| Court order clouds appointment of IIT directors |
| CHARU |
| Human resource development ministry documents accessed by The Telegraph reveal that the government never issued public notices inviting applications for the posts of directors, barring in IIT Bombay, to the institutes when they last fell vacant. Article 16 of the Constitution states that “there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the state”. Article 14 refers to equal opportunities to all citizens. The high court cited these articles yesterday while declaring illegal the appointment of Ananth for a second term in 2007. “It is rather shocking that no public notice was given, no advertisement was given in newspapers for the post of director, thus violating Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution,” the court had said. HRD ministry officials today confirmed that the government planned to challenge the high court order against Ananth’s re-appointment. “We are still going through the judgment, but we have no option but to challenge this order as it affects all other directors as well,” an official said. The court, officials complained, failed to give the government adequate opportunity to contest the allegations based on which the IIT director’s appointment was set aside. The ministry may appeal either in Madras High Court, or — more likely — approach the Supreme Court, the sources said. If the high court verdict is upheld in any appeal, it will cast a cloud of uncertainty over the appointment of other directors, too. Section 17 of the IIT Act, 1961, states that “the director of each institute shall be appointed by the council with the prior approval of the Visitor (the President of India).” The council referred to is the IIT council, the highest decision-making body of the IITs, chaired by HRD minister Arjun Singh. But ministry documents establish that for at least three director appointments apart from Ananth’s re-appointment, no meeting of the council was called. The IIT council never met to deliberate on the appointment of the current IIT Kharagpur director. It also did not meet to decide the re-appointment of the current directors of IIT Guwahati and As reported by The Telegraph yesterday, the IIT council has not met for over two years. It is not clear whether the judge, Justice K. Chandru, expressly ruled against re-appointment of IIT directors in general, as the appellant E. Muralidharan had sought. “In any event, when once the term of office is specified under statute, the same cannot be extended beyond that period,” the judge had said. All directors are members of the IIT council, which under law is required to make fresh appointments to the post of director. Allowing reappointments will imply institutionalising conflict of interest, the appellant argued, as a candidate will be sitting on the panel deciding on his candidature. |
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Court order clouds appointment of IIT directors
Monday, December 22, 2008
Several engineers are UNEMPLOYABLE
Several engineers are UNEMPLOYABLE
Many engineering graduates just don’t have the right skills
Rajagopal Sreenivasan
There may be several reasons for this such as parental pressure, and so on. But the the Indian education system is one of the prime culprits.
A bit of investigation reveals the following facts: The teacher invests about two hours per subject to cram in the facts, figures, and derivations concerning it. But very little is being done to introduce the subject in a holistic sense. The relevance of the subject in the real world is hardly being emphasized.
2. You can’t just blame the teachers. Assuming that the student does take pains to understand the subject on her own, more often than not, she meets a dead-end called exams, which reinforce the adage: curiosity killed the cat. Does more curiosity fetch more marks in a university exam? The answer is obvious.
The approaches to a possible solution are: 1.Reduce the number of hours. Perhaps about one and half hours must be devoted to dwell on details concerning subject, and spend half an hour explaining its larger purpose and motivate them to study it.
2. Exams must be made as unpredictable as possible. Standard question patterns in exams is a deterrent to learning. In reality, it’s ignorance that kills the cat but curiosity gets framed. Grades must bank on project work, interviews, interaction with peers and professors and, most importantly, on classroom discussions.
Prof. S Sadagopan, director, Indian Institute of Information Technology,
(The writer is a first year
MTech student of IIIT-B)
Cabbie ends life
Cabbie ends life
Harassment By Firm Alleged
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore:
Drivers employed by Easy Cab and other cab operators protested in front of the Bengaluru International Airport, alleging that one of its drivers committed suicide because of harassment by the company.
Prakash of Madhugiri, Tumkur district, consumed poison on November 30 and was admitted to
Drivers’ Association representative Allah Baksh alleged that harassment by owners of the company pushed Prakash to suicide. It collected Rs 25,000 as advance, before handing over the car, but failed to fulfil the promise made to the driver on maintenance and repairs.
The company also allegedly harassed Prakash to pay daily rentals, he said, demanding Rs 10 lakh as compensation for the driver’s family.
Easy Cab manager Unnikrishnan denied that the company harassed Prakash and made promises on repairs and maintenance. The company cannot pay any compensation, he said.
Divorce rate up 30% in 3 yrs
Divorce rate up 30% in 3 yrs
Half The Cases In City Are From IT/BPO Industries
Dipannita Das | TNN
While economic independence at the top end of the social strata is seen as motivator for women to opt out of bad marriages, at the lower end, it is the increased awareness of their rights, especially when confronted by abusive husbands. Increased societal acceptance of divorce, better access to courts and redressal mechanism are equally strong influencers.
Advocates who deal in divorces say that more than 50% of cases filed are from the IT/BPO sector. While financial security is one factor, erratic working hours, work pressures, stress, all contribute to marital discord. Many professionals in IT/BPO sector find it difficult to strike work-life balance which impacts marriages negatively.
Lawyers say that as the couple has the financial ability to cope with a split, there’s little effort made to make a difficult marriage work. This is borne out by the fact that in 30-40% of the cases, couples opt for divorce with mutual consent. Advocate B Srikumara of a legal firm says a majority of the tech couples heading towards splitsville are in their 20s and early 30s. Many married for a mere year or two. Women married to men a couple of years younger also seem to prefer divorce in noticeable numbers.
Sparring couples seek counsellors’ help
Couples do seek help from counsellors/psychiatrists to mend their relationship. Consultant psychiatrist Thomas MJ says the problem arises with long hours of work, night shifts, spending more time with colleagues, etc.
2 different scenarios, 1 result
Sudha and Amit,IT professionals, married for love. A year down the line it turned bitter. Her in-laws wanted her to do household chores when she returned from work. Finding it difficult to adjust, she filed for divorce.
In another case, for Manjunath, an IT professional, the two years of married life did not work out. He could not spend quality time with his family. Working late at office he failed to pay attention to his wife or be a part in family decisions. Marital discord led to the couple separating by mutual consent.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com
Might is right for most
More than a quarter of all US teenagers think violent behaviour is at least sometimes acceptable, and one in five say they behaved violently toward another person in the past year, according to a new poll.
Most said self-defence (87%) or helping a friend (73%) were acceptable justifications for violence. But 34% said revenge was a sufficient motivation.
The poll was conducted by Opinion Research for the school-support organization Junior Achievement and the tax and consulting firm Deloitte, LLC.
More than three-fourths of the respondents who said violence is acceptable also consider themselves ethically prepared to
enter the work force, according to a report on LiveScience.com. That sticks in the craw of David W Miller, who is the director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative and a professor of business ethics at the
In an analysis released with the poll, Miller suggests the survey results bode ill for the future workforce. It’s not clear that’s the case, however. In fact, teens are known to think differently than adults because their brains have not matured. Scans reveal that teens’ ethics change dramatically as they grow into adulthood. Or do they?
The survey of 750 young people (half boys, half girls) age 12 to 17 was conducted between October 9 and October 12. The results were released this week.
“It is highly troubling that so many teenagers have a self-image of ethical readiness and the confidence in their ability to make good decisions later in life, yet at the same time freely admit to current behaviour that is highly unethical,” Miller said in a statement accompanying the poll results. “Employers will have their hands full if a quarter of teens grow up still willing to resort to violence and other unethical behavior when it comes to making decisions about how to settle differences, protect their interests or get ahead,” said Miller in a statement. AGENCIES
YOUNG ’N’ RESTLESS: More than a quarter of all
Harassment', long hours of work driving KSRTC crew to suicide?
Harassment’, long hours of work driving KSRTC crew to suicide?
S. Rajendran
| ‘Working conditions have deteriorated after KSRTC was split’ |
Gaikwad
The family of Vijaykumar (48), a senior driver of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), is in dire straits after he committed suicide on the premises of the Mangalore depot of the corporation in July. He had put in 18 years of service in the KSRTC.
“He was a bachelor and the sole breadwinner of the family. After his death, I and my two sisters have been left in the lurch. Even his Provident Fund and gratuity have not been settled since he had nominated his mother for the benefits. She too passed away soon after his death,” his brother Ganesh told The Hindu.
The KSRTC has refused to give any of the family members a job on compassionate grounds. The family lives in a small house at Kaniyoor in Belthangady taluk in Dakshina Kannada. No action has been taken against the divisional security inspector and a traffic inspector who had reportedly harassed and assaulted Vijaykumar on several occasions.
Conductor Chandrakantha of Shimoga was working in Gulbarga Division.
He drank poison while on duty and died unable to bear the alleged harassment by a traffic inspector. Gaikwad, senior driver of the Bijapur depot, committed suicide in the depot on February 16 by hanging.
In a suicide note, he stated that he was harassed by the depot manager. The authorities have not even questioned the manager concerned or any other officer.
Harishchandra, a caretaker at NWKRTC, committed suicide at the divisional workshop in Bijapur for similar reasons.
Several others, who had attempted suicide, have escaped death, thanks to medical intervention. On October 12, driver Athaulla attempted suicide in Kolar after he was “chased” by members of a checking squad of the KSRTC.
Driver Jagannatha of Kolar Division also attempted suicide in August. On October 23, M. Chandrappa, conductor, drank poison in the chamber of the Shimoga Depot manager and was rushed to hospital. Conductor Pavitra drank poison while on duty because of alleged harassment. She survived after medical intervention and is now facing a case of attempt to suicide.
Six drivers and conductors committed suicide in the past six years and 15 more attempted suicide. “It is a sad story of a government-run agency harassing its employees with an eye on making profit,” the KSRTC Staff and Workers’ Federation told The Hindu.
General Secretary of the federation H.V. Ananthasubba Rao said that working conditions had deteriorated after KSRTC was split.
“The strength of staff to bus ratio is one of the least in the KSRTC and the other three corporations. While it is 4.8 personnel for every government bus in the State, the ratio in Tamil Nadu is 6.5; it is 6.5 in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi Transport Corporation has 11, while BEST, Mumbai, has nine. Added to all this, there is no grievance settlement mechanism in such a mammoth corporation,” he said.
Managing Director of the KSRTC Gaurav Gupta said: “The government bus corporations maintain 40 per cent additional crew than really required to meet exigencies, including leave and weekly offs of employees. Suicides could always be for various reasons and will be looked into. We have an active labour welfare wing which is in touch with bus crew and conduct home visits and counselling wherever required. The bus-staff ratio here is reasonable.”
U.S. exporting recession to the world, says Stiglitz
U.S. exporting recession to the world, says Stiglitz
Special Correspondent
Every successful economy is a market economy
There is need to design a new global system
— Photo: V.V. Krishnan
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz at the 10th D.T. Lakdawala memorial lecture on ‘Crises Today and the Future of Capitalism,’ in
Describing the developed world’s decision to consult the G-20 as a positive outcome of the global meltdown, he was of the view that the two countries should also speak for the 152 countries which were not invited to the meeting.
Delivering the 10th D. T. Lakdawala memorial lecture on ‘Crises Today and the Future of Capitalism,’ the noted economist said the problem – essentially a
Arguing that every successful economy is a market economy, Professor Stiglitz pointed out that the problem lay in the way it evolved in the
Globalisation, according to the economist, had failed primarily because it was based on a flawed economic ideology.
Making out a case for a global regulatory authority, he said there was a need to design a new global system to develop immunity or at least limit the consequences of failure. Failure was contagious in the present brand of globalisation as a result of which the
While there was recognition of the importance of a coordinated global fiscal and monetary response, he said the required reforms went deeper, and included creating a new global reserve system and a new global financial regulatory authority. And he underlined that globalisation had to ensure the maximum good for the maximum numbers and not just the privileged few who got richer under the existing regime.
Holding forth for nearly two hours, the former chief economist of the World Bank carried the audience along right through; punctuating his lecture – organised by Institute of Social Sciences – with digs galore at the U.S., particularly the Bush administration and its response to the crisis. The International Monetary Fund, too, came in for criticism for going around the world lobbying for deregulation like the
About bailout packages, he likened it to giving mass blood transfusion to a patient who was haemorrhaging internally. Worse, he added, there was still no change in the mindset. As for American banks’ refrain on self-regulation, Professor Stiglitz said: “Self-regulation is an oxymoron. Banks said they knew how to manage risk and needed no regulation. What they knew was how to create risk. There is so much of blame to go around that they can all lay claim to it.”
