• The total cost of SSA II is estimated at $10.7 billion, of which the states of India will contribute close to 36.9 percent, the Indian government will contribute around 53.7 percent and the development partners will provide 9.4 percent.

• IIT Kanpur has developed an Open-source, Freeware E-learning Platform that is available to all for enhancing existing learning environments in their institutions through their campus networks. A pamphlet on this is available at http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ynsingh/tool/pamphlet.pdf

• During the 1960s and 1970s, the Japanese achieved major advances in manufacturing management, which led to their rise as an economic power. The Japanese economic miracle and the country’s new manufacturing skills and methods surprised western firms; but the Japanese had done this by studying, adopting, and eventually perfecting the best practices of the West itself.

   

  My research team (at Harvard and Duke) found that India is achieving similar feats in workforce development by learning from the best practices of the western companies that have outsourced their computer systems and call centers there. It has adopted these practices and perfected them. Faced with severe talent shortages; escalating salaries; and a lagging education system, Indian industry had to adapt and has built innovative and comprehensive approaches to workforce training and management. Their initial focus was on training new recruits and filling entry-level skill gaps. Now, they are investing in constantly improving the skills and management abilities of their workers and in providing incentives for them to stay and to grow with the company.

   

  We published a report titled “How the Disciple Became the Guru”, which details the workforce-development practices of 24 leading companies in India (note: there are many bodyshops in India that don’t invest in their people, we looked at the biggest companies). I suggest you download and read this, but I’ll present some highlights here of what the best Indian companies are doing right.

• According to the government norms, there should be a government primary school for a population of 300 at a distance of every one kilometre and an upper primary school for a population of 800 at every two kilometres. Presently, according to the records of the basic education department, there are 1,032 primary schools and 352 upper primary schools in the district. Besides, there are 780 other recognised primary and 577 upper primary schools in the district. If we add up the figures, there are 1,812 primary and 929 upper primary schools in the district. As per the SSA norms, there should be 10,462 primary and 3,923 upper primary schools in the district having a population of 31,38,671 (2001 census). However, there are also a number of other institutions in the district like private, non-government schools and madrassas.
• At national level, according to the All-India Educational Survey, there are 3,878 urban centres or localities in the country with an estimated population of 190.5 million. These have access to 74,656 schools, which have facilities for at least 4-5 years of education. This implies that there is one primary school for a population of about 2,500. Over 12 lakh Indian children, aged between five and 14, continue to work in dangerous occupations like construction, and manufacturing industries all over India. Based on the 2001 census, an estimated 1,85,595 children are employed as domestic help and in dhabas, 49,893 children work in auto-repair workshops, around 2,52,000 children are engaged in beedi manufacturing and 2,08,833 in the construction site.

• Gross enrolment ratio

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  The gross enrollment ratio (GER) or gross enrollment index (GEI) is a statistical measure used in the education sector and by the UN in its Education Index. The GER gives a rough indication of the level of education from kindergarten to postgraduate education – known in the UK and some other countries (mostly in the Commonwealth of Nations) as primary, secondary, and/or tertiary – amongst residents in a given jurisdiction.

   

  In the UN, the GER is calculated by expressing the number of students enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, regardless of age, as a percentage of the population of official school age for the three levels.^[1]

• "I tried almost for a year initially rejecting the BPO offers. But it was difficult. What is the point of spending a fortune on a diploma which gets you no job. Fresh graduates are employed at the same level as I am," Kapoor added.
• "Almost 70 percent of the faculty has zero industry experience. Even the IIMs are suffering from a faculty crunch. So it is but natural that the lower-rung B-schools find it tough to retain experienced faculty members.
• "The challenge that most second rung colleges face is that the major chunk of students are freshers without any previous experience in any domain. Adding to this, average faculty of these colleges also has very limited quality industry experience," said Saxena.

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• Computer services firm HCL Technologies Ltd will help manufacture 100,000 low-cost computers under a government project to boost the role of technology in education. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rajasthan will test them out.
• “Yes, HCL is our partner,” IIT-Rajasthan’s director Prem Kalra said. “We as an institute will not directly manufacture the computer. HCL will help us.” HCL could not be immediately reached for comment.

• Referring to the new initiative to support the Satya Bharti schools, run by the Bharti Foundation — the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, Arora informs that Google will provide financial support of US$ 5 million to upgrade and support 50 elementary schools run by the Bharti Foundation in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

• According to the survey, carried out by a number of agencies, more than 70 percent of our engineering graduates are not employable. Dr Kalam has rightly said that India does not have problem of unemployment but unemployibility. The graduates lack other skills beside the academic or technical skills. The top three most important general skills identified were integrity, reliability and teamwork, while the top three most important specific skills are entrepreneurship, communication in English and use of modern tools and technologies.

• A task force on faculty shortage set up by the Ministry of Education has estimated the current faculty shortage in the country at 54%.

   

  A further 100,000 teachers will be required each year in colleges in the coming decade if the shortage is not addressed as the country's higher education system expands.

   

  "The task force notes that more than 300,000 is the shortage of faculty in the system at present," the Ministry of Human Resource Development said in a statement last week. But it noted that even establishing a reliable database on the numbers needed was a "major hurdle".

   

  The lecturer-to-student ratio in the country is 1:20.9 against 1:13.5 recommended by the University Grants Commission (1:12 for postgraduate students and 1:15 for undergraduates).

   

  The problem has been highlighted at a time when the government wants to add 25 million students to the current 15 million in higher education as India's economy grows. The aim is to raise India's gross enrollment ratio in the 18 to 25 year age group from the current 12.4% to 30% by 2030.