Unfulfilled education aspiration

10 Jan, 2011, 04.25AM IST, Rajesh Shukla

RAJESH SHUKLA is the Director of NCAER Centre for Macro Consumer Research (NCAER-CMCR) at
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)

Article summary:

National Youth Readership Survey (NYRS), 2009,

30% of the literate youth -up to primary-level education

10% are graduate and above.

Remaining 60% youth have qualifications varying between Classes VI and XII.

Heavy drop-out rates is the main concern. 26% of the literate youth had stopped their studies at
different levels.

Few reasons to ponder: Financial difficulties, household responsibilities, parents or husband, non-
availability of good schools and colleges.

Other findings:

India’s education budget more than doubled in the last five years increasing from Rs. 152,847 crores in
FY 2004-05 to Rs. 372,813 crores in FY 2009-10. An estimated 45 percent (figures for FY 2008-09) of
education expenditures are now dedicated to elementary education.

1) States that have seen the highest increases in investments in recent years are also the poorest
spenders.

2) Funds flows are extremely slow breaking the link between planning and expenditures and

3) There is no clear correlation between school needs and increased expenditure indicating that the links
between school needs, plans, allocation and expenditures are weak.

Countrywide, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) expenditures have been fairly low – data from 2006-07 to
2008-09 shows that on average 30 percent funds remain unspent every year. This persistent gap in an
overall environment of increased investments indicates that that links between planning, expenditure
capacity and allocations are weak.

For instance, Bihar, which has received the highest increase in GOI SSA allocations, is also the poorest
spender. In FY 2009-10, Bihar spent 51 percent of its allocated funds.
For expenditures to be efficient and effective, they must be incurred in a manner that meets needs and
priorities. This would imply that funds must arrive at their destinations on time to ensure that specific,
time bound needs are met.

Reqd steps:

The links between planning, allocations, schools needs and expenditures are damaged weak resulting in
the Big Stuck. With India’s schooling system now entering a new phase of implementation under the
Right to Education Act (RTE) the current financial architecture needs a serious rethink. Strengthening the
annual planning process could be the first step. In January every year every district is supposed to make
an annual plan based on school development plans made with parental participation. Concentrating on
strengthening this process could not only strengthen links between school needs, plans and allocations
but also ensure greater citizen involvement.  It is only when citizens get involved and demand
accountability for increased investments that outlays will translate to outcomes.

Also, the following can be implemented:

-Career counseling should be a must for students passing out class X or even below.

-discussions of career options could be made as a subject in high school.

-various infrastructures provided by Govt. should be carefully and efficiently channelized to everyone
concerned.

-Women education must be more developed specially in rural India.

-allocated funds must be properly used. This could be initiated by the people themselves through proper
RTI or even a separate government agency.

-Public and private schools should go along in giving the needed education to everyone at any stage of
students’ life.

-more CSR initiatives must be undertaken by private companies not just for primary education but also
for higher education and graduation colleges.
Changing world order in IT, telecom
10 Jan, 2011, 06.05AM IST, Rajiv Mody & V Sridhar

Mody is chairman and CEO while Sridhar is research fellow; both at Sasken Communication
Technologies

Article summary:

-coming of Google and Apple into the mobile phone space are changing the scenario of mobile phones
and the competitions.
- breakthrough inventions have declined of late

- time to market (is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available
for sale) for products has decreased considerably

- smart innovations on the rise in marketable areas including networking, high-speed electronics,
wireless networks, nanotechnology and software.

-new world order is to be fast in producing solutions that can survive in the extremely competitive
market place. For instance, though ‘multi-touch’ was invented way back in 1991 by Pierre Wellner as
explained in his classic paper on Digital Desk, Apple showed us how to make a commercial success of
multi-touch with the launch of iPhone in 2007.

- next order in world is ‘collaborative innovation’ as in Google through community based application
development on open platforms

Four Aspects of R&D :

1. Invention not the key. ‘Flat world’ has opened up avenues for tapping the innovative potential of
millions of individuals and small firms across the world and garners them for competitive
advantage. This opens up avenues of growth for R&D outsourcing firms in India. However,
because it is open, innovations are very rapid and have a very short life cycle.

2. Smart in looking at the future and make appropriate investments and capability building.

3. Role of software patents in this emerging scenario. However, an overwhelming majority of the 700
software entrepreneurs who participated in the famous 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey Report, ranked
patenting as the dead last amongst the seven strategies for attaining competitive advantage.

-‘First-mover advantage’ is the single most important strategy for attaining competitive advantage.
4. Participation in the local market. Not near to market is a disadvantage.

However, recent strides of India in telecom and the imminent deployments of 3G and broadband
wireless access services provide opportunities for Indian R&D firms to provide customized offerings to
local markets.
These changes open up opportunities for Indian R&D software services firms, provided display the
competence, foresee technology and market evolution, and react with speed.

Other findings:

a) No software patents in India.

Patenting of software helps three categories of people: (1) those large software corporations that
already have a large number of software patents; (2) those corporations that do not create software,
but only trade in patents / sue on the basis of patents (3) patent lawyers.

-Philosophical argument against software as subject matter of a patent. Software/computer

programs are merely algorithms that are meant to be understood by a computer or a human who
knows how to read that code.

Reasons against software patents in India:

1. Term of Patents
Twenty years of monopoly rights is outright ludicrous in an industry where the rate of
turnover of technology is much faster -- anywhere between two years and five months.

2. Software Industry Progressed Greatly Without Patents

In India, software patents have never been asserted in courts, yet the software industry in
India is growing in leaps and bounds. Similarly, most of the big (American) giants of the
software industry today grew to their stature by using copyright to "protect" their software,
and not patents.

3. Copyright Exists for Software

As noted above, the code/expression of any software is internationally protected by copyright
law. There is no reason to protect the ideas/functionality of that software as well.
b) Android and community based application:

Android is a mobile operating system initially developed by Android Inc. Android was bought
by Google in2005. Android has a large community of developers writing application
programs ("apps") that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 200,000
apps available for Android. The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was
announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of
79 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile
devices

c) First mover advantages

Advantage gained by the initial occupant of a market segment. This advantage may stem from the fact
that the first entrant can gain control of resources that followers may not be able to match.Sometimes the
first mover is not able to capitalize on its advantage, leaving the opportunity for another firm to
gain second-mover advantage.

Eg: Procter & Gamble are another example of when technology leadership helped propel their product
(disposable diapers) into the US market. They used a learning-based preemption to help invest in low-
priced European synthetic fiber which helped create the diapers at a cheaper, more profitable price.

d)R&D

-The market opportunity for engineering research and development in India is estimated to reach $45
billion (around Rs2.1 trillion) by 2020. Of this, at least $5 billion would be spent by Indian firms
locally, Nasscom.

-The engineering research and development (R&D) services industry contributes $8 billion to India’s
$50 billion software exports.

-Global spending on engineering R&D surpassed $1 trillion in 2009 and is expected to touch $1.4
trillion by 2020, the report says. Automotive, consumer electronics and telecom are the top spenders
on engineering R&D globally.

Conclusions:

-Business is shaped by technology advancement. Those who lag behind in technology will be
beaten in their quest for more market share.

-Innovation is also a key factor. If one can’t invent new stuffs, one should know how to innovate
the already existing ideas or potentials into feasible and profitable ventures.

-One should also be more realistic in foreseeing future as a potential. One shouldn’t be content
by their present success but rather should concentrate on those prospects where in near future
another technology, much better, could snatch the market share.

- There should be some sort of innovation policy by which local research and building skills are
closely watched and maintained.