Teachengineers's Blog

teachengineers — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:12:15 +0000

Greetings on Engineers day

teachengineers — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:22:15 +0000

Today happens to be the 151th birthday of one of the great sons of India. September 15th is designated as Engineers Day. I would like to share with you some interesting snippets from the life of the great man.

Dr.M.VISVESVARAYA - Bharata Ratna (The Gem of India)

Any state should be lucky to have a minister of Visvesvaraya’s ability. Would any salary be too high for such a genius? The Maharaja’s secretary suggested to the Maharaja that MV’s salary should be raised; he had not consulted MV. Visvesvaraya came to know about it. He wrote to the Maharaja saying that he did not want a rise.

For sometime, when the Bhadravati Factory was in trouble, he worked as the Chairman. At that time, the Government had not decided the salary. It took some years to do so; the Government owed him more than a hundred thousand rupees. But he did not touch a rupee even. He told the Government, “Start an institute where boys can learn some profession.”

The Institute was about to start work. The Government wanted to name it after Visvesvaraya. But he said, “Name it after the Maharaja of Mysore.” This is the Sri Jayachamaraja Polytechnic Institute of Bangalore.

How many such selfless patriots’ do we have?

Free India honors great servants of the country every year by awarding titles. The highest of this award is ‘Bharata Ratna’. In 1955 Visvesvaraya was made a ‘Bharata Ratna’, the Gem of India. He was a gem of mankind itself.

Visvesvaraya was a genius. The Block System which he invented, the automatic doors which he devised to stop wasteful overflow of water, the water supply and drainage system which he planned for the city of Aden – these won high praise from engineers all over the world. The Krishnarajasagara Dam is a brilliant proof of his genius.

His memory was an amazing as his genius. We saw how in 1908 he tamed the Moosa. Fifty years later, one day, there was a discussion about the river, and he referred to some detail.

Then he called a servant and, pointing to a bookshelf, said, “Bring the three or four books in the middle of the third row.” Then he opened one of them and pointed to the detail under discussion on one page. He was 96 or 97 when this happened.

How did Visvesvaraya use his genius and his extraordinary memory? This is the important question. He was the embodiment of discipline and hard work. He was never late by a minute and he never wasted a minute. Once a minister was late by three minutes; MV advised him to be punctual. A man should do any work he undertakes methodically – that was his firm faith. Every man should understand his responsibility and do his best – which was the essence of his teaching. He practised this very honestly, and there are hundreds of instances to show this. Until he was Confined to his bed he was very particular about his clothes. Even when he was 95 people who went to see him were surprised – he was so carefully and neatly dressed.

Quite often he had to make speeches. Because of his genius, experience and mellow wisdom people wanted to hear him. But whenever he had to make a speech he would think about what he was going to say, write, the speech, get it typed and weigh every word and revise it. He would revise it four or five times and give it final shape. Then he would remember important points. Once he visited the Primary School in his native village, Muddenahalli; he gave the teacher ten rupees and asked him to distribute sweets to the children. The teacher said, “Please say a few words to the children, sir,” MV spoke for five minutes and went away. But later he was unhappy because he had spoken without preparation. Some days later he prepared a speech and went to the school again; once again he distributed sweets to the children.

Then he made his speech. In 1947 he was the President of the All India Manufacturers’ Association. He had to make a speech at a function. Some of his friends were staying with him. On the day of the function they woke up at half past four in the morning. What they saw astonished them; Sir MV, who was 87, was already up and faultlessly dressed; he was walking up and down; he had in his hands a copy of the speech he was to make and was carefully reading it!

In 1952 he went to Patna. He was to study a plan for a bridge across the Ganga. The sun was cruel and the heat unbearable. MV was 92. There were parts of the site to which he could not go by car. The Government had arranged to have him carried in a chair. MV did not use the chair; he got off the car and walked briskly. The Government had also arranged

for his stay in the GuestHouse. He would have been comfortable there. But he stayed in the railway coach and went on with the work.

A hundred such instances of his discipline and devotion to work can be listed. He once said, “The curse of our country is laziness. At first sight every one seems to be working. But in fact, one man works and the others watch him. As someone said with contempt, ‘it looks as if five men are working. But really only one-man works. One man will be doing nothing. One man will be resting. Another man will be watching them. Yet another man will be helping these three.”

Visvesvaraya was dedicated to work. He was also a man of spotless honesty. We saw how, as the Dewan, he refused to favor a relative. In 1918 he decided to give up the Dewanship. He had to give the Maharaja his letter. He went to the palace in the Government car. He returned in his own car. Those were days when people had to work by candlelight. MV

used, for official work, the stationery and the candles supplied by the Government; for his private work he used stationery and candles which he had bought. Once, one of his friends was advised rest after some illness. He wanted to spend some days in Bangalore. MV was the Dewan. The friend wrote to him asking for a house for some days. He thought the Dewan would give him a Government Guest House, free of rent. The Dewan gave him a Government House; but as long as the friend stayed there, the Dewan himself paid a rent of Rs. 250 a month.

MV had the courage of his convictions. He did what he thought was right and was not afraid of opposition. We have already seen how much he did for Mysore State. At every step he had to face opposition. The British, who were then the masters here, opposed him. Many Mysoreans could not understand his greatness. He was far-sighted; he could see what the

country would need fifty years later, a hundred years later. But the shortsighted and small-minded men made fun of him. Some of the officers under him thought he was not practical and laughed at him. He tried to give -the State a University. Colleges in Mysore State were then under Madras University. The Governor and high off icers of Madras were Englishmen., They did not want a University in an Indian state. Englishmen in Mysore State also opposed the Dewan. In fact, the principal of one college even said, “The Dewan is mad. He must be sent to a mental hospital.” Only because MV was firm, Mysore University was born.

MV also planned the KRS dam. The cost was estimated; it came to 25,300 thousand rupees. Officers of Mysore State were shocked and opposed the scheme. At last Visvesvaraya satisfied the Mysore Government with his arguments and it agreed. A new difficulty arose. MV wanted the height to be 130 feet. The Government of India approved a height of only 80 feet. MV went ahead with a foundation for a dam 130 feet high. Later,

the Central Government agreed with him. Many people made fun of him when he started the Bhadravati Steel Factory and called it ‘a White Elephant’. Some officers did not manage it properly and the factory suffered heavy losses. Quite a few persons felt happy! But today it is

an asset.

MV was the Maker of Modern Mysore. He wanted education to spread ‘ He wanted people to give up blind beliefs. He wanted the fullest use of science and technology. But he also knew that being modern did not mean giving up everything that was old and forgetting our culture.

Somebody once said to him, “You have done great service to the country. You are like Bhishmacharya.” MV said, “You make me remember what a small man I am. What am I before Bhishmacharya?” He was so modest. Even at the age of 95, he rose to receive a visitor; he got up again when the visitor was leaving. But he also knew modesty did not mean pocketing insults. In the old Bombay Province the rules did not permit an Indian to become the Chief Engineer. Only an Englishman could sit in the Chief Engineer’s chair. So MV gave up his post in Bombay. The Dewan was the highest officer in Mysore State. He himself gave up that very high office. He had self-respect without arrogance.

Sir MV was a fearless patriot. Those were days when the Englishman was the lord of India and wanted to be treated like a god. The Maharaja of Mysore used to hold a Durbar during the Dasara. On the day of the European Durbar, the Europeans were given comfortable chairs but Indians were required to sit on the floor. MV went to the Durbar for the first time in 1910. The arrangements pained him. The next year he did not attend the Durbar. When the officers of the palace made enquiries he f rankly gave the reason. Next year all – Europeans and Indians -were given chairs. A British officer wrote a letter to MV. He said that in the Maharaja’s Durbar, he wanted a cushion to rest his feet because the chair was too high. MV got the legs of the chair shortened and wrote to him that the height had been reduced. In 1944, an association arranged* a conference. Visvesvaraya was the Chairman of the association. The Governor of Berar, an Englishman, was to open the conference.

(In those days the Governors were very powerful.) The conference was to discuss a resolution that India should have a national government. The Governor said that the resolution should not be discussed. “Otherwise,” he said, “I will not come.” Sir MV said to his friends, “All right. Why wait for him? Let us go on with the conference.

MV gave thousands of families food, he gave thousands and thousands of students education. Tens of thousands of houses were brightened with electricity because of him. And he led the country to the path of progress.

The Bhadravati Steel Factory, Mysore University, Krishnarajasagara, the Bank of Mysore – every one of his creations was mighty and magnificent. But far mightier and far more magnificent was the Bharata Ratna, who was at once a matchless Dreamer and Doer.

He once said:

“Remember, your work may be only to sweep a railway crossing, but it is

your duty to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as

clean as yours.”

source : http://rc1947.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/09/15-sept-engineers-day-sir-mv.htm

Phd in interdisciplinary fields

teachengineers — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:26:46 +0000

Times of india ratings

teachengineers — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:22:12 +0000

is it worth?

teachengineers — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:19:43 +0000

Improve your QoL

Standard of living? Or Quality of Life? Rahul Kapoor on work-life balance

In today’s fast paced life, everyone seems to be chasing targets and achieving goals to eventually enhance their standard of living. So, people work harder to afford expensive clothes, buy the latest gadgets and spend in expensive hotels. There are rewards, recognitions and popularity yet there is a feeling of emptiness; people are lost and confused. Ever wondered why? It is because of misplaced priorities and a lack of balance in life.
Zig Ziglar says, “If standard of living is your major objective, quality of life almost never improves, but if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of living almost always improves.’’
If you are earning lots of money but at the cost of your health and peace of mind, is it worth it? If you are growing in your career but do not have time for self, friends and community, is it worth it? If you own a house but do not have time for your parents, spouse and children, is it worth it?
True success is always multi-dimensional. So, if you have wealth, comforts, material goods and other necessities but struggling to cope with your family, then you have failed, you are a loser. It means your standard of living may be fine but quality of life suffers.
The power of being content, being at peace with yourself, finding time for your loved ones, being able to sit and enjoy a nice meal or a conversation is your first step in order to improve your quality of life. Introspect and write down answers to the following questions: Why are you here? What difference do you hope to make? What values drive you? How can you contribute to society? Family? What are your personal and spiritual growth plans? List things you have always wanted to do but never found the time to: Make a commitment to yourself that you will get started. It may seem difficult to fit everything in a day or a week. But with courage and discipline, you will find what works best for you and unleash an incredible power that will take you to new heights and redefine success in your life. Someone rightly said: Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has yet to come. Live in the present and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering. Live today, live for yourself, live for your loved ones and make each day count. Go on, improve your Quality of Life (QoL).
– Rahul Kapoor is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and presenter

Don’t overcommit

teachengineers — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:18:48 +0000

WORKWISE

Learn not to take on work you and your team cannot handle, says Rahul Kapoor

Any manager will tell you it is a grave mistake to take on work the team does not have time and resources to handle. Yet, people become victims to overcommitment and invite trouble.
There can be many reasons for this — urgency to meet targets, temptation to make more money, fear of losing an opportunity, fear of looking inadequate, inability to say no, avoiding disappointing customers; the list goes on. However valid the reason, it still has an adverse effect on people, relationships, quality of work and eventually the health of the business.
Overcommitment forces people to overstretch, make compromises of different kinds, live under stress, and make errors; timelines can suffer creating unhappy customers; eventually it takes away the peace and joy of doing things.
Every professional must rise to the occasion and deliver. But it is equally important to ensure that one makes commitments that can be kept. Here are a few suggestions that help:
1. Consult your team, take their views on how much everyone can stretch to, to deliver quality results; make the commitment accordingly.
2. Spend adequate time on planning, allocate the right resources to ensure the work is done in time.
3. If needed, increase your resources temporarily, seek support from other teams or out-source the job if you can keep tabs on quality.
4. Be transparent and honest with your customers while you make a commitment, especially if it is a last minute order or request. Keep them posted on your schedules and let them know that it will be a stretch. This approach will not only earn you respect and understanding but also avoid misunderstanding.
5. Let go of some assignments if you really cannot deliver. It is better to do some jobs extremely well rather than ruin most because of over commitment.
6. If you must say no, say it honestly without guilt. Be assertive and let your customers know why it is not possible to service them then. You can however support by referring them to someone who you think can do justice to their needs. Most businesses survive on referrals and feedback; so it’s important not to make commitments and break them. No reasons are valid, no excuses are acceptable, the only thing customers need — results.
– Rahul Kapoor is the author of a book on work place matters

Hysenberg’s uncertainity

teachengineers — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:18:03 +0000

CET WATCH

Engg seat selection likely to be put off

Bangalore: The wait just got longer to pick your engineering seat. With the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) yet to finalize intake for engineering colleges in the state, seat selection for CET candidates is expected to be put off. The process was to begin from June 27.
Higher education minister V S Acharya will make a formal announcement on Thursday and also spell out the methodology by which 5% of supernumerary quota seats in all engineering colleges are to be filled. Until the seat matrix is finalized counselling will not begin. A tentative schedule will be announced on Thursday, subject to AICTE’s final approval. The regulatory body’s decision to allow computer science and electronics students to gain entry to technical courses will see 979 more candidates becoming eligible for engineering seats under CET this year. TNN

RTE ( Sideeffects)

teachengineers — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:15:45 +0000

It’s tricky to stay on the right path

Nandita Sengupta | TNN

An unlikely fallout of the Right to Education Act (RTE) is the shrinking space for the efficient community schools run by small NGOs. Most NGOs, say experts, are now focusing on sending children to government schools as per the RTE. Even they find it difficult to run their small home-grown schools by the stringent RTE guidelines. But the transition is tricky.
Recalling a case in Jhabua, educationist Meena Shrinivasan points to the problems faced by a village NGO doing remarkable work in moving their students to a government school. “The NGO teacher, himself a tribal, offered to take some sessions with tribal kids in Class 1 of the government school to help them learn Hindi. He was totally discouraged,” says Shrinivasan, who evaluates projects for funding agencies and is also a consultant for tribal education.
While NGOs that cheat parents and children will be tackled by the RTE, the “ones doing good work, especially in tribal areas, will also be elbowed out,” she argues. The teacher at Jhabua started a parallel school to help kids cope with the transition into the government school system. Most NGO-run community schools use the local language to make learning easier.
Though there’s scope within the National Curriculum Framework to localize content, the provision remains on paper. “No government school allows communities to localize content as they operate on rigid structures,” says Shrinivasan. It is this crucial role of a bridge between an informal educational programme and mainstream schooling — generally played by smaller NGOs — that is getting limited.
NGOs penetrate remote or difficult areas where there are cultural barriers, such as Mewat bordering Rajasthan, observes Vinod Raina of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti. “NGOs can create viable models to make education effective. Theirs is not a function of scale, they should not be the ones to fulfill straight delivery targets.” NGOs help ‘reach’ remote areas and groups such as those in Mewat, where cultural barriers keep a child from going to school.
Mass-scale delivery of education is the state’s responsibility, says Raina, adding that scale can never be an educational NGO’s primary concern. “You have to understand that all NGOs put together barely reach about 1% of the child population in India,” he says. He suggests that NGOs develop models of skill education. “The state provides industrial vocational skills, though 93% of labour is in the unorganized sector — textiles, crafts and so on.”

Teachers on UGC pay to retire at 65

teachengineers — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:13:40 +0000

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Lakhs of lecturers and teaching staff in colleges across Karnataka who are paid according to University Grants Commission scales have something to cheer about. The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday quashed various orders restricting their superannuation between 60 and 62 years, and directed authorities to make it 65.
The court observed: “It is evident the scheme framed by the government of India vide letter dated December 31, 2008, provides for a common revision of pay scales of teachers of universities and colleges (affiliated or constituent) established under the central, state, or provincial acts with enhancement of age of superannuation to 65 years. The scheme has been incorporated as part and parcel of UGC Regulations 2010. The regulation as framed in exercise of power under the UGC Act and would hence override any executive government orders issued contrary to it.”
It added: “The denial by the state government of the enhancement of age of superannuation to teachers working in the government and aided, affiliated colleges drawing UGC scales of pay is repugnant to the UGC Act and the Regulations and hence is void.”
Petitioners will continue in service in the posts they held on the date of petition or immediately prior to it till they attain the age of superannuation of 65 years in accordance with UGC regulations with all benefits, Justice Anand Byrareddy observed in his verdict. The petitions were filed by H Halesh, associate professor, SJAR College, Sr M Albina, principal, Mount Carmel College, and others.

PhD admissions in Alliance Academy

teachengineers — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:44:43 +0000