TEXTBOOKS ARE GOING HAYWIRE: ROMILA THAPAR 

MUMBAI: As Haryana is set to become the second state after Gujarat to introduce books on moral education by RSS ideologue Dinanath Batra, historian Romila Thapar on Monday described the trend as a “major problem” and spoke of “the need to shout and scream though not in a chaotic fashion”. 

“Textbooks are going haywire. The problem is the civil society is being very lazy,” said Thapar, who delivered a public lecture at KC College, Churchgate.
Recounting an episode in 2004 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power, Thapar said many including her wrote to the Ministry of Human Resources (MHRD) and in the media that institutions, councils and academies must be made autonomous and out of government control. 

“But no one paid notice. We weren’t aware of the dangers of government control like we are now,” said Thapar. “We need to form committees in every major city and make a list of what inappropriate in the textbooks, and send the list to the MHRD and the media. We need to make noise that textbooks used today are inappropriate and must not be used.” 

In the midst of tight police security, Thapar delivered a public lecture ‘Indian Society and the Secular’ in the memory of Dr Asghar Ali Engineer organised by the Centre for Society and Secularism. 

“Uniform civil code does not mean doing away with the personal laws of any single religious code. It means reconsidering jointly the civil laws of all religious codes and caste codes and arriving at a common secular civil code,” said Thapar.

Source | Hindustan Times | 27 October 2015

 

Colleges get time to apply for new courses, divisions - Mumbai University

Colleges get time to apply for new courses, divisions 

Process Put On Hold, Deadline May Be Extended    

College managements will get more time to apply for a new college, a new course or a division this year as the state government has asked universities to not accept proposals as per the old schedule and stall the current process.

 

The deadline for applying for new colleges, which usually ends on October 31, is likely to be extended till December 31. After not giving sanctions for new colleges in the current academic year, the government is in the process of drafting a uniform perspective plan for all public universities for the next year.

Mumbai University registrar MA Khan said that the government has asked universities to not go ahead with the old plan as a new schedule, with certain extension of time, is under consideration. A government resolution asking uni versities to stall the current process was issued last week. A source from the department said that the government is likely to come up with a new set of parameters or guidelines for preparing the perspective plan.He added that the plan will be prepared based on the requirement of new colleges in any given area. Last year, Mumbai University alone had received around 70 applications for new colleges.However, during the fag-end of the academic session, the government issued a resolution stating that no new permissions will be granted for 2015-16 academic session.

Colleges, therefore, are wary about the delay in issuing the guidelines. “It takes a lot of time to process the applications and then approve it after the local committee's visit. Also there is a lot of uncertainty on what the uniform perspective plan will look like. Many colleges had already built their infrastructure last year, after which the permissions were denied at the eleventh hour. We hope the perspective plan is favourable for all the stakeholders,“ said a principal. Also a change in the deadline will need the government to make changes in the ordinances in the Maharashtra Universities Act. Higher and technical education minister Vinod Tawde said enough time will be given to colleges for submitting their proposals.

The perspective plan is usually prepared by the Board of College and University Development (BCUD) and is then approved by the academic and management councils of the university .Though Mumbai University had already held a few BCUD meetings, the officials are now awaiting fresh orders from the government. A principal said that in the absence of all the academic bodies, the state government is trying to bring about control in several university-related activities. 



 Source | Times of India | 27 October 2015

Be in control of your child's online activities

Be in control of your child's online activities





We marvel each time a toddler effortlessly unlocks a phone and dials a number or takes a picture.While this may seem amusing, it is actually a cause for concern. Many parents don't think twice before letting their young children access games and watch videos on tablets and mobile phones; in fact, many kids under the age of 10 have their own personal gadgets. The internet can be a dangerous place for an innocent child, which is why it is important for parents to have complete control over their ward's activities.

  Denet Pradeep has locked all the apps on her tablet, so that when her 11-year-old daughter has to use them, she has to come to her to unlock it. This way , she knows exactly what her daughter is looking at online.“Apart from this, I have told her that there are some things that she shouldn't watch.She's at an age when she is curious about a lot of things, but she knows that if she wants to know about something, she should come and ask me. I have also told her that there are certain pictures that she should not share on group chats. I don't think that children should be given much privacy till they are 18 because it is our job as parents to protect and guide them,“ says Denet.

Psychosocial therapist Dr Shreedevi agrees and says it is wrong for busy parents to give their children a free hand over mobile phonetablet usage to keep them distracted, as this can lead to internet addiction and expose them to online dangers. While a child's internet usage can be tracked to a large extent at home, what happens when kids go to their friends' houses and use gadgets there?
“You should look at the pictures that your kids have taken when they go out with their friends. Also, there should be a set family time at the end of each day, during which everyone in the family shares what they did. If your child has done something good, then you should appreciate it; if something bad has happened, then you must explain why it is wrong.Therapeutically, this is helpful and busy parents must make time for such an activity,“ says Dr Shreedevi. 

 


 Source | Times of India | 27 October 2015

7 Big Benefits of Giving Employees the Knowledge They Need

7 Big Benefits of Giving Employees the Knowledge They Need

Many enterprise brands and organizations are becoming increasingly challenged by an information problem: too much information, compounded by trouble managing it and delivering it to employees. This typically leaves employees feeling the organization doesn’t offer much information at all, or if they do, that’s it not current or accessible. And whether that perception permeates HR, IT, marketing, sales or customer service, it erodes employee engagement and ultimately, overall business success.

While many organizations have been focusing on investments in customer-facing self-service knowledge initiatives such as a knowledge base capable of projecting consistent searchable information across channels, leading businesses and organizations have also learned to serve their internal customers, their employees, with similar or better offerings.  But how does employee self-service knowledge separate the best from the rest? Here are seven key ways:

1. Engagement. A Quantum Workforce 2015 Employee Engagement Trends Report surveying more than 440,000 employees at nearly 5,500 organizations shows that overall employee engagement is at an eight-year low of 65.9%. Employee uncertainty centered around three top items: (1) commitment to valuing employees, (2) benefits and compensation and (3) global information.
Particularly for new employees, the availability, timeliness and accuracy of knowledge is key to their level of engagement. When employees feel connected by and have the information and knowledge they need to immediately learn or begin doing their job, a higher level of engagement is set from the start. What does greater engagement affect? 


2. Profitability. The same Quantum Workforce 2015 Employee Engagement Trends Report also shows a direct link between engagement (highlighted above) and profit. In organizations that showed a profit increase, 69% of employees were engaged, compared to 56% employee engagement in organizations where profits decreased. Sales also followed a similar pattern. In organizations where sales increased, 69% of employees were engaged, compared to 57% in organizations where sales decreased.

And knowledge plays a prime role in engagement related to sales. Notes analyst Esteban Kolsky in a recent white paper, sales benefits from employee self-service knowledge by being able to provide prospects with immediate information, whether that’s the latest sales or marketing promotion, new product information, or for existing customers, the status of a service request or upgrade.

“Sales can also use knowledge to maintain and improve sales techniques, methodologies, and even collaborative sales models that are emerging – where knowledge is at the crux of the solution,” he notes. In addition, self-service knowledge can empower sales with subject matter expertise for RFPs without having to email or call various employees across the organization. And that’s just a start to how self-service knowledge can impact profitability, which stems from greater overall…

3. Productivity. The State of Knowledge Management 2014 report from John Ragsdale, the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) and Coveo asked participants “If your organization was sharing knowledge as well as they possibly could, how much would it improve the productivity of your team?” Forty percent (40%) said that sharing knowledge well could increase employee productivity by 20 – 30%, and a third of respondents said that a successful enterprise knowledge initiative had the potential of improving productivity 30 – 50%+.

4. Consistency. When different employees and different departments have or provide different answers to the same question, confusion, frustration and mistakes often result. This confusion, frustration and propensity for mistakes is compounded when employees are operating with different information from what the public is given.

In the same TSIA State of Knowledge Management report referenced previously, when participants were asked when asked whether they used the same technology platform for both employee and customer-facing knowledge systems, the greatest majority, 32%, said they use totally separate knowledge technologies, meaning employees see one answer, while the customer or the public sees another.

Siloed knowledge systems, lack of upkeep and lack of use all contribute to the delivery of inconsistent information, making it clear why brands and organizations that invest in not only the introduction, but the maintenance of, a self-service knowledge offering rise to the top.

5. Churn. Notes Kolsky, “Among the leading reasons for employees churning in any job is lack of proper tools.  Churn comes from having too many disjointed tools, not having the latest information, or having to hunt for it among different systems, tools, and channels.”

According to IDC’s Unlocking the Hidden Value of information Survey, 44% of the time, most employees can’t find the answers they’re looking for and 61% currently have to access four or more systems when looking for information. This ultimately results in frustration and churn, and increased hiring and training costs for brands and organizations behind when it comes to knowledge management.

6. Culture. Employee self-service knowledge benefits brands and organizations where a company culture initiative or change is underway. Successfully creating or changing a culture, especially around customer experience or new branding, requires top-down adoption. Leading organizations empower all employees with the knowledge they need to get behind the company’s culture.

7. Customer Service. According to the American Express Customer Service Barometer, 99% of consumers surveyed say that getting a satisfactory answer or being connected to someone knowledgeable (98%) are the important prerequisites to a great customer experience. The benefits of customer service agents (and all employees for that matter) being information aware are especially great when it comes to service.

Engagement, profitability, productivity, consistency, churn, culture and customer service. These are seven key factors that anchor any business or organization’s bottom line. Gartner Research VP and Distinguished Analyst, Michael Maoz in his research note Knowledge Management will Transform CRM Customer Service, predicts that by 2018, the rapid creation and retrieval of relevant content (KM) will be a key attribute of leading enterprises. Make sure you are serving your internal customers – your employees – with the knowledge they need.

Source | http://www.parature.com/knowledge-for-employees/

Youtube Red Will Provide Viewers an Ad-Free Experience; But Content Creators Given Just 2 Options: Signup or Disappear

Features which Youtube Red subscribers would be able to enjoy:

• Ad free access of all videos on Youtube
• Videos can be saved for offline usage
• Access of saved videos on various devices such as mobiles, tablets, desktops and Cloud
• Videos can be played on background as well
• Membership advantages will be available across Youtube Gaming app; Youtube Music App (which would be launched very soon) and Google Play Music
• Access to exclusive content on Youtube, which would not be available on other platforms such as TV/cinema

 Source | http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/10/23/youtube-red-viewers-ad-free-experience-content-creators/

Twitter Polls: Now Everyone Can Create Polls on Twitter!

Twitter has launched Twitter Polls for users across the world. They are being rolled out in phased manner and everyone should be able to create polls on Twitter in coming days. If you are one of the Twitter users who have big following, it may have already been rolled out for you! Go to Twitter on the web, and try to create a new Tweet, and see if you get a option to create a new poll.
While there are dozens of websites who offer to create polls, Twitter’s launch of polls is surely going to bring about a spurt for creating polls. Millions of users are very active on Twitter on daily basis, and polls will now be a great way for them to gather public’s opinion on everything.

Twitter Polls are also going to be great for brands, marketers, and research agencies – For them , polls can be great new way to engage with Twitter’s massive audience and understand exactly what people think. For those participating, it’s a very easy way to make their voice heard.

Earlier too, it was possible on Twitter to gather public opinion by asking questions, tracking replies, tallying favourites, retweets and hashtag votes. But, with polls, it has become super simple for anyone and everyone to quickly create a poll and make it public on Twitter.

Few popular Twitter accounts have already started using Polls. For example Amitabh Bachchan already put out a poll asking what will be the result of 5th One Day International between India and South Africa, now that the series hangs in balance at 2-2 each.

Here is the Twitter poll for the same.

Source | http://trak.in

 

HRD Ministry Appoints Review Committee to Look into Non-NET and NET Fellowships

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Human Resource Development
25-October-2015 20:46 IST

HRD Ministry Appoints Review Committee to Look into Non-NET and NET Fellowships

Review Committee will submit report by year-end

All existing fellowships to continue

As a part of the overall process of bringing about change in the higher education sector, and improving access, quality, impact and equity in the Universities, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is in the process of reviewing the current research framework, efforts, opportunities, quality and output. A key imperative is the need to encourage and expand quality research in diverse fields.

For over two decades, the All India National Eligibility Test (NET), a competitive examination conducted twice a year by the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been the basis for the Research Fellowships, currently almost nine thousand that enable students to pursue M.Phil and Ph.D programmes.

The Non-NET Fellowship Scheme was introduced by the UGC in 2006. It is presently limited only to fifty institutions including Central Universities and those with Potential for Excellence. Almost thirty five thousand students are presently availing of these Fellowships.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has from December 2014, enhanced the support provided to Research Fellowships based on the NET. Junior Research Fellows will receive, for the first two years Rs. 25,000/- per month and 30% House Rent Allowance (HRA) as well as a contingency grant for each year. Senior Research Fellows will receive, for the next three years Rs. 28,000/- per month, 30% HRA and a contingency grant for each year.

The Government has decided to establish a Review Committee to go into the issues related to the research fellowships provided by the UGC, covering both NET and Non-NET fellowships. The Review Committee will submit its report to the Ministry within December 2015.

Amongst the issues entrusted to the Committee are a) the feasibility of enhancing the number of NET fellowships, which are merit based, b) establishing a transparent system of transfer of fellowship amounts each month to the Non-NET fellows, which is presently being done on a reimbursement basis, and without the Direct Benefit Transfer mandated by the Government, c) bringing the benefits and opportunities of the Non-NET fellowship scheme to a larger number of Universities, including State Universities, d) considering economic and other criteria for eligibility for non-NET fellowships, e) recommending guidelines for the selection, coverage, award, and administration of the non-NET fellowships.

Irrespective of the recommendations of the Review Committee, all existing and continuing fellowships, NET as well as Non-NET would be continued; there will be no change retrospectively.

GG/DS/VL/MTH 

 

Source | www.pib.nic.in

 

Online Safety Tips - Courtesy Mumbai Cyber Police

Let Marathi take centre stage

Let  Marathi  take  centre stage

Head to a city library for a play reading that offers insight into the rich writing tradition of Marathi theatre

IF YOU’VE always wanted to know more about modern Marathi playwrights and their iconic works, you might want to head to Bandra’s MCubed Library today for an insightful reading session of Sandha, a landmark play penned by Dr Rajeev Naik. “ It is representative of the new generation of play writing that blossomed around the Chhabildas experimental theatre movement during the 1980s and 1990s,” informs Sapan Saran, co founder of city- based Tamaasha Theatre that will conduct the reading. The company’s co- founder and theatre director Sunil Shanbag, incidentally, staged this play’s first production in Hindi, titled Chit Ya Pat, in 1988.

Simultaneously, producer Ajit Bhure staged it in Marathi with young Renuka Shahane and Tushar Dalvi.

This reading marks the ninth session in the company’s six- month long Reading Theatre programme, that began in June, wherein two plays are read every month. “ The idea is to read modern playwrights from CT Khanolkar to Chetan Datar. The sessions are free and open to all.

The response has been very encouraging, and the programme has managed to cultivate a regular audience,” shares Saran.

Their upcoming readings include Datar’s Sawlya ( November 12), Jayant Pawar’s Adhantar ( November 27) and GP Deshpande’s Udhvast

Dharmashaala ( December 11).

What’s in store? Each three- hour session consists of introducing the play, setting its context, reading it, sharing notes of its performance history along with a moderated discussion ( in Hindi and English for the convenience of non- Marathi speaking audience). City- based actors Poornanand, Siddhesh Shelar, Shubhangi Bhujbal and

Swarali Marathe will be reading Sandha. “ These are pure readings, without an attempt to make them performance oriented.

It’s important to just hear the plays and the words.

However, in order to make sure that the readings are efficient, we’ve roped in actors who come with the required discipline, rigour and craft,” shares Saran. These actors form a study group and meet three to four times before each reading.

They also undertake research for each play with guidance from Shanbag, who moderates the sessions.

Source | Mid Day | 23 October 2015

The Map of Pain

Spicing up the reading game

If you really want to read, there’s nothing that can stop you from getting the right content. Payal Khandelwal tracks four ventures which are making sure that Indians read.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. — Dr Seuss

Well, it’s really as simple as that! No reading means a direct plunge into the cultural wasteland. In the Indian context, though, reading is easier said than done. There are privileged reasons like no time to read or there are no good libraries and bookstores around or that we live in an age of highly fragmented concentration. And for a majority of people in rural India, there are more humble reasons like not having any access to books and magazines, until at least a few years back.

But whatever our collective obstacles might be on the bridge to the magical kingdom of reading, each one is slowly being removed by a few unique distribution and subscription 

ventures.

Four such ventures that are truly spicing up the reading game in India (and outside India as well) are Daily Hunt, Paper Planes, Mera Library and Grantha Tumchya Dari.

While Paper Planes and Grantha Tumchya Dari Library are promoting reading through the tactile print form, Mera Library and Daily Hunt are effectively leveraging the digital boom in India to reach the deepest corners of the country. Collectively, however, they all have a common goal - making sure that Indians read, and that they read well.

Here’s a lowdown on each one of them: 

Mera Library

Mera Library was started in 2011 by Shabir Musthafa, CEO, Marmam Publishing, to give vernacular languages of India a web-based platform, to leverage the drastic changes in publishing worldwide. “Readers were starting to access books on their mobile devices, and the environmental and cost benefits of the eBook were obvious. Indian language publishing, vast in number of languages and literary output, required the best in technology and mobile strategies, and Mera Library was launched to assist in the discovery, rental and sales of their content,” says Musthafa.

The digital library functions like a normal, brick-and-mortar library where members take a membership and borrow books. There are time-based and language-based options for the readers to select from. The publishers, on the other hand, gain royalty from the revenue earned from the rental or sales of their titles from the library.

Mera Library’s target audience is readers of Indian language literary content worldwide. However, tier two-three towns and rural India are the prime users of the platform. Musthafa believes that changes in the Internet connectivity will give the rural users the ability to access content, in their own languages and on their mobile devices. There are about eight Indian languages available on the platform. And the future plan is to partner with publishers and authors from the states in the North- East.

Mera Library is currently undergoing an overhaul exercise to offer a better and more responsive mobile experience for readers since they believe that more reading will happen on the mobile rather than the desktop. They will also have mobile applications for Android and Apple that will allow for offline reading as well. One of the biggest learnings so far, Musthafa says, has been the understanding of the specific mobile publishing technology needs for Indian languages.

The library includes books in different genres, including many classics in regional languages. The most-read books on Mera Library are children’s picture books in multiple regional languages. There is also a robust readership for cartoon books, especially in Malayalam.

The overall future of eBooks in Indian regional languages is extremely bright, feels Musthafa, due to continuous and increased penetration of mobile devices. “The eBook has the ability to reach out to readers everywhere. If national and governmental vision teams up with private enterprises, we will see great days for publishers and authors in Indian regional languages,” he says. 

Dailyhunt

Dailyhunt (formerly Newshunt) is equally upbeat about the prospects of eBooks in India. A local language news and eBooks platform, Dailyhunt is currently used by over 100 million people across 15 languages. According to the statistics provided by Dailyhunt, it gets over 2.7 billion monthly news page views, and since launch of eBooks in 2014, it has had more than 26 million local language eBooks downloads.

Talking about its inception, Vishal Anand, chief product officer, Dailyhunt, says Indian content has so far struggled to get online traction because of non-standardised tools of content creation, and no support for Indian languages on devices (desktop as well as mobile). Publishers are creating content mostly for print, using non-standard font.

“And when they try to put it in a digital form - unless the client device has the same font available - the content will not get displayed. Even if the content is created in standard unicode font, 95% of phones available in Indian market still don’t support one or more Indian language. Dailyhunt was created to solve exactly this problem - to get all forms of written content (digital as well as physical books) standardised for consumption,” he says.

The platform currently offers news, eBooks, videos, magazines and comics, and is working towards building a platform which will host content in different formats and for local language users. Like Mera Library, Dailyhunt’s vision is to mainly target the population in tier two-three and rural parts of India which can easily access content on mobiles, provided it’s available to them in local languages.

Dailyhunt has also struck an alliance with Graphic India to provide graphic novels to its users. There are currently more than 300 titles of Graphic India available on the platform, of which 250 are in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. The overall sales happen across genres, says Anand. Pulp fiction, short stories, self-help, and health, mind and body are some of the popular categories. For eBooks, readers also have the option to purchase one chapter at a time instead of the whole book.

For more inclusion of readers who don’t have access to credit or debit cards, Dailyhunt allows purchasing of content (except subscriptions) through mobile payments. “With a country with only 2% credit card penetration and most not even having a bank account, mobile payment is the only viable mode of payment online,” feels Virendra Gupta, CEO and founder, Dailyhunt. “Today, our solution reaches over 850 million customers via Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel and Reliance, with flexible price point ranging from Re 1 to Rs 500.” 

Granth Tumchya Dari

There are currently 600 bags, each full of 100 books in Marathi language, circulating in different regions of India. Granth Tumchya Dari (GTD) is an initiative started in 2009 by Vinayak Ranade, trustee of Kusumagraj Pratishthan (an organisation to felicitate the late Marathi poet and author VV Shirwadkar alias Kusumagraj). GTD basically works like a free mobile library, located inside these bags, travelling from one place to another.

Kusumagraj Pratishthan had a pretty decent library but barely any readers. “People in general weren’t reading much at that time (around 2009), due to time, availability and reach issues. And that’s when I thought that if books could land up at readers’ doorstep just like any other utilities, they would read,” says Ranade. To kick off the initiative, he first contacted his own personal network. He asked people he knew to donate whatever they can to start so that he can invest the money in buying new books. Soon donations started pouring in, some as large as Rs 15 lakh from a friend in the US, and the project started in Nashik, Maharashtra, with 11 bags of 1,100 books.

The model was simple. Each area, comprising 35 members, gets to keep the bag for about four months during which they exchange the books with each other every once or twice a week. All the bags contain different books, which are either Marathi literature or literature translated in Marathi. 

After starting GTD locally and also distributing the bags in places like jails, hospitals and industrial areas, Ranade decided to spread out GTD to other regions in India, including the rest of Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, etc. In different places, for distribution, he started involving cooperative banks or other such institutions by giving them advertising (done with stamps) in the books’ pages.

In fact, the donors are also gratified in a similar way, by having their names stamped on the pages of the books. Under the model of GTD, the books are made available through monetary donations towards Kusumagraj Pratishthan and are available to readers free of cost.

GTD now has two more subsets, which are targeted at individuals and are paid for by the readers themselves. Majhe Granthalaya (My Library) aims to create small reading groups in a city. Each individual gets a bag of 25 books which he exchanges with other readers usually during a monthly meet. Another similar group is for children (second to eighth standard) where each bag has 25 books with 15 Marathi storybooks and 10 English storybooks.

Interestingly, GTD also caters to the Marathi reading population in Dubai, The Netherlands, Tokyo and most recently in Atlanta (the US). The total number of readers is now above 30,000.

While GTD limits itself to Marathi, Ranade says he is more than happy to help anyone else use his model for other languages.

Paper Planes

Paper Planes, started by Nupur Joshi-Thanks, who earlier worked in a corporate law firm, gets independent niche magazines from across the world to the Indian market.

People can subscribe, select their choice of genre and get a new indie title every month for a fixed cost, or buy any title of their choice from the online store.

Talking about the backstory of Paper Planes, Joshi-Thanks says, “Sabbaticals are known to have done wonders for people – and I owe this steady ‘descent’ into magazine madness to my sabbatical too. I have always been fond of reading magazines, but these magazines were not like the others. They seemed more real. You know, real stories for real people, unlike the fanfare based, celebrity obsessed, product toting publications that are crowding the local bookstores. I found myself hoarding one magazine after another, fascinated with the passion driven content and really high production value,” she adds.

Paper Planes has been getting indie titles in different genres from locations as varied as Beirut, Berlin, Amsterdam, Australia, Barcelona, Finland, US, UK, etc. In most cases, the sourcing of magazines is done directly from the indie publishers themselves, as opposed to distributors. This obviously helps in cutting down the cost to a certain extent. 

It is now also focusing on providing an active platform for our very own indie magazine makers. She says, “I discovered that there were a few early adopters of this new age print in India, who are doing an amazing job, like Gaysi Zine (a magazine for the queer people), Kyoorius (a magazine of visual culture), White Print (a lifestyle magazine in braille), etc. This reaffirmed my faith in the changing face of print and its undeniable impact on the cultural framework. I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and hope to see many more such resilient, fresh and engaging titles to be released here in India.” 

Targeting mainly urban Indians, Paper Planes doesn’t want to only be a distribution platform though. It aims to create a community for indie magazine makers and like-minded readers in India.

And through its blog, it tries to connect the readers with publishers and magazine makers by introducing new titles, and by talking about the teams and work that goes behind indie magazines.

Source | http://www.printweek.in/Feature/398244,spicing-up-the-reading-game.aspx

Maharashtra Government Resolution dated 21 October 2015 – Approved Rs. 5 Crore to Asiatic Society Library (Mumbai)

Please find attached Link for Maharashtra Government Resolution dated 21 October 2015 – Approved Rs. 5 Crore to Asiatic Society Library (Mumbai).

Link | https://www.maharashtra.gov.in/Site/Upload/Government%20Resolutions/English/201510211528209708.pdf

Summary of the Digitization Project

·         1,00,000 books and 2,500 manuscripts, some of which date back to the 12th century, at the 211-year-old Asiatic Society library in Mumbai.

·         Under the project, the archives of the library will be digitised and saved in the form of CDs and microfilms, which will be accessible to members, researchers, and scholars

·         The online portal would also allow scholars access valuable collections, thus allowing us to let the knowledge reach whoever is willing

·         The digitisation process involves scanning over 14 lakh pages

History of the Asiatic Society Library

The Asiatic Society of Bombay was founded by Sir James Mackintosh, a lawyer, jurist and public figure in England, to disseminate knowledge about the India and the Orient. Then known as the Literary Society of Bombay, it met for the first time on November 26, 1804, nearly two decades after Sir William Jones had set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1826, the Literary Society merged with the Royal Asiatic Society of Britain and Ireland, and four years later moved into the imposing facade of Townhall with its tall pillars and the flight of stairs. In 1954, it ended its 128-year-long association with the Royal Asiatic Society.

Source | https://www.maharashtra.gov.in

Automation: Reskill or be replaced

IF WE DON'T PULL UP OUR SOCKS,WE MIGHT BE COMPETING WITH MACHINES FOR THE NEXT PROMOTION!

With the advent of technologies over the last couple of years and slow growth, IT giants who used to hire in droves from campuses have become selective pickers while attrition rates continue to surge year-on-year. One must ask why? It's the problem of skill management. Earlier, a person didn't need multiple skills. However, today, with rapid adoption of technologies, any skill may be obsolete in a few years.

As automation and AI (Artificial Intelligence) gain momentum and become more dependable and error free, IT firms have decided that these evolving avenues are better than investing in large workforces. With robotics, intelligent platforms, tools, and technologies providing a significant bump in the operational efficiency , firms have now realigned themselves to compete in this arena for an enviable cost advantage due to better productivity and savings, which is going to tip the scales in their favour and disturb the balance of the playing field.

Another alarming trend seen is that existing employees are being relieved while new recruits are being trained in emerging technologies to fill the new job roles. The shockwaves are going to travel upwards since the middle management will have to reskill themselves to manage employees possessing relevant skills required at multiple levels of the hierarchy .

Those still aspiring to be a part of India's IT story will have to be open to explore and embrace newer arenas and quickly become proficient in skills that will be vital to leverage the automation paradox. Fresh graduates approaching the end of their course would do well to focus on emerging technologies and groom themselves to match the profiles. Although most automation programmes require on-the-job training, a candidate who is aware of the current trends and is familiar with these technologies, would positively pique the interest of recruiters.

We are on the verge of an economic revolution.Technology is getting better, cheaper and faster at a rate with which biology cannot keep up. Most basic roles and those performing repetitive work will be amongst the first to go as automation spreads.But as cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) become household terms with access to fast Internet and expanding number of new users every year, more avenues for employment are going to emerge. Aspirants could aspire for profiles such as cloud engineers, big data analytics, virtual reality programmers, 3D printing designers, and artificial intelligence experts.

In India itself, there have been significant investments by many companies to set up data centres. This is bound to spur a demand for professionals who are familiar with cloud technology . The 'Digital India' initiative alone is expected to generate 1.7 crore jobs.

Even as India has turned into a hot bed for start-ups, there have been lapses in cyber security . 3D printing has also grown over time and it is only a matter of time by which designers and manufacturers will also face a disruptive revolution in their own sector.As it becomes easier to track consumer behaviour, purchases and preferences, the availability of all this data promises great potential for organisations to extract insightful information to use as a competitive advantage.Data analytics and data scientists will be in demand.

Therefore, it is important to digest that automation is inevitable. How one prepares to reskill oneself to remain relevant on the job market, will define one's career.

Source | Times of India | 21 October 2015