THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 7, 2015

Science &
Technology

Between Us

Goalpost

Child-friendly paediatric
TB drugs will be a
game changer.

The war is a magnified

version of the divisions
within ourselves. How do
you deal with violence?

A flexible credit system,

freedom to choose modules...
Angshuman shares his study
experience in Germany.

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Exam Prep | Admissions | Scholarship alert | Internships | Offbeat careers | Science | Technology | Campusline
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How good is your EQ?

SCHOLARSHIP ALERT

Studies reveal people with average IQ, more often than not, outperform those with higher IQ. The reason is
emotional intelligence.
low emotionally intelligent leadR. A. NADESAN
The tools to deal have
ers at the helm. Research by the Cenver the past decade or so,
tre for Creative Leadership has found
with emotions
emotional intelligence has
that the primary causes of derailment
that are critical
increasingly come to be seen
in executives involve deficits in emoas a critical factor of success
tional competence.
to
effectiveness
on and off the job. In the
The three primary ones are: Diffiin work and life
June 21, 1999 edition of Fortune magculty in handling or adapting to
azines cover article Why CEOs fail,
change, not being able to work well in
must be taught
authors Ram Charan and Geoffrey
a team and poor interpersonal relaColvin categorically state that suctions.
early.

cessful CEOs shine not so much in the

areas of planning or finance, but in
the area of emotional intelligence
(EI).
More recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on his first visit to India
after he took over the software giant
observed that, In the long run, EQ
(emotional quotient) trumps IQ (intelligence quotient). Without being a
source of energy for others very little
can be accomplished.
When emotional intelligence first
made an appearance sometime in the
1990s, it sparked off a significant
point of discussion. Why do people
with average IQs outperform others
with considerably high IQs, almost 70
per cent of the time?
This was an uncomfortable question for many who had always assumed that the sole source of success
was cognitive ability or IQ. Decades of
research now conclusively point to
the fact that EI is the critical factor
that sets star performers apart from
the rest of the pack. So what is emotional intelligence?
It can be described as a distinct
combination of emotional and social
skills and competencies that influence our overall capability to cope effectively with the demands and
pressures of work and life. It is the
ability to understand and deal with
feelings, both your own and those of
others, in a healthy and constructive
way.
Simply put, its the 'something in
each of us that is a bit intangible and
which affects how we manage behaviour, navigate social complexities
and make personal decisions that
achieve positive results.
In other words, being emotionally
intelligent involves tuning in to emotions, understanding them and taking
appropriate action.
EI can be described as a set of emotional and social skills that collective-

al intelligence.
As Daniel Goleman says, A person
with high EQ displays outstanding
performance throughout his life.
Its a powerful way to focus your
energy in one direction with tremendous results. Emotional intelligence
can be usually measured in two ways:
Self-report (by assessments) and performance measures.
There are several assessment
methods available. EQ-I 2.0, created
by Dr.Reuven Bar-On, is popular, scientifically validated and incorporates
more than 20 years of research and
development. In fact, he coined the
term EQ (Emotional Quotient) in
1985 to describe his approach to assessing emotional and social
competence.
This instrument or tool can be used
to predict a candidates likelihood of
success or possibility of derailment.

EQ vs IQ

ly establish how well we:

Perceive and express ourselves.
Develop and maintain social relationships, how we empathise and
work with other people.
Cope with challenges, recovering
quickly from stress and negative
emotions.
Use emotional information in an
effective and meaningful way in other
words tuning into subtle signals that
the body tells us.

Performance indicator
It has been proved that there is a
huge correlation between success and
emotional intelligence. Emotional in-

telligence is the single biggest predictor of performance in the

workplace and the strongest driver of
leadership and personal excellence.
In fact, research proves that when
tested with 33 other important workplace skills, EI emerged as the strongest, explaining as much as 58 per
cent of success in all types of jobs. It
impacts almost everything you say
and do each day.
It was found that 90 per cent of top
performers are high in emotional intelligence. On the other hand, research has also shown that poorly
performing or borderline leaders
have relatively low levels of emotion-

IQ is a threshold requirement to
get a job. For example, high cognitively skilled jobs such as an accountant,
engineer and lawyer require the basic
degree, for which one is required to
have a certain level of IQ. But after the
initial entry-level requirement, their
success in an organisation depends
on so many other factors, ability to be
assertive, empathetic, collaborative,
staying focused under pressure and a
plethora of non-cognitive skills. EQ is
estimated to account for 27 to 45 per
cent of job success.
Other results clearly show that the
best performing enterprises do have
high numbers of high emotionally intelligent leaders in key positions.
There is not only a direct link between having large numbers of high
emotional leaders in key roles in high
performing enterprises but also low
performance enterprises appear to

When you see the importance of EI

in everyday life, its surprising that
its not included as part of mainstream education. In fact, Aristotle
says, Educating the mind without
educating the heart is no education at
all.
The March edition of the Education Insider mentions that the Yale
Centre for Emotional Intelligences
research shows that students with
higher EI are better prepared to manage their emotional lives so that they
can focus, learn and do their best in
school. The tools to deal with emotions that are critical to effectiveness
in work and life must be taught early.
Emotions are critical and drive learning, decision-making, relationships
and overall wellbeing. Students who
are unable to handle stress or disruptive emotions might sometimes
perform inadequately in academics,
and if the school is old-fashioned the
student might be branded as a slow
learner and has to bear the consequences.
IQ starts developing at an early age
of around 6 years and peaks at 17.
After this it starts declining gradually.
EI, on the other hand, can be developed well beyond 65 years or more.
The EQ-I 2.0 can be used to help educate students to be more aware of
their emotions and those of others, to
be successful reality testers and problem solvers, to cope better with
stress, to be less impulsive, to be more
positive about themselves, to get
along better with others, and to enjoy
their lives.
Such emotional training adds an
important aspect to education in that
it would prepare learners to better
cope with environmental demands
and increase their ability to function
and succeed in life.
The writer is an EQ assessor and a
coach. Email:
ranadesan@yahoo.co.uk

Fedbank Hormis Memorial Foundation

Scholarships
This scholarship has been set up by Federal Bank to perpetuate the memories of its
founder K.P. Hormis. It invites applications
for the foundation's scholarships in Medicine (MBBS), Engineering (B.E/B.Tech),
Agriculture (B.Sc), Nursing (B.Sc) and MBA
courses.
Eligibility: First-year students studying in
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra states, whose family income is below Rs.
3 lakh per annum.
Application: By Post
Prizes and rewards: 20 scholarships in each
discipline which provides 100 per cent tuition fee to a maximum of Rs. 1,00,000 in a
year.
Deadline: December 19
Website:
http://www.b4s.in/plus/FHM772

L and T Build India Scholarships Scheme

To enhance industry-academia interface,
L&T Construction is sponsoring fresh, deserving engineering graduates interested in
pursuing an M.Tech in Construction Technology and Management in IIT Madras, IIT
Delhi, NIT Trichy and NIT Surathkal. The
24-month course will start from July 2016.
Eligibility: First class graduates in Civil/
Electrical Engineering who will complete
their course in 2016. Upper age limit: 23
years.
Application: Online
Prizes and rewards: For 24-month course, a
stipend of Rs 13,400 per month as well as
sponsorship and tuition fee.
Deadline: Second week of december
Website: http://www.b4s.in/plus/LAT609

Tata Housing Scholarships for Meritorious

Girl Students
A merit-cum-need scholarship to recognise, promote and financially assist meritorious
girl
students
belonging
to
economically weaker sections, so that they
can complete higher education in civil engineering, architecture and construction project management.
Eligibility: Girls in second year of Civil Engineering/Architecture in B. Tech/B.E/B.
Arch or girls in first year of MBA course in
Construction Project Management. Total
annual family income should be less than
Rs. 3 lakh.
Application: By post
Prizes and rewards: Fees related to admission, tuition, library, examination, purchase
of books and so on, subject to a maximum
limit of Rs. 60,000.
Deadline: December 20
Website: http://www.b4s.in/plus/THS424
Courtesy: www.buddy4study.com

The new-age classroom

Its raining holidays

Leverage technology to meet tomorrow's challenges

As Tamil Nadu struggles to return to normalcy after the recent floods, educators
speak on how they are planning to make up for the cancellation of exams.

NAVEEN RAJLANI

TEACHINGLEARNING

ompetence-building
is
one of the biggest challenges facing education providers today. The need of the
hour is to equip school-goers
with the skills that will enable
them to deal with the challenges of tomorrow, some of
which may not even exist today! The world is making such
rapid advances that the technology that is currently defined as cutting-edge may
become redundant in a weeks
time. In such a world, with
myriad learning channels
available to students, the major objective of education providers should be to make
learning more meaningful, effective and interactive.

Third pillar
The foundational pillars of
a classroom are content and
pedagogy. The third pillar
strengthening the foundation
today is technology. As the
world has advanced technologically, teachers have the
advantage of a variety of
media through which they can
deliver learning. The collaboration of technology in education has added a new
dimension of interest in the
classroom. Children today are
digital natives, who can adapt
to new technology and gadgets at mind-blowing speeds.
CM
YK

The introduction of technology in education makes learning more interactive and

interesting for young minds
and also helps hone life skills
that will be invaluable in a
rapidly changing world.
Education has an inspirational value that cannot be
underestimated. Parents, today, take greater interest in
their childs education than
ever before. They want frequent updates on what is being taught in schools and how
much their children have
learnt. To keep pace with the
growing demands of parents,
many schools have started introducing innovative methods of educating students.
There are ICT-enabled classrooms such as DigiClass,
blending
learning
programmes such as ActiveTeach
and integrated solutions such
as MyPedia that enable
schools to offer a perfect
blend of traditional pedagogical approaches and cuttingedge technology in education.

Integrated learning
The best educational systems worldwide focus on the
process of delivering integrated learning. What we learn in
a particular grade forms the
base of some critical and complicated problem which we
might face in the future. So, it
is of utmost importance to ensure that the base is strong
and concepts are understood
thoroughly. This will enable
learners to solve complex

problems later with ease.

The primary goal of delivering integrated learning is to
create a common platform
where teachers, students and
parents can connect. This is
the best way to ensure that
the day-to-day learning of an
individual continues beyond
classroom hours. By creating
a common forum where
teachers, students and parents can discuss matters related to the syllabus and
classroom teaching, a solid
layer of concepts and skills
can be developed and enhanced over time.
In todays world, the need is
to create a platform where the
childs performance can be
analysed and assessed on the
basis of his classroom activities. Such a platform should
integrate textbooks, practice
workbooks, digital resources
and assessment reports to
provide an in-depth analysis
and the remedial measures
that will help improve a
childs learning curve. The
convergence of all the media
for delivering quality education as well as the opening up
of lines of communication between teachers, students and
parents may well bring in
some positive changes in the
current education system,
with the focus on developing
learners to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
The writer is vicepresident and business head,
Inside Services,
Pearson India.

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

"While there
are 1-2 days
that can act
as a buffer,
it is
impossible
to manage
long
unscheduled
breaks.

he last one month

has seen such heavy
rainfall in Tamil
Nadu that the State
has come to a
standstill. Owing to the
risks associated with inundation and also because
people displaced by the
rains had to be housed in
school and college buildings, students, across the
State, have been forced to
stay at home instead of pursuing their courses and semesters
at
their
institutions. Now students
have to contend with postponed classes, cancelled exams and so on.
While Chennai itself has
seen quite a deluge, Tirunelveli and Cuddalore districts have been among the
worst hit in the State. The
question arises how difficult it has been for educational
institutions
to
manage this onslaught.
Dr. Lalitha Balakrishnan,
principal of M.O.P. Vaishnav College, an autonomous
institution
in
Chennai, points out that
November was a month
when holidays had already
been scheduled for a few
days. We lost only about
eight working days in all,
she says. Compensating for
these eight days would not
be too difficult, if you count

Students leaving the campus of an engineering college due to

flooding. PHOTO: D. GOPALAKRISHNAN
three ensuing Saturdays, a
few days clipped from the
Christmas holidays and a
day or two snatched from
the Pongal break. The main
difficulty, according to her
would be in scheduling the
cultural and extracurricular activities.
Anna University would
now have exams that extend up to the second week
of January, so scheduling
time for the Model U.N.
programme would be complicated, she says. The inter-collegiate
culturals
would also have to be
pushed to the end of January. Apart from the marginal inconvenience caused by
having to re-organise this,
she anticipates no major
practical difficulty in organising her college.

Plans gone awry

However, Aiysha Natarajan, educationist from Cuddalore, brings in a different
point of view. Seeing the
five units that have to be
taught in one semester as a
compound of theory and
practical training, he is dismayed that the planning of
these lessons has been disrupted. It is not about covering the syllabus, but
about letting the lessons
sink in the students minds
in a planned and organised
way. That is what has been
disrupted by the unscheduled breaks, he says. Cancellation of exams also puts
some pressure on the student, according to him. We
tend to associate doing well
in exams with an excellent

career graph, so come what

may, students will come
and give the exams, cancellation leads to a pressure
building up, he says. Also,
to plan for such natural
hazards, he advocates that
examination reforms could
be brought about Why
cant the universities hold
online exams? he asks, referring to the practice being
prevalent outside India.
He also deplores the insistence that students must
carry a hall ticket. The
truth is that in the rains,
several students have lost
their hall tickets. It is time
to end this obsolete practice, he says.

Challenge of geography
S. Prabahar, Controller
of Exams, Manonmaniam
Sundaranar
University,
speaks of having cancelled

exams on November 12 and

24, as many colleges were
inundated and exams could
not be conducted there.
While he does admit that
cancellation of exams causes anxiety, not only for students and parents but also
for the educators and administrators, he does see it
in a matter of fact way. The
semester is for about 90
working days and exams occupy 20-25 days. While
there are 1-2 days that can
act as a buffer, it is impossible to manage long unscheduled breaks. He also
stresses the difficulty in
having to provide a consistent solution over a large
geographical spread. The
university includes colleges
from three districts Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and
Kanyakumari. Thoothukudi district being badly affected led to all three
districts having exams cancelled for the two days.
Students are facing a
mixed bag. On the one
hand, memes of Mr. Ramanan, from the State meterological department who
declares that schools and
colleges will stay closed, are
being celebrated on the social media, and, on the other, apprehension at what is
to come. This is especially
true of students in the final
years who are looking forward to their placements!
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 7, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SNAPSHOTS

Child-friendly paediatric TB
drugs will be a game changer
R. PRASAD

BRAIN
RECEPTORS
CONTROL FOOD
INTAKE

reating young children afflicted by

drug-sensitive TB
disease will no
longer be the same.
After years of neglect, the
availability of avoured,
easily dissolvable rst-line
TB drugs in correct doses
marks a watershed moment
as the special needs of these
children will be met. The
tablets, which are a combination of two and more
medicines in a xed dose
(FDC), are meant for children weighing less than 25
kg.
At this momentous time,
it is a matter of pride that
India has gone beyond being the pharmacy of the
South with the Mumbaibased Macleods Pharmaceuticals Limited supplying
the paediatric TB medicines to the entire world.
Our capacities are sufficient to meet the global demand, said Vijay Agarwal,
Business Development Director of Macleods Pharmaceuticals in an email to
The Hindu.Lupin Pharmaceuticals, also based in
Mumbai, is expected to produce the combinations later in 2016.
The Revised National
Tuberculosis Control Programin Indiahas madethechild TB program a
priority.India expects to
roll out the new FDCs in a
pilot project in 100 districts, Dr.Cherise Scott,
head of paediatric programs at TB Alliance, Geneva said in an email to The
Hindu.
According to the World
Health Organisation, at
least 1 million children become ill with TB each year
and 140,000 children die
each year. Its an irony that
despite the high demand,
children around the world
have not had access to appropriate TB medicines.
Young children, who
have relatively greater mass

Activating
receptors in the
brain for the body's
hunger hormone
increases foodrelated behaviours.

Unfair to target India for

coal-based power: CSE

MIGRATORY
BIRDS
AT RISK

More than 90
per cent of the
world's migratory
birds are
inadequately
protected, a new
study reveals.

EUROPE NOT
READY FOR LOW
CARBON

Most European
business leaders
strategies to
combat climate
change are likely to
be ineffective for a
2C trajectory.

LAKE SUPERIOR'S
SECRET

A husband-andwife team studying

Lake Superior
found an ancient
2,000-mile-long
underground crack
formed in multiple
stages.

ven as India is being targeted for expanding coal

usage for energy production, a
Delhibased green NGO today
said that focusing only on coal
and India is an unnecessary
distraction and creating bad
blood at the climate conference here and is a well
planned campaign.
The Centre for Science and
Environment said that despite
the ambitious plans of the Indian government on renewable energy, the campaign to
bring the narrative that India
is going to burn the world with
coal is the only negative counter narrative but it will not
help. We are disconcerted
with the language being used
here.
Focusing on only coal and
only India is an unnecessary
distraction. It is creating a lot

The fixed dose combinations will improve adherence, improve overall treatment, stop the
growth of drug-resistant TB, and save lives. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
of liver in proportion to total bodyweight, absorb and
eliminate drugs faster than
adults. Children are not little adults but need higher
doses of the medicines than
what they were receiving
and what is prescribed for
adults.
Recognizing this, the
WHO issued the dosing guidelines for children in 2010
and recommended the
composition of the xeddose combination in 2012.
But pharmaceutical companies did not rise to the
occasion due to several reasons. Difficulty in diagnosing childhood TB led to
underestimation of the
number of paediatric TB
cases. Its a vicious circle,
no demand, no market, no
innovation. If there is no
one to support the development and no market, no
company will invest in developing such kind of
drugs, said Dr. Philippe
Duneton, Deputy Executive
Director, UNITAID, Geneva in an email to The Hindu.
UNITAID and USAID provided upfront funding and

A new
formulation
of
Ethambutol
100 mg
dispersible is
under
development
TB Alliance worked across
all areas researchers,
manufacturers, regulators,
governments and advocates
to bring these products to
the market.
In the absence of medicines of correct dosages,
parents and caregivers
were forced to crush or cut
medicines meant for adults
to achieve correct dosing.
Very often, the crude method of crushing adult tablets
resulted in imprecise dosing, not to mention the bitter taste when tablets were
broken. It is likely that
cutting and crushing of
adult pills could have con-

of bad blood in Paris.

It looks like a well planned
campaign to ensure that the
issue of carbon budget where
one needs to take into account
the historical responsibility of
nations (on emissions) and equity issue in the climate debate
here is being treated as obstruction. Indias entire focus
on equity and common but differentiated
responsibilities
(CBDR), to counter that has
been brought forward, said
CSE deputy director general
Chandra Bhushan. Noting that
he sees the narrative in closed
rooms and in the western
media, Bhushan said that India
and coal are the talk of town.
I think there is no other issue to corner India than coal.
This is quite clear, he said.
The comments come in the
back drop of US Secretary of

State John Kerrys remark that

India will be a challenge at
the Paris climate change
conference.
Bhushan said India should
have put out its coal story in a
lot better way than it has been
doing till now.
Hitting out at the US and
other developed nations,
Bhushan said that coal is being
used and will continue to be
used in both developed and developing nations.
But US has both gas and
coal, 68 per cent depends on
fossil fuel, 87 per cent of electricity in Australia comes from
coal, he said.
Elaborating further, he said
coal usage in US in 2014 is
more than what it was in 1990
and asserted that US consumes
more fossil fuel than ever before in its history. PTI

QUESTION CORNER
SPINNING IN SPACE
Why do celestial objects
spin around their own axis?
Do all celestial objects spin?
RAHUL CHANOURIA, New Delhi.

SPERM INFORMS
ABOUT DAD'S
WEIGHT

A study reveals
that a man's
weight affects the
heritable
information
contained in his
sperm.
CM
YK

Every object in the universe starting from a basic

star to exotic black hole
spins around its own axis.
This spin is traced to the
beginning of time. Big Bang
theory which tried to explain creation of this universe throws light upon this
aspect, according to which a
re ball of energy expanded
at an unbelievable speed,
cooled, solidied into all the
matter in the universe.
But this had not taken
place uniformly, otherwise

we would have had only a

homogeneous distribution
of primordial hydrogen, helium and cosmic microwave
back ground radiation instead of so many galaxies,
stars, planets, solar system
and different elements of
the universe.
During this formation as
a result of collapsing of a
cloud of gas, the celestial
objects acquire a conserved
quantity called angular momentum responsible for the
speed of the rotating mass
and its distance from the
spin axis. The original cloud
of gas is thus responsible for
the formation of smaller
cluster of galaxies, individual galaxies, individual stars

tributed to drug resistance

as caregivers were never
fully sure to give the right
dosages, Dr. Malgorzata
Grzemska,
Coordinator,
Technical Support Coordination, Global TB programme, WHO, Geneva
said in an email to The
Hindu.
The availability of childfriendly drugs of correct
dosages will have many advantages dramatically
simplify and improve adherence, improve overall
treatment, stop the growth
of drug-resistant TB, and
save lives. The FDCs will
prove to be a game changer, said Dr. Duneton.
In India, children are
treated withmany disparateregimens. Having xeddose combinations in the
correct doses and that are
easy for providers to give
and for children to take
could dramatically improve
treatment, said Dr.Scott.
The xed-dose drugs are
already available and countries can place an order,
which can take 2-3 months
for delivery. These drugs

and planets having their

own shapes and inherent
angular momentum. Even
after death and even after
they run out of the fuel (celestial mass) the celestial
objects continue to spin.
Rotation speed decreases
with increasing mass and
rotational velocity decreases with age. Thus we can say
all the celestial bodies do
spin which they have acquired during their formation.
Dr. T. BHAVANI, Bengaluru

THIS WEEKS QUESTION

What causes rigor mortis
to occur in a recently dead
body?
K. Srinivasan, Chennai

Readers may send their questions/answers to questioncorner@thehindu.co.in

will be primarily distributed

through WHOs Global Drug
Facility (GDF). We will supply within 10 weeks of receipt of orders from GDF.
Also, these products can be
purchased [by countries] directly from Macleods, said
Mr. Agarwal.
The FDCs are priced at
approximately $15.54 for a
six-month course of treatment. They cost approximately 20 per cent more
than todays improperlydosed products, said Dr.
Scott.
Macleods Pharmaceuticals has already submitted
its applications for approval
of these products to the
Drugs Controller General of
India (DCGI). We have requested the DCGI to expedite the approval process,
said Dr. K.S. Sachdeva, Additional Deputy Director General, Central TB Division,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Bioequivalence studies of
the new combinations have
already been done, based on
which the products were approved by the WHOs Expert
Review Panel. No other
trials need to be undertaken
to start using these products, said Mr. Agarwal.
Children will be treated
with two xed-dose combinations rifampicin, isoniazidand pyrazinamide for
the rsttwomonths (intensive phase), and then isoniazid andpyrazinamide for
the remainingfourmonths
(continuation phase).
Due to HIV infection and
isoniazid resistance in the
country, India advocates
four drugs, including ethambutol to treat TB. Ethambutol has to be given
separately as it cannot be
combined with other three
drugs, said Dr. Soumya
Swaminathan,
Director
General of ICMR.
A new formulation of
Ethambutol 100 mg dispersible is under development.
It will be made available as
soon as possible, said Mr.
Agarwal.

The valley where Himalayan Grey Langur lived remained isolated

from other langurs (seen in picture). PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Primates: fighting
for survival
K.S. SUDHI

rom the Kashmir grey

langur found in India
to Western purple-faced
langur of Sri Lanka, Lac
Alaotra bamboo lemur and
Perriers sifaka of Madagascar and Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia are all
ghting the most critical
battle: to survive.
The International Union
for Conservation of Nature
has come out with the list of
worlds 25 most endangered primates, which was
compiled by the Primate
Specialist Group of IUCNs
Species Survival Commission, Bristol Zoological Society, the International
Primatological Society, and
Conservation
International.
The report highlighted
the plight of 25 species including the Hainan gibbon
(Nomascus hainanus), of
which there are thought to
be just 25 individuals left in
the wild.
Similarly, around just 50,
and the Northern sportive
lemurs (Lepilemur septentrionalis) of which just
around 50 remain in their
native Madagascar.

There are
less than
250 mature
Himalayan
Grey
Langurs

The burning and clearing

of tropical forests leading to
the release of greenhouse
gases causing climate
change and habitat destruction, hunting for food and
illegal wildlife trade were
identied as the major
threats to these prized 25.
While Madagasakar has
ve of its species in the list,
India has one, the Kashmir
Gray Langur, also known as
Himalayan Grey Langur or
Chamba Sacred Langur.
The species was enlisted
as Critically Endangered
way back in 2008 in the Red
List of IUCN as it was restricted in its range with an
extent of occurrence of less
than 5,000 sq km and an
area of occupancy of less
than 500 sq km, being to a
valley surrounded by high
peaks in Chamba which is
affected by human activities causing a continuing
decline in habitat quality.
A very small population
of Himalayan Grey Langur
with less than 250 mature
individuals was surviving.
The species was found occurring in Northwestern
India in Himachal Pradesh
and Jammu and Kashmir.
The valley where it lived
was surrounded by snow
peaks and therefore it remained isolated from other
langurs.
The assessment that only
25 individuals of Hainan
gibbons, 50 of Northern
sportive lemur and 60 of
Golden headed langur were
remaining in the wild has
pressed the alarm bells for
conservationists.

For normal growth, low dose

radiation necessary!
E

ver since the discovery

of X-rays, researchers
have exposed fruit ies,
mice and other living beings
to radiation. An atom bomb
survivor study and medical
and industrial exposures to
radiation have provided human data. These demonstrated that radiation at
high doses will cause cancer. But at low doses there
are uncertainties. As a matter of abundant caution, scientists assume that even
low doses have a detrimental effect and there is no
threshold below which the
effect is zero. Presently,
many scientists oppose this
Linear No threshold Hypothesis.
A few years ago, a group
of 26 scientists highly regarded in radiobiology research wondered what will
happen if they grow living
organisms in ultra low radiation levels. Quite unexpectedly, the study carried
out on their recommendation showed that the experimental organisms (one
radiation sensitive and the
other radiation resistant)
required radiation for their
normal growth! On July 7,
2011, The Hindu reported
the preliminary results of
such a study.
Dr Hugo Castillo and his
colleagues reported the nal details of their study in
the September 2015 issue of
the International Journal
of
Radiation
Biology
(IJRB).
It was difficult to carry
out such an experiment, as
natural radiation which primarily consists of gamma
radiation emitted by radio-

An atom bomb survivor study and medical and industrial

exposures to radiation have provided human data. PHOTO:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

activity present in building

materials and soil and cosmic radiation from outer
space is present everywhere.
How to achieve ultra low
levels of radiation? Researchers set up their laboratory in New Mexico,
USA in the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant (WIPP). WIPP is
located at a depth of 650
metres in the middle of a
610-metre thick ancient
salt deposit that has been
stable for more than 200
million years. The radioactivity content of the salt deposit
(pure
sodium
chloride) is extremely low.
The thick salt layers reduce
cosmic radiation to negligible levels. To reduce the
radiation background still
further the scientists used a

The presence
of radiation
isnt
necessarily
bad

15.24 cm thick vault made

from pre-World War II
steel in which there are no
fallout
radioactive
elements.
The typical background
radiation level in the vault
where they did the experiment was 0.16 nGy per
hour, which is about 400
times less than the normal
background radiation. (Gy
is a unit of dose; in a Gy of
radiation, the energy absorbed per kg of material is
one Joule; nGy nanoGy
is one thousandth of a millionth of a Gy.)
The researchers used
Shewanella oneidensis, a
radiation sensitive organism and Deinococcus radiodurans, a radiation
resistant microbe, in their
study. They grew them in
separate incubators at carefully controlled humidity
(48 per cent) and temperature (30 degree Celsius).
They exposed the microbes to two radiation levels 0.2 nGy per hour (at
ultra low background radiation level) and 71.3 nGy per
hour (at background radi-

ation level). They maintained the latter level by

using known amounts of
potassium chloride in sacks
(totally 11.5 kg) around the
incubators which contained the microbes to be
irradiated to background
radiation levels. Potassium
chloride, which contains
potassium-40 emits highenergy gamma rays and is
an ideal source of radiation.
After exposure, the scientists extracted the RNA
from the microbes and
demonstrated the molecular evidence that ultra low
background radiation inhibited growth and elicited
a stress response in the two
species of bacteria. Interestingly, when the researchers returned the cells
to background radiation
levels, growth rates recovered and the stress response dissipated.
The presence of radiation isnt necessarily bad
and the absence of radiation isnt necessarily
good, Mr James Conca, a
regular columnist of Forbes
(Sept 23, 2015) commented
in his inimitable style, after
lucidly reviewing the IJRB
paper.
The organisms showed
quantiable stress response, identiable to specic genes in their DNA,
when they remained in the
absence of radiation. Radiation seems to be necessary
for normal growth for these
two lowly organisms!
K S PARTHASARATHY
ksparth@yahoo.co.uk
[The writer is former
Secretary, Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board]
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

EducationPlus 03

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 7, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where guns meet roses

GLOBAL BUZZ

The wars fought outside are a magnified version of the divisions we create within ourselves. How do you
deal with violence?
ANURADHA SHYAM
It is ironical
that as we
BETWEEN US
lament over
t is a beautiful photothe violence
graph, capturing a mocaused by
ment of humanity. A
line of soldiers, each
war, we
holding a gun, poised for
attack. The soldiers faces are
subconsciously
grim and the setting is bleak
engage in
dilapidated buildings,
barbed wire and tanks. A
acts of
young girl, carrying a basket
violence
of flowers in one hand, is
handing over a deep red rose
every day.
to a soldier. The photogra-

pher has caught the moment

where the rose touches the
muzzle of the gun. The scene
poignantly depicts the paradox of life itself where the
starkness of violence can
meet the full bloom symbol of
peace.
The reality of violence and
its effects are far less poetic.
In the world of information,
we become mute spectators
to the reported acts of brutality and consumers of violent
images that are continuously
streamed into our living
rooms. A sensory overload
can often lead to a numbing of
our psyche, or worse, a desperate sense of helplessness.
As a teacher, we see the effect
of this on our students. Some
of them are traumatised by
the visuals while others vent
their frustration through creative outlets of poetry and art.
In conversations with students, the underlying question is often a plea for help,
How do I deal with this?
What can I do?
Many years ago, a student
from a war-torn country visited the school and shared her
experiences. Where she lived,
her school was constantly
disrupted by curfews and her

A rose is pictured in a bullet hole in a window, in Paris on November 14, following a series of coordinated attacks in and around the
city the previous day. PHOTO: AFP
freedom was curtailed by various barriers. The sound of
gunfire was a regular part of
their lives, and death was not
by any means a stranger. Yet,
she spoke of the ordinary moments that gave them immense joy being able to
celebrate a birthday party
with cake and balloons, sharing a bar of chocolate or playing a prank on their teachers.
When one of the students
asked her what she felt she
could do to bring peace, she
replied, Outside what happens, I cannot control. But inside, we can be more at
peace. This was more than
just an empty platitude. It
came from this young stu-

dents realm of experience

and showed us an alternative
way of looking at our response to violence.

Subconscious violence
It is ironical that as we lament over the violence
caused by war, we subconsciously engage in acts of violence every day. If we
carefully observe our own interactions with people, we
bring layers of hate, anger and
resentment into our interactions. In schools, this can often take the form of vicious
bullying (physical and verbal)
which has now a more powerful avatar and reach in the
area of social media. The

manner in which students

and teachers discuss each
other has moved from an affectionate levity to bitterness. Increasingly one sees
divisions taking place. The
management, the teacher and
the student operate as three
separate entities and often do
not see themselves as part of a
whole. We accept this violence and participate in it
naturally almost giving it a
status of legitimacy!
In this scenario, the only
thing we can do is bring
awareness into our own actions. Controlling our actions
results in repressing our anger, which is just another
form of violence. While there

are many ways of bringing

awareness to ourselves, the
essence is to become quiet
and just observe what we are
holding onto. More often
than not, holding on to a selfimage that we have created,
clouds us from seeing what
really is.

A monk story
There is a beautiful story
that illustrates this. An elderly monk and his young disciple
were
travelling
together. At one point, they
came to a river where there
was a strong current. A young
beautiful woman was trying
to cross the river and was asking for help. The elder monk

carried her across to the other side and let her down on
the bank. The two monks
continued with their journey.
The younger monk remained
silent. The elderly monk
asked him what was bothering him. The younger monk
said that as monks, they were
not allowed to touch women.
So how could he carry the
woman across the river? The
elderly monks reply was
priceless, I left the woman a
long time ago at the bank. You
seem to be carrying her still.
Like the symbolic photograph of the soldiers and the
rose, we constantly negotiate
the forces of violence and
peace within us. The wars
fought outside are a magnified version of the divisions
we create within ourselves.
Our life can be a journey of
turning the guns inside us into roses. Gandhi lived by the
virtue that change begins
with oneself. This is perhaps
the only time tested truth
that we can use as we respond
to the violence outside our
line of control.
If this article spoke to you,
do drop a mail at:
lifeplus590@gmail.com

Sheffield scholarships

Changing trends

Merit-based scholarships for UG and

PG programmes.

Why the industry prefers M.Com candidates to MBAs?

S. BHUVANESHWARI

he U.K.-based University of
Sheffields Management
School has announced the
Management International
Scholarships worth 2000 per
year for undergraduate students
and Postgraduate Management
School Scholarship worth
7,000 for students applying for
the MBA and M.Sc. programmes
commencing in September
2016.
Both scholarships are meritbased and students can apply
for the same once they have an
offer from the university.
Applicants must also have the
personal, intellectual and
interpersonal qualities
necessary to make an excellent
contribution to the programme.
The teaching at Sheffield is
research-driven, with many of
the teaching staff being
researchers working in policyrelevant areas. With
undergraduate courses in
Accounting & Financial
Management, Business
Management and International
Business Management, the
School also offers Dual Honours
Degrees in partnership with the
other departments of the
university where students can
choose a foreign language or a
major subject to complement
the graduation subject.
Post-graduate courses offered
include MBA as well as M.Sc.
programmes in
Entrepreneurship and
Management, Leadership and
Management, Creative and
Cultural Industries
Management, and Occupational
Psychology.
Students have full-time
access to a dedicated team of
careers specialists throughout

WASSUP
HSEE- 2016
The Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Madras
will receive online application from December 16,
2015 to January 25, 2016 on
http://hsee.iitm.ac.in
for
the Humanities and Social
Sciences Entrance Examination (HSEE -2016) to be
held on Sunday April 17,
2016 between 10 a.m. and 1
p.m. across the country for
admission to its five-year
Integrated MA in Development Studies and English
Studies. The programme
has a total of 46 seats and
CM
YK

New from around the world.

Highest tuition fee
A recent report published by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) has revealed that
students in England are paying the highest
university tuition fees in the world, and around
six times more than those studying in
Switzerland and Italy. According to the survey,
which was held across more than 30 countries,
the next highest was U.S., followed by Japan.
However, only public universities were taken
into account. A consolation for the students in
England is that the wages they get after their
graduation makes up for the high tuition fee.

Top BRICS universities

Chinas
universities have
dominated the league
table of top
universities compiled
by Times Higher
Education BRICS
and Emerging
Peking University, China
Economies Rankings.
The first and second places, half of the Top 10
and 39 places in the Top 200 have been bagged
by universities from the country. Taiwan has
24 universities in the Top 200, while India has
16. The top 10 universities are as follows:
Peking University, China; Tsinghua University,
China; Lomonosov Moscow State University,
Russia; University of Cape Town, South Africa;
National Taiwan University, Taiwan;
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa;
University of Science and Technology of China,
China; Zhejiang University, China; University
of So Paulo, Brazil and Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, China.

Sri Lanka to spend more on education

In an effort to boost its education system, Sri
Lankas new government has promised to
increase the spending on the sector by 30 per
cent. While presenting his 2016 budget speech,
Sri Lankas Finance Minister Ravi
Karunanayake said that private universities
should be allowed to operate in the country.
The government has also promised to provide
hostel facilities to all students by 2018. The
move aims at stopping the drain of foreign
exchange out of the country as increasing
number of students were going abroad for
pursuing higher education.
COMPILED BY SARTHAK SARASWAT

O
University of Sheffield, U.K.
PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

their course and upon

graduation. A personal tutor is
assigned to each student so as
to support them throughout
the course. The School has
links with a wide range of
companies such as Barclays,
KPMG, Procter & Gamble,
Rolls Royce and Tesco.
The Employability Hub,
based within the Sheffield
University Management
School, acts as a key interface
between students and
employers supporting access
to student projects,
internships, postgraduate
international summer schools,
professional bodies and jobs.
The School offers a range of
seminars and curriculumenrichment events where
students can learn from
business experts and take
advantage of placements and
company visits.
For further information
about the Management School
and the scholarships,
visit http://
www.sheffield.ac.uk/
management

each stream will have 23

seats.
Candidates applying for
HSEE- 2016 must have
passed Plus-Two / equivalent examination with minimum of 60 per cent marks in
aggregate (SC/ST, PwD categories required a minimum
of 55 per cent) and whose
date of birth should fall on
or after October 1, 1991 (For
SC/ST/ PwD, on or after October 1, 1986).
The examination fee for
general, OBC (NCL) male /
third gender candidates is
Rs. 2,000 and for all categories of female and SC/ST/
PwD male/ third gender
candidates Rs. 1,000 and ad-

ver the last four years, the

MBA course has lost its
sheen. However, the
scene is improving this year
with more number of students
showing interest in the programme. The meltdown in the
global economy is the main
reason for the decrease in demand.
The increase in the number
of seats in Karnataka for the
MBA course also reduced the
demand for the programme in
private institutions.
M.R. Shollapur, Director of
MBA department, Siddaganga
Institute of Technology, says
that if there is a one per cent
reduction of growth in the
economy, a total of 20 lakh jobs
in the country per year will be
lost. He says top business
schools in the state are doing
well and the students coming
out of those business schools
have
good
employment
opportunities.
Last year, around 40 per
cent of the seats in the MBA
courses in the state were vacant, but this year around 8090 per cent of the seats have
been filled. The number of students taking the entrance examination for the MBA
programme has also reduced.
About 8,000 students appear
for the entrance examination
conducted by the Karnataka
Examination Authority for
10,000 seats.
Even after appearing for the
entrance examination, about
2,000 students do not go for
the verification of original documents. Ravi Kumar, principal
of Sri Siddhartha Institute of

ditionally the bank service

charges of Rs. 30 have to be
remitted through Indian
bank challan generated during the online process of application.
Online
application facilities are
provided up to January 25,
2016. Candidates belonging
to OBC (NCL) / SC/ST/
PwD are required to submit
additionally a hard copy of
the self-attested certificate
of respective category/
medical certificate as applicable, in the prescribed format so as to reach the
chairman, HSEE- 2016, JEE
Office, IIT Madras, Chennai-600036 on or before January 25, 2016. Visit

Students at the library of Siddaganga Institute of Technology. (Right) A lecture in progress.

Business Management Studies, says most of the colleges
in Tumakuru district have
M.Com. course under Tumkur University and students
prefer M.Com rather than
MBA. Hence some colleges in
Tumakuru district have stopped MBA courses in their
colleges due to lack of numbers. He says many companies
prefer
M.Com.
candidates to MBAs, as
M.com. students can work
both in finance and accounts
departments.
Industry-oriented
curriculum
Autonomous colleges have
their own curriculum. They
frame the syllabus in tune
with the industrys requirements. With respect to university-bound MBA courses,
it takes at least one year to
change the syllabus due to
the lengthy procedures and
the students coming out of
such colleges fail to understand the present business

http://hsee.iitm.ac.in
more details.

for

BSc Nursing and GNM

Courses
Applications are invited
online at www.joinindianarmy.nic.in up to December
30 from female candidates
for admission to four-year
B.Sc. Nursing course commencing in July / August
2016 at Colleges of Nursing
and three-year Diploma in
General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) course commencing in September 2016
at Schools of Nursing of
Armed Forces Hospitals.
Total 180 seats are available
for B.Sc. Nursing and 30 for

M.Com and
MSW
candidates
work for lower
salaries,
compared to
MBA
graduates.
scenario and hence fail to get
jobs, says Prof. Dayananda
Swamy, Director of Sri Siddhartha Institute of Management Studies.
Job opportunities
Prospective
candidates
coming out of top business
schools have good job opportunities but candidates coming from districts have fewer
job opportunities due to lack
of communication skills in
English language and other
soft skills. D.S. Suresh Ku-

GNM. During the training,

they will be provided with
fee ration, accommodation,
uniform allowance and
monthly stipend. Selected
candidates will execute an
agreement / bond to serve in
the Military Nursing Service
for five years. On successful
completion of Nursing
Training, the candidates
will be granted permanent/
short service commission in
the
Military
Nursing
Service.
The applicants should be
unmarried/ divorcee / legally separated or widow without encumbrances and born
between August 1, 1991 and
July 31, 1999. They should

mar, Director of Chennabasaveshwara

Institute
of
Technology, says, The aptitude and analytical thinking
of the students are from
satisfactory and hence they
do not land proper jobs.
Most students coming for
higher education from rural
areas only come for jobs and
are not inclined to learn new
skills. This reduces the job
opportunities for them.
Kavyashree T.R., MBA student, Siddaganga Insitute of
Technology, says, I have
taken up the course as I can
get jobs in finance, banking
and also I can start my own
business or work as a
lecturer.
MBA student of SIT Imtiaz
Pasha says companies from
countries such as Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia and Qatar prefer MBA candidates and
hence he has taken up this
course. Another MBA student
Pooja.V says that most of the
German banks prefer M.Com

candidates to MBA graduates.

Smitha, an MBA graduate
working as a financial associate in an MNC in Bengaluru,
says that though I am a
MBA graduate, I got this job
based on my B.Com degree
as our company do not prefer
MBA graduates. She also
adds that many of her friends
who had completed MBA
failed to get a job in the
MNCs.
Dr. Ravi Kumar says that
M.Com candidates are given
preference for finance and
HR departments; MSW candidates are given preference
over MBAs as the M.Com
and MSW candidates work
for lower salaries, compared
to MBA graduates.
If the Make in India programme succeeds in bringing
200 - 300 companies to India
within the next five years,
the job opportunities for
MBA candidates are likely to
increase, says Dr. Ravi
Kumar.

have passed Class XII /

equivalent examination as a
regular student and secured
50 per cent aggregate marks
in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English subjects in
the Board Examination in
first attempt. Those appearing for final-year qualifying
examination during the current academic session may
also apply. Minimum height
should not be less than 148
cm.
The admit card for the
written test can be downloaded February 2, 2016 onwards.
Visit
www.joinindianarmy.nic.in
for more details.
GOPAKUMAR KARAKONAM
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

04 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 7, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discover your true calling

Psychometric test is a useful tool that offers career clarity and opens up new possibilities.
ALOK JAIN
These tests
ove them or loathe them,
also help
in todays competitive
candidates
scenario, there is nothing more adequate than a
gain the
psychometric test to unconfidence to
derstand ones persona, mental
make-up and skills. All it rehighlight their
quires is to analyse the answers
to a specific set of questions.
abilities at
After completing their board
interviews.
exams, choosing the right sub-

ject for graduation can be an

arduous task for students. Scientific and easy-to-use online
assessment tools such as psychometric tests can be instrumental in helping them choose
the right career at the right
time. Students can get a personalised report based on their answers, which is then matched
with the available career options, gradually charting the
path to economic growth for the
nation.
all recruiters favour over the
traditional interview, reference
and CV method, owing to its accurate indication of how a candidate will actually perform at
work. For an HR of any corporate house or a start-up, the biggest challenge today is hiring
the right people. Attracting
good talent is not considered
enough anymore. A prospective
candidate must be pronounced
as a good hire and needs to be
the perfect fit. This test makes
sure that the recruiters do not
end up paying a heavy price for
quick, wrong hires.
Recruitment is expected to
evolve from a fragmented ecosystem to players implementing
ways to work closely with their
clients requirements. In a positive move, recruitment compa-

nies are likely to give up

sourcing appropriate candidates to acquiring the right ones
by using psychometric tests to
shortlist prospective candidates. As this industry is growing at a breakneck speed,
start-ups and big corporate
companies are now deploying
techniques like multi-level assessments, psychometric tests
and roping in external partners
to make sure they assess potential employees accurately and
appoint the right candidate for
the required post.
We all make assumptions
about our abilities, and one may
not completely trust someone
elses judgment with regard to
choosing ones next career or
being adjudged on being a perfect fit in an organisation, exclusively on the basis of this online
test. However, it is a useful persuasive tool for checking out
that career move. Even if you
have no idea what youd like to
do, its a fun way of getting at a
few insights you might never
have thought of by yourself. It
can throw up unexpected results that open up new career
possibilities.
The writer is Chief
Operating Officer,
CareerCo.in.

Engineers have to learn and

make themselves aware of the
fields in which their knowledge
of engineering will be applied.
Customer needs have to be
translated into optimum design which fulfils the quality
and performance characteristics at optimum cost in optimum time. Tolerances will be
dictated by the end use of the
product. At an advanced level,
one has to practically apply
techniques of management
and lead the team for achievement of collective goals. Besides being a good engineer,
one has to be an expert economist and skilled in higher management techniques in order to
lead the team from the front.
According to you, how can
study materials be made
effective?
By and focusing on the
fundamentals.
Why should a person seek to
pursue a career in this field?
Critical thinking and quanti-

tative analysis are always in

demand. It enables students to
imbibe many skills that are
useful globally. One can fit into
the field of software and allied
professions also. Its necessary
to follow the dictates of ones
conscience and pursue the career of ones choice and
aptitude.
At FIITJEE, is there a scheme
for those from the poorer
sections? Why do dropouts
happen?
Under our Fortunate 40
scheme, we educate many deserving candidates whose parents earn less than Rs. 10,000
per month. Mostly, dropouts
happen because of lack of revision and dedication.
Could you share some exam
tips for students?
Have a goal and make sure
its a realistic one. Know your
potential. To become a successful engineer, you need focus, tenacity, hard work and
determination.

Psychometric tests aim at providing better career and recruitment choices.

The right path

Measuring educational progress through examination results is pass and inadequate in
todays competitive scenario as
these results are influenced by a
wide range of factors. While it
makes sense to pursue careers
that play to a students specific
abilities, exam results alone
should not define their career
choices. A psychometric test focuses on changing this traditional mindset of people and
setting them on the career path
that suits their personality. Focusing on the key aspects of an
individual such as personality,
interests, values and behavioural traits, these tests are successful in determining the
inherent passion of students.
They are based on the understanding that students can do

wonders if they indulge in the

work that comes naturally to
them. The results of the tests
highlight the weaker points of
the candidates, so that they can
gain knowledge and select careers that play to their strengths
and needs. Candidates are also
likely to gain the confidence to
highlight their abilities at
interviews.
Psychometric tests aim at
providing better career and
recruitment choices not just for
students, but also for working
professionals and corporate
houses. Firms, as well as colleges, are embracing these cuttingedge assessment tools to support their hiring process.
Education is one of the main
pillars on which the economy of
a country thrives. However, the

real educational journey starts

when students have to choose
the subject of their choice, go
for further studies and then
choose a career line. This is
when psychometric tests come
into play, guiding students and
early professionals between 15
and 30 years of age and assisting
them in optimal career planning. They offer career clarity
during school and college days
and through initial jobs taking
into account candidates interests and personality. This ensures appropriate hiring for
organisations and long-term
sustainability in the chosen career path for individuals.

Changing requirements
Psychometrics is considered
a sophisticated tool that almost

PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

The FIITJEE way to IIT

INTERVIEW
From a simple beginning as a
forum for IIT-JEE to becoming a credible launch pad for
JEE aspirants, FIITJEE has
come a long way. In conversation with R.L. Trikha, FIITJEEs director, KARISHMA
HINGORANI finds out what
makes the training work for
students.
FIITJEE was formed by D.
K. Goel, a Mechanical Engineering Graduate from IIT
Delhi, in 1992. The success of
their students at the JEE exams this year has added to
their laurels. Before he joined
FIITJEE, Mr. Trikha, who is
an IIT Kanpur alumnus,
worked in the steel industry.
How do you think the test
patterns and the syllabus can
be improved?
Back in 1961, papers were
majorly subjective. As the
number of candidates increased considerably, the ex-

R.L. Trikha, FIITJEEs director.

amination was conducted in
two stages. First, about 20,000
candidates were selected based
on screening paper (P+C+M).
Then, in-depth conceptual understanding of candidates was
judged with a subjective paper
(P+C+M) of three hours. After
2005, the pattern was changed
to two objective papers with
various types of questions with
some questions carrying negative marks for wrong answers.
There is a need to go back to
two-stage examination where

in the first stage, candidates

are selected through screening
examination for IITs, NITs, IIITs, CFTIs and so on, and in
the second stage, a subjective
test is held for IIT aspirants.
English language paper could
also be introduced to select
those who can contribute
globally.
How can we combat gender
bias in the selection process?
Its the mentality and stigma. Engineering is considered
more aligned with males in Indian society. Parents in India
are more concerned with the
marriage of their daughters
than education. Ratio of female to male students is 6:12
who get selected/prepare for
IIT entrance. This has nothing
to do with IQ levels. We have to
change our mentality. We have
to encourage and motivate our
daughters.
What are the challenges faced
by an engineer in the real
world?

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

S. UPENDRAN
Is the article youre reading interesting?
Do you
Its an article about Tell me, how do
you pronounce p..e..s..c..a..t..a..r..i..a..n?
There are several ways of pronouncing
the word. The pesc rhymes with the word
desk, and the following a is like the a in
china and amount. The tar rhymes with
the words share, dare and pair. The
word is pronounced pes-ke-TAY-ri-en
with the stress on the third syllable. This is
just one way of pronouncing the word.
I see. A pescatarian is someone who
eats fish but not meat, right?
Thats right! I know quite a few people
who are pescatarians. By the way, the word
can also be spelt p..e..s..c..e..t..a..r..i..a..n.
I see. A pescatarian diet consists mainly
of vegetables and fish. Do you
Thats true. Another name for pescatarian is pescevegetarian.
I see. Are any of your friends
pescatarian?
Well, I dont know if Id call him a
friend. But Ganesh, Im told, is a
pescatarian.
Really? I ran into him at the supermarket this morning.
You did? Im sure the motormouth had
a lot to say.
Motormouth? Does it mean someone
who talks a lot?
Very good. Thats exactly what it
means! A motormouth is someone who
speaks non-stop and rather quickly. He
says things without really thinking about
the consequences of what hes saying. His
mouth runs like a motor.
Speaking without thinking! In that case,
there are several motormouths in my
family.
What I hate most about travelling by
train is that sometimes were forced to listen to some motormouths cell phone conversation. Its loud and
That can be pretty irritating. Im always
tempted to tell the motormouth to shut
CM
YK

up.
Unfortunately, nobody ever does. So,
what did motormouth Ganesh talk about?
About some movie hed seen recently.
He seemed
I should have guessed. Ganesh is a filmaholic. Hes knows a lot about
Filmaholic? Ive never heard that word
before. Does it mean someone who loves
films?
Thats right. Just like chocoholic
means someone who loves chocolate, a
filmaholic is someone who loves films. Sumithran, for example, is a filmaholic.
I know several people who are filmaholics. Is this word listed in dictionaries?
No, the word doesnt find a place in
most standard dictionaries. But native
speakers use it in their everyday conversation. Cinephile, however, is listed in many
dictionaries.
Cinephile? Does it have the same meaning as filmaholic?
Thats right! A cinephile is a lover of the
cinema. Are you a cinephile?
My friend Naushir is, but Im not. And I
dont have the slightest intention to become one anytime soon. You see, I have
You dont have the slightest intention
of becoming a cinephile. Usually, you dont
say, I dont have the intention to become
something.
I see. How about this sentence then?
When the people realised that the politician had no intention of fulfilling his promise, they began throwing rotten eggs at
him.
Sounds good. I have no intention of
marrying my best friends sister.
My brother doesnt have the slightest
intention of looking for a job.
Good for him!
****
A mind of the calibre of mine cannot get
its nutriment from cows.
George Bernard Shaw
Email: upendrankye@gmail.com

Angshuman Hazarika

Pursue your passion,

in Deutschland
A fully flexible credit system, freedom to
choose ones modules, and proximity to
other countries make it an enriching
experience, writes ANGSHUMAN
HAZARIKA.
allows one to specialise in two out of five
GOALPOST
different specialisations including In-

tudying abroad is a dream for

many Indian students and my
experience till now in Germany
has strengthened my belief that
if not yet, you should start
dreaming and planning for it right away.
The idea of studying abroad had
struck me before I joined my undergraduate courses in India. At the time,
the biggest hurdle had been lack of information and strong finances. But,
over five years of research on the subject while pursuing my undergraduation at an Indian law school, I realised
that with the right amount of planning
and effort, you can easily fulfil your
dream of studying abroad without having o spend a fortune for it. There are
several good scholarships to help you on
your path.
I was fortunate to receive the Angela
Merkel Scholarship Jawaharlal Nehru
Award for International Understanding awarded by DAAD, the German
Academic Exchange Service. The scholarship covers your entire expense for
study in Germany and includes a Language Course for two months in the
country. There are numerous other
scholarships from other countries
which you can apply for.
My first stop in Germany was the
historical city of Cologne where I pursued my German Language Course at
the Carl Duisberg Institute. Here, I was
fortunate to meet students from across
the world coming from varied disciplines. Discussions with them made me
realise the true diversity of our cultures
and backgrounds. Unlike India, Germany has long weekends for students and I
made a number of short trips to explore
the cities around Cologne with my
friends.

Life in Saarbrucken
Two months passed like a breeze, and
I shifted to Saarbrucken which will be
my abode for the coming year while I
pursue my LLM Course in European
and International Law at the Europa
Institut, University of Saarland.
This was my preferred course owing
to the fully flexible credit system which

ternational Trade Law, European Management and International Dispute

Resolution, among others. The institution is the second oldest of its kind in all
of Europe and boasts of an excellent
faculty. The diversity of students can be
gauged from the fact that there are students from 42 countries in a batch of 75
students.
The courses in Europa Institut are
structured as completely independent
modules and students can select subjects of completely different genres.
The unique factor here is that you are
free to choose as many modules as you
like. But a lot of modules would mean
less free time, because unlike many other German institutions, classes here are
conducted till late at night and also on
Saturdays. Every class is a unique experience in terms of the sheer knowledge
you gain and the perspectives you get
from other students.
The course is also filled with a number of trips to important European cities such as Brussels, Paris,
Luxembourg City on invitation by faculty members who also hold important
positions in international organisations
in those cities. So, you might actually be
presenting your masters seminar by
the Eiffel Tower on a spring afternoon
in Paris.
For the travel enthusiast in me, Saarbrucken also helps me travel to a number of countries as it is located on the
borders of France and Luxembourg.
For students who are ready to take
the plunge to study in Europe, there are
two things you should do beforehand.
Firstly, try to look for accommodation
in your destination city well in advance,
preferably as soon as you get your admission letter. And secondly, try to join
social media groups of Indians in the
cities or of your university well in advance, for the members can help you
smoothen out a lot of settling in
hurdles.
The writer is pursuing LLM in
European and International Law at
Europa Institut, University of
Saarland, Germany. E-mail:
ahazarika@live.in

The green way

With global warming emerging the single biggest environmental crisis today, its time
we lived more responsibly, writes ANGAD SETHI.

STUDENTSPEAK

n todays rapidly growing economy, environmental problems are

increasing at a faster
pace than ever. After
Independence, Indias population has increased from
300 million to over one billion, now. This has led to deforestation of land in order to
make space for living for the
huge population. Problems
such as soil erosion, deforestation, urbanisation, land
degradation and rapid industrialisation are some such
problems causing chaos in
the environment we live in.

Imbalances
Natural
hazards
are
caused due to the imbalances
in the Earths natural system.
Earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts and famines, landslides, etc. are some
of the natural hazards in In-

dia which are of great concern to us because they can

have life-threatening impact.
The habits of humans are also a factor influencing the environment in the wrong way.
Setting up new industries,
building dams and other
means of infrastructure development destroy the rich
forest land leading to imbalance in the ecosystem. These
projects destroy all natural
habitat.
Agricultural lands of farmers are also destroyed and
these farmers are asked to relocate to other places, not
provided with enough compensation to do so by the
government.
Solid and liquid wastes
produced by the industries
are all dumped into water
bodies thus polluting the water on a very large scale. Activities such as driving cars
that leads to carbon emission, burning garbage, polluting the environment and

One should
be aware of
how much he
or she
consumes
and how
much of it is
wasted as an
individual.

gases unsafe for the

environment.
Per capita carbon dioxide
emissions have increased on
a rate that is difficult to present in numbers.
Trees are considered the
lungs of the Earth; they act as
the purifiers and produce oxygen by taking in carbon
dioxide. Cutting down of
trees leads to more carbon
content in the air that leads
to another major problem
global warming.

wasting water cause environmental problems.

Global warming

Urban crisis
Air pollution is related to
countless deaths and illnesses each year across India especially in urban areas.
Carbon dioxide emissions
have increased in the past
decades, as now roughly every other family residing in
India possesses motor vehicles which produce harmful

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Mail your suggestions and feedback to educationplus@thehindu.co.in

Global warming increases

the Earths temperature,
which leads to the melting of
the ice caps and increasing
water levels, thus causing
floods all over the world.
With the population explosion on the planet, environmental
degradation
cannot be completely prevented, but the impact of it
further affecting the Earth
could be minimised.

A clean environment helps

in the healthy growth of the
living species. Variation in
the environment impacts all
forms of life. Awareness is
the way forward, through
which actions could be taken
up at local, national and global levels. One should be
aware of how much he or she
consumes and how much of it
is wasted as an individual.
Small acts of educating people around us and practising
sustainable measures such as
saving water, energy and discarding wastes responsibly
will help transform the world
we live in. We should preach
and practise sustainable
development.
It may be defined as development that meets the
needs of the present generation without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs - UNCED 1987.
The writer is in Class XI
and lives in Bengaluru.

WRITE TO US
The Hindu Education Plus
invites Indian students in
foreign universities to
share their experience
about the campus, quality
of education, city life, and
adapting
to
changes

abroad. The article should

not be more than 500
words. Send three different
pictures of you (one solo,
two on the campus) of minimum 2MB size to
goalpost@thehindu.co.in

ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 14, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SNAPSHOTS

IISc develops solar hybrid

desalination system
MOHIT M. RAO

TB STRAINS IN
ETHIOPIA

Europeans may
have introduced a
new wave of
disease spread by
more virulent TB
strains in Ethiopia,
which is a hotspot
of TB disease,
ranked third among
African countries.

BLOCKING
CHIKUNGUNYA
VIRUS

Two previously

identified human
monoclonal
antibodies prevent
CHIKV from both
entering and
exiting cells,
and potently inhibit
chikungunya virus.

ater, water,
every where,
Nor any drop
to drink, cries out the sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridges classic The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner.
The desperation is not
entirely unknown in Peninsular India, where, even
with seas surrounding the
land on three sides, water
often
eludes
parched
tongues.
With desalination that
involves converting saline
sea water to potable water
being out of reach currently for the shallow pockets of the government,
researchers of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have
hit upon the idea of utilising copious solar energy in
the South to reduce the
costs of the process.
Ravinder Kumar and
Umanand L., from the Department of Electronic
Systems Engineering at
IISc, have developed a solar hybrid desalination system that works for saline
and brackish water. The
process described in the
International Journal of
Low Carbon Technologies
shows that at its peak
(around 27 degree C) could
the system can purify nearly 6.5 litres of saline water
per sq.m. of the instrument
in six hours of use (tested

The evolution of
the striking, winglike pectoral fins of
rays and skates
relied on
repurposed genes,
says a new study,
shedding light on
diversification of
appendages.

The system
met the
major
objectives:
low lfespan
cost and
performance
between 9 a.m. and 3
p.m.).
The stepped solar-still,
comprising of semi-circular pipe sections welded

or the rst time, scientists

have successfully grown
vocal cord tissue in the lab that
can produce sound when
transplanted into animals. But
most importantly, the bioengineered structure was not rejected for as long as three
months when transplanted into mice with human immune
system.
The bioengineered vocal
cord tissue was transplanted
onto one side of larynges that
had been removed from cadaver dogs. The dogs thus had one
native tissue and one bioengineered tissue. When air was
blown through the dogs voice
box, the bioengineered tissue
vibrated much like the native
one on the opposite side. The
produced sound by the natural
and bioengineered tissue was
indistinguishable.
This tissue engineering approach has the potential to restore voice function in

QUESTION CORNER
RIGOR MORTIS

patients with otherwise untreatable VF [vocal fold] mucosal disease, the authors of a
paper published recently in
the journal Science Translational Medicine write.
The Editors summary also
underlines the importance of
the study. These data suggests feasibility for transplant
and survival in the larynx as
well as for function, ultimately
giving patients back their voices, it notes. The ability to effectively communicate is
impaired in people with vocal
fold tissue damage or loss.
The advantage of using a
bioengineered tissue is that it
can be customised to size so
that it ts the size of the vocal
fold of the recipient adult
(male or female) or child.
Transplantation of vocal cord
from a cadaver has either
failed or has been ineffective.
Certain congenital problems or scaring or tissue loss
following surgery to remove
invasive cancer can cause major damage to the vocal fold

was further pumped in and

out using photovoltaic
cells as a source of energy
making the instrument
self-reliant.
Mr. Kumar believed the
system met the major objectives of desalination
system: to reduce life span
cost, while meeting performance requirements.
This system shows promise that the problem of
clean drinking water can
be solved in any coastal
area where seawater and
sunlight are available freely, he said.

THIS WEEKS QUESTION

How do deaf people think? What language do they use for it?
Arya Mohan

Readers may send their questions/answers to questioncorner@thehindu.co.in

lab. The vocal cord tissue in

turn was taken from a cadaver
and four patients who had
their larynxes removed but did
not have cancer.
Two types of cells that make
up the mucosae connective
broblasts and epithelial cells
were isolated from the tissue and then applied to a 3-D
collaged scaffold used for
growing the cells.
In about two weeks, the cells
grew together to form a tissue
that felt like vocal-cord tissue. The tissue had the same
physical characteristics as a
normal tissue except for one
thing the ber structure. According to Dr. Welham, the
reason for that is not difficult
to know the human vocal
cord continues to develop till
the age of 13 years.
It seems like the engineered vocal cord tissue may
be like cornea tissue in that it
is immunoprivileged, meaning
that it doesnt set off a host
immune reaction, he said in
the release.

he recent heavy record

rainfall over Chennai
was due to above normal sea
surface temperatures in the
Bay of Bengal, presence of
monsoon trough close to
Chennai, prevailing easterly
waves and strong easterly
winds. The 2015 El Nino
phenomenon
weakened
Southwest monsoon winds
which in turn led to less
churning and upwelling in
the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and resulted in
higher sea surface temperatures (SSTs) due to less
mixing of cold waters with
warm surface waters. This
had a warming effect in Bay
of Bengal. During the postNW monsoon withdrawal
period (later part of October
and November) a monsoon
trough prevailed around 13
degree N latitude (latitude of
Chennai) over peninsular
India and Bay of Bengal.
The monsoon trough is a
large area of low pressure
that can move in any direction and carry convective
winds with it. The high SSTs
moistened the boundary layer (the lowest layer of the
atmosphere in touch with
the ocean surface) by evaporation. This moist air was
lifted high up in the atmosphere by easterly waves
emanating some distance
from the coast at Chennai.
Easterly waves are an atmospheric
phenomenon
wherein the wind moves in a
wave like motion with the
distance from crest to crest
being as much as 2,000 km
(with a forward and rear sections of 1,000 km each) and
the period about two to three
days. Therefore it can be believed that the phenomenon

Sea surface temperatures

were above normal.
PHOTO: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

Extreme
events are
increasing
due to global
warming
might have persisted for 3-4
days with spatial scales of approximately 500-1,000 km,
said Dr. J.R. Kulkarni, Team
Expert, World Meteorological Organization, Ex-Adviser, IITM, Pune, to this
Correspondent.
The upward motion of the
winds in the wave is called
divergence and the downward, convergence. The divergence
lifted
moisture-bearing air with it
and carried it high up into
the atmosphere as rain bearing clouds, and the easterly
winds drove these clouds towards Chennai where they
precipitated as rain. The
continuous formation of
clouds over Bay of Bengal,
their transformation into
deep convective clouds, their
movement towards land and
to Chennai city provided
continuous heavy rainfall
over land and the Chennai
area. These clouds provided

very heavy rainfall of the order of 150 mm/hour. If the

rainfall is more than 100
mm/hour, then it is termed
as a cloud burst.
Studies have shown that
Southwest and Northeast
monsoons have negative correlation. Northeast monsoon during the 2009 El
Nino year was stronger than
normal. Rainfall in 2009
Northeast monsoon was 12
per cent more than long
term normal (IMD Departmental website Chennai).
This years high Northeast
monsoon rainfall performance is consistent with earlier ndings of negative
correlation between the two
monsoons in the El Nino
years. The higher than normal sea surface temperatures are the real fuel of
such deep convection. Climatologically these anomalies weaken in the December
and hence heavy rainfall activity may weaken.
Radar data are required
to check movement of
clouds, their transformation
into deep convective clouds,
and their spatial and temporal scales. Modeling studies
are required for examining
various linkages in the proposed mechanism, said Dr.
Kulkarni.
Extreme weather events
are indeed increasing due to
global warming. This is because a warmer climate can
hold more moisture in the
atmosphere, leading to heavier rainfall when it does occur. However, its difficult to
say for certain that a particular extreme event like the
Chennai oods is attributable to anthropogenic climate change, says Dr. Roxy
Mathew Koll of The Indian
Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.

Magnetism around a black hole

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

he term black hole conjures up images of a stellar

object from which nothing can
escape. This is only true of
small black holes, and supermassive black holes, which are
millions of times as massive as
the Sun can actually beam out
energy from matter falling into
it in the form of intense radiation. Further, if the black hole
is spinning, the radiation can
beam into galaxies that are millions of light years away and
shape them.
Now, a team of researchers
from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics
has discovered magnetic elds
on the event horizon which
is the surface surrounding the
black hole from beyond which
light cannot escape of such a
supermassive black hole,
which they have published in

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE

K.SRINIVASAN, Chennai

In rigor mortis the muscles become stiff and rigid due to lack of
energy production in the body after death. During life there is
constant production of energy (ATP) in the body which is required for the routine activities of the muscle i.e. contraction and
relaxation.
The muscle bundles in the body contain two important types of
protein laments, actin and myosin. In living state on nervous
stimulation, hydrolysis of ATP occurs liberating energy which
causes contraction of muscles with the formation of actomyosin
complexes. The muscles relax due to dissociation of actomyosin
complexes.
Hence for the regular muscular activity of a human being
energy (ATP) is required. After death ATP production stops, the
actomyosin complexes are not dissociated and hence the muscles
lose their elasticity resulting in stiffening due to formation of
viscid actomyosin complexes. Rigor mortis occurs both in voluntary and involuntary muscles. The actomyosin complex is broken
down and the muscle becomes soft again due to decomposition
late after death.
It has some relevance in determining the time since death. The
muscles are accid immediately after death for about 3 to 6 hours
before stiffening is detected; depending on the environmental
temperature and other factors. There are a multitude of external
and internal factors like age, nature of death, muscular state and
atmospheric conditions that have remarkable interplay in the
onset, duration of rigor mortis and the way rigor passes off from
the corpse. Usually rigor mortis establishes throughout the body
in 12 hours, stays in the body for another12 hours and disappears
in the next 12 hours.
DR.R.SUDHA & DR.K.A.R.REDDY, Osmania medical college, Hyderabad

mucosa and can cause substantial voice loss that's very

challenging to treat with our
current methods, Dr. Nathan
Welham from the University
of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison and one of the authors of
the paper said during a press
brieng.
Our vocal cords are two
strong but exible bands of
muscle that are covered in a
delicate tissue called mucosae.
The exible bands of muscle
vibrate against each other up
to a thousand times per second
when we force air over them
when we speak.
Our vocal cords are made
up of special tissue that has to
be exible enough to vibrate,
yet strong enough to bang together hundreds of times per
second. It's an exquisite system and a hard thing to replicate, Dr. Welham said in a
release. The cells needed to
create the vocal cord were taken from human vocal cord tissue and bioengineered in the

K.S. RAJGOPAL

the journal Science.

It had been discovered some
time ago that a supermassive
black hole exists at the centre
of our galaxy the Milky Way.
This black hole is now known
as Sagittarius A-star. Astronomers detected the magnetic
eld using the powerful Event
Horizon Telescope, which is a
global array of radio telescopes
that link together to function
as one giant unit. Geared for
very high detail observations,
the Event Horizon Telescope
will have a resolution of 15 arcseconds. This is equivalent to
being able to see a golf ball on
the moon, according to a release from the Centre for
Astrophysics.
High resolution is needed as
black holes are really compact
objects. Sagittarius A-star, for
instance, is about four million
times as massive as the sun, yet
its event horizon is only 8 mil-

lion miles across. Being located

25,000 light years away, this
would measure only 10 microarc seconds across. The interesting thing is that the intense
gravity of Sagittarius A-Star
warps light and magnies its
event horizon so that it appears larger about 50 arcseconds, which can be easily
resolved by the Event Horizon
Telescope.
As Sagittarius A-star spins
away furiously, matter encircles it in the form of an accretion disc. The team found
magnetic elds in some regions
near the black hole which are
highly disorderly, in the form
of loops and whorls, like spaghetti, whereas in other regions it is more orderly,
presumably the places where
jets of radiation are emitted.
The magnetic elds were also
seen to uctuate at time scales
of about 15 minutes.

It is epigenetics that makes us different

What causes rigor mortis to occur in a recently dead body?

CM
YK

progressively one next to

the other so as to maintain
a constant slope was fabricated to serve as the water channel basin. Vacuum
jackets were provided to
minimize thermal losses.
The instrument could hold
between 3 and 4 litres for
treatment. During the experimentation, solar intensity was observed at
718.76 Watt per sq.m. With
the set-up ensuring pressure was high within, saline water saw evaporation
at temperatures lesser
than 100 degree C. Water

Lab-grown vocal cord tissue

R. PRASAD

HOW RAYS,
SKATES GOT
THEIR WINGS

Despite being surrounded by seas on three sides, water shortage is not entirely unknown in
Peninsular India. PHOTO: S. RAMESHKURUP

Chennai floods due to climate change?

ne of the misused words

in contemporary Indian
political and social scenes is
DNA. The acronym DNA
stands for deoxyribonucleic
acid, which is the molecule of
our genes, the material each
one of us is born with, inherited from our parents. In everyday parlance, it has become
fashionable to use it to characterize the whole personality of
the individual. One worthy recently boasted that tolerance
is in Indias DNA, while a
worthier one described the
people of an entire state (10
crores of them) as backward
and underdeveloped because
of their DNA. Expectedly, this
statement was roundly criticized as an unfair description
of a helpless lot.
It is time we remind them,
and ourselves why the use of
the acronym DNA in these
contexts is incorrect. All of us
Indians, indeed all of us humans on this planet, have arisen from primates such as
chimpanzees, bonobos and
gorillas. That we have evolved
from them, and they from
lower and earlier mammals,
is established when we study

and compare the sequence of

the alphabets that go make
the entire DNA chain of the
set of the genes (the entire
collection in the whole body is
referred to as the genome),
that we are born with. Indepth study of the genome of
humans, and comparing it
with those of the primates offers a fundamentally biological way of constructing our
family tree and who our ancestors have been.
What is striking when such
a comparison and analysis
was done during the last decade and a half is (a) that we
share over 98 per cent of our
genomic DNA with chimps,
and (b) even more strikingly,
all humans on earth, regardless of community, race, color
and continent, share 99.9 per
cent of DNA. What this teaches us is that biologically, genetically, DNA-wise, all
humans are the same! Community, caste, creed, and other ways in which we divide
ourselves are thus sociological
constructs, and not biological.
Evolutionary biology, which
our DNA reads out for us,
makes no distinction at all be-

All of us humans on this planet, have arisen from primates

such as chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. PHOTO: AFP
tween any of us. The oftenparroted Sanskrit phrase Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (the
world is a single family) is literally proven by the results of
the Human Genome Project.
Yet, despite this we nd
even identical twins (born of a
single zygote) differ in their
personality and their habits.
How does this happen, despite
the fact that they are endowed
with identical DNA or genes?
As early as in 1940, the British
scientist Charles Waddington,
studying the development of
wings in fruit ies, noted such
differences and suggested that
during development of the
body (from the single fertilized egg cell), the expression
of genes can change, leading to
changes in the phenotype

during development of the

body. We now call this epigenetics (on top of genetics).
A classic study of how epigenetics leads to differences between 80 identical human
twins was by a group of scientists from Europe, UK and U.S.
(M. F. Fraga et al. PNAS 102,
10604, 2005). They found that
despite sharing the same genotype, identical twins are not
identical; several types of phenotypic differences were seen.
Many twins differed in the
shape and size of bodies. Some
were susceptible to diseases
while their twins were not.
When the scientists isolated
the DNA from the subjects
and compared their sequences, they found differences in
the overall content with time.

DNA is made of a sequence of

4 basic alphabets termed A, G,
C and T. Differences were
seen particularly in the alphabet C. Several of the C residues
were chemically modied,
with methyl groups added to
them. In addition, changes
were also seen in the protein
histone, which helps the DNA
chain to pack neatly into the
nucleus of the cells.
That C-methylation and
histone modication are hallmarks of epigenetic modication of the DNA chain was
suggested as early as 1975.
How they occur and what factors are responsible for them
has been summarized by Jaenisch and Bird (Nature Genetics Supplement 33, 245,
March 2003, also free on the
web). Such changes can occur
due to environmental factors
such as heat, high altitudes,
humidity and others. Likewise, diet (or the food we eat)
can alter the DNA methylation prole, thus altering the
phenotype of the baby (as was
shown in mice where the coat
color of the body was different
from the mothers. Also, as an
organism ages, its epigenetic
prole changes, leading to visible changes in the appearance,
metabolism,
vulnerability to diseases and

other features.
Importantly, when the
mother is ready to conceive,
and her egg cell forms, just
about all the epigenetic
changes she acquired (methylation, histone modication
etc) are erased and her genome becomes modicationfree. Likewise, when the fathers sperm cells are made,
his genome too is cleared.
Thus the child does not inherit the epigenetic changes, only
the bare DNAs of the parents
genomes. The child acquires
its own epigenetic changes depending on the environment,
diet, living conditions and
such other factors.
Thus, people in poorer environments, inadequate nutrition,
and
economic
deprivation tend to have epigenetic features different
from those who are better fed,
live in better environment
and are well to do. They are
not cursed by the DNA they
are born with. The difference
is not in their DNA, but how it
is epigenetically modied. If
we can improve their living
conditions through economic
and political means, there
need be no bimaru people or
states at all.
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN
dbala@lvpei.org
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

EducationPlus 03

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 14, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When their spirits soared

BON APPETIT
SARTHAK SARASWAT

Students stood tall amid the rising waters, saved many lives and, in the process, learnt valuable lessons.
SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

INITIATIVE

he most intense in a
period of 114 years,
the Northeast monsoon this year has
wreaked havoc in
parts of Tamil Nadu including Chennai. The devastation to life and property has
shocked people, yet there
has been a widespread appreciation of the way common people got into relief
and rescue operations. In
this, the part played by students has been remarkable.
The first time, for many of
them, the whole thing was
an eye-opening experience.
Athindra, studying at
SASTRA University and his
friends from school, Vishvesh and Sudarshan, worked
to help people in the waterlogged areas of Chennai.
Taking catamarans to offer
biscuits and mosquito repellents near Maduravoyal and
Alapakkam, they found that
in some roads, there was
deep water on one side of
the road which made it really difficult to navigate. They
were unable to access the
waterlogged side and help
the children there. Athindra
recalls, The situation is better now, but it was really difficult to distribute relief
material because people
came and asked for supplies
again and again. It was impossible to know who had
not been given stuff before.
Also, there was not much
help from authorities.

OVERCOMING ODDS
The Taramani substation
and Kallukottai areas were
visited by Subramanian,
from St Josephs college,
Chennai. He waded through
knee-deep water to reach
the marooned people. They
were alright, but needed
milk and milk powder, especially for the toddlers. Sewage had mixed with the
water and many babies and
children had rashes on their
hands and feet, he said, explaining the condition.

uzzles are ideal for improving observation

skills, concentration and vocabulary. As exams
approach, you might get bored of sitting and
revising a subject over a long stretch of time. Here
are some apps that can help you freshen up your
mind while retaining your focus.

WORD SEARCH
This is a game where you have
to find a set of words from a
jumbled puzzle. The app has
22,000 puzzles in 37 languages
divided into three sizes and three
difficulty levels. Theres a timer
that shows how long you have
taken to solve the puzzle. If your
get stuck, there is an option that
provides you with a hint. The
scrambled world could be placed
horizontally, vertically, diagonally
or backwards. You can also unlock
14 achievements from Google Play games, check the
Leaderboard to find out who has the highest score
and participate in challenges online.

WORDBRAIN

Sorting and packing relief material is an important job in itself. (Right) Volunteers on a rescue
mission. PHOTO: B.VELANKANNI/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Subramanian had already
had a shot of tetanus toxoid
a few months earlier, so he
took a course of four Doxy
tablets to prevent infections
while getting into the relief
operations. In Sanjay Nagar and Thandai nagar, the
water came up to the chest
level. We provided the locals
with rafts and they also took
supplies from us and distributed them, he said.
Some of the NGOs were
able to organise themselves,
thanks to prior experience.
AID India, managed to rope
in many students, too. Manasa, from VIT, Chennai,
helped in sorting the collected material for distribution.
We packed 100 sacks with
20 packets each of necessary
items, such as clothes for
men, women and children;
shampoo, toothbrushes and
paste; blankets about a
1,000 packets of rice she
said. Manasa highlighted the
importance of packing material in such a way that
while distributing, the volunteers would face no problems. We packed clothes

A central
agency coordinating
the work of
all NGOs
would have
helped avoid
duplication.
suited for different age
groups sarees, chudidars
and trousers and also sanitary napkins, she said. She
also understood the importance of team work while
volunteering. Everyone listened to everyone else, there
were no arguments and people really co-operated, she
said. Being friends on Facebook with Balaji Sampath, of
AID India, she came to know
about this camp and joined
in the efforts.
Vignesh, in the final year
of engineering at Sairam Engineering College, is happy
about the neat organisation

and efficient distribution of

the items. Yesterday (that
is, December 7) we reached
24 locations. We employed
3-4 trucks and took supplies
to areas such as Vyasarpadi.
Today, we are running 10
trucks and will work up to 9
p.m. or 10 p.m. We receive
requests and then organise
what we have to distribute
to whom, he said.
Sneha, studying economics at Stella Maris College,
joined the operations with
Subramanian. She observed
that women were reluctant
to come and receive the sanitary napkins, though they
were in need of these. We
had to pack these in black
bags for distribution among
women. We also packed
ointments, ear drops and
medicine, she said.

BUVANAGIRI
With so much of the effort
focussed on Chennai and
suburbs, some students did
volunteer to travel beyond.
Aswin Narayan, who has
just taken the C.A. (Inter)
exams, travelled in a truck to

Buvanagiri, which is close to

Chidambaram in Cuddalore
district. Amidst a lot of
flooding and rain, he and a
few others managed to reach
Buvanagiri in the night. But
en route, they were stopped
by people who wanted the
food and other rations. We
were even chased by people
on motorbikes, and children
would step in front of the
truck and try to stall us. But
we had been warned about
this already. The trucks that
had come this way earlier
had been stopped thus and
they had dissipated the supplies amid people who had
already been served. Therefore the people at Buvanagiri had been left without food
for three days. Since we
knew this, we reassured
those who waylaid us that
more supplies would come
this way and resolutely
made our way to the location, said Aswin. It was
about 10.30 in the night
when they finally reached
the location. There was a
flood warning, moreover,
and the volunteers had all
left. The handful of people
on the truck had to first
store the supplies in a room
and then take it from there
to distribute it to the people
who were in dire need.
The enthusiasm to help
was strong among younger

students, too. Harshita, who

is in the tenth standard, was
there at the Kotturpuram
relief camp, busily packing
and sorting material for
distribution.

LESSONS LEARNT
All the volunteers observed the need for better organisation of relief efforts.
Aswin said, I learnt two important things. One is that if
there is a central agency to
co-ordinate the relief efforts, duplication at some
centres and neglect of others could be avoided. The
government is the only
agency that could play this
role. Secondly, all the volunteering has Chennai and
suburbs as the focus. There
have been other areas in the
State where people have
been stranded for days without supplies and food. It is
important to focus on
these.
When the cities were
flooding, it was very reassuring that students got into
the relief operations and actively engaged with the efforts instead of merely
watching. Among these
some volunteers ventured
well beyond their city to reach out and help people in
places such as Cuddalore
district, and their actions
were valuable indeed.

All Levels Are Solvable! says

the description of the app. This is
because unless you solve the
puzzles in the correct order, you
will not be able to clear them.
Though its easy in the beginning,
it gets tougher as you progress. An
interesting feature of the app is
that it shows you the size of your
brain. There are 35 levels of
increasing difficulty named after
an organism to which a specific
brain size has been assigned.
Starting with the ant, whose brain size is 20, you
progresses to spider, snail, crab, student, teacher,
astronaut, scientist, alien and other organisms, and
end at unicorn, whose brain size is 5600. As you
finish a level, your brain size increases. You can also
create your own puzzle to which the app assigns a
unique code. You can share this code on social
media with your friends who can try solving your
puzzle.

MIND GAMES
This is a great app for
exercising your grey cells. It
sets the difficulty level based on
your age group. There are two
options available Training
Centre and Games List. In the
training centre, you can select a
game and start playing. In the
games list, you are provided
with a bunch of games such as
Attention training, Math
operations, Memory racer,
Mirror images, Unscramble,
Anticipation, Word memory, Face memory, Speed
trivia and many more that focus on developing
different mental skills.

It is in bad taste

Nurturing catalysts of change

Is the new ad campaign by a soft drink giant

mocking student protests?

KATHAKALI NANDI

KATHAKALI NANDI

CAMPUS
VOICES

he new television
commercial of Pepsi
has met with criticism, with many accusing the soft drink
giant of mocking the ongoing student protest movements. The commercial
(with the tagline Pepsi thi,
pi gaya or It was Pepsi, I
drank it) shows a protesting
student guzzling a bottle of
Pepsi while the student
leader emphatically tells the
media that they have started
a fast unto death against the
college authorities. Students
say it bears an uncanny resemblance to FTII students
who were on a hunger strike
to protest against the appointment of Gajendra
Chauhan as the institute director. Delhi students share
their
views
on
the
commercial.

Elora Chakraborty, M.A,

Jawaharlal
Nehru
University
I
find
the
new
advertisement extremely
disturbing
as it seems
to take a dig at not only the
FTII protest which has been
going on for more than 100
days, but also the ongoing
protest
regarding
the
MHRDs decision to scrap

the non-NET fellowship.

This advertisement is a
sheer mockery of students
fights for their basic rights.
India does not have a student-friendly environment
and this has been proved by
the number of protests that
are taking place. The advertisement shows poor taste
and bad marketing strategy
for selling the cold drink.

Gautam Bisht, M.Phil,

Ambedkar University
I
found
the advertisement
funny.
Although
many
people
were offended by it, I found it intelligent and the FTII
campaign did not come to
my mind until people started associating the advertisement to it. Often, mass
movements do not take into
account the difference of
opinions and this is what the
commercial highlights. The
fact that Pepsi chose to
make their commercial on
student movements only
shows how the issue had become so elevated that even
the commercial market had
to take notice and make an
advertisement based on it.

Aditi Das, M.Phil, Delhi

University
It is an extremely juvenile
attempt at making a mockery of student protests in In-

WASSUP
CTET
The CBSE has invited online
application till December 28 on
www.ctet.nic.in for the Central
teacher Eligibility Test (CTET)
to be held on February 21, 2016
across the country. CTET is a
qualifying test for appointing
teachers in primary and upper
primary sections in Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas,
Central Tibetan Schools, etc.
CM
YK

dia, be it
the FTII
or
the
UGC.
A
brand
known for
its creative
advertisement campaigns is expected to do
better than Pepsi thi, pi
gaya. The commercial is a
mere reflection of the consumerist mindset of the people on top of the economic
hierarchy, not to mention its
severe lack of creativity and
imagination.
The student community
in India, which seriously engages with the troubling socio-political situation of the
country, is neither naive nor
will they let these corporate
forces win.

Praveen
Verma,
PhD, Delhi
University
The advertisement
is
highly insensitive
to student
politics, their issues and
struggles. Student politics
are getting reshaped in the
time of capitalist reforms in
education, which is forcing
the government to cut the
education budget. Multinational corporations such as
Pepsi are big players in this
game of privatisation of education which eventually
takes away education from
the crores of the underprivileged to the rich few.

There will be two papers for the

test. Paper I will be for a person
applying to teach Classes I to V
and paper II will be for teachers
for Classes VI to VIII. A person
who wants to teach at both levels
will have to appear in both the
tests. Duration of the test is two
and a half hours for each paper.
All questions in CTET will be
multiple choice in objective nature. Paper I covers questions
from Child Development and
Pedagogy, Language, Mathematics and Environmental Studies.

India has an
incredible capital
of human
resource which
makes it a viable
option for
startups.

INTERVIEW
The University of Sheffields Management School features in the top
one per cent of global business
schools. It believes in providing a
hands-on experience to the students before allowing them to take
on the real business world. During
his visit to India, Vasilios Theoharakis, MBA director and reader in
marketing and entrepreneurship at
the School, spoke about the course
and what sets the university apart
from other management schools.
How is the student demographics at
the university?
We have a good balance. For us,
its important to have diversity. We
have students from different backgrounds and cultures. One of the
elements that students gain from
the MBA is networking, the ability
to work with people from other cultures and work with different skills.
Therefore, it is important for us
to maintain this diversity. Overall,
at the management school, we currently have students from about 35
nationalities.
Business studies is one of the top
subjects that Indian students enrol
for in the U.K. With so many
universities offering the course in
the country, why should a student
choose Sheffield University?
Our MBA programme is very
practical and close to the industry.
Several companies come to our students, present their problems and
ask the students to come up with
real answers. Entrepreneurial spirit is one of the important elements
for us. We look at candidates who
are interested in making a difference, not only for startups, but also
for existing companies. We help
students imbibe an entrepreneurial spirit by developing the modules that expose them to the ways
of presenting their ideas to the real
investors. As part of students MBA

Total marks 150. Paper II covers

questions from Child Development and Pedagogy, Language,
Mathematics and Science/Social
Studies. Those scoring 60 per
cent or more in the test will be
considered as having passed. The
CTET qualifying certificate
would be valid for seven years.
Detailed eligibility criteria are
given in the website.
Test fee for paper I or II is Rs.
600, and for both papers, the fee
is Rs. 1,000. The fee for SC/ST
and the differently-abled is Rs.

Vasilios Theoharakis
project, they need to act as consultants. They consult real businesses,
listen to the problems of a specific
company and provide solutions.
It is also important to train students to ask the right questions in
order to become consultants and
give sound advice.
There are very few MBA courses
that integrate management consultancy and make it their requirement or have a management
inquiry course that helps students
ask the right questions. We bring in
practice to every module through
applied group work. We emphasise
leadership because people need to
be able to work in teams and inspire
people. Just as medical schools do
not let medical students operate
without hands-on practice, we
think that MBA students require
hands-on training and coaching in
the industry before they venture
out. We help our students develop a
global approach so that they can
add value to the global market.
We interview every candidate we
take in to make sure that he/she
has the spirit of wanting to be a
catalyst of change.
Sheffield as a city is also beautiful, safe, culturally diverse and only
two hours train journey from
London.
Sheffield Universitys management
school has an employability hub

300 and Rs. 500, respectively.

The fee can be remitted through
the challan or by debit/credit
card. Instructions for submitting
online application is given at the
website www.ctet.nic.in.
The Admit card can be downloaded from January 25, 2016
onwards. The test centres will include Ernakulam, Kozhikode,
Thiruvananthapuram, Kavarati,
Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai,
Panaji, Bengaluru, Mangaluru,
Hyderabad, Puducherry, Delhi,
Mumbai and Kolkata. Visit

which acts as an interface between

students and employers. Can you
elaborate on that?
Right from the beginning of the
course, we want to ensure that it is
a personalised and individualised
experience. The employability hub
steps in to advise the students and
help them take the next step. Because of our industry links, we invite speakers from a specific
industry/company if a student so
asks. All these elements help create
employability for students as they
get to know the executives and create direct employment opportunities. The employability hub is one
of the key organisations that creates industry links and prepares
the student.
It is there from the beginning of
the programme and students are
expected to seek its help from the
first day itself. We take quick action
when students express an interest
to the employability hub. We ask
them to list their expectations from
the MBA course and let the employability hub know about it.
Some of its sessions are mandatory.
Providing placement services is
one of the things it does.
How viable is the Indian market for
startups?
The Indian market is extremely
vibrant. Indians have the assets of
scientific knowledge and skills and
the comfort of communicating with
other cultures. English is one of the
international languages of businesses and Indian students have

www.ctet.nic.in for details.

MPhil, PhD in Clinical Psychology

The Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi, under the
Government of India, has invited
online applications till December 22 for admission to the following courses commencing in
May 2016.
MPhil in Cinical Psychology
2 years. Total seats 12. Qualification MA/MSc in Psychology
regular course with minimum 55
per cent marks (50 per cent for

SC/ST & OBC) in aggregate.

PhD in Clinical Psychology 2
years, 4 seats. Qualification
M.Phil (Medical and Social Psychology/ clinical Psychology).
MPhil in Psychiatric Social
Work 2 years, 12 seats. Qualification - MA in sociology /
MSW regular course with minimum 55 per cent marks (50 per
cent for SC/ST & OBC) in
aggregate.
Diploma in Psychiatric Nursing, one year, 18 seats, qualification - A Grade Certificate or

the advantage as they are extremely comfortable of communicating

in it. India has an incredible capital
of human resource which makes it
an extremely viable option for
startups.
The recent change in the U.K.s
post-study work visa scheme has
reduced the time given to students
to hunt for jobs in the country after
completing the course. Studies
suggest that the changes have led
to a decrease in the number of
enrolments by Indian students. Has
Sheffield University been affected
by the visa scheme changes?
Possibly it has, but we see a clear
and steady interest in the management school from India. I think it
has got to do a lot with the ranking
of our MBA programmes. Out of
several hundreds of applications,
we take in a maximum of 30 students every year in the MBA
course. The demand for our programme is so high that we have not
felt any decrease in the demand of
students, although overall there
may have been a decline in the
number of enrolment in the U.K.
The weapon for students to combat the new visa scheme is to find a
management programme that will
give them maximum industry exposure and employability skills.
Students should look for a programme that has frequent industry
interaction which creates the opportunities to demonstrate their
skills.
What are the qualities you look for
in a student?
We look for students who are
passionate about what they do. We
look for a whole personality and
not someone who has excelled in
only academics or only in one dimension.
The application process allows
them to present their holistic personality and make a case for themselves. We look for someone who is
interested in working in groups and
becoming a catalyst of change.
Diploma in General Nursing and
Midwifery and having two years
experience as staff nurse.
Those selected for the MPhil,
PhD courses will get a monthly
scholarship of Rs. 8,000, and for
the Diploma course Rs. 2,500 per
month.
Application forms and other
details can be obtained from the
CIP website www.cipranchi.nic.in or http://online.cip.edu.in.
The last date for joining the
courses is March 31, 2016.
GOPAKUMAR KARAKONAM
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

04 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 14, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its your own view that counts

Why plagiarise? Is it that you do not give your opinions and abilities enough credit?
What you write
represents your
effort, and thats
what makes it
important.

USHA RAMAN

BACKPACKERS
GUIDE

ere all wading in a sea

of information. We get
drawn this way and
that, and find it difficult not to get submerged in what seems to be a
never-ending deluge of words. One
of the consequences of having so
much material out there is that we
often feel nothing new can be said.
The other related consequence is
that we simply draw on this huge
pile of readymade texts when we
are asked to write something
ourselves.
In previous columns, Ive talked
about plagiarism and the temptation to just reproduce past work
and pass it off as our own when we
are asked to write an assignment.
But it might be worthwhile to look
at this issue again in a slightly different way. A few weeks ago, I found
myself getting increasingly depressed as I read one paper after
another that indicated that some
students had done just this. In some
cases, the source from which the
material had been drawn could be
found at the very top of the list on a
Google search of the topic. In others, it was a (sort of) clever copypaste of sentences and paragraphs
patched together from several sites.
In yet others, the evidence was a
mixture of amateur writing interspersed with paragraphs that were
polished to a high gloss, carrying
vocabulary and phrases that only a
seasoned writer would use. But in
each case, it wasnt difficult for me
to separate the original from the
copied text.
All of this would probably sound

Both the content and process in an assignment are important.

very familiar to you, no matter
which part of the teaching-learning
spectrum you occupy. If youre a
student, you could be saying, Well,
everyone does it, whats the big
deal? If youre a teacher, you
would be leaning back in your seat
and thinking, Yes, I know what
youre saying. How do we deal with
it?
I dont have a definite answer,
but what I do know is we need to
tackle the problem head on, both as
learners and as teachers/facilitators. Some of my colleagues have
responded to the plagiarism bogey
by only giving in-class writing assignments, where students have no

PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

access to a computer or the Internet. While that might be possible in

many courses, it doesnt hold for a
wide range of subjects and tasks.
What about projects that combine
field work and background research? Or creative and reflective
writing? Or assignments that require synthesis and analysis of a
wide range of material? And how
does it play out in the workplace,
where a task is not just a test to be
graded?
A possible way to address this is
to go to what I see as the root of the
problem. What is it that makes students want to plagiarise? The easy
availability of information is only

one part of it. The bigger issue, in

my view, is that we do not give ourselves and our opinions/abilities
enough credit. We think we have
nothing much to say, and that the
teacher is not interested in what we
have to say but in the assignment
meeting the set criteria. Maybe we
also have certain ideas about how
assignments are evaluated that
the content of the assignment is
more important than the process
by which it is done.
Unfortunately, this is a view that
is encouraged by our education system, by and large.
Im not about to imagine that we
can undo that in the space of one

article, but I do think we can begin

by giving some importance to our
own thoughts and ideas, and our
own way of saying things. And by
convincing ourselves that others
(the teachers, in this case) are also
interested in seeing something that
truly comes from the student. No
matter how raw, basic or common
you think your views are, they are
your views. What you write represents your effort and thats what
makes it important, particularly in
a learning context. The teacher
does not want to grade something
that an expert wrote!
When I went back to the classroom
after that spell of depression, I asked
the group to think about what made
them submit plagiarised assignments. Did they (a) think they
wouldn't be found out; (b) think I
wouldn't care if I found out; or (c) not
care if they were found out?
I didn't really get an answer, but
heres something for us to think
about. If youve found something on
the Internet and have used it without
acknowledgment in an assignment,
the chances are very high that your
teacher can find it too. Most teachers
do care about both the content and
process in an assignment and they
grade accordingly so yes, they do
care.
And Im really hoping the third
option doesnt hold.
The author teaches at the
University of Hyderabad and edits
Teacher Plus magazine. Email:
usha.bpgll@gmail.com

GLOBAL BUZZ
News from around the
world.
CONTROVERSIAL COMMENT
A U.S. college president has come under
criticism for asking his students to arm themselves
to end those muslims. Referring to the recent
shootings in San Bernardino, California, Jerry
Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, U.S.,
said, It just blows my mind when I see the
president of the United States say that the answer
to circumstances like that is more gun control. In
a video that has gone viral on the Internet, he is
seen saying, Lets teach them a lesson if they ever
show up here. According to reports, Hillary
Clinton has criticised Falwell Jr.s statements and
said that rhetoric such as this will only aid and
comfort ISIS.

NEW APPRENTICESHIPS
In an attempt to increase
the number of trainees in the
public sector, the U.K.
government has ordered that
public sector institutions
such as hospitals, police
forces and government
departments take in 200,000 Britain's PM David
new apprenticeships. Making Cameron.
the announcement recently, PHOTO: REUTERS
U.K.s Prime Minister David
Cameron said that the government is progressing
towards its commitment of taking on 3 million
apprenticeships by 2020. According to reports, the
country has about 75 per cent of apprentices in the
private sector, 16 per cent in the public sector and
9 per cent in the voluntary sector.

MERGERS GALORE
A wave of mergers has swept over European
universities, according to a report by the European
University Association. Almost 100 mergers have
happened in the last 15 years, with 14 mergers
taking place in 2014, reveals the report. The reason
behind the move has been attributed to several
factors such as improving the quality of research
and innovation, an attempt to increase the
competitiveness and climb up world university
rankings and so on.
COMPILED BY SARTHAK SARASWAT

CLOUD COMPUTING, IN THE STEEL CITY

Academic writing, practical work and presentations helped her realise her research potential at SHU, writes AATHIRA.
plied to Sheffield Hallam Univer- is home to two lovely universities. quoting experts in my academic Less emphasis is laid on exams and
GOALPOST
sitys M.Sc. in Web and Cloud Sheffield Hallam University is a writing or reproducing definitions more on academic writing, group

he drive to pursue a career

in cloud computing, the
technology buzzword in
2012, was planted in me
by a senior IT professional while I was working at IBM. My
background in IT and business
management made him suggest
this career shift. I was disappointed by the lack of cloud computing
courses on offer in India. Moving
abroad was a difficult choice for
me as my husbands career was
also at stake. With inputs from an
international educational advisor
and weighing the pros and cons of Aathira receiving her certificate of scholarship.
the global choices available, I ap- PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

S. UPENDRAN
What is the meaning and
origin of cool ones heels?
(J. Maitabi, Bangalore)
The idiom is frequently
used in informal contexts to
mean to make someone wait.
When you make someone
cool his heels, you delay
meeting the person; sometimes, deliberately. The person may get irritated or angry
and you wait for him to cool
down.
The train was late, so we
spent the time cooling our
heels in the waiting room.
If you dont behave, youll
find yourself cooling your
heels in your room.
The heels in the expression refers to those of horses.
When a horse runs fast or for
a long time, the hooves heat
up; the feet begin to cool
when the animal is rested.
With the passage of time, the
expression began to be used
with people who are in a hurry, but are made to wait for
someone or something.
Is it okay to say We plan to
fill up all vacancies? (K.S.
Ramani, Vellore)
Government officials in India sometimes talk about the
need to fill up vacancies that
exist in their department. In
this context, vacancy refers
to an unoccupied position. It
is possible to fill up a bottle
and fill up a suitcase with
something one does not,
however, fill up a vacancy. Native speakers of English talk
about the need to fill a vacancy and not fill up one.
The vacancies in the Physics Department have been
filled.
What is the difference
between run out of time
and race against time? (R.
Vinod, Indore)
The two expressions have
slightly different meanings.
When you say that you have
CM
YK

run out of time, you are suggesting that you have no time
left; you have used up all the
time that was given to you.
For example, during exams,
we sometimes fail to answer
all questions because we have
simply run out of time. When
you race against time, you do
things very quickly because
you have to do many things in
a short period of time. In other words, you rush in order to
complete something before
the given deadline. Answering all questions in an exam is
often a race against time.
It was a race against time,
but we managed to catch the
early morning flight.
We couldnt see half the
things we wanted to because
we ran out of time.
Is there a word for someone
who loves to be
photographed? (T. Ravi,
Secunderabad)
There are lots of people
who love to have their pictures taken; they readily volunteer to stand in front of the
camera while someone clicks
away. Thanks to the advances
in technology, this individual
can now take plenty of pictures of himself selfies.
In everyday conversation, a
person who loves standing in
front of the camera is sometimes referred to as camera
hog or lens hog. In informal
contexts, the word hog is
used to refer to a greedy individual.
In the case of a camera hog,
he is greedy to be in front of
the camera. A person who
doesnt like being photographed is said to be camera
shy.
****
Photography is a tough
life: you can be taken, framed,
exposed, shot, captured and
hung all in the same day
Unknown
Email:
upendrankye@gmail.com

Computing. I was lucky enough to

get my offer letter in person from
the university delegates who were
on an official visit to the country. I
was also awarded a scholarship
based on my past academic and
professional achievements.

FIRST IMPRESSION
The university has a wonderful
induction week and an active international student service team. I was
immediately made to feel at home by
the staff, both teaching and nonteaching and the student volunteers.
Sheffield, also known as the steel
city with its contribution to industrial revolution in the 19th century,

in textbooks without proper referencing, not knowing that I was inadvertently

committing
an
unforgivable mistake plagiarism. This was the first major hurdle I had to encounter, but thanks
to the universitys foresight, the
first module in our masters degree
introduced us to the British way of
academic writing.
The masters degree, unlike in
India, is not one where you get
taught everything to earn a degree;
instead students are introduced to
topics and are actively encouraged
to conduct desk research, group
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
activities, presentations and so on
While I was in India, I had been to improve the subject knowledge.
modern university which was
formed following the higher education reforms after World War II, but
the campus boasts a proud history
dating back to 1836. The University
of Sheffield is a Russell group University which is more than a century
old. The clubs, pubs and other entertainment venues in the city host one
of the countrys best freshers weeks
for the students. Actively participating in the events organised by the
university helped me meet students
from across the world and make
friends.

assessments, practical work and

presentations that contribute to
the awarding of the degree. The
masters courses have a dissertation or project work which provides a platform for research and
development.
I realised my research potential
during my dissertation and decided to enrol for PhD in the
university.
The writer pursued
M.Sc. Web and Cloud
Computing at Sheffield Hallam
University, U.K.
She is now she is studying
for a PhD at
the university.

Competition does
not improve quality
Economist Prabhat Patnaik cautions against the
commoditisation of education, while explaining
his take on the concept of private varsities.
G. MAHADEVAN

he Kerala State
Higher Education
Council had, recently,
recommended to the
Government, the setting up
of private universities in
Kerala. Education Minister
P. K. Abdu Rabb has repeatedly expressed his personal opposition to the idea
of private universities.
Against this backdrop
noted economist and educationist Prabhat Patnaik
gives his take on the concept of private universities
in an email interview with
The Hindu EducationPlus.
Excerpts
Do you feel that educationally and socially the
time is ripe to set up private universities in
Kerala?
One has to distinguish
between two kinds of private educational institutions: those that are set up
for philanthropic reasons
and those that are set up as
business. The former have
been with us for a long time
and I see nothing wrong
with them. The latter entail
a commoditisation of education, which I am totally
opposed to, for at least four
reasons. First, since their
aim is profit-making, they
typically charge exorbitant
fees, which exclude the
poor. Commoditisation of
education therefore per-

petuates the existing social

divide and is therefore fundamentally anti-democratic. Second, since education
becomes an investment
item even for the students,
an investment that has to
be recouped, there is a
pressure to introduce
courses and alter the curriculum in accordance with
market demand, which
means that the social role
of education, its role in nation-building, in inculcating humane values, in
sustaining the foundational ethics that underlie our
Constitution, get progressively abandoned to the
detriment of our society.
Third, since a commodity is
a finished product, a capsule as it were, that is imbibed,
commoditisation
necessarily prevents the
asking of questions, encourages mediocrity, and
destroys creativity. Fourth,
it also converts the products of the education system into commodities,
whose sole concern is the
amount of exchange value
(money) they can command on the market. It
makes them into purely
material-seeking individuals and even takes away
from them the thrill of engaging with the grandeur of
ideas. I am therefore opposed to private universities (as distinct from
institutions imparting particular skills or crafts),

which are run as business,

whether in Kerala or in India as a whole.
Private capital has always played a crucial
role in the educational
scenario of Kerala; both
in the school education
sector and in higher education. Are not private
varsities just a logical extension of this decadesold phenomenon?
The operation of private
capital in school education,
a historical legacy in Kerala, needs to be controlled,
which is what the previous
government had tried to
do. This historical fact cannot be used as an argument
for expanding the sphere of
that operation to higher
education as well. Education, whether school education or higher education,
must be primarily the responsibility of the government,
though
philanthropic institutions
can supplement that effort.
Sometimes, of course, profit-making institutions pass
themselves off as philanthropic on the grounds that
their profits are ploughed
back into the institution itself, but this does not stand
scrutiny.
After all, firms that
plough back profits into
their businesses are not
counted as philanthropic!
To read the full
interview, visit http://
bit.ly/1SRW9Pq
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 21, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SNAPSHOTS

Has LHC discovered a

mysterious new particle?

Late in 2013, a
novel variant of the
Ebola virus
emerged in
Western Africa to
become the largest
epidemic on record.

HOW FLIES
PROTECT THEIR
OFFSPRING

An innate

warning system
alerts female flies
when wasps are
near and increases
the larvae's survival
rate.

PHYTOPLANKTON
LIKE IT HOT

Globally,
Phytoplankton
absorb as much
CO2 as tropical
rainforests, and so
understanding
their response to
warming is crucial.

embers of the
CMS (Compact
Muon Solenoid)
and the ATLAS
detectors working with the Large Hadron
Collider in Switzerland
have independently identied signals that could lead
to the discovery of a new
fundamental particle of nature. Both experiments
have observed an excess of
pairs of photons which
could arise from the decay
of heavy particles created
during the collision.
While it is not exactly
clear what this particle
could be, if the existence of
the new particle turns out
to be veried when more
data come in next year,
physics would have a new
elementary particle about
six times as massive as the
Higgs boson which explains why other particles
have mass.
The data was collected
after the LHC was red up
again in June to continue
smashing particles together at record-breaking energy
levels
of
13
Teraelectronvolts (TeV).
Both the teams presented
their data on December 15
in a meeting held at CERN,
Geneva.
With the discovery of the
Higgs boson, all the particles in the Standard Model
of particle physics have
been seen. So if a new particle is discovered, it would
mean evidence for physics
beyond the established
mode of thinking about
elementary particles from
the mid-1970s onwards,
namely the Standard Model of particle physics.
CERNs media spokesperson, Arnaud Marsollier,
cautiously reiterates that it
is far too early to say anything about a discovery.
ATLAS and CMS presented many results on Tuesday, and among these,
there is a small intriguing
signal that might be something new. But we will denitely need more data as
such signal can also easily
be due to statistical uctuations

The new results come from the second run of the LHC at an enhanced energy of 13 TeV.
PHOTO: AFP

Once verified,
the intriguing
signal will
mean a new
particle has
been found
But the caution cannot
detract from the excitement that the little statistical bump has created, as
the signals leading up to
the discovery of the Higgs
boson were also similarly
tantalising.
Summing up the excitement of the community,
Arnaud Marsollier says,
Such a signal if conrmed
would be unexpected and
physicists will study this in
more detail with more data to come in 2016. As the
LHC restarted in 2015 at a
new unexplored energy,
there is a very strong interest with new datacollected, but the scientic
process needs time and we
have learnt to be patient!
In the experiments, two
proton beams of extremely
high energy are made to
collide with each other.
The protons shatter and in
the combined effect of energy and mass fragmentation, various elementary

particles are created, many

of which decay into states
like photons or Z bosons,
to name a few.
By looking at the fragments that emerge from
beyond the zone of these
cataclysmic collisions, the
scientists backtrack and
estimate what particles
were created in the collision. Protons and other
elementary particles are
essentially quantum in nature and governed by laws
of statistics and probability, so the scientists have
to use statistical analysis
to interpret the data.
In this case, both CMS
and ATLAS experiments
have independently observed an excess of pairs of
photons which could have
resulted from the breaking
up of a particle that decayed into two photons.
Since the energies of these
photon pairs add up to 750
gigaelectronvolts (GeV) or
roughly 750 billion electron volts, this could be a
measure of the mass of the
particle that decayed. The
mass of a proton is close to
one GeV.
These results would
constitute a discovery if
they had a statistical signicance of at least 5 sigma, and in this case, CMS
reports a signicance of

India should show leadership

in TB research
R. PRASAD

ith a $9.1 million

funding in 2014 by
several Indian government
agencies, India is ranked
fth in the world with documented investments in TB
research. India is ranked
ninth in terms of money
spent on TB research as a
percentage of GDP.
India's spend of $9.1 million on TB research in 2014
is in line with its historical
spending on TB research
over the past four years
($8.6 million in 2013; $8.7
million in 2012; and $9.5
million in 2011).
India has done well compared to some other countries, but it needs to show
leadership in TB research
and contribute much more
for the sake of the over 2
million Indians who suffer
from TB unnecessarily each
year and hundreds of thousands that needlessly die
from TB, said Dr. Suvanand
Sahu, Deputy Executive
Secretary of the Stop TB
Partnership, Geneva, Switzerland in an email to this
Correspondent.
Singapore, which has very
low TB incidence and mortality, provided $8.1 million
last year. Singapore spends
more on TB research as a
percentage of its GDP than
any other nation.
Though world leaders
have agreed to end TB by
2030 under the Sustainable
Development
Goal
3,
CM
YK

Research was not prioritised when the DOTS strategy was

launched in the late 1990s. PHOTO: AP
achieving this goal will not
be possible unless and otherwise new diagnostics,
drugs and an effective vaccine become available. The
Stop TB Partnerships Global Plan for 2016-2020, published in November 2015,
articulates the need for
these new tools and estimates that $9 billion will be
required for research in
these ve years.
So all countries, including India need to signicantly
increase
their
investment in TB research,
said Dr. Sahu.
Since India has the highest TB burden and mortality
in the world, the country
would gain the most from
scientic breakthroughs in
the development of better
diagnostics, shorter treatment regimen and vaccines.
Considering Indias economic growth and the enormous human resource
potential, the country can
be a leader in TB research,
he said. Besides being the

K.S. RAJGOPAL

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

HOW EBOLA
SPREAD IN WEST
AFRICA

Role of tropical forests in

reducing global warming

biggest beneciary of any

TB breakthroughs, there is
another reason why India in
particular should increase
its share of TB funding.
Global funding for TB research has atlined at under
$700 million per year during the last ve years. This is
despite the WHO increasing
its estimates of the size of
the TB epidemic in each of
the past two years, and the
threat of drug-resistant TB
continuing to loom large.
This lack of funding has
left TB researchers waiting
for the resources required to
put new ideas to test and
now threatens to forestall
the TB communitys ambitious vision for the future: a
world free of TB, notes a
report on TB funding by the
Stop TB Partnership and
Treatment Action Group
(TAG). There is a proposal
to start a research consortium which will coordinate
TB research done by different government agencies.
The consortium can coordi-

nate and make TB research

more effective by avoiding
duplication, fragmentation
and focus on high priority
research areas, said Dr.
Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of ICMR.
While the U.S ($247 million) and the U.K. ($44 million) have contributed
signicantly, many developed countries have spent
far less than India. The reasons for this are clear low
levels of TB in the developed
countries, particularly in
Western Europe, have resulted in declining interest
in investing in TB research.
Another reason for declining interest in TB research and funding could be
traced back to the nature of
the disease itself. TB is a
slowly progressing disease
that does not kill people in
public and is linked to poverty. It kills people but not
in as dramatic a way as Ebola does. Had TB been an
acute disease with sudden
onset and death it would
have scared people and governments would have invested readily on research,
he underlined.
One more factor that adversely affected TB research
was that when the DOTS
strategy was launched in the
late 1990s, it was thought
that with the existing drugs
and diagnostics, the DOTS
approach could cut down TB
substantially. Research was
not prioritised during this
period, Dr. Sahu said.

2.6 sigma and ATLAS a

signicance of 3.6 sigma.
The sigma value indicates
the condence level of the
measurement; for instance, 5 sigma will mean
that the probability of the
bump being due to a
chance background event
would be one in 3.5 million. Also, this was the result obtained when the
scientists were scanning
the entire energy spectrum and not just 750 GeV.
This fact causes the statistical signicance to drop a
little more. But there more
data to come in next year,
and if this signal should
improve to required levels,
it would actually yield evidence for a new particle.
In 2016, the LHC will
continue experiments that
probe not only the twophoton decay channel, but
also others which will
strengthen these searches.
Immaterial of whether the
existence of this new particle turns out to be proved
or not, 2016 is for sure
going to be an exciting
year for particle physics.
As of now, apart from
interesting possibility at
750 GeV, the scientists
have seen no signs of physics beyond the Standard
Model, such as supersymmetry.

ropical forests can play a

major role in the reduction of atmospheric carbon
and achieve a below 2 degrees C rise in global warming by 2050, says a recent
study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
As the transition from total reliance on fossil fuels to
that on renewable sources of
energy is expected to take
place over the next 35 years,
the study nds that tropical
forests can be the bridge to
this transition by causing
uptake of atmospheric carbon, provided, astute forest
management combined with
fossil fuel use reduction are
effected in a speedy manner.
According to Dr. R. A.
Houghton, the rst author of
the paper from Woods Hole
Research Center, Massachusetts U.S., enhancing carbon
uptake and reducing emissions could account for as
much as 50 per cent of total
carbon emissions.
Explaining the math behind this conclusion, he
wrote in an email to this Correspondent: Total carbon
emission works out to 13
units emission from fossil
fuels accounting for 9 units
and gross emissions from
land use (emissions due to
deforestation) working out
to 4 units. Since growing of
forests will help in sequestering 3 units of carbon from
the atmosphere, the total
carbon present will be 10
units. While the total carbon
present can be further reduced to 6 units by eliminating land-use emissions, the
uptake of carbon by reforested large areas (1 unit) would
further cut the total emissions to 5 units (50 per cent
of the initial total, 10).
To achieve a 75 per cent
likelihood of avoiding warming in excess of 2 degrees C
through changes in fossil
fuel emissions alone, such
emissions would have to be
eliminated over the next 20
years or less. In contrast, the
same effect could be
achieved if, rst, tropical forest management removed 5
petagram of carbon per year
(1 petagram is equivalent to 1
billion metric tons) from the
atmosphere, phased linearly
over the next 10 years, and,

Tracing the insect that

adds colour to life
K.S. SUDHI

ntomologists
from
across several national
institutions of the country
are engaged in the conservation of a ightless insect
species that adds colour to
life, the Lac insect.
Resin, dye, and wax produced by the insect is used
as for giving colour to wool,
silk, wine, Ayurvedic medicinal preparations, wood
nish and cosmetics, say
entomologists
The rapid changes in the
agricultural patterns are
posing serious threat to the
insects. Alarmed by the
speed at which uncharacterised breeds are disappearing in some regions
where climatic, parasitic or
disease pressures could
have produced important
genetically
adapted
breeds, the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and
Gums, Ranchi, launched an

Rapid
changes in
farming
patterns are
threatening
lac
all India Research Programme on Conservation
of Lac Insect Genetic
Resources.
The project, which tries
to rediscover lac populations so as to conserve
them, has witnessed as

many as eight institutions

including the agricultural
universities of Assam, Punjab, Hyderabad and Imphal
and the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI),
Thrissur, coming together
and chalking out conservation programmes.
In Kerala, the entomologists from the KFRI
claimed to have detected
thousands of in the districts
of Kollam and Trivandrum.
The insects were detected in host plants like the
rain tree Samania saman,
Ficus religiosa and Pterocarpum peltophorum. The
insect populations were
found in trees located in
places of high human presence like the bus stand at
Thampanoor, the Railway
Station, Government hospital, Thycadu and the zoo
at Thiruvananthapuram,
said T.V. Sajeev, an entomologist of the Institute.
There were bird roosts in
all the trees the insects
were detected. The ightless insects depend on the
birds for its dispersal, he
said.
Lac, which was produced
in considerable quantities
in many places in the country, has now been conned
to a few places.
The researchers plan to
move a sample from each
population during the
brood phase to host plants
grown at the KFRI campus
and reintroduce the lac to
homesteads of interested
farmers during the next
brooding season, said Mr.
Sajeev.

Tropical forests can be the bridge when the transition from

fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is expected to
take place over the next 35 years. PHOTO: AP

Tropical
forests can
achieve a below
2o C rise in
global warming
by 2050
second, fossil fuel emissions
were held constant for the
next 10 years and then reduced linearly to a level
equal to 20 per cent of 2014
emissions by 2050 before
further linear reduction to
zero by 2100. This estimate
was reached based on the
gross sources and sinks of
carbon associated with three
types of forest management
in the tropics. First, deforestation and degradation of
forests in tropical regions
currently release into the atmosphere about 1 Pg C/yr. If
these were stopped, those
emissions would cease. Second, carbon is removed from
the atmosphere by secondary forests that are recovering from harvests and from
slash and burn shifting agriculture at rates as high as 3
petagram of carbon per year.
This gross rate of uptake is
taking place now.
The landscape with shifting cultivation has 10 per
cent of the land in crops, say,
and 90 per cent of the land in
fallows. The landscape with
permanent agriculture has
10 per cent of the land in
crops and 90 per cent of the
land in forests. On average,
forests hold 2-5 times more
carbon than fallows. If shifting cultivation were replaced
by permanent cultivation,
the fallows would return to
forests, taking up carbon as
they grow, Dr. Houghton

notes. If fallows were to return to forests, up to 3 Pg of

carbon per year will get accumulated in growing forests
and would continue for decades before declining as the
forests mature.
A third activity, more difficult to achieve than the rst
two because of higher costs
per hectare, is the re-establishment of forests on lands
previously forested but not
currently used productively.
Estimates of the areas
available for reforestation
vary, but re-forestation of
500 million hectares could
sequester at least 1 Pg C /yr
for decades. According to the
study, the three activities together would reduce total
emissions by as much as 5 Pg
C/yr ( a reduced source of 1
Pg C/yr and increased sinks
of 4Pg C/yr). Though the
rate of carbon accumulation
in forests diminishes with
time, the forest sinks (totally
4 Pg C/yr) would conservatively last for approximately
50 years (to 2065) before declining linearly to zero by
2095.
As the large trees containing most of the aboveground forest carbon tend to
be absent in degraded forest,
and large trees can take well
over a century to mature fully, the absorption is likely to
continue at a high level well
beyond a 50-year period.
The study is especially signicant because forest management can be much more
easily and quickly implemented than development of
alternate renewable energy
technologies and would account for much of the reduction in atmospheric carbon
until reliable and efficient
renewable energy technologies are put in place.

QUESTION CORNER
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
What are gravitational waves?
CHAITANYA VUDDANTI, Hyderabad

While Sir Isaac Newton visualised gravitational force as

a pulling force between objects, Albert Einstein opined it
to be a pushing force due to the curvature of four dimensional spacetime fabric. The curvature of spacetime stems
from the dent heavy objects produce on spacetime fabric
which can be compared to the dent one could see on a
plastic sheet when a massive ball is placed.
Mass in motion is the source of ripples of curved spacetime that propagate away at the speed of light. These
propagating ripples in spacetime curvature are called
gravitational waves that arise as a natural consequence to
hold the general theory of relativity proposed by Einstein.
It is well known that accelerated electric charges produce electromagnetic waves. In a similar way, an accelerated mass produces gravitational waves. Although it is a
classical effect, the strength of this effect is very small. For
instance, the gravitational waves emitted by a vibrating
electric charge are about a trillion trillion trillion times
weaker than the electromagnetic waves emitted by the
same electric charge.
Although, physics supports the existence of gravitational waves, the strength of such waves even due to astronomically heavy bodies is awfully weak to be detected. In
spite of technological difficulties in directly detecting the
existence of the gravitational waves, attempts have been
on over the years as detecting them could help unravel the
secrets of nature, including the birth of our universe itself.
Dr. P. RAMESH BABU, Professor of Physics
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu

THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS

Why is the number of meteorites striking the moon's
surface quite large whereas very few reach the earth's
surface?
Sharath Chandra

How do we hear sounds from internal organs

(like stomach)?
Balagangadharan, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu

What is the difference between certain medicines in

tablet form and certain medicines in capsule form
though both are taken orally?
T.N.Sama Rao, Thiruninravur, Tamil Nadu

Why do we experience a tingling feeling in our hands or

feet when we keep them in the same place for a long time?
K.Vaishnavi, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu
Readers may send their questions/answers to questioncorner@thehindu.co.in
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

EducationPlus 03

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 21, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Change for the better?

GLOBAL BUZZ
News from around the
world.

The proposed aptitude tests under the JEE are aimed at reducing dependency on coaching institutes.
Will the move succeed?
KATHAKALI NANDI

Educationists say the aptitude tests will backfire.

the new aptitude tests will see students mugging up for them, which
beats the very purpose of the tests.
The tests are only going to add
pressure on the students and their
parents and coaching institutes will
formulate new success formulae.
The very intention of introducing
them will be lost. Problem-solving
is an ability which is honed with
time, which these tests seek from a

S. UPENDRAN
Your colony used to be so clean. Now theres garbage
everywhere. Whats happening?
My neighbours domestic engineer informed me that
our sanitation engineers are on strike. Apparently,
theyre
Domestic engineer sanitation engineer. What are
you talking about?
They are examples of political correctness. A homemaker or a housewife is sometimes referred to as domestic engineer. It sounds a lot more impressive than
housewife, doesnt it?
It certainly does. What about a sanitation engineer?
What does he
Hes the person who collects your garbage, sweeps
the streets and
Interesting. So, tell me, are we celebrating tonight?
Did your boss give you a raise?
Sorry to disappoint you, but I didnt even ask him for
one. Id planned to, but when I saw him this morning, he
looked tired and preoccupied I thought better of it.
You thought better of it? Thought better of what?
When you plan to do something and at the last minute think better of it, you dont carry out your plan. You
decide that its not a very good idea after all.
In other words, you decide to drop the plan. You
change your mind about it.
Thats right! I was planning to buy Sharmas old
house, but I thought better of it.
That house is in terrible condition. How about this
example? I was planning to go for a walk. When I saw the
grey clouds, I thought better of it.
Good example! I was planning to lend Kumar the
twenty lakh rupees hed asked for. But as I was writing
the cheque I thought better of it.
But tell me, why didnt you ask your boss for a raise?
What stopped you?
When I saw him this morning, he looked very worried. Apparently, his daughter has been in hospital for a
week, and the doctors have no clue what the problem is.
He hasnt told anyone, and I promised him I wouldnt let
on about his daughters condition to
Let on? Does it mean not telling others about her
problem?
Thats right! The expression let on is frequently
used in everyday conversation to mean to reveal something about someone.
In other words, you pass on information which is
meant to be a secret.
You could say that. Rajesh never let on that his father
was a well-known film producer.
How about this example? My friend never let on that
he was having money problems.
Sounds good. The police think that the minister
knows more than hes letting on.
Forget the minister. When do you plan to ask your
boss for a raise?
I dont really know. The nub of the problem is
The nub of the problem? Does it mean the main
problem or something like that?
The word nub has several different meanings. It is
frequently used to refer to the most important or essential part of something. The nub of the problem is
overpopulation.
If youre talking about India, I agree. In the movie,
the father and son dont get along. The nub of the
problem is money.
****
Politician: one who is willing to do anything on earth
for the workers except to become one. Leonard
Levinson
Email: upendrankye@gmail.com

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JEE aspirant. However, these aptitude tests are just proxies for a broken educational system, says
Avasthi.
Aakash Chaudhry, director of Aakash Educational Services, expressed the view that students
might be tested in physics, chemistry and mathematics based on
what they learn in school.
If the objective is to cut down on

coaching institutes, it will fail. We

require policies that will stop students from going to such classes.
Since there will be about two
rounds of aptitude tests before the
JEE, it means that these tests will
be held during the academic year,
forcing students to simultaneously
prepare for school and board examinations as well as these aptitude
tests, says Chaudhry.

A Scottish university has

revoked an honourary degree
it had awarded to Donald
Trump after the U.S.
Presidential hopeful made
controversial remarks about
Muslims in his statements.
Trump had been presented
Donald Trump
the award of Doctor of
PHOTO: REUTERS
Business Administration by
Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 2010. The
university has stated that Trump made a number of
statements that are wholly incompatible with the
ethos and values of the university. Earlier,
Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon had
dropped Trump as a business ambassador for the
country.

Bad English woes

A research by the Dutch Student Union (LSVb)
has revealed that some lectures at Dutch universities
and higher education colleges are imparted in such
bad English that students have a tough time
following them. Almost 60 per cent of the students
who took part in the poll confessed that that they
have faced lecturers who could not communicate
well. According to Dutch News, universities and
colleges in the Netherlands have been increasingly
introducing more English into their degree courses
to attract international students and prepare Dutch
students for an international career.
COMPILED BY SARTHAK SARASWAT

The Cambridge Group of Educational Institutions believes in a programme that meets the intellectual
and psychological needs of the child.
teraction with foreign uniNANDHI SUNDAR
We have
versity professors through
he Cambridge Group
online courses.
special
of Educational Instigives an opportunity
programmes forThis
tutions believes in
students to take up inoffering an educaternational online courses
to improve
tion system that is
which otherwise may not be
communication accessible to them, given the
clearly out of the box in
thinking as well as in praccost. Currently, the cost
skills of rural high
tice. This is reflected in their
of the course is borne by the
approach to teaching submanagement to encourage
students
jects like science and maths
students to pursue.
whose
in the area of academic purAn annual state and naD.K.
Mohan
suits, the encouragement
tional convention is held
interest
in
and assistance rendered in
where different engineering
haviour problems, academic English may
the field of art, culture and
colleges participate to disproblems, peer pressure. be less.
sports and the support procuss improvements in curEven parental issues affectvided in addressing psycho- Laying a strong foundation with practical exposure and
rent academic techniques to

logical needs of growing

children and teens. Speaking
to The Hindu on their model
of teaching and education as
well as their future vision
was the chairman, D.K. Mohan. Here are some excerpts
from that conversation.
How is your system of
teaching different and
unique as compared to
other institutions?
Our focus is on holistic
education and personality
development of the child.
We have various programmes which permit children not only to learn in a
unique practical manner but
also to understand the sub-

approach to learning.

ject better and excel in it. For

instance, the Mind Spark
programme addresses children from class I to VIII, aiding them to learn maths in a
unique manner using computers. Similarly, there is a
Science Adda where children
learn through experimentation and learning. Given the
practical exposure and approach to learning, a strong
foundation is laid that can
later be built upon. This is
true in other fields of study
too such as English language
where communication skills
are taught and perfected

FIITJEE test on Dec. 27

IITJEE Talent Reward Exam (FTRE)

will be conducted for school students on
December 27 in 70 cities. FTRE was conceptualised to identify talented students having
an inclination towards technical education,
financially reward their capability and assist
them in preparing for competitive exams
such as IIT-JEE, IJSO, NTSE, Senior Science
Olympiad, Maths Olympiad and KVPY. It is
taken by more than 2 lakh students every
year.
Top-performing students in FTRE are
awarded with certificates, medals and cash
rewards. FIITJEE will be giving out rewards
and scholarships worth Rs. 10 crore this year.
The deadline to register for FTRE is December 24. The registration process can be
done both offline and online. For details, visit
www.fiitjee-ftre.com.

International Business
programme

U
and

PHOTO: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

Donald Trumps degree revoked

Board examination marks should

be given more importance, Chaudhry says.
IITs need to change their admission criteria and put equal stress on
board examination marks as well as
the JEE rank. Many students aiming for IITs focus wholeheartedly
on cracking the JEE and obtaining a
good rank, entirely ignoring their
board examination preparations.
This needs to change since such students are the ones who feed the
coaching industry, he says.
Countering this, Avasthi says
both board examinations and JEE
are testing the same thing.
The syllabus is the same; it is
only the question pattern which is
different. While one test requires a
student to answer objective questions, the other requires a student
to apply his knowledge for subjective questions.
The idea that the JEE structure is
different from the Board examinations is fed by the coaching institutes in the minds of students and
their parents. The teaching and
evaluation systems need to be
changed. Students should be taught
in a way that they do not forget what
they learnt in the previous year,
she adds.

Improving skills

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

Mail
your
suggestions
educationplus@thehindu.co.in

Universities across the U.K. lost their Internet

connections recently after a cyber attack crippled
the academic computer network Janet. The network
first came under a persistent and continuous
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on
December 7, which forced students and tutors to
stay offline. Janet is used by thousands of
universities and colleges including the University of
Cambridge and the University of Oxford. To tighten
the security, Jisc, the body that is responsible for
running Janet, has blocked access to the network.

"The tests are

only going to
add pressure on
students and
their parents."

PERSPECTIVE
arlier this month, a panel
constituted by an IIT council suggested changes to the
existing pattern of the Joint
Entrance
Examination
(JEE). In an effort to reduce dependency on the third party coaching industry, the suggested JEE
changes are aimed at incorporating
two or more aptitude tests that will
be conducted before the entrance
examination. The tests, which will
be conducted online, will be designed to test the aspirants scientific aptitude and innovative
thinking ability. Candidates who
pass these aptitude tests will then
go on to appear for the JEE Advanced test.
While no further information is
available, the aptitude test is likely
to be introduced from 2017. Although the tests are being introduced with a view to doing away
with dependency on coaching institutes, educationists opine that
the intention will backfire and increase students dependency on
such institutes.
Not only will these tests add to
the students already frenzied study
schedules, it will also see them making a beeline to the coaching classes
to prepare for the aptitude tests.
While agreeing that the intention
behind the change was noble but its
implementation might backfire, Aditi Avasthi, CEO and founder of online test prep portal Embibe, says

Cyber attack

niversity of Lincoln, U.K., is inviting applications for its one-year full-time M.Sc. International Business programme which will commence
on February 8, 2016.
It offers an opportunity to conduct in-depth
research on a business-related topic at the dissertation level. There are four major choices of
specialisations available including Tourism and
Logistics, Entrepreneurship, Regional Business
and General Management. International students
applying for the programme will require English
Language at IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in each
element, or equivalent. The application deadline is
the first week of January. For further details, visit
http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/course/busintms/ or drop an email to lbs@lincoln.ac.uk.

through various modules

that include creative writing,
storytelling, exhibitions that
require explanation.
What is your approach
to non-academic segments of learning?
Music is taken up as part
of communications skills
and hence training is imparted from the nursery section.
How the child listens to music, sings and learns the
rhyme and rhythm is crucial
here.
An in-house counsellor
addresses the life skills of the
students in areas such as be-

ing the child are addressed

and counselled effectively.
Sports assume a strong place
in the institution, with a
strong curriculum of sports
brought in place. Multiple
sports are taught and students are encouraged to
excel.
Your approach to undergraduate education
too is deemed to be different.
Could
you
elaborate?
Our differential approach
begins with our highly qualified and experienced faculty.
We
have
special
programmes to improve
communication skills of ru-

ral students whose interest

in English may be less than
required and we also provide
them training to face
interviews.
International exposure is
brought in through international conferences that are
conducted during the academic year. Our students too
are given opportunities to
present papers along with
our faculty members. Practical industry-related modules
are also implemented to offer practical training to students.The
international
learning centre which is part
of our programme, offers in-

impart quality education.

Our curriculum also incorporates a compulsory twohour creativity session per
week where students get to
showcase their creative
thinking and work. Vacation
time is equally productively
used by encouraging students to team up and submit
projects that invite awards.
What is your future
vision?
The vision is to make our
engineering programme on
par with IITs in terms of innovative thinking and implementation besides growing
into an independent university in the future.

Quality over quantity

How can a student stand out while engaging in community service and yet
make a meaningful contribution to the community?
participants; an economic experiment to gauge the importance of transportation in
personal financial development by which certain families
were given bicycles and therefore gained access to neighbouring markets and a variety
of local charity drives to support the displaced in times of
flood or communal unrest.
These are just a few examples
of unusual service endeavours
that required uncommon
initiative.

ROHAN GANERIWALA

VALUE-ADD

ts no secret that community service is an important aspect of any

students overall application. Realising this, most
schools have made volunteer
work compulsory from Class
VIII through XII, resulting in
an unfortunate homogeneity
within the applicant pool for
universities. Therefore, to really stand out and highlight ones
own accomplishments in the
field, students are now being
encouraged to search for alternative avenues by means of
which they can do some unique
yet meaningful community
service. While admission officials certainly will not think ill
of any form of volunteerism,
they do try to discern a candidates level of commitment.
For instance, a student who has
worked at the same NGO every
week for three years will garner
more nods of approval than one
who has spent only a couple of
months there, though both efforts are admirable.

LOCATION
Community service oppor-

PLAN AHEAD

Community service experience can be rewarding.

PHOTO: N. SRIDHARAN

tunities organised by the

school itself are popular for
their convenience of location,
time, and personal cost. But on
the flip side, universities tend
to consider them as being
forced upon the student in a
manner that usually results in a
less rewarding and involved experience. To add more value,
students should look at involvement that extends beyond
their school and local area.

These initiatives not only show

their commitment to a specific
cause, but also highlight certain skill sets, such as leadership or lateral thinking,
through a hands-on approach
to their work.
Successful
independent
community service projects in
the past have included a football camp that raised money for
the underprivileged through
sponsorships and entry fees for

A significant community service experience is excellent not

just for the personal growth
and development of the sensitivities of a young student, but
also in providing material for
reflective essays or interviews
down the line.
Not surprisingly, the more
selective a college, the more
outstanding a volunteer project must be to make a mark
with admission officials. It is
therefore imperative for aspiring students to plan these projects well in time, and ensure
their efficient execution, even
if they are working on their
own.
The writer is co-founder
of Collegify.
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

04 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 21, 2015

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The path to success

Want to boost your students' motivation towards studies? Some tips.
It is important
to stop
studying before
the saturation
point is
reached.

GEETIKA KAPOOR

e come across very

few students (at any
age) who enjoy
studying. Most of
them study because
they have to complete assignments, prepare for exams or escape scolding. Students seldom
study for fun. As there is no intrinsic motivation towards studies, external stimuli is sought
after in order to drive students
towards picking up books.
Though there is no harm in being driven by external persuasions, it just translates into a
constant need for the environment (and people in it) to stay
focused on creating enough reasons to keep students studying.
More often than not, it is during
the middle and high school years
that the adults start getting tired
of driving the students and want
to wean them off these compulsions. Students in the middle and
high school are expected to study
by self-realisation or being internally driven. While many students get into the driving seat due
to a plethora of reasons, many do
not. This is the time when tired
adults and confused younger
minds start to get into a series of
conflicts.
How can parents and teachers
contribute in helping students increase their motivation towards
studies?
Having a long-term perspective is always useful. Rome was
not built in a day. Getting students to initiate and sustain the
act of studying is a slow and deliberate process. Adults in a hurry to
fix the students are likely to end
up frustrated and unsuccessful in

sessions. If students face prolonged frustration, they build a

chronic pattern of giving up early
on in the learning process.
Provide active feedback about
how the student is doing. When
he/she makes an attempt or
shows initiative, it is helpful to
acknowledge and tell what is correct about that attempt. If many
efforts go unnoticed, the student
is likely to stop trying.
Helping students develop effective strategies for studying is
essential. Teaching students how
to learn is as important as what to
learn. Students often need to be
told explicitly to observe their
own thought process and steps
Having the right environment and a routine for studying helps. PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN
they take to understand the
motivating them. Creating the ies with positive experiences. activity, it is unlikely that he/she meaning of some concepts.
It is crucial to keep students
right environment and routines Make a conscious effort to associ- would come back to it.
successful at showing their learnfor studying also helps. In order ate the act of studying and related
ing. This would require building
to focus on the task in hand, it is people with positive emotions, Skill development
Remember to support and their background knowledge
important to have a certain such as happiness, excitement,
amount of order and calm around fun, warmth and support. This close skill gaps. It is common for about the concepts they are about
us. If there is excessive noise or would imply that adults in charge students to avoid studies because to read, helping them quickly
activity, it is difficult to sustain of teaching stay calm, enthused they are not fluent in reading, when they struggle and keeping
focus.
and happy while teaching. If stu- writing or mathematical skills. their response rate high. One sucThe schedules of the house/ dents experience pleasure while Therefore, it is important that the cessful attempt in itself is the moschool need to encourage the act studying, they are likely to come adults facilitating the students tivation to attempt another one.
study sessions ensure that the And, the cycle will likely
of studying. When the actions of back to it.
people around the student
An important point to keep in skill gaps are identified and ad- continue.
The writer is a Nationally Cerprompt studying, it is easy to ini- mind is to stop studying before dressed. In case these gaps are
tiate the student into doing his the saturation point is reached. If big, it will be important to provide tified School Psychologist (NCSP)
work.
a student reaches the phase of enough sheltering/ support so U.S. and Founder Director,
Another way is coupling stud- being tired and bored with some that the student has fruitful study Edessential.

Protecting Sindhi culture

The Indian Institute of Sindhology completes 25 years this month.
NIKHIL P. ASRANI

language which is spoken by the majority in a

particular state, with a
change of geographical
locations becomes the
language of minority. Say, for the
Sindhi people who have migrated
to Tamil Nadu, Tamil language
has become a major part of their
lives. In this fast and highly globalised world, Sindhi culture is
shrinking; but the Indian Institute of Sindhology(IIS), established in 1989 in Gandhidham,
has been working to preserve the
Sindhi language and culture.
We see many Sindhis are not
comfortable in speaking their
mother tongue, due to various
reasons. The young today want to
speak only English, because they

of developing itself into a cultural

university. For giving a proper
shape to the idea, several symposia were held with the active participation of a number of
scholars, writers and educationists of Sindhi language. The institute has a huge library with
thousands of Sindhi books, many
of them rare ones, on various topics. All Sindhi magazines published in India and abroad are also
displayed and collected in volumes. The library is being run by
A symposium in progress at IIS. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
competent Sindhi-knowing staff.
The library is open to scholars
were actually never thought to seminating it among the younger and the public on all working
speak in Sindhi. No school or in- generation the IIS was establish- days. The institution will soon
stitute teaches Sindhi and per- ed, says Lakhmi Khilani, Direc- have diploma/M.A courses in
haps it is with the motto to tor IIS.
Sindhi language. The subjects
Since its inception, the Indian would include Comparative Culpreserve and promote the cultural heritage of Sindhi Community Institute of Sindhology, Gandhid- tures, Sindhi Folk Lore, Sindhi
and ensure its continuity by dis- ham, has been pursuing the idea language and literature, Musicol-

ogy, Ancient Sindhi Culture,

Teachers Training, Personality
Development, Sindhi handicraft,
Sindhi entrepreneurship, Diplomacy and Foreign relations. The
website www.sindhology.org will
be of use to people who want to
learn Sindhi or wish to visit IIS
for research/project work.
The Indian Institute of Sindhology is completing 25 years this
December and will have silver jubilee celebrations on their campus in Gandhidham from
December 24 to 26. Sindhi personalities L .K Advani, Ram Jetmalani and Dada J P Vaswani will
be addressing the inaugural function. Sindhi authors, artists and
scholars will also be a part of the
celebrations.
The writer is a corporate
communications professional.

MICROHABITAT
Coincidence helped in the conceptualisation. The club submitted
the butterfly park as a project for
Hand-Print Challenge, an initiative of the South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN), aimed
at promoting the idea of sustainability. Log on to http://
bit.ly/1Q6bwGe to read this paragraph: Sri Venkateswara College of
Engineering, Tamil Nadu (India)
[with others] were the winners of
the Challenge... The winning projects included creation of a microCM
YK

habitat for butterflies... And the first

campus butterfly park in Chennai
was born.
Vignesh Krishna, Sanjay D., Aparajitha Sriram and Lavanya final-year students of Computer
Science/ Bio-tech Engineering
and Ramashree, who has joined the
workforce, were happy to take me
for a walk in the park. We first
made a list of the species and then
looked for space for the park, they
said, adding, We have a great gardener, and that's an advantage.
The park had to be in a place that
was not too open, as butterflies
dont tolerate gusty winds. They
found one that had buildings on
three sides and a couple of trees
all acting as windbreakers. For nectar-yielding plants to attract butterflies, rattlepot, oleander and
milkweed were planted. For variety
in the menu, fruit-waste from the
juice shop is placed around. No invitation was issued, we didn't have
to trap them, said the students.
Added Dr. Murugavel, Once we
grow host and nectar-yielding
plants, butterflies gradually adopt
the garden. It should also have some
rocks where they can sunbathe.
Some wet ground where adult butterflies can mud-puddle and get nutrients and salts, is also necessary.

It had been raining and I could

see them flitting around and basking in the sun to dry their wings.
Most parks, including the one in
Vandalur Zoo are enclosed, but this
park is open, it is unique. I agreed. I
could see clusters of them hanging
from stalks, sitting together mudpuddling. It was a great feeling to
stand on open ground and be surrounded by a thousand butterflies
a scene from a movie set!

CELEBRATING SPECIES
Stripe/plain tiger, chocolate/
blue pansy, great eggfly, small cupid, common crow are some of the
species the students have identified. Students are thrilled the locals have invited others and the
species count has increased. It was
great to see new species of butterflies adopting our garden as their
haven, said Dr. Murugavel. The
butterflies move around last year
before summer we had thousands of
these winged jewels fluttering all
over the campus.
The opening of the park has had
surprising results. Vignesh said he
and his mom now bonded over butterflies. She takes pictures and asks
him for names. Friends go ooh!,
Aah!, and we tell them, they sense
humans by vibrating wings, so ap-

UJWAL SURAMPALLI writes about

his experience of pursuing master's
in mechanical engineering at HSRW.
and then demonstrates it on test
GOALPOST
rigs and prototypes. The experi-

hile doing my internship at an automobile plant in

Chennai as part of
my undergraduate
curriculum at Andhra University, I
decided to pursue my masters in
Germany. The reason being
more than 90 per cent of the
equipment at the plant was
German-made!
This came as a calling, and I immediately searched on the Internet for masters courses in
mechanical engineering in Germany. Hochschule Rhein-Waal
(HSRW) is the only university in
the country which offers the masters course completely in English.
So I zeroed in on it. Moreover, the
university is funded by the State
and does not charge any extra tuition fee from the students.
When I got the first glimpse of
Germany just before my plane
landed, the thought that came to
my mind was it looked like a Lego
set! Everything here is really well
planned and maintained.
HSRW is located in Kleve, a
small town in the NRW region, 30
km away from the Dutch border.
The city is unusually quiet except
for the weekends when all the fun
takes place. The people are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. The university has a wonderful
international office which caters
to every students need. The weeklong Freshtival made me feel safe
and at home.

Campus experience
I find a stark contrast between
the teaching methodology in Germany and India. Here, more emphasis is laid on practical and
hands-on applications. In fact, the
laboratory is brought into the
classroom. Every lecture is interlaced with experiments. The professor first explains the concept

AIPMT- 2016

Students of Venkateswara College of Engineering plan to use their expertise to

create more such parks in other colleges.
GEETA PADMANABHAN
Imagine a
butterfly park
CAMPUS BUZZ
in every
t is a boy-meets-girl-on-thecollege or
campus story, with a beautischool
ful ending. It started with Sahana Balasubramaniam of
campus!
Venkateswara Engineering

(From left) Sanjay, Vignesh, Lavanya, Ramashree and Aparajitha.

Engineering in
the land of ideas

WASSUP

A campus habitat for butterflies

College, Chennai, being accepted

for internship with ATREE (Ashoka
Trust for Research in Ecology and
the Environment). She stayed at the
Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Sanctuary's Research Centre, documented
the butterflies in the area. Back
home, she passed on her butterfly
expertise to BFF Ramashree.
Ramashree went butterflywatching at Chennai's Theosophical Society. Vignesh Krishna of the
same college happened to be there
for a walk. They met, struck up a
conversation, Vignesh was impressed with Ramashrees skill at
identifying butterflies, and, before
they left, they decided to make the
identification of the butterflies on
their college campus an eco-club
(CARE) activity. As their survey got
underway, their conversation turned to establishing a butterfly park
on the campus. Biology professor T.
Murugavel had no hesitation greenflagging the idea.

Ujwal Surampalli

proach gently, said Ramashree. it

certainly brings kudos to the college
even if you don't recognise their importance to the environment. Sahana, who is studying abroad, called
to say, We left behind a beautiful
legacy for others to protect, cherish. Aparajita has done a survey of
butterflies around Block V since the
park opened. Tending to the park
and watching butterflies promotes
overall development, said the students. We are ready to create a
garden in other campuses if asked.
Can there be a better hobby than
chasing butterflies?
Dr. Murugavel sees micro-habitats as a way to ensure biodiversity.
This garden supports not only butterflies but bees, dragonflies, spiders, etc. Said Principal R.
Parthiban, Documenting the flora/
fauna of educational institutions
takes students close to nature. It is
needed for engineering students
since their jobs involve issues related to environmental ethics. They
need to know the impact anthropogenic activities have on ecosystems.
Also a protected and undisturbed
area on a campus acts as a living
laboratory to study nature.
Perhaps the most tangible result
of the park is the glossy little handbook Pocket Guide to the Butterflies. It lists the varieties of
butterflies on the campus and follows it with all the information you
might need to start a park.
Imagine a butterfly park in every
college/school campus!

The CBSE has invited online applications on

www.aipmt.nic.in for the All India Pre-Medical
Test (AIPMT-2016) to be held on May 1, 2016
between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. This year, some state
governments/universities/institutions are voluntarily participating in the AIPMT-2016 to use
its merit list for admission to their MBBS/ BDS
courses. The Armed Forces Medical College
(AFMC), Pune and Faculty of Medical Sciences
of Delhi University will admit students from the
AIPMT 2016 merit list.
The entrance test comprises one paper containing 180 objective-type multiple choice questions from physics, chemistry and biology
(botany and zoology) and the duration of the
test would be three hours. Candidates can opt
for the question paper either in English or Hindi. AIPMT-2016 will be held at 52 centres including Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam,
Kozhikode, Bengaluru, Chennai, Puducherry,
Panaji, Mumbai, Lucknow, Varanasi, Noida,
Delhi, Kolkata and Riyad. Online application
facilities are provided upto January 12 and with
late fee upto February 10, 2016. State /university /institutions opting to admit students in its
MBBS/BDS course from the merit list of
AIPMT-2016, will prepare separate rank list
based on All India Rank in AIPMT.

ment is also streamed live on to a

huge LCD screen in the classroom.
As part of our curriculum, the
university arranges fieldtrips to
several companies. We also have
visiting faculty from eminent industries. Often, these lectures end
up with offers of internships and
project thesis.
The university has a huge bibliothek (library). This eliminates
the need to buy one.

Social life
The campus is always bustling
with activities and events organised by the university and student-run groups. Almost all the
events culminate in the after party
at the exotic local pubs and entertainment venues. The most popular and much-awaited event
every year is the grand and lavish
Winterball in December.
The university offers a wide
range of sports activities such as
football, fencing, skateboarding,
water sports, martial arts, basketball, dancing and, of course, cricket, all free of cost.
The university also provides a
public transport ticket every semester which allows enrolled students to travel within the issuing
region completely free of charge
by all modes of public transport.
I would advise students contemplating studying in Deutschland to
plan in advance and not fall prey to
educational consultants charging
exorbitant fee. Rather, visit the
German Academic Exchange
(DAAD) website which offers A-Z
information on universities and
courses offered, visa requirements
and more for free.
The writer is pursuing
Master's in Mechanical
engineering at Hochschule
Rhein-Waal (HSRW),
Germany. Email:
haiujwal@gmail.com

AIPMT-2016 answer key will be displayed

from May 24-26, 2016 and the result is likely to
be declared by June 5, 2016. It will be posted on
www.aipmt.nic.in. All candidates appearing in
AIPMT-2016 can check the websites
www.aipmt.nic.in and www.mcc.nic.in for admission updates and counselling details.

IIST-B.Tech
The Indian Institute of Space Science and
Technology (IIST), Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram, has opened admissions for its undergraduate and dual degree programmes on the basis
of rank obtained in the JEE Main 2016. However, the general category aspirants should also
qualify in the JEE Advanced-2016 with at least
20 per cent aggregate marks and 5 per cent
marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics.
For details, visit www.jeeadv.ac.in.
The minimum academic qualifications required for admission to IIST undergraduate
programmes are a pass in Plus Two / equivalent
examination with physics, chemistry and mathematics and minimum 70 per cent marks put
together. SC/ST / Differently Abled (DA) categories required 60 per cent marks in the qualifying examination. Those appearing for the
qualifying examination in 2016 are also eligible.
Detailed admission notification will be published on April 30, 2016 on the website
www.iist.ac.in/admission/undergraduate.
GOPAKUMAR KARAKONAM

Big boost for India-U.K. tie-ups

KATHAKALI NANDI

number of initiatives
have been planned in
2016 to encourage organisations and institutions in India and
U.K. to collaborate and create a
new framework as partners in
education, research and innovation, in the global context.
As part of the initiatives, a
total of 291 GREAT scholarships (59 undergraduate and
232 postgraduate) will be
awarded throughout 2016-17.
The sought-after Chevening
Scholarships totalled a budget
of 2.6 million for 2015-16.
A digital literacy programme
will be set up for adolescent
girls outside formal education
system and from marginalised

communities. It will be delivered via self-access learning and

managed by trained peer leaders. In the pilot year, the project will reach up to 50 centres
for girls from marginalised and
disadvantaged communities
and will reach 1,00,000 young
girls across nine states in India.
A new workforce development programme will be delivered along with community
colleges/polytechnics and U.K.
providers, for 25,000 students
in 20 institutions in 2016, using a blending learning model,
to maximise the use of technology in teaching to increase
scale and quality. Under this,
there will be a master training
programme for existing and
new faculty.
Another
introductory

course for students in remote

locations will prepare them for
employment and further learning opportunities.
Besides benefiting students,
the campaign will come to the
aid of faculty and a professional network of 10,000 new-generation faculty will be created.
They will be trained to improve
practice and promote research
in digital learning and
teaching.
Other jointly funded bilateral programmes on offer are the
Newton-Bhabha Fund (science
and innovation collaboration
for five years with an allocation
of 50 million), GIAN (Global
Initiative Academic Network
under which UK plans to send
100 academics to teach in India
over the next two years) and.
ND-X

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 28, 2015

Youth

Goalpost

Lets name 2016 as

the year of the
elephant.

How accurate is our

ability to read another
persons mind? A sense of
humility can help.

In helping rebuild the city of

Christchurch, he found an
opportunity to discover
himself, writes Gokulakrishnan.

PAGE 2

PAGE 3

PAGE 4

Science &
Technology

Exam Prep | Admissions | Scholarship alert | Internships | Offbeat careers | Science | Technology | Campusline
----- --- --- --- -- -- - -- - -- - -- -- - -- - -- - -- - ----------------------------------------------------- --- -- -- --- -- --- -- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- - --- -- --- -- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- -- --- -- --- -- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- -- --- -- ---- ----- - ---- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ----- ----- ----- -- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ----- ---

Tapping woman power

SCHOLARSHIP ALERT
Amsterdam Excellence Scholarship

Even as more and more women graduate, why do very few seek jobs or get hired?

Changing
workplaces to
make them
women-friendly
begins by
transforming the
way women are
perceived at work
by male
colleagues and
bosses.

T MURALIDHARAN

ccording to the All India Survey on Higher Education

(2012-13), carried out by the
Ministry of HRD, there are
13.6 million girls enrolled in
higher education courses, of which,
over 10 million are in undergraduate
courses. At the end of that academic
year, more than three million girls
passed out of the final year! Now the
question is where are the three million jobs for these women?
Let us also look into the findings of
the report of the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment,
Government of India, on youth employment and unemployment for
2012-13. The report declared that the
unemployment rate among educated
youth is on the rise; among every
three persons who is a graduate or
above, there is one unemployed. It
also brings to light two issues pertaining to women:
The labour force participation rate
(LFPR) is low. This means that the
number of women working or seeking
jobs or are available for work is low.
The unemployment rate is high.
That is, the number of women who did
not get work despite being available
for it, is high.
The irony is that while more and
more girls are passing out of college,
fewer and fewer of them are seeking
jobs or getting hired.

THE BIG TWO

So, let us discuss two major causes
and explore potential solutions.
Workplaces unfriendly to women: In India, a majority of the available jobs is suitable or, at least, is
perceived to be suitable for men only.
Consequently, women limit themselves to a few job roles which are
stereotyped to be suitable for them.
They are restrained by their families
from seeking challenging job roles,
even though they may be competent
enough. The corporate sector is therefore at risk of losing their skills and

Employers should appreciate the unique set of values that women bring to the workplace.
PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

contributions. Changing workplaces

to make them women-friendly begins
by transforming the way women are
perceived at work by male colleagues
and bosses. Women bring in a unique
set of benefits to the workplace; employers should learn to recognise and
value them. This also brings in a few
challenges which the employer
should keep in mind while setting
expectations.
Women-friendly policies like flexible work timings, separate washrooms and work-from-home options
will encourage more women to join
the workforce.

These extra measures are really

worth the effort, considering the benefits women bring in to the workplace
a sense of purpose, focus on outcomes, work discipline and so on. This
problem is acute in the MSME sector.
While large companies and MNCs are
making significant progress at creating women-friendly workplaces, the
MSME sector, especially the manufacturing companies are far behind.
About 90 per cent of the new jobs
created in the Indian economy is in
the MSME sector. The sector is also
facing a serious talent crunch. In this
backdrop, MSMEs cannot afford to

Knowledge vs. creativity

Does NIDs revised exam pattern carrying more MCQs mean
dilution of standards?
SARTHAK SARASWAT

EXAM PREP

ational Institute of Design,

one of the premier design
institutes in the country,
has produced several notable professionals in the
field. Its entrance exam is one of the
most anticipated events in the calendar of design enthusiasts who
want to hone their skills. Though
there has been no fixed pattern for
the exam, this year the institute has
officially announced a pattern for
the first time. The three-hour 100mark design aptitude test scheduled
for January 10, 2016 will have multiple choice objective type questions for 70 marks and subjective
type questions for 30 marks.
Commenting on the change, Tarun Deep Girdher, head of NID's
admission committee, said the effort of the institute has been to
make the admission process easier
for the applicants. With MCQs being a major chunk, a big advantage
for us will be that the evaluation
would become easier and faster.
This will, in turn, help the candidates as the results and the merit
list will be declared earlier and the
candidates and their parents will get
a longer window to arrange for the
fee and other things, he said. However, the evaluation parameters remain the same, he clarified.
We are looking at the candidates general knowledge, comprehension competencies (both visual
and verbal), analysis and reasoning,
creativity and problem-solving. Only the types of questions that will be
posed to evaluate these parameters
have been changed, he said.
However, not everyone is happy
with NIDs move. Bhanwar Singh
CM
YK

Rathore, director of Bhanwar Rathore Design Studio that coaches NID

aspirants, said, I think being a design institute, NID should stress on
testing the design aptitude of students and ask questions related to
drawing, concept and idea. Till now,
this was the pattern that was being
followed. But this year, it has been
completely reversed as MCQs comprise 70 per cent of the paper. I
think the previous pattern was better. On the flipside, students whose
design skills are lacking but general
knowledge is good have a chance of
bagging a place at the institute, he
said.
Students, however, expressed
concern that the weightage to
MCQs may dilute the rigour of the
exam. Supreetha C.K., who is currently studying at the institute, said,
NIDs exam paper has always been
unique because you couldnt really
prepare for it. One had to rely on
his/her design aptitude for cracking
it. But shifting the focus to general
knowledge questions would encourage students to go to coaching classes. Also, the mindset of students
appearing for the exam would be

different.
Agreeing with her is Kaushal R,
who is preparing for the upcoming
exam. He is of the opinion that more
weightage to MCQs will not challenge the design aptitude of students. MCQs, by their very nature,
require you to choose an option
from those already presented to
you. This means you are not allowed
the space to think and come up with
an answer to the questions on your
own. The student is expected to
choose a particular answer, so, I
think MCQs are better suited to test
knowledge, rather than creativity
and visualisation, he said.
Since there is no particular syllabus, what preparation strategy
can students employ? The design
aptitude test is not a formula-based
test. It is more geared towards how
well you are able to a) understand
what logic you have to apply and b)
use that logic to arrive at an answer.
I would advise the candidates to
read the questions carefully, think
and apply their mind. Be consciously aware of what is happening
around you and keep your curiosity
level high, said Girdher.

ignore the women workforce, eager to

make meaningful contributions at the
workplace. Our experience in hiring
women who had taken a career break
showed that they were keen to perform and were willing to work at a
very economic compensation package
than men with comparable competence and work experience.
So the MSME sector and the corporate sector should venture and try out
women who want to get back to work
after a career break.
Apprehensions associated with
migration: Sometime back, a client of
ours asked us to source 1,000 women

WASSUP
NCHM- JEE 2016
The National Council for Hotel Management
and
Catering
Technology
(NCHMCT) has invited online application
for the Joint Entrance Examination
(NCHM-JEE-2016) to be held on April 30,
2016 (10am to 1 pm) across the country for
admission to the three-year regular BSc
Hospitality and Hotel Administration
courses conducting by various Institutes of
Hotel Management and Catering Technology in India. Online application facilities
are provided up to April 11, 2016. Online
application fee is Rs. 800 (Rs. 400 for SC/
ST categories).
Those who have passed plus two/equivalent examination with English as one of
the subjects are eligible to appear for
NCHM-JEE2016. Those appearing for the
qualifying examination in 2016 are also eligible. Upper age limit for general and OBC
categories is 22 years as on July 1, 2016,
which is relaxable by five years in the case
of SC/ST categories.

candidates for work at their assembly

plant in Chennai. Given the numbers,
we had to mobilise women from the
rural parts of Tamil Nadu.
The biggest learning we took home
from the experience was that while
women are as smart as men and are
eager to participate in work, when the
job involves relocation, concerns of
parents curb the aspirations of the
potential workers. Thoughts of safety,
relocation costs and lifestyle differences discourage parents from allowing their daughters to relocate for
work. Eventually, the girls end up letting go of good opportunities or not
seeking them.
This issue can be addressed by setting up hostels dedicated to women
working for a particular company or
women from a particular region.
These hostels should be partly-funded by the government to minimise the
cost of living and increase savings.
Providing high-level security for
the girls in these hostels and arranging hostel to work bus services will
mitigate the concerns of parents.
When parents visit these hostels and
notice that their daughter would be
spending her time with other girls
from the same region or office, they
would be more open to the idea of
relocation.
The writer is the
chairman of the TMI Group.

In the NCHM-JEE 2016 there will be

totally 200 questions. Each correct answer
will carry one mark and any wrong answer
will incur a deduction of 0.25 marks. All
India merit list shall be prepared and the
results of the test will be announced in the
third week of May 2016. The test centres
will include Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi,
Madurai, Goa, Chennai, Puducherry, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Complete details about NCHM- JEE
2016 and fee structure of the course can be
obtained from the information bulletin
which can be downloaded from the website
http://applyadmission.net/nchmjee2016.
The course is offered jointly by the
NCHM and the IGNOU, and the course
equips students with skills, knowledge and
attitude to efficiently discharge supervisory responsibilities in the Hospitality Sector.
CLAT 2016
Online applications are invited for the
online Common Law Admission Test
(CLAT-2016) to be held on May 8, 2016
from 3 pm to 5 pm across the country for
admission to the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Law offered by 17

A prestigious new one-year scholarship

programme to support exceptionally talented masters students from outside Europe
to study in University of Amsterdam (UvA).
Eligibility: Students from any discipline who
graduated in the top 10 per cent of their
class. Selection is on the basis of academic
excellence, ambition and the relevance of
the selected masters programme to a students future career.
Application: Through the admissions offices
of the graduate schools at the time of masters programme registration.
Prizes and rewards: Scholarship of 25,000
covering tuition fee and living expenses for
one academic year with a possibility of second year extension.
Deadline: January 15, 2016
Website: http://www.b4s.in/plus/AES926

Felix Scholarship
To enable outstanding students from India to pursue graduate studies in any subject at the University of Oxford, the
University of Reading and the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of
London (SOAS).
Eligibility: Students with first-class undergraduate or master's degree from an Indian
university.
Application: Online
Prizes and rewards: 100 per cent university
and college fees, a grant for living expenses
(of at least 14,057) and one return flight
ticket from India to the U.K.
Deadline: January 8 or 22, 2016, depending
on the course.
Website: http://www.b4s.in/plus/FS880

Trust Fund Scholarship

To provide financial assistance to differently-abled students for enabling them to
pursue professional or technical courses
from recognised institutes and get
employed/self-employed.
Eligibility: Students with disabilities for degree and postgraduate-level professional
and technical courses from recognised institutions in India. Annual income of parents should not be more than Rs. 3 lakh.
Application: Online
Prizes and rewards: 2,500 scholarships of Rs.
25,000 for undergraduate courses and Rs.
30,000 for postgraduate courses. Other additional allowances will also be given.
Deadline: Anytime in academic year.
Website: http://www.b4s.in/plus/TFS245
Courtesy: www.buddy4study.com

National Law Universities in the country.

Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law,
Punjab will be the organising university for
this test. Online application facilities are
provided from 1st January to March 31,
2016. Online application fee is Rs. 4,000
(Rs. 3,500 for SC/ST categories).
Those who have passed plus two/equivalent examination in any subject combination with minimum 45 per cent marks
(40per cent for SC/ST applicants) and
those appearing for the qualifying examination in March / April 2016 are eligible to
appear for the test for admission to fiveyear Integrated undergraduate programmes which includes BALLB (Hons),
BSc LLB (Hons) and B.Com LLB (Hons).
No age limit is prescribed.
Minimum eligibility prescribed for the
one year LLM Postgrgaduate Programmes
is a pass in LLB or equivalent degree examination with minimum of 55 per cent marks
and SC/ST applicants require 50 per cent
marks. Those appearing in the qualifying
examination in April/ May 2016 is also eligible to apply.
Visit www.clat.ac.in for details.
COMPILED BY GOPAKUMAR KARAKONAM

WRITE TO US
The Hindu Education Plus invites Indian students in foreign universities to share their experience about the campus, quality of
education, city life and adapting to changes
abroad. The article should not be more than
500 words. Send three different pictures of
yourself (one solo, two on the campus) of minimum 2MB size to goalpost@thehindu.co.in

ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 28, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SNAPSHOTS

Indian scientists discover

three bacterial clusters
Y. MALLIKARJUN

BATS, EBOLA IN
ARMS RACE

Ebola virus and

bats have been
waging a molecular
battle for survival
that may have
started 25 million
years ago, says a
new study.

BEE DECLINE
HITS US CROPS

A study to map
US wild bees
suggests they're
disappearing in
many of the
country's most
important
farmlands.

K.S. RAJGOPAL

hree clusters of bacteria which have no

phylogenetic relationship to any other
bacteria have been
discovered serendipitously
by Indian scientists.
The discovery happened
during LOHAFEX (Loha
means iron in Hindi while
Fex is an acronym for fertilisation) experiment in the
Southern Ocean, Antarctica,
which was aimed at increassequestration
ing
CO2
through ocean iron fertilisation as part of studies on
global warming mitigation.
Though a group of German
scientists were also part of
the experiment, the discovery was made by Indian scientists, according to one of
the investigators and former
Scientist of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology
(CCMB), Dr. S. Shivaji.
Director of National Institute of Oceanography, S.W.A.
Naqvi was the principal investigator of the experiment,
the results of which were
published a few months ago
in an open access journal,
Frontiers in Microbiology.
In the article, the authors
pointed out that oceans are a
major source and sink for
carbon with the marine phytoplankton fixing up to 40
per cent CO2. Thus factors
that hinder CO2 fixation by
marine
phytoplankton
would impact global climate
due to increase in the levels
of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Both biotic (grazing of phytoplankton by microzooplankton) and abiotic factors

Western Indian Ocean

phytoplankton hit by warming

According to Dr. S. Shivaji of CCMB, upon addition of iron, phytoplankton increased by two-fold.

PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Biotic and
abiotic
factors
decrease the
levels of CO2
sequestered
(deficiency in the micronutrient iron) could decrease
the levels of CO2 sequestered. Therefore, the assumption is that if iron
deficiency is overcome by exogenous addition of iron, it
would facilitate a phyto-

plankton bloom and thus

lead to CO2 sequestration, it
was noted.
In order to get a better insight into bacteria-phytoplankton relationship in the
context of iron fertilisation,
the experiment looked at the
effect of iron addition on
bacterial community structure in the Southern Ocean,
Antarctica.
Dr. Shivaji said that upon
addition of iron, phytoplankton increased by two-fold
and concomitantly a change
in the biomass of bacterial
community was also noticed.
Among the three new LOHAFEX clusters that were

discovered, the first was related to class of Bacteroidetes while the second and
third belonged to Firmicutes. A unique and distinct
feature of the three clusters
was their differentiated response to the presence of
iron in the ocean.
While organisms in cluster-1 did not respond to increase or decrease in iron
levels, bacterial community
in cluster-2 increased with
addition of iron and those in
cluster-3 disappeared on addition of iron. Thus, organisms in cluster-2 and
cluster-3 could be indicators
of iron in the ocean.

hytoplankton (microscopic marine plants)

populations in the western
Indian Ocean have declined
by 20 per cent over the last
six decades according to a
recent study published in
Geophysical Review Letters. This decline has
strong implications for the
ecology of the region as it
seriously affects the ocean
food web and has already
been reflected in a decline
in fish catch in the region.
The study says that the
main reason for the decline
in the phytoplankton is increased sea surface temperatures which suppress the
mixing of surface and subsurface waters. The increased
sea
surface
temperatures result in less
dense water in the surface,
a process known as stratification.
Though the surface waters are exposed to sufficient sunlight required for
photosynthesis of these
plants, the nutrients from
the lower depths do not reach the surface due to stratification. Meanwhile, the
subsurface phytoplankton
do not have access to sunlight for photosynthesis
and growth even though
they have access to nutrients at the lower depths.
This leads to less phytoplankton as these marine
plants are asexual and multiply by cell division as they
grow and reproduce in the
presence of sunlight and
nutrients.
Earlier studies had de-

The main reason for the

decline in the phytoplankton
is increased sea surface
temperatures. PHOTO: AFP

Increased
sea surface
temperatures
result in
stratification
scribed the western Indian
Ocean as a region with the
largest increase in phytoplankton during the recent
decades. Future climate
projections, however, suggest that the Indian Ocean
will continue to warm, driving this productive region
into an ecological desert.
During the 1998 El Nino, the winds over the
Western Indian Ocean
were weakened. Weakened
winds mean less evaporation, i.e. more warming. In
1999, a La Nina occurred.
During La Nina, these
winds got stronger, leading
to more evaporation and
cooling. The cooling led to a

temporary spurt in phytoplankton populations during 1999-2000, but over the

long term the populations
declined as the ocean got
steadily warmer, notes Dr.
Roxy Mathew Koll, lead author of the study. Dr. Koll is
Scientist, Indian Institute
of Meteorology, Pune.
It is imperative to have a
firm understanding of the
trends in productivity in
this highly productive
ocean basin, especially
since it has been experiencing one of the largest warming trends over the tropical
oceans. Short-term studies
in the past have indicated
that the Western Indian
Ocean underwent the second largest increase in
chlorophyll concentrations
(indicator of phytoplankton biomass) among the
open ocean regions.
Changes in plankton production can have immense
impact on marine species
as well as humans who rely
on them as a source of food.
Downward trends in primary production over these
areas can be detrimental to
the marine food webs and
the fishing industry.
Data from the Food and
Agriculture Organization
shows that the Indian
Ocean accounts for 20 per
cent of the total tuna catch,
especially the most economically valuable bigeye
tuna, making it the second
largest supplier to world
markets. Large-scale distribution of these dominant
species of tuna is associated
with the phytoplankton
availability and abundance.

What determines sex in alligators Helping plants grow sans sunlight

A
CROWS FASHION
HOOK TOOLS

Scientists have
been given a
glimpse into how
wild Caledonian
crows make and
use 'hooked tools'
to hunt for insect
prey.

joint research team

from the US and Japan
has identified a thermosensor protein which is associated
with
temperature-dependent
sex determination (TSD)
among American alligators.
It has been observed that
in the American alligators
eggs, incubation at 33 degree Celsius produces mostly males, while incubation
at 30 degree Celsius produces mostly females.
The research team found
that a thermosensitive protein called TRPV4 is present within the developing
alligator gonad inside the

egg.
This protein is responsive to warm temperatures
near mid-30s, and can activate cell signalling by inducing calcium ion influx.
The study showed that by
specific pharmacological inhibition of TPRV4 protein
function in the developing
egg, genes important for
male development are influenced, and partial feminisation at male producing
temperatures have been
observed.
According to study authors, their study demonstrates that TRPV4 may
significantly influence the

QUESTION CORNER

male gonadal sex determination pathway at a molecular level during TSD in the
alligator.
Reptiles can be difficult
to study at times, but we
were delighted to obtain
such an interesting result
and elucidate part of the alligator TSD mechanism. We
still have much to research,
but we are interested in how
our results relate with other
TSD species diversity and
evolution, said PhD student Ryohei Yatsu of SOKENDAI (the Graduate
University for Advanced
Studies), who was part of
the research team. IANS

MARS GULLIES
DUE TO DRY ICE

Mars's gullies,
less than a few
million years old,
may be formed by
dry ice processes
rather than flowing
liquid water, as
previously thought.

MATH MODEL FOR

ANIMAL STRIPES

Scientists don't

know how animal

stripes develop, but
since the 1950s,
possible math
scenarios have
been modelled by
mathematicians.

T.N. SAMA RAO, THIRUNINRAVUR, TAMIL NADU

Medicines are essentially given based on their target

organ and mode of action desired. Different forms of
medicines are: Tablets includes a mixture of active substances and excipients, usually in powder form, pressed
or compacted from a powder into a solid dose. In capsules
the drug is enclosed in a gelatin like covering allowing it
to pass the barriers like stomach acids and be used as anal
suppositories. Also, liquid form of drugs can be given as
capsules. Syrups are not much different but some drugs
are more active in liquid form. Most pharmacists recommend liquid medicines for young children, as its almost
impossible to get them to swallow a capsule or tablet.
Some medications, however, are not suitable in liquid
form because the medicine settles at the bottom. These
types of medicines are therefore offered only in solid
form, such as a capsule or tablet.
Although many medicines are offered in both tablet
and capsule forms, some medications are not compatible
with capsule form and vice versa. If one wants a medicine
for stomach, it makes sense to give a tablet which can
then directly go to stomach and act. Whether digestive
system has to assimilate the dose immediately or gradually in the stomach is also an important factor to be
considered. A dose meant to be assimilated gradually is
best administered in the form of a hard tablet because
capsule ordinarily made of gelatin is quickly dissolved by
the acidic gastric juices of the stomach. This works if you
have direct access to the organ desired, like stomach,
large intestine, mouth. Problem occurs when you need
drugs which act on organs you cannot directly have
access to, like heart, brain, small intestine, pancreas etc.
For these we use capsules which do not get disintegrated
by gastric acids and can directly go to small intestine
where they can dissolve and initiate their actions.
Dr. M. JAGANNATH, Associate Professor, VIT University, Chennai

THIS WEEKS QUESTION

Why do we laugh when we are tickled?
S. Krishnan, Chennai
Readers may send their questions/ answers to questioncorner@thehindu.co.in

CM
YK

ou might not notice it,

but plants actually
wage war with each other to
outgrow and absorb sunlight. Their weapons? Special sensors that can detect
depletion of red and blue
light wavelengths absorbed by vegetation.
If a plant is shaded by another, it becomes cut off
from essential sunlight it
needs to survive. To escape
this deadly shade, plants
have light sensors that can
set off an internal alarm
when threatened by the
shade of other plants.

Their sensors can distinguish between an aggressive nearby plant from

a passing cloud.
Scientists at the Salk Institute in the US have discovered a way by which
plants assess the quality of
shade to outgrow menacing neighbours a finding
that could be used to improve the productivity of
crops.
The new work shows
how the depletion of blue
light detected by molecular
sensors in plants triggers
accelerated growth to over-

come a competing plant.

With this knowledge
and discoveries like it,
maybe you could eventually teach a plant to ignore
the fact that its in the
shade and put out a lot of
biomass anyway, said
studys
senior
author
Joanne Chory.
It was known that plants
respond to diminished red
light by activating a growth
hormone called auxin to
outpace its neighbours.
However, this is the first
time researchers have
shown that shade avoid-

ance can happen through

an entirely different mechanism instead of changing the levels of auxin, a
cellular sensor called cryptochrome responds to diminished blue light by
turning on genes that promote cell growth.
This revelation could
help researchers learn how
to modify plant genes to
optimise growth to grow
more aggressively and give
a greater yield even in a
crowded, shady field.
The findings appeared in
the journal Cell. IANS

Lets name 2016 as the year of the elephant

TABLETS, CAPSULES
What is the difference between certain medicines in
tablet form and certain medicines in capsule form
though both are taken orally?

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE

n the Chinese tradition,

2015-2016 is the year of
the ram or sheep. In a Hindu
calendar, it is called Manmada. But, I would like to call
the coming year 2016 as the
Year of the Elephant, in honour of what all we have learnt
about elephants up until the
end of the year 2015. It was
in early 2015 that Dr. V. J.
Lynch and co-workers published the genome analysis of
the Asian elephant, relating
it to the great woolly mammoth (Cell Rep. 2015, 12,
217-228). And just over three
weeks ago in December 2015,
a collaborative research project on the sequence of the
genome of the Asian elephant and how many of the
genes there are transcribed
was published by colleagues
from the IISER Pune (led by
Dr Sanjeev Galande) and
IISc Bangalore (Prof. R. Sukumar) in the Journal of Biosciences. They found 181
proteins unique to the Asian
elephant and 103 novel RNA
transcripts.
And at about the same
time, two groups from the
U.S. (that of Dr. Schiffman of
the University of Utah and
Dr. Lynch of the University
of Chicago) reported that
while we humans have just
one copy of the tumourfighting gene p53, the elephant has as many as 20 of
them. Thus, elephants are far
more resistant to cancer

than we are (for a nice review, read B. Sandhya Rani at

www.currentscience.ac.in/
Volumes/109/11/1923.pdf).
How the genome of the
Asian elephant relates to
many of its unusual (often
charming) properties is an
exciting area of research.
Elephant experts such as
Professor R. Sukumar (IISc
Bangalore) and his colleague
Dr. T. N. C. Vidya (JNCASR
Bangalore) have been studying elephants in the Nilgiris
and in the Nagarhole-Bandipur National Parks of Karnataka. Their focus has been to
understand how the ecology
and environmental factors
relate to the behaviour of
elephants both as individuals and as groups. Towards
this, they have been spending years doing so. It is not
for nothing that Sukumar is
known as the Yaanai Doctor
among the locals of the region.
That the elephant is a very
clever and innovative animal
has been known since very
long. Folklore, poems and
stories from various parts of
India, takes from the Panchatantra and some Puranas,
and actual observational records from scientists like Sukumar, Vidya and others
elsewhere point out not only
the innate intelligence of elephants, but innovation- or
thinking on the move by
them.

Elephants are far more resistant to cancer than humans

as they have nearly 20 tumour-fighting genes.
PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

That they recognize themselves (just as primates do)

when a mirror is shown to
them is well known. An entertaining and educative example can be watched by
accessing on the web the site
http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC1636577/, and watching
Figures 1 and 2 there.
Tool making and using
materials around for a chosen purpose is not only an
example of cognitive ability
but also of innovation. Primates such as chimpanzees
our closest relatives are
known to design and use
tools, and even choose plants
for use as medicines. That
elephants too are tool makers and users can be seen in
two examples we give below.
See how an elephant uses a

stick nearby to hit at food on

a tree at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhWENOD1L-4. Likewise, see how
an elephant uses a tyre nearby to step on and reach for
food at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUqtowlVDo0. (n case of
difficulty in accessing, just
type out (on Google) the sentences above to reach the site
and see the videos).
These examples make it
amply clear how clever and
innovative (creative) elephants are. But what Dr. Vidya reports in her research
paper last year Novel behaviour shown by an Asian elephant in the context of
allomothering, published in
Acta Ethologica, 17: 123-127,
2014, is something so remarkable and enchanting

that raises the level of esteem that we have for elephants. It shows how the
young female elephant Genette (yes, Vidya recognizes
each individual in the group
and given names to them),
who is not yet mature to conceive or lactate, offers her
trunk to a baby not her own
but of her friend Dana. This
baby is restless, looking for
sucking but Dana is busy
otherwise. The baby is insistent and now starts bothering
Genette nearby, trying to
suck her yet to fully form
nipples. Genette first shooed
off the baby, who does not
give up. She now did something remarkable. She offered her trunk to the baby,
who begins sucking the
trunk tip, and gets comforted
an elephantine version of
thumb-sucking that our human babies do!
This happened several
times wherein Genette nursed or allomothered (allo
meaning not ones own, or
auto) the baby elephant,
thus comforting someone
elses baby. Dr. Vidya cautiously suggests that here is
an example showing that elephants have a theory of mind
and empathy. She also suggests that tasks relating to
the use of the trunk may be
useful in examining cognition in elephants. Pity that
Dr Vidyas paper above is not
published in an open-access
journal.
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN
dbala@lvpei.org
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

EducationPlus 03

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 28, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No presumptions, please

BON APPETIT
SARTHAK SARASWAT

everal apps were launched in 2015, marking

a successful and productive year for
developers. However, the apps also
cluttered the market, providing too many
choices to users and adding to the
confusion. Here are some innovative apps that
stood out and made a mark.

How accurate is our ability to read another persons mind? We need to cultivate a sense of humility
when it comes to knowing others.
ARUNA SANKARANARAYANAN

YOUTH

PicsArt Photo Studio

Clicking pictures has become second nature to
us. Whenever something
catches our eye, we dont waste
too much time taking a
snapshot. If you want to add
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look cooler, this app is just
what you need. You can capture
photos, edit them, add filters,
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the best you can find. You can make use of
customisable filters and effects, text, sticker, image
overlay, drawing and painting tools with layers and
much more. It also has the function to generate
animated gif files.

ach of the following statements involves making a presumption: I

know she will get angry when she
sees my text message. He always
tries to put me down whenever he
gets an opportunity. I better play down my
new job as she is bound to feel jealous. The
statements may refer to a manager, a mother
or a mate. They stem from a presumption
that we know another persons mind. And, in
the course of a day, we make umpteen such
presumptions routinely. Further, we make
them so automatically that we fail to notice
what they really are our view of what we
think is going on inside another persons
head. But how accurate is our ability to read
another persons mind?
In his book, Mindwise, psychologist Nicholas Epley refers to our ability to read
others minds as our sixth sense. He argues
that our sixth sense works well many a
time, but not nearly as well as we might
think. And this should make us pause and
ponder, for our overconfidence in our capacity to intuit others thoughts and feelings can
result in misunderstanding, injured feelings,
job losses and broken relationships. As the
consequences of our misreading minds can
indeed be severe, perhaps, we need to cultivate a sense of humility when it comes to
knowing others.
In a meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin in 1991, David Kenny and
Bella DePaulo found that people are fairly
good at estimating how others, as a group,
view them. However, when it comes to deciphering how specific individuals regard
them, people are not very accurate in their
appraisals. Thus, if you have a feeling that
people in your office generally like you, you
are likely to be popular. However, if you have
to specify how much each of your colleagues
likes you, your estimates are likely to be off
the mark. Likewise, you may have a sense of
how your professors view you, but when it
comes to identifying which professor in particular thinks you are an excellent student,
you may be in for a surprise. The curt chemistry professor who barely talks to you may
be the one who writes the most glowing recommendation when you apply to graduate
school, while the physics lecturer with whom

KineMaster Pro Video Editor

Knowing what a group thinks of you may be easy; not so guessing individual feelings.

Our overconfidence
in our capacity to
intuit others
thoughts and
feelings can result in
misunderstanding,
injured feelings, job
losses and broken
relationships.
you share a warm rapport, may give you a
more muted write-up.
In his book, Epley cites the work of William Ickes, who studies peoples mind-reading accuracy. According to Ickes research,
while strangers can guess a persons feelings
or thoughts to about 20 per cent accuracy,
our intimate friends and spouses do slightly
better, averaging an accuracy of around 35
per cent. Epleys point is that while we are
not necessarily bad at guessing anothers
mind, we are not as good as we think. Even
those near and dear to us cannot infer every

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

S. UPENDRAN
What is the meaning of Herculean task? (V Arasu, Bengaluru)
First, let us deal with the pronunciation of the word. The first
syllable is pronounced like the word her, and the following u sounds
like the u in put, full and pull. The e is like the ee in bees, sees
and knees, and the final a is like the a in china. One way of
pronouncing the word is her-kyu-LEE-en with the stress on the third
syllable. It comes from Hercules, a Greek hero who was known for his
strength. When you say that something is a Herculean task, you are
suggesting it is an enormous or demanding task; one that requires the
strength of Hercules to complete.
Painting all the rooms in the house is proving to be a Herculean
task.
It will require a Herculean effort on the part of the batsmen to score
the runs.
What is the difference between emigrant and immigrant? (Jaya Rao,
Hyderabad)
A lot of youngsters in India today wish to leave the country and
settle down elsewhere; such individuals who want to leave their native
land permanently are called emigrants. The word comes from the
Latin emigrare meaning move away. An emigrant is someone who
moves away from or leaves his motherland. When the emigrant
settles down in a foreign country, he becomes an immigrant. The
word comes from the Latin immigrare meaning to go into, move in.
The immigrant moves in and settles down in his new home.
How is the word dogged pronounced? (KR Natarajan, Coimbatore)
The first syllable is pronounced like the word dog, and the following vowel sounds like the a in china. The word is pronounced
DOG-ed with the stress on the first syllable. A dogged individual is
someone who is very stubborn and determined; once he decides to do
something, he will keep at it no matter what difficulties he encounters
along the way. He is like a dog that is trying to find the bone buried in
the yard he will keep looking for it till he finds it. He is very
tenacious.
The childrens success was due to the dogged determination of their
parents.
Rahuls dogged efforts to become the Manager finally paid off.
What is the meaning and origin of the expression Whats good for the
goose is good for the gander? (P Raghavendra Rao, Dharwad)
A gander is a male goose. This rather old proverb is mostly used to
suggest that if one person is allowed to do something, then another
person should be allowed to do it as well. The two individuals should
be treated the same. In many families in India, for example, sons and
daughters are treated very differently. Parents often give sons a lot
more freedom than their daughters; they dont believe that what is
good for the goose is good for the gander. It is also possible to replace
the word good in the expression with sauce.
If you can go out with your friends every weekend, why cant I?
Whats good/sauce for the goose is good/sauce for the gander.
***
Youth is when youre allowed to stay up late on New Years Eve.
Middle age is when youre forced to. Billy Vaughn
Email: upendrankye@gmail.com

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thought and feeling we are experiencing.

Likewise, we, too, do not always know what
is going on inside the heads and hearts of
closest friends and family.

Fundamental attribution error

A classic social psychology phenomenon
called the fundamental attribution error
illustrates our weaknesses when it comes to
judging others. Coined by Lee Ross, the term
refers to our tendency to underestimate situational variables and overestimate dispositional ones when we view the behaviour of
others. As a result, we may overlook contextual factors when we try to second guess
what another person is thinking. For example, if an acquaintance is a bit brusque with
you, you may jump to the conclusion that
your acquaintance is possibly rude and does
not like you.
On the other hand, if you were curt while
talking to a friend, you may excuse your lack
of social grace by telling yourself you were
stressed or had a headache.
In order to avoid misreading minds, Epley
has the following advice for us. Counter intuitively, thinking too much about someones emotional expression or inner
intentions when there is little else to go on,

actually leads us to make more mistakes. In

fact, in a series of experiments that Epley
conducted with his colleagues, people were
less accurate in guessing another persons
emotions when they were asked to try and
take the other persons perspective. Thus,
instead of trying to second guess another
persons views and feelings by taking their
perspective, it is better to get another persons perspective.
And this involves plain old words to find
out what the other person is thinking. Epley
advises us to rely on our ears more than our
inferences, when we want to figure out what
is on somebodys elses mind. Of course,
there are chances that the other person may
be evasive, indirect or even lie when we ask a
direct question. But that does not mean that
our reading of their minds is more accurate,
as we too are prone to making errors more
often than we think. At least, by asking, we
are providing the person an opportunity to
state what is on his or her mind. Finally, even
when we do make inferences about our
friends or colleagues thoughts or feelings,
we should always harbour the possibility
that we could be wrong in our judgment.
The author is Director, PRAYATNA.
Email: arunasankara@gmail.com

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the songs, create loops and apply different effects.
The app is powered by The Echo Nest, an
intelligent song recommendation engine, which
helps you select the music tracks which are most
compatible for a remix. It supports all major audio
formats and Bluetooth devices.

USF, a favourite among Indian students

KATHAKALI NANDI

STUDY ABROAD
The University of South Florida
(USF), located in the heart of
Tampa Bay, U.S., is a high-impact, global, research university. It currently has a student
population of over 42,000, including more than 800 from
India.
During their recent visit to
India, Ralph C. Wilcox, provost
and executive vice-president,
and Moez Limayem, dean of
Muma College of Business
(USFs business school), talked
about the newly-launched APJ
Kalam Fellowship for Indian
students and what makes the
U.S. such a lucrative education
destination for Indians.
How strong is the Indian student
population at the university?
Limayem: Currently we
have 206 students from India at
the Muma College of Business
studying in our graduate programmes, representing the single
largest
group
of
international students in the
college. Most of these students
are pursuing an MS in MIS, our
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
degree, because of the strong
business analytics component
of that programme. We also
have students from India in our
MBA programme.
Analytics and business intelligence is the core strength of
USF and we have some of the

The USF Abdul

Kalam
Fellowship will
waive all
masters/
doctoral tuition
fee for up to
four years.
best courses in this discipline.
USF has a dedicated student
success specialist with many
years of experience in higher
education who works only with
our MS in MIS students to get
them ready for placement. International students today are
very well connected with students at universities all over the
world due to social media, blogs

and their own channels as well.

Many of our recent admits have
chosen to come to USF over
other top schools in the U.S.
This is a strong sign that they
are seeing tremendous value in
the education and professional
prospects of a USF graduate
degree.
You have recently announced
the APJ Kalam Fellowship. How
can Indian students benefit from
it?
Wilcox: Successful applicants will have the benefit of
working at one of the top research extensive universities in
the U.S. USF is currently ranked
32nd amongst all public universities in the United States
(Times
Higher
Education
World Survey, 2015-16). The
Kalam Fellowship is designed
for exemplary Indian students
who have graduated from an In-

dian university with an outstanding academic record and

who wish to pursue study and
research in one of the 11 key
STEM areas: Applied Anthropology, Applied Physics, Business PhD programmes, Cell
Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Chemistry,
Computer Science and Engineering, Engineering, Criminology, Integrative Biology
Marine Science and Psychology.
The fellowship will waive all
masters/doctoral tuition fee
for up to four years. Additionally, successful candidates will receive a stipend of $18,000 over
the nine months of the fall and
spring semesters ($2,000 per
month) for up to four years. The
provosts office will pay a ninemonth stipend for the first year
with the department/college
contributing a teaching/research assistantship for up to an
additional three years.
What are the benefits of
studying at USF?
Wilcox: USF is among Americas top 2.3 per cent of colleges
and universities and is classified
by the Carnegie Foundation as a
doctoral-granting
university
with very high quality research.
USF was recently ranked 25th
among public universities by
the National Science Foundation for total research expenditures. At USF, students select
from more than 240 world-class
accredited degree programmes
across 13 colleges ranging from
business to medicine, engineering to education, and the sciences to the arts and the

humanities.
USF is located in Tampa Bay
a safe, welcoming and affordable region on the west coast of
Florida, and was recently
ranked the 15th top destination
for students in the U.S. It
awards a large number of competitive scholarships. In addition, international students can
work on campus to help cover
the cost of their education and
living expenses.
Upon graduation, USF students can use their education
and work experience to enrol in
Optional Practical Training
(OPT), which prepares them for
exciting
job
placement
opportunities.
What internship opportunities
can Indian students explore?
Wilcox: Indian students enrolled in a STEM programme,
such as Muma Colleges MS in
MIS, can have three months of
paid internship under CPT prior to graduation, and at least
one year of internship after
graduation on OPT.
Tampa Bay area has many IT,
financial services, healthcare
and consulting companies that
hire international students as
interns. USF Muma College also
has a unique practice centre
programme, where companies
sponsor projects. Students
work in pairs on these company
sponsored practice centre projects under the supervision of
Muma College faculty members. Many companies have
used practice centre projects as
a means to recruit fulltime
employees.

More than just a classroom

Jed-i Explore wants children to experience the joy of problem-solving as well as mathematical thinking.
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PHOTO: H. VIBHU

This app lets you make

professional videos
without breaking a sweat.
It is a free app with
features such as adding
multiple layers to the
video, images, stickers or text. Other features
include frame-by-frame trimming, splicing and
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much more. After completing the video, you can
share it on YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and other
social networking platforms. However, unless you
buy the full version of the app, youll get a
watermark on your video.

Where confusion is encouraged. At an

exploration session.

tep into one of their

classes and you are likely to find high school students meddling with a
skipping rope to understand
complex mathematical or
engineering problems.
Students in the Jed-i Explore class are seated in
groups that are called Mega,
Kilo, Giga and brainstorm
and get a kick in solving
the problems. What Bhargava Desai, a Class X student
who has attended the programme, says will make you
realise why this programme
is a class apart. He says
that it is in this programme

that getting confused is encouraged. We are allowed

to discuss in groups and explore things better. I learnt
concepts such as modular
arithmetic in a jiffy, he
said. One of his takeaways
from the programme, he
says, is that he has learnt to
compare things in life to
mathematics and compare
mathematics to life.
In fact, V. Vinay, Chairman of Jed-i, says that the
purpose of the programme
is to uncoach the child and
provides parents an alternative to coaching. .Speaking
of what prompted him to
start this programme, he
says. One of my friends

daughter got admitted to an

IIT coaching class in class
eight and my immediate
question was, Why would
you do that? Only to realise
that
there
are
no
alternatives.
He says that the purpose
of the programme is to provide children a playground
for exploration and to experience the joy of problem
solving as well as mathematical thinking along with
programming and a glimpse
of what hands-on engineering is all about. Mr. Vinay
who was a former professor
of Computer Science at the
Indian Institute of Science,
founded Jed-i which has fo-

cused on addressing engineering education over the

last five years and has
helped 2000 students annually. The programme for
high school students has
been a recent addition. He
says that his programme is
open to children whose parents can see beyond marks
and competition. The foundation programme which is
held for 80 students in two
batches consists of eight
sessions that are spread
over the weekends and
some students opt for a
year-long programme. For
more details, log on to
http://explore.jed-i.in or
call on 96867 00188.
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

04 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | DECEMBER 28, 2015

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Untie those knots and

protect yourself

News from around the

world.

Do you find it difficult to express your thoughts and feelings? Call upon the confidence in yourself.
strength is like tying your
MINI KRISHNAN
If you have a own
own hands. Untie those knots
point, and you and allow yourself to reach
ETHICS AND
your own thoughts and imwant to
pressions and you will find the
YOU
words you need to express
resolve
a
yourself clearly. Not being
Oh, is that what you
conflict or
able to express ourselves
meant? Im sorry, I
properly can lead to endless
thought you were refercorrect
a
confusions and conflicts
ring to something else.
which then fester. When
How many times have we
situation,
something is important we
heard these words? Even from
there is no
must find the confidence to
people we know well? What
speak up without blurring or
then about people whom we
need
to
feel
slurring our thoughts. Unless
may not have known personapologetic.
the other person knows exactally or for too long, but to
ly how you feel she will not be
whom we have to make ourPut
it
across
able to meet you halfway and
selves clear? Its true that
as politely
repair the situation which is
quite often we find it difficult
you uncomfortable. If
to say what we mean. Someand as firmly making
you feel apologetic about your
times its nervousness or diffithoughts, your words will also
dence. Sometimes we hesitate
as you can.

# RHODESMUSTFALL

GLOBAL BUZZ

SEXIST COMMENT?

for no clear reason. The mind

even suppresses fears and
worries. Sometimes it might
be stress which drives everything out of our minds. Haste
and anger might be other reasons. It is even more frustrating when we want to say
something but simply cannot
find the words.
The first speech I tried to
deliver was when I was asked
to nominate my friend Rajalakshmi for the post of school
captain. I wrote a smart 150word speech and practised
reading it aloud. I tucked it
into my blazer but forgot to
wear it when I led my friend to
the stage. Four hundred students including my friend
laughed while I said, Ladies
and gentlemen three times,
unable to go any further without that piece of paper. I led
my friend down to our seats.
She lost the election which
was important to her but I
didnt lose her friendship. Not
only did I find it difficult to
forget the humiliation and
helplessness of that hour but I
also found it impossible to ex-

press my regret and gratitude

to Rajalakshmi. Now, after so
many years, it might look like
a minor incident, but on that

day it was terrible.

I know a young woman
(Miss A) who is almost in depression because she is strug-

gling to express her feelings to

a benign but overbearing sister. Perhaps, what Miss A
lacks (as I did all those years

ago) is the confidence to speak

up. In my case it wasnt even
emotional. I knew what I had
to say. I had even written it all
down but couldnt bring myself to say the words smoothly
and confidently. Miss As
problems are far more subtle.
She has to convey her feelings
to someone she has known all
her life. What if Miss As sister
misunderstands her? Suppose
she blunders and says the
wrong words? What are the
right words? This situation
could apply to any close
relationship.
Take a deep breath. There
are no right words hanging in
the air or lying readymade in a
phrase book. What you do
need to do is to find the still
centre in yourself which you
connected with easily when
you were a child. It is the intuitive core of you which once
helped you to say very clearly
and directly, Dont push me!
or Im thirsty. I would like
some water or I want my
mother. Not drawing on your

be feeble. If you have a point, if

you want to resolve a conflict
or correct a situation, there is
no need to feel apologetic. Put
it across as politely and as
firmly as you can.
But what if it doesnt work?
The poet Maya Angelou
says, But still, like dust, I'll
rise. You can always try again
because confidence is not a
static thing. It must be learned
and practised and is just like
any other skill, which means
that it isnt out of anybodys
reach. Confidence to manage
conflict, if not end it, will keep
popping up in life over and
over again.
Why is this topic usually
slotted under Life Skills in a
column on ethics? Because
one of your ethical duties is to
yourself. You have to develop
the skills to protect yourself
from misunderstandings and
exploitation. Call upon your
confidence in yourself. Why?
Because you are unique. There
is no one else in the world like
you.
Email:
minioup@gmail.com

Nobel prize-winning scientist Sir Tim

Hunt, whose comments on women in
labs earlier this year had led people to
throw sexism allegations against him, is
leaving the U.K. to move to Japan. Hunt,
who won the science prize in 2001, had to
resign from his honorary professorship
at University College London as well
after being criticised for his speech.
Speaking at an international conference
in South Korea, Hunt had said that
women cry when criticised and should
have separate laboratories. He later
clarified that he just meant it as a joke
and apologised for his comment.
Students of a college of the University
of Oxford are protesting to remove a
plaque of British imperialist Cecil
Rhodes from the campus. More than
2,300 students of Oriel College signed a
petition asking the college
administration to
remove the
dedications.
Subsequently,
the college has
issued a
statement saying
that it does not
share Cecil
Rhodess values
Oriel College
or condone his
racist views or actions. The college will
consult the Oxford council and hopes to
receive the consent to remove the plaque.
The campaign at Oriel was sparked by a
similar campaign named
#RhodesMustFall at the University of
Cape Town in South Africa.

BRIBERY SCAM
The integrity of the Chinese college
admission system is being questioned
after a former admissions director of
Renmin University, one of the most
prestigious universities of the country,
confessed to taking bribes. According to
reports, Cai Rongsheng acknowledged to
a court in Nanjing that he had accepted
more than U.S.$3.6 million in illegal
payments between 2005 and 2013 to help
students obtain admission at Renmin or
to allow students to change their majors.
Yuan Guiren, Chinas education minister,
said that corruption would not be
tolerated.
COMPILED BY SARTHAK SARASWAT

From destruction to regeneration

CBCS: The path ahead

In helping rebuild the city of Christchurch, he

found an opportunity to discover himself and grow,
writes C.G. GOKULAKRISHNAN.

A calibrated approach, not a one-size-fits-all approach, is the key to its success.

GOALPOST

uildings have always

fascinated me. I can
trace this back to my
childhood when I
watched my grandfather, who was an architect, at
work. He would take me into his
office, and I would see his drawings being transformed into
models and then actual buildings. Having the power to create
something beautiful from the
scratch has always filled me
with a sense of awe.
This passion coupled with the
pace of industrialisation in India factories, bridges and
high-rise buildings popping up
on every corner made studying civil engineering at a university an obvious choice.
On one of my final-year projects, my eyes were opened to
the possibility of giving back to
the society by cutting down unnecessary costs, improving the
working conditions of labourers
and minimising waste. Until
then, I had only looked at the
technical side of engineering. I
realised that by working in construction management I could
help ensure that the green
buildings I had designed would
be built in an environmentfriendly way.
The next question was, where
would I study? I came across a
construction management masters programme at the University of Canterbury. It was
exactly what I was looking for.
Not only did it have one of the
best engineering schools in the
world, it had the research options I was looking for as well as
a really impressive faculty.
Christchurch really appealed to
me, as studying and working in a
city undergoing a complete rebuild represented a huge opportunity not only for my career
but to develop as a person.

CHRISTCHURCH REBUILD
I learned about Christchurch
Educated Skills Scholarships
which were available to students taking up programmes in
skill shortage areas directly related to the Christchurch rebuild. Things moved quite
quickly, and soon, I was travCM
YK

tions are functioning requires radical transformation. Otherwise the

change would prove to be just one
of style without substance.

M. S. BHAT

C.G. Gokulakrishnan

My eyes were
opened to the
possibility of
giving back to
the society by
cutting down
unnecessary
costs,
improving the
working
conditions of
labourers and
minimising
waste.
elling more than 11,000 kilometres from Chennai to
Christchurch, to study in a
country I had never visited before, leaving all familiar things,
family and friends behind.
It was a fresh start for me, but
I knew there was no better place
to start afresh than a city that
was rebuilding itself from the
ground up. I believe that knowledge comes from experience,
and the most effective way of
gaining experience is by being
around experienced people. In
New Zealand, there are opportunities to apply the knowledge
you learn through your studies
and to work while you study.
This is very different from the
approach in India. I worked
part-time as structural engineer

for Urban Structural Services as

I was studying. The people I met
through my work have played a
crucial role in my getting to
know the culture and settling
into Christchurch.
I finished my studies in June,
and I am now working for Ganellen, a commercial construction contracting company, as a
graduate engineer, handling
contract administration.
Working full-time is definitely different from working parttime. I have more responsibilities and deadlines to meet now.
But the Kiwis have a great sense
of work-life balance. I love the
people here, they are fitness fanatics. I now go snow-boarding
and trekking regularly as well as
play cricket.
Exciting things are happening
throughout the city. There is a
real sense of community, and
there are cultural celebrations
of all different origins happening all the time like Holi, back in
March, and Diwali, last month.
The earthquake which struck
Christchurch on February 22,
2011 ground the city to a halt
and caused widespread damage
across Christchurch. But out of
this destruction has come regeneration and opportunity.
The people of Christchurch are
so resilient. They have bounced
back and welcomed those helping them to rebuild their city
with open arms.
The writer works for
Ganellen, a commercial
construction contracting
company, as a
graduate engineer.

he University Grants Commission (UGC), India, has

brought out guidelines for
the introduction of the
choice based credit system
(CBCS) in higher educational institutions for graduate, postgraduate, diploma and certificate
programmes. The expressive
stated purposes of the introduction of the scheme are mainly to
provide opportunity for students
to have a choice of courses or subjects within a programme resembling an la carte menu as against
the mostly fixed set of subjects now
being offered except for the limited
choice of electives in professional
degrees and postgraduate programmes with the flexibility to
complete the programme by earning the required number of credits
at a pace decided by the students.
This would mean that the programme would emphasise more on
students earning the prescribed
number of credits to qualify rather
than being herded to come out successfully within the normal stipulated time for the degree. For
these reasons, the CBCS is touted
as a cafeteria approach to education. The scheme is also expected
to provide mobility to students
within the country, and, eventually, even internationally, as the
credits earned at one institution
can be expected to be transferred
freely. To ensure uniformity, a system of classification of courses or
subjects within the programme is
made.
It would seem that the element
of uniformity sought to be
achieved is addressed, and the concept of portability in higher education has been realised. At the same
time, flexibility is needed for dovetailing the structure of the programme by the institutions
concerned to suit local educational
needs.
The authorities of higher education are moving fast to ensure that
the system is adopted countrywide
the next academic year onwards.
Quite a few institutions, including
central universities, have adopted
the system in the current academic
year itself.

IMPLEMENTATION
While there can be no argument
against the imperative to have portability in education at college and
university-level and also providing
opportunity to students to choose,

LETTER GRADING SYSTEM

If this system is applied thoughtfully, students can benefit from the

flexibility and the freedom to study at their own pace. PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

Only a small
percentage of
the institutions
in the country
are in a
position to
bring in these
changes.
it is a fact that only a small percentage of the institutions in the country are in a position to bring in
these changes in letter and spirit.
As a matter of fact, these institutions have been offering such options for quite sometime: wide
choice of subjects in the form of
interdisciplinary and open electives to their students supported
by the presence of number of diverse departments with qualified
faculty members and an established culture of research and consultancy.
Consequently,
these
institutions can smoothly change
over to the new system both in
style and substance.
The rich diversity of programmes, faculty and students is
an important feature enabling this
changeover. And these institutions
can aim at reaching the benchmarks set by leading foreign universities such as Stanford in
offering opportunity for the students to major in computer and
music or computer and literature
simultaneously, thus providing
true meaning to the word choice
and exploring its limitless possibilities. That leaves us with the bulk
of institutions of higher education

which, though willing to switch

over to the new system, have to
counter their inherent limitations
to make the changeover indeed
meaningful. To begin with, the
professional colleges affiliated to
universities established by state
governments have to follow the admission norms formulated by their
respective governments which often provides detailed admission
criteria on the basis of son of the
soil approach, and therefore regional diversity in the form of student admissions is virtually very
little. Even in the case of faculty,
the preference for local candidates
in recruitment is understandable
as it can secure some kind of insurance against higher faculty turnover. The revenue model and the
practical working condition of
these colleges would not enable
them to have the luxury of a number of diversified departments
manned by quality teachers.
In fact, even when the university
curriculum prescribes elective
subjects, the institutions would get
around the situation by making
students opt for one or, at the
most, two electives for which the
college has the resource in terms of
faculty and other infrastructure.
For these institutions, whose number is not inconsiderable, to move
essentially from their present position of enabler of higher enrolment
ratio at degree-level education, to a
stage of quality service-provider,
on the lines of the cafeteria approach in higher education, would
require overcoming many obstacles calling for a graduated approach spread over a period of
time. The eco-system around
which these colleges and institu-

Another aspect that is closely

linked to the CBCS is adoption of
letter grading system. The UGC
recommends adoption of nine-letter-grades including one-lettergrade for the absence of the student in the examination. The
grades may be relative or absolute.
The switchover to grading system based on the process of simple
mapping of percentage of marks to
grades without the distribution of
marks of students being taken into
account can therefore serve only
limited purpose and can never be
considered a progressive step. It
must be noted that most of the
institutions of higher education
have been following the system of
percentage of marks and the credit
system can pose no challenge as
the weight of the credit can be suitably factored into maximum marks
awarded for the particular subject.
In any case, the link between
grading procedure and CBCS is
tenuous and the emphasis on the
letter grading, especially the absolute grading, seems a little misplaced. More than the system of
grading, one must delve into the
aspect of evaluation, especially the
system of continuous evaluation.
The excessive reliance on final semester examination for evaluation
should give place to regular classroom and mid-term tests on continuous basis.
The way forward then would be
monitoring carefully and regularly
the implementation of the CBCS
by the institution covered by the
UGC. Offering a reasonable range
of choice of subjects to students of
a programme by all institutions
should be the first priority. Rather
than a one-size-fits-all approach, a
calibrated approach to take all institutions forward on a step-bystep basis should be followed,
eventually ensuring that the institutions reach the desired level of
quality and recognition. The primary focus should be on enabling
the institutions to wholeheartedly
provide diversity in subjects offered.
The author is former director
of Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University,
Hyderabad. He is now professor
and head, CVR College of
Engineering, near Hyderabad.
Email: hodeie2014@gmail.com.
ND-X