ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: In India, Many Potholes and Not Enough Engineers

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/business/global/26engineer.html?_r=1

Kainaz Amaria for The New York Times

Despite Vishal Mandvekar’s bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he now writes software for a Japanese automaker.

By VIKAS BAJAJ

Published: August 25, 2010

PUNE, India — Call it India’s engineering paradox.

Despite this nation’s rise as a technology titan with some of the best engineering minds in the world, its full economic potential is stifled by potholed roads, collapsing bridges, rickety railroads and a power grid so unreliable that many modern office buildings run their own diesel generators to make sure the lights and computers stay on.

It is not for want of money. The Indian government aims to spend $500 billion on infrastructure by 2012 and twice that amount in the following five years.

The problem is a dearth of engineers — or at least of civil engineers with the skill and expertise to make sure those ambitious projects are done on time and to specification.

Civil engineering was once an elite occupation in India, not only during the British colonial era of carving roads and laying train tracks, but long after independence as part of the civil service. These days, though, India’s best and brightest know there is more money and prestige in writing software for foreign customers than in building roads for their nation.

And so it is that Vishal Mandvekar, 26, despite his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, now writes software code for a Japanese automaker.

Mr. Mandvekar works in an air-conditioned building with Silicon Valley amenities here in Pune, a boomtown 174 kilometers, or about 100 miles, east of Mumbai. But getting to and from work requires him to spend a vexing hour on his motorcycle, navigating the crowded, cratered roads between home and his office a mere 14 kilometers away.

During the current monsoon season, the many potholes “are filled with water and you can’t tell how deep they are until you hit one,” he said.

Fixing all that, though, will remain some other engineer’s problem.

Mr. Mandvekar earns a salary of 36,000 rupees, or about $765 a month, more than three times what he made during his short stint for a commercial contractor, supervising the construction of lodging for a Sikh religious group, after he earned his degree in 2006.

“It was fun doing that,” he said of the construction job. “My only dissatisfaction was the pay package.”

Young Indians’ preference for software over steel and concrete poses an economic conundrum for India. Its much-envied information technology industry generates tens of thousands of relatively well-paying jobs every year. But that lure also continues the exodus of people qualified to build the infrastructure it desperately needs to improve living conditions for the rest of its one billion people and to bolster the sort of industries that require good highways and railroads more than high-speed Internet links to the West.

In 1990, civil engineering programs had the capacity to enroll 13,500 students, while computer science and information technology departments could accept but 12,100.

Yet by 2007, after a period of incredible growth in India’s software outsourcing business, computer science and other information technology programs had grown to 193,500; civil engineering climbed to only 22,700. Often, those admitted to civil engineering programs were applicants passed over for highly competitive computer science tracks.

There are various other reasons that India has struggled to build a modern infrastructure, including poor planning, political meddling and outright corruption. But the shortage of civil engineers is an important factor. In 2008, the World Bank estimated that India would need to train three times as many civil engineers as it does now to meet its infrastructure needs.

India has “kick-started a massive infrastructure development program without checking on the manpower supply,” said Atul Bhobe, managing director of S.N. Bhobe Associates, a civil engineering design firm. “The government is willing to spend $1 trillion,” he said, “but you don’t have the wherewithal to spend that kind of money.”

Sujay Kalele, an executive with Kolte-Patil, a Pune-based developer of residential and commercial buildings, said the company’s projects could be completed as much as three months faster if it could find enough skilled engineers.

“If we need 10 good-quality civil engineers, we may get four or five,” Mr. Kalele said.

Beyond construction delays and potholes, experts say, the engineering shortfall poses outright dangers. Last year, for example, an elevated span that was part of New Delhi’s much-lauded metro rail system collapsed, killing six people and injuring more than a dozen workers. A government report partly blamed faulty design for the accident; metro officials said they would now require an additional review of all designs by independent engineers.

Acknowledging India’s chronic shortage of civil engineers and other specialists, the national government is building 30 new universities and considering letting foreign institutions set up campuses in the country.

“India has embarked on its largest education expansion program since independence,” the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said in a speech last year in Washington.

But the government may have only so much influence on what students study. And while the Indian government runs or finances some of the most prestigious universities in the nation, like the Indian Institutes of Technology, fast-growing private institutions now train more students. About three-quarters of engineering students study at private colleges.

Moreover, many people who earn degrees in civil engineering never work in the profession or, like Mr. Mandvekar, leave it soon after they graduate to take better-paying jobs in information technology, management consulting or financial services.

Industry experts say a big obstacle to attracting more civil engineers is the paltry entry-level pay. The field was considered relatively lucrative until the 1990s, when it was eclipsed by the pay in commercial software engineering.

Ravi Sinha, a civil engineering professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, says professionals in his field with five years of experience make about as much as their counterparts at information technology companies. But those starting out can make as little as half the pay of their technology peers.

That is partly because of the lead set by government departments, where salaries for civil engineers are often fixed according to nearly immutable civil service formulas.

And in the private sector, developers and construction companies have often been reluctant to pay more and invest in the training of young engineers, because executives believe that new graduates do not contribute enough to merit more money or that they will leave for other jobs.

“If companies take a holistic view,” Mr. Sinha said, “they have the opportunity to develop the next generation’s leaders.”

In fact, a construction boom in recent years has led to higher salaries in private industry. Kolte-Patil now pays junior engineers 20,000 rupees a month, nearly twice the level of five years ago.

Larsen Toubro, an engineering company based in Mumbai that builds airports, power projects and other infrastructure, offers Build India Scholarships for students who want to pursue a master’s degree in construction technology and management. The program produces 50 to 60 graduates a year, who are hired by the company.

“You don’t get the best quality in civil engineers, because today the first choice for students is other branches” of engineering, said K.P. Raghavan, an executive vice president in Larsen Toubro’s construction division. “We are compensating with lots of training.”

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ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: Rs 28,000cr Games expense sounds like wrong priority: Premji

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rs-28000cr-Games-expense-sounds-like-wrong-priority-Premji/articleshow/6435358.cms

Azim Premji, Aug 26, 2010, 12.17 am IST

Recently, the central government disclosed that its total spend on the Delhi Commonwealth Games is likely to be Rs 11,494 crore. This number is disconcerting for two reasons. One, because it is an order-of-magnitude away from its original estimate of Rs 655 crore. Two, because the real cost of the games will be much higher if we were to include:

*Rs 16,560 crore additionally spent by Delhi government on upgrading the capital's infrastructure — a new airport terminal, wider roads, new flyovers, Metro rail extensions, and so on;

*Real cost of labour — labourers got sub-minimum wages, worked in unsafe conditions, and were housed in sub-human tenements;

*The human cost of driving the poor out of streets and out of sight.

The term 'commonwealth' originally meant public welfare, things that are for the greater good of society. Do the Commonwealth Games pass this commonwealth test? Is this Rs 28,000-crore drain on public funds for the greater common good?

Before I respond to the question, let me clarify my position on the Games themselves. The desire to celebrate runs deep in our collective psyche. The teachings of a spiritual master, the creation of a nation, the birth of a child — celebrating each of them is important because they are our cultural compass; they remind us of things we value most. There are few things as uplifting as watching a sportsperson push physical and mental limits to achieve the incredible. The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympics, are a celebration of the human spirit of excellence. Therefore, in itself, the Games are a worthy endeavour.

However, given the thousands of crores being spent on the Delhi Commonwealth Games, we need to ask if this is money spent wisely. As a country, we are constantly forced to compromise on funds. For instance, India needs more schools, and the existing schools need better infrastructure and more teachers. This will require us to spend 6% of our GDP on education, but we manage just over half that figure. Similarly, the country has very little sports infrastructure on the ground. To encourage sports, our first step has to be to ensure children get access to playgrounds, good equipment and quality coaching. To not have this, and to instead spend on a grand sporting spectacle sounds like we have got our priorities wrong.

Despite the wonderful economic strides of the past two decades, the reality is that India is a poor country. A recent study by the University of Oxford measured levels of education, health and living standard in the world's poorest countries. This study shows that India continues to be predominantly poor. In fact, there are more poor people in eight Indian states than in the 26 poorest African countries combined. Delhi has amongst the lowest occurrences of poverty in India, while at the other extreme, 81% of Bihar's population is poor. No surprise then that many of the 100,000 labourers who worked for unfair wages to prepare Delhi for the Commonwealth Games were from Bihar.

The capital already boasts of some of India's best infrastructure. Instead of spending crores to widen Delhi's roads, should we not prioritize building roads and schools in Bihar where none exist in the first place? If we have Rs 500 crore to spare, should we use it to build basic sports facilities in thousands of government schools, or should we spend it all on renovating one stadium?

In real terms, such choices are not all that easy to make. For instance, it is important for our cities to have great infrastructure, and money spent on a metropolis like Delhi will in turn catalyse our national economy. Our leaders have to constantly juggle and prioritize among many equally deserving needs, and it is not as if they are uninformed or wrongly intentioned. Over the last decade, the Indian government has taken important strides in social welfare and inclusive development. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are but two examples. However, it is not enough to have specific schemes such as the NREGA. Rather, equity and inclusion considerations must underlie each and every policy decision. Let me suggest that all public policy must recognize that GDP growth is meaningless if it does not uplift the most underprivileged of our country.

How can we forget that for Rs 28,000 crore we could have established primary schools and health centres in tens of thousands of villages? Can we ignore this splurge the next time a malnourished child looks at us in the eye?

At times like these, it will serve our leaders well to recall Gandhiji's talisman: "Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?"

Azim Premji is chairman of Wipro.

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WIPRO

http://www.wipro.com/index.htm

Azim Premji, Chairman of WIPRO

(Azim Premji)

XIX Commonwealth Games. New Delhi, India (3-14 October 2010)

http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/

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ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: About IIT-JEE 2010

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IIT-JEE 2010 was held for admission to the IITs, IT-BHU and ISM Dhanbad for the academic year 2010-2011. Out of total seats, 27% seats were reserved for OBC, 15% for Scheduled Caste students and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe students, besides 3% for Physically Handicapped candidates.

The total number of students appeared for the JEE this year was 455,571 of which 12,676 were eligible to seek admission to 9,500 seats in IITs at Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai and Roorkee, IT-BHU Varanasi and ISMU, Dhanbad; in addition to eight new IITs in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Orissa, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In the Main Merit List, about 11.6% (1,476) selected were girls. The overall number of students appeared this year was 18% more than the last year. The number of students qualified for the Main Merit List is about 33% more than the available seats, as not all the successful students join the IITs, due to non-availability of branch or institute of their choice.

More details can be found on the official websites of any of the IITs:

http://jee.iitd.ac.in/

About JEE-2010 paper I & II questions and solutions, go to the link:

http://jee.iitd.ac.in/oldqp.htm

The above sites contain lots of useful information, although JEE admission statistics and data analyzing is not posted yet.

Following private website gives all the required info about JEE admission Among the info available are: list of candidates admitted, opening and closing ranks branch/institute/categories wise, etc. The info is from the first round and the info posted is unofficial and not verified.

http://piratecoders.co.cc/projects/iit-jee-results/jee-ranks/

http://piratecoders.co.cc/iitjee/ranks.html

http://piratecoders.co.cc/iitjee/results.html

Of 455,571 candidates who took the JEE this year, 12,676 cleared it. For the preparatory course, 262 scheduled tribe (ST) candidates and 166 physical disability (PD) candidates have qualified. The number of candidates who appeared in the JEE in 2010 is over 18% more than 2009.

The all-India success rate has increased marginally from 2.6% in 2009 to 2.78%. Roughly 9,500 seats are available across all the IITs, IT-BHU (Varanasi) and ISMU-Dhanbad. Of these, 2,567 seats are reserved for other backward classes (OBCs), 1,426 for the scheduled castes (SC) and 713 for the STs.

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http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/iit-joint-entrance-on-april-10/252130.html

IIT joint entrance on April 10

PTI

Kanpur, Aug 21 (PTI) The IIT joint entrance examination (IIT-JEE) for the year 2011 will be held in April 10 and the format of the exam remains unchanged. The test will conducted in the morning and evening. The morning test will begin from 7 am to 12 am while the evening test from 2 pm to 5 pm. The decisions were taken at the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) meeting held here and attended by directors or their representatives from all 15 IITs all over the country, IIT Kanpur Director Sanjay Govind Dhande said.

Decision regarding entrance exam form and its submission will be taken within next 10 days by the JAB members. Dhande said that this year the authorities will be very careful to avoid printing mistakes which had crept in in last year's question paper. Professor S K Choudhury of IIT Kanpur has been named as IIT-JEE chairman while Professor S S Karla and Professor Rajesh Srivastav have been made vice-chairmen, he said. The IIT 2010 joint entrance examination was coordinated by IIT-Chennai.

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http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/poor-children-are-securing-more-seats-in-iits-director/253662.html

Poor children are securing more seats in IITs: Director

PTI

Kanpur, Aug 22 (PTI) Fighting all odds more and more poor children are making it to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, some of them without even taking any help from private coaching centers. According to IIT-JEE 2010 examination statistics released by the IIT Kanpur, out of 9075 successful candidates, 35 per cent come from poor families and 40 per cent passed the competitive exam without any help from private coaching centers.

"The figures indicate that to secure admission in IIT is not just possible for students who come from rich families and can afford expensive coaching, even the poor children from economically backward and uneducated families are becoming successful and are securing a seat in IITs without any coaching," IIT Kanpur Director Sanjay Govind Dhande said. The candidates, who belong to poor families, mostly came from Hindi-speaking belt of India.

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ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: Admission statistics for IT-BHU for the academic year 2010-11

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 For this year, a total of 901 students were admitted to our institute, out of which  484 were from general category, 155 were from OBC category and 136from SC category. Of the total, 109 (12.1%) were girls. Last year our institute admitted a total of 729 students.

The students admitted through IIT-JEE under different categories were as follows:

* Some of the OBC students also successfully cleared JEE exam under General category and got GE ranks of 3649-9496.

-IITs, IT-BHU and ISM, Dhanbad has reservation quota for different categories as follows:

OBC-27%, SC-15%, ST-7.5%, PD-3% and rest (50.5%) for General (Open) Category.

*Preparatory Course is for SC/ST candidates who could not get minimum marks needed for admission. They are enrolled for one-year preparatory course at each institute and then admitted if they pass the test. The students joining this year are the students admitted last year for preparatory course.

*Students for B. Pharm course are also admitted through BHU PMT/PAT entrance test, by which up to 25 students can be admitted for Pharmaceutics course. This is in addition to students admitted through IIT-JEE.

*The students were admitted for 4 year B. Tech programs (total 10 programs) and 5 year IDD-Duel Degree Integrated M. Tech program (total 11 programs) and 5 year IMD-Integrated M. Tech programs (3 programs) for Applied Sciences. 735 students were admitted for 4 yr B. tech program, 33 for 5 year IDD programs and 130 for 5 yr IMD programs.

109 girls (12.1% of total students) were among 901 students.

The opening rank was 1558. The top 5 preferences for programs are arrived based on median IIT-JEE ranks of students in a particular class. (Median rank is defined as the one for which 50% students above it and 50% below it in the class.)

2010 Student Preference for Programs (based on median rank in General Category)

We are thankful to Prof. S. K. Tiwari, IIT-JEE coordinator for our institute, to provide us with JEE data of admitted students.

The complete list of admitted students:

We are pleased to provide the complete the list of admitted students, branch wise. This is based on official list received from the institute. For privacy concerns, Registration number, category (Gen/OBC/SC/ST) and JEE rank is omitted from the list. The names are arranged randomly branch-wise, sex and name-wise.

To view the complete list of admitted students, please click here.

Admitted List of candidates for the session 2010-11.xls

 2010 admission statistics

Here are some quick stats for your information:

2010 Programs and Students Enrollment:

(Ranks shown for General Category students only)

JEE 20010 top 10 rank holders among IT-BHU students

Among girl students, Miss Kajal Roy (4 yr B Tech in CSE) got the highest JEE rank of 2437

JEE Rank distribution of incoming students (General Category only)

 The median rank of 484 students in General category taking JEE is 4048.

The bar chart below shows range of JEE rank in general category (x-axis) against number of students in that range (y-axis)

For last year (2009) IIT-JEE admission statistics

http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/07/index-campus-view.php#004403

Number of students admitted to IT-BHU

Refer earlier article in April 2008 issue of Chronicle:

“Institute to see increased number of students due to implementation of OBC quota”

http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2008/04/institute_to_se.php

The number will also depend upon the available of infrastructure, such as hostels, labs, etc. and number of academic programs offered. It is expected that by the academic year 2011-12, the total intake capacity for undergraduate programs will be around 1,000 per year. The current campus strength of students for all programs (including M. Tech. /PhDs) is around 3,500. It is expected to be between 5,000 by the year 2011-12.

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