Okay hate is a little too extreme a term for this. But it does convey the popular emotion. And I have found Bangalore criticism so common, I sometimes feel alienated! Why am I the odd man out?
Thinking on it over and over again, I came up with the following points in favor of Bangalore. Listing them in increasing order of importance.
The Weather: A lot of people think weather is the only good thing about Bangalore. I'd say it is one of the many. The temperatures never go beyond a certain range, remains low on humidity all the time, and it rains whenever the heat starts. Addictive for most north Indians - some people are even not able to stay in their home towns after living here for a while.
The People: May be it is just subjective, but most people I have met here, especially the locals, are good. They are considerate when it comes to language, reasonably uncomplicated in doing business, and quite modern about fashion and lifestyle.
Look at the linguistic diversity of the city - it is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in India, all thanks to the tolerance and political wisdom of the ordinary Kannadiga. Bangalore holds the reputation of having 'no language problem' all over the country.
And the lifestyle - Bangalore is the city of decent drunkards, perhaps the only place in India where liquor is served in family restaurants. People might be bothered about isolated unfortunate events of moral policing on girls going to pubs, but the truth generally overlooked is that girls actually can go to pubs here. And that is because decency and tolerance is and has been the culture of the city.
Fashion - every other Bangalore boy sports a goatee, a pony or a french-cut. Not that this itself is a big thing, the special thing is the acceptance he gets from the elderly generation. How I remember the scorn and the giggle I faced after having shaved my mush for the first time!
The idea: Yes the idea of Bangalore. A less important city (its not one of the four metros) from the backward third world that grabbed the imagination of the people round the world. All by inviting and grooming a bunch of technical people. The city that helped break the myth that India is not a place for technology and innovation. The city that helped India get a meaningful 'future IT superpower' adage, while we were happy with the more cliched 'land of history and culture' thing. Everytime Barack Obama says (1,2) he wants to protect jobs in his country from coming to Bangalore, I feel great. We are a threat to the most powerful, a force to reckon with - wow!
My job: I have found hope of progress, recognition of my expertise, and a whole lot of opportunities here. I have a career here. And I am grateful.
*
If you think I neglected the most important Bangalore issue - infrastructure and traffic, here it is. This problem is a problem of plenty - of too much growth in too little time. Its rather haphazard, random and erratic right now. Things will stabilize overtime, and hopefully, the government will do the needful. It too has to serve the 52 million people of Karnataka, so don't keep comparing it with Delhi. Remember, you too make the crowd you crib about!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
medical seats for sale
Headlines for past two days- seats for sale in Tamil Nadu medical colleges. Media highlights the scam, governments swing into action (or show of action)
Any well informed medical student, can tell you where all you can use money to buy seats. As donations, as management quota, and sometimes as high fees. The phenomenon is not new and not uncommon. Lakhs of students study hard year over year to become a doctors, and our system only adds to their hardships. The no. of medical seats is low, half of them are reserved and then there is this unfair advantage to the rich. Definitely demotivating.
Now our system (government-media-other power centers) will pretend to solve the problem by addressing these individual cases. 'Pretend' because most of them are beneficiaries of the business, and the history of their modus-operandi (set up inquiry commissions to dampen things first, and later forget it all) makes us all hopeless. Some good Samaritans shall go further by asking for legislation against such practices.
*
The real, workable solution is much simpler. Encourage private participation (investments) in medical education. Try public-private partnerships. Lower the entry barriers. Strengthen regulations to improve quality, but don't lay obstacles. Simply put, if Mr X wants to impart quality medical education with the aim of making money, allow him to do it.
The demand supply gap in medical education is huge, so seat-for-donation-quacks find buyers. Let the supply build, prices shall fall, people will have cheaper and better alternatives, and the market for the dishonest business shall die. Look at engineering education - its hard to find colleges asking similar donations. You might argue that setting up a medical college is far complex a job and needs far better expertise. My answer - do NOT underestimate the Indian entrepreneur. Just make him comply to quality, and even if that is tough, leave it to market too. The medical-education provider with better quality of learning, and reasonable pricing shall only survive.
*
And there shall be another beneficiary to this - the Indian poor man.
(Remember there is just one doctor per 1700 people here, while the WHO recommends it to be 1:1000 in developing countries.)
Any well informed medical student, can tell you where all you can use money to buy seats. As donations, as management quota, and sometimes as high fees. The phenomenon is not new and not uncommon. Lakhs of students study hard year over year to become a doctors, and our system only adds to their hardships. The no. of medical seats is low, half of them are reserved and then there is this unfair advantage to the rich. Definitely demotivating.
Now our system (government-media-other power centers) will pretend to solve the problem by addressing these individual cases. 'Pretend' because most of them are beneficiaries of the business, and the history of their modus-operandi (set up inquiry commissions to dampen things first, and later forget it all) makes us all hopeless. Some good Samaritans shall go further by asking for legislation against such practices.
*
The real, workable solution is much simpler. Encourage private participation (investments) in medical education. Try public-private partnerships. Lower the entry barriers. Strengthen regulations to improve quality, but don't lay obstacles. Simply put, if Mr X wants to impart quality medical education with the aim of making money, allow him to do it.
The demand supply gap in medical education is huge, so seat-for-donation-quacks find buyers. Let the supply build, prices shall fall, people will have cheaper and better alternatives, and the market for the dishonest business shall die. Look at engineering education - its hard to find colleges asking similar donations. You might argue that setting up a medical college is far complex a job and needs far better expertise. My answer - do NOT underestimate the Indian entrepreneur. Just make him comply to quality, and even if that is tough, leave it to market too. The medical-education provider with better quality of learning, and reasonable pricing shall only survive.
*
And there shall be another beneficiary to this - the Indian poor man.
(Remember there is just one doctor per 1700 people here, while the WHO recommends it to be 1:1000 in developing countries.)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Getting involved
Getting involved is the concept of citizens participating in social-governmental processes on a part time basis for the benefit of the society .
In India, such a concept is really lacking, and to an extent that even such an expectation generates sharp disagreements. The only instance I can give of such a thing being implemented is the rule that medical students should be doing internships in villages as a part of their curriculum. Not surprisingly, it was received with sufficient angst and negativity from the students. Apart from other reason that they gave, the most understandable is "why only us?"
That gives us the idea of "yes, why only them, why not other students too". Broadening this further, why just the students, why not everybody else (who is educated and capable). Sure everyone's skills might not be as badly needed as a doctor's skill, still there is no dearth of work for educated young men and women in the country.
So what I suggest is, every educated citizen of the country spend some time doing government duty. And every graduate student does this duty as a part of his curriculum. Time can be anything convenient - 15 days, 30 days, 20 weekends - anything. The benefits shall come back to us as a society. Below are listed problem areas in which the benefits can be clearly seen.
- Lack of teachers: Rural India lacks lacks trained teachers. The deficit can be hugely filled by short (may be monthly/fortnightly) teaching internships by all graduate students in villages/small towns.
- Lack of experts/professionals in rural India: doctors, lawyers, computer trainers, business managers, are examples of professionals that can be utilized for specialized needs. Other ideas to improve the health care in India.
- Election duty: till now this is a nightmare only for government employees. Private citizens are not asked to contribute to maintain fairness. But with changed times, a stronger election commission and use of technology, a fair election is not just dependent on the election officers' honesty. Imagine how smooth and cheap the whole democratic process would become if there were more hands to share the burden.
- Courts: The Indian judicial system is almost crumbling under the pressure of the huge volume of cases it has to handle. We can lend a helping hand by providing non-expert manpower support (as we all don't qualify to be judges or lawyers). But a more important contribution is jury duty.
Jury duty -
Instead of having just one judge decide the case, have a jury of say dozen people. Let them sit through the entire hearing process and listen. And then, ask them to decide, along with the judge. Let the judge hold the veto, so no illiterate judgments can pass. This is a practice in many countries (like US) and was in India until a bad instance had it stopped. I see two big benefits of this. One, making corruption costly - its now 13 times costlier to have it decided in your favor by bribing. Two, education - it will create a vast pool of 'legally literate' individuals who can be used as judges when they become sufficiently qualified.
*
The most important condition for any of these ideas to work is having a system of stakes and incentives in place. If people are forced to do it, they find corrupt ways to get away. For example, if I have chances to become a judge one day by doing consistent and sincere jury duty, I might be very interested to do it, and do it well. But the idea is not purely about incentives. It is about people getting involved to make things better.
In India, such a concept is really lacking, and to an extent that even such an expectation generates sharp disagreements. The only instance I can give of such a thing being implemented is the rule that medical students should be doing internships in villages as a part of their curriculum. Not surprisingly, it was received with sufficient angst and negativity from the students. Apart from other reason that they gave, the most understandable is "why only us?"
That gives us the idea of "yes, why only them, why not other students too". Broadening this further, why just the students, why not everybody else (who is educated and capable). Sure everyone's skills might not be as badly needed as a doctor's skill, still there is no dearth of work for educated young men and women in the country.
So what I suggest is, every educated citizen of the country spend some time doing government duty. And every graduate student does this duty as a part of his curriculum. Time can be anything convenient - 15 days, 30 days, 20 weekends - anything. The benefits shall come back to us as a society. Below are listed problem areas in which the benefits can be clearly seen.
- Lack of teachers: Rural India lacks lacks trained teachers. The deficit can be hugely filled by short (may be monthly/fortnightly) teaching internships by all graduate students in villages/small towns.
- Lack of experts/professionals in rural India: doctors, lawyers, computer trainers, business managers, are examples of professionals that can be utilized for specialized needs. Other ideas to improve the health care in India.
- Election duty: till now this is a nightmare only for government employees. Private citizens are not asked to contribute to maintain fairness. But with changed times, a stronger election commission and use of technology, a fair election is not just dependent on the election officers' honesty. Imagine how smooth and cheap the whole democratic process would become if there were more hands to share the burden.
- Courts: The Indian judicial system is almost crumbling under the pressure of the huge volume of cases it has to handle. We can lend a helping hand by providing non-expert manpower support (as we all don't qualify to be judges or lawyers). But a more important contribution is jury duty.
Jury duty -
Instead of having just one judge decide the case, have a jury of say dozen people. Let them sit through the entire hearing process and listen. And then, ask them to decide, along with the judge. Let the judge hold the veto, so no illiterate judgments can pass. This is a practice in many countries (like US) and was in India until a bad instance had it stopped. I see two big benefits of this. One, making corruption costly - its now 13 times costlier to have it decided in your favor by bribing. Two, education - it will create a vast pool of 'legally literate' individuals who can be used as judges when they become sufficiently qualified.
*
The most important condition for any of these ideas to work is having a system of stakes and incentives in place. If people are forced to do it, they find corrupt ways to get away. For example, if I have chances to become a judge one day by doing consistent and sincere jury duty, I might be very interested to do it, and do it well. But the idea is not purely about incentives. It is about people getting involved to make things better.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
fixing education-3
Observations and review (cont)
This is a short critical review of higher education in India. Higher education includes graduate and higher studies. This comprises of the simple, obvious and mostly useless (career wise) science and arts studies, and professional studies like engineering and medical. The scenario works differently for both.
First the non-professional higher studies. You pass 10+2, so the next step is to go for graduation (if you are not too poor, otherwise you would be a laborer by now). Till now, the education has been unable to give you any significant livelihood earning skills. So you choose any college in close vicinity, and any course that remains trouble free. So it could be commerce, sociology, maths, botany, whatever. You don't expect to get any career out of this course, and a slow-decent pace of study, may be with some coaching, takes you through. After graduation, you start applying for various government sector jobs, and for higher studies. As the former doesn't exist much now, and needs a big bribe, a post-graduation is a good option. If its professional (MBA/MTech/MCA) a career can be hoped. If not, you go into research-teaching, or something else (which can include an unrelated job/business, or preparing for competitive exams for government jobs)
Professional education. If you have enough awareness (or enough money), you could work hard to earn a ticket to short cut routes to great careers. After 10+2, you could secure admission to a good (so called) engineering or a medical college. After graduation, you could go for something like a CAT entrance or the UPSC exam. Shortcuts to glory-career- and everything else you don't need. Most boys and girls who have the awareness, make the brave choice of trying for the shortcuts. In some regions of the country, taking multiple year drops for them is also popular.
Higher education is a bit less unequal than primary and secondary. Merit and hard-work works to some extent, though you can have a unfair advantage if you are rich or belong to reserved category. Professional education works event better. Engineering and MBA work best, because of an activity called 'campus recruitment'. IITs and IIMs are the best among the bests, and that is arguably, only because they have at their disposal, a huge talent pool fighting for admissions.
The one that works best is professional education, from a decent institute. But the problem is the huge demand supply gap (-a hundred competitors per seat is common) and is mostly too expensive for the average Indian (who earns the per-capita income, 30k right now)
The next parts talk about the wish-list and practical solutions.
This is a short critical review of higher education in India. Higher education includes graduate and higher studies. This comprises of the simple, obvious and mostly useless (career wise) science and arts studies, and professional studies like engineering and medical. The scenario works differently for both.
First the non-professional higher studies. You pass 10+2, so the next step is to go for graduation (if you are not too poor, otherwise you would be a laborer by now). Till now, the education has been unable to give you any significant livelihood earning skills. So you choose any college in close vicinity, and any course that remains trouble free. So it could be commerce, sociology, maths, botany, whatever. You don't expect to get any career out of this course, and a slow-decent pace of study, may be with some coaching, takes you through. After graduation, you start applying for various government sector jobs, and for higher studies. As the former doesn't exist much now, and needs a big bribe, a post-graduation is a good option. If its professional (MBA/MTech/MCA) a career can be hoped. If not, you go into research-teaching, or something else (which can include an unrelated job/business, or preparing for competitive exams for government jobs)
Professional education. If you have enough awareness (or enough money), you could work hard to earn a ticket to short cut routes to great careers. After 10+2, you could secure admission to a good (so called) engineering or a medical college. After graduation, you could go for something like a CAT entrance or the UPSC exam. Shortcuts to glory-career- and everything else you don't need. Most boys and girls who have the awareness, make the brave choice of trying for the shortcuts. In some regions of the country, taking multiple year drops for them is also popular.
Higher education is a bit less unequal than primary and secondary. Merit and hard-work works to some extent, though you can have a unfair advantage if you are rich or belong to reserved category. Professional education works event better. Engineering and MBA work best, because of an activity called 'campus recruitment'. IITs and IIMs are the best among the bests, and that is arguably, only because they have at their disposal, a huge talent pool fighting for admissions.
The one that works best is professional education, from a decent institute. But the problem is the huge demand supply gap (-a hundred competitors per seat is common) and is mostly too expensive for the average Indian (who earns the per-capita income, 30k right now)
The next parts talk about the wish-list and practical solutions.
Friday, April 10, 2009
being unelectable
Nandan Nilekani thinks he is 'unelectable' (Imagining India, page 3). So do most of the educated-corporatized-professional-elite-decent men in the country.
Why so?
A look into what comprises the 'electable' might reveal. The following lot takes a plunge into politics,
- Son / daughter of a political biggie.
- Descendant of some erstwhile royal family.
- People who chose politics as a 'career', mostly after having earned enough through corrupt businesses to invest in the 'career'
- People with proven musclemen-leadership skills - goonda commanders.
The first two kinds have the natural advantage of easily acquired visibility, and existing organizations at work. But the other two are better contenders. They know the tricks of all trades, know how to get it done. If money buys them party tickets, money can make the rest easy. But they lack good reputation, and charm, and formal-communication skills, and media attention, and proper agenda, and more often, intelligence.
You have money. You have some visibility. You are intelligent. You know how to compete. What's the problem then?
You are ignorant. You are the rich guy of this country who thinks the problem of this country is the bad road that gives you a bumpy ride when you travel from your air-conditioned home to your air-conditioned office in your air-conditioned car.
You are indifferent. This country's system never expects you to get involved. And you never get involved.
You are wrong. You are actually NOT unelectable. Give it a try. You can win. You can figure out how.
*
Second thoughts -
The problems I stated above, no 1 and no 2, are a little too harsh and somewhat unfair to Nandan Nilekani. The intent is not actually to criticize Nandan himself, for whom the comments may actually be completely wrong. It is about the previously mentioned educated-corporatized-professional-elite-decent men of our country.
Elections have ended, and all such men (and women), who tried contesting and getting involved, have lost. What is the reason and what does this indicate ? Among others, the obvious looking 'the public resentment against politicians is on a high, and we urgently need alternatives' theory propagated mostly by media, has to face scrutiny. This belief, however true or false, can not be taken to infer that the alternatives (however good) shall find it easy to gain credibility among the voter masses.
Why so?
A look into what comprises the 'electable' might reveal. The following lot takes a plunge into politics,
- Son / daughter of a political biggie.
- Descendant of some erstwhile royal family.
- People who chose politics as a 'career', mostly after having earned enough through corrupt businesses to invest in the 'career'
- People with proven musclemen-leadership skills - goonda commanders.
The first two kinds have the natural advantage of easily acquired visibility, and existing organizations at work. But the other two are better contenders. They know the tricks of all trades, know how to get it done. If money buys them party tickets, money can make the rest easy. But they lack good reputation, and charm, and formal-communication skills, and media attention, and proper agenda, and more often, intelligence.
You have money. You have some visibility. You are intelligent. You know how to compete. What's the problem then?
You are ignorant. You are the rich guy of this country who thinks the problem of this country is the bad road that gives you a bumpy ride when you travel from your air-conditioned home to your air-conditioned office in your air-conditioned car.
You are indifferent. This country's system never expects you to get involved. And you never get involved.
You are wrong. You are actually NOT unelectable. Give it a try. You can win. You can figure out how.
*
Second thoughts -
The problems I stated above, no 1 and no 2, are a little too harsh and somewhat unfair to Nandan Nilekani. The intent is not actually to criticize Nandan himself, for whom the comments may actually be completely wrong. It is about the previously mentioned educated-corporatized-professional-elite-decent men of our country.
Elections have ended, and all such men (and women), who tried contesting and getting involved, have lost. What is the reason and what does this indicate ? Among others, the obvious looking 'the public resentment against politicians is on a high, and we urgently need alternatives' theory propagated mostly by media, has to face scrutiny. This belief, however true or false, can not be taken to infer that the alternatives (however good) shall find it easy to gain credibility among the voter masses.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
combating terrorism and cockroaches
I was suffering from a weird problem at my new house in Bangalore- Small size cockroaches. They started with a small number, coming sneaked in somewhere in my suitcase handle. Initially, small size and harmless nature earned them enough ignorance from me - I made no effort to get rid of them.What has this to do with terrorism ?
Within a few months, I realized that I was paying for my ignorance. They stationed and settled themselves in the kitchen, and multiplied. Kept multiplying the way humans do. They were mostly harmless, but thousands of harmless little cockroaches can become a big nuisance. And they were everywhere in the kitchen, and every time I pick something up, there runs the tiny little thing. And they were occasionally expanding their territory out of the kitchen too, and that raised the alarm. They were a threat now.
Tried using Mortien and other pesticides on them, but no use. There is almost a 50 percent chance that the little creature dies if you are spraying the venom on its head. The other ways to mitigate the situation were - buy a refrigerator - as they can enter any utensil, buy a cot (I used to sleep on the ground) - as they will easily climb on you at night, or, kill them all, one by one, manually.
After everything else failed, I tried the last resort. For hours together, using my slippers, I'm doing the massacre. I was as cruel as needed, and determined to kill every last one of them (Just as Sri Lankan Army is to LTTE). But I still failed. There were just too many of them. And unless I make them completely extinct, all they need to do to bug me more is breed more, the one thing they do easily.
But right now, there is not a single one of them left. As my sister gets transfered, the kitchen is left unused for a few months (I used to eat out). And after those few months, I notice they have all disappeared. Not even corpses left behind. Migrated ? died ? - no idea. The cause to this effect is the essential, life-sustaining supply of food material being cut off all this time. No cooking, so no atta-crumbles, no random rice grains, and no garbage. Nothing to eat. Over.
I have been toying with the idea of applying this to a bigger scenario - the biggest threat and nuisance to human (at least Indian) life - terrorism. We (as a country) want to get rid of terrorism and terrorists, no second thoughts/arguments on that. We have already made the mistake of not curbing it in its infancy, probably, and rather ignoring it initially too. Now we want to fight them. We have tried strong defense, tight security, and want to try offense to. We might want to KILL THEM ALL, dismantle and destroy and annihilate all the terror related infrastructure and people and nations supporting them.
We have tried some, and can try most or all of the above. But, by common sense, how can you win over a fidayeen by killing him? Fighting is what they want, fighting is what we give them. Nothing against that, because fighting is what we are left to do.
But not only fighting. Fighting and dying is the only purposes they are there for, but not for us. We are a civilization, we have to fight to win, not to fight to get destroyed. The terror eco-system has its own supply chains. We must cut those supply lines ALSO. No, I'm not hinting at the more abstract end-poverty-and-injustice rhetoric. Terrorism thrives on religious-racist extremism, on emotion, which flows in terror money (illegal trade and donations). Find some ways to curb them too. Find ways to hit some or all of the supply chains of the eco-system.
The idea appears endorsed by a recent Times of India Article (editorial 23 April 2009).
Saturday, February 21, 2009
fixing education - 2
Observations and reviews
This part is an observation of the current state of education in India, which is severely bad. It is unequal, insufficient and mostly ineffective, but the observations need to be categorized.
Lets look at the primary (1-5) and secondary (6-12) first -
1. Largely unequal - Mostly overlooked,but this REALLY IS a big problem. The great-Indian-inequality starts here. There are schools that lack even the most basic necessities like classrooms and have very few teachers. Students are being taught (and provided mid day meals) just to finish off a government formality, with no vision of any kind. And then there are schools that have ACs installed even in their toilets! Would a pass-out of the first kind ever be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the latter one ? Or the other way round, will a citizen groomed from the second kind feel any sense of responsibility towards the first kind who make most of the country ? Will the first kind aim for becoming anything better than a chaprasi, and will the second ever be ready to respect a chaprasi?
2. Mostly boring - study is never fun, school is a burden even for those who can afford. Kids/students not only don't find it interesting, they also find most of it useless. Dropping out is easy if they have an option or incentive. Deep-rooted is the concept that studies are supposed to be uninteresting intrinsically, and need painful hard-work to finish successfully. Strong myth.
3. Lacking in exposure - The Type 1 (too poor schools) are mostly unable impart any exposure to the modern world of technology and other fields. Type 2 (too rich) fare lot better on this, but, one, they are a very small minority, and two, they need to know about the bigger lot, to actually be of any use to the society.
4. Missing and redundant courses - Health and hygiene, economics and commerce, entrepreneurship, basics laws and rights, civic sense and ethics, effective communication are either completely absent or optional / low priority. And there are the unnecessary ones are - the too many language courses, too much of history, geography, unnecessary and useless mathematics (Being able to calculate effects of inflation on savings is more important than solving differential equations, and knowing our fundamental rights is more important than knowing when the first battle of Panipat was fought!).
5. Too much focus on marks - grades - exams - cramming - competition. Too little on learning. Is it not easy to find toppers very lacking in concepts ? How much of the courses you scored 'A' grade in do you remember now or use? A serious mis-focus - study for exams and not necessarily for learning.
6. Little focus on sports. Needless to mention the effects.
This category needs major overhaul, and any improvement can work wonders. But next is a short review of higher education.
This part is an observation of the current state of education in India, which is severely bad. It is unequal, insufficient and mostly ineffective, but the observations need to be categorized.
Lets look at the primary (1-5) and secondary (6-12) first -
1. Largely unequal - Mostly overlooked,but this REALLY IS a big problem. The great-Indian-inequality starts here. There are schools that lack even the most basic necessities like classrooms and have very few teachers. Students are being taught (and provided mid day meals) just to finish off a government formality, with no vision of any kind. And then there are schools that have ACs installed even in their toilets! Would a pass-out of the first kind ever be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the latter one ? Or the other way round, will a citizen groomed from the second kind feel any sense of responsibility towards the first kind who make most of the country ? Will the first kind aim for becoming anything better than a chaprasi, and will the second ever be ready to respect a chaprasi?
2. Mostly boring - study is never fun, school is a burden even for those who can afford. Kids/students not only don't find it interesting, they also find most of it useless. Dropping out is easy if they have an option or incentive. Deep-rooted is the concept that studies are supposed to be uninteresting intrinsically, and need painful hard-work to finish successfully. Strong myth.
3. Lacking in exposure - The Type 1 (too poor schools) are mostly unable impart any exposure to the modern world of technology and other fields. Type 2 (too rich) fare lot better on this, but, one, they are a very small minority, and two, they need to know about the bigger lot, to actually be of any use to the society.
4. Missing and redundant courses - Health and hygiene, economics and commerce, entrepreneurship, basics laws and rights, civic sense and ethics, effective communication are either completely absent or optional / low priority. And there are the unnecessary ones are - the too many language courses, too much of history, geography, unnecessary and useless mathematics (Being able to calculate effects of inflation on savings is more important than solving differential equations, and knowing our fundamental rights is more important than knowing when the first battle of Panipat was fought!).
5. Too much focus on marks - grades - exams - cramming - competition. Too little on learning. Is it not easy to find toppers very lacking in concepts ? How much of the courses you scored 'A' grade in do you remember now or use? A serious mis-focus - study for exams and not necessarily for learning.
6. Little focus on sports. Needless to mention the effects.
This category needs major overhaul, and any improvement can work wonders. But next is a short review of higher education.
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