some pocket money to rely for some time even when job less?
• Does the university reside in decent enough place to get part time jobs around the college? I am sure in this job less world, already many of these jobs also must have got great demand. But, who would be daring to work post 6PM in US .. esp during these security less days?
• Is the state you gonna stay an expensive option or affordable?
• In the midst of so many security issues for Indians across borders like US & AUSSIE land, better make sure you check things twice. Its equally important that you stay safe out there & your family is totally confident with your option. RACISM is GROWING you see !!
• Department performance that you gonna join. This shows whether you can really do well based on the univ expectations.
• This also shows whether the university is worth the fee’s You are paying. ROI brother ultimately. (Return on Investment)
• Visa Rating ==> The university you apply, do you get a visa or not
• Placements ofcourse. Do you have any seniors / friends who say the university does show people some good options, post their education.

Stay Safe & Aim high… !

WordWeb is a English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words in almost any program. It works off-line. The WordWeb Pro is available for Rs 1039 for a single user. Don’t worry, there is a free version which is as good as the commercial product. Features of free version include:

• 150 000 root words
• 120 000 synonym sets
• Definitions and synonyms
• Proper nouns
• Related words
• Pronunciations
• Easy to use interface

So this is going to be very useful for preparing for a examination which tests your vocabulary.

Download WordWeb by clicking here. Check WordWeb’s official site, if you want to know more.

Here we come with  a very good news. J.N Tata endowment trust is inviting applications from graduates , students in final year of their college, young professionals ( only Indian nationals) for the J. N.  TATA ENDOWMENT LOAN
SCHOLARSHIPS for the academic year 2009 –2010 for higher studies abroad in all disciplines and subjects.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE ?
Applicants who are :
I)   Indian nationals; and
II) (a) graduates of a recognized Indian university with a consistently good academic record; or
     (b) students in the final year of the degree course; or
     (c) mid-career professionals planning to go abroad for further research, specialization or training
At the time of submitting the completed applications, candidates need not have the admission / offer letters from the universities to which they have applied for the academic year 2009-2010.
HOW TO APPLY ?
Prescribed application forms will be available from the Administrative Office of the Endowment at Mulla House, 51 M.G. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 from December 8, 2008 to February 16, 2009.
The application fee of Rs.100/- can be paid in cash or by a Money Order on which the full name and address is to be mentioned to enable the Endowment to send the form. Completed application forms should reach the office of the Endowment not later than February 27,
2009.
THE SELECTION PROCESS
After the initial screening of applications, candidates will be shortlisted for an interview in person by subject experts. The final selection will be made on the basis of the interview which will be held in Mumbai between March and June 2009.

We wish everyone will avail this great opportunity. All the best!

Educational Testing Service (ETS), creators of the TOEFL® test, has announced on February 5 2009  that they will be launching a pilot program that offers TOEFL Star Performer certificates for students who have taken the test in India, Korea and Taiwan. The pilot program will officially launch on the February 14 testing date, and the certificate is designed to recognize students’ outstanding levels of proficiency achieved in all four communication skills measured by the TOEFL test: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.

TOEFL Star Performer certificates will be made available at three levels — gold, silver and bronze. Test takers achieving a minimum TOEFL® iBT total score of 110 and a minimum section score of 25 in all four skills will be designated gold-level star performers. Those with a total score of 100 and minimum section scores of 22 will be designated silver-level star performers, while students with a total score of 90 and minimum section scores of 21 will be recognized as bronze-level star performers. Elegant certificates will be available for a modest fee and can be purchased after test takers receive their scores. To celebrate, ETS will reimburse the fee for the first ten test takers in each of the pilot countries who purchase gold-level certificates.

“The key to achieving success when learning English is in integrating all four skill areas — listening, writing, reading and speaking,” explains Dr. Philip Tabbiner, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Development Partnerships and Global for ETS. “This is what the TOEFL iBT does, and the TOEFL Star Performer certificate allows students to boast that they have mastered those skill areas.”

TOEFL is accepted at more than 6,000 universities and colleges in more than 130 countries. The TOEFL test also is the largest globally deployed test and is conveniently available at more than 4,500 test centers in 180 countries worldwide.

Flashcards are a good way of making short notes to study and these are also useful for revision. Online flashcard services have another great advantage you can share and exchange your flashcards with the whole world out there. This way you also get a list of already available flashcards which you can use to study. If required you can edit them as per your requirements. Flashcards are a great way of studying revising especially when improving vocabulary or preparing for GRE,  ACT etc.

There are various services which allow you to create and share Flashcards. However, the following mentioned are worth a try.

FlashcardExchange

FlashcardExchange is a great place to create, edit, study, share, print and download flashcards. With FlashcardExchange you can create unlimited flashcards with images in it. Also you can create audio flashcards by uploading mp3 files. You can study the flashcards online, download them in Word or Excel format or print them to carry them wherever you go. There are flashcards on a lot of subjects in FlashcardExchange. Search for Cards tagged with GRE or vocabulary and you will have a great time learning vocabulary.

Quizlet

Quizlet is another very good sourece of flashcards. You can create your flashcard share them with others or you can form a group with your friends and all of you can study together edit your material together to make it better. It also has feture of making your flashcards private. This way you will not be sharing your flashcards with anyone else.  Quizlet is a good place to study and revise. Standardized tests such as GRE have a special significance here. So check it out.

P.S. This post is a GRE oriented version of Use Online Flashcards to study and review

Some of the visitors of bdCUBE had problems downloading the GRE audio word lists. Here comes an alternative – Verbalearn. VerbaLearn lets you polish your vocabulary for free on the Web rather than using flash cards and trying to memorize those words by heart.

After building a language list, you’re then tested through vocabulary quizzes with fill-in-the-blank questions as well as definitions. Users can also learn new words via customized MP3s of your study list. This allows you to generate your own MP3 audio word lists. You can listen to them whenever and wherever you want on your iPod. This is a great replacement for the audio word lists present here. Also you get the right pronunciation which helps you to prepare for good speaking at your TOEFL.

Also the newly launched feature called VerbaLearn2Earn allows students to earn cash rewards on a pre-paid debit card. However, you will have to find your own sponsor – say your teacher or parents.

VerbaLearn is pretty useful as it enables you to study more efficiently and even track your progress.