If you have visited hilly places, you must have come across different suicide points. These are named so because of their altitude and the scenic beauty that you manage to grasp from these points. My trips to Nainital, Ooty and Sikkim have introduced me to three different types of suicide points; each a class in itself. Among these, I enjoyed most in the Nainital suicide point. The scenic beauty that you manage to view from here is enigmatic and unparalleled. In my interaction with the guide who had guided me to the destination, I had asked him whether people do really commit suicide from the place. The fact remains, one needs lots of courage to jump from such an altitude. After some research and studies I reached to the conclusion that suicide points are named so, because of their exclusive features and has nothing to do with suicides.
Let me introduce you to another suicide point, which is very much in our own city, Kolkata. Surprised, Kolkata has no mountains or hills, then where the suicide point comes from. Yes there is a one lying at the heart of the city and in its real term, i.e., people do really commit suicide here. Yes, I am talking about the Metro Rail and each station is a suicide point. Definitely, the rate of suicides have gone down these days, but few years back suicides in the Metro were very common and still taking place.
In 2003, I boarded a metro, which was bound to Rabindrasandan. It was so crowded that I boarded down in Girish Park and was waiting for the next train to come. A boy, of my age then, was standing beside me; he was wearing a white shirt. All the passengers were looking towards the end from where the train was supposed to come. The train’s light reflected on the track, which indicated that the train was gradually entering towards the platform. As the train entered, this boy who was standing beside me jumped onto the track and within seconds his body was dilapidated under the iron wheels. I was horrified with the whole scene; couldn’t believe my eyes for sometime. The metro service was then disrupted for an hour or two. I had postponed my work for that day and returned home.
The Metro suicide is still going on in Kolkata, through this write up, I would like to request everyone, not to take such daring step ever, no matter how much frustrated you are. Our lives are gift of God, so let it decay naturally. It’s a known fact, that people commit suicide after a certain point of frustration. But there are several other ways through which our frustration level can be brought down, killing oneself is not the remedy according to me.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Big Boss
Don’t worry; I am not promoting any T.V. Reality show here. After couple of postings on topics like education and environment, I thought of writing something on ‘THOSE FOUR GUYS’, hope you ‘ve got it if you are following my blog on a regular basis. Right you are, I am talking about, Dipak, Sekhu, Amal and Taj. Today, I would be introducing you with another character, who was closely attached to these four. He was also an employee of the stock broking firm, where these four had their source of living. Mr. Arijit Purukayastya was his name, tall was he and dark too; ideal to call TDH (Tall Dark Handsome), but he was not able to utilize these traits of his on girls as he was married.
Mr. Purukayastya was the brand manager of the company and was the reporting head of Amal. Despite being in separate departments, the other three were close to Purukayastya. The Brand Manager’s cabin often turned into a clubroom when the CEO was out of the office premises. Discussion and debates on varied topics were their sole medium of time-pass, as they did not have much work to do. The Lunch break was scheduled at 1 p.m., but for them it started at 12 p.m. Mr. Purukayastya was a gourmet and so was Taj. Zomo Hut was the nearest eatery and its business flourished because of the two, despite bringing lunch boxes, Purukayastya and Taj ordered something or the other from this eatery almost everyday.
As mentioned earlier, Taj, Dipak, Amal and Sekhu always wanted to go against stupid social norms, at every point of time they challenged these norms. Moreover, they were against any corruption and illicit activities that are often seen in offices. Their office was also not an exception, nepotism was a brand there. It was a common instance very much prevalent there that in order to go up in designation, cajoling one’s boss was the ultimatum. The FOUR was definitely against such practice, and so was Mr. Purukayastya. Being a Brand manager and the reporting head of few guys, he protested against such menace in the office. May be this was a common attribute between the FOUR and Purukayastya, which helped them to get gelled with each other. Another thing was in common, their tender behaviour, could not bare the pains, specially if any deprived people were involved. In this regard, let me narrate an incident. Shomenath was a Group D staff in the office and was also the driver of the Research Head of the company, Mr. Pradip Hazra, unofficially. It was Shomenath’s duty to bring Mr. Hazra to office and then to serve the morning tea to all on the fourth floor. Let me add an important piece of information here, Mr. Hazra was very very close to the CEO and was expert in cajoling him and therefore he had a strong voice in the office.
One Day Mr. Hazra entered his cabin and asked Shomenath to go to the post office for a work. Shomenath did not refuse but he thought of serving the morning tea first as the office was his original paymaster and not Mr. Hazra. This delay of his was intolerable to Hazra; he howled at him and threatened to terminate him from his job. Shomenath was quiet and was the opinion that he did not do anything wrong as his task was for the office and was not a personal servant of Mr. Hazra. The Research Head was furious with such an attitude of Shomenath. The whole conversation was heard by the four and Mr. Purukayastya. As the latter was at par with Mr. Hazra in designation, he tried to console him and wanted to end the fight. Shomenath took a firm position and stuck to his decision, but was worried of losing the job. He was brought into the cabin of Purukayastya and was given an assurance that his job would be safe. After he left the cabin, the FOUR and Purukayastya had a long conversation among themselves on the incident. They were really disheartened at Hazra’s behavior. Hazra was the reporting head for Taj, Dipak and Sekhu; these three lost all their respect towards this man from that day onwards. The FOUR requested Purukayastya to speak to Hazra for not terminating Shomenath. Shomenath’s job was secured and he was made the personal assistant of Purukayastya. Since that day, the four named Purukayastya as the 'Big Boss'.
Mr. Purukayastya was the brand manager of the company and was the reporting head of Amal. Despite being in separate departments, the other three were close to Purukayastya. The Brand Manager’s cabin often turned into a clubroom when the CEO was out of the office premises. Discussion and debates on varied topics were their sole medium of time-pass, as they did not have much work to do. The Lunch break was scheduled at 1 p.m., but for them it started at 12 p.m. Mr. Purukayastya was a gourmet and so was Taj. Zomo Hut was the nearest eatery and its business flourished because of the two, despite bringing lunch boxes, Purukayastya and Taj ordered something or the other from this eatery almost everyday.
As mentioned earlier, Taj, Dipak, Amal and Sekhu always wanted to go against stupid social norms, at every point of time they challenged these norms. Moreover, they were against any corruption and illicit activities that are often seen in offices. Their office was also not an exception, nepotism was a brand there. It was a common instance very much prevalent there that in order to go up in designation, cajoling one’s boss was the ultimatum. The FOUR was definitely against such practice, and so was Mr. Purukayastya. Being a Brand manager and the reporting head of few guys, he protested against such menace in the office. May be this was a common attribute between the FOUR and Purukayastya, which helped them to get gelled with each other. Another thing was in common, their tender behaviour, could not bare the pains, specially if any deprived people were involved. In this regard, let me narrate an incident. Shomenath was a Group D staff in the office and was also the driver of the Research Head of the company, Mr. Pradip Hazra, unofficially. It was Shomenath’s duty to bring Mr. Hazra to office and then to serve the morning tea to all on the fourth floor. Let me add an important piece of information here, Mr. Hazra was very very close to the CEO and was expert in cajoling him and therefore he had a strong voice in the office.
One Day Mr. Hazra entered his cabin and asked Shomenath to go to the post office for a work. Shomenath did not refuse but he thought of serving the morning tea first as the office was his original paymaster and not Mr. Hazra. This delay of his was intolerable to Hazra; he howled at him and threatened to terminate him from his job. Shomenath was quiet and was the opinion that he did not do anything wrong as his task was for the office and was not a personal servant of Mr. Hazra. The Research Head was furious with such an attitude of Shomenath. The whole conversation was heard by the four and Mr. Purukayastya. As the latter was at par with Mr. Hazra in designation, he tried to console him and wanted to end the fight. Shomenath took a firm position and stuck to his decision, but was worried of losing the job. He was brought into the cabin of Purukayastya and was given an assurance that his job would be safe. After he left the cabin, the FOUR and Purukayastya had a long conversation among themselves on the incident. They were really disheartened at Hazra’s behavior. Hazra was the reporting head for Taj, Dipak and Sekhu; these three lost all their respect towards this man from that day onwards. The FOUR requested Purukayastya to speak to Hazra for not terminating Shomenath. Shomenath’s job was secured and he was made the personal assistant of Purukayastya. Since that day, the four named Purukayastya as the 'Big Boss'.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Climate Change
Often in newspapers, television, and in magazines, we come across the term 'Climate Change' and it has been recognized as a global problem. Scientists are of the view that due to excessive emission of greenhouse gases, heat entrapment is taking place, which is causing rise in temperature. In this post I would like to share the different causes and evidences of climate change.
The earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle. What the world is more worried about is that the changes that are occurring today have been speeded up because of man's activities. Scientists across the globe are looking into these changes. Their findings are based on evidence from tree rings, pollen samples, ice cores, and sea sediments. The causes of climate change can be divided into two categories - those that are due to natural causes and those that are created by man.
Natural causes
There are a number of natural factors responsible for climate change. Some of the more prominent ones are continental drift, volcanoes, ocean currents, the earth's tilt, and comets and meteorites. Let's look at them in a little detail.
Continental Drift:Millions of years back the continents that we are familiar with today were formed when the landmass began gradually drifting apart. This drifting of the landmasses impacted on the climate as it has changed the physical features of the landmass, their position and the position of water bodies. Moreover, the separation of the landmasses changed the flow of ocean currents and winds that in turn affected the climate.
Volcanoes: Volcanoes are also responsible for climate change. When a volcano erupts it throws out large volumes of sulphur dioxide, water vapour, dust, and other particles into the atmosphere, which in turn increase the temperature.
Ocean Currents:Oceans are the most important natural cause for climate change. They cover a huge portion of the earth, around 71%, therefore, they absorb about twice as much of the sun's radiation as the atmosphere or the land surface. Ocean currents move a huge amount of heat across the planet, approximately the same amount as the atmosphere does.
Man-made Causes
In our daily lives, we contribute a bit to this change in the climate. Let’s see some of them:
• In urban areas, electricity is the main source of power, most of our gadgets run on electricity. This electricity is generated mainly from thermal power plants. These plants are run on fossil fuels mostly coal and are responsible for the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
• Human beings have discovered automobiles, which run mainly on petrol or diesel. Both petrol and diesel are fossil fuels and as they are burnt, green house gases are released in the atmosphere.
• Large quantities of waste in the form of plastics that remain in the environment for several years and cause environmental degradation.
• Deforestation is another cause for climate change. We are cutting down forests in large scales for construction of houses.
Evidences of Climate Change
Glaciers are one of the most sensitive indicators of climate change. Since 1970s, a world glacier inventory has been combined, initially based mainly on aerial photographs and maps but currently it is relying more on satellites. This compilation, tracks several glaciers and estimated that the remaining ice cover is around 445,000 km2. Thus it can be concluded that the glaciers worldwide have been found to be shrinking significantly.
Change in climate also affects the coverage of vegetation A mild change in climate sometimes results either in improved plant growth or rapid plant loss and desertification in certain circumstances.
It is the analysis of tree ring growth patterns to determine past climate variations. Wide and thick rings indicate a fertile, well-watered growing period, whilst thin, narrow rings indicate a time of lower rainfall and less-than-ideal growing conditions.
The earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle. What the world is more worried about is that the changes that are occurring today have been speeded up because of man's activities. Scientists across the globe are looking into these changes. Their findings are based on evidence from tree rings, pollen samples, ice cores, and sea sediments. The causes of climate change can be divided into two categories - those that are due to natural causes and those that are created by man.
Natural causes
There are a number of natural factors responsible for climate change. Some of the more prominent ones are continental drift, volcanoes, ocean currents, the earth's tilt, and comets and meteorites. Let's look at them in a little detail.
Continental Drift:Millions of years back the continents that we are familiar with today were formed when the landmass began gradually drifting apart. This drifting of the landmasses impacted on the climate as it has changed the physical features of the landmass, their position and the position of water bodies. Moreover, the separation of the landmasses changed the flow of ocean currents and winds that in turn affected the climate.
Volcanoes: Volcanoes are also responsible for climate change. When a volcano erupts it throws out large volumes of sulphur dioxide, water vapour, dust, and other particles into the atmosphere, which in turn increase the temperature.
Ocean Currents:Oceans are the most important natural cause for climate change. They cover a huge portion of the earth, around 71%, therefore, they absorb about twice as much of the sun's radiation as the atmosphere or the land surface. Ocean currents move a huge amount of heat across the planet, approximately the same amount as the atmosphere does.
Man-made Causes
In our daily lives, we contribute a bit to this change in the climate. Let’s see some of them:
• In urban areas, electricity is the main source of power, most of our gadgets run on electricity. This electricity is generated mainly from thermal power plants. These plants are run on fossil fuels mostly coal and are responsible for the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
• Human beings have discovered automobiles, which run mainly on petrol or diesel. Both petrol and diesel are fossil fuels and as they are burnt, green house gases are released in the atmosphere.
• Large quantities of waste in the form of plastics that remain in the environment for several years and cause environmental degradation.
• Deforestation is another cause for climate change. We are cutting down forests in large scales for construction of houses.
Evidences of Climate Change
Glaciers are one of the most sensitive indicators of climate change. Since 1970s, a world glacier inventory has been combined, initially based mainly on aerial photographs and maps but currently it is relying more on satellites. This compilation, tracks several glaciers and estimated that the remaining ice cover is around 445,000 km2. Thus it can be concluded that the glaciers worldwide have been found to be shrinking significantly.
Change in climate also affects the coverage of vegetation A mild change in climate sometimes results either in improved plant growth or rapid plant loss and desertification in certain circumstances.
It is the analysis of tree ring growth patterns to determine past climate variations. Wide and thick rings indicate a fertile, well-watered growing period, whilst thin, narrow rings indicate a time of lower rainfall and less-than-ideal growing conditions.
Carbon Trading
Environment has become an important buzzword in the current scenario. The rapid technological advancements are in some way or the other affecting the environment adversely. In this regard I have come across a concept, called carbon trading, which aims at controlling the release of greenhouse gases in the environment.
Carbon trading is a market-based approach, made to control pollution by providing economic incentives. The main objective of this approach is to reduce the emissions of pollutants. Generally, a government body sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. The limit or cap is then allocated or sold to firms in the form of emission permits. These represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. The firms are required to hold a number of permits or carbon credits equivalent to their emissions. It is important to note that the total number of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Firms that need to increase their emission permits, buy permits from those who require fewer permits. This process of transfer of permits is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions in a cheaper manner will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.
Effects of Carbon Trading
The effects of carbon trading are:
• The problem of heat entrapment will be solved once the emission of greenhouse gases is controlled.
• Companies that emit more carbon dioxide gas will be penalized.
• By reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, the issue of global warming can be reduced.
• The world will be a cleaner and better place to live in.
• We all will feel more secured and protected.
How Carbon Trading Works?
• Normally, a governmental body fixes a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted.
• The limit or cap is then sold to firms. This is known as emission permits.
• The emission permits represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. In this regard the firms are required to hold a number of permits or carbon credits equivalent to their emissions.
• The total number of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level.
• Firms that need to increase their emission permits, buy permits from those who require fewer permits.
• This process of transfer of permits is known as a trade.
• Here in this respect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions.
Carbon trading is a market-based approach, made to control pollution by providing economic incentives. The main objective of this approach is to reduce the emissions of pollutants. Generally, a government body sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. The limit or cap is then allocated or sold to firms in the form of emission permits. These represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. The firms are required to hold a number of permits or carbon credits equivalent to their emissions. It is important to note that the total number of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Firms that need to increase their emission permits, buy permits from those who require fewer permits. This process of transfer of permits is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions in a cheaper manner will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.
Effects of Carbon Trading
The effects of carbon trading are:
• The problem of heat entrapment will be solved once the emission of greenhouse gases is controlled.
• Companies that emit more carbon dioxide gas will be penalized.
• By reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, the issue of global warming can be reduced.
• The world will be a cleaner and better place to live in.
• We all will feel more secured and protected.
How Carbon Trading Works?
• Normally, a governmental body fixes a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted.
• The limit or cap is then sold to firms. This is known as emission permits.
• The emission permits represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. In this regard the firms are required to hold a number of permits or carbon credits equivalent to their emissions.
• The total number of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level.
• Firms that need to increase their emission permits, buy permits from those who require fewer permits.
• This process of transfer of permits is known as a trade.
• Here in this respect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Changing Pattern of Education in the Age of Globalization
Globalisation is the new buzzword that has come to dominate the world since the nineties of the last century with the end of the cold war and the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the global trend towards the rolling ball. The frontiers of the state with increased reliance on the market economy and renewed faith in the private capital and resources, a process of structural adjustment have started in many of the developing countries. It describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of political ideas through communication, transportation, and trade. Whenever we speak of globalization, we think in terms of its effects in the context of national sovereignty, economic liberalization, social and cultural changes of a particular country. Have we ever thought how globalization has left its impact in the knowledge and education sphere? This paper is an attempt to discuss about the knowledge industry in connection with globalization.
In this regard, it becomes necessary to start with a statement, ‘Knowledge has become a commodity in the realm of globalization’, a commodity that is easily tradable and gaining knowledge has become an easy task. Here it can be argued by saying that knowledge in the form of books was always a commodity and was also used in trading purposes. But was that a yardstick to measure a country’s GDP or an industry by itself, say 10 to 15 years back? In the present scenario knowledge has created its own industry. Moreover, in many cases we find that it is not a compulsion to have a classroom set up to gain knowledge. Rather, technology and advanced information and communication system has provided an important impetus to spread knowledge to a huge mass of people living in different corners of the world.
Some of the common features of education and knowledge in the age of globalization are:
• Information is growing exponentially.
• Learners are over-loaded with knowledge..
• Being up-to-date with knowledge is a challenge.
• Learners are becoming mobile.
• The role of informal learning is gaining momentum.
• Both organizations and individuals are learning organisms.
• Sharing knowledge is easier with modern technologies.
• Knowing how and what is replaced by knowing where and who.
Let us look into some crucial aspects of education and knowledge in the age of globalization.
Knowledge in the Form of an Industry:
Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (popularly known as KPO), calls for the application of specialized domain. It typically involves a component of research and analysis. KPO business entities provide typical domain-based processes, advanced analytical skills and business expertise, leading to high level of specialization, deriving its strength from the depth of knowledge, experience and judgment factor. Here we can sight the Riggsian Model which indicates that the evolution of the society takes place in three stages –
Agrarian – Prismatic – Industria
In the agrarian society, there were no specializations, where one person or institution used to perform a wide range of functions but in the present age having industria society, specilisation is the key term, where each work is divided into various componenets under the supervision of a particular person.
The future of KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted to only Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors and includes other sectors like Legal Processes, Intellectual Property and Patent related services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, Business Research and Analytics, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research, etc. In today's competitive environment, focus is to concentrate on core specialization and core-competency areas and outsource the rest of the activities. Many companies and organizations have come to realize that by outsourcing non-core activities, not only costs are minimized and efficiencies are improved but the total business process improves because the focus shifts to the key growth areas of the business activity.
Scope and Future of KPO
According to a report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, KPO is expected to reach USD 17 billion
by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2011. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry. So it becomes very evident that this would help India to curtail down the rates of educated unemployed youths and increase its GDP and move ahead in the process of development and nation building. Our education and employment process has been modeled in such a manner that only a section of the educated society manages to get a permanent job in the education sector. KPO provides an opportunity to develop a new job sector.
New Addition to the Learning Theory:
There may be several learning theories, but the most important three are Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. Behaviourism focuses only on the objectively observable aspects of learning. Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning. And constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts. Due to the advancement of technologies because of globalization, there is an addition in the number of learning theories and it is currently considered as one of the most important theories. This learning theory of the age of globalization is known as Connectivism. This theory was advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, Connectivism is a theory which emphasises the importance and role of networks and connections between people. Due to the advent of connectivism knowledge sharing has become very easy. Through blogs, Wikipedia, facebook, podcast and other mediums we can share our knowledge with each other in a fraction of a second.
Classroom Learning Replaced by Digital Learning:
Couple of decades back knowledge sharing was mostly confined to the four walls of a classroom or seminar room, or a conference room. Due to the effects of globalization this notion is almost in a process of getting withered away. Now gaining knowledge is not required within a classroom set up only, in the current scenario, one can achieve knowledge digitally.
Thanks to Rajiv Gandhi's doctrines backed by his technical advisor Sam Pitroda, the personal computer arrived in India in the early 1990s. Suddenly we witnessed a flood of computer classes in the metros.
When cable television arrived in the 1990s, enterprising coaching classes set up dedicated channels for distance learning. Then VSAT technology extended this to remote regions. Now it is digital television with service providers beaming educational programs for school children into homes and schools. And that was how ICT (Information and Communications Technology) saw its roots in Indian education.
In recent years we witnessed many radical changes and rapid growth in the education sector. This is due to several factors, and the one factor that needs to be mentioned first is India’s telecom success story. Thanks to extensive telecom coverage and affordable rates, bandwidth and Internet access is available pan India. The Internet offers many free tools for audio-visual instruction. State governments too have got their act together and are joining hands with private solutions providers and NGOs to use ICT for education.
Another driver is the high level of PC penetration among students, especially in the metros, thanks to a significant reduction in hardware costs, and the increased usage of open source applications.
The concept of e-learning is very much in vogue nowadays. E-learning is essentially the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classroom opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. Most of the time it is self-paced, and if required it can also be instructor-led. E-learning courses include media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio. E-learning is another yardstick in the knowledge industry due to globalization. This new domain of the knowledge industry has the ability to make learning more immersive and interesting. Most of the e-learning courses comprises of digitally rich media that helps a learner to understand a concept easily.
Nowadays, different educational institutions are opting for e-learning based curriculums. You can find several universities offering MBA courses, which you can take up from your home.
Thus, it has been seen how education has been tuned in line with globalization and technological advancement. However, this changing pattern of education has both good and bad aspects.
Unlike few decades back, knowledge sharing has become an easy task now. Irrespective of geographical locations, one can share knowledge through blogs, WebX and web conferences. In line with this, it also can be mentioned that knowledge sharing in the above processes will help not only in reducing expenses by arranging seminars, conferences and various gatherings, but also saves the problem of searching the right person who can properly communicate and disseminate knowledge. The e-learning solutions do play a vital role out here, where a trainee can go through his training course without the trainer.
At the same time changing pattern of education also face some challenges. Many people for their business motive do post obscene and adult content over the net, which are not always favourable for age group and category of people. Moreover, in many instances direct interaction of the knowledge givers and takers create a different impact which we miss in web education. Various queries often are raised in our mind which we can solve only in direct in interactive classes.
Another important drawback is our poor economic condition, which obstructs us in covering the entire country digitally. Language barrier is another issue, as it becomes difficult for a large section to understand content in English, as most of the teaching modules are created in English
Thus keeping in mind all the pros and cons of digital and technical learning in the age of globalization, we would try to amalgamate both the process. While the future of education in India looks promising, ICT can certainly help in disseminating educational content, and facilitate remote learning, especially in the Indian context. It can overcome challenges like teacher shortage and student dropout—and bridge the digital divide.
As connectivism focuses on network, it is often referred to as a connective knowledge. Knowledge is distributed over more than one entity. A property of one entity must lead to or become a property of another entity in order to be connected. The knowledge that results from such connections is connective knowledge.
In this regard, it becomes necessary to start with a statement, ‘Knowledge has become a commodity in the realm of globalization’, a commodity that is easily tradable and gaining knowledge has become an easy task. Here it can be argued by saying that knowledge in the form of books was always a commodity and was also used in trading purposes. But was that a yardstick to measure a country’s GDP or an industry by itself, say 10 to 15 years back? In the present scenario knowledge has created its own industry. Moreover, in many cases we find that it is not a compulsion to have a classroom set up to gain knowledge. Rather, technology and advanced information and communication system has provided an important impetus to spread knowledge to a huge mass of people living in different corners of the world.
Some of the common features of education and knowledge in the age of globalization are:
• Information is growing exponentially.
• Learners are over-loaded with knowledge..
• Being up-to-date with knowledge is a challenge.
• Learners are becoming mobile.
• The role of informal learning is gaining momentum.
• Both organizations and individuals are learning organisms.
• Sharing knowledge is easier with modern technologies.
• Knowing how and what is replaced by knowing where and who.
Let us look into some crucial aspects of education and knowledge in the age of globalization.
Knowledge in the Form of an Industry:
Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (popularly known as KPO), calls for the application of specialized domain. It typically involves a component of research and analysis. KPO business entities provide typical domain-based processes, advanced analytical skills and business expertise, leading to high level of specialization, deriving its strength from the depth of knowledge, experience and judgment factor. Here we can sight the Riggsian Model which indicates that the evolution of the society takes place in three stages –
Agrarian – Prismatic – Industria
In the agrarian society, there were no specializations, where one person or institution used to perform a wide range of functions but in the present age having industria society, specilisation is the key term, where each work is divided into various componenets under the supervision of a particular person.
The future of KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted to only Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors and includes other sectors like Legal Processes, Intellectual Property and Patent related services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, Business Research and Analytics, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research, etc. In today's competitive environment, focus is to concentrate on core specialization and core-competency areas and outsource the rest of the activities. Many companies and organizations have come to realize that by outsourcing non-core activities, not only costs are minimized and efficiencies are improved but the total business process improves because the focus shifts to the key growth areas of the business activity.
Scope and Future of KPO
According to a report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, KPO is expected to reach USD 17 billion
by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2011. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry. So it becomes very evident that this would help India to curtail down the rates of educated unemployed youths and increase its GDP and move ahead in the process of development and nation building. Our education and employment process has been modeled in such a manner that only a section of the educated society manages to get a permanent job in the education sector. KPO provides an opportunity to develop a new job sector.
New Addition to the Learning Theory:
There may be several learning theories, but the most important three are Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. Behaviourism focuses only on the objectively observable aspects of learning. Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning. And constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts. Due to the advancement of technologies because of globalization, there is an addition in the number of learning theories and it is currently considered as one of the most important theories. This learning theory of the age of globalization is known as Connectivism. This theory was advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, Connectivism is a theory which emphasises the importance and role of networks and connections between people. Due to the advent of connectivism knowledge sharing has become very easy. Through blogs, Wikipedia, facebook, podcast and other mediums we can share our knowledge with each other in a fraction of a second.
Classroom Learning Replaced by Digital Learning:
Couple of decades back knowledge sharing was mostly confined to the four walls of a classroom or seminar room, or a conference room. Due to the effects of globalization this notion is almost in a process of getting withered away. Now gaining knowledge is not required within a classroom set up only, in the current scenario, one can achieve knowledge digitally.
Thanks to Rajiv Gandhi's doctrines backed by his technical advisor Sam Pitroda, the personal computer arrived in India in the early 1990s. Suddenly we witnessed a flood of computer classes in the metros.
When cable television arrived in the 1990s, enterprising coaching classes set up dedicated channels for distance learning. Then VSAT technology extended this to remote regions. Now it is digital television with service providers beaming educational programs for school children into homes and schools. And that was how ICT (Information and Communications Technology) saw its roots in Indian education.
In recent years we witnessed many radical changes and rapid growth in the education sector. This is due to several factors, and the one factor that needs to be mentioned first is India’s telecom success story. Thanks to extensive telecom coverage and affordable rates, bandwidth and Internet access is available pan India. The Internet offers many free tools for audio-visual instruction. State governments too have got their act together and are joining hands with private solutions providers and NGOs to use ICT for education.
Another driver is the high level of PC penetration among students, especially in the metros, thanks to a significant reduction in hardware costs, and the increased usage of open source applications.
The concept of e-learning is very much in vogue nowadays. E-learning is essentially the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classroom opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. Most of the time it is self-paced, and if required it can also be instructor-led. E-learning courses include media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio. E-learning is another yardstick in the knowledge industry due to globalization. This new domain of the knowledge industry has the ability to make learning more immersive and interesting. Most of the e-learning courses comprises of digitally rich media that helps a learner to understand a concept easily.
Nowadays, different educational institutions are opting for e-learning based curriculums. You can find several universities offering MBA courses, which you can take up from your home.
Thus, it has been seen how education has been tuned in line with globalization and technological advancement. However, this changing pattern of education has both good and bad aspects.
Unlike few decades back, knowledge sharing has become an easy task now. Irrespective of geographical locations, one can share knowledge through blogs, WebX and web conferences. In line with this, it also can be mentioned that knowledge sharing in the above processes will help not only in reducing expenses by arranging seminars, conferences and various gatherings, but also saves the problem of searching the right person who can properly communicate and disseminate knowledge. The e-learning solutions do play a vital role out here, where a trainee can go through his training course without the trainer.
At the same time changing pattern of education also face some challenges. Many people for their business motive do post obscene and adult content over the net, which are not always favourable for age group and category of people. Moreover, in many instances direct interaction of the knowledge givers and takers create a different impact which we miss in web education. Various queries often are raised in our mind which we can solve only in direct in interactive classes.
Another important drawback is our poor economic condition, which obstructs us in covering the entire country digitally. Language barrier is another issue, as it becomes difficult for a large section to understand content in English, as most of the teaching modules are created in English
Thus keeping in mind all the pros and cons of digital and technical learning in the age of globalization, we would try to amalgamate both the process. While the future of education in India looks promising, ICT can certainly help in disseminating educational content, and facilitate remote learning, especially in the Indian context. It can overcome challenges like teacher shortage and student dropout—and bridge the digital divide.
As connectivism focuses on network, it is often referred to as a connective knowledge. Knowledge is distributed over more than one entity. A property of one entity must lead to or become a property of another entity in order to be connected. The knowledge that results from such connections is connective knowledge.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The Mesmerizing Night
It was October 2007, at around 3p.m. in the afternoon, news broke out that Kolkata was under the grip of a communal riot. The T.V. set was switched on in the Research room. It was learned from the bulletin that a strike was called the next day. This was not an exciting piece of information for the employees in XYZ Enterprise (company’s name changed). The company was a stock broking firm and so it was difficult for the authority to keep it off the next day, while the share market was on. It was decided that some employees whose presence was necessary the next day would stay back in the office itself and the company would provide them with lodging and food facilities.
Dipak, Sekhu and Amal, impulsively took the decision of staying back in office. Taj was new to the company then; he was hesitating to stay back as he was not very familiar with the rest. However, the other three insisted him to stay back. After lot of discussions and negotiations, Taj agreed with the three. To avoid any unwanted calamities because of the riot, most of the employees left office early that day. It was absolute freedom for the four guys. The first thing they did was to order some evening snacks from the nearby eatery. By six, the fourth floor, where these four had their workstation, was absolutely vacant. After food it was music, one of the computer speakers was turned to the highest volume and the research room was turned into a dance floor. None of them was a good dancer, but the feeling of liberty put them into a disposition of merry making. Being untrained dancers, their legs did not support them for long, they were tired. They decided to go out for an evening stroll after taking rest for a while.
It was end of October; the outside weather was pleasant, and acted as a medium of pranks for the four. Amal was a soft spoken guy, his innocence was the main cause of his getting bullied by the other three, but he used to take them sportingly. Sekhu plucked few wet grasses and put them into Amal’s shirt. His face was worth watching then, as if a thunder broke on his head. ‘You rascal, what do you think of yourself, wait, I will show you,’ growled Amal and chased after Sekhu. Taj and Dipak were being amused by the whole scene. Dipak was passionate about reading books and had an intellectual bent of mind. He often came up with his ‘typical philosophical’ notion about life. Amal and Sekhu were jaded with this aspect of Dipak, but it was new to Taj.
Amal’s chase was over with Sekhu’s fall on the wet field; Amal managed to get a grip of Sekhu’s shirt and pushed him, Sekhu fell over the wet grasses. Amal’s revenge pacified him and soon both were friends again. The four of them sat on a bench in the park; for a while they were quiet. The silence broke, when Dipak quoted, ‘the sky is so clear, spotless, hope if our lives would be same………….’ He was about to speak the next word when Amal and Sekhu started hitting him on his head. ‘Will you keep quiet; we are not ready to hear any nonsense philosophical stuff.
After spending an hour in the park, they returned back to their office. The dinner was ready and while going upstairs, they collected their dinner packets from the canteen in the ground floor. Sekhu after having dinner urged to sleep, he was always early to bed. Sekhu’s initiative of going to sleep was blotted by the rest three. ‘Sekhu, this is not fair, you just can’t go to sleep so early, let’s have fun,’ said Amal. Sekhu growled and said, ‘I will kill you, let me sleep, I am not…..’ Sekhu couldn’t speak any further as Taj and Dipak fell on Sekhu deliberately. Sekhu was a thin lanky character and the other two were twice the size of Sekhu. He was about to choke, and finally decided not to sleep early. Sekhu said in a depressing voice, ‘Ok, agreed, I will not sleep now, but what shall we do then?’ ‘Let’s go to the terrace’, said Amal. He was the one who came out with all funny and weird suggestions. Amal was in bare body then, as he was trying to be freshen up. The eyes of Taj and Dipak glowed, which indicated that they were ready with some pranks. These two were more powerful than Amal also, they grabbed him and took him to the balcony, adjacent to the research room and locked the door from inside. The cold wind pinched Amal to shiver, but the door was opened soon and he was allowed to get in.
One of the desktops was their next target, Dipak said, ‘Let’s watch a film on the net.’ A film was played, probably, ‘Batman and Robin’. Sekhu, Taj and Dipak were quiet, as they were enjoying the movie, but not Amal. Now he was with a prank to disrupt the whole show. Amal started disturbing the rest, sometimes he was standing infront of the monitor and sometimes kicking each of the three. Dipak decided to switch of the computer and chose to chat. By then it was 12:30 a.m. The chat continued till 2:30 a.m., this chat was the turning point; the guys shared not only their happy moments among each other but also shared some of their problems, which could be disclosed to a close friend only.
At around 3 in the night, they decided to sleep as an arduous day was waiting to welcome them the next morning. Sekhu was the first one to wake up that morning, next was Taj and then Dipak, Amal was still sleeping. The faces of the trio was worth watching then, half slept, they were discussing something amusing among themselves, listening to which Amal started giggling. Actually, he was not sleeping, but was pretending to do so. As usual he laughed in a weird manner, a shrill voice. Sekhu had a bottle in his hand; he instantly threw the whole water on Amal. This scene was amazing and hilarious.
The day started and they got into their daily work, but what was new, was a strong bond of friendship among them, which they still cherish.
Dipak, Sekhu and Amal, impulsively took the decision of staying back in office. Taj was new to the company then; he was hesitating to stay back as he was not very familiar with the rest. However, the other three insisted him to stay back. After lot of discussions and negotiations, Taj agreed with the three. To avoid any unwanted calamities because of the riot, most of the employees left office early that day. It was absolute freedom for the four guys. The first thing they did was to order some evening snacks from the nearby eatery. By six, the fourth floor, where these four had their workstation, was absolutely vacant. After food it was music, one of the computer speakers was turned to the highest volume and the research room was turned into a dance floor. None of them was a good dancer, but the feeling of liberty put them into a disposition of merry making. Being untrained dancers, their legs did not support them for long, they were tired. They decided to go out for an evening stroll after taking rest for a while.
It was end of October; the outside weather was pleasant, and acted as a medium of pranks for the four. Amal was a soft spoken guy, his innocence was the main cause of his getting bullied by the other three, but he used to take them sportingly. Sekhu plucked few wet grasses and put them into Amal’s shirt. His face was worth watching then, as if a thunder broke on his head. ‘You rascal, what do you think of yourself, wait, I will show you,’ growled Amal and chased after Sekhu. Taj and Dipak were being amused by the whole scene. Dipak was passionate about reading books and had an intellectual bent of mind. He often came up with his ‘typical philosophical’ notion about life. Amal and Sekhu were jaded with this aspect of Dipak, but it was new to Taj.
Amal’s chase was over with Sekhu’s fall on the wet field; Amal managed to get a grip of Sekhu’s shirt and pushed him, Sekhu fell over the wet grasses. Amal’s revenge pacified him and soon both were friends again. The four of them sat on a bench in the park; for a while they were quiet. The silence broke, when Dipak quoted, ‘the sky is so clear, spotless, hope if our lives would be same………….’ He was about to speak the next word when Amal and Sekhu started hitting him on his head. ‘Will you keep quiet; we are not ready to hear any nonsense philosophical stuff.
After spending an hour in the park, they returned back to their office. The dinner was ready and while going upstairs, they collected their dinner packets from the canteen in the ground floor. Sekhu after having dinner urged to sleep, he was always early to bed. Sekhu’s initiative of going to sleep was blotted by the rest three. ‘Sekhu, this is not fair, you just can’t go to sleep so early, let’s have fun,’ said Amal. Sekhu growled and said, ‘I will kill you, let me sleep, I am not…..’ Sekhu couldn’t speak any further as Taj and Dipak fell on Sekhu deliberately. Sekhu was a thin lanky character and the other two were twice the size of Sekhu. He was about to choke, and finally decided not to sleep early. Sekhu said in a depressing voice, ‘Ok, agreed, I will not sleep now, but what shall we do then?’ ‘Let’s go to the terrace’, said Amal. He was the one who came out with all funny and weird suggestions. Amal was in bare body then, as he was trying to be freshen up. The eyes of Taj and Dipak glowed, which indicated that they were ready with some pranks. These two were more powerful than Amal also, they grabbed him and took him to the balcony, adjacent to the research room and locked the door from inside. The cold wind pinched Amal to shiver, but the door was opened soon and he was allowed to get in.
One of the desktops was their next target, Dipak said, ‘Let’s watch a film on the net.’ A film was played, probably, ‘Batman and Robin’. Sekhu, Taj and Dipak were quiet, as they were enjoying the movie, but not Amal. Now he was with a prank to disrupt the whole show. Amal started disturbing the rest, sometimes he was standing infront of the monitor and sometimes kicking each of the three. Dipak decided to switch of the computer and chose to chat. By then it was 12:30 a.m. The chat continued till 2:30 a.m., this chat was the turning point; the guys shared not only their happy moments among each other but also shared some of their problems, which could be disclosed to a close friend only.
At around 3 in the night, they decided to sleep as an arduous day was waiting to welcome them the next morning. Sekhu was the first one to wake up that morning, next was Taj and then Dipak, Amal was still sleeping. The faces of the trio was worth watching then, half slept, they were discussing something amusing among themselves, listening to which Amal started giggling. Actually, he was not sleeping, but was pretending to do so. As usual he laughed in a weird manner, a shrill voice. Sekhu had a bottle in his hand; he instantly threw the whole water on Amal. This scene was amazing and hilarious.
The day started and they got into their daily work, but what was new, was a strong bond of friendship among them, which they still cherish.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Global Dimming
Global warming is a concept that I am aware of since my college days; however, I was unaware about Global Dimming, till I got an opportunity of coming across this concept in an article. The article has described the concept vividly and the person who has coined the name.
Environmental scientists, through their research and studies have inferred that the sun is dimming. The earth’s surface is experiencing less sunlight nowadays compared to recent past. From late 1950s to the early 1990s, at least a 10 percent drop in sun light reaching the earth surface was recorded. In some regions like Asia, the United States, and Europe, the drop was found to be more severe.
This stunning phenomenon was first noticed by Atsumu Ohmura, a researcher of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1989, which was later confirmed by Gerald Stanhill who was involved in Israel's Agricultural Research Organization in 1992. The Global dimming was also coined by him.
Ohmura noticed the phenomenon while he was doing his research on global warming. He was checking, as a part of his studies, climate and atmospheric radiation, levels of sunlight recorded around Europe, in this process he discovered the phenomenon. Gerry Stanhill, on the other hand, was designing irrigation schemes in Israel. His task was to measure how strongly the sun shines over Israel. Stanhill collected his first set of data sometimes in 1960s. In the 1980s, he decided to repeat his measurement, when he discovered the dimming phenomenon of the sun.
Like global warming, global dimming is also the outcome of fossil fuel burning. When fossil fuel burns, it emits greenhouse gases in the air and releases particulate matters, such as soot and ash in the atmosphere. These particulate matters, by changing the properties of clouds, create global dimming. Clouds are formed when water droplets are seeded by air-borne particles. Now as a result of fossil-fuel burning, more and more particles are gathering in the atmosphere. Hence, large number of water droplets is also forming. These water droplets clusters together to form larger size droplets. The formation of water droplets in the atmosphere results in reflection of sunlight back into the space, this act of reflection increases with the increase in size of the water droplets.
Recently, another important cause has been discovered responsible for global dimming. This was the vapor (contrails) released from high-flying planes, also reflect sunlight significantly.
The immediate effect of global dimming is the change of temperature on the earth surface. The particulate matters in the air works in two ways, firstly, it reflects sunlight back to the space, and secondly, the heat radiation of the earth back to the planet itself. Therefore, during the day, global dimming gives us a cooling effect and at night it slows down the heat process of the earth’s surface.
Global dimming has also resulted in increasing the rate of photosynthesis in plants and trees. The sun rays are getting scattered because of global dimming. Through scientific research, it has been found out that in some cases photosynthesis increases with increasing in diffused or broken sunlight lights.
Another effect of global dimming is low rainfall. Less sunlight into the earth’s surface results in decreasing the rate of evaporation from the hydrosphere. The outcome of this is low rainfall and drought.
Environmental scientists, through their research and studies have inferred that the sun is dimming. The earth’s surface is experiencing less sunlight nowadays compared to recent past. From late 1950s to the early 1990s, at least a 10 percent drop in sun light reaching the earth surface was recorded. In some regions like Asia, the United States, and Europe, the drop was found to be more severe.
This stunning phenomenon was first noticed by Atsumu Ohmura, a researcher of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1989, which was later confirmed by Gerald Stanhill who was involved in Israel's Agricultural Research Organization in 1992. The Global dimming was also coined by him.
Ohmura noticed the phenomenon while he was doing his research on global warming. He was checking, as a part of his studies, climate and atmospheric radiation, levels of sunlight recorded around Europe, in this process he discovered the phenomenon. Gerry Stanhill, on the other hand, was designing irrigation schemes in Israel. His task was to measure how strongly the sun shines over Israel. Stanhill collected his first set of data sometimes in 1960s. In the 1980s, he decided to repeat his measurement, when he discovered the dimming phenomenon of the sun.
Like global warming, global dimming is also the outcome of fossil fuel burning. When fossil fuel burns, it emits greenhouse gases in the air and releases particulate matters, such as soot and ash in the atmosphere. These particulate matters, by changing the properties of clouds, create global dimming. Clouds are formed when water droplets are seeded by air-borne particles. Now as a result of fossil-fuel burning, more and more particles are gathering in the atmosphere. Hence, large number of water droplets is also forming. These water droplets clusters together to form larger size droplets. The formation of water droplets in the atmosphere results in reflection of sunlight back into the space, this act of reflection increases with the increase in size of the water droplets.
Recently, another important cause has been discovered responsible for global dimming. This was the vapor (contrails) released from high-flying planes, also reflect sunlight significantly.
The immediate effect of global dimming is the change of temperature on the earth surface. The particulate matters in the air works in two ways, firstly, it reflects sunlight back to the space, and secondly, the heat radiation of the earth back to the planet itself. Therefore, during the day, global dimming gives us a cooling effect and at night it slows down the heat process of the earth’s surface.
Global dimming has also resulted in increasing the rate of photosynthesis in plants and trees. The sun rays are getting scattered because of global dimming. Through scientific research, it has been found out that in some cases photosynthesis increases with increasing in diffused or broken sunlight lights.
Another effect of global dimming is low rainfall. Less sunlight into the earth’s surface results in decreasing the rate of evaporation from the hydrosphere. The outcome of this is low rainfall and drought.
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