Telangana Students On FAST !

While the state government is busy finalizing modalities for financial assistance to students of Telangana (FAST), the High Court’s directive asking it to spell out the sanctity of its proposal for making 1956 as the cut-off year for considering nativity, has left students confused. The confusion over the smooth implementation of FAST scheme has again prevailed among the students and parents after the fresh development. 

The Telangana government has introduced this scheme with an intention to assist students belonging to the state financially, but the proposed criterion has left several students unhappy. The High Court has asked the State government to file its reply within three weeks. One of the proposed conditions was that students needed to present proof of their parents’ origin in Telangana region before 1956. This proposal drew flak from several quarters of society, including students and political leaders. 

A under graduate student Syed Jaffer said that he was expecting this scheme to be less complicated and easy, but it proved out to be confusing. He said, “I am not sure whether I can be benefit from this scheme.” This has created a lot of confusion among the student community and most of the poor students were continuing their studies without any financial assistance from state government, he added. Another student K Satyanaryana whose father was from Rayalaseema region said that it would deprive students like him for no reason, though born and brought up in Telangana. 

He said, “I was born in Telangana and will remain local as per the constitutional provisions and cannot be considered non-local just because my parents don’t belong to Telangana.” Interestingly, this directive of the Court could possibly worry the state government more than any one. Any change in the proposed 1956 benchmark would change the shape of the whole scheme as TS government wanted to filter out families that moved in to Telangana, especially Hyderabad from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. 

Sources in the government revealed that a meeting could be conducted with the Education Minister, Chief Secretary and other officials concerned soon to take a final call on the issue. It is to be remembered that some education experts from Telangana had suggested putting 1975 as the benchmark, instead of 1956. They opined that 1975 could be more reasonable and rational for any such scheme from the state government.

KG to PG Education Plan Ready

Giving impetus to education in the state, the Telangana government has decided to establish ‘KG-to-PG Free Education Institutions’ in all 119 Assembly constituencies in the state. The government has readied its plan to start implementation of this scheme by next year in a phased manner. The preliminary proposal for this popular scheme includes 15 acre of land for each campus, encompassing hostels and other facilities. According to the proposals, each Assembly constituency would have a similar kind of institution across the state.

Officials said that school dropouts will be given preference in the initial stages of admissions

Government sources said that as per the plan 1st to 5th standards will have two sections and 6th to 10th classes would have three sections each. Each section will have 40 students. However, the proposals cannot be considered as final as experts are still suggesting several other patterns. By 2015-16, the government is keen to establish 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th classes and the remaining classes by year 2016-17.

According to the proposals made by academics to the government, these institutions would have Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus. Teaching would be imparted in mother tongue from the Class 1st to 5th and it would be in English medium thereafter,” the sources said. Department of Education officials said that school dropouts will be given preference in the initial stages of admissions. The respective district collectors would look after the land acquisition and disbursement of funds meant for such institutions, added the sources.

AP, TS students hopeful of cracking UPSC Mains

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Students and educationists/trainers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are expecting more number of candidates to get through the Union Public Service Commission’s Mains exam, the second stage of the privileged competitive examination. The Mains examination was held on December 14 and about 16,000 candidates appeared for the across the country. Among them are 530 students from AP and Telangana.

The qualified candidates of AP and Telangana are hoping to grab a considerable number of seats in the second stage (Mains). The number of students who qualified despite the illogical CSAT pattern only shows the strength of Telugu students, said an aspirant

This year, the civil services examination is being conducted for 1,298 vacant posts and for which 4.5 lakh candidates have appeared in the first stage - preliminary examination. After the first stage examination, the competition ratio for each post is 1:12 and the same would decrease to 1:3 after Mains examination. The qualified candidates of AP and Telangana are hoping to grab a considerable number of seats in the second stage. 

Ever since the notification for UPSC was released, this year, students/trainers/educationists have been registering their protest against reforms in the examination pattern and also held it responsible for the bleak performance of the students here. An aspirant M Rajendra Kumar from Nalgonda, who have successfully crossed the first barrier, is hoping to reach to the final stage. He said, “It is sad that out of 29,000 candidates who appeared from the twin Telugu States, only 530 qualified. I am confident that most of the qualified students would definitely crack the Mains examination.” 

The number of students qualified despite the illogical CSAT pattern only shows the strength of Telugu students, he added. On the other hand, trainers while criticising the pattern also appreciated the hard work of the qualified students. Laxmaiah IAS academy director K Laxmaiah said that though the number of students qualified from the State was very little, it would not stop the competent students to clear the Mains examination. He said, “The diminishing graph of the students was only because of the unscientific CSAT pattern. I am expecting 20 students from my academy to clear the Mains examination.” 

He said that the UPSC authorities attempted to exclude south Indian candidates by putting CSAT but in the Mains our students would perform well. Interestingly, about 143 students from the State cleared the Mains examination for which almost 1,200 had appeared in the previous year. This year the percentage of students possibly cracking the Mains could be either same or more. R C Reddy IAS academy director R C Reddy said that students from the State were performing better for last one decade when it comes to the UPSC examinations. 

He said that students from other States were wary of competent and updated education system in the State. “Possibly 25 per cent students appearing from my academy could clear the second stage of the UPSC examination,” he added.

UPSC Examination Previous Statistics
Year 2014
-About 4.5 lakh appeared in preliminary examination
-As many as 16,000 qualified across the nation
-Almost 29,000 appeared from AP and TS
-Only 535 qualified in preliminary
-Examination held for 1,298 posts approximately this year
-The post and student ratio after preliminary examination is 1:12
-After Mains examination it would be 1:2 or 1:2.5

Year 2013
-Around 1,200 students from state qualified in preliminary examination
-Almost 143 qualified the Mains examination

Conversion Confusion

This has become the hot topic of politicians from Delhi to Dehradun and Mumbai to Chennai or Kanyakumari. Every politician is opining on this issue. Moreover some religious leaders (actual, factual, self styled, self imposed upon people) are also in the fray, striving to be heard, shown and published.

For me the Agra incident of ‘conversion’ seems to be the part of a larger conspiracy to bring an act in the parliament against conversions after heating this issue to the maximum level.

But the question is why some people want to stop conversions. Let us firs understand what the conversion is. If a person practicing a particular religion changes his/her religion after probably being impressed or inspired by the other one, it can be called as conversion.

The person may do this either by affection towards the other religion or for the hate or dislike for his own religion or practice. Constitution of India has also given this basic right to all of its citizens. A person can practice or follow any religion of his/her choice.

Then what was the difficulty? Who is actually much worried for this provision. I think the people who think that their practice was vulnerable to be shaken by this provision would possibly raise their voice against any such rational provision in the Constitution.

Now they wanted to bring amendment in these provisions. Now coming to the Agra, some ‘intellectuals’ arranged a havan or some kind of ritual to change the religion of some Muslims (Who were wearing skull caps at that time).

Reportedly, they have offered these underprivileged people a ration card, money and other sops if they consent to change their religion. Later on this event was publicized much through ‘responsible’ media. To some extent it was good to see this news in all kind of media. But later the actual agenda of the people behind this whole episode came to light.

They termed all the conversions in the past, dating back to 11^th century, forced conversions and hence called all the Muslims, Christians and Budhists to get back to their ‘own religion’.

How funny! But I don’t think that people of India are fools any more. India is a mature democracy today. Amateur religious leaders cannot run their show like this. Though they have planned it well but this gimmick is not going to work.

Demanding to ban conversion or freedom to follow any religion would be like challenging the very basics of this country. Even if they succeed in this task, it would become very difficult for them to hold several ‘uninterested religion mates’ in the future and then they themselves would be under pressure.

As far as conversion is concerned, forceful conversion either by muscle power or by monetary power should not be accepted. It should be up to a person as to which religion he/she wanted to follow. 

Hyderabad Metro Rail Mess

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : The management and students of Koti Women’s College, along with heritage lovers, are strongly opposing the changes proposed in the Metro Rail alignment as it would eventually disturb the campus atmosphere and deface a heritage structure on it. For, the modified track route would pass through the college campus intercepting it right on the middle of its ground and run towards Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS). 

Under the previous plan, the route was to pass through Sultan Bazar road. As local traders could successfully convince the State government to realign the Metro Rail so as to avoid Sultan Bazar road, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had asked the Metro Rail authorities to draw up an alternative route, they pointed out. Metro authorities proposed to cross the track from the Women’s College campus as it would help avoid any damage to property of traders in Sultan Bazar area. They proposed that the existing route could change its course from Badi Chowdi to Women’s College and move further intercepting college campus. 

Ever since this proposal came to light, the college management, students and some heritage lovers have started criticising the modified realignment plan. Women’s College principal B T Seetha sought to know how the government could ruin the place where students are being educated. Should the proposal be implemented, the only ground of the institution would vanish and the peaceful atmosphere on the campus would be disturbed forever, she reasoned. She decried that neither the State government nor the Metro Rail authorities bothered to consult the college authorities before drawing up the new route. 

Had they consulted us, we could have proposed any other alternative, she added. Yet another significant question pertains to the listed heritage structure on the campus – the Residency Building. Heritage conservationist P Anuradha Reddy said that, despite issues concerning Metro Rail realignment, there had been no public hearing and no public opinion was sought before going ahead with the project in Hyderabad. “The Metro Rail is now running in the city like a wild buffalo damaging one or the other heritage structure or public properties.” It was time for Metro Rail authorities to garner public opinion on each route it was designing rather than limit discussions to politicians who did not know much about heritage, she commented.

Before starting the project, the authorities concerned had done neither environmental assessment nor heritage sites assessment in the city. The people were the owners of city and their opinions ought to be taken. Students of the Women’s College have started protesting against the proposals as they would possibly turn their lush and vast campus ground into a highway with huge pillars carrying Metro tracks. M Snehalata, a B Sc student, said that she would not accept government’s nod to ruin her college campus. “Perhaps we would leave the campus in a year or two, but for the next generation students the college atmosphere would be completely destroyed, turning it into railway track.”

Hiring Trends in IT

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Android technologies, mobile apps and cloud computing are the latest domains global IT giants are vying to hire young IT graduates in and are looking for students with required level of know-how on these technologies. With Android establishing itself firmly across a majority of the mobile industry all over the world and cloud computing technology becoming the order of today’s IT industry, the demand for fresh minds with the skillset is ever increasing. 

Institutions with latest syllabi structures are much sought after by the IT companies. Corporate giants like Google, Walmart, Microsoft, Amazon, Linked In, Invidia, Samsung and Flipkart are hiring their workforce from the local student pool of Hyderabad. Placement Head of the International Institute of Information Technologies (IIIT) Hyderabad T V Deviprasad said many of its students are landing in famed global IT companies due to its Research & Development facilities and updated syllabi as per the industry needs. 

Explaining about the current round of hiring in the IIIT-H campus, he said, “Around 120 companies have registered for recruiting the students. Out of the 365 registered students, 110 have already been hired by multiple companies.” The packages given to the first time employees are so lucrative that some of the students were offered as high as Rs 1 crore per annum. Xenovus Software limited vice President and General Manager T V P Kameshwar Rao said that the companies look for students who are flexible and innovative in their approach towards problem solving.

He said, “Students who take less time to be trained are preferred more and gain prominence and salary hikes in a shorter period of time.” Kameshwar Rao said that IT companies across the globe were looking for institutions with state of the art teaching methods and subject content. He opined that if all the engineering colleges expose their students to the real time industry conditions during their period of study, it would be helpful in tapping the vast opportunities available.

No discrimination in Universities

Hyderabad: University Grants Commission (UGC) made it clear to all the universities in the country that they should not bar any foreign academician on the grounds of race or colour. The circular issued by the apex educational grants body reached the universities of the State. UGC was prompted to issue the circular in the wake of controversy surrounding Bharatiar University of Tamil Nadu a few months ago. 

University officials barred African academicians from being a part of doctorial committee in the university. The fiat stated that African professors should not be appointed as examiners for PhD scholars. This circular was criticised by educationists and professors from across the nation. The Doctorial Committee (DC) comprises a guide, internal DC member, and external DC member. External committee members also examine the theses and research reports of students. But after the Bharatiar University’s racial episode, Indian Universities drew flak from across the globe and have been accused of racial discrimination. 

After taking note of the entire episode, the UGC asked all universities and institutes across the country to delete all such clauses from their regulations that suggest racial or other discrimination. Bharathiar university regulations had a clause avoiding examiners from African countries from examining theses. According to UGC, this kind of clause is against the country's foreign policy. The university said, “For all PhD theses (except Tamil), the panel of examiners should consist of four foreign examiners, preferably from the scientifically advanced countries, avoiding African countries (exception South Africa).”

A research scholar in economics Shaik Wasiullah from B S Abdur Rahman University said that having one external examiner is mandatory as per rules and sometimes they were called from universities of other states or other countries. He said that stopping examiners from African countries was definitely a case of racial discrimination.