Posts tagged India

There’s a lot of ideas about higher ed that we might consider from other countries’ systems (free tuition, standardized entrance exams, etc.). I hadn’t considered this one before.  From theatlantic: India’s Bold Solution to the U.S. College Crisis: Federal Universities A system of national universities would (1) fight the rise in tuition, and (2) accommodate all those smart second-generation kids whose parents we should be recruiting to our country in droves. But it will also help the nation in a 3rd way by giving us an outlet for higher research spending. The U.S. has been spending less and less on R&D as a percentage of our GDP, even as R&D becomes more and more important. In part because of this, there are legions of PhDs being forced to take private-sector jobs in which they have no expertise. These trends need to be reversed in order to maintain America’s status as the leading technological nation. And a system of federal universities is the perfect vehicle to increase research spending and provide an outlet for all those PhDs. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

There’s a lot of ideas about higher ed that we might consider from other countries’ systems (free tuition, standardized entrance exams, etc.). I hadn’t considered this one before. 

From theatlantic:

India’s Bold Solution to the U.S. College Crisis: Federal Universities

A system of national universities would (1) fight the rise in tuition, and (2) accommodate all those smart second-generation kids whose parents we should be recruiting to our country in droves. But it will also help the nation in a 3rd way by giving us an outlet for higher research spending. The U.S. has been spending less and less on R&D as a percentage of our GDP, even as R&D becomes more and more important. In part because of this, there are legions of PhDs being forced to take private-sector jobs in which they have no expertise. These trends need to be reversed in order to maintain America’s status as the leading technological nation. And a system of federal universities is the perfect vehicle to increase research spending and provide an outlet for all those PhDs.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

India gets ignored far too much, but it’s impact on global development is going to be huge in the next decade. Time to start paying attention to the world’s second largest country (and one of the five largest economies). From futurejournalismproject: Disrupting Tablets from the Bottom Up How a $20 tablet from India could blindside PC makers, educate billions and transform computing as we know it. Hint: The Indian government currently has an order in for 100,000 Aakash 2 tablets for university students and professors, and Datawind, the company behind the low-priced Android tablet, already has 4 million pre-orders. Image: Suneet Tuli, CEO Datawind, with the company’s Aakash 2 tablet. Via Quartz.

India gets ignored far too much, but it’s impact on global development is going to be huge in the next decade. Time to start paying attention to the world’s second largest country (and one of the five largest economies).

From futurejournalismproject:

Disrupting Tablets from the Bottom Up

How a $20 tablet from India could blindside PC makers, educate billions and transform computing as we know it.

Hint: The Indian government currently has an order in for 100,000 Aakash 2 tablets for university students and professors, and Datawind, the company behind the low-priced Android tablet, already has 4 million pre-orders.

Image: Suneet Tuli, CEO Datawind, with the company’s Aakash 2 tablet. Via Quartz.

futurejournalismproject

From pritheworld:

Female Soldiers Guarding the India-Pakistan Border

Photos from the New York Times’ Lens Blog.

Fascinating example of pictures telling a story on their own.

It’s important to remember, there are plenty of nations in the nuclear club already. Here’s a list of states with nuclear weapons. From shortformblog: India tests nuclear-capable missile: Unlike the one North Korea recently tested, this actually worked, leading government officials to hail the launch as “proof that the country has taken its place among the world’s most powerful and scientifically advanced nations.” With a reach of 3,100 miles, the missile can conceivably reach Beijing and Shanghai, but not many other Chinese cities. While it’s not as powerful as it could be, it does add a degree of complexity to the diplomatic situation in the region. (photo by India’s Ministry of Defense/AP)

It’s important to remember, there are plenty of nations in the nuclear club already. Here’s a list of states with nuclear weapons.

From shortformblog:

India tests nuclear-capable missile: Unlike the one North Korea recently tested, this actually worked, leading government officials to hail the launch as “proof that the country has taken its place among the world’s most powerful and scientifically advanced nations.” With a reach of 3,100 miles, the missile can conceivably reach Beijing and Shanghai, but not many other Chinese cities. While it’s not as powerful as it could be, it does add a degree of complexity to the diplomatic situation in the region. (photo by India’s Ministry of Defense/AP)

From globalvoices:

National anthems are usually written in the official or the most commonly used language of the state. India’s anthem Jana Gana Mana, which is 100 years old, is written in a Sanskritized version of Bengali. Both these languages are among the 22 official languages of India.

But what you will rarely stumble into is the silent Indian national anthem in sign language.

This is just amazing. National anthems tell us a lot about a country—and even without the lyrics, the sign language is a really interesting way to figure out the tone, cadence, and meaning of the Indian national anthem. And those kids are just adorable. I hope there are more sign language version of national anthems to be found.

"India's Challenge" | The Christian Science Monitor

I’m always surprised that India—the world’s second most populous country & the most populous democracy—never gets much coverage in introductory comparative politics textbooks/courses. That’s a real shame.

From csmonitor:

Ben Arnoldy writes this week cover story, encapsulating India’s tough challenge - building 50,000 schools in the next 10 years to educate up to 100 million students.

Schools are already springing up across the landscape – from big campuses in suburban fields to one-room boutiques in teeming malls. As they do, Americans who feel inadequate about their education system can take solace in at least one fact: Indians are looking at US institutions as models. In the five-star hotels of New Delhi, delegations of presidents and deans from various American universities meet regularly with teams of Indian officials and administrators to set up partnerships, faculty mentoring, and study-abroad programs.

And yet – as in other sectors of rapidly developing countries – India isn’t looking just to mimic the West in education. It is hoping to leapfrog it. In some ways, the country has no choice. “The way education is today in the global market is not scalable,” says Sam Pitroda, an education adviser to the government. “The cost of education has really increased substantially, mainly because IT has not been used effectively the world over in education.”

This means that India is not just trying to build thousands of American-style campuses with neat quads. Many of its new schools will be virtual, for-profit, and integrated closely with workplaces. It may, in fact, end up pushing the concept of online education further than any other country. As a result, what India comes up with will not only affect its economic competitiveness in the 21st century. It may become a petri dish for how to build an educational system in the Information Age.

Yet questions loom. Is India on the verge of a new renaissance or is this effort an overreaching bound to fall of its own ambition? How do you maintain any kind of quality control in such a massive scale-up of schools? Will the legendary bureaucracy of India stifle its quest to be the world’s new cerebellum?

We pay a lot of attention to China’s economic success story—and we should. But we don’t pay enough attention to how democracies have achieved similar successes—or the particular challenges that doing so in a democratic society implies.

From globalvoices: Aakash, the world’s cheapest Tablet PC ($45), has been launched in India. The country’s government plans to distribute 10 million tablet PCs to post-secondary students. I’m developing a little idea, and wonder what people think. It seems China’s economy is growing—but is focusing on more deeply integrating itself into existing supply chains. Whereas it seems India has more creative entrepreneurs focused on sidestepping existing categories to reach out to “the bottom billion” (so to speak). I first noticed this with the Nano. Thoughts?

From globalvoices:

Aakash, the world’s cheapest Tablet PC ($45), has been launched in India.

The country’s government plans to distribute 10 million tablet PCs to post-secondary students.

I’m developing a little idea, and wonder what people think. It seems China’s economy is growing—but is focusing on more deeply integrating itself into existing supply chains. Whereas it seems India has more creative entrepreneurs focused on sidestepping existing categories to reach out to “the bottom billion” (so to speak). I first noticed this with the Nano. Thoughts?

Economist Daily Chart: Energy use: Power slide Interesting look at the rise & fall of energy use (as share of GDP) in China, Russia, the US, and India over time.

Economist Daily Chart: Energy use: Power slide

Interesting look at the rise & fall of energy use (as share of GDP) in China, Russia, the US, and India over time.

economist.com

Having traveled to both China and India in the last few weeks, here’s a scary thought I have: What if — for all the hype about China, India and globalization — they’re actually underhyped? What if these sleeping giants are just finishing a 20-year process of getting the basic technological and educational infrastructure in place to become innovation hubs and that we haven’t seen anything yet?
A very interesting thought, indeed. NYT’s Thomas Friedman says “Do Believe The Hype” (via npr)

Corruption around the world, especially India on NPR’s Planet Money

Next week, my POL 102 class will begin a four-week section on political institutions. On Wednesday, they’ll discuss corruption. Our focus is on India, one of the ten cases our book focuses on. 

I’ve assigned a homework assignment that requires listening to another NPR Planet Money podcast: “The Economics of Bribing A Cop.” Using India as a backdrop, David Kestenbaum discusses corruption in India. But, w/ a twist. Is bribery always bad? In addition, I ask students to look at Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.